Back in August 2015, Asus launched the Zenfone Max with a huge battery. The model was well received in the market. The Zenfone Max had a good battery life along with decent camera and a sturdy build. 7 months later, Asus has announced the second generation Zenfone Max. The New Zenfone Max also has 5000 mAh battery likes its predecessor. But it has Snapdragon 615 octa core processor which is clocked at 1.5 Ghz. The New Zenfone Max comes in 2 variants: 2GB and 3GB variant. The internal memory has been doubled to 32 GB. Also the new Qualcomm MSM8939 chipset gives the device Adreno 405 processor for its graphics capability. All these upgrades are internal and externally, there is no visual change between last year and this new model of Zenfone Max.

Asus India always comes up with innovative ideas to make the product launch interesting. Asus has sent us the Zenfone Max a few weeks back in a time locked box. The mobile was launched today and we got the code to open the box today. A huge thanks and a big thumbs up to Asus India for coming up with this Idea. They have charged the device to 100% 2 weeks before and today when I opened the box, the Zenfone Max had 35% of battery left. Ofcourse, this is not a comprehensive measure of the mobile’s battery capability. This just proves that the Zenfone Max 2016 has a fantastic battery standby.

What's in the box? Have to wait till 23rd for the answer. @asusindia #liveunplugged https://t.co/mopssBxS1A pic.twitter.com/oDjGiEkvlH

— Giridhar (@cgiridhar) May 17, 2016

The Zenfone Max 2016 2GB variant is priced at Rs 9999 and the 3GB variant is priced at Rs 12999  and will be available on Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal and other retail outlets starting immediately. The earlier variant of the Zenfone Max has got a price cut and is now priced at Rs 8999.

First Impressions

• The New Asus Zenfone Max is an improved version of its predecessor with refreshed set of hardware internals
• The design has not received any upgrade and I would have loved to see back-lit menu keys as a bare-minimum change
• I love the orange color variant.
• The device is still heavy at 202 grams. I know its because of the battery, but the Honor Holly 2 plus had a huge battery and light weight.
• I loved the laser focus on the Zenfone max and glad to see it has been retained. But would have loved, if the front camera had got an upgrade. After all, Sonakshi is the brand ambassador for the Asus.
• The pricing of Rs 9999 for the 2 GB variant is perfect. But the 3 GB variant would cost Rs 3000 more!
• This is a battery beast. My review unit was charged to 100% 2 weeks ago and it still has 35% of charge left.
• The Android Marshmallow. Finally, its good to see a mobile with Android 6 out of the box.
• Asus promises 3 days of power on regular usage. I will have to test it out to the MAX.
• Availability get a huge brownie point for Asus Zenfone Max. It will be available in both online and offline points of sale and will be available for purchase as per stock availability.
• Overall, this is a welcome launch. Asus has not tried anything crazy. They have chosen their popular model in India and made it better.
• In my opinion, the Zenfone Max is a great device for anyone looking for a powerful smartphone with good battery life. I don’t see any cons as of now, just a few aspired upgrades as listed above.

I will be testing the mobile and will soon publish a detailed review. If you have any questions, please feel free to ping me on @cgiridhar or @gadgetdetail and I will be more than happy to clarify it for you.

Also read my review of the Asus Zenfone Max 2015.

Asus Zenfone Max (2016)

Brand: ASUS
Category: Mobiles
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• CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 615
• RAM: 2GB | 3GB
• Storage: 32GB
• Display: 5.5" 720p
• Camera: 13mp rear | 5mp front
• OS: Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow | Zen UI 3

• Overview
• Specs
• Reviews

0

• Design 1 / 10
• Performance 1 / 10
• Display 1 / 10
• Battery 1 / 10
• Call Quality 1 / 10

Specs

General

Price	Rs 9999 / Rs 12999
Announced	23 May, 2016
Released	23 May, 2016
Status	Available

