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Asus Zenfone Max M1 Review: The Pint-Sized Battery King

Jamie Inocian

Let’s Take a Closer Look at the Zenfone Max M1!

Asus kicked off 2018 strong with the introduction of the Asus Zenfone Max Plus M1; a device that first used the “Battery King” moniker and the first phone in the Taiwanese brand’s lineup to sport an 18:9 display. While all the hullabaloo surrounding the brand is centered around the Zenfone 5 family, another member of the Max lineup kinda went under the radar — the Asus Zenfone Max M1. Is this pocketable Max device worth considering? That’s what we’re here to help you find out.

Asus Zenfone Max M1 Specs

Design Is Up to Snuff, Build Stays the Same

While the Max Plus M1 had something new to offer for the Max line up and Asus’ mobile division at the time, it’s design still greatly resembled phones from the past year. This isn’t the case for the smaller Max M1, which uniformly fits into the rest of the releases from Asus. It’s got a unibody build with vertically stacked dual cameras on the rear along with the fingerprint scanner just above the company’s logo. It would be a shoe-in for a “Zenfone 5 Mini” if it weren’t for the lack of the signature concentric circles and the choice of materials that makes up the device.

As mentioned earlier, you’ve got a unibody build to help with the phone’s durability but it is mostly made up of polycarbonate plastic. It’s been giving a metallic finish to make it appear like it’s got an aluminum chassis but its weight and feel definitely give it away. While we would have liked to see a metal bod on the Max M1, it is still well-built and our review unit survived a few tumbles here and there. Sorry, Asus.

Good Display for Better Battery Life

While a taller aspect ratio was once reserved for mid-range offerings, it has trickled down to the sub-10k price point. In the case of this phone, you’ve got a 5.5-inch HD+ IPS LCD panel with an acceptable amount of bezel on all sides. While we all crave for Full HD+ resolution on our devices, Asus has specifically created the Max line to have a ton of lasting power and this display really helps out in that end. Picture quality isn’t that bad either once you accept that you won’t go past 720p. Colors come out great and viewing angles are very forgiving too.

As far as audio goes, we’ve definitely heard louder from a device in this price bracket but the speaker on the bottom gets the job done; though we do recommend using headphones if you’re going to be watching vids while commuting to and from work so you actually hear the content your watching.

Snapdragon 430 Still Puts in the Work

One thing that many of you may clamor for on this device is a better SoC, after all, the Snapdragon 430 is a little over two years old now. One thing you do have to remember though is that the 430 used to be the darling in the mid-range segment and to have in a device that’s just below Php 9k is still acceptable at this point in time. It handles the day-to-day without any major issue and just a few hiccups every now and then.

If you’re looking to game with the Max M1 that’s completely possible as well just as long as you’re not expecting to play on the highest settings. Let’s take a look at the gaming benchmarks.

Tekken. Average of 33FPS at 28% stability.
Vainglory. Average of 43 FPS at 90% stability.
PUBG Mobile. Average of 25 FPS at 97% stability.

Overall, you’re getting a pretty good gaming experience on this device and we’ve managed to score a couple of Chicken Dinners at PUBG Mobile as the game wouldn’t stutter during key moments. The stability on Tekken may be a little alarming but the major dips often came at initial loading screens, where there happens to be a ton in this game. Expect a few frame rate drops but it’s completely playable.

ZenUI 5.0 is Lighter

The Zenfone Max M1 ships with Android Oreo 8.0 out of the box with the newest version of the Taiwanese brand’s UI overlay ZenUI 5.0 and we’re happy to see that we’re seeing less and less bloatware with each new iteration. There are only a handful of apps from Asus themselves plus Facebook, Messenger, Instagram aside from the usual stuff from Google. After all the pre-installed software, you’re left with 22GB of storage to play with.

You also have the facial unlock available on the Max M1 but you will run into a few issues in low light situations. Thankfully, there’s a fingerprint scanner that has a good margin of error but it isn’t the zippiest. We’ll take that over not having the option though.

Cameras are a Hit or Miss

For its shooters, you have a dual rear camera setup. It’s comprised of a 13-megapixel main at an aperture of f/2.0 plus the typical 8-megapixel camera with a 120-degree field of view. Unfortunately, results may vary in terms of exposure and you might have noticed that it has a tendency to blow out highlights. The white balance also tends to favor cooler tones with a bit of a blue tinge when using the wide angle camera. Overall quality is on par with devices in the same bracket but the portrait mode does a good job at giving you that software-assisted bokeh. Shots in low-light conditions will suffer from a loss in quality and expect a fair bit of noise as well.

For taking selfies, you have a 13-megapixel front camera at an aperture of f/2.2. One of the things we didn’t like about the selfie camera is that focus can be a little tricky and has a tendency to blow out highlights as well when lighting isn’t dead on. Make sure you take a lot of safeties if you like taking self-portraits.

Lasts Long, Tops Up Fast

This wouldn’t be a Max device if it didn’t have a big battery capacity and on the Max M1 you have a 4000mAh battery. Sadly, we’ve been running into a lot of issues with PCMark’s battery tests so we’re unable to give you an exact number on its longevity but it was definitely on track to give us results beyond the 14-hour mark. Using it as our daily driver, we managed to get a solid two days with moderate use and a day and a half if it was a particularly busy day.

One good thing about the Max M1 is that it finally supports fast charging, which means you’re spending less than two hours to get topped up from 0 to 100.

Verdict: Lasting Power Over Lightning Performance

The last couple of years really saw brands duking it out in the mid-range but we’re seeing the battle spill on to the sub-10k price point as well. While there are a lot of choices to consider in this price bracket, there’s only a handful that offers the same lasting power that the “Battery King” line of devices offer. If you’re looking for a device that has the ability to last a full day without having to top it up with a power bank or a power outlet, the Asus Zenfone Max M1 should definitely make it to your shortlist. On top of that, you’re getting a nice and tall display plus a decent processing package that can still handle the day-to-day and a bit of gaming too.

This Pint-Sized Battery King, The Asus Zenfone Max M1, is priced at Php 8,995.

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