Asus ZenFone Max (2016) – Refreshed and Recharged (Review)
Last year when I reviewed the ZenFone Max, I was delighted with it. I gave it a whooping 7.5 on my review. The reason is simple. The ZenFone Max 2015 was a 5.5 inch device with a powerful processor and a large battery and all of that packed in a relatively thin form factor. Fast forward 6 months, we have a refreshing upgrade for the ZenFone Max. The internals got a huge upgrade and now the ZenFone Max is powered by a Snapdragon 615 processor with 2 GB or 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB storage. Everything else about this mobile has not changed and not even the price. The new ZenFone Max 2 GB RAM variant is priced at Rs 9999 while the 3 GB variant is priced at Rs 12999.
Design
Literally nothing has changed in the design department. It has the exact dimensions of the 2015 Max and the same design. So here is a recap from my review of the ZenFone Max 2015.
The Zenfone Max is 11mm thin and that is slim considering the fact that this mobile has a whooping 5000 mAh battery. It weighs 202 grams. Holding the device and operating is comfortable as the weight is spread evenly. The Zenfone max’s design is marginally different from the other Zenfones. The back is removable and it has a leather texture, though it is made of plastic. The volume and power buttons are at the right. The sides have a metal rim. The buttons are made of metal as well. The speakers grills are that the back bottom. The front has the 5.5 inch IPS LCD display with non-backlit keys below it. The bezels are thick and Asus explains that thick bezels helps them keep the cost down. The construction of the device feels solid and it looks and feels premium. It is a Rs 10k mobile but it feels like a premium device.
The side are not entirely metal and there is a plastic edge around the display. I dropped my mobile accidentally and the plastic corner got a serious damage. But the mobile did not sustain any functional damage. The is also intact, though the fall was pretty bad on the tar road, from waist height. The ZenFone Max is now available in Orange and Blue, apart from the usual black and white colors. I love the Orange variant. But my review unit is a Black. But anyways the color is only on the back panel and it can be easily swapped. Once the back panels are available in the market, I am going get an Orange one.
Display
The display is also the same as we saw in the earlier ZenFone Max. It is a 5.5 inch screen which supports 1280×720 HD resolution with a pixel density of 267 ppi. The screen is not protected by any protective glass and my display got scratched while pulling it out of my jeans pocket. The display quality is good, but we have seen better displays in this price range. Apart from the bluelight filter there is an app to control the display colors. The display has good black and white levels. The colors show no banding. The saturation levels are natural. The screen has good viewing angles. I have no issues with the display but still I wish it had full HD display. That would have been a great upgrade.
Hardware and Performance
Zenfone Max is powered by a octa core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor clocked at 1.5 GHz. It has 2 Gb of RAM and a 3 GB RAM variant. Both these variants come with 16 GB of internal storage. The graphics processor Adreno 405 helps in the graphics rendering and processing. My test unit was the 2 GB variant. While playing graphics rich games, the mobile did have isolated frame drops. While opening up games, loading was too long. But once loaded, the games did run smoothly. Graphic intensive games had signs of frame drops and stuttering and this became more evident on prolonged gaming. There was lag even while using app in the mobile. Probably a 3 GB variant would have shown less lagging. Snapdragon 615 is a mid range processor and the ZenFone Max makes full use of its power. The device did get warm then, but it never over heated. You can check the benchmark test scores below. The New Zenfone Max is clearly a level above the older variant.
Camera
Just like the earlier Max, the new Max also has a 13 MP sensor primary camera with a f/2.0 lens. The camera is assisted by laser autofocus sensor and dual-LED (dual tone) flash. It can record 1080p videos at 30 fps. The front facing camera is 5 MP camera. The images from the rear camera are sharp and and performs well under daylight. The laser autofocus works like a charm and focusing is very fast. Getting the right image under low light conditions is bit of a challenge. The shutter is not fast and you need a really steady hand to get the right shot. Under low light, the shutter speed gets low, but the ISO level stays at a level where is noise is less. Thanks to the pixel master algorithm the images have very less noise at any light conditions. Video recording also produced similar results. The footage is crisp under daylight, but starts showing lag trails as the light goes down. The front camera does the job and it is good for selfies under ample light conditions. Under low light condition, consider using a Zen Lolliflash.
Check out the camera samples
Software and UI
Here comes another major upgrade. The new ZenFone Max now runs on Android 6.0.1 out of the box with the Zen UI on the top. The Zen UI still has a bunch of pre-installed applications. But this time around the Android 6.0.1 makes a huge difference. With macro level permission management and effective memory management, using apps on the ZenFone Max is a better user experience. There are little changes all around the UI, which makes a huge difference in user experience. The cache cleaner is now intergrated with the task manager. Clearing the task, also clears the cache memory. I am not a big fan of the Zen UI Launcher and hence I installed Nova Launcher on the mobile. Other wise, I like the Zen Mini movies and SuperNote apps from all the pre-installed apps in the mobile. Overall the UI is faster and snappier compared to the earlier Max variant. It does lag a bit, but it is definitely smoother than the likes of Touch Wiz or SenseUI. The day Asus gets rid of all the pre-loaded apps or enables them to be uninstalled, without rooting, Zen UI will climb up the list to be one of my favorite Mobile UIs in the market.
Battery
The massive 5000 mAh battery is the highlight of the ZenFone max. Zenfone max has a 5000 mAh battery and it just never dies. It lasts for almost 2 days on intensive usage and about 3 days on regular usage. But the painful part is the charging time. It takes about 4-5 hours for the mobile to charge from 0-100% when charged with the bundled 1A (5W) charger. I wish Asus had upgraded the Max with fast charging capability and bundled a faster charger with it. But once charged up, the battery is immortal. This is my reliable go-to mobile during travel or any long day away from home or office. It can also lend its battery charge to other devices. It comes bundled with an OTG cable that can be used to connect the other mobile and charge it up. The ZenFone Max has an impressive battery life and I have not seen any mobile in this price range with such a good battery life.
Verdict
The New Asus ZenFone Max has the same design and form factor as the older variant. The advantage is that the accessories and other fittings are easily available. But it is still bulky and heavy at over 200 grams. I would have loved to see a refreshing new design. Asus didn’t want to try anything crazy with the new Max. They took the winning formula of the Max and just made it better. The display on the new Max is HD and I wish it had Full HD screen. The 3 GB variant is a welcome addition, but it is slightly overpriced. The 2 GB variant offers better value for money and it has decent performance for that day to day tasks. The camera on this mobile is also decent. The laser focus and pixel master algorithm takes this average camera hardware and helps you click some awesome shots. The new Max runs on Android M and the UI offers considerable improvements in terms of features and functionalities. Battery is a beast and that is one department where the ZenFone Max shadows all its competitors to come out as a winner. At GadgetDetail, we had the older Max in our smart recommendation list and we have now replaced the list with the new Asus ZenFone Max.