After a lot of teasers, ASUS has launched the refreshed variant of the ZenFone Max smartphone, which still retains the most important USP – the 5000 mAh battery, while bringing about changes to the internal specifications including the processor and storage.
The new ZenFone Max has the same 5.5-inch IPS LCD display with the 720p resolution, keeping the pixel density at 267 PPI. The smartphone is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor, Adreno 405 GPU and two variants differing with the RAM included – 2GB and 3GB. The internal storage is pumped up to 32GB and there is a dedicated MicroSD card slot for the storage expansion.
This is a Dual SIM phone and it runs the ZenUI over Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow OS, which is another upgrade from the previous variant. The device does have a plethora of pre-installed apps including Clean Master, Amazon Kindle, Puffin, ASUS Mobile Manager, AudioWizard, Auto-start Manager, Do it Later, PhotoCollage, Power Saver, Share Link, Themes, WebStorage, ZenCircle, ZenTalk, and Mini Movie along with the Google apps.
The camera combination in the device is a 13-megapixel rear and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. The rear camera can record 1080p videos and it is assisted by a Dual LED flash and the Laser autofocus system.
Among the highlights of the device is still the large 5000 mAh battery that is said to give over a day’s usage easily even for heavy users and three days for normal users, with about 38 days of standby time. The only thing that is missing here is the fast charging capability, so it takes quite a while to charge the battery fully. Also, the battery is non-removable so you cannot have a replaceable spare battery handy. But at the same time, you can use the Max as a power bank to charge any other phone around.
The device with 2GB RAM is priced at Rs. 9999, the same price at which the earlier version was launched and it will be exclusive to Flipkart. The one with 3GB of RAM is priced at Rs. 12999. There will be four color options to choose from. The 3GB variant will be available on Flipkart, Amazon India, as well as on Snapdeal, and even at the offline stores.
