With the country's first Snapdragon 632-powered processor, still has stock Android and offering a pocket-friendly solution compared to it's "Pro" brother, can the Asus Zenfone Max M2 will be one of your top considerations in under 10K price segment? Here's our verdict.
Except for that different wallpaper offering, we got a run of the same stock Android of Zenfone Max M2 compared to Max Pro M2 but we had to lower our expectations a bit on the newly introduced Qualcomm Snapdragon 632 processor. All is well for us in terms of app compatibility, multi tasking and to swtiching of apps
From 32 GB of internal storage, this phone gave us at around 23 GB left to work on our additional apps while we made this one as a daily driver.
Connection was pretty fine from calls, texts, Bluetooth, mobile data, WiFi, GPS and OTG support. Glad to know (in case you did not saw that in other reviews) that it has dual 4G on both sim slots
It was our first encounter with Snapdragon 632 processor which we expected that it will have lower figures compared to Snapdragon 636 and even with the likes of Helio P60. Antutu said that the device has 103,167. On multi tasking it was a breeze for us but we felt that we had a weaker in some game titles like Asphalt 9 and PUBG.
On battery with it's 4,000 mAh battery, it was definitely the brightest star in Max M2's notes in our video battery run down test at 18 hours and 42 minutes. Using it in heavy mode and with 6 hours of screen time, we can get this one between 27 to 33 hours of usage. Charging the phone with 5V 2A charger can do quite fast for it's given output at 2.5 hours from 0 to 100%
The camera UI was the same-same that we already saw on our Max Pro M2 6 GB RAM review which we were disappointed. We can forgive a bit on the Max Pro M2 but not anymore on the Max M2, too old school as we seen in some Snapdragon-powered Jellybean phones. Lack of camera options and not on point HDR mode. We can only have proper pics in a well-lit environment but night time, expect lotsa noise. The selfie camera was only good for us for social media postings.
Asus Zenfone Max M2 rear camera samples
On extras: the "old' thing that we seen on the camera UI continued on the radio app. The reception was not that good when you are about to walk
Asus Zenfone Max M2 has it's released within the first quarter of this year. A few months after, the SRP remained the same at Php 8,995 which is still a bit on the safe side with new challengers like Honor 8C and the Redmi Note 7. The obvious strengths of Max M2 are the stock Android experience, connectivity department, new processor offering and battery life. What we do not like so far is the old school UI on the camera which leads to limited camera options, not a good low-light camera phone and our issue on the FM radio. For us, it's gonna be 3.5 out of 5 for Asus Zenfone Max M2
