Asus India over the years saw a moderate graph of success with its ZenFone series. Although the ZenFone series came around with a bunch of models offering different specification and price tags but did not do well in the market due to late updates. But this is not the case with the all new Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1 (6GB RAM).
Asus launched ZenFone Max Pro M1 in India this April with a long-term partnership with Flipkart where Asus will be launching multiple smartphones exclusively to be sold via Flipkart. The ZenFone Max Pro M1 was the first smartphone under the partnership which truly aimed to be a budget smartphone with a pretty good specification. The company launched this device to take on Xiaomi Redmi Note 5, Note 5 Pro and all the smartphone in the range of Rs 15,000.
The ZenFone Max Pro M1 was launched in three variants and priced at:
The 3GB/32GB is priced at Rs. 10,999, 4GB/64GB comes with a price tag of Rs. 12,999 and a top variant with 6GB/64GB variant are available at Rs. 14,999.
The Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1 comes with massive 5000mAh battery, Snapdragon 636 which delivers smooth performance and a sturdy design making it a good package overall. The ZenFone Max ProM1 comes around as a good value for money smartphone, but does it really a well affordable smartphone which can beat other smartphones in this price bracket? We tested and did an extensive usage of the ZenFone Max Pro M1 6GB RAM variant over a period of time and here are my complete take on the smartphone itself.
Specification of Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1
The on-paper specification of Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1 is pretty much amazing. The 6GB RAM variant of the smartphone has the same looks and design. Here are the specification of ZenFone Max Pro M1
Display: 6-inch FHD+ Full View IPS display with 2.5D curved glass
Processor: CPU:Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 636 Mobile Platform with 14nm, 64-bit Octa-core Processor, GPU:Qualcomm Adreno 509
Memory: 6GB
Main Rear Camera: 16MP+5MP, Up to F2.0 aperture, Up to 25mm equivalent focal length in 35mm film camera, Phase-detection autofocus, LED flash.
Front Camera: 16MP, 85-degree field view, Soft LED flash.
OS: Android 8.1 Oreo
Sensor: a Rear fingerprint sensor, Damp finger recognition, Accelerator, Gyroscope, E-Compass, Proximity sensor, Ambient light sensor.
Battery: 5,000 mAh
Price: Rs 14,999
In the Box
The Box includes:
Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1 6GB
Micro-USB cable
Max-Box Amplifier
USB Power Adapter
SIM ejector tool
Clear soft case
User manual
Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1 6GB Design and Build
The 6GB RAM variant of the smartphone looks very much identical to the 3GB and 4GB variant of the smartphone. The metal back with plastic goes on well, the grey variant of the device looks and feels pretty good. The overall finish of the smartphone gives it a sturdy look but the back is susceptible to fingerprints. Considering its huge 5,000mAh battery the phone does not feel heavy or bulky. It fits well in hands. Although using the smartphone with a single hand makes it difficult, you cannot reach out to the other end of the display.
There is only a SIM tray on the left, with two Nano-SIMs and microSD card. The volume rockers and the power catch are on the right. Micro-USB port, a 3.5mm headphone jack and a loudspeaker are been placed at the bottom of the display. All the buttons are been placed well and come on handy. The dual rear camera setup on the smartphone fits well. Asus has done a good job in making the camera accommodate within the body, there is no huge bulge on the ZenFone Max Pro M1 like the once on the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro. The fingerprint sensor is on the rear which is quick and accurate.
Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1 6GB Display and Specification
The ZenFone Max Pro M1 features a 6-inch FHD+ IPS LCD display with an aspect ratio of 18:9, which makes the experience better. The display has a substantial amount of chin but the experience delivered by the smartphone is pretty amazing. Colours are vibrant with great viewing angles. The display performs well in direct sunlight. You can also adjust the screen colour with multiple other settings like the Nightlight, Smart screen on, Blink light. The display does not come with any type of screen protection which is a major downside. You could probably see a few scratches over the time of usage.
