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Asus Zenfone 3s Max Unboxing, Quick Review, Gaming, Battery and Benchmarks

Asus Zenfone 3s Max has arrived in India, taking over from the Zenfone 3 Max launched in November last year. It comes with a 5.2 inch HD IPS display with a 2.5D curved glass. It is powered by MediaTek MT6750 SoC with an octa-core processor and runs on Android 7.0 Nougat. The Asus Zenfone 3s Max has a 13MP PixelMaster camera and a big 5000 mAh battery.

The Asus Zenfone 3s Max comes in a white box with content on all its corners. On the front we can see Asus Zenfone 3s pictures and at the back it has all the certification details. On its sides, it has the specifications and highlights of Asus brand name.

Asus Zenfone 3s Max Coverage

Asus Zenfone 3s Max With 5000mAh Battery Launched At Rs. 14,999

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Asus Zenfone 3s Max Camera Review And Photo Samples

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Asus Zenfone 3s Max FAQ, Pros & Cons, User Queries & Answers

Asus Zenfone 3s Max Unboxing

Box Contents

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  • Handset
  • Charger
  • Micro USB cable
  • SIM ejector tool
  • Headphones
  • Warranty card
  • User Guide

Asus Zenfone 3s Max Physical Overview

Asus Zenfone 3s Max has a metallic unibody design, same as what you can see in Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 and Coolpad Cool 1. The difference is size of the phone, it has dimensions of 149.50 x 73.70 x 8.55mm and display size of 5.2 inches. It is indeed a phone that can be used single handed. It looks great, but is a little heavy because of its massive 5000 mAh battery.

Starting on the front, it has a 5.2 inch HD IPS LCD display.

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The front of the phone features an earpiece and on either side of the ear piece, you will find the front camera and proximity sensor.

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On the top, it has 3.5mm headphone jack.

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The phone comes with on-screen navigation keys along with home button cum fingerprint sensor just below the screen.

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On the bottom, it has charging port and two grills. From the two grills, only the right one actually houses the loudspeaker. The one on the left has the mic.

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On the right side of the phone, you get a volume rocker and power button. Plus, the power button is textured to help you distinguish it from the volume rocker.

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The left side of the phone has hybrid dual SIM card slot.

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Turning the phone around, on the back of it, we see a 13 MP camera with dual tone LED flash. Camera adds to the looks of the phone with minimal camera protrusion.

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At the bottom, it comes with a removable sticker which has certification details on it.

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Display

The display of phone is not what is what is offered in this price segment but it has its perk. It comes with 5.2 inch HD display with resolution of 1280 x 720p, which is quite decent for this screen size. It has adaptive screen brightness and is better to read and do work on, when compared with Redmi Note 4 just in daylight readable screen context.

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Overall, display is decent and colors are also bright and sharp.

Camera Overview

The ZenFone 3s Max sports a 13MP camera at the back and 8MP at the front. We tested the camera in 3 light conditions i.e. daylight, lowlight and artificial light; overall I must say the camera performed really well. However, you should have stable hand to click a clear picture, but that’s not something to be bothered on. Auto-focus speed is below the average, but the picture processing is real good. Below are some examples to get a clear view over how the camera performed.

HDR Sample

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Daylight Samples

Artificial light Samples

Lowlight Samples

As you can see above, daylight images are crisp and colors are close to natural. HDR sample looks great but has taken up the contrast levels a tad high. Pixels are perfect and daylight performance seems to be a great one. In artificial light samples, you can see there’s no noise in the pictures, even if you zoom it. Colors are well balanced and you can easily see the focus and read the content in the red bottle picture. Low-light images carry a bit of haze and that is acceptable as the light was literally quite low. Unlike other camera phones, the ZenFone 3s Max focused the subject with minimum difficulty and clicked decent pictures even in low light.

Gaming Performance

The ZenFone 3s Max doesn’t come with a big screen but offers a lag free and smooth gaming session. We played Asphalt 8 for about 15 minutes, keeping the battery levels at 46%. The battery didn’t drop as expected and dropped by 4 % in 15 mints. The phone got a little warm, but this is normal.

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Overall, Asus ZenFone 3s Max gave a good gaming experience.

Benchmark scores

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Conclusion

The ZenFone 3s Max is a decent smartphone with a good set of features. The 5.2 inch screen may come as a disappointment to some buyers as there are other smartphones offering 5.5 inch screen in the same price range. On the other hand, people who like average sized phone will like the Zenfone 3s Max. The 5000 mAh battery is one of its key selling points. All that, in addition to a decent camera and a full set of connectivity options, this phone can be a good option in the mid-range.

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Abhishek Bhatnagar

Abhishek Bhatnagar, a known technology blogger & YouTuber from India. A Software Engineer by qualification, now he works as the editor-In-Chief, Webmaster, & Managing Director at Gadgets To Use. He runs a number of other technology websites as well.