Apoorv Anupam
11 December 2018, India:
Today, ASUS launched two smartphones – ASUS Zenfone Max M2 (successor of ASUS Zenfone Max M1) and ASUS Zenfone Max Pro M2 (successor of ASUS Zenfone Max Pro M1). Well, the nomenclature is little bit strange (and bit confusing).
With ASUS Zenfone Max M2, the company has tried to attract budget segment customers. Let’s take a look on the smartphone
Design
ASUS has used the tried and tested design on ASUS Zenfone Max M2. The company has used the same metal design present on the Zenfone Max Pro M1.
The volume rocker and power buttons are present on the left side of the smartphone. The bottom of the smartphone has primary mic, speaker and Micro-USB port for charging and data transfer.
The SIM Tray is present at the left side of the smartphone. The SIM Tray has a dedicated Micro-SD card slot (in addition to the dual nano SIM slots), so it can hold two nano SIMs and a Micro-SD card simultaneously.
The Micro-SD card slot supports Micro-SD up-to 2 TB. The Max M1 also had the dedicated Micro-SD card slot and it’s good that the company has carried it to Max M2.
The top of the smartphone consists of a 3.5 mm Headphone Jack and a secondary noise-cancellation mic.
The smartphone is available in two colour variants – Blue and Black.
Display
The Max M2 has a 6.26 inch HD+ display. The resolution of the display is 1520×720 pixels. A Full HD+ display (1080p display) would have been better. The 720p display does the job, and you won’t notice the individual pixels until you specifically look for it.
There is a Notch at the top of the display. The smartphone has 19:9 screen aspect ratio. The display is bright and can reach 430 nits brightness level.
(Also read – ASUS Zenfone Max Pro M2 Specs, Initial Expressions, Price, Availability)
Processor and GPU
The Max M2 runs on Snapdragon 632. The Snapdragon 632 is also built on 14nm design. It has 8 x Kyro 250 CPU cores. The Max M1 had Snapdragon 430, so this is a considerable improvement.
The smartphone has Adreno 506 GPU for graphical tasks.
Software
The ASUS Zenfone Max M2 runs on Android Oreo 8.1 out of the box. This smartphone will get Android Pie update, but most probably it will get Android Pie after ASUS Zenfone 5Z, ASUS Zenfone Max Pro M2, ASUS Zenfone Max Pro M1.
The User Interface is close to Stock Android, the company has tried to keep the UI clean.
RAM and Internal Storage
The Zenfone Max M2 comes in two storage variants . The base variant has 3 GB RAM and 32 GB Internal Storage. The highest variant has 4 GB RAM and 64 GB Internal Storage. The company had not mentioned the RAM variant used in the Zenfone Max M2, but the Snapdragon 632 supports LPDDR3 RAM, so the RAM used here might be LPDDR3 instead of the LPDDR4x used in the Max Pro M2.
Camera
The ASUS Zenfone Max M2 has dual rear camera. The primary rear camera is of 13 Mp. It has f/1.8 aperture. The pixel size is 1.12 micron. The secondary rear camera is a 2 MP dedicated depth sensor.
The smartphone has a 8 MP front camera. The front camera has f/2.0 aperture. The pixel size in front camera is 1.12 micron.
Flash is present on both front and rear side of the smartphone. The smartphone has EIS (Electronic Image Stabilization).
The rear camera can record up-to 4K resolution. The front camera can record up-to 1080p.
Battery
The Zenfone Max M2 has a 4000 mAh battery (same as the ASUS Zenfone Max M1). The battery is good and expected to easily handle a day of casual usage.
The company has not bundled a fast charger in the box
(the box has the standard 10 W charger). Not all companies provide fast charger in the box at this price point, but still a fast charger would have been better.
Security
The Max Pro M2 has fingerprint sensor and face unlock option. The face unlock is similar as other Android smartphones who don’t use a dedicated hardware for Face Unlocking. On many smartphones, the face unlock is more about convenience than security.
Other features
The smartphone has Dual VoLTE Dual Standby (4G VoLTE+4G VoLTE).
The ASUS Zenfone Max M2 has Widevine DRM L1, which means you can play HD videos on DRM encrypted apps like Netflix, Amazon Prime. This is something which is not present on many smartphones in that price segment. So, on those smartphones (where Widevine DRM L1 is not present), the Netflik and Amazon Prime videos are capped at 540p.
(Note – You can play HD videos on Youtube without Widevine DRM L1)
The smartphone supports FM radio. It has Bluetooth 5.0. The smartphone supports 802.11 WiFi band which means it can capture good speed when connected to a good WiFi network.
Pricing
The base variant of ASUS Zenfone Max M2 (with 3 GB RAM and 32 GB Internal Storage) is priced at ₹9,999 (about $140). The 4 GB RAM + 64 GB Internal Storage variant is priced at ₹11,999 (about $165).
Availability
The ASUS Zenfone Max Pro M2 will be online exclusive like it’s predecessor Max Pro M1. The smartphone will be Flipkart exclusive.
The smartphone will be available from 20th December on Flipkart.
Overall
The ASUS Zenfone Max M2 looks good for its price. Snapdragon 632 looks good and performs the daily casual tasks easily. You can also play games like PubG, but you might be forced to decrease the frame rate.
The battery is good and can easily last for a day (with casual use). The lack of fast charging hurts, but at this price point, fast charging is rare.
We will soon post our full review of this smartphone, so stay tuned. You can ask your questions here in the comment section below or on our twitter handle.
(Image – ASUS)