Asus Zenfone Max

Asus has improved on its Zenfone Max, the phone with the big 5,000mAh battery. It's a good solution for anyone who wants a basic phone that can go on for at least two days. It's got standby time for weeks as well. In fact, with the USB OTG cable provided, it can be used to charge another phone. The battery isn't removable and doesn't really need to be. It just sits there behind a nice textured panel which looks very nice in orange, though blue and black are available too. Despite the battery, the phone isn't as heavy as expected though it's no lightweight.

The Zenfone Max has a nice comfortable screen. The design of the 5.5-inch phone is very typically Asus — mostly nondescript and plain. The other specifications are fine, except that its Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 Octa-core is a little underpowered.

A version with 2GB RAM costs a mere Rs 9,999 and one with 3GB RAM costs Rs 12,999. For this amount, one gets plenty of value for money. There's 32GB internal storage expandable up to 64GB. It works on Android 6.0.1 which is really nice as many budget phones are still on Lollipop. It supports 4GLTE, has dual SIM slots, and a micro-SD card slot.

Unfortunately, there's a huge amount of bloatware on the device. The fun of Android is being able to choose your own apps, even ones that integrate with the system, but the number that Asus has loaded on is a sheer annoyance, to be sure.

The cameras include a 13 Megapixel with f/2.0-aperture and dual-LED flash, Laser Auto Focus and the front camera is a 5 Megapixel, f/2.0-aperture camera with 85 wide-viewing angle. These make good daylight cameras.

A really solid phone, it's an excellent second phone for those who want a reliable device to make endless calls on and use to the hilt without the battery running out the way they do on other phones.