Close on the heels of the Lenovo P2 and the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 comes the Asus Zenfone 3S Max. Priced at Rs 14,999, the phone packs in a large 5,000mAh battery and goes head-to-head with both the Lenovo and the Xiaomi in the ultra-competitive big-battery budget segment. One-trick pony, or is there more to the 3S Max than meets the eye?
Straight out of the box, the 3S Max looks like a lot of phones out there with its premium-looking yet generic all-metal design, curved rear edges, subtly curved-edge display and a gold colour variant. Not sure though why Asus chose to go with a fingerprint sensor/physical home button but skipped on the other buttons on either side, which now end up consuming valuable screen estate. The 5.2-inch screen by itself is bright enough for outdoor use, but the keen eye will notice that this is a HD (720 x 1080) pixel display, a tad disappointing given that phones priced under Rs 10,000 offer full HD panels.
Under the hood is a MediaTek MT6750 octa-core chip coupled with 3GB of RAM along with 32GB of internal storage (expandable via microSD card). While I faced no issues in day-to-day use or while gaming, the phone did have a propensity to lag occasionally while navigating the heavy ZenUI Android skin. One can’t help but wish Asus had opted for a restrained, more ‘vanilla’ approach with the Android 7.0 Nougat that the 3S runs on. Camera performance too is somewhat average and you are left wanting for details in anything less than perfect light conditions.
On its own, the Asus Zenfone 3S Max is a competent smartphone with strong battery performance, but it is easily overshadowed by the more mature and well-rounded phones from Lenovo and Xiaomi.
Guest Author
The author is Technology Columnist and Program Manager in Bengaluru, India
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