Asus Zenfone Max - The Powerpuff Phone

The biggest concern we all have with our smartphones is their battery life. With the avid use of social media networks like facebook, instagram, twitter and snapchat (which happens to be a major battery drainer) we always end up with a low battery at the end of the day and this is even worse when we're on holiday or out during the weekend, doesn't it? The good folks at Asus gave this problem a deep thought and have brought us the Zenfone Max which boasts of a mammoth 5,000mAh battery, and a set of specifications that are aimed at maximizing the battery performance. I was in Goa last weekend yet again and it was the perfect time for me to use the Zenfone's superpowers to update my weekend adventures abundantly on social media!

Design

The Zenfone Max looks and feels like a well built, sturdy and premium device. It is surrounded by a metal-effect bezel that makes it look stylish and easy to hold. The rear of the phone has a look and feel of embossed leather, which gives an added grip. It has a removable back panel, with the dual-SIM cards, microSD card and the 5,000mAh non removable battery underneath. With a huge battery underneath, the smartphone weighs 202 grams. 

Display

The Zenfone Max flaunts a 5.5-inch HD IPS display which is protected by Gorilla® Glass 4 for scratch-resistance, strength and durability. Underneath is a 1280x720 HD IPS display. 

Camera

The Zenfone Max features a 13-megapixel rear camera with a laser autofocus and on the front is a 5-megapixel selfie camera. The camera has a large range of modes like manual, HDR, beautification, low light, night, depth of field, slow motion, time lapse and more. The camera was able to capture some great shots during my trip.  The camera is very good indoors as well thanks to the laser autofocus, It focuses quickly on subjects and shoots detailed photos. 

The selfie camera is really great. I got some really good photos on the beach during sunset in spite of low light. You get beautification options along with selfie panorama, night, HDR and low light among others. The photos you click using the front camera are good enough to be shared on social media without the need for any edits.any editing or filters. Here are two pictures I clicked using it -

Office selfie - My skin looks flawless and glowing thanks to its beauty mode

Sunset by the beach - It was way darker in reality than it looks like in this pic

Battery

The battery is this phone's superpower and it's fantastic. With heavy Snapchat usage (like 30 stories in one day) and lots of instagram I had over 24 hours of usage. The coolest part of this phone is that it can also be used as a power bank to charge other devices using an OTG adaptor. The battery takes a few hours to get a full charge but makes up for that with its performance. 

Specs

Under the Zenphone Max's hood is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 410 quad-core chipset paired with Adreno 306 GPU and 2GB of RAM and 16GB storage. This set of specifications is not top level but does a decent job in a day-to-day scenario. Nearly all the apps we normally use daily are easily handled by the smartphone and so is multi-tasking to an extent. It also has 4G support along with a memory card. 

The only issue with the UI is the large number of preloaded Asus apps on the smartphone which cannot be uninstalled. This doesn't bother a lot of people but it's something that kinda annoys me.

Verdict

The Zenfone max offers a maximized battery at a minimized price. Priced at an affordable Rs 9,999 the phone justifies its mid range specs but what you get is a smartphone that is optimized in all ways possible to get the most of it's power packed 5,000mAh battery. Overall, a great phone if you travel often or hate charging your phone on a daily basis.

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