[Review] Asus ZenFone Max – Exceptional Endurance Exemplified

Performance & Camera
Rather than the usual Intel Atom processor used by its numerous other ZenFone siblings, the ZenFone Max comes with a quad-core 1.2GHz Snapdragon 410 processor running Android 5.0.2. It also comes with a modest 2GB RAM and 16GB of onboard storage that is expandable via the microSD card slot that supports up to 64GB cards. A beefed up version exists in India with a Snapdragon 615 processor though this is unavailable locally.

The phone runs the latest version of Asus’ ZenUI user interface akin to that seen on the ZenFone Zoom. Unfortunately, the latest version of ZenUI is chockful of bloatware of mixed usefulness though in the case of the Max it has been inflicted to a lesser degree as opposed to what the Zoom packs. Asus’ ZenCircle is their own social media app of sorts that lets you share images for the edification of your fellow ZenCirclers. ZenTalk is another prebundled app that accesses Asus own product centric chat forums. Both are well populated with regular traffic and are worth a whirl though they’re of dubious utility for someone already invested in Facebook, Instagram or a host of other existing social media sites; they may be of some use though if you need to crowdsource a solution to a problem for an Asus device.

There’s some redundancy with the preloaded apps as well like the Clean Master app to clean up junk files and manage your battery life. Unfortunately this overlaps with Asus’ own built-in Mobile Manager app. The MyAsus app is also preloaded and is solely there for when the excrement hits the proverbial fan as it lets you directly contact Asus’ customer service for help. The phone also sports Google’s usual obligatory array of apps including Chrome, Gmail, Maps, YouTube and the like. Minus all the extras, you have about 11GB of effective usable onboard storage. Fortunately, the microSD card slot mitigates this downside considerably.

There’s quite a bit of overlap with Asus’ own apps and the ones bundled with the ZenFone Max like the Clean Master app that does much of what the Mobile Manager does

Bloatware aside, the phone has an otherwise clean, flat design user interface with everything accessible within easy reach via a drag-down shortcut on the home screen.

While it lacks a fingerprint reader, it does let you turn the phone on by simply double tapping the screen rather than the usual approach of thumbing the power button. In general use, the large phablet-sized 720P display was very serviceable with readable text, good colour rendition and pleasantly good visibility even under direct sunlight. Viewing angles were good from the sides as well and there’s a silver lining to using a 720p display – it incurs less drain from the battery.

Combined with the Snapdragon 410 processor, this adds up to a very energy efficient setup. If the hues on the display don’t quite appeal, you can still tweak it via their Splendid colour app that allows you to tweak how cool or warm colours appear onscreen. It also has a Bluelight filter option that you can toggle at will for easier viewing and less eye fatigue.

Performance on the ZenFone Max is modest for what you pay for. GeekBench yielded a single core score of 485 while a multi-core test scored 1492 for the ZenFone Max. Multiple open browser windows, YouTube videos and Google Docs opened without lag or issue and it will handle most games relatively smoothly barring the most demanding ones in the market. 

The ZenFone Max isn’t a gaming machine by a stretch though it’ll still capably handle the odd game or two

A whirl on CSR 2 had a bit of slowdown on the loading screens but otherwise ran smoothly while Freeblade encountered slightly slower loading times by a few seconds though the experience of curb stomping hapless evil doers with a multi-ton war machine was not diluted. King of Fighters 2012 on the other hand was a fun romp onscreen on account of the large screen and retro sprites. It’s not a gaming phone by any stretch though it will handle almost everything else asked of a smartphone in a relatively competent fashion.

Camera
The rear camera comes all of Asus’ recent innovations in their cameras which include an expansive array of filters, a manual mode that lets you tweak white balance, exposure, ISO and shutter speed, a HDR mode, a pseudo Depth of Field mode to get defocused background shots, a time lapse and slo-mo mode and even a GIF animation mode to create your own ‘boomerang’ shots.  

Like other Asus phones of recent vintage, it also has their novel PixelMaster low light tech that helps to capture snaps in challenging light conditions though snaps are downsampled to 3-MP resolution. The camera also has a laser autofocus that offers fast subject acquisition. Shots in brightly lit areas are pretty good for what you pay for though it tends to veer on being slightly overexposed while low light shots are understandably on the noisy side. Fire up their PixelMaster imaging tech, denoted by an owl symbol onscreen and the rear camera is able to snag some pretty viewable, if somewhat grainy shots in dimly lit areas that would give other cameras pause though the results are mostly for social media use. Subject acquisition was swift on account of the laser autofocus as well with it switching focus on different subjects in seconds under most circumstances.

The ZenFone Max will handle most of the usual food, family, coffee and pub crawl shots with capable aplomb. Videos are capped at 1080p and were decent with good colour rendition and smoothness but were otherwise unexceptional while the front selfie camera offered perfunctory performance with a built-in beauty mode that lets you dial the level of skin smoothening, beautification and even the ability to include some blusher on the subject. There is even an ‘eye enlarging’ mode that offers those with smaller eyes seemingly larger peepers when you snap a selfie though the results range from pleasing to nightmarish depending on the subject; this doesn’t end well for men with results approaching an appearance resembling bipedal lemurs.