Coming to the specification of the smartphone, the device is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 SoC with Adreno 506 GPU and 6GB of RAM with 64GB of internal storage option. If you need some more storage, you can further expand it up to 2TB via microSD card. Their smartphone has a huge 5,000mAh battery and runs Android 8.1 Oreo. Connectivity option includes Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0. GLONASS, GPS, Dual 4G VoLTE, a Micro-USB port and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1 6GB Performance
The smartphone on a day-to-day usage performance extraordinary. It handles everything without any major setback. We even played games like Pubg, Asphalt 9 and Tekken, the phone ran everything without any lags or heat up issues. The 6GB of RAM on the smartphone does its job well. During our testing, without any games even installed on a full factory reset device, the ZenFone Max Pro M1 scored 115611 inAnTuTu. In Geekbench 4, the device scored 1333 on single-core and 4916 on multi-core tests. We also ran the 3D Mark benchmark on the device to test the overall graphical capabilities and the ZenFone Max Pro M1 was able to achieve a very decent score of 928 in 3DMark’s Sling Shot Extreme OpenGL ES3.1 test and secured 761 in Sling Shot Extreme Vulkan.
The device performed and tackled everything from all the day-to-day task right from multi-tasking, browsing, social media and switching between apps has never been a problem on ZenFone Max Pro M1. We also tried playing many intensive games and it was pretty much impressive to see the handset running without a hitch and phone also did not heat up. The smartphone performance extra-ordinary in consideration to daily usage and there is no lag whatsoever. Out of the total 6GB of RAM, 5.7GB is available for use and with all the default apps running about 4.6GB of RAM was free. The storage on the smartphone available is also pretty decent with 43.9GB available for all your data.
The apps loaded fast and showed no lags during switching between multiple application.
If you have been using Asus for a long time, you should be pretty aware of Asus heavily loaded bloat wear. But this time around Asus has decided to replace it with a very clean nearly stock build Android 8.1. The software is smooth and very responsive. There are very few pre-loaded application like Instagram, Facebook, Messenger, Go2Pay which cannot be removed. The smartphone also supports face recognition, although it works quite slow and very much dependable. The fingerprint sensor on the device might take a while to unlock and need to give some try.
Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1 6GB camera
Along with an increase in RAM, the new variant of the ZenFone Max Pro M1 comes with a new set of the camera. While the predecessor comes with 13MP rear cameras along with a 5MP sensor for depth of field sensors, while the front comes with an 8MP sensor. The new 6GB variant of the smartphone comes with a 16MP main sensor with a 5MP secondary rear camera. The front of the smartphone has a 16MP front camera which also comes with Face unlock feature. Both the front and rear cameras come with single-LED flashes which gives out beautiful looking selfie. The overall image quality of the pictures is pretty decent.
The front camera on the 6GB RAM variant of the ZenFone Max Pro M1 captures more details and has accurate colours. The low-light performance on the ZenFone Max Pro M1 is impressive for a budget smartphone. The camera application looks complicated and has too many settings. The portrait mode is supported on both the front and the rear camera but the results are not that impressive. The processing time of the camera is terribly slow and takes a lot of time to process every image which is been clicked.
Audio and Connectivity on Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1
The audio quality on the smartphone is decent with a good amount of call quality and the speakers at the bottom of the smartphone are pretty loud with a good sound output. The Max-box amplifier in the box makes the phone sound amplify to some extent. The device also comes with a 3.5mm headphone jack.
The SIM tray on the Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1 6GB variant comes with two dedicated SIM slots and a microSD card slot for storing more data. A micro USB port for charging and data syncing. The handset also features Bluetooth 5.0, Dual VoLTE support
The battery on Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1 6GB
With the massive 5,000mAh battery, the performance remains unbeatable. During our usage, the device lasted for about two days with normal usage. The battery on the smartphone delivers very good performance and does not really need the smartphone to be charged every time. The device comes with 5V/2A charging brick, which takes a lot of time to charge. The biggest drawback of the smartphone with such a huge battery capacity is that it does not support fast charging. The device takes over 2 hours and more to get about 100 per cent of charge. But you need not keep on charging the device often which is something good.
Pros
Good Display
Great Performance for the Price
Good Connectivity Options
Great Stock Android Experience
5,000mAh Battery
Cons
Camera Performance
Feels a bit Heavy
No Glass Protection
Final verdict
The 6GB variant of Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1 does perform well. The overall package offered by the device is pretty good but does lag on some parts of the performance. For the price of Rs. 14,999 the smartphone is capable of extreme performance. Battery, Performance and Software are great and fluid. The build quality of the device is good and feels sturdy in hands. The Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1 stands apart for pretty good reasons. The device is worth considering if you are ok with a slightly low performing camera. Asus should work on improving the image quality, interface and working of the camera via software updates. If you want a handset with a massive battery life and decent performance Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1 is the smartphone which you should really consider.
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