A technology columnist và a digital consultant, he quit Microsoft in 2011 khổng lồ go independent và write more, watch a lot of movies, and travel randomly.
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Like the entire ZenFone lineup, the ASUS ZenFone 3 is a decent điện thoại thông minh. However, even with the premium pitch, there’s no st& out factor running for it. It looks good on paper, but the real-world performance is limited – và would only meet the demands of less discerning users.
ASUS has a crowded ZenFone line-up, but the company buckets its offerings in well-rounded categories. Like the ZenFone Max, with a focus on marathon thả battery life.
However, since last year with the launch of ZenFone 3 portfolio, the Taiwanese company has upped the ante in thiết kế và positioning and instead of focusing on hardware specifications, aims khổng lồ bring premium experience khổng lồ its users. That also means that most of their lakiểm tra phones are not exactly run-of-the-mill value-for-money devices, but differentiate themselves in kiến thiết, camera, battery life, etc.
ASUS launched the first ZenFone Max in 2015, & while it delivered on its USPhường. of long battery life, it brought nothing else khổng lồ the table. The follow-up version had more memory và faster processor, but both devices were chunky plastic smartphones that didn’t impress many.
However, the ZenFone 3 Max (ZC553KL) aims khổng lồ change that with a well-rounded smartphone experience coupled with premium kiến thiết, while continuing the focus on battery life. Is ASUS third time lucky with the Max? Let’s find out.
Design
ASUS has finally brought an all-metal kiến thiết lớn the ZenFone series, later than when most people would’ve liked. Even entry-cấp độ budget smartphones in năm nhâm thìn boasted of an all-metal design. Better late than never, though. There’s nothing extraordinary about the design, but neither is it run-of-the-mill.
The homogenous design language of the ZenFone series is apparent, a premium one at that, bringing the flagship thiết kế to lớn the budget điện thoại thông minh. It is well-built và the aluminum chassis gives it a solid feel. It’s not very slippery, yet, since it is an all-metal phone, you’d have sầu to lớn get used khổng lồ the smoothness và take care of the phone slipping out of the h&.
Unlượt thích the original ZenFone Max, this one is not a brichồng và neither does it sport big bezels (it could’ve had even smaller bezels though, on top and bottom) & boasts of a pretty good 73 per cent screen-to-toàn thân ratio. It’s not very slyên ổn at 8.33milimet, và at 175 grams, it’s not the lightest smartphone out there. Yet it is one of the lighter phones to paông xã a big battery và a large display, & you wouldn’t feel the heft lugging it around. Also, the gradual curves and rounded corners make it a very comfortable và ergonomic phone to lớn hold, & it is easily pocketable unless you can’t stvà larger smartphones.
Display
The ZenFone 3 Max sports a 5.5-inch Full HD IPS display with a px mật độ trùng lặp từ khóa of 401 ppi. The display is sharp and the 400 nits brightness is very good, offering great sunlight visibility.
The contrast ratio is not exceptional though, and if you’re a fan of vibrant, & even over-saturated AMOLED displays, like I am, this one is just average. Viewing angles on the phone are, however, quite good. There is a little color shift when viewing it from extreme angles, but that’s the case with most smartphones.
Performance
Powered by a 1.4Ghz Qualcomilimet Snapdragon 430 processor paired with 3GB of RAM, the ZenFone 3 Max chugs along nicely while multitasking offering a smooth Android experience.
However, if you stress the hardware, the phone tends to stutter a bit. You’d be unable khổng lồ play graphic-intensive sầu games at maxed-out settings và experience frequent frame-drops. Interestingly, it never gets too hot to handle even when the performance is stretched khổng lồ its modest limits. However, you’d experience some lag in navigation and switching between apps in that case.
Clearly, the device is geared towards casual smartphone users – and that is where it excels. However, I think the company could squeeze some extra juice from its internals with better software optimization. Some other phones in the market tkết thúc khổng lồ offer smoother experience with similar hardware specifications.
Of course, the pièce de résistance of the ZenFone 3 Max is its long battery life. There has been a drop in the battery capađô thị of the Max this time around (khổng lồ go away from that chunky size), however, the 4100 mAh battery – with the hardware it packs và the software optimizations that ASUS has done – still manages to lớn offer phenomenal battery life. With basic to moderate usage, I was easily able lớn get two days battery life on the phone, which is quite good. You can stretch that, và coupled with power saving features, can even squeeze more than that!
Hardware
The ZenFone 3 Max comes with 32GB of internal memory, further expandable by up to lớn 128GB via a microSD thẻ slot. The dual SIM smartphones features a hybrid slot, so you can either use the second SIM or the microSD thẻ, but not both.
The phone supports reverse charging, & can be used to lớn charge other devices via OTG. There’s a bundled OTG adapter in the box. For a smartphone with a focus on battery life, it’s a shame that it doesn’t tư vấn fast charging. It ships with a regular charger, which takes painfully long khổng lồ charge the big battery completely.
