Asus Zenfone Max Pro M2: Review (Used for 2 Weeks)
The ASUS Zenfone Max Pro M2 is a phablet that aims to be your day-to-day companion for all your mobile computing needs. Coming in with a massive 5,000 mAh battery, this 6.26-inch screen boasts a bright IPS screen that is very inviting to look at. With a solid build despite its plastic material, can this phone be your daily driver? Can this phone be on par with flagship phones? Can this replace your $1,000 phone? Stay with me for the next few minutes as we dive deep in my experience in using the phone for two weeks.
Our review unit is the Zenfone Max Pro M2 64GB Storage and 6GB RAM. Other models in the market will be:
- 4GB/64GB on Shopee/Lazada @ PHP 12,995
- 6GB/64GB on ASUS/ZenFone Shops & accredited multi brand partners @ PHP 14,995
There will be 2 colors for these phones: Midnight Black (4GB and 6GB), Cosmic Titanium (6GB only)
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Content At A Glance:
- Build
Plastic-build is solid, but you can feel the softness in the center of the phone. The phone is lighter than it looks. Plus points.
5000 mAh battery? Yes. No USB Type-C? Nay. - Setup (Includes Setting Up from iOS comments)
iOS users can add their Apple ID in the linked accounts.
Though I mainly use Office365’s build in contact sync. I moved most of my contacts from iCloud to Office 365 already. - Daily Use
Calls (Voice may sound a bit “higher” in pitch than the ones heard through my usual phone.)
SMS/Android Messages, & Using Other Messenger Apps
Signal: Good download speeds, but sometimes having trouble locating LTE signals in the area. - Battery Life
Phone heating up can be tolerable, unlike the ones experienced when gaming with the iPhone. - Media Consumption
Pictures & Video: Amazing screen, you can definitely see the details while watching videos on the Zenfone.
Audio: It has an audio jack, which is a plus. Has good baseline tones. (I use an AKG in-ear headphones)
Bluetooth headsets take advantage of Qualcomm Bluetooth AptX. - Productivity
Working with a Big Screen is a plus. Pair it with a bluetooth mouse and keyboard you get a pretty much mobile workspace. - Photography
Compared to iPhone XS, lowlight photos lose a bit of detail.
Ease of Use - Gaming
Gaming experience
Gaming EXP table - Overall Rating
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Unboxing: Build
Once you open the box for the Zenfone Max Pro M2, you will notice how big this phone is. The smooth glass front panel covering the space from edge-to-edge, hiding the small notch at the center-top of the display. At the bottom you will find a Microusb port, which cuts off the prospects of charging your other devices with your Zenfone’s remaining battery — which was supposed to be a missed deal since the battery itself has a 5000 mAh capacity that will definitely last you the whole day (or even more, if you don’t game on the phone too much). On the left side you will see the SIM card tray for both SIM1 and SIM2, along with support for a separate MicroSD slot. Having a dedicated slot for all gives plus points for utility, as more and more smartphone makers make use of the second SIM tray a combo slot for MicroSD (so if you use it for SIM2, you can’t use it for MicroSD). On the right, you have the On/Off/Wake/Sleep button and the volume rockers. At the top, you will see something like of a small microphone port for when you record videos in landscape so you can record videos in stereo. And finally, at the back, you will be able to see the dual camera lenses and the fingerprint reader.
The glossy, curved back allows you have a solid grip on it, however might vary when your hands start to sweat and cause it to slip.
The phone feels light on your hand for the size. It is even lighter than an iPhone, clocking in on 175 grams. With this kind of feel to it you wouldn’t mind a huge phone sitting in your pocket, and you wouldn’t be mindful of it in case you might bend it or break it.
Setting Up
Setting up the Asus Zenfone Max Pro M2 comes in with your standard fare of Andoird setup, with most of the complications out of the way as the phone has vanilla Android 8 pre-installed — minus the bloatware. With this you definitely get the standard android experience, all without the extras usually included from OEMs. Zenfone though has its own flavor of camera and Zenfone phone updates, which is expected as this phone is touted to have a really good camera for photography.
As for moving from iOS, I use the iPhone 8 as my daily driver. Moving everything to android was not a problem, given that most of my contacts are synced via Office 365 and my photos are already in iCloud. As for photos syncing, I used OneDrive to automatically upload the full versions of my photos for backup. Google Photos is also a good alternative, and it comes by default on the phone. Set it up once and it will work as intended.
Daily Use
Calls
Calling on the phone is standard as it makes use of the default android calling UI. There are no noticeable drops or issues with calling, though there were comments from people I called that my voice sounded with my pitch a little bit higher than usual. Noise-cancelling-wise, it performed well against a backdrop of voices in a coffeeshop.
Messaging
Messaging can be done through the standard fare of Android Messenger, which is the android equivalent of iMessage. The browser client allowed me to reply and compose messages on the desktop, much like the iMessage counterpart in iOS for Macs. The keyboard input is smooth and responsive, given that the unit has 8 cores of processor power and 6 GBs of RAM.
Signal and Data
Overall a solid experience with blazing fast LTE. Couple this with an unlimited data plan, you can take advantage of its 2G, 3G, 4G, and LTE data connectivity. However we experienced a slight issue with LTE connectivity, as sometimes the phone goes down to 3G even when LTE signal within the area is available.
