Last edited by mail2ronit on 2016/11/28 18:17
The Zenfone 3 Max is one of the most debated ASUS devices from their 3rd Generation Zenfone line-up & many questions are flying around it. But, the main question that I've been hearing the most was,
" Actually Where Does This Device Stand When It Is Dragged In The Queue Of Daily Drivers ? "
In this article, let's inspect every inch of the device & find out the answers that were constantly putting us in a lot of confusion.
Earlier this year, ASUS CEO, Sir Jerry Shen said that they want to ship Zenfone 3 Max in the most numbers within their total shipment of Zenfone 3 Series. And finally when it was unveiled, we got two models. One was the 5.2 inch model that is running on a Mediatek 6737 & the other one is the 5.5 inch model that is running on a Snapdragon 430. But, these are not the only differences in the model. The devices are actually comepletely different from the inside. If you want to find the full differences in the specifications, check the article liked below. You'll find the spcs comparison at the end of that article.
I have the ZC553KL that is the 5.5 inch variant that is priced at INR 17999 & I pushed it through various tests to examine it from every aspect. So, let's get through all the test results one by one. I've divided this review into some sections. These Sections are Build Quality & Durability, Screen & Visibility, Sound, Performance & Gaming, RAM & Storage, OS-UI-Sensors-Connectivity, Camera & Battery Life & Heating. So, without wasting more time, let's get started.
Build Quality & Durability
The Zenfone 3 Max has an Aluminum Alloy constructed body with a 2.5D curved glass on the front. It feels solid in the hand & the curved edges makes a great grip in the hand. It has 175 grams body weight & it's actually light even with a big capacity battery. The device is not prone to drops as it is not that much slippery in hands. So, I don't have any complains about the build quality of the device. It's actually very good.
There is no confirmation on the brand of the 2.5D glass so, I cannot ensure that it is from Corning or not. But, yeah it seemed resistant to scratches just like Gorilla Glass. I kept it with my keys in the same pocket & there were no scratches. So, it is tuff & durable and no complains on it's durability.
Screen & Visibility
The ZC553KL spots a 5.5 inch 1920x1080 FHD Display with the Pixel Density of 401ppi. The screen looks decent, I cannot notice any kind of Pixelations on the screen. So, it's a an overall good screen with decent visual quality.
The screen brightness is 450 nits. It has a glossy finsh on the glass but, still it is farely visible in outdoors. So, it gets the job done in this segment as well.
Media viewing experience is good as well. No problem with 1080P visuals. Playing the media on your Phone or in Youtube is a great visual experience. However, if you wish to Play 2K or 4K videos, you need to use the Software(SW) decoder on MX Player to get a better experience.
Sound
The Zenfone 3 Max has a 5 magnet Mono speaker located at the bottom of the device. Just like the previous generations, this speaker has an average loudness but, when it comes to details, this speaker is one the best in it's segment. I kindia liked the fact that, ASUS SonicMaster team is continuously working to make the Sound quality better & for music enthusiests like me, it's a treat to the ears.
Output through earphones is awesome ( Tested with ZenEar ). That sound optimization for earphones is one of the best in the business. The highs, mids & lows are well optimized & gives that musical pleasure to the ears.
Ringing volume through the speakers are decent but, in outdoors it's a bit hard to hear. But, luckily ASUS is aware of this fact & they have added an Outdoor Mode to their Sound Settings.
The work process of this mode is Boosting the volume up & sacrificing the audio quality quite a bit. That's not ideal but in outdoors, sometimes that is all we need.
In future I'll like to see louder sound output without sacrificing the audio quality. So, hope to see that soon ASUS !
Performance & Gaming
The Zenfone 3 Max is powered by a Snapdragon 430 True-octacore processor that has 8 Cortex A53 Cores running at 1.4GHz. In the GPU segment, it spots an 450MHz Adreno 505 GPU.
In the Zenfone 3 Max you'll get Benchmarking Scores Like This,
In real life usage, I haven't noticed any lags till now. Usage is smooth & Multitasking is decent. Minimizing apps keeps them completely active most of the time but, in long delays of opening time, you may end up with reloading of the apps. In benchmarking it is actually scoring higher than most the other phones running at SD 430 & the results look quite simmilar (actually a bit higher) to the SD 615 Zenfone Max that came out early this year.
If you need more detailed Benchmarking scores, check out the the Dedicated benchmarking article by my fellow Dr.Zen, Mounik.
In terms of gaming, it is a performer of the Medium segment. Have a look at the Gaming Benchmarks,
In real life usage, mid end games like Overkill 3 ( 435 mb after installation ) run smoothly at high graphics. High end games like NOVA 3 ( 1.6 gb after installation ) & Marvel: Future Fight ( 1.2 gb after installation ) show minor frame drops at high graphics settings but, it's still not a big deal with these games. But, the things are a bit different in the case of Asphalt Extreme ( 1.3 gb after installation ). At first there are minor frame drops at high graphics, just like the other two but, as you play for a long time, you can notice the frame drops more clearly & the delays get some miliseconds extension.
