Overview

Another addition for Asus‘ Battery King is Zenfone Max M2 (You can check our Max M1 review here btw). It borrows most of its physical features from Max Pro M2 except for 3D curved glass of it since this is a stripped-down variant. It has a metallic rear panel encased within a plastic frame. You get a colorful 6.3” All-Screen 19:9 HD+ vivid display with minimal bezel, a power efficient Snapdragon 632 processor, dual rear-facing cameras,  amazing audio experience via 5-magnet speakers , a huge 4000mAh battery same with the previous model, and a stock version of Android running Oreo 8.1 which is really really smooth!

Unboxing

Max M2 does not detract from the usual packaging of Zenfone lines. You’ll find the phone on top of it, pulling back the flap, it unfolds displaying compartments and its included accessories. Inside is a silicone clear case, wall plug, micro USB cable, earphones with extra silicone ear tips, sim ejector, warranty card and documentations.

Design

It shares similarly features with other latest Zenfone smartphone. There’s a Micro-USB port at the bottom, 3.5mm audio socket and a microphone at the top, power and volume rocker at the right of the device, and sim tray at the left. There’s a wide slot at the bottom for the speaker. You’ll find a metallic rear panel encased within a plastic frame at the back. Together with the dual camera, LED flash, rear-mounted fingerprint scanner and the Asus brand under it.

Display

Zenfone Max M2 is equipped with a big IPS LCD display panel that measures 6.3-inches and offers a screen resolution of 720 x 1520 pixels. The display has an aspect ratio of 19:9. The IPS LCD screen sports a notch on top which accomodates the front-facing camera, earpiece and sensors, similar to the Zenfone Max Pro M2 that has a front camera paired with an LED flash along with sensors including the notification LED. Notification LED glows orange when the device is being charged while it blinks green when receiving general notification. The display is bright and vivid with the color temperature being slightly on the warmer side. The big display panel does enhance the viewing experience compare to the previous model but unfortunately, it doesn’t come with a higher resolution panel. The only drawback is the display maxes out at 720 pixels while streaming videos online on YouTube and other platforms. Asus didn’t used any reinforced Corning Gorilla Glass protection for the Zenfone Max M2. It would have been appreciated if Asus has applied any Corning Gorilla Glass protection for the display like it used for the ZenFone Max Pro M2.

Camera

It features a dual camera setup at the back. The camera is made up of a 13MP f/1.8 aperture primary camera and a 2MP depth camera that enable portraits with bokeh effects. the camera is fine during our camera testing except for some low light situation given the price point. The 8MP f/2.0 aperture front-facing camera is fine in daylight but failed to deliver great photos in low light situation.

  • Portrait mode
  • Portrait mode

Battery and Performance

It packs with a huge 4,000 mAh battery with fast charging. During our test period, Max M2 delivers a superb battery life. It can last you up to 2 days of usage. I’ve tried to use this phone for a week to replace my primary phone and I’m really not disappointed with its battery and performance. Most of the time, my mobile data and hotspot is enabled on this phone but it didn’t failed to pass our test. Tried couple of games: Mobile Legends, Asphalt 9, DC Unchained, Dragonball Legends and Free Fire and haven’t noticed any hiccups while playing. Although some games might change its graphics quality to low for it to avoid lags.

Hardware and Software

Zenfone Max M2 makes use of an octa-core Snapdragon 632 chipset which is paired with 3gm ram to take care of multitasking. This is a significant upgrade from the usual Snapdragon 430 chipset which the predecessor of this device offers. The Snapdragon 632 chipset is the recent entry-segment processor which Qualcomm had announced back in June 2018 and it brings over 40 percent improvements over the Snapdragon 626 SoC. The device does not lag while testing it out with day-to-day tasks such as web surfing, calling and heavy gameplay. Also, we did not experienced any serious device heating issues with this handset. ZenFone max M2 offers a stock Android UI that runs Android 8.1 Oreo, a noticeable change from the Max M1, which featured Zen UI. It does come with some pre-loaded third-party apps such as Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram. One of the major advantages of being a stock Android device is that they come first in line to receive the Android updates and security patches. It is expected that the device will receive Android Pie sometime in the future.

Asus Zenfone Max M2 is priced at Php 8,995 for the 3GB + 32GB variant.

Specification

  • 6.3″ HD+ IPS display @ 1520 x 720px
  • 2.5D curved glass
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 632 (14 nm)
  • Octa-core (4×1.8 GHz Kryo 250 Gold & 4×1.8 GHz Kryo 250 Silver) CPU
  • Adreno 506 GPU
  • 3GB RAM
  • 32GB Storage
  • Expandable up to 2TB via dedicated microSD card slot
  • 13MP + 2MP f/1.8 rear camera w/ PDAF, LED flash
  • 8MP f/2.0 front camera w/ soft light LED flash
  • WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
  • Bluetooth 4.2
  • GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS
  • 5-magnet speaker with NXP smart amplifier
  • Rear-mounted fingerprint Scanner
  • Face Unlock
  • Stock Android (Android 8.1 Oreo)
  • 4,000mAh battery with fast charging

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