When Asus launched the Zenfone Max Pro M1 in April of 2018, it took the budget segment in India by storm because for a starting price of Rs 10,999, this phone was offering amazing value that time. Over a million units of the phone were sold which was impressive considering there were phones like Redmi Note 5 Pro in the same price range.
Then, in December of 2018, Asus launched the Zenfone Max Pro M2 which, just like the M1, offered amazing specs for a price under Rs 15,000. Just when we thought Asus would continue competing with the likes of Redmi & Realme in the budget segment, CEO Jerry Shen resigned & the company shifted its focus to power users & gamers.
But today, we got to know that four budget smartphones from Asus are in the works, thanks to the information shared by Abhishek on Twitter (@yabhishekhd). These four smartphones are coming with the chipsets codenamed “Lito”, “Lagoon”, “Bengal”, and “Scuba”. We know that “Lito” is the codename of the Snapdragon 765/765G & “Lagoon” is probably the codename of Snapdragon 690. Both of these are 5G chipsets, so these two phones are coming with 5G support.
The chipset with codename “Bengal” could be the Snapdragon 460 or the Snapdragon 662 whereas the one with codename “Scuba” is expected to be an entry-level Snapdragon 200-series SOC.
We have no more details of these phones, but we can expect Asus to revive the Zenfone Max series again & launch the Asus Zenfone Max M3, Zenfone Max Pro M3 & Zenfone Max M3 Lite.