ASUS Zenfone Max Review

Table of Contents

Display and Multimedia

The Zenfone Max comes with a 5.5-inch screen. Pixels are discernible, but can still be considered as decent. Viewing angles and colors are good, but tend to be on the warmer side. Good thing ASUS included the Splendid app which lets you adjust the color temperature and choose between four screen color modes.

As for audio, the Max’s rear speakers are capable of producing loud sounds that can fill a small room. By default, the sounds are inclined towards trebles with barely noticeable bass.

To remedy, the Max features an Audio Wizard that allows you to select between five audio profiles (Movie, Music, Gaming, Vocal, Smart), adjust the bass and treble levels, and play around with the equalizer. In our case, the best setting is to put the bass level to max to balance it out. With that feature on, the Max has one of the nicest speakers around for a smartphone.

Camera

One of the Max’s strongest suits (apart from its monster battery capacity) is its 13-megapixel camera. It doesn’t sound much on paper, but it uses the company’s PixelMaster Technology, dual-tone LED flash, and infrared-based Laser-guided autofocus system found in its other siblings like the Selfie and Zoom. Before you get excited, let me tell you that it’s not going to compete with high-end camera-centric smartphones like the LG V10, LG G4, Galaxy S6, and iPhone 6S when it comes to image quality. After all, this is a sub-Php9K device, however, this doesn’t mean the Max is not a good shooter.

asus-zenfone-max-review-philippines-4

With Laser AF, the Max has one of the fastest autofocus we’ve experienced in a smartphone. ASUS claims it has 0.03 second autofocus time. While we cannot really measure that speed, we’d say that it’s rapid especially in bright conditions. It also performs well in low-light like in bars or dimly lit restaurants. If we’re going to compare, it’s significantly faster than the OnePlus 2 which also features Laser AF.

As for quality, resulting images have good details and colors. The 5 megapixel front camera is good for selfies and video calls but don’t expect the same quality you can find in other cameras with dedicated front shooters. The Max also has quite a lot of in-camera features, just take a look at the screenshot above. As for image and video samples, take a look below.

#gallery-1 { margin: auto; } #gallery-1 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-1 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-1 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

: HDR

Sample video: 1080p at 30fps

OS, UI, and Apps

The Max comes with Android 5.0.2 Lollipop out of the box skinned with ZenUI. It’s easy to navigate and visually enticing, however, it feels a bit clunky and doesn’t feel in-line with Lollipop’s simple Material approach. On the bright side, you can install your favorite launcher and customize it to your liking if you’re not a fan of ZenUI.

ZenUI other features:
* ZenMotion – Touch Gesture, One Hand Mode
* ASUS Cover – allows you to use ZenUI features when using flip cover accessories
* Easy mode – for simple layout and core functions

When it comes to pre-installed apps, the Max has tons of it. When we check out the apps we need to update after setting up our Google Play Store account, the ZenUi Instant Update prompted us with 31 apps to update. This includes ASUS PixelMaster Camera, ASUS Keyboard, ASUS Calendar, ASUS Launcher, ASUS Messaging, ASUS Gallery, etc. Add to that Clean Master, Dr. Safety, Amazon Kindle, Zinio, 50+ Games!, and Trip Advisor which you cannot uninstall.

ASUS equipped the Max with 16GB of internal storage. Less the system reserved memory, you only have 10.24GB as usable which is limited. To compensate, it has support for up to 128GB microSD cards as well as USB OTG.