Display

Display Type <strong>Display Technology => </strong> A number of display technologies and types used in mobile phones => TFT (Thin Film Transistor), IPS (In-Place Switching), OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode), AMOLED (Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode), Super AMOLED (an even advanced version of AMOLED), Resistive Touchscreen (Resistive touchscreens contain two layer of conductive material with a very small gap between them which acts as a resistance), Capacitive Touchsceen (Capacitive touchscreen technology consists of a layer of glass coated with a transparent conductor)	IPS
Size	5.5"
Resolution	720 x 1280 pixels
Pixel Density <strong>Pixel Density (PPI)</strong> is refers to the concentration of pixels on a particular display, measured in pixels per inch (ppi). Pixel density is calculated by dividing the diagonal pixel resolution of a display by its diagonal size, higher pixel density better display quality.	206 ppi
Display Protection <strong>Display Protection => </strong> Gorilla Glass is a special alkali-aluminosilicate glass shield with exceptional damage resistance that helps protect mobile displays from scratches, drops, and bumps of everyday use, It is always better to go for a smartphone with Gorilla Glass for that added protection and peace of mind.	Corning Gorilla Glass 4
Secondary Display	No

Hardware

Chipset <strong>Chipset</strong> is a group of integrated circuits designed to perform one or a more dedicated functions, often with real time computing constraints, Popular smartphones are equipped with more advanced embedded chipsets that can do many different tasks depending on their programming.	Qualcomm MSM8939 Snapdragon 615
CPU <strong>CPU</strong> (Central Processing Unit) mostly known as processors, CPU processes instructions in order to carry out certain functions that make your device operate properly. Processors are often described as the brain of computers, smartphones and tablets, Smartphones and tablets rely on processors to carry out their every task, Processors are an incredibly important factor in selecting any type of computing device, including your smartphone.	Octa-core 1.5 GHz Arm A53
GPU <strong>GPU</strong> (Graphics Processing Unit) is a single-chip processor designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display, This includes things such as lighting effects, object transformations, and 3D motion.	Adreno 405
RAM (Memory) <strong>RAM</strong> (Random Access Memory) is a type of computer memory that can be accessed randomly, any byte of memory can be accessed without touching the preceding bytes that allows information to be stored and accessed quickly from random locations. RAM is the most common type of memory found in computer systems, smartphones, tablets and other electronic devices.	2GB and 3GB RAM variants
Internal Storage <strong>Internal Storage</strong> is a data storage space (flash memory) mostly used in smartphones, tablets and other electronic devices where operating system, apps, music, photos, videos, files and other user data Is stored.	32 GB
Card Slot <strong>Memory Card Slot</strong> is a special slot for inserting a memory card. Memory cards allow you to expand the phone's built-in memory, A memory card (sometimes called a flash memory card or a storage card) is a small storage medium used to store data such as text, pictures, audio, and video, for use on small, portable or remote computing devices such as mobile phones, mp3 players, digital cameras.	microSD, up to 128 GB
Sensors <strong>Sensors</strong> are electronic components that detects and responds to some type of input from the physical environment. The specific input could be light, heat, motion, moisture, pressure and location, The output is generally a signal that is converted to use in computing systems, a location sensor, such as a GPS receiver is able to detect current location of your electronic device.	Accelerometer, proximity, compass

Battery

Battery Type <strong>Battery Type => </strong> Cell phones run on various kinds of batteries depending on the manufacturer, phone size or shape and features. There are basically four types of cell phone batteries => Lithium Polymer, Lithium Ion, Nickel Metal Hydride and Nickel Cadmium.	Li-Poly (Lithium Polymer)
Capacity <strong>Battery Capacity</strong> is a measure (typically in Amp-hr) of the charge stored by the battery, and is determined by the mass of active material contained in the battery. The battery capacity represents the maximum amount of energy that can be extracted from the battery under certain conditions.	5000mAh
Standby <strong>Standby Time</strong> is the total amount of time that you can leave your is fully charged, turned on and ready to send and receive calls or data transmissions before completely discharging the battery.	TBD
Talk Time <strong>Talk Time</strong> is the longest time that a single battery charge will last when you are constantly talking on the phone under perfect conditions, Ambient temperature and highly dependent on the cellular network environment such as the distance to the closest cell network tower.	TBD
Fast Charging	No
Wireless Charging <strong>Wireless Charging</strong> (Inductive Charging) uses an electromagnetic field to transfer energy between two objects. This is usually done with a charging station. Energy is sent through an inductive coupling to an electrical device, which can then use that energy to charge batteries or run the device.	No

