So, overall I found the design to be quite attractive while not compromising on the built quality. So, looks like ASUS did a good job in the design segment.
Display:
The Zenfone 3s Max spots a 5.2 inch IPS Display that has a Resolution of 1280x720 (720P) & a Refresh Rate of 56.34Hz. The pixel density along X axis (Hight) is 282.71 ppi & along Y axis (Width) is 281.35 ppi. That translates into an overall Pixel density of 282 ppi (282.03 ppi to be exact).
The Display is bright & vibrant. Though it's a 720P panel, I found that the quality was quite good & you actually have to compare it side by side with a 1080P panel to notice the difference. In the bright sun, I found the display to be fairly visible.
Now the media plyback was a big question here. Youtube app limits the playback to maxmium 720P as that's the resolution of the screen. But, that's not it's playback capability. In offline video playback, it can play 1080P dirctly using Hardware(HW) decoder and it can play 2K without lags & 4K with minor but noticable frame drops using Software(SW) decoder in MX Player. That also depends on the processor though but, it's kinda impressive as previously the 5.5 inch, 1080P Zenfone 3 Max was struggling a lot more for both 2K & 4K videos.
Performance & Gaming:
On the inside, the Zenfone 3s Max packs an Mediatek MT6750 that has 8 cortex A53 cores with a clock speed of 1.51GHz & a process size of 28 nanometers. The GPU is a Mali-T860 MP2 that has a clock speed of 520MHz. Here are the results for Antutu & Geekbench tests.
It's not a performance intensive device so, instead of running too many performance benchmarks, I ran the most popular ones. What will matter most here is the real life performance so, let's talk about that.
The phone itself is fast & snappy. In the multitasking department, it performed decently. I opened ten apps at a time & kept switching between them. Almost all apps were in the Memory perfectly & didn't reload. One exception though was the Youtube app as it kept reloading everytime.
Now, the amount of RAM available on the device is 3GB (3072MB) & it is LPDDR3 type. Out of 3GB you get around 2811.05 MB free. The RAM management was similar to Marshmallow. I didn't noticed any difference in this segment. So, to give you a better idea, I am including the RAM stats below.
In the Internal Memory segment it has 32 Gigabytes of Internal Storage out of which you get around 23.65 Gigabytes free. However, it has storage speeds like this.
As you would expect from a budget segment device, the storage speeds are just average. The SQlite scores are kinda low but, that is what happens with most of the mid end Mediatek Chipsets.
In the gaming section, it has actually surprised me a lot. Anyway, if Benchmarking matters to you, here are the 3D Mark scores for Four different tests.
Now, coming to the Real Life Performance, it played Mid-end games like Overkill 3 (414MB after installation) easily & perfectly. Now, High end games like N.O.V.A 3 (1.62GB after installation) & Asphlat Xtreme (1.40GB after installation) with minor but noticable frame drops at highest graphics setting.
Now, games are more dependable on GPU than the Processor. Surprisingly, the Mali-T860 MP2 (520MHz, 35.3 Gigaflops) was doing a much better job than the Adreno 505 (450MHz, 48.6 Gigaflops) that I have tested on the Snapdragon 430 powered Zenfone 3 Max 5.5 inch variant. Though, the Adreno 505 has a higher Gigaflop count, the Mali-T860 MP2 seems to have an edge over it and I think it's higher Clock Speed may be responsible for this. The frame drops while High end gaming, were a lot less noticable in the Zenfone 3s Max compared to the 5.5 inch Zenfone 3 Max. That's kinda interesting.
Operating System & Functionality:
Zenfone 3s Max runs on Android 7.0 Nougat right out of the box. The OS is fused with ZenUI 3.0 & as a Zenfone user since the First Generation, I felt that this is the smoothest ZenUI till now. ASUS seems to be quite focused on the UI segment & this time they implemented the UI by keeping almost all the important features of Nougat. Let's have a quick look on the new features in the UI,
My personal favourite though is the Split Screen view.
Here, I was watching DBZ - Battle Of Gods & doing ZenTalk at the same time using the split screen view. I am happy to see that ASUS didn't skippd this one.
The Fingerprint Scanner is fast & 70-75% accurate. It does the job but, it's not an always on scanner so you actually need to press down the Home Key & then it'll scan your finger.
The Zenfone 3s Max is rocking a 13MP rear facing camera with f-2.0 aperture. The shots are good but the details are on the softer side. The colors are well balaced & it is possible to get a nice bokeh effect using manual focus.
In the front we have an 8MP selfie shooter with f-2.2 aperture. The Beatification Mode is nice & the selfies are decent as well.
I have already made an entire Camera Review so, for samples & a deeper investigation, head over the link mentioned below,
This is the key highlight of the device as the Zenfone 3s Max is having a whopping 5000 mah Li-ion Battery. The battery life on this device is really good. Let's take the example of the Battery Stats mentioned below,
The above example has a time gap of almost 12 hours. Through this time I used the device for most of my Benchmarking Tests, Installing & Playing High-end Games, Watching Youtube Videos, Taking Photos etc. It still has about 15% juice left & that means it used only 34% Battery for doing all this stuff. At this stage it actually came from 100% to 15% in 1 Day & 5 Hours but, that'll never be the case unless you are actually testing the device. So, depending on the type of the user, it can last anywhere from 2-3 days. The Charging Time is around 3+ hours with the stock 5V-2A charger (0%-100%).
It supports Reverse Charging at an output of 1A. I know not everyone uses it but, sometimes it can come really handy.
The device do get heated up near the Camera while playing games or running benchmarks. I got a max 41 degree Celsius at a room temerature of 20 degrees with almost 20 minutes of playing Asphalt Xtreme. During summer, this can touch 45-48 degree Celcius.
The speaker on this device is louder than the 5.5 inch Zenfone 3 Max. It sounds ok but, not amazing. I didn't found the Audio Wizerd anywhere on the device. That's limiting the customization for audio. Anyway, I have seen many people were actually liking these speakers a lot. But, I personally prefer the old ones. So, again it completely depends on user preference. I liked the output through earphones a lot more.
So, with the Zenfone 3s Max we're getting Good build quality, Great Battery life, Android Nougat with a snppy UI, A lower mid-end Performance, A decent budget segment Camera & A 720P but a good Screen. So, if that completes your checklist, you can give the Zenfone 3s Max a shot.
That's it for this In Depth Review. Let me know what do you think about the Zenfone 3s Max in the comments section below & I'll catch you in my next article.
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