ASUS Zenfone 3S Max: Big battery in a sleek form

The Asus Zenfone 3S Max (Rs 14,999), with a 5,000-mAh battery, is possibly among the top three phones by battery capacity today.
 
But the 5.2-inch 3S Max doesn’t feel bulky. Sure it has heft at 175 g, but it’s perfect for one-handed usage and slipping into your pocket.
 
The 3S Max is slim, and the golden review sample, with a matte back finish and rounded edges, looked premium — not something one expects at that price. Asus has made a couple of changes: the fingerprint scanner has been moved to the front, with the physical home button and, the camera has moved to the side on the back, instead of being at the centre.

 

The phone boots up as Asus phones do, a tad slow because of the heavy OS. But this is among the first phones to feature Android Nougat out of the box. I tried playing some videos on YouTube, and while the videos were stutter-free, the phone did heat up a bit.
 
The phone comes with the entire suite of Asus apps, and thus, with multiple apps open in the background, there was some lag in performance despite the octa-core processor. In the month or so I used it, the phone froze a couple of times.
 
The 12-megapixel (MP) front camera gives good pictures in the sunlight. At night, there’s a drop in performance, and it takes a long time to focus in low light.

 
The battery performs exceedingly well and can easily last through a couple of days with heavy usage. That said, the Asus Zenfone 3S Max is possibly the sleekest 5,000 mAh phone one can buy right now. Just don’t be too finicky about the OS and camera.