Camera

Primary <strong>Camera</strong> is able to capture photographs and usually videos, The most important characteristics of a camera are the resolution (measured in megapixels), lens focus type (fixed or automatic), higher megapixel cameras are known to capture higher quality photos, but not always a good measurement of the photos quality.	13 MP
Camera Features	Geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection, panorama, HDR
Secondary	5 MP
Image	4128 x 3096 pixels
Video	1080p@30fps
Flash <strong>Flash Light => </strong> There is commonly two types of flash lights are used in camera mobile phones, LED Flash (LED flash offers lower power consumption with drive circuitry that takes up very little room, LEDs can be strobed faster than any other light source), Xenon Flash (xenon flash produces an extremely intense full-spectrum white light for a very short duration)	Dual-LED (dual tone) flash

Design

Type <strong>Design Type</strong> called form factor refers to a mobile phone's size, shape, and style as well as the layout and position of major components of phone. There are three major form factors seen in mobile phones => bar phones, folding phones and sliding phones.	Bar
Dimensions	156.00 x 77.50 x 10.55
Weight	202 grams
Protection	Corning Gorilla Glass 4

Network

SIM <strong>SIM</strong> (Subscriber Identity Module) is a small card that contains mobile network subscriber's account information. This allows the phone using the card to attach to a mobile network. The SIM card is most commonly associated with GSM and UMTS mobile networks. Moving a SIM card from one phone to another allows a subscriber to switch mobile phones without having to contact their mobile network carrier. SIM cards can also be used by a phone to store limited amounts of data, such as phone numbers and text messages.	Micro SIM
VoLTE Support for VoLTE
Dual SIM	Yes
2G Network	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network	HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 TD-SCDMA 1900 / 2100 - India
4G Network	LTE band 1(2100), 3(1800), 38(2600), 39(1900), 40(2300), 41(2500) - India

Software

Operating System <strong>OS => </strong> Every computer system run on a base software called Operating System (OS). Operating System controls all basic operations of the computer (such as smartphone, PDAs, tablet computers and other handheld devices). The Operating System allows the user to install and run third party applications (apps), apps are used to add new functionality to the device.	Android 6.0.1
User Interface <strong>UI</strong> or user interface of a device is the look and feel of the on-screen menu system. How it works, its color scheme, how it responds to button presses, all of these things are part of the user interface.	Asus ZenUI

Connectivity

Bluetooth <strong>Bluetooth</strong> is a wireless communications technology for exchanging data between mobile phones, headsets, computers and other network devices over short distances without wires, Bluetooth technology was primarily designed to support simple wireless networking of personal consumer devices.	v4.0
Infrared <strong>Infrared</strong> connectivity is an old wireless technology used to connect two electronic devices. It uses a beam of infrared light to transmit information and so requires direct line of sight and operates only at close range.
Wi-fi <strong>Wi-Fi</strong> is a popular wireless networking technology using radio waves to provide high-speed network connections that allows devices to communicate without cords or cables, Wi-Fi is increasingly becoming the preferred mode of internet connectivity all over the world.	Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
USB	microUSB v2.0
GPS <strong>GPS</strong> The Global Positioning System is a satellite-based radio navigation system, GPS permits users to determine their position, velocity and the time 24 hours a day, in all weather, anywhere in the world, In order to locate your position, your device or GPS receiver must have a clear view of the sky.	Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS
NFC <strong>NFC</strong> (Near field communication) is a set of standards for smartphones and similar devices to establish peer-to-peer radio communications with each other by touching them together or bringing them into proximity, usually no more than a few inches.

Benchmarks

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