Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1 6GB Variant Review- Worth your money but …

It’s been a while the Zenfone Max Pro M1 took over the market and it garnered positive reviews all over. Boasting about its performance and battery, the Max Pro 6 GB variant competes with Xiaomi Note 5 Pro. But now with Realme 2 Pro and all the hype around it, will the Max Pro still hold the market? Let’s start the review of Zenfone Max Pro M1 6GB variant.

Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1 6GB Review

Let’s start the review with the key specifications of the device and what we get with the box.

Specifications

• Model Number: ZB601KL-4A005IN / ZB601KL-4A015IN
• Model Name: Zenfone Max Pro M1
• Dimensions and Weight: 76 mm x 159 mm x 8.46 mm, 180 g
• Display: 15.21 cm (5.99 inch) 2160 x 1080 Pixels Full HD+ , 404 ppi
• Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 Octa Core 1.8 GHz
• GPU: Adreno 509
• RAM and Storage: RAM 6GB and 64GB storage, Expandable Storage 2 TB
• Camera: Primary Camera 16MP + 5MP and Secondary Camera 16MP
• Flash: Rear and Front LED Flash
• OS: Android Oreo 8.1, Pure Android
• Battery: 5000 mAh
• Other: Dual VoLTE, Fingerprint Sensor, Triple Slot: 2 SIM Card +1 MicroSD, FM Radio

Inside the box

• Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1 [Black] [Again…. duhh]
• Ultra-slim Transparent Plastic Case
• Max-Box
• USB Cable
• Power Adapter (Output: 5V 2A 10W)
• SIM Ejector Tool
• Warranty card and paperwork

Build and Looks

The Zenfone Max Pro sports a metal build and plastic build. Not an eye-candid design, yet decent. We got black variant of the device, which looks kind of blue-ish. It has a vertical dual-camera setup and fingerprint sensor to its rear, a headphone jack, noise-cancellation microphone, USB Port and speaker to the bottom,  to the top, volume rockers and SIM Tray to the left and Power button the right. Pretty simple and basic design.

To the front we have a 2.5D Glass, not a Gorilla GLass still it is good enough. It has the front camera, earpiece and hidden flash LED to the top with a medium chin to the bottom and doesn’t have a notch. The display is one of brightest I’ve ever used and doesn’t go much dim during nights even if it is in the least level in the slider.

It has a little plastic to the top and bottom of the phone and the metal is a smudge magnet. You may feel the device a little heavy (if you move from a light-weighted device) thanks to the battery but it doesn’t affect the experience using the device. Its form factor is good and doesn’t feel bulky when you hold it.

Hardware and Software

It comes with Snapdragon 636, which is a really good processor and Adreno 506 with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, out of which you can get up to 53 GB of usable storage. It supports Dual VoLTE and works at ease. It has a triple slot to its left which can host 2 SIM’s and a dedicated Memory Card slot which expandable up to 1 TB ( Cool! ). Comparing with its 3GB and 4GB variants (13MP+5MP | 8MP), this 6GB variant sports better cameras (16+5MP | 16MP) and the storage of course. 

It comes with Android 8.1.1 and Asus recently announced that Android Pie update will be rolled out soon. It is made up of almost pure Android and it has only a few apps from Asus preloaded which makes it ZenUI. Out of all apps that can be uninstalled you will be left with a recharge app Go2Pay, which is on almost all Asus phones I’ve reviewed. Nothing to worry about.

The Android experience in Zenfone Max Pro M1 is ultra-lightweight and fast. My exaggeration of the light-weightedness is because of its absence of essential components in the mobile. The default Camera App is a letdown and it has a Gallery App which kind of plays hide and seek with you. You can only use it to view a photo you just clicked and you can never see it again. It also lacks wallpapers, comes with a single gradient blue wallpaper. The Stock Android in this device isn’t for everybody but still, you will love it on daily usage.

Camera

Quoting the camera specs of the device again: the Primary Camera comes with 16MP, f/2.0, PDAF + 5MP for depth sensing i.e Bokeh, f2.4 and the secondary Front Camera with 16MP, f/2.0, 5P lens.

Specifications aside, Camera App that comes on this device isn’t that great. Maybe due to the cost cutting or to maintain Pure Android experience I don’t know why, but Asus could’ve given a better Camera App. Whatsoever the Camera UI isn’t great. It lags during clicking photos sometimes the and it takes time during focusing.

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The dual rear camera is decent and maintains naturality. It doesn’t enhance your faces much and the portrait mode is good as well. Photos in low-light are below average. It can shoot videos up to 4K resolution. Video recording is good but lacks stabilization. Asus says there is an EIS update on the way to these devices, so this will be a little relief.

The front camera is a lot improved with updates the Reddish tint I complained about in the 3GB variant is gone. The photos taken with Portrait mode on the front camera are beautiful.

Overall, the device sports good Camera specs and even beats out the Redmi Note 5 Pro in many instances, but its Camera App is a letdown. 

Performance

Snapdragon 636 boasts long battery life and fast LTE speeds according to its website and it ain’t just limited on paper. One will surely observe improved signal reception and hence the 4G speeds with the device. 636 is the soul of the device and it is a true performer. Coupled with Adreno 509 GPU. there haven’t been any issues in rendering graphics in the phone. PUBG by default starts in Medium graphics mode and you can play seamlessly.

Thanks to the 6 gigs of RAM, app switching is smooth and almost no apps reloaded during my usage. There are no heating issues during heavy usage and gaming. The fingerprint sensor is slow and takes time to unlock the device. Call reception is good. Speaker output is loud, audio output through the headphones is great. In fact, there is nothing you can point out in this section of the Zenfone Max Pro M1 and it will be a good device for your daily usage.

Battery

Comes with a large 5000 mAh capacity, it takes around 2 hours 45 minutes to completely charge and with medium usage, it will easily last for the end of the second day. I got a screen on time of more than 9 hours in a medium to low usage, I believe it will give you 6 hours of  Screen-On-Time for sure.

Value for money

Though there are tons of offers on Flipkart due to Big Billion Day sale, considering the base price of the device priced at Rs.14,999/- it competes with Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro. If you can expand your budget for a thousand more, you can get Realme 2 Pro priced at Rs. 15,990/-, which offer you a better Processor and Camera. 

Zenfone Max Pro offers a decent to value for money and will hopefully reduce the pricing according to competition. It is worth all your money!

Finally,

As I told in my older review, Asus started to hit the market on the bullseye with its pricing and value for money offerings. Yet, I believe the phone can be given better finishing touches such as improved software. MiA1 or MiA2 offer a better Stock Android experience than the Max Pro M1 thanks to their addition of essential apps. Also, the release of multiple updates to fix fingerprint issues, adding EIS kind of made me feel like Asus just rushed to release the Max Pro as early as possible. 
Apart from this, the 6GB variant of Zenfone Max Pro M1 is a good pick with that long-lasting battery and powerful processor. If Stock Android isn’t your pick, you might consider Realme 2 Pro as an alternative.