Today is the day! After teasers and previews from ASUS Malaysia, the ZenFone Max Pro (M1) is finally here! The smartphone that many of us are waiting for – but is it worth the wait?
From what we know, ASUS was originally planning to sell it on the launch day itself (which is today), but in lieu of 0% GST starting 1st June 2018, why not delay another day to lift that 6% burden off from you?
In conjunction of the launch of the ASUS ZenFone 5 on the same day, check out that review as well!
Let’s take a deep dive into what the ZenFone Max Pro (M1) is really all about.Unboxing
Surprisingly, the ZenFone Max Pro (M1) comes in a rather simple packaging design. It’s unlike anything what we’ve seen before in the ZenFone Max lineup – simple and clean. It has the same “We Love Photo” logo that was first seen on the ZenFone 4 series. Fun fact: that logo has been tweaked to reflect the vertically stacked camera orientation.
Here we also have a quick unboxing video. The charger was provided to us later as originally, it had a Taiwan charger instead. In whichever the case, you’ll be getting all of these items in the itself when you purchase the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro (M1).
ASUS is quite generous to also include an earphone despite the already-very-affordable price tag on the ZenFone Max Pro (M1). The earphone itself however is simply held by a rubber band. Also comes with a total of 3 sets of eartip sizes – S, M, and L.

Here’s the charger, by the way.
[nextpage title=”Design”]
IF you’ve been scouring the market for smartphones around the RM800 price range, you might have came across the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 that was launched not too long ago. That phone and the ZenFone Max Pro (M1) looks awfully similar.
Of course, that’s not a problem since there are many other smartphones in the market that looks pretty much the same – an 18:9 aspect ratio screen at the front without the notch. For the fact that all smartphones are moving away from 16:9 screens and to at least 18:9 is all thanks to what Samsung has done since the Galaxy S8.
At the back, it’s a very 2018 design as it has vertically stacked dual-camera system at the back. Come to think of it, haven’t we seen a similarly designed smartphone from ASUS with this material and finishing for the back and the antenna at the top? I am, of course, referring to the ASUS ZenFone 3 Zoom.

Right: ZenFone Max Pro (M1)
There is a minor color difference but overall, they both look and feel pretty much the same – which is good since the ZenFone 3 Zoom has a very durable build quality.

The included TPU case has little dimples on the inside of the case – which is good as it provides some breathing room between the phone and the case. For this type of case with dimples, if any small particle went inside – especially crystals like salt – it’ll minimize the chance of getting scratched. The ASUS ZenFone 5 has the same case included in the box as well.
However, ASUS didn’t take heed on the fact that the case will make the buttons difficult to press. If the power and volume buttons are of the same height and nearly flushed with the TPU case, then how are we supposed to press them?
The entire phone weighs in at 198 grams with the case.
[nextpage title=”Connectivity & Ports”]
When it comes to connectivity, the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro (M1) has one major advantage compared to other smartphones around this price range – and that’s the triple dedicated slot. Two of them are for nano SIM, and one more for micro SD card. We first saw this type of SIM card trays in the ASUS ZenFone 4 Max Pro that we reviewed here and subsequently the Redmi S2, and I’m really glad that ASUS is continuing the trend with their new ZenFone Max Pro (M1).
With that said, the WiFi module in the ZenFone Max Pro (M1) is pretty standard for this price range as well. It only supports 2.4GHz and up to 802.11n. It does have Bluetooth 4.2 and Qualcomm aptX support. Also, you can monitor your Bluetooth device’s battery life in the Bluetooth page on the phone. Neat.

