Asus Zenfone Max(2016): A beast, both in battery and specs this time!

Early this year, we reviewed the first Zenfone Max and you can check it out here. We were thoroughly impressed with it, excepting for it’s performance. We complained, and Asus heard us real loud(And quick)! Just few months later, we have the all new Asus Zenfone Max which is way better.

Most of the things in the new Zenfone Max is the same as the old one, so check out that review to know about things like the Camera and it’s design in detail. The biggest change on this year’s Zenfone Max is the processor. It has been changed from 1.2Ghz Quad Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 to 1.5Ghz Octa Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615. The jump from 410 to 615 is huge! The phone is so much more snappier and gets stuff done fast.

Battery still remains the most important part of Asus Zenfone Max and this one also comes with a large 5,000mAh battery like the previous one. And once again, an USB-OTG Cable is included in the box to use the phone as a power bank to charge other devices. One noticeable toll on the battery though is the processor. The change from Snapdragon 410 to 615 is noticeable because 615 is not as battery efficient as the 410. But the battery is no bad either. Very easily I got two full days of heavy usage which is way more than any device in the market these days.

This time, there are two different variants of the phone. The first one has the same 2GB RAM and the second variant has an increased 3GB RAM. We have the one with 2GB RAM which is still really good. The only difference in these two variants is the RAM. In the internal storage side, it has been increased from 16GB to 32GB and still has the expandable micro-USB slot for cards upto 64GB.

The Zenfone Max is a Dual SIM phone with two Micro-SIM slots, both supporting 4G LTE at the same time. For other connectivity, the phone has the usual stuff like Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS. On the camera side, it has the same 13MP primary camera and 5MP secondary camera with laser focus. This is same good camera present on the previous Zenfone Max which we were really impressed with and definitely one of the top camera in phones under 10K.

Along with the internals, there are two new colours: Orange and Blue. Right now, you cannot get them separately and you’ll have to buy the phone with that colour. But we were told by Asus that they are bringing the back plates separately soon.

The old Zenfone Max has been reduced in price to Rs. 8,999 and the new Zenfone Max 2016 with 2GB RAM remains Rs. 9,999 which is amazing! You get all the better performance with the insane battery for the same price. The version with 3GB RAM though costs Rs. 12,999 which is a bit too high considering the only difference is the RAM. But still, it is a worthy upgrade if you do not want to cut corners and still have the huge battery.

Oh the software side, the phone still runs on ZenUI which some like and some don’t. I don’t really mind because you have an option to use both Asus and Google apps. But one thing which came up as a pleasant surprise is that the phone runs on Android Marshmallow 6.0.1 out of the box. The only thing still missing from the Zenfone Max 2016 is that it does not have fast charging. It still takes about 6 hours to charge the phone completely from 0 to 100.

For most, the Zenfone Max 2016 with 2GB RAM is still the best option to get if your needs aren’t much. You’ll still have a good phone with really good performance and the battery which still amazes me. Click here to buy the new Zenfone Max with 2GB RAM and here to buy it with 3GB RAM from Flipkart right now.