Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1 Review

The Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1 is the newest member of the Zenfone 5 series, built for users who want long battery life without paying a premium. Its headline feature is a 5000 mAh battery that Asus rates for up to two days of use between charges. Alongside it, the phone runs a clean build of Android 8.1 Oreo, records 4K video, and carries both a fingerprint sensor and a face-unlock sensor. It also supports Bluetooth 5. At the time of this review it sold for 220.99 USD on Amazon. It falls short in two areas: it does not include NFC, and the camera app could be further refined.

Design and build

The Max Pro M1 comes in two colours: Meteor Silver, the unit we had, and Deep Sea Black. The case is metal, which makes it feel sturdy. The build is slim, and although the phone keeps roughly the same footprint as older 5.5-inch models, it carries a 6-inch screen with 2.5D curved glass.

The fingerprint sensor sits on the back, set within a bezelled frame that makes it easy to find by touch. The two rear cameras and an LED flash are also on the back. Power and volume buttons are on the right, while the SIM and microSD trays are on the left. The phone supports Dual SIM, and the microSD slot is dedicated, so a memory card can be used at the same time as both SIMs rather than trading one SIM for storage as hybrid trays do. Along the bottom are a USB port, a 3.5 mm headphone jack, and the speaker. A pair of headphones is included in the box.

Screen and software

The 6-inch panel is a Full HD+ IPS LCD at 1080 x 2160 resolution with an 18:9 aspect ratio and a stated contrast ratio of 1500:1. The IPS panel offers accurate colours and wide viewing angles.

The software is one of the phone’s strengths. It ships with a near-stock Android 8.1 Oreo rather than a heavy custom skin, so the interface stays clean and there is no clutter of pre-installed apps that cannot be removed. Asus also bundles 100 GB of Google Drive storage.

For unlocking there are two options. Face unlock, set up from the security menu, recognises the registered face quickly. The rear fingerprint sensor is fast as well and still reads reliably when a finger is wet or damp. The phone also includes Zen Motion gestures from the motion settings, letting you wake or sleep the screen with a double tap or open apps by drawing a letter on the screen.

Performance

The Max Pro M1 sits in the mid-range and runs on the octa-core Snapdragon 636 with Kryo 260 cores clocked at 1.8 GHz and an Adreno 512 graphics processor. That is a step up from the Snapdragon 625. The Zenfone Max Pro M1 we reviewed had 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage, expandable by microSD up to a theoretical 2 TB.

In our benchmarks the phone scored 114,536 in AnTuTu and 4,629 in the Geekbench multi-core test, strong figures for its class. In daily use it felt quick, with no stutter opening or switching between apps during our time with it.

PUBG Mobile ran smoothly on medium settings during testing. The large battery helps here, since extended gaming sessions are where many phones run out of charge.

Battery life

The 5000 mAh battery is the phone’s defining feature and, as Asus claims, it can last around two days between charges. Asus’s official figures list up to 20 hours of YouTube playback, up to 42 hours of calls, and up to 28 hours of Wi-Fi browsing.

In our own mixed-use test — Wi-Fi and LTE, plenty of gaming, heavy social media, texting, email, and calls — the phone lasted close to 48 hours, which is a satisfying result. Charging is reasonably quick: the first 3000 mAh takes about an hour, and a full charge to 5000 mAh takes under three hours.

Cameras

On the back are two cameras: a 13 MP main sensor at f/2.2 and a 5 MP depth sensor at f/2.4, which together enable bokeh shots. The main camera has phase-detection autofocus and supports HDR and panorama, and it can record 4K video. The front camera is 8 MP at f/2.2, records Full HD video, and has its own LED flash for video calls and selfies in low light.

In good light the cameras take solid photos that are fine for social media. As expected at this price, quality drops in low light, where the LED flash helps but does not fully close the gap.

Pros and cons

• Pros: 5000 mAh battery with roughly two-day life; near-stock Android 8.1 with no bloatware; metal build; dedicated microSD slot alongside dual SIM; 4K video recording.
• Cons: no NFC; the camera app could be further refined; low-light photos are weaker.

Who it’s for

The Zenfone Max Pro M1 fits a user who puts battery life and a clean Android experience first, wants solid mid-range performance, and is fine without NFC. For that use, its two-day battery and stock software make it a sensible choice at its price.