The new Asus Zenfone Max Pro (M1) aims to be a ample account alms to accost the sub-$225 class in India.
Asus smartphones accept had a rollercoaster ride in the Indian market. While the aggregation saw some success with absolutely able mid-range Zenfone accessories in the past, Chinese players like Xiaomi and Lenovo about collection the aggregation out of the account articulation and the minds of consumers.
The Zenfone cast has featured innovative, all-embracing abstracts like the Zenfone Zoom and the Zenfone AR. Within that portfolio, the Zenfone Max alternation brings bigger array accommodation and best array life.
The new Zenfone Max Pro (M1) packs in a big 5,000mAh array and aims to be a ample account offering. It’s attractive to accost the under-15,000-rupee (~$225) category, angry it out with Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 5 and Note 5 Pro, which for abounding are an automated best in this segment.
This latest smartphone has been developed for the Indian market, but can it booty a allotment of the pie? Let’s booty a look.
The Asus Zenfone Max Pro looks like best added smartphones in this segment, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The smartphone is absolutely congenital and the aluminum anatomy gives it a nice structural rigidity. At 180 grams, it’s abundant and hardly thicker due to its ample battery, but the added backpack gives a assertive athletic feel to the device.
The affectation has a alpine 18:9 aspect ratio with angled corners and attenuated borders on either side. Asus claims it uses a durable, careful 2.5D arced bottle but there’s no chat on what affectionate specifically. Despite the hardly ample dimensions, the phone is absolutely ergonomic and fits able-bodied in your palm.
The Zenfone Max Pro has a minimalist and anatomic design, alike admitting there's annihilation special.
The rear metal bowl has a bendable matte accomplishment which feels acceptable but gets bedraggled with fingerprints a lot. I had to clean smudges abroad amid anniversary attempt aback I took photos of the phone for this review, as they attending absolutely arresting on the aphotic exterior. One of the best architecture ancestry of the Zenfone Max Pro is the dual-camera bore at the aback is alike with the anatomy with about no camera bump. It looks absolutely neat.
Overall, the Zenfone Max Pro won’t win any architecture award, but the minimalist and anatomic architecture with acceptable body affection would address to best users.
The Asus Zenfone Max Pro sports a 5.99-inch Abounding HD+ affectation with an 18:9 aspect ratio. There’s no cleft here, thankfully. Asus claims the display’s LCD console offers a adverse arrangement of 1500:1 with a best accuracy of 450 nits. There’s additionally an oleophobic blanket to area off those anointed fingerprint smudges.
The affectation is first-rate. It’s absolutely ablaze and the colors are vibrant. Alike in ablaze summer afternoons, the alfresco awning examination is ambrosial good. The examination angles are abundant and bigger than best phones in this segment. Its adverse arrangement is great, admitting still no bout for an AMOLED display.
The Asus Zenfone Max Pro is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 636, the aforementioned processor as the Redmi Note 5 Pro. The 14nm chipset allegedly offers a 50-percent jump in achievement over Snapdragon 625 because it uses Qualcomm’s custom Kryo cores to calmly advance added power.
The accent comes in two anamnesis variants — one with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of centralized accumulator and one with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, abundant up to 2TB with a microSD card. Asus appear addition alternative with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of centralized accumulator (and bigger camera prowess) but that will barrage later.
For this review, I acclimated the 3GB variant, and the phone performed absolutely well. Hardcore gaming, multitasking, and accustomed escapade — the Zenfone Max Pro sailed through aggregate I threw at it agilely with its abrupt banal Android experience. During continued sessions of gaming, it acrimonious up hardly but not to a bulk that would account any discomfort.
The Zenfone Max Pro boasts a 5,000mAh battery, but it doesn’t action aberrant array life. A few added smartphones in the bazaar administer to action agnate array activity with a abate accommodation array in a abate frame. For best users, the phone will calmly aftermost a abounding day of alive use with abundant abstract larboard to backpack over to the abutting day. It’s plenty, but I’d apprehend a software amend to optimize the ability burning alike better.
The phone comes with a arranged 2A/10W charger for fast charging that accuse the array from aught to 100 percent in beneath than three hours, which is absolutely good.
The Zenfone Max Pro supports Bluetooth 4.2 with Qualcomm’s AptX technology for clearer audio over wireless connections. Thanks to the congenital NXP amplifier and a 5-magnet speaker, the address apostle on the Zenfone Max Pro is absolutely loud. For a account smartphone, the Zenfone Max Pro has a ambrosial solid audio experience. To addition the audio alike further, it comes with a Max Box accessory, which irenic amplifies the audio afterwards any electronics. It’s a apparent boilerplate agenda and allurement setup, based on attention acoustics. While it’s gimmicky, it’s arranged chargeless and music enthusiasts won’t complain.
Overall, Asus did absolutely able-bodied acrimonious the latest belly and bundling it with banal Android for the Zenfone Max Pro. Alike the 3GB alternative should be abundant for best people. Of course, ability users and those who don’t apperception spending the added chef will acknowledge the slight achievement bang that 4GB of RAM would offer.
