The latest trends from China involves smartphones with massive batteries and the Asus Zenfone 4 Max Plus follows that exact trend. The phone has a gigantic 5000mAh battery but in a very slim and light body.
Most phones with big batteries look somewhat bulky and they are also thick, but not this one.
The phone is using an octa-core Mediated 6750 CPU that is paired with 3GB Ram, 32GB of internal storage and runs Android 7.0. There is also a 5.5″ IPS screen with a 720P resolution. I found that screen resolution quite strange mostly considering that the phone isn’t that cheap.
Now, comparing the $170 price tag with other flagships out there it seems very affordable but i was mostly comparing this phone with other similar phones from other Chinese brands.
Build Quality
The Asus Zenfone 4 Max Plus looks very similar with the OnePlus 5, it has the same 5.5″ screen, the same metallic body, two cameras on the back and a fingerprint scanner on the front.
The phone feels very premium and sturdy as well and you wouldn’t say that it costs just $170.
The power button and volume keys are made out of metal as well and they are positioned on the right side of the phone. On the left there is the sim card tray and this phone can take either 2 sim cards or a sim card and an SD Card. That SD card cannot be used as internal storage, so you will be able to save pictures and music on it but you won’t be able to install apps on it.
The phone even has a 3.5mm audio jack that outputs crisp and loud sound as well.
The microphone and the speaker are sitting at the bottom and in between there is a micro usb port. The phone supports OTG and Mediatek’s Quick Charge 2, therefore it can be fully charged in about 2h and 20 minutes.
The one speaker at the bottom of the device gets very loud and there is even an outdoor mode that gets it even louder. Unfortunately it sounds a bit distorted in that outdoor mode there forever it’s probably better to use it with that mode turned off.
The Zenfone 4 Max Plus gets a fingerprint scanner on the front just below the screen and once again this looks very similar with the one that we have seen on the OnePlus 5.
The fingerprint scanner is very accurate but not the quickest out there. It takes a bit from the time you touch it till the screen gets unlocked. I was not a big fan of actually pressing the fingerprint scanner to turn on the screen and than unlocking it. This way i feel that it takes an extra second to do. That may not seem like a long time but when you unlocked your phone 50 times a day that second will add up.
On the back of the phone there are two cameras, one is a 13MP sensor and the second one is a 120 degrees wide 8MP sensor. The camera stick out a bit from the body but if you use a case on this phone it shouldn’t bother you.
The 5.5″ screen has a resolution of 720P but it gets bright enough to be used outside in direct sunlight. The colours are very vibrant and saturated and the viewing angles very good as well. The screen can also register up to 5 touches in the same time and it has great sensitivity and it performs great for typing or gaming.
You can find the Asus Zenfone 4 Max Plus at the following retailers:
Gearbest: http://bit.ly/2BcpPEI
Aliexpress: http://ali.ski/2XZQq-
Banggood: http://fas.st/0wc7j
Performance and UI
The Mediatek 6750 is a octa-core CPU clocked at 1.5Ghz and it’s more of an entry level CPU therefore the performance is not amazing. As a quick example, it gets a score of about 40000 on the Antutu Benchmark.
The main difference between this and a faster CPU is how quickly it opens apps but either than that you aren’t going to feel a huge difference. Once the apps are loaded it works great and I haven’t experienced any lag with any app or game. Of course you will see some skipped frames if you start playing some heavier games but you have to expect that with any device in this price range.
Asus is using the ZenUI on all their devices and this one is no exception. Personally I don’t like how their UI looks and i feel that it doesn’t add any value to the phone. I recommend installing and using something like Nova Launcher instead for a better experience.
Multitasking works great as well but you will be somewhat limited by the 3GB of Ram available. Keeping 4-5 apps running in the background isn’t an issue and it works as expected.
Cameras
On the front on the Zenfone 4 Max Plus there is a 5MP selfie camera. Like most budget friendly phones out there the camera does great as long as you have good light. The pictures are somewhat crispy and detailed. As soon as you are in a darker environment they become very blurry and they don’t look good at all. So the phone won’t be too great for night time selfies.
On the back we have a setup that’s somewhat similar with what we have seen from LG. A regular camera and a wide angle lens camera. The wide angle lens camera isn’t as good as the main camera therefore you will notice the picture quality in between the two.
If you take pictures in low light once again you will see the picture quality from the wide angle lens rapidly degrading. The idea behind this camera setup is great but it doesn’t work that we’ll with cheaper devices like this one.
Leaving that wide angle lens aside, if you just take pictures with the main 13MP shooter the pictures look great. If you have a lot of light the pictures are sharp and detailed and with accurate colours. The night time pictures aren’t that exceptional but they are acceptable mostly for social media.
I have included plenty sample pictures in the full review video that i have posted at the bottom of this article.
Battery Life
With such a massive 5000 mah battery of course i was expecting great results. The results were decent but i feel that they could have been even better if the phone would have used a different CPU.
I was able to get 24h in between charges and out of that about 10h of Screen on time. Of course that is great for any smartphone, mostly considering that all $1000 flagships these days can only get around 5h of screen on time. In the same time if the phone would have used a more power efficient CPU it could have easily got more than 2 days in between charges.
Conclusion
The Asus Zenfone 4 Max Plus is an affordable device that is trying to compete in a very crowded market. The main advantage that is has over the competition is the built quality and the brand name.
I would personally buy a budget phone from a bigger brand like Asus than getting a budget phone from a small unknown company. Of course you could get more value for your money from an small unknown company but you don’t know how long that phone will last. At least with a phone like the Zenfone 4 Max Plus you know that it will last for a couple of years.
For more detailed information you can also check the video review that i have posted below.
You can find the Asus Zenfone 4 Max Plus at the following retailers: