Asus ZenFone Max M1 Design
Asus ZenFone Max M1 Looks familiar. This will remind you of the ZenFone Max Pro M1. Plastic has mainly been used in making the phone. It is available in black and gold colors. Following the trend, Max M1 has a large 5.45 inch screen and is equipped with 2.5D curved glass. The borders are quite wide which seems about right considering the price.
Selfie camera, earpiece and proximity sensor have got place above the display. According to us, the build quality of Asus ZenFone Max M1 is average. There are power and volume buttons on the right side. The SIM tray has got a place on the left side.
Asus uses ‘Max’ branding for its smartphones with large batteries. Similar thing has been seen with Asus Zenfone Max M1. The surprising thing is that despite having a big battery, the company has managed to keep the weight of this handset at 150 grams. After looking at the new phone from the back, the difference from the ZenFone Max Pro M1 becomes clear. There is a rear camera here. The position of the fingerprint sensor is good, especially considering the size of the phone. The 3.5 mm headphone jack is on the top. The micro-USB port is at the bottom. Speaker grills are provided on both sides. But the speaker is present only in the right one.
Asus ZenFone Max M1 specifications and software
Asus has used Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor in this handset. This decision is a bit strange, because it is an old chipset which Moto G5 And Moto G5S Like it has been a part of old smartphones. The clock speed of this octa-core processor is 1.4 GHz. In this price range we have seen processors like MediaTek Helio P22 and P23 which respectively Xiaomi Redmi 6 And Infinix Note 5 Are part of.
Asus Zenfone Max M1 has 32 GB storage with 3 GB RAM. If needed, a microSD card up to 256 GB can be used. The 5.45-inch display has HD+ resolution which seems reasonable considering the price. The phone has support for Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, GPS and GLONASS. ZenFone Max M1 is a dual SIM device. It has slots for both Nano SIMs. Both SIM slots support 4G and VoLTE, but only one SIM can be connected to the 4G network at any time. 4000 mAh battery is provided.
The device comes with ZenUI based on Android Oreo. You will get features like Mobile Manager, Weather, Sound Recorder, File manager and Themes. Apart from this, Instagram, Facebook, Facebook Messenger and some Google apps are already installed on the handset.
Asus ZenFone Max M1 performance, camera and battery life
We did notice a slight lag after the initial setup, but this went away after a few hours. We found that the face recognition and fingerprint scanner made unlocking the Max M1 faster. However, an old processor has been used in it. This is also reflected in the benchmark scores. The benchmark scores of the Zenfone Max M1 are lower than other phones in this price range.
We played PUBG game on the phone. It ran on lowest settings. After playing this game for about half an hour, the phone did get hot, but the situation did not reach uncomfortable level.
In our HD video loop test, the ZenFone Max M1 clocked in at 11 hours 32 minutes. If seen, it is slightly less than Redmi 6A and Redmi 6. After repeatedly checking my WhatsApp account, using Google Maps for over an hour, and playing PUBG for about 40 minutes, the phone had a little more than 50 percent battery left at the end of the day. This phone has many power saver modes with the help of which you can increase the battery life of the phone.
Max M1 has a 13-megapixel primary camera with F/2.0 aperture. It is equipped with phase detection autofocus. An 8-megapixel sensor with F/2.2 aperture is provided on the front panel. The camera app is the same as on other Asus phones.
Tap to see full-sized camera samples of Asus ZenFone Max M1
Photos taken in daylight with Max M1 turned out to be good. But there was a drop in performance in low light. In daylight the camera locked the focus as per our liking. Distant objects lacked detail and sharpness. The Max M1 took some great macro shots. The separation between subject and background was good. HDR mode has to be enabled manually. This mode helps in taking better photos in bright conditions. HDR shots came out better, but the Max M1 forced us to wait after taking a shot. You will be able to take portrait shots with the front and rear cameras. But edge detection is weaker than average.
Max M1 is unable to capture details in low light. The noise reduction in this is very aggressive due to which a filter like effect occurs. You will be able to record videos up to 1080 pixels with both cameras of Max M1. There is no stabilization available, so you will have to keep your hands very steady while recording videos.
our decision
Asus has launched two strong phones in the market like Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1 and Asus ZenFone 5Z in different price segments. But the Asus Zenfone Max M1 doesn’t make that strong a case. The outdated Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 is much slower than the processors used in other phones in this price range.
Battery life goes in favor of the Asus Zenfone Max M1. Due to the large battery of 4000 mAh, the phone does not need to be charged for about one and a half days. If battery life is most important to you, then the Max M1 is a good choice. Especially during the festive season, where this handset can be purchased at a discount.