Asus Zenfone 3 Max Quick Review

To choose smartphones from genuine mid-range segment is always tough because there are so many brands and high competition, especially Blu, Samsung, Xiaomi and more. However, Asus promptly launched the Zenfone 3 Max 5.2-inch / 5.5-inch variant and decided to declare war with other opponents in the market. The device its self comes with lots of improvements in design as well as features, so take a look of the Asus Zenfone 3 Max quick review below: 

Design

Both the 5.2 and 5.5 inch variants share same aluminum uni-body design with soft and curved edges. It’s hard to find any drawback in design as well as 2.5D curved glass on the front of the Zenfone 3 Max, especially under $150 price segment.

The Zenfone 3 lineup has always been a great choice for the people looking for a decent phone with a bigger battery. The front panel with the circular ear piece, the front camera, the ambient light sensor, while the front bottom with the Asus logo and the device comes with on-screen three navigation buttons. 

Coming to rear part of the device, we have a main camera, a secondary mic on top, LED flash is placed left next to the camera and the fingerprint sensor below the camera. At rear bottom, we have Asus logo and the loudspeaker grille just below it.

The right side of the phone houses volume and the power buttons. On the left, we have the SIM card slot which is a hybrid SIM card slot. At the bottom edge, there is a micro-USB port and the primary microphone, while the top comes with the 3.5mm audio jack.

Display

Display size is 5.2 or 2.5 inches with HD (720 x 1280 pixels) resolution, particularly on IPS LCD screen panel with the pixel density of 282 and 267ppi respectively. 

The screen has the ability to display true color, good contrast and color tone can be customized as per depth. Also equipped with 2.5D curved glass for better experience. What I dislike probably is slightly low brightness, in the heavy sunlight outside feels little uncomfortable to use.

Software and Performance

Carrying the MediaTek MT6737 quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM, the experience was quite smoother, and relatively good feedback in multitasking capabilities.

I have tried a few games like Temple Run 2 and Subway Surfer with smooth gameplay, but in Asphalt 8 we have to switch from high to medium or low graphics mode to get perfect and smooth gameplay without any lag. 

Coming to the software, the device is running ZenUI based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow with intuitive interface. You will have the intelligent features in ZenUI 3.0 such as various themes, gestures mode, fingerprint lock application, quick camera, and much more.

Camera

Asus Zenfone 3 Max features a 13-megapixels rear camera with f/2.2 aperture along with company’s own PixelMaster 3.0 technology, supporting HDR and night mode. 

The device has the quite impressive ability to focus, quick and accurate focus in different lighting conditions. However, since the configuration is quite low, so sometime it responds slowly, from time to press shutter button to save pictures it’s taken a little time to capture next one. In return, we can get natural and good color shots with high-definition. 

HDR mode on Zenfone 3 Max lifting its low-light efficiency, improve light levels, sharp enough, not much ghosts compared to other same segment 13MP devices. The front camera of 5-megapixels with f/2.0 aperture has been improved as compared to its predecessors, and quite handy to capture selfie immediately.

Battery

With a massive battery capacity of up to 4100mAh, in real time, with basic tasks such as turned on wifi, Facebook messenger, calls – texting, taking pictures – listening to music, email, we’d have more than 5.30 on-screen. And the device still has more than 25% of the battery. 

Thus, Zenfone 3 Max will meet your basic needs for a half day from 1 to 2 days to recharge. Worth to mention that the device also supports OTG and reversable charging as well, so you can charge other supported devices using microUSB cable.

Asus Zenfone 3 Max Price

The Zenfone 3 Max 5.2 inch variant has been priced at just $149, and it is available for purchase via Amazon store in Glacier Silver color options.

Final line

The Asus Zenfone 3 Max comes with a good design, perfect finishing, stable configuration, fingerprint sensor ready, good camera with 4100mAh battery at a very affordable price. It would be a good smartphone to consider if it’s priced under $150, if you choose it, let us know below in the comments.