Also continuing the trend are the ports at the bottom of the phone. There’s a 3.5mm headphone jack, a microphone, a micro USB port for charging and data transfer as usual, and what are these two slits for?
They’re actually a new speaker design that ASUS is using for the ZenFone Max Pro (M1). According to ASUS, the new phone uses a 5 magnet speaker and has NXP smart amplifier built-in so that the sound produce isn’t too loud and damage the speakers physically or cause distorted sound. It sounds clear and loud but has a flat frequency response compared to other phones around this price range.
Those two slits for a speaker on the ZenFone Max Pro (M1) also reminds me of the speaker design as the Samsung Galaxy S9 that we also reviewed here.
Only the bottom-facing speaker works when playing music or games, unlike the ZenFone 5. Learn more about the ZenFone 5’s speakers here.
[nextpage title=”Display”]
For a smartphone in 2018, it’s pretty much a must to have at least an 18:9 aspect ratio screen – and that’s exactly what the ZenFone Max Pro (M1) has. Its display is a 5.99-inch, 18:9 aspect ratio IPS LCD panel with 2160×1080 resolution. The ZenFone Max Pro (M1) has a screen that is 0.22-inch larger than the ZenFone Max Plus (M1) that we reviewed here too. In contrast, the ZenFone 5 has a notched display.
Also, it does have the same rounded edges and chin size like the ASUS ZenFone Max Plus (M1) that we reviewed here. The radius of the rounded edges aren’t that extreme and it’s subtle enough to ignore and not hinder with the user experience by cropping out important elements.
In terms of the color reproduction, it looks okay but a little washed out. Nothing out of the ordinary for an IPS LCD screen, but not too bad as well. You can fine-tune the white balance according to your personal preference too. And yes – for those who actually use the night light feature, the ZenFone Max Pro (M1) has that option.
As for the brightness, it can be very dim or bright until it hurts your eyes. At least it gave me a blinding light since I wasn’t expecting it to be this bright.
Comparing the ZenFone Max Pro (M1) to the ZenFone 5, it is very apparent that the ZenFone 5 has much better contrast. The higher contrast makes everything looks nicer, too.
[nextpage title=”Camera”]
Surprisingly, this is something that people have been asking me since I’ve posted out some teasers of the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro (M1). As stated during our first look at the phone, it comes in a total of 3 variants – and 2 of those variants are getting the 13MP+5MP rear-facing camera setup.
The one that we have for testing is the variant with 3GB RAM with 32GB storage – which is also the base model. In terms of the cameras’ specs, there’s really nothing to wow about. Also, the 5MP sensor merely functions as a depth sensor and cannot be used to take pictures. It’s similar to how the dual-camera setup for the HTC One M8 works. Learn more about it here.
Check out our full review of the ZenFone 5 if you are wondering what’s the difference between these two phones.

- Dual rear-cameras
- 13MP sensor with f/2.2 lens, PDAF
- 5MP depth sensor with f/2.4
- Selfie camera
- 8MP f/2.2, fixed focus
Sample pictures
To view the images below in full size and to look at the EXIF data, click here to go to our Flickr album here.
Rear-camera
To be totally honest, I don’t think the camera is any good – especially in dimly-lit conditions. It’s just terrible – and the camera doesn’t respond well to manually-adjusted ISO to 100 too. It just locks in at that shutter speed – which is disappointing. That picture comparison is also in our Flickr album.
Taken with auto ISO.
Taken with ISO manually set to 100. Why didn’t it change the shutter speed???
White balance is pretty okay most of the time, but sometimes a little too aggressive and corrected an incandescent bulb to be totally white instead of yellow. We uploaded those pictures into our Flickr album as well.
Night shots are… well, noisy. HJR or not, it’s still noisy. I took two night shots – one will full auto ISO, and another one with auto (HJR) option. The difference is minute, and checking the EXIF data reveals minute difference too.
To its credit, when the place is brightly lit, the pictures turn out to be looking mighty fine.
Taken with HDR enabled
Keep in mind that the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro (M1) comes with a dual-camera setup. The secondary 5MP camera is used to gather depth data to create bokeh effect. The bokeh effect here is actually pretty good in separating the subject with the background. If you’re not into bokeh effect, then no worries – the camera has quite a shallow depth of field by default.
Also, it does not have the ability to readjust the bokeh effect after the picture is taken, unlike Honor, Huawei, and Neffos smartphones.
If you’re a professional photographer like Peter M Tan, the ambassador photographer for ASUS Malaysia, then you can actually take some fantastic shots with the ZenFone Max Pro (M1). I’ve seen some of the shots that he has taken, and they look absolutely fantastic.
For more amazing pictures which I have no idea on how he took it, follow Peter’s Facebook ablum here. Still awaiting for him to update them on his Instagram for the ZenFone Max Pro (M1).
Selfie camera
From what ASUS has told us, the variant of ASUS ZenFone Max Pro (M1) with 3GB RAM (the one we have here) has an OmniVision sensor for its selfie camera. We’re not sure what model it is but from what I can tell you, the camera quality is just… bad.
Camera UI & Other Features
From what we know, ASUS is using another camera app called Snapdragon Camera as the built-in camera app instead of using what ASUS has already developed over the years. Shocker, I know. So how does this new camera app work and perform?