A workaround can be done however, as you can force the unit to grab LTE signals through the testing interface with dialing *#*#4636#*#*.
UPDATE: If you update the phone’s firmware to OPM1.WW_Phone-15.2016.1901.186–20190121, the device does seemingly exhibit the same behavior, but it does try to catch the higher signal bands (in my case, from Edge/2G to HSDPA or 3G+). Not too shabby but it’s a start.
Battery Life
Given that the phone has 5000 mAh, pushing the Zenfone through daily tasks such as calls, messaging, emails, productivity, games, and video/audio consumption is managable even without recharging. Most of the time, you will still retain at least 25% of battery when coming home for the day . That is at around 75% battery consumed for heavy and daily use.
The battery charges quickly with the adapter that comes with the unit. Trying to charge it with any other adapter makes it charge slowly, even when using the iPad adapter from Apple. Going from 5% -> 30% is quick in 30 minutes, given the size of the battery being charged (I’m not sure about the rated fast charging feature of this unit, this is what I typically have experienced when charging it). Phone heating is also tolerable with the phone’s plastic body build, as these do not thermally conduct heat too much unlike my experience with unibody metal phones like the iPhone (where it becomes a hot potato after playing 30 minutes of Honkai Impact 3).
And finally, the use of MicroUSB is a bit of a letdown, as the capacity of the unit would have allowed me to charge my other devices with it. Most probably it might be by design, as adding a powerbank feature for the phone might cause the battery to degrade faster than usual.
Media Consumption
Videos and Pictures look stunningly amazing on the 6.26 inch IPS screen. The colors shown on the screen are neutral, and do not exhibit the same vividness as the ones usually shown on Samsung phones. The wide 19:9 screen ratio gives a solid feel when watching movies and TV shows on the phone. However, it comes with a single speaker, so you will need to make use of a headphone, wired or wireless.
If you do settle to use the single speaker audio, you can still make use of it as it blasts sounds well enough for a pseudo stereo feel. Trying to crank up the volume higher than 80% might be a problem as it might exhibit issues with playing low bass notes, especially sound effects that comes from exploding material (or exploding items in movies, like in Michael Bay ones). I didn’t notice any issues with high-pitched sounds in the unit.
As a footnote, our test unit did not come with an audio headphone. I used my own AKG in-ear earphones from Samsung as test, and for bluetooth audio I used Sony XB650BT. We have confirmed that retail models will definitely have an audio headset and a free clear case to come with it.
Productivity
For daily productivity the wide-screen gave a better quality of life (QOL) in working with productivity apps, such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. A huge benefit of the wide screen is the accessibility of remote desktop as the android system allowed you to pair a mouse and a keyboard with it. Plus points for its battery capacity, so you can be assured to have enough juice to work on anything at any time of the day (especially for those on call).
Photography
Now to the most salient aspect of the phone that is now in focus: the phone’s photography capabilities. Given that the phone’s box indicates that Asus Loves Photography, this should definitely take the cake.
Our test photos were taken in low light and with key light. We will be comparing photos taken with an iPhone XS, a current flagship offering and a contender for getting the best mobile phone photos. Our test photos are taken on Automatic setting, and sometimes we will try and take HDR shots to try and compare more on how the camera will compensate and adapt to low light scenarios. We took the low-light photography testing route as this is the most challenging part of most mobile phone photography hardware, given the limited amount of photo sensors you can pack in a phone.
The Zenfone Max Pro M2 captures more vivid colors against the photos taken by the iPhone XS. For buildings and the night lights, the Zenfone loses out on the finer details of the shot, particularly in the light sources. For certain subjects that are illuminated with elements that are not, it loses some of the details on the non-illuminated objects while keeping them in the shot. The iPhone however, does not try to compensate and leaves the non-illuminated subjects… ahem… in the dark.
Photos taken from Zenfone Max Pro M2.
For comparison,photos taken from an iPhone XS
Gaming
For using the phone as a gaming platform, the Asus Zenfone Max Pro M2 tries not to disappoint with its Octa-Core Qualcomm SDM660 Snapdragon 660, 6 GBs of RAM, and Adreno 512 for its GPU. This combination should be more than enough for you to play most games in the store, such as Rules of Survival, PUBG, and Mobile Legends. Some games however, might take a backseat with this phone as it starts to stutter to varying degrees.
Given the phone’s battery is larger than usual, you can have longer gaming sessions without worrying about finding an outlet or bringing in a powerbank. However keep in mind that given a long gaming session will heat up the phone (though not noticeable) and might cause performance to throttle. Make sure to put in breaks in between sessions to maximize your phone’s gaming performance.
Overall Rating
The phone is an amazing piece of engineering where thinking of these specs in your pocket in nigh-unthinkable. Given the price of the product, it provides a solid experience comparable to most flagships, at a fraction of the cost. However, keep in mind that despite its appearances it is indeed a phone that matches its price, and you will find yourself compromising on some aspects (such as low-light photography, and super high-end gaming).
Critical Review Verdict: Recommended Buy for its price, but don’t expect it to blast through like a flagship phone (but it looks like one). Overall a solid competitor for today’s mobile-oriented and price-savvy user.
