Nothing Like Everything: Zenfone 3 Max Review

To address the issue of battery life that is associated with almost all android devices Asus has introduced Zenfone Max series. This series provide user with an extra battery juice for lasting it longer than usual. Last year we have seen Asus Zenfone Max (2015) introduce with 5000 mAh battery. Not only that but Asus kept that series to the low and affordable price range under 10K.

After few month Asus come up with advance version of Asus Zenfone Max 2016 which was same as it’s predecessor, only difference is packed with more powerful processor serving long battery life. Now with Zenfone 3 series they have brought this to mid-range series. With their Zenfone 3 series Asus has again introduced new device that we are reviewing today here named as Zenfone 3 Max (ZC553KL).

Also Read : Reasons To Select Zenfone 3 Max As Your Smartphone Device

Zenfone 3 Max (ZC553KL)

Asus ZenFone 3 Max design and build :

Asus has launched Zenfone 3 Max in 2 variants they are :

Zenfone 3 Max (ZC553KL) Get One For You
Zenfone 3 Max (ZC520TL) Get One For You

The design of this device is the first element that attract your attention.Device is very slick and have round curved edges and it's metal aluminum unibody provide sturdy feel when you hold the device. It's look and feel premium and the grip is ergonomic having buttons lined up nicely against our thumb.

This device have 5.5 inches Full HD(1920 x 1080) IPS display. Device have vivid and sharp display, produce crisp and sharp images and icons. You can see screen clearly even in direct sunlight. Zenfone 3 Max have very thin bezels which make the device easy hold and use. Even if you think screen size is too large to handle, you can always user one hand mode. The only thing bit disappointing about this device is there is no scratch protection on the device screen, which is usually seen for the device in this price range.

On the front top of the device it have 3.5 mm audio jack. Font 8MP wide angle camera and light ambient sensor. On left hand side corner it have LED notification light.

On the other hand back of the device, it have 16MP rear camera accompanied with dual tone dual LED flash light and laser sensor. Just blow the rear camera Asus has placed fingerprint sensor. Beside back of the device is made of metal aluminum unibody provide good grip, but sometime even though it make device bit sleepery from the hand.

Well on the front bottom of the device it have Micro-USB charging slot 2.0 which is kind disappointment for us. Beside charging slot device have Mono speakers that producing really loud sound that can be heard in busy areas too. The phone ships with a headset, a 10W charger, a data cable, and an OTG cable. You also get 100GB of Google Drive space free for two years as a promotion.

Also Read : Finally Asus Announced ZenWatch 3 Luxury With Style

Specification And Performance :

Let's start with screen. The device have very sharp IPS Full HD display panel which produce vivid and sharp colors even in direct sunlight. Zenfone 3 Max is hybrid SIM device which means you can either use it as dual SIM cards or single SIM with memory card with 4G VoLET support. If you use memory card you can expand external storage upto 128 GB. Zenfone 3 Max comes with 3GB of RAM and 32 GB of internal storage. Zenfone 3 Max equipped with Android 6.0.1 that is Marshmallow running Asus customized ZenUI 3 on top of it.

Processor of this device is seems to be the weakest point. We were expecting this device will be equipped with Snapdragon 615 but it actually packed with Snapdragon 430 SOC. This means you can experience the stutter or lags when it comes to famous gaming titles or heavy multitasking. But gain with Snapdragon 615 comes with issues of heavy heating problem this must be the cause Asus has avoided using that SOC. Even though Asus has tried to compassionate for using entry level processor by providing game Genie to improve performance of the device. But that too does not seems to be helping much.

You can use it to answer incoming calls, launch the camera app, or take a picture - but you can’t use it to lock apps. The bigger issue here is that fingerprint recognition was often not quick. It did misread fingerprints, which is flagged by a slight vibration, but it seemed more to do with the hardware not being able to authenticate fingerprints quickly. The issue was intermittent but was really frustrating when we ran into it.

Zenfoen 3 Max have single-band Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1, FM radio, and GPS. There’s 4G support on Band 1, 3, 5, 8, and 40 in India as well as VoLTE. All connectivity medium works well on the device. Even 4G and VoLTE works very smoothly without any problems.

Let's check some benchmarking scores of the device:

Above are the result of Antutu 6.2(On left side) and GeekyBench4 which also seems kind of average that is above the entry level processor can perform. As we can check Nenamark score for FPS (Frames per second ) it plays and records video very nicely and smoothly. We hardly find any lags in that case. But yes if you want to play 2K or 4K video in this device you better use SW decoder in MX player.

Camera :

When it comes to the camera then Asus has done remarkable job in it's Zenfone 3 series. Asus has revamped the camera quality form their last 2 series and improved on it. It provide it's own camera module software called Pixelmaster does some excellent job when it comes to clicking photos.

Videos look really good thanks to the vibrant display, and the phone handles videos just fine, at up to 1080p. Audio performance is particularly good through wired and wireless headphones. The volume can get really loud with punchy bass. The AudioWizard app lets you play around with equalizer settings in order to fine-tune the sound. There’s electronic video stabilization for video but only at 720p resolution.

Asus Zenfone 3 Max comes with 16 MP rear camera and 8 MP wide angle front facing camera which takes really good pictures.

Here are some samples:

Rear Camera Pics

Front Camera Pics

Rear Camera Pics

NOTE :Click on the images To check in Full Size

Battery Life:

Battery life is what this device is meant for. It provide the good battery life but not as good as it was expected. Since this device is using entry level processor, Asus Zenfone 3 Max was expected to be perform much better. For heavy user battery will last for more a day, and for moderate and low usage users 2 days. Standby time for this device is excellent.

Pricing:

Asus Zenfone 3 Max is being price at 17,999 INR in India. This device available in both online as well as offline. But the price is another backlog for this device. Since you can get device with higher performance SOC at this price range. Even if you compared this price to it's predecessor then too this price range seems odd, can say kindly high priced device.

Verdict :

Asus Zenfone 3 Max has some really good features in terms Display, Camera, Audio,Battery Life and call quality. The only thing disappointing is processor and heavy multitasking. Even though they have used entry level processor they should have priced this device some where in 10K-15K range.

Pros Of Zenfone 3 Max :

Sharp , clear and vivid display.
Good Design and build quality.
Excellent camera quality.
Good audio quality.
Good Battery life

Cons Of Zenfone 3 Max :

Over priced device.
Lags and Stutters on gaming and heavy multitasking.
Hybrid SIM slot used.
No gorilla glass protection.
Fingerprint sensor bit iffy.

So this is all update for the review from our side. If you have any questions or query or any opinion on this do comment below. Stay tuned for more. Thank you for reading.

Zenfone 3 Max Review