ASUS generated a lot of hype and interest in 2015 with its devices, especially the ZenFone lineup. Carried across by the ZenFone 2 and its variants, along with other smaller ZenFone variants like the ZenFone 2 Laser and ZenFone Selfie, ASUS created a lasting impression on the mind of the budget consumer.
To bank upon the recent success, ASUS has released the ZenFone Max in the Indian market. This device was unveiled in IFA Berlin 2015, and is now available for pre-booking in India.
The ASUS ZenFone Max sports a 5.5″ HD IPS LCD display, giving it a pixel density of just ~267 ppi. In this age of borderline-4K displays, ASUS’ decision to stick with a large but not as high quality display is surprising and odd, but feels justified once you see the complete package. The device also sports Corning Gorilla Glass 4 on top.
On the inside of the device is a very humble Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 (MSM8916), which has 4x Cortex-A53 clocked in at 1 GHz. The ZenFone Max also sports the Adreno 306 GPU and 2GB of RAM, and comes with 16GB internal storage and microSD expandability of up to 64GB. For the camera, the device features a 13MP rear camera with a f/2.0 aperture, laser autofocus and dual LED flash; and a 5MP camera on the front. It also supports dual Micro-SIM, and ran on Android 5.0 Lollipop with ASUS’ ZenUI on top back when it was unveiled. The Android version shipped with the device currently, or the existence of future updates to more relevant Android versions, is unknown at this stage.
So far, the ZenFone Max looks like a very ordinary device that would exist in the low-mid range. There isn’t too much to talk about in this phone that isn’t in every other phone, save for one feature: it’s large battery. Powering the ASUS ZenFone Max is a large 5,000 mAh Li-Po battery. The device packs in this battery in a body which the press release quotes 5.2 mm, while the specifications on both Amazon and Flipkart note as 10.55 mm. For comparison, the Elephone P8000 that we reviewed boasted of a 4,165 mAh battery in a 9.2 mm thin body with a similarly sized 5.5″ display. To make use of the sheer capacity of the battery, the ZenFone Max can turn into a powerbank and be used to charge other devices.
It is very good to see more and more manufacturers pick up on smartphones with large batteries. ASUS’ decision to stick with a 5.5″ HD display, instead of say 5″ HD or 5.5″ FHD, is quite odd. But this decision does allow the device to pack in a large battery and still have a manageable screen on time. ASUS claims that the device can power through 22.6 hours of video playback, but this claim is something that would need further independent testing.
One common factor that we have been seeing on battery-oriented devices in 2015 is that most come with mid level specs, at best. The upper end of the spectrum, the flagships and the would-be’s, still continue along the race to becoming thinner and thinner. Add in the fact that removable batteries have gone the way of the dinosaur save for a handful of manufacturers, and you can see that we are impending a battery race on the top of the segment. We hope these battery-focused mid level devices earn their fair share of success, just so that all manufacturers realize that we do want phones that last us through a day without worrying about it.
Pre-bookings for the ASUS ZenFone Max have begun on Amazon.in and Flipkart, with shipping beginning from the 15th of January 2016. The listed price is 9,999 INR (or $150), and the phone will also be available via offline retailers and ASUS stores from the second fortnight of January.
What are your thoughts on the ASUS ZenFone Max? Would you consider purchasing a battery-oriented smartphone in 2016? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Read on for related content:
- ASUS ZenFone Max Appears on Official Website; Boasts 5,000 mAh Battery
- CyanogenMod 13.0 Nightly Builds Available for Asus ZenFone 2
- Asus Announces Marshmallow Update Plans
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