One word – simplicity. It guarantees simplicity but sacrificing in terms of extra functionality – and that is alright since ASUS is aiming for “boleh pakai” (can use) camera. The icons are humongous, the fonts are old school, and there’s a clear lack of explanation of all the other features it can do.
There’s no manual mode for this camera app. There is however, an option for manually setting the ISO. Once I pressed on that, I was presented with two flabbergasting options – Auto, and Auto (HJR). WTF is HJR?
Apparently, HJR means Hand Jitter Reduction. Which means opting for higher ISO in favor of shorter shutter – and it actually works – but with only a minute difference as shown above. Once again, the camera app lacks explanation.
As for the bokeh feature, it does a pretty nice job separating the subject with the background. Though, I have to say it once more – the camera is really slow in capturing images, so make sure you stay there for a good 2 seconds after capturing a picture. Maybe ASUS will push out an update to fix this too.
[nextpage title=”Software”]
The one major highlight for the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro (M1) is the pure Android experience that it offers. Android 8.1 Oreo, to be exact. For the first time ever, ASUS is opting out of ZenUI in favor of pure Android – which ASUS said is due to customer feedback that they’ve been receiving.
Keep in mind that the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro (M1) uses pure Android. It is not Android One. The main differences here are that the pure Android 8.1 Oreo experience on the ZenFone Max Pro (M1) is not completely stock Android and updates are handled by ASUS themselves after Google approves the update. ASUS promises there will be firmware updates constantly – especially when bugs are discovered. Is it beneficial?