According to me, if you want to play high end games, it's better to switch to Medium Graphics. That is still a decent gaming experience but, you can skip those frame drops. But, if you are into hardcore gaming & play high end games at high graphics all day long, this is not your device.
RAM & Storage
In the RAM Segment it has a 800MHz 3GB LPDDR3 RAM. The RAM management on this device has been really good till now. I got around 50% free RAM most of the time. And Multitasking experience is really good due to the decent RAM management. Thumbs up to ASUS for that.
In the Storage segement it has 32GB Internal storage that can be extended to an extra 128GB via. the MicroSD Slot (Uses sim 2 Slot). The storage is unexpectedly fast & you get speeds like this,
While the Internal/External-Read/Write (I/O) speeds are surprisingly faster, the SQLite speeds are average. But, I actually expected that as, it is a budget device. No complains here.
OS-UI-Sensors-Connectivity
The Zenfone 3 Max is Running on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow
The OS is fused with the ZenUI 3.0 . I am a Zenfone user from Generation 1 & yes I love the ZenUI & I've been using it as my daily setup since almost two years now. Anyway, in ZenUI 3.0 there are great additions & enhancements. I mostly liked the Lock Screen Live Wallpaper & New Themes that are developed for ZenUI 3.0 the most.
However the best app is probably the Mobile Manager
It is the all-in-one solution from where you can manage your device completely.
Other features like One Hand Mode is quite useful too for people with Small fingers.
BTW, if you have heard that ZenUI makes your device slow, I can confirm that it is not true. My almost an year old Zenfone Zoom still scores almost the same on Benchmarks & in real life it hasn't slow down as well. So, ZenUI actually doesn't slow down the phone, no need to worry about that.
Coming to the Sensors, it actually hasn't skipped any Important sensor & actually has a total of 39 Sensors available. Most of time big brands like to skip a lot of sensors on their budget phones but, ASUS did a great job here. It also has Gyroscope that adds the Virtual Reality support in the device.
Check the full list of sensors below,
The Fingerprint Sensor on the back is Fast & Accurate. It recognizes the Fingerprint 90% times & it unlocks quite immidiately. It's an always on Fingerprint Scanner so you don't need to press the unlock button first. It also support some quick shortcuts like Double-tap to launch Camera, Single tap to take a photo etc.
Finally for the Connectivity, the Zenfone 3 Max has a Duel-sim (Hybrid) support with 2G/3G/4G on both the sims. It also has Bluetooth 4.1, 802.11 b/g/n WLAN. NFC is not provided in the device.
Camera
The Zenfone 3 Max spots a 16mp Rear Camera with f-2.0 aperture & 8mp Front Camera with f-2.2 aperture. I've already made a dedicated Camera review so, you can check that out by clicking on the link below.
Zenfone 3 Max ZC553KL - Camera Review [ How Does It Fair ? ]
It can Record 1080P videos at 30fps. The video quality is good & stabilization via. EIS is kinda bit ok but, as you can guess, it's not as good as like a real OIS but in most cases it can handle the stabilization decently.
Battery Life & Heating
The Zenfone 3 Max spots a Massive 4100 mah bettery. It takes 3 hours to charge the battery from 0%-100%. Though there is no Fast Charging support so, this is the charging time at 5V-2A (10W).
The battery life is awesome on this device. With regular usage including Web Browsing, Moderate Gaming, Listning to Music & Watching Youtube, it can give a battery backup upto almost 2 days. Check the battery usage chart below,
To achieve such a great battery life, ASUS has actually done a small trick in the hardware. Inspect the below image carefully.
Under Standby or Normal usage, any two of the cores are always on Sleep mode. So, they will not use any power & help to extend the Standby Time. When in high work load, they wake up & help the processor to gain more power. This is probably one of the best things that ASUS could have done to extend the battery life. Thumbs up to the team for that.
That great battery life actually comes handy while doing photography & playing games.
However, the heat management of the device is good as well. after playing high end games for an hour, I got around 41 degree celsius while the Room temperature was 21-24 degrees.
Conclusion
After testing the phone comepletely, these are my Ratings
Fingerprint Scanner: 8.0/10
So, "Can It Be Your Daily Driver ?" It depends on what type of user you are. If you do a lot of Web browsing, Casual Photography, Watching Youtube, Listning to Music & Moderate Gaming or Hard gaming but can adjust with Medium settings, this is your device. It will work like a charm for you & has the ability to become your most useful daily driver yet & you'll probably not need a powerbank for your device on short trips as well. But, if you are too much serious about high Graphics hardcore Gaming or perfect professional grade Photography in a budget, you can look for a Zenfone 3 ZE520KL instead. And that's it for the full review !
Tell me what you think about the Zenfone 3 Max ZC553KL & also if you have any further quaries, feel free to drop them in the Comments section below.
Hit that Like button if you liked this article & I'll catch you in the Next one that will come with a Surprise. Stay Tuned !!
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