Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1 Review – The Best Mid range Phone for you

Asus Zenfone line-up is a well-known line up to all the people around in India. We review almost all the Zenfone line-up. Right from when they entered the Indian market. Asus needed to bump up the competition for there phones in all possible sectors. The Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1 is the Asus’s answer to the mid-range segment of the smartphones in India.

Specification of Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1

• 5.99 Inch 16:9 Aspect Ration IPS LCD screen with a resolution of 1080x 2160 pixels. 404 Pixel Per inch screen.
• Snapdragon 636 1.8 GHz Octa-core processor with Adreno 509 GPU
• 64GB Internal 4GB Ram phone or 32GB Internal 3GB ram phone
• Android 8.1 Out of the box
• 13 MP F/2.2 2.22 mm 1.12 µm Sensor + 5 MP F/2.4 1.12µm Sensor
• 8MP front camera F/2.2 26mm 1.0µm sensor
• 2160 30 FPS video recording / 1080p at 60/30 FPS Video Recording
• 5000 mAh Non-removable battery
• Dual VoLTE Support

Inbox content of Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1

• The phone itself
• 2 AMP charger
• MicroUSB to USB Charging cable
• Sound Enhancer hard carboard dock (Asus Max Box)
• Warranty and Instruction manual paperwork
• Sim Tray

 

Build of the Phone

I remember still the zenfone 3 which came out last year. It did out and had a beautiful design of all the zenfone line up. I have not used this years zenfone so can’t comment it. The Zenfone Max line only had a good battery and almost lacked to as good as to competition in the line-up pitched. This time adding the name Pro M1 to it they did a lot of refinement.

The back of the phone reminds me to inspire to Apple iPhone X. Not an utterly inspired design. The significant part of the phone has a metal construction which is perfect. The device feels much premium and more critical is head to head to its competitors in the segment. The top and bottom where the antennas are placed on the phone have a plastic enclosure which you might not feel. The placement of the fingerprint scanner at the back is indeed what some people love. The front has the 18:9 screen 90% of the front is covered to screen. There are top head bezel and chin at the bottom, which doesn’t look good but you would get used to it.

I love the camera enclosure it was minimal as possible and no camera bump at the rear due to the enormous battery placed on the phone. The design decisions look perfect type of engineering done by the Asus team. Choosing it for the design or not is a Personal Preference, but We will rate it 8/10 for sure. Excellent and experienced decision of the Asus has made a better maker in the Indian Consumer minds.

The phone still rocks on MicroUSB port. I won’t just complain to Asus for not using the TypeC port. It will be amazing if Asus has taken a step towards type C. There were standard Volume rocker and power button towards right and sim tray to the left.

Asus Max Box (Sound Enhancer box)

The unique and absorbing part of the Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1 is that it comes with the Asus Max box. You can see how it looks below in the image.

It claims to increases the sound profile or the max volume of the phone without any need to pair or connect external hardware. It’s hard and good quality cardboard which can also act as a stand for the phone on the desk. When you place the phone inside the Asus max box. The Volume increases and becomes much broader.

Let come to the point of questions.

• So Does it only support Asus phones?
  I would say No it can support for all devices which could fit in that enclosure.
• Does it require any charging?
  No, it doesn’t require any charging

If you have seen DIY videos of creating a speaker enhancer from cardboard Asus has made the same but with better quality and can be used for the long term.

Now comes the point to how much does it enhances. I did a sound test with the phone. Without the Sound enhancer box, the phone volume sounded 10 Decibel less compared to the Asus Max box. It’s not that it would replace the Bluetooth speakers, but for an InRoom condition, it works like magic.

 

Software

The Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1 announcement was made impressive when they said the phone is going to come with Stock Android. Indeed it comes with Android 8.1 out of the box. There are still few Asus touches like the start of the phone setup has Asus UI, or The keyboard touches has Asus iconic noises which can be changed. It was not the Android One like Vanilla Android but very close to it. I would love to see if Asus makes an Android one phone but maybe due to some reasons they didn’t do it now.

The software experience was smooth in all possible task and whatever app you love to shoot on the phone. The stock android took the usability to much more. I did like the experience to many UI. I have also used the Mi A1 and Google Pixel 2. Compare to this phone the software experience was little behind compared to what Google optimisations. Still, Asus tried well, and the new software experience did enhance it. It did had the all the Android 8.1 based features you would ask for.

So comparing to an overall Software experience, I will rate the phone 7.5/10. Asus need little more refinement in the phone. If it does that no doubt it will be the king of the sector. One thing I forgot to mention that this phone came with the Face Unlock.

Face Unlock/ Fingerprint Scanner

Yes, I added this section especially because it’s the few phones which comes with an option of both. For the face unlock it doesn’t have an infrared sensor to detect the face. All it uses its the front camera.

The front camera depended Face unlock wasn’t the best experience to me. In Good lighting condition it worked 09/10 times but as the light decreases the struggle to open it with just face unlock becomes tuff. It’s good that you can use face and fingerprint unlock enabled in the phone. So when face unlocks doesn’t work use the fingerprint the work is done correctly.

Gaming

I think the age group which buys this phone other than watching and experiencing content; they play many games. Right from the AAA titles like from the PUBG, Vain Glory to the least Candy Crush. I played all of them. I had to play the AAA titles of the games like the PUBG, Asphalt 8 and Vain Glory at the medium settings. There were little of frame drops in the High settings. Small mean 1 percent of the time. Sometimes the 1 percent is significant in the whole game experience. More to that I have streamed PUBG while playing, streamed to Facebook and the entire experience was super smooth.

If you are the ones who want some real benchmark scores on the phone in Antutu, it scored 93438 in Antutu which is highest of all the phone in this segment. Geekbench scored 1326 in single core and 4596 in the Multicore score.

Camera

The first point I will mention, For the Asus Zenfone Max line-up, the camera has improved substantially well. The Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1 is pro to the camera. For some reasons, I didn’t like the camera app. Don’t get me wrong; It has all the mode required, There is no shutter lag as well. The pictures were good as needed and you would expect. There is a refinement necessary for the camera app with full software.

Coming to the actual pictures, Yes at daylight they were right. Terrific shooter but under low light, it did a struggle.

Verdict

The Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1 costs 10,999 for 32GB + 3GB Ram variant and 12,999 for 64GB + 4GB Ram variant. Indeed the pricing is way perfect to what the phone offers. There are already more than 16,000 ratings on Flipkart with an average for 4.2 as per now. We give this product a Pick and recommended product comparing all the things.