To me, comparing the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro (M1)’s pure Android experience with ASUS’s latest ZenUI 5.0 found in the ZenFone 5 (which we also reviewed here) is a pretty good idea.
I’ve been fairly okay with ZenUI 4.0 as the bloatware can either be disabled or removed outright. It’s a one-time thing anyway, so it’s not a big deal. There are some pros and cons to pure Android experience, like the lack of any fingerprint gesture. There are many smartphones out there that has the feature to swipe the fingerprint sensor to open or close the notifications panel.
However, ASUS still managed to include some system-level features like Zen Motion into the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro (M1)’s pure Android experience. Sure, this is more like a complimentary feature that doesn’t hinder the system performance or UI – just an additional feature that can be turned on or off by the user.
For some of the more novel features like rolling screenshots and whatnot, ASUS has decided to leave them out of the ZenFone Max Pro (M1). That means you’ll have to wait for Google to include this in the upcoming Android version.
Oh – the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro (M1) comes with 100GB of Google Drive for free too. It even has features to help you to clean up that 32GB of storage to make space for new pictures.
You do have options to unlock with Face Unlock too – but it won’t work in some dimmer conditions. I shined my face with a flashlight from another phone, and it worked. That’s a bummer.
[nextpage title=”Performance & Gaming”]
In today’s benchmarks, we have something really special. ASUS is launching both the ZenFone Max Pro (M1) and ZenFone 5 at the same time – but at its core, they’re both similar if not identical in terms of core specs. Same chipset, same graphics processor, same storage technology, and the ZenFone Max Pro (M1) is available in 4GB and 6GB variants as well. Yet, the ZenFone Max Pro (M1) has a 5,000mAh battery and at a lower price!
Let’s go through the specs first:
- 6-inch 18:9 aspect ratio IPS LCD display with 2160×1080 resolution
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 chipset with 14nm FinFET technology
- 4x 1.6GHz Kryo 260 LP + 4x 1.8GHz Kryo 260 HP
- Adreno 509 GPU
- 96 ALUs
- 3GB LPDDR4X RAM
- 32GB storage
- 5,000mAh battery
I tried with a few more games – Injustice 2, Tekken, and Transformers: Forged To Fight. They all performed exactly the same – smooth gaming experience with consistently high frame rates. The touch sensitivity is great too, if you’re concerned about that.
However, the ZenFone 5 has one big advantage – ZenUI 5.0 and its new features to boost gaming performance. Just bring down the notifications panel and there’s a brand new button called “AI Boost”. Tap on that and you’ll magically get more CPU performance.
Let’s take a look at the charts first and see what’s the real difference.
Seems like the ZenFone 5 does have the upper hand despite having similar specs. Remember – the ZenFone 5 has 4GB of RAM compared to the 3GB RAM of the ZenFone Max Pro (M1) that we have here.
Also, the read/write speed of the ZenFone Max Pro (M1) seems to be different compared to the ZenFone 5 too. From what we can find out, the Max Pro M1 has a lower write speed and a much lower sequential write speed. We suspect that ASUS is using a different memory chip between the two phones.
What about the “limitless gaming”?
ASUS has been collaborating with Pokde.net for the second time earlier this year to host the King Of Mobile challenge. The challenge is simple – to see who is the last man (or woman) standing after a myriad of smartphone games. The most recent one was Garena’s Free Fire. It’s not that demanding for a game.
But what about some heavier games? Let’s try one of the heaviest games that are available for free on the Google Play Store now – Honkai Impact 3.
It was a late night for me that night when I unboxed and started testing the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro (M1), and I installed Honkai Impact to have some fun with it. To my surprise, the game ran smooth at 60FPS most of the time with everything set to high, other than the resolution was at medium. Take a look at this impromptu video that I filmed.
Wow! Even the Huawei P9 Plus that I had as a secondary phone couldn’t run Honkai Impact 3 smoothly at its lowest settings. Better yet, the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro (M1) can actually run the Sakura Samsara open world map with buttery smooth performance as well!
Remember – the pure Android 8.1 Oreo experience here means that the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro (M1) doesn’t have any advantage such as AI optimization or whatever Game Genie magic that ZenUI has.
On top of that, with such graceful performance comes the next big question – the battery life.
[nextpage title=”Battery & Charger”]
Continuing the one major feature that defined the ZenFone Max series is the humongous battery. ASUS is continuing the trend by including a 5,000mAh battery inside the ZenFone Max Pro (M1) – the largest and most overkill battery for a smartphone ever. Personally speaking, we’ve been spoiled by the ZenFone 3 Zoom’s power efficiency combined with a 5,000mAh. I never had to charge the phone for 2 days and I still don’t have to charge it.
With that said, here is the battery life test result for the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro (M1).
With the efficiency of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 636 chipset, the battery life can be extended and defeat the Zoom by a long shot.
Charger
I think it’s a common feat now where ASUS is just including the same charger for all of its smartphones. I mean, ASUS has been using this exact same 5V 2A charger since the ZenFone 3 series – with a few phones having a black colored charger instead of white.
It took me long enough to drain the battery – and in less than 3 hours, the battery was charged from 15% to 100%! Take a look at the charging graph here.
It took about 50 minutes to charge from 15% to 50%, and an hour and a half to charge from 15% to 75%. After that when the charging curve starts to plateau, it takes a total of 2 hours and 42 minutes to charge from 15% to 100%. Learn more about the charging curves here.
For those who are charging your phone while you sleep, then the total charge time of 2 hours and 42 minutes isn’t a big deal at all. Once you wake up, you have the ZenFone Max Pro (M1) fully charged up and ready to last for a total of 2 days of usage. Two days. One charge. It’s just insane.
[nextpage title=”Wrapping up the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro (M1) review”]
We have to first consider the price of the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro (M1). At just RM699 for the variant with 3GB RAM and 32GB storage that we have here, it’s a really compelling offer. Their claim of it being a “limitless gaming” smartphone does hold up too. Just to recap – have a look at our quick demonstration video with Honkai Impact 3. Coupled with a 6-inch 18:9 screen with 1080p resolution and 5,000mAh battery, I can game for hours without needing to charge!
But what are the downsides? The camera is obviously the downside. The ZenFone Max Pro (M1) we have here is the 13MP+5MP variant – we don’t know how the 16MP variant performs yet. But for this smartphone in particular, the camera is the only thing holding it back. From the hardware to its software – the camera just isn’t good. Sure, it gets the job done – but don’t expect to take pretty pictures since it doesn’t even have manual mode, especially indoors or in low-light condition.
For those who seek to be gaming all day and want a really low-priced smartphone, then there is no other option. Look for the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro (M1). You’ll have to bear with some trade-offs, though.
If you’re looking for a more beautiful and feature-filled version of the ZenFone Max Pro (M1), take a look at the ZenFone 5 that we reviewed here. It still uses Snapdragon 636, but everything else is completely different.
Did I mention there are 4GB RAM and 6GB RAM versions too? For the list of differences between the variants and prices, check out this post.
Where to buy?
Over at Lazada. They’re having a bunch of sales too – so make sure you catch them!
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