ASUS made a popular name in the smartphone business by introducing the ZenFone series devices at the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The first gen ASUS ZenFones features the Intel Atom series processors, and run Android OS with ASUS ZenUI on top. The company’s first-gen and 2nd-gen ZenFones have been a huge success for the Taiwanese manufacturer in the emerging markets like India. To target the budget buyers in India, the company in January launched the first-gen Asus Zenfone Max phablet.

The brand in May released the 2nd-gen ASUS ZenFone Max model in the Indian market in 2GB and 3GB RAM variants. The second-gen ZenFone Max sports much better specifications than the first-gen offering. It gets a more powerful processor, higher internal storage, and sports a huge battery just like the first-gen ZenFone. The new ZenFone Max 2016 3GB RAM model is for those looking for an Android phablet in budget prices. If you are planning to buy it, then let’s take a look on the features of the device. 

Similar to the first-gen ASUS ZenFone Max, the 2016 model of the same device offers a budget-friendly plastic design. The phone sports a removable back, gold trims running around the sides, and the ASUS trademark chin with concentric metal circles. Even while featuring a large battery, the ZenFone Max 2016 3GB RAM is quite slim with a 10.5mm waistline. The phone is pretty light with its 202 grams weight even being a phablet. Overall, the ZenFone Max 2016 3GB RAM edition sports a premium design for its price range.

The ASUS ZenFone Max 2016 3GB RAM sports an impressive 5.5-inch HD display. The phone gets decent pixel density of 267 pixels per inch to deliver an average media viewing experience. It also gets a layer of Corning’s Gorilla Glass 4 on top of the screen to prevent it against daily scratches. The screen to body ratio of the handset is 68.82 percent. Software-wise, the ASUS ZenFone Max 2016 3GB RAM edition runs Android 5.1 Lollipop, and will be getting its Marshmallow update in the coming weeks. Overall, the phone could have been fitted with a full HD resolution screen and came pre-loaded with less bloatware from the brand.

While the first-gen ASUS ZenFone Max model sports a quad-core Snapdragon 410 SoC, the new 2016 variant of the device is fuelled by a more powerful octa-core 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 SoC. The phone also gets an Adreno 405 GPU and 3GB of RAM to smoothly run high-end games available on the play store. As far as the storage is concerned, the ASUS ZenFone Max 2016 3GB RAM sports 32-gigs of internal memory, which can also be further increased up to 64GB by inserting a microSD card.

Moving on to the camera specs, the ASUS ZenFone Max 2016 3GB sports a 13-megapixel rear snapper, aided by a laser autofocus system, full HD video recording, and a dual-tone LED flash. For selfies and video calling purposes, the handset gets a 5-megapixel secondary shooter on the front. Overall, the phone delivers decent camera specs for its price range. It offers the same camera specs as the first-gen ZenFone Max and the ZenFone Laser smartphone.

As far as the connectivity features are concerned, the ASUS ZenFone Max 2016 variant sports most of the features available on the market. It comes with 4G LTE support for Indian 4G bands, dual-SIM slots for both personal and professional numbers, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS. As for the battery, the handset is fuelled by a massive 5,000mAh battery, which delivers up to 37 hours of talk time on 3G networks and 18 hours of video playback. The handset can also be used as a power bank to let you charge other micro-USB powered devices.

The first-gen ASUS ZenFone Max is an excellent offering with decent features in the budget prices. It has been one of the bestselling Android smartphones from the company in India in the sub-Rs 10,000 price range. The new ASUS ZenFone Max 2016 3GB RAM is a great upgrade over its predecessor with a more powerful processor, higher amount of internal memory, decent camera specs with laser autofocus, and a huge battery.

The phone has been priced at Rs 12,999, and is available on Amazon, Snapdeal and Flipkart, and at a later date, it will go on sale via major brick-and-mortar retail stores across the country. Apart from the usual black and white colour choices, the new ZenFone Max model also comes in orange and blue colour choices. So, are you going for the 2016 edition of the ZenFone Max? or do you have any other phone on your mind? Share in the comments with all.