Asus Zenfone Max Pro M2 & Max M2 launched in India

Finally, the much awaited Zenfones launched in India today, and it looks like Asus just killed almost every phone priced under Rs 15,000 in India with the Zenfone Max Pro M2. The Zenfone Max M2 is the successor of the Max M1 whereas the Asus Zenfone Max Pro M2 is the successor of Zenfone Max Pro M1.

Asus listened to its users, and almost every single issue with the Max Pro M1 has been fixed in the Max Pro M2. In fact, the successor has some features that we don’t see on any phone at this price.

ASUS ZENFONE MAX M2

The design of the Asus Zenfone Max M2 remains unchanged from the design of Max Pro M1, at least from the rear. On the front, there is now a display with notch and slightly slimmer bottom chin. The back panel is made up of metal, and there is plastic on the top and bottom for better signal reception.

According to Asus, the phone has 88% screen-to-body ratio, and the device weighs 160 grams. Despite having a 4,000mAh battery, the weight is pretty less which is something we saw with the Max Pro M1 as well. The Max M2 is 7.7mm thick. The ports and the button placement remains the same as on the Max Pro M1. There is a triple card slot which means you can add two SIM cards as well as a micro SD card at the same time.

The Asus Zenfone Max M2 has a 6.26-inch HD+ 19:9 display with a resolution of 1520×720 pixels. The display brightness can go up to 430 nits, and the company didn’t mention any Corning Gorilla Glass protection which is not good.

The Zenfone Max M2 is the second phone to launch in India with Snapdragon 632 after the Honor 8C. The Snapdragon 632 has the same GPU as on the Snapdragon 625. So, don’t confuse yourself with the name. It is more of the successor to the Snapdragon 625 than the Snapdragon 630. Still, it is a pretty capable 14nm chipset with Kryo 250 cores and Adreno 506 GPU. There is 3/4GB RAM and 32/64GB internal storage.

The Zenfone Max M2 has a primary 13MP rear camera with f/1.8 aperture and 1.12μm pixel size. The secondary rear camera is a 2MP depth sensor. The primary camera can shoot 4K videos as well. On the front, there is an 8MP camera with f/2.0 aperture and 1.12μm pixel size. There is LED flash on the front as well.

Unlike the 5,000mAh battery in the Max Pro M1, the Asus Zenfone Max M2 has a 4,000mAh battery that supports normal 10W charging and it can, according to Asus, last up to 2 days on normal usage. Android 8.1.0 Oreo runs out of the box, and yes, the phone has stock Android UI.

Some other features of the phone include a 5-magnet speaker, NXP SmartAmp, Dual 4G VoLTE, etc.

Talking about the pricing, the 3GB RAM + 32GB ROM variant of the Max M2 is priced at Rs 9,999 whereas the 4GB RAM + 64GB ROM variant is priced at Rs 11,999. Since the Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1 with Snapdragon 636 is priced at Rs 11K in India, it makes no sense to go for the 4GB variant of Max M2. But, the 3GB variant seems a great choice.

ASUS ZENFONE MAX PRO M2

The Asus Zenfone Max Pro M2 is the latest mid-range device from the company with a beautiful design and great specifications. Unlike the predecessor, the Max Pro M2 has a glass finish on the rear (not actual glass) which, the company calls a 16-layer Wave Finish design. The back panel is scratch resistant, so it won’t get scratched so easily. The dual camera setup is arranged vertically, and the fingerprint scanner is also placed on the back.

Asus says that the Zenfone Max Pro M2 has the smallest full-function notch in this segment. Now, you might think that the Realme 2 Pro has a waterdrop notch. But, a full-function notch means that the notch has everything from front camera, normal sensors (Proximity and Ambient Light) to the LED flash and the notification LED. The display has the same size as the Max M2.

We would’ve liked a USB Type-C port, but the phone still has the micro USB port. The presence of headphone jack is, however, a good thing.

Coming to the specifications, the Asus Zenfone Max Pro M2 has a 6.26-inch Full-HD+ IPS LCD panel with 94% NTSC Color gamut, 1500:1 contrast ratio and an aspect ratio of 19:9. For the first time, we see a phone in this price segment with the Corning Gorilla Glass 6. This is one of the best things about the Max Pro M2 as no other phone has Gorilla Glass 6 at this price. The Gorilla Glass 6 is engineered to survive at least 15 consecutive drops from a height of 1 meter.

The Asus Zenfone Max Pro M2 has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 chipset which, like the Realme 2 Pro, is underclocked at 1.95GHz as compared to the normal clock speed of 2.2GHz. The Snapdragon 660 is a powerful 14nm octa-core chipset with the Adreno 512 GPU. There is 3/4/6GB RAM and 32/64GB internal storage. Just like the Max M2, there is a triple card slot so you can add two SIM cards as well as a micro SD card at the same time.

The camera on the Zenfone Max Pro M1 was not that good, but the Max Pro M2 comes with an impressive setup. There is a dual camera setup on the rear with a primary 12MP Sony IMX486 sensor having f/1.8 aperture and 1.25-micron pixel size. The secondary camera is a 5MP depth sensor. The rear camera has EIS for videos as well. The primary rear camera can shoot 4K videos.

On the front, there is a 13MP camera with f/2.0 aperture and LED flash. There is EIS for videos for the front camera as well. Features like beauty mode and portrait mode are present on both the front and rear cameras.

The Asus Zenfone Max Pro M2 has a huge 5,000mAh battery under the hood, and despite that, the phone weighs only 175 grams. This makes it lighter than most of the phones in this segment with big batteries. The image above shows the weight comparison of various phones in this price segment like Realme 2 Pro, Honor 8X and Redmi Note 6 Pro. There is still no fast charging support so the phone charges via the normal 10W adapter.

Android 8.1.0 Oreo runs out of the box, and the phone has stock Android UI with almost no bloatware.

Finally, coming to the pricing, Asus nailed it with the pricing of Asus Zenfone Max Pro M2. The 3GB + 32GB variant is priced at Rs 12,999, the 4GB + 64GB variant at Rs 14,999 and the 6GB + 64GB variant at Rs 16,999.

Both the Zenfone Max Pro M2 and Zenfone Max M2 are Flipkart Exclusive in India. The Zenfone Max Pro M2 will go on sale on December 18 whereas the Max M2 on December 20. Asus also announced that the Android Pie update for Zenfone 5Z would start rolling out from January 2019 whereas that for the Max Pro M1 from February 2019.