ASUS Zenfone Max Review

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.

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.

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