Recently Asus launched Zenfone 3s Max and it faced a lot of backlash due to it’s pricing by some tech enthusiasts. So I spent some time using the Zenfone 3s Max to see if it is any good. So, let’s find out if it’s worth your money or not.
Key Specifications
- 5.2″ 720p display
- MT6750 Mediatek processor
- 3GB RAM
- 32Gb Internal storage
- 13MP/8MP camera
- 5000 mAh Li-Po battery
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Design & Built
The Zenfone 3s doesn’t follow the design theme of the other Zenfone 3’s. It has the fingerprint scanner at the front and shockingly the buttons are on screen. There is a good amount of space left on the sides of the fingerprint scanner which could have been filled by those buttons. The On-screen buttons though seem good in night but it reduces the screen real-estate especially on the 5.2″ display. Asus could have gone for touch capacitive buttons. The display is a 2.5D display because of which the edges of the phone are curvy.
The rear camera is situated on the upper left side of the phone along with a dual tone flash and a microphone. Under the camera, you get an Asus branding. The bottom side of the phone is made up of plastic to maximize the telephonic signals. There is a speaker grill on each side of the micro-USB port but sadly only the right one is the speaker while the left is the microphone. On the left, there is the Sim card/SD card try( Hybrid slot) while on the right you get the power and volume keys.
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Display
The display of the Zenfone 3s Max is Decent. The low resolution of this phone is a bummer. Even though 720p will be less power consuming than a 1080p panel but still 720p is not acceptable for a phone priced 15,000INR. The panel too is just okayish with low contrast.
Camera
There is nothing fancy in Camera as well. a very medium camera which struggles at low light. The photos in daylight though are good. I was expecting a much better camera from Asus this time. Here are some sample images.
Daylight
Indoor Conditions
Low Light
Performance
The Zenfone 3s Max performs well. The MT6750 is an old but powerfull processor. I was easily able to tp play games like Asphalt 8, GTA San Andreas, Real Racing etc and faced no lag at all. It handled ay any task put it very well. To boost the performance further, you can disable some pre-loaded apps which you might not want. Here are some benchmark results-
Antutu benchmark on Zenfone 3s Max – 39430
GeekBench 4 – 599 (Single Core), 2551( Multi-core)
The fingerprint scanner performed well and was able to detect my thumb 90% of the time.
Battery Life
The Zenfone 3s max has 500mAh battery. The MT6750 is not at all a power efficient processor based on 28nm structure. I was able to use the phone for full 2 days and normally I had to charge it every other night. With 500mAh battery and a 720p display, I expected more battery life out of it. This would have been possible if Asus used maybe SD 650 on it. Overall the battery life was good but not something extra order are as the liked of Redmi note 4 has similar battery life and is cheaper than this as well.
Final Verdict
If you are looking for a small phone with great battery life then you can go for the Zenfone 3s Max but If you are fine with 5.5″ then I would suggest you to either buy the Redmi Note 4 or the Honor 6X.
