Asus has raised again the ante in smartphone race through the new Asus Zenfone Max that comes equipped with a massive 5000 mAh battery. The company is really aware of the bad stigma that attaches to most smartphones today, which is the mediocre battery life. Who really wants those beastly processors and super-sharp displays when your phone won’t even last until midnight without charging or bringing bulky power banks?
With an attractive Php 8495 price in the Philippines and enormous battery juice on top of a decent mid-range hardware, Asus is actually hitting two birds with one big stone here. The question, however, will the Zenfone Max deliver at least to its advertised battery life longevity? Let’s find out the answer in our in-depth review and comprehensive comparison of the new Asus Zenfone Max.
More comparisons and reviews
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- Zenfone Selfie vs Xperia C5 vs Xperia M5 vs Galaxy A8
- Zenfone Zoom vs Galaxy S6
Design and build
The sight of Zenfone Max brings a familiar affair. This is because the design and build of Zenfone Max were greatly inspired by the Zenfone 2 and Zenfone Zoom. Perhaps much more of the latter. It’s like looking at a stretched Zenfone Zoom sans the camera hump.
Instead of putting rear buttons or a camera hump, we’re treated here with only the camera, dual-LED flash, laser focus, mic, and Asus logo. While the back is removable with a faux-leather finish, the texture still felt great in the hands. Access to the dual micro-SIM and microSD card slot is possible by lifting the back cover.
Like the Zoom, the sides and corners are rounded and don’t dig into the hands. The tactile buttons are positioned on the right with the power button ergonomically placed to easily reached by a thumb. The left side is bare, on top is the 3.5mm audio jack, and on the bottom is the standard microUSB and microphone.
Up front is a very typical Asus smartphone; thick bezels and spun metal finish at the far bottom. The capacitive keys remain non-backlit. I don’t have any issues with the responsiveness, though it just need some getting used to if you’re coming from on-screen and back-lit capacitive keys. And if you’re looking for an LED notifier, there’s one at the side of the earpiece and front-facing 5MP selfie camera.
After reviewing the Zenfone Zoom, I was not really surprised how heavy the phone is. At 202 grams, it outweighs all phablets in its class. But the weight is not really an inconvenience knowing this phone packs more battery juice and works as a portable Power Bank.
Overall, the Zenfone Zoom is not a standout smartphone in the crowd but rather it’s a solid device that screams build quality. The well-built Max has more assurance and future proofing in long-term use than most phones today.
Display and viewing experience
Rocking a 5.5-inch HD IPS LCD panel backed by Gorilla Glass 4 on top, the level of sharpness is kept less modest at 267ppi. The screen produces accurate and a bit more saturated colors, high-level contrast, and good viewing angles. However, just by putting it side-by-side with a 5.5-inch Full HD screen (and no pixel peeping), the difference in details is apparent. On the other hand, the 5.5-inch display will still probably suffice in day-to-day use.
Camera in low light, daylight, and selfie
The main shooter on the back of the Zenfone Max is a 13MP f2.0 camera that is capable of shooting 1080p Full HD video. It’s paired with a laser focus and dual-tone LED flash. The front-facing camera is 5MP f2.0. So far the camera features don’t really sound that engrossing, but at least, it’s a reliable camera at hand after testing it.
In daylight shooting, details are well-preserved with a bit of grainy texture while colors are more realistic and white balance more neutral. However, the HDR did struggle a bit producing underexposed highlights.
HDR and daylight
Meanwhile, the night shots we took are less saturated and less vivid than the more natural-looking daylight images. The sharpness, however, is still preserved at a moderate level.
Low light, night, flash
With these details and color reproduction, we can’t stop wondering that the 13MP sensor on the Max is may be the same on Zenfone 2, which is a good move for Asus if true.
Selfie in daylight, low light, indoor
Going to selfie portraits, the 5MP snapper shoots bright, sharp, and mildly smoothen selfie. More likely making us not miss the 13MP front-facing camera of the Zenfone Selfie after all.
Performance and benchmarks
At its core is a quad-core Snapdragon 410 chipset and 2GB RAM. Performance-wise, the Zenfone Max didn’t deliver much as its camera. We experienced a bit of delay in most tasks such as opening apps, switching tasks, and running games. We put some tweakings on the home launcher and wiping the memory, but to no avail. At the very least, these lags are not so serious that we’d think of putting the Zenfone Max in the drawer for good. It’s still able to function as my main driver in the span of my review.
