Asus Zenfone 3 Max (ZC553KL) was today launched at an event for Rs 17,999. Note that the review we are presenting to you is the model that has a 5.5-inch display, where another model ZC520TL which comes with 5.2-inch display has a price tag of Rs 12,999.
Design and display
Asus Zenfone 3 Max is made of a metal body and look solid. It is comfortable to grip and operate. Though in terms term of design there is nothing new as compared to other smartphones available in the market with a metal body. It has a slim profile along with curved and smooth edges.
It features a 5.5-inch Full High Definition (1080p) display that has a maximum brightness of 400nits. It is a very potent display but the colours do look a bit washed off and in bright sunlight, visibility was on decent. The display glass is subtly rounded off at the edges and it fuses seamlessly into metallic chamfered edges and adds a premium look to the device.
Performance
Zenfone 3 Max is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 octa-core 64-bit Processor clocked at 1.4GHz and is backed by 3GB RAM. It has an internal storage od 32 GB which can be further expanded to 128 via a microSD card. For graphics, the device comes loaded with an Adreno 505 GPU. The device is powerful enough to handle the daily requirements and carry out multitasking smoothly. The ZenUI that’s loaded on top of the Android Marshmallow operating system is loaded with bloatware which has been plaguing Asus devices for a long time.
The device also features a rear fingerprint sensor that can unlock the smartphone and open camera App by double clicking. It supports recognition of up to 5 fingers and also detects fingerprints in full 360 Degree. During our review, we didn’t face any issue with the fingerprint scanner.
As far as connectivity option are considered, Zenfone 3Max has a hybrid SIM which can support 2 SIMs as t a time or one SIM and one micro SD card. The only issue I faced with the connectivity option was with GPS as it used to take a bit long to lock in the location, once it was locked it was fine.
Battery
The Asus Zenfone 3 has a 4100 mAh non-removable battery which comfortably gave me one and a half days back up on average use and on heavy usage getting one-day backup was not an issue.
There are Performance mode, Normal mode, Power saving mode, Super saving mode and Customised modes available in the device to extract extra juice or manage the battery optimally.
The ZenFone 3 Max also double up as a Power bank for charging other devices as it supports reverse charging.
Camera
The Zenfone 3 Max has a 16-megapixel rear camera with 0.03 seconds Tri-tech Auto-focus technology (2nd Generation Laser AF, Phase detection AF, and Continous AF). The device supports full-HD recording along with Electronic Image Stabilization (EIS) for stable videos. At the front, the device sports an 8-megapixel camera that supports modes like the Beautification modes and can shoot videos in Full ,HD resolution.
Apart from the battery camera is another strong point of this device. The pictures clicked in natural as the well low light came out well. Though in low lighting it took a bit long to focus. The device support Backlight HDR mode, Low Light mode, Selfie mode, Panorama mode, Beautification, and Time-Lapse effect modes in the camera app.