The fingerprint scanner can be used khổng lồ answer incoming calls, launch the camera phầm mềm, or take a picture, but is not quichồng enough. While the recognition is just fine, the authentication is a tad slow or requires slight pressure of the finger. Also, the capacitive sầu keys on the front are not backlit. Of course, with impulse you get used khổng lồ tapping the finger or thumb at the right place but sometimes it gets a tad annoying, especially in the dark or when you’re not holding the phone as you vì chưng usually.
Camera
The ZenFone 3 Max sports a 16-megapixel rear camera with f/2.0 aperture, Phase Detection Autofocus & laser auto-focus, Electronic Image Stabilization for shooting videos, and dual-LED flash.
Outdoors in daylight, the camera performs very well & takes sharp pictures with good details. The color reproduction is mostly accurate. Although the pictures are generally noise-miễn phí, zooming them reveals pixilation which is more pronounced when I viewed them on a 40-inch display. For most people though, who just chia sẻ photos on social truyền thông, this shouldn’t be a problem.
Indoors or in low-light conditions, the night mode is a mixed bag. Some of the shots give sầu great results, better than tự động mode, however, several times, they’d end up very noisy with messed up metering.
The camera focusses nicely and quickly, although there is a definite shutter lag và often I’d over up with a blurry photo lớn when I was attempting khổng lồ take a shot of a moving subject.
On the front, there is an 8-megapixel camera with f/2.2 aperture that manages khổng lồ clichồng detailed selfies even in tricky lighting.
The camera app on the Zenfone 3 Max is the same as on the company’s flagship ZenFone 3 smartphone. While the options are great lớn tinker around, including a manual mode, the camera on the ZenFone 3 Max is just above sầu average.
The ASUS ZenFone 3 runs Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow out of the box with the new version of the company’s proprietary ZenUI 3.0 on top of it. Virtually, every nook và corner of the Android experience gets a fresh coat of paint.
Right up, that’s a good thing. The older versions of ZenUI were plagued with bloatware & gimmicky UI elements that marred the overall user experience. The lachạy thử version is a complete makeover, và offers a clean UI with subtle animations. There are several nifty utilities, but there’s still a plethora of ASUS-branded apps that I’ve sầu hardly seen anyone using really. Unfortunately, only a few of these can be uninstalled & while you can disable most others, they still occupy storage space on your phone.
ZenUI 3.0 features an app drawer, và there’s a built-in search functionality. You can swipe down the screen and search the Web or your apps và contacts, và view your frequently used apps. There’s an all-new Theme Store from which users can tải về free as well as paid themes, wallpapers, icons, and ringtones to customize their smartphone.
One of the neat features of the ZenUI is ZenMotion which allows configuring a variety of touch & motion gestures like double tap to wake or flipping the phone when you get an incoming Điện thoại tư vấn to lớn enable silent mode. It also allows you khổng lồ enable the one-handed mode that shrinks the display lớn one corner of the screen for easy, one-handed usage when you’re on the move.
Of course, the most useful ứng dụng from the entire ZenUI suite is the thiết bị di động Manager. With slick animations and intuitive sầu UI, the app offers quichồng ways khổng lồ không lấy phí RAM and storage space, & manage apps as well as ứng dụng permissions. It’s a sort of one-stop destination for managing your phone’s performance.
The lademo version of ZenUI on the ZenFone 3 is fluid and aims to lớn offer stochồng Android-like experience while adding additional functionalities. And, it succeeds in doing that. It’s one of the better UIs out there in terms of ease of use and feels polished. Better internals would’ve made it even smoother on the ZenFone 3 Max. But the excess of bloatware is disappointing, và shows that the company has learnt nothing from similar criticism in the past.
Specifications
Display | 5.5-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) IPS |
Processor | 1.4GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snaprồng 430 |
RAM | 3GB |
Internal Storage | 32GB; expandable up to 128GB with microSD card |
Rear Camera | 16MPhường | f/2.0 aperture | Dual-LED flash |
Front Camera | 8MP.. | f/2.2 aperture | 84-degree wide-angle lens |
Battery | 4100 mAh |
Dimensions | 151.4 x 76.24 x 8.3mm |
Weight | 175 grams |
The ZenFone 3 Max aims khổng lồ pimp up the Max range with a premium thiết kế. It succeeds there, but there’s little else.
Like the entire ZenFone lineup, the ASUS ZenFone 3 is a decent smartphone. However, even with the premium pitch, there’s no st& out factor running for it. It looks good on paper, but the real-world performance is limited – và would only meet the demands of less discerning users. Yes, there’s the fantastic battery life, & that’s the sole reason one should go for this device. Else, even looking within, there are better ZenFone siblings around.
ASUS isn’t officially selling the ZenFone 3 Max in the US, but in India, the device is priced at ₹17,999 ($265) – a tad higher than what everyone would’ve sầu liked. At this price, it feels a little out of place. What bởi you think of the ZenFone 3 Max, and vì chưng you plan lớn buy one? Let us know your views in the comments below!