Just a few months later, the company launched a new variant Zenfone Max (2016) (Review). This phone has a better processor and longer battery life. After launching both entry-level smartphones, the company is now trying to bring the Max series into the mid-range segment and two new variants have been launched with almost the same name. Zenfone 3 Max (ZC520TL) falls in the under Rs 15,000 category while Zenfone 3 Max (ZC553KL) falls in the under Rs 20,000 category. The ZC520TL variant has a 5.2-inch, MediaTek processor, 13-megapixel rear camera and 5-megapixel front camera. While the higher-priced variant has a bigger display, Qualcomm processor, 16-megapixel and 8-megapixel front camera. Today we will review the Zenfone 3 Max (ZC553KL).
Talking about the price, the performance of Samsung Galaxy J7 Prime (Review) and Lenovo Z2 Plus (Review) has been excellent in less than Rs 20,000. Asus Zenfone 3 Laser (Review) is also available at a price of Rs 17,999. How is this Asus phone? Know here
Asus Zenfone 3 Max design and build
The first thing that will catch your attention when you hold this phone in your hand is its design. This phone is not as stylish as other high-end smartphones in the Zenfone 3 series but it still looks very good. Due to the aluminum unibody case, it fits well in the hand. The buttons on the phone are well placed and can be used easily.
Asus has given this phone a 5.5 inch full HD display, due to which this phone gives better grip than the previous variant. The images look sharp in the display and the brightness is also excellent even in sunlight. Due to the thin bezel, the width of the phone is reduced, due to which the phone can be easily used with one hand. If you want to type something with one hand while walking, then you can activate the one-handed mode. The glass in the phone has an oleophobic coating and due to this there are not many fingerprints. The thing that disappointed us is the absence of any kind of scratch protection for the display. Which is usually available in a smartphone of this price.
The ZC553KL is a hybrid dual-SIM phone, while the previous variants had dual SIM slots. The hybrid SIM slot allows you to use a microSD card (up to 128 GB) or a second SIM card. The phone has a mono speaker at the bottom, next to it is a micro-USB charging port. While the headphone jack is given at the top. There is a notification LED on the front while below the screen are capacitive navigation buttons that are not backlit.
There is a fingerprint sensor below the camera module on the rear which can be used to answer calls, launch the camera app or take pictures. But it cannot be used to lock apps or hide files. The biggest problem with the fingerprint sensor is that sometimes it does not recognize the fingerprint even after two or three tries.
Asus has maintained the budget image of this series with the new Max handset. This phone comes with a premium look and feel. And with a better display, it is really good. At 8.3 mm, it is not the thinnest but at 175 grams, it is a bit heavy. However, it will not feel very heavy when you use it. This phone will come with a headset, a 10 watt charger, data cable and an OTG cable. Apart from this, as a promotion, the user will also get 100 GB space on Google Drive for two years.
Asus Zenfone 3 Max specifications and features
The previous Zenfone Max had a Snapdragon 615 processor, so we expected the new smartphone to have at least a Snapdragon 652 or 625 processor. But it is disappointing that Asus has given this phone an octa-core Snapdragon 430 processor like the Zenfone 3 Laser. Due to this processor, the phone can easily do day-to-day tasks, but it is difficult to run heavy apps and play games. Asus’s ZenUI keyboard also gives problems.
In benchmark testing, Zenfone 3 Max performs as well as its processor. The phone gave decent figures. The graphics performance in the phone is the lowest, which means you cannot play games like Dead Effect 2 properly. The phone also has 3 GB RAM, 32 GB storage, single band Wi-Fi b / g / n, Bluetooth 4.1, FM radio and GPS. Apart from this, this 4G smartphone supports VoLTE along with bands 1, 3, 5, 8 and 40 in India.
The phone runs Android Marshmallow with Asus’ ZenUI 3.0 skin on top. The skin was a bit different than what we were used to and those who have never used an Asus phone will find it quite difficult. There are a lot of options to customize the smartphone to your liking. The ‘Theme’ app has some great themes to choose from and apart from that, the phone comes preloaded with a lot of apps, similar to what we saw during our review of the ZenFone 3 (ZE552KL). The Mobile Manager app is one of the most used apps. This app lets you manage notifications, delete unwanted files and manage app permissions all in one place.
Apart from this, the phone also has apps like Instagram and Puffin. Games like Need for Speed: No Limits and SimCity come pre-installed.
Asus Zenfone 3 Max performance
We used the Zenfone 3 Max for about a week to find out all the good things about it and we did not face any major issues. The phone works very smoothly during normal tasks and multitasking. The phone does not heat up much while playing games or using the camera. The sound output from the earpiece is good and 4G works well.
The vibrant display makes watching videos a pleasure and the phone plays high-bitrate videos up to 1080p quite well. Audio performance is good with both wired and wireless headphones. The volume can be turned up quite loud and the audio is also good. The headset that comes with the phone also gives good sound despite external noise.
Asus’ Zenfone Max variant has always done well in the camera department and the same is true this time as well. With a 16-megapixel sensor and aperture f/2.2 lens, landscape and macro photos in daylight are good. Colour reproduction is also accurate. However, the images captured could have been sharper, especially around the edges of the object. In the macro shot below, the edges around the flower look a bit ugly when zoomed to full size. Photos taken in low light look good although there is a bit of noise. The low-light shooting mode provided in the phone comes in handy here.
Videos recorded at 1080p look very good too. There is electronic stabilisation for videos but it only works up to 720p. In good light, selfies from the 8-megapixel front camera come out with a lot of detail. There are also many other effects including HDR. Focus speed is quite fast due to laser autofocus and PDAF and pictures are very sharp unless you are in a special mode.
Battery life has always been the hallmark of the Asus Max series. And this time around, the Zenfone 3 Max also delivers the same. But not as much as we expected. In our HD video loop test, the phone managed to last 14 hours and 7 minutes, which is pretty good. But we have seen better results in phones with more powerful processors and smaller batteries. We were able to easily last a day and a half with normal heavy use. The phone has a customizable power mode for different times of the day. The battery doesn’t come with fast charging support, but the phone gets fully charged in about two hours using a 10W charger. It supports reverse charging, which means the Zenfone 3 Power Max can act as a power bank using the bundled OTG adapter.
Our verdict
The Zenfone Max is not meant to be just one thing. Rather, this new variant aims to attract smartphone consumers as an all-rounder. The phone has a new design, better display and camera and strong battery life. This phone will give a tough fight to the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 but Asus has priced the Zenfone 3 Max on the higher side. Keeping in mind that the ZC520TL variant is priced similar to the Redmi Note 3 but its specifications are quite different. Apart from this, it is important to check the model number written on the back of the box as both versions can be quite confusing.
At Rs 17,999, the ZC553KL seems a bit expensive. Like the Zenfone 3 Laser, the phone is priced higher. Asus recently launched the Laser in the market and the new Max seems to be similar with longer battery life and better looks. Unlike the Zenfone 3 Laser, this phone will also be available in offline retail stores, which makes the high price a bit understandable.
However, it is unclear why Asus has used an entry-level processor for a phone of this caliber. If you don’t play games and don’t mind the lack of Wi-Fi 802.11ac, the Zenfone 3 Max is a decent package. But with its launch price, it’s hard to recommend it.
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