There’s also some flickering issues when scrolling in a web page with white background. Though we are not just sure if the CPU and GPU really are the one to blame rather than the display or software algorithm.
With that in mind, Antutu benchmark score is what was expected. A little short compared to the Snapdragon 415 and Mediatek 6753.
Software and UI
The ZenUI has received tons of updates since the launch of Zenfone 2 last year. Aesthetically speaking, it’s not the most appealing user’s experience, but it’s one of the most flexible and feature-rich software out of the box. As always, you can throw in 3rd party launchers and customize several elements in the UI including the icon packs, layout, and much more.
Battery life and charging
The massive 5000 mAh battery of the Zenfone Max is its greatest redeeming feature on top of decent specs and budget value. Battery life easily lasts up to the 3rd day with moderate usage including cellular and WiFi data connection in a single charge. The screen-on time tips the scale at 9 hours max. But usually, we only get around 7 to 8 hours; double than what most smartphones can do. The endurance rating for Max is 53 hours and this is our chart topper.
Manila Shaker’s battery endurance test (interpolation of video, browsing, voice, SMS, cellular data, WiFi, PC Mark battery, GSM and more)
Another way to squeeze the juice out from the device is through USB OTG reverse charging other devices. This acts as a portable power bank or an external charger. The voltage and ampere rating are the same to most li-polymer or li-ion chargers so it’s possible you can power up phablets too. Asus didn’t bundle a USB OTG male-to-female microUSB to full-sized USB cable, but you can get it in malls for around Php 150 – 500 pesos, which you will be needing in charging other phones.
With the longer battery life comes with a longer charging time. Worse is there’s no quick or fast charging inside. Filling the battery cell of the Max is like filling up a power bank with 5000mAh capacity. The standard charging time we always get is 4 hours using the 1.0A power adapter.
Speaker and audio
The single speaker is positioned on the back. It doesn’t get muffled even when you put the phone on its back as the lower side is slightly tapered giving space for the sound to go out.
In terms of quality, the mono speaker has average volume and a bit sharp and tinny when maxed out. Overall, it sounded clear and crisp knowing this is a speaker in a budget smartphone.
Price and Verdict
The last Zenfone I reviewed a while ago was the Zoom. It is the most feature-packed and capable smartphone of Asus yet the most expensive entry priced for around Php 26k pesos. The Zenfone Max, on the other hand, is the budget mid-range phone of the company. And with an attractive Php 8495 SRP, the Zenfone Max really makes a compelling option in the market. Of course, while offering the longest and most reliable battery life in a smartphone right now.
As for the affordable price, the Max didn’t run the whole shebang flawlessly. One great area it fell short in delivering was the smooth performance. Although this is a dissenting opinion of a user coming from high-end devices, what we really like to tell you is that Zenfone Max should probably deliver the most important things a potential user would need.
In fact, the aggressive value and features have outweighed the bad ones, thus, making it as a recommendable smartphone with an extra power bank features up its sleeve.
Pros
- Tank, rugged build quality
- Dual SIM + microSD expansion
- Works as a power bank or reverse charging
- Very long battery life
Cons
- Take a few more hours to fully charge
- Quite heavy
- Thick bezels
- Sluggish performance
Unboxing: What’s in the retail package?
- 1.0A power adapter
- Stereo headphones with earbuds
- Instruction papers
- USB data cable
Asus Zenfone Max ZC550KL Official PH Price, Specs, Release
Display: 5.5-inches 720p HD IPS LCD, 297 ppi
Design: Polycarbonate, Gorilla Glass 4
Size: 10.6m thick, 202g weight
Chip: Snapdragon 410
CPU: Quad-core Cortex A53 at 1.2GHz processor
GPU: Adreno 306 graphics
RAM: 2GB
Memory: 16GB internal + 64GB max microSD card (hybrid)
Camera: 13MP, f2.0 lens aperture, laser focus, dual tone LED flash, Full HD 1080p video
Selfie: 5MP f2.0 front-facing, 1080p video
Connectivity: WiFi n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, 4G LTE, dual-SIM (dedicated slot)
Sensor:Â N/A
Port: microUSB 2.0
Battery: 5000 mAh, No fast charging
Color: White, Black
OS: Android 5.1 Lollipop
Release date: February 2016 in the Philippines
Price: Php 8,495 pesos official Asus PH SRP