Although best of its antagonism is in the aforementioned boat, it is hardly atramentous to see a MicroUSB anchorage instead of the USB Type-C on the Zenfone Max Pro. Of course, abounding bodies won’t mind, but it leaves a little acerb taste. It’s a 2018 smartphone, afterwards all.
The accent supports bifold SIM, with an continued tray that can booty two nano-SIMs and a microSD agenda all at the aforementioned time. For a alcove but articulate user base, this is an important application aback they use two SIMs (mostly the additional one for data) and abundance a lot of content, accordingly acute anamnesis expansion. While you can use two 4G SIMs at a time, alone one will run on 4G at any time while the added will be bound to 3G.
The Asus Zenfone Max Pro sports a bifold camera bureaucracy at the aback with a 13MP primary camera with f/2.2 breach and a 5MP accessory camera for abyss sensing.
In ample daylight, the smartphone manages to booty some abundant shots. It manages to abduction a ample bulk of detail and best shots are absolutely vibrant. The accurateness is accidental and generally the white antithesis is way off. In low ablaze conditions, it takes a while to lock focus, and already it does there’s ample babble in the photos and the capacity get a little fuzzy. It is absolutely adamantine to administer a appropriate attempt with HDR approach at night because there’s a lot of becloud and accident of detail.
The abyss approach works absolutely able-bodied for a account smartphone. The bend apprehension is ambrosial good, and the becloud is subtle, although generally inconsistent.
The rear camera on the Zenfone Max Pro can almanac 4K video but there’s no stabilization advantage available. Whether attempt at night or day, videos are acceptable abundant for sharing, but not abundant else.
A new amateur approaches: Asus is now affliction a gaming phone
The front-facing 8MP ballista with an f/2.0 breach manages to abduction some absolutely acceptable selfies. There’s a acceptable bulk of detail and the colors and acknowledgment are aloof right. The beautification additionally isn’t too cutting and doesn’t appear off as artificial. The LED beam on the advanced is absolutely acrid — for best selfies, I adopted to accumulate it off.
The camera app on the Zenfone Max Pro is ambagious and unintuitive. The controls aren’t able-bodied laid out, and simple toggles like beam are hidden beneath a agenda instead of actuality attainable with a distinct tap. Asus should absolutely analysis the camera app to accomplish it added ambrosial — in anatomy and function.
The camera on best mid-rangers avalanche abbreviate abnormally in testing ablaze conditions, and the Zenfone Max Pro aloof manages to scrape through. It’s a appropriate camera and bigger than best in the segment, but it doesn’t bout the camera accomplishment of the Redmi Note 5 Pro. You can analysis out the camera samples in full-resolution here.
The Zenfone Max Pro is the aboriginal smartphone from Asus to address with banal Android Oreo instead of the company’s proprietary ZenUI skin. While this isn’t allotment of Android One, Asus says it affairs to bear two above Android updates up to Android Q.
While it’s banal Android, Asus snuck in some pre-installed apps, which can’t be removed. There’s Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger, as able-bodied as the barebones adaptable wallet Go2Pay. Some old ZenUI apps like the Voice Recorder, Calculator, and FM Radio too are agitated over, admitting these are accessible additions.
| ASUS Zenfone Max M1 ZB601KL |
|
|---|---|
| Display | 5.99-inch IPS Full HD+ (2,160 x 1,080) 18:9 aspect ratio 450 nits brightness 2.5D arced glass |
| Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 64-bit octa-core CPU (8 x Kryo 260 cores) Adreno 509 GPU 14nm FinFET technology |
| RAM | 3/4GB |
| Storage | 32/64GB Supports microSD agenda up to 2TB |
| Rear Camera | 13MP + 5MP abyss analysis sensor f/2.2 breach 80-degree appearance bend Phase Apprehension AF 5-element lens LED flash 4K UHD video recording |
| Front Camera | 8MP f/2.0 aperture 85.5-degree appearance angle 5-element lens Soft-light LED flash |
| Battery | 5,000mAh Bundled 2A/10W charger |
| Software | Android 8.1 Oreo |
| Dimensions and weight | 159 x 76 x 8.61mm 180g |
The Asus Zenfone Max Pro (M1) is a ample smartphone greater than the sum of its genitalia and the pros outweigh the cons. The achievement is first-rate, there’s the banal Android experience, and the advancing appraisement undercuts Xiaomi’s offerings.
The Asus Zenfone Max Pro (M1) is a ample accent that ticks all the boxes for an affordable smartphone.
Available in two blush variants — meteor argent and deepsea atramentous — the lower spec’d alternative of the Zenfone Max Pro is priced at 10,999 rupees (~$166) in India, while the college end one is priced at 12,999 rupees (~$196).
The Zenfone Max Pro could absolutely advance in the camera and array departments, which is absolutely a abundant position to be in aback a lot can be done there with approaching software updates. That said, the Asus Zenfone Max Pro (M1) is a best value-for-money accent that can booty on the best in the bazaar with ease.
Design
Display
Performance
Hardware
Camera
Software
Specifications
Gallery
Pricing and final thoughts
Abetted by the abrupt banal Android experience, the Asus Zenfone Max Pro (M1) is a best performer.
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