The Asus Zenfone has been a popular choice in the vast Indian smartphone market. Asus launched its ZenFone Max last year with a humongous battery to relive the smartphone users of the constant low battery life woes. Although the ZenFone Max was an average budget-mid-ranger and did not excel in any aspect, its excellent battery life certainly impressed all users.
Asus, in the light of tough competition brought the new updated Asus ZenFone Max 2016 in order to make it a worthier choice other than just great battery backup. The new generation Asus ZenFone Max 2016 has thus come along with some good new upgrades to make the users happy, while also offering the same superb battery life that the first generation ZenFone Max came with to impress the smartphone buyers.
The new updated Asus ZenFone Max 2016 has been launched in the mobile market of India in two variants this time around. While the Asus Zenfone Max 2016 2GB RAM model has been tagged at Rs. 9,999, the other variant with 3 GB has been priced at Rs. 12,999.
Given that the new Asus Zenfone Max 2016 2GB RAM version has launched in India at the same price as that of the preceding model at its launch time, the new upgrades definitely make the new model more attractive and better packed than the old model, as the tough competitive market demands.
If you are considering buying the new Asus Zenfone Max 2016 version, then here’s a look at the smartphone to see what all it offers and if it is really worth your money.
Styling
The new Asus ZenFone Max 2016 looks and feels exactly the same as its predecessor with no changes in the styling department or difference in its screen size. Thus, it also has the same dimensions as well as weight. The updated smartphone retains the same detachable textured and matte finish back cover, neat and sleek design, and its sides feature gold trims. Some styling updates would have been nice, although the company now offers two new color choices, namely Orange and Blue apart from the already existing Black and White options.
Display
The updated Asus ZenFone Max 2016 also offers the same 5.5 inch IPS screen with 720 x 1280 pixels resolution. Asus could have offered a high resolution display if it really wished to stay ahead in the competition, as many of its rival models do offer Full HD screen even at lower prices.
Asus avoided a higher resolution display probably to maintain the same high battery life without making the battery larger. Although the device offers a nice, bright display, it surely lacks the sharpness and details of higher resolution displays. If battery backup is your primary concern, then this shouldn’t be a big issue though.
Technical Specifications
The new Zenfone Max 2016’s primary update comes in the hardware and software departments. The new 2016 version boasts of a more powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 SoC processor replacing the dated Snapdragon 410 chipset of the previous ZenFone Max model. The new processor surely comes with added benefits and better performance.
The Asus Zenfone Max 2016 2GB RAM version obviously offers the support of 2 GB of RAM that is same as before, but now there is also a 3 GB RAM variant. However, the 3 GB RAM version comes at an additional Rs. 3000, and we think it’s not worth the extra bucks as it offers everything same as the Asus Zenfone Max 2016 2GB RAM variant in all other aspects.
The other primary upgrade comes in the form of the increased onboard memory. The new 2016 model offers 32 GB of inbuilt memory as compared against the previous 16 GB storage of last year’s Zenfone Max.
Moreover, the ZenFone Max 2016 also runs on the latest Android Marshmallow OS right out of the box. As the previous Asus Zenfone Max will probably not receive updated to the Android Marshmallow, the new version’s preinstalled latest Marshmallow OS is definitely a superb update.
The latest Android Marshmallow will offer its added benefits to the users, but the company’s ZenUI skin on top is really not impressive to make the user experience impressive. The UI now seems to have become even more intrusive and irksome.
However, the device also gets a number of Android M’s chief features including the Now On Tap, Doze Mode, Do Not Disturb Mode and new app permissions among others.
Battery
The ZenFone Max 2016 remains equally impressive as its predecessor. The new version of the handset draws its juice from the same gargantuan 5000 mAh battery which is the device’s greatest strength. Nevertheless, its charger is inadequate of charging the device fast and it takes as much as 5 hours to fully charge the battery. Asus has slightly improved the power output, which is far less than adequate.
Camera
The new upgraded Asus ZenFone Max 2016 offers the same rear and front cameras as before. Thus, it retains the 13 MP primary shooter lodged at its rear that comes braced with laser autofocus system and dual tone LED flash to make sure that the users get a satisfying photo shooting experience and the device offers good quality, detailed pictures even in low light conditions.
The ZenFone Max 2016’s 5 MP front facing, secondary snapper offers nice selfies while also facilitating good video chat sessions. Both the primary and secondary cameras offer the facility of recording 1080p-30fps videos.
Asus has mildly improved the camera app as well, making it neater, while there also are abundant photography modes along with rapid focus of the camera to offer an overall great camera performance.
Conclusion
The new Asus Zenfone Max 2016 does come with good specs updates to make it more capable than before. However, it is not a perfect new smartphone model, as it comes with a lot of the things completely unchanged. The lack of a high resolution display and fingerprint sensor also goes against it.
However, the Asus Zenfone Max 2016 2GB RAM variant is priced at under the 10k price slab. And with its gigantic battery and its excellent backup, good cameras, latest OS, improved storage and more powerful processor, the device is certainly worth its asking price.