Asus ZenFone Max Pro M2 Isn't A Flagship Smartphone, But It's A Budget Buyer's Best Friend

When the Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1 launched in May last year, it was pretty resounding success for the company.

This time around, the ZenFone MaxPro M2 looks to repeat that performance, with improved performance, design, and keeping the favourite large battery and stock Android choices.

Images courtesy Gwyn D'Mello/Indiatimes

Nice to see, good to hold

The M2 has been given a nicer glossy rear panel than the original, giving the device a new sleeker look that's also nice to hold. It only comes in two colours unfortunately, Blue and Titanium grey. It is also, unlike its predecessor, made of plastic, so it likely can't take as much of a hit.

The Max Pro M2 features a vertically-aligned dual camera setup on the rear, alongside an LED flash. The fingerprint scanner is conveniently located on the rear, so you can easily reach it with your finger. The front meanwhile sports a 6.26-inch display with Corning Gorilla Glass 6 and the now very familiar iPhone X-like notch.

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It features incredibly thin bezels on the sides and top, though there's still a fairly significant chin. Like it's done with its devices before, Asus has given the Max Pro M2 a bit of a curve to fit your hand. The power and volume buttons sit on the right spine while the SIM tray is on the left. The Micro-USB port, and 3.5mm jack meanwhile sit on the bottom, as does the loudspeaker.

Average but reliable performance

Like with the Max Pro M1, the successor also features a fairly powerful processor for its mid range price point. This time around it's the 1.95Ghz Snapdragon 660, compared to the 636. As for memory, they come available in different variants at their own price points. You can opt for the base model with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, 4GB/64GB, or the 6GB/64GB of storage. A little more internal storage would have been nicer though, despite the microSD support up to 2TB. The device also supports dual nano SIM slots.

Also Read: Asus Zenfone Lite L1 Review: At Rs 5,999 It's Cheap And It Knows It, And It Surely Shows It

All in all though, the Max Pro M2 had some pretty smooth performance to boast about. Thanks to the stock Android on board as opposed to Asus' custom of the past, regular usage was completely lag free. PUBG Mobile meanwhile had to be run on about middling graphics, but at least it was smooth as silk there, though it was fairly warm after a 20-minute-long session.

Visuals that could use work

The display meanwhile is really bright, like comfortable usage in sunlight kind of bright. The colours aren't much to talk about, but then again this isn't a flagship. The camera meanwhile is composed of a 12MP f/1.8 and a 5MP primary and depth sensor respectively on the rear. The front sports a 13MP f/2.0 selfie camera.

The ZenFone Max Pro M2 seems to have just the right amount of saturation in photos, but the exposure setting in auto mode tends to get a little wonky towards the high side. Low-light photography wasn't much to brag about either, but at least there's a Pro mode in the pre-installed camera app to fix all that.

Go all day

One of the big wins for this device though is that it has a truly massive 5000mAh battery. Unfortunately though, aside from being microUSB and not shifting to Type-C, the M2 also doesn't support quick charging, which seems like a serious bit of oversight considering that beast juicing it. So if you bottom out your battery, settle in for a long wait as you charge it up; you're likely to only get around half charge in an hour.

Also Read: Smartphones Under 10,000: Here Are 10 Affordable Android Phones You Can Buy On A Tight Budget

The verdict

The Asus ZenFone Max Pro M2 certainly isn't the device of the year, but it's definitely one of the best for its price point. Speaking of which, that's a paltry Rs 14,999 for the 3GB/32GB base model. And now that it's got stock Android too, you really can't go wrong with this buy if you're looking for a cheap device that can get you some great photos for your Instagram.