Next page: Performance and Benchmarks, Connectivity and Call Quality, Battery Life, and Conclusion

Kevin Bruce Francisco

Kevin Bruce Francisco is the Senior Editor and Video Producer for YugaTech. He's a Digital Filmmaking graduate who's always either daydreaming of traveling or actually going places on his bike. Follow him on Twitter for more tech updates @kevincofrancis.

http://www.yugatech.com

12 Comments

james roe says:

6 years ago

Its an important message for all our viewers and audience. Please compare prices, Specifications, and reviews before buying any product. Else admin is taking an appreciable Initiative. please do not take it as wrong comment. thanks
- Reply
Fes says:

7 years ago

Hello boss. I’m looking for a cell phone that will provide me with an accurate GPS cos I travel a lot to unfamiliar locations. My friend uses zenfone max for navigation and he claims the GPS is accurate. Please do you think the zenfone max will do better than other high ends like LG G4 f500 in terms of GPS accuracy? Or do you have any other recommendations? Thank you.
- Reply
Ernest says:

8 years ago

Very poor quality phone… so many features but doesn’t work properly.. even facebook live isn’t supported.. my other friends teasesme why i bought this phone and the phone they use is cherry mobile worth 3000 pesos and it exceeds my phones performance.. i’ve already sent this phone to the service center and after 6 weeks of waiting, they replaced this phone with a new one… very dissapointed but i don’t have a choice.. better bought myphone…
- Reply

Eds says:

8 years ago

I agree with you Ernest! i just bought my Asus phone last month, August 1 to be exact and now the on/off button isn’t working. I need to bring this tomorrow to the nearest service center. Did you bring your phone to the stall where you bought it or directly to the service center? Thanks!

ISha says:

8 years ago

i disagree with Jade. The phone battery is great, i just bought it and its lasted longer than 24 hours. I’m happy with my 8k purchase.
- Reply
Jade says:

8 years ago

This is by far the worst phone i ever had. I regretted switching from iOs to android. Battery 5k mah? Cant last a day. Everything u read and see on web about how awesome this phone is will instantly turn into nightmare once u experienced this phone for at least two days.

Yours truly,
Good friend
- Reply
Arvin Uy says:

9 years ago

I bought Asus Zenfone Max ZC500KL last 05, April 2016. Asus Zenfone 5 A500KL (2014 model) is much faster than Asus Zenfone Max ZC550KL. I can tell because I played with my friend using Clash Royale using this two phones. (FYI: I also owned a Zenfone 5 A500KL after I lost it, this was the phone I considered replacing) You can see the difference between the gameplay smoothness which is the Zenfone Max is inferior than the Zenfone 5.
From the 3 games I downloaded after a Factory Reset just to be sure the lagging doesn’t come from the other apps installed, 2 out of 3 games where really lagging.
1.) Sandstorm: Pirates War (New Game) – Lag Meter is 4 out of 5
2.) Minions Paradise – Lag Meter is 2 out of 5
3.) Clash Royale – Not actual lagging but the smoothness of the game is inferior

I can also felt lagging after a reboot, don’t know why, but I followed what the ASUS Support have emailed me, that they suggest that I do a factory reset… and I did, I even update the system first before trying installing anything but it never solved my problem, after that ASUS no longer replied to my emails or complains.

Overall is a good phone with a lot of good features, great camera, good battery-life… but DON’T BUY this if your someone who uses his/her phone for gaming purposes… Just don’t, the only thing left for me to solve this is to resell the phone and buy a new one…
- Reply
Ronaldq says:

9 years ago

5 hours turtle charge….
- Reply

tagaakda says:

9 years ago

I’m a bit confused, gsmarena specs state that the zenfone max can only support 64gb of expansion via microsd. While here you state that it supports 128gb. So which is it?

mike says:

9 years ago

Would you mind telling us what’s the charger you used getting the 5 hours? How many volts and amps is that charger?
- Reply

AngelaM says:

9 years ago

any USB port charger that has 5.0V/2.0A or higher will charge this hefty battery. i have samsung charger with this rated V/A and quickly charge my zerolemon battery with capacity of 7500mAH in just 6 hours :D

Izrael says:

9 years ago

Zenfone 2 Laser launch price Php 8,695 just a few months later dropped to Php 7,995. You pay extra Php 400 for the 5000mah battery of the Zenfone Max. Lugi compared to India, because obviously of the larger market, sa pricing which both devices sells for the amount of around Php 7k. Pero pwede na rin sa mga social media warriors, hindi na kayo masyado ma lowbat at ang pagtiisan mo nalang ay ung 5 hours na fast charge. Hehehe
- Reply