Overall Rating: 8 / 10
Pros:- Best Battery phone in the market
- Attractive design and display
- Android 7.0 Nougat
- Well built
Cons:
- Camera does not meet expectations
- Performance is on the average side
- Too much Software Bloatware
Overview:
ASUS had launched ZenFone 3 Max about a few months back, in effort to up its game in the Smartphone world it has worked hard in producing another refined mobile phone “ZenFone 3S Max (Zc521TL)”. From the look of its exterior, it looks no less than a flagship Smartphone. What matters is if it performs just as well, users want an all rounder Smartphone that looks stunning and performs its best as well. Has Asus ticked off all the land marks? lets find out There are just a few changes in the design of ZenFone 3S Max, overall it looks more refined and gorgeous. It has a full metal unibody with curved edges and curved 2.5D glass on it which adds to its premium look.
It has solid aluminum chassis with slim bezels, and with the golden colored finish to it 3S Max looks pretty attractive. The home button which doubles as a fingerprint scanner is now placed at the front below the display, at the top you will find the front camera, sensors and a speaker. You wont find the capacitive navigation buttons on the panel below because ASUS moved them on screen.
Talking about the ports, you get the MicroUSB charging port and the speakers on the bottom edge. The Hybrid SIM tray is engraved on the left edge. On the right edge lie the volume rocker and the power button. A 3.5mm headphone jack is placed on the top edge. The back side looks nicely clean with just the rear camera, LED flash and the ASUS logo neatly placed at the center.
Zenfone 3S Max comes with a 5.2 inch HD IPS display with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels. It fits perfectly in the hand however its slightly slippery. 3S Max supports the HD display, whereas other smartphones in the same price range come with a Full HD display and with higher pixels density. The display is overall satisfactory, it show cases slightly faded but rich and bright colors. The sunlight visibility is no so bad either, the contrast and saturation ratios work out just fine. Even though the display is only HD and colors are not as punchy as we expect, the text appears pretty sharp. Most people might not have any complaints with the display.
ASUS Zenfone 3S comes powered with a 64 bit MediaTek MT6750 Octa-Core Cortex A53 processor clocked at 1.5 GHz. It has 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB storage. The chipset isn’t as powerful as the Qualcomm Snapdragon chip (most midrange smartphones opt for Snapdragon). MediaTek isn’t so bad and considering that it supports maximum screen resolution of 720 pixels its good to go. the performance is smooth and doesn’t show any lag during multitasking or multi-tabed browsing.
ASUS ZenFone 3S max is the best battery phone in the market. ASUS has increased its battery capacity from 4100 mAh to 5000 mAh. With normal usage its battery life can be extended to about 3 to 4 days, and about 2 days with heavy usage. One if its best feature is that it can be used as a power bank, that means its comes with reverse charging facility. By using your OTG you can charge your other phones with it as well. The only problem is that it does not come with fast charging and it takes a long time to charge it completely. The speakers on this Mobile are of top quality, they are loud and clear without any distortion at high volume.
3S Max runs on Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box, along with the company’s own ZenUI 3.0 it provides and amazing smartphone experience. You get all the Android 7.0 Nougat features including split screen multi tasking and data saver mode. ASUS has cut down on some apps which users felt clogged there handsets, but there is still some bloatware which your just going to have to get used to.
Zenfone3S Max comes packed with a 13 Megapixels (f/2.0 aperture) rear camera and an 8 Megapixels front camera. Pictures taken by the rear camera in good daylight and adequate light conditions come out pretty decent. But they just don’t take in enough detail and to me they appear to be in the blurry side. The camera suffers even more in low light, and the flash doesn’t help much either. The front camera also suffers in low light, but if you provide enough light you can take some decent detailed selfies, the beautification mode is also on the average side.
Verdict:
In conclusion ASUS ZenFone 3S Max is for people who want a decent phone with decent specs and features. If your a photographer or you love gaming then this phone is not for you. For its price you can expect only that many bells and whistles.
Features:
Display size: 5.2 inches
Resolution: 720 x 1280 pixels
Rear Camera: 13 Mp
Front Camera: 8 MP
Operating system: Android 7.0
Processor: Octa-Core MediaTek MT6750
RAM: 3 GB
Internal Storage: 32 GB
Battery Capacity: 5000 mAh
Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB OTG, Hybrid SIM
