Last year Asus launched a battery pack smartphone, the Asus Zenfone Max which was a powerpack smartphone which came with a massive 5000mAh battery which was good enough to last more than two days on more than heavy usage. Six months back Asus has announced an upgraded model of Zenfone Max (Review) which still has 5000 mAh battery but got a bump regarding CPU to make it more usable for doing heavy tasks.
Then a couple of months back Asus has announced another Max smartphone under Zenfone 3 series, the Asus Zenfone 3 Max which is entirely a new smartphone in terms of build, design, and specs.
Build And Design Of Asus Zenfone 3 Max:-
Let’s start with build and design of Asus Zenfone 3 Max, and this is the most interesting segment which I liked on this device. It has got all-metal unibody design look which not only makes this device more premium looking but feels good in hand too, although it do feel very slippery in hand, and you have to be very careful while handling it; however, edges are curvy which allows you to make a better grip on the device.
When it comes to connectivity and ports, then on the right side you will find power and sleep button along with volume rockers, all are the metallic button and provides excellent feedback to the user.
At bottom, you have got Micro USB port along with the primary microphone, on left you have hybrid SIM tray which allows you to either use two SIMs or one SIM and a micro SD card for memory expansion.
At the top, you have your 3.5 mm headphone jack for your headphones.
At the back, you have a 13MP rear snapper along with LED flash, and yes there is no laser auto-focus here, yup you read it correct no laser auto-focus here. There are speakers at the rear which mean when you placed it on a flat surface, audio gets muffled.
At the front, you have a 5.2 inch HD display screen, I was expecting an FHD display here, but nope, there is no physical touch capacitive buttons here, it comes with on-screen buttons, but still the bezels at top and bottom of the screen are big. Just above the display, you have a 5MP front facing the camera and some necessary sensors.
The overall build and design of the device is something which impressed us a lot, and it does feel like a premium smartphone when you hold it.
Specs of Asus Zenfone 3 Max:-
When it comes to under the hood features, it is powered by Mediatek MT6737M quad-core processor clocked at 1.25GHz, along with 2/3GB of RAM and comes in 16/32GB internal storage variant. For connectivity, it has WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, Micro USB, 4G/LTE but no VoLTE here which is a sad thing.
Software Of Asus Zenfone 3 Max:-
Well for software I don’t think we have to say much more for any Asus smartphones, Asus Zenfone 3 Max comes runs on Android v6.0 Marshmallow which is wrapped under companies own ZenUI, at the time of writing this review it has got a very old security patch of August.
Like always, there are a bunch of bloatware which you will find on this device, some of them can be removed or disabled but many of them can’t be, so you have to deal with them.
Display Of Asus Zenfone 3 Max:-
Asus Zonfone 3 Max has got a 5.2 inch HD display screen, I was expecting an FHD display here as almost every device in this price bracket or smartphones priced lower also comes with FHD display. The display has got 2.5D curved which makes your touch experience smooth on it but sadly there is no display protection on this screen, so you need to buy a screen protector as soon as you get it.
Viewing angles of this smartphone is also not that great; you will see colors fading when you view it from different angles.
Camera Of Asus Zenfone 3 Max:-
Asus Zenfone 3 Max comes with 13MP rear snapper with LED flash; this camera does perform well in natural lights, but sometimes it overexposes images, in darker areas it lacks details.
When you move to artificial lights, camera struggles, it struggles to focus as there is no laser auto-focus, it strives to capture details as well.
The interface of the camera is too basic, and there are some important modes are missing like there was no pro mode which has become something very common nowadays on smartphones, although no one uses it, one mode which most of the use is Slow-Motion video mode which was also missing on it. I expected Asus to roll out OTA updates to enable these modes as these can be done via small OTA update.
Same is the story with front facing the camera; it can capture good selfies in natural lights, but in low lights or artificial lights, it fails to capture any details.
Check out some sample images below:-
Battery Of Asus Zenfone 3 Max :-
Asus has reduced the battery size o this device as compared to its predecessor, on Zenfone Max we have seen 5000 mAh battery but here you have 4100mAh battery, and due to 5.2 inch HD display with more than average usage it can easily last for 2 days.
Like its predecessor, it can be used as a reverse charger, means you will be able to charge other devices but it charges other devices very slowly but it works and can save you if you are left with no other option.
This device does take quite a long time to get full charges with the supplied charger; it took around 4 hours for me to get 100 percent from zero.
Performance of Asus Zenfone 3 Max :-
This time Asus has tried to hold the hand of MediaTek for its entry-level devices but seems things are not going the way Asus has expected, this device is useful for basic tasks but when you through some heavy duty on it, it starts to lags, even while playing games like Asphalt 8 for 20 minutes on high setting, it starts to lag which we were not expecting from this device.
Despite of being a metal unibody design, this device does not get heat up while playing games or doing multi-tasking. Fingerprint scanner placed at back do works very well, its not the fastest finger print scanner I have seen, but it gets its job done almost everytime.
Final Verdict On Asus Zenfone 3 Max :-
If I compare Asus Zenfone 3 Max with last year’s one then, this new one has got looks and design in it, and that’s the thing which I loved most about it, yes it do gets things done in battery segment, but when it comes to camera and performance section, it seems behind of the competition.
Asus need to improve its camera section, this can be done via a small OTA update, the touch response of this device is again very well, just like any other Asus smartphone.
Overall phone is okay but I cant justify the price of this device, like any other smartphone in Zenfone 3 series, this one is priced bit high, yes it do comes with massive battery and looks and it seems that’s the reason company has priced it a bit higher.
Well, do share your views in the comments section below and let us know what you think about this device.
