Last week Asus launched something which is right now proving to be the nightmare for Oneplus 3!!! A new version of their Zenfone called the Zenfone 3 Max. Before the official launch, the teaser said "LiveUnplugged", so my expectation was a heavy battery and it was so! Read on to know more...
Following Zenfone 2, this has been named Zenfone 3. Hereafter comes my doubt... Their next may be Zenfone 4 but after that? Coz they already have 5, 6, 7 named after screen size! We've gotta wait & watch. Anyways, this a dual microsim phone as its predecessors.
Appearance: To begin with, the physical appearance is pretty much similar to all other Zenfones. A very slight disappointment. Looking at their teaser, I expected an all metal body (like iphone?)! The 3 other models launched with this have the full metal body, but not this. Anyways, this is nonetheless sleek & professional. The back cover is plastic, however it has a neat leather texture. I totally love the bright orange, totally me!!! Its also available in a bright blue and good old black. Physical Attributes: It runs on a 1.5GHz Octa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 which is more often used in tabs than mobiles and those ones available aren't budget phones! At 202gm this isn't light weight, its weight is felt, but most definitely doesn't feel heavy. At almost 1cm thickness, it cannot be called thin (and with the case that I'll end up putting on it, it gets thick)! The very fact that you need not carry a powerbank along, it is worth the slightly heavier & thicker body. The glass is the Corning Gorilla Glass which is practically unbreakable & unscratchable, but I've never tried to test that and I would never! It was expected that this phone would have a Type C port, however I'm glad it turned out to be a Micro USB. The other 3 versions have fingerprint scanner while this doesn't. Now comes the best part, the whooping battery of 5000 mAH!!!! I mean seriously????!!! That's just a WOW factor. Though I'm not much into listening music and am not much of a gamer, sometimes I end up not carrying my DSLR and use my phone to do photography. Also while traveling I always need my internet esp to find my routes, so my GPS and data are mostly on and so are the map and route apps plus ofcourse almost non-stop social media, which pretty much drain the battery. My present 3100 mAH battery with excessive usage as said above, gets completely drained by late evening/night if I start with full charge in the morning. So with a 5000 mAH battery, for my kinda excessive usage would easily work for almost two days. I ran Youtube in it nonstop for 4 hours at full battery and it drained to 70%, that's without running any other app with a brand new battery. I can assume it would be down to 50% if maps, gps & social media apps are also running simultaneously and after the battery is a few months old. 50% full is pretty good for a 4 hour excessive non-stop usage! UI: It works on the ZenUI built on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, which is a gorgeous, very well customizable UI. Only drawback are the too many built in apps! Capacity: The RAM is 2GB. There is a 3GB version also available. The internal memory is 32GB in all (as opposed to the expectation that 3GB version might have a 64GB). It has a micro SD slot that can handle upto 64GB. Though the 2GB version works pretty well, I'm pretty much used to 3GB RAM's speed coz as I said earlier I mostly have all my social media apps and GPS & maps apps open all the time and my RAM usage is mostly at 1.5 to 1.7 GB! This phone is brand new so it doesn't lag as of now. But over time I'm sure 2GB would lag while 3GB wouldn't.
Camera & Display: At 5.5" its perfect. I prefer my phones at 5.5" or 6" (anyways, my women's jeans pockets are too small to hold anything!), esp because of image editing and photo apps that I deal with, bigger screens means better visuals. Also it can double up as a e-reader and its screen doesn't reflect much or glare much making reading, pleasant. The display is 1200x720 HD which I totally love. The back camera is 13MP and has a LED Flash. This was a point that I felt was necessary in the Zenpad too. For a handheld device to be used as a OTG camera, it must be atleast 13MP and with flash which weren't in the case of ZenPad. I'm more than glad with this device. The other 3 versions have a whooping 23MP back camera which is just awesome. I should try my hand on that sometime! There aren't much difference in the camera settings & options, and there need not be. Asus Camera UI is pretty good in all their gadgets. The front camera is 5MP which is also good for those selfie necessities!!! Come back tomorrow, coz I'm planning to update this post with the pics I shot with this phone. Music & Sound: One thing that totally surprised me was that it has a FM Radio support (no, not the internet radio one, but the earphones act as antenna one)!!
In the Asus Zenpad review I did mention that they have to come up with a 3GB version with 13MP, the hand held device would be perfect and this one is exactly it!!! Priced at just Rs.9999 for the 2GB RAM version and Rs.12,999 for 3GB RAM version, with this kinda specifications, I'd suggest this to anyone who is on the go, you will not be disappointed!
P.S: The product was gifted by the company for review purposes. However the opinion is my own and this post does not advertise the product.
