17 October 2018, India:
ASUS today launched a new budget smartphone under it’s Zenfone Series – ASUS Zenfone Max M1. Let’s see the specs and initial impressions of the smartphone.
Design
The smartphone has a poly-carbonate back with a metallic finish. The smartphone has a nice in-hand feel due to the metallic finish.
On the right side of the smartphone, volume rocker and power button is present. At bottom, speaker, primary mic and a Micro-USB port for charging and data transfer is present. The Micro-USB port looks dated but considering the price it is okay. The SIM card tray is present at the left side of the smartphone. The SIm card tray has triple slot (2 Nano SIMs + 1 MicroSD card slot), which is good.
At the top, a 3.5 mm Headphone Jack is present (thumbsup to ASUS for giving a headphone jack as it is quickly turning into a feature nowadays).
The smartphone is available in 2 colour variants – Black and Gold.
Display
ASUS Zenfone Max M1 has a 5.45 inch IPS LCD HD+ screen. The resolution of display is 1440x720p. The screen aspect ratio is 18:9. The pixel density is 293 ppi. The smartphone has 82% screen-to-body ratio.
The display has 400 nits of brightness. The display has contrast ratio of 800:1 and 65% NTSC colour gamut.
Processor and GPU
The ASUS Zenfone Max M1 has Snapdragon Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor. The Snapdragon 430 is an octa-core chip. We have seen the same chip on ASUS Zenfone 4 Max. Snapdragon 430 has 8 x A53 cores which are clocked at 1.4 GHz. It has Adreno 505 GPU for gaming and other graphical tasks.
Heavy games might lag on this smartphone, but this is a budget smartphone, so that’s okay. If you want a budget smartphone on which you can play heavy games, you can go for ASUS Zenfone Max Pro M1 which has a powerful Snapdragon 636 and Adreno 509 GPU.
Battery
The smartphone gets it’s power from a 4000 mAh battery. Considering the SD 430 performance and battery capacity, the smartphone should easily handle a day of casual usage.
The company has packed a 10W charger in the box. The charger is not so fast.
RAM and Storage
The smartphone has 3 GB RAM and 32 GB Internal Storage. The smartphone has a dedicated Micro-SD card slot, means you can use two nano SIMs and a Micro-SD card simultaneously. The Micro-SD card slot supports Micro-SD card up-to 256 GB. It means that storage won’t be a major issue on this smartphone.
Camera
Zenfone Max M1 has 13 MP single rear camera. The rear camera has f/2.0 aperture. The pixel size is 1.12μm. The rear camera has a LED flash to support it in low-light photography.
The smartphone has a 8 MP front camera. The front camera has f/2.2 aperture. The pixel size in front camera is also of 1.12μm. LED flash is present is present for front camera also.
Portrait mode is present at both front and rear camera.
Software
The smartphone runs on ZenUI 5.0, which runs on the top of Android Oreo 8.0. ZenUI 5.0 is close to stock Android and has less bloatware.
Security
The smartphone has a fingerprint sensor at rear side. The smartphone also has a face unlock system, which uses front camera for face recognition.
Pricing and Availability
In India, the smartphone is exclusive to Flipkart. It is priced at ₹8,999 (about $123). But the smartphone will be available at ₹7,499 (about $102) during Flipkart Festive Dhamaka Days. The smartphone will on sale.
The company has indicated that this smartphone will launch in other countries soon.
Overall
The smartphone looks good for it’s price. A Snapdragon 430 is old, but it still do the work. The big battery is an advantage.
(Image – ASUS)
