Asus Zenfone Max: When battery overshadows everything else

It is well-suited for those who are always glued to their phones

In the digital era, where we are hooked to our smartphones almost all the time, consumers wish for a phone that gets them through an entire day. The Zenfone Max, the latest from Asus, might just be the answer to everyone's prayers.

The Zenfone Max looks a lot like the Zenfone 2. It does, however, have distinguishable features from the Zenfone 2 - a metal trim bezel and the placement of the volume controls and the power button on the right side. But what intrigued me the most was how such a sleek device could house a massive 5,000 mAh battery.

The Zenfone Max comes with a 5.5-inch 720x1,280 IPS display, which is surprising since most devices launched nowadays have graduated to a 1,080p display. Having said that, the resolution downgrade in no way affects the display quality and the phone is able to deliver sharp colour tones.

As with the Asus phones, the Zenfone Max, too, comes with the Zen user interface and runs on Android Lollipop.

After thorough usage, it is clear that the selling point of the phone is its battery. The phone has a Snapdragon 410 processor along with 2GB RAM, making it evident that Asus wanted to make sure the device conserves battery while handling day-to-day tasks efficiently at the same time.

The phone comes with a 13-megapixel (MP) primary and a 5MP secondary camera. The pictures clicked are clear and sharp and the camera provides a plethora of shooting modes to choose from.

The non-removable 5,000 mAh battery is perhaps the only feature that makes the phone stand out from the rest. I decided to put it to use. Being charged to 100 per cent once, I used the device for various things - clicking pictures, browsing the internet and even running not-so-RAM-heavy games. The result was delightful. At the end of the day, the phone still had about 60 per cent of juice in the battery. The Zenfone Max also doubles as a power bank. Just connect the Zenfone Max to another gadget with the help of a cord and charge away. Needless to say, it was quite impressive.

The Zenfone Max lives up to the expectations of those who love being on their phones 24x7.

The phone is priced at Rs 9,999 and will be available for sale from January 15.

SPECIFICATIONS
Display: 720 x 1,280 pixels
OS: Android 5.0 Lollipop
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 410
Memory: 2 GB RAM; 16 GB ROM
Camera: 13 MP primary; 5 MP secondary
Battery: 5,000 mAh