Asus Zenfone Max M2 Review | Best Entry Level Device?

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The Zenfone Max M2 is a direct successor of the max M1 and is another budget offering from Asus. It’s not an exception device since the price is kept pretty low, made possible by doing some sacrifices. However, the Asus Zenfone Max M2 is still is a pretty good device which comes with a Big screen, decent performance, stock android, big battery and more. It can be a pretty good device for people who don’t require high-end performance on their smartphone. To know more, check out the complete Asus Zenfone Max M2 review below.

Zenfone Max M2 Design and Appearance

On the very first look of the Zenfone Max M2, you will immediately notice the resemblance from its predecessor. The camera placement, fingerprint scanner, back design looks exactly similar to the M1, although, the M2 is bigger in size. The frame of the device is made of plastic with a metal panel on the back which provides extra grip and avoid fingerprint smudges, unlike the Glass back devices.

The Asus Zenfone Max M2 isn’t too heavy or thick. It only weighs 160 gram and has a thickness of 7.7mm, however, the overall footprint of the device is quite big. Yeah, the device is usable with one hand but it isn’t the most comfortable experience. Using the second-hand helps in properly handling the device overall and makes it easy to reach the opposite top corners. The Max M2 is only available in two colors which are Black and Blue.

On the front, there is a big screen with a cutout on top. The notch houses the front camera, earpiece with a notification LED hidden beneath, flash for selfies, proximity sensor, and ambient light sensor. On the right, you will find the Power key and the Volume rocker while on the left, you will find the SIM Tray. The 3.5mm headphone jack is at the top while the MicroUSB charging port and the single speaker can be found at the bottom. On the back, there is a Dual Camera unit located in the top-left and a Fingerprint scanner. Overall, the Zenfone Max M2 doesn’t look like a premium device but it’s well built and sturdy.

Notched Display

The Asus Zenfone Max M2 does come with a pretty big display, however, unlike its costly counterpart, it doesn’t sport the latest Corning Gorilla Glass 6 and neither comes with a screen protector pre-applied or in the box. It comes with a 6.26 inch IPS LCD display which has an HD+ 720 x 1520 pixels and pixel density of 269 pixels-per-inch. There is a notch which is quite big, however, being bigger is not the only problem with the notch here.

Using the device for some time, you will notice that some of the icons are overlapped by the notch which is the indication of poor software optimization for the notch. Apart from that, the overall screen quality is pretty nice actually. It is not sharp like a FullHD panel but the color reproduction is quite good and also can be tweaked in the settings. The viewing angles are great too and the sunlight visibility is legit as well. Overall, you will enjoy watching videos, movies etc on this screen but don’t expect the quality to be as better as Samsung’s Flagship devices.

Decent Performance and Software Experience

One of the most satisfactory upgrades in Zenfone Max M2 over its predecessor is the new powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 632 chipset. It is an Octa-Core chipset which is based on 14-nanometer architecture. For graphics, the M2 comes with Adreno 506 GPU. The device is available in two different variants one of which comes with 3GB RAM and 32GB storage while the other one comes with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage. Although, you are not limited to the internal storage as there is a dedicated MicroSD card slot which can be used to expand the memory up to 512GB.

While the chipset is not as powerful as the Snapdragon 660 or 710, it still does a plenty good job in maintaining the balance between basic and heavy tasks. With basic usage like web browsing, using social media apps, etc, there is no lag or slow down whatsoever. Although, when it comes to heavy gaming, the thing turns a little different. With heavy games like PUBG, smooth gameplay on the highest graphics settings isn’t possible. Although, in low graphics setting, the fps becomes consistent and you can enjoy smooth battle royale experience without any hiccups. The same story goes for other heavy games as well like Asphalt 9 but less intense games like Temple Run, Subway Surfers etc runs totally smooth and well.

Talking about the software, one of the best things that Asus did with the Zenfone Max M2 is to load it with Stock Android rather than their own Zen UI. It runs on stock Android 8.1 Oreo and comes with all the useful Google apps pre-installed. Since there is no bloatware, the performance is completely smooth with fluid transitions. Also, the RAM management is done well and even 3GB RAM is more than enough. While there is no official news about the software update, it’s highly possible that the Asus Zenfone Max M2 will receive Android Pie update at some point later this year.

Camera and Battery Life

The Zenfone Max M2 comes with a dual camera unit which houses a 13-megapixel sensor with F/1.8 aperture and another 2-megapixel depth sensor. Also, the rear camera module packs Electronic Image Stabilization (EIS) and PDAF. On the front, there is an 8-megapixel sensor with F/2.4 aperture. The camera app comes with all the useful features like Panorama, HDR, Portrait, Video recording etc.

While the camera specs look pretty impressive on paper, the camera performance is pretty average. In good lighting condition, the rear camera manages to capture good images with high details, although, it tends to overexpose some areas. However, in low light situations, the camera does manage to capture good light but the heavy processing leads to a softer image. Talking about the portrait mode, there is a good separation between the subject and the background with a decent amount of blur, however, the camera tends to soften the edges of the subject often. The front sensor does capture some good selfies during the day but loses its ability to capture good details during the night. Yeah, there is a Flash on the front as well but it doesn’t do much justice in low light. The primary camera is capable of recording 4K videos @ 30fps while the front cam can only record 1080p videos @ 30fps.

Moving on to the battery life, the Asus Zenfone Max M2 packs a 4000 mAh battery, which is pretty big and obviously non-removable. When I came to know about the battery capacity, I was quite surprised at the lightweight design doesn’t give a single hint about such a big battery. Even with heavy usage, the device manages to give around 6–7 hours of Screen-on-Time which evaluates to around 1.5 days of battery life. It does come with a 10W Fast charger which manages to top-up the phone from 0% to 100% in around 2.5 hours.

Zenfone Max M2: More Features

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