Zenfone 4 Max a good deal at $200?

[anon(5743667)]

I know it has a Snapdragon 430 processor, but I don’t play demanding games on my phone (aside from word and trivia games and Pokémon Go). The unit I saw at Best Buy impressed me, it has a good bright screen, smooth UI, fast dual camera, huge 5000mAh battery, and a sleek metal build. It’s only $200 which is a great deal. What do you guys think?

 

[jasonandrews25788]

think about moto g5s

 

[anon(141613)]

I've had the Max for a couple of weeks now. It's the first phone I've ever had that runs lots of apps and actually lasts all day without issue. Beats 4000mah phones hands down.

 

[SharkyNY]

I've had this phone for a couple of weeks now as well. It isn't my daily driver just yet, but I'll say that it'd been a good experience. In so far as the value for the price I'd say its a bit tougher to say. I haven't really had any other phones that are typically floating around this price range (Moto E4 Plus, G5 Plus, Axon 7 mini, etc). What I would say is that it really depends on what you are looking for. And by the sounds of it I would say this is probably a good phone for you.

Here's my pros and cons

+Great build quality. The phone has a nice weight to it and while it might be too heavy for some, I appreciate that Asus put in a good effort in so far as the build.

+Have fun trying to kill the battery quickly. Like I said I haven't used this as a daily driver, so I can't say quite how it is day to day, but take this for what you will.

+Main 13MP camera actually takes some pretty good pictures. Asus does a pretty good job in so far as camera performance in this price range. Camera software is also pretty good as it offers a nice range of shooting modes including a Pro mode. Low light photos, while noisy, can actually come out alright. My one complaint is that there is some overexposure in some spots. But again for the price everything else is fine.

+Fingerprint sensor is good. I wouldn't say great, but its very accurate. All I'd say is that its just on the slow side in so far as unlocking the device.

+Asus is on top of their devices with updates. I had a ZF2 and they frequently put out updates for that device. I already got one in the two weeks that I've had this phone. can say how well they'll fair with major software updates, but they do listen to the community and try to address any bugs or performance issues when ever they can.

=Performance has been good for the most part. The one thing that has bothered me a bit has been scroll performance in certain spots (in particular Chrome). This has improved after the update though, so it hasn't been that much of an issue of late.

=Earpiece speaker has good volume, but people sound a bit muffled.

-Screen is ok. Brightness is good, but colors are pretty drab. I guess its tough being that my other phone is a OnePlus X with a great 1080P AMOLED screen. There are certain things that also let you know you are holding a 720P 5.5 inch screen, in particular text and some images. I'd say this is probably the phone's biggest weakness.

-Secondary rear camera with wide angle lens is just meh. With good lighting you might be able to get a good image, but there's plenty of noise in most images. Pictures also come out a bit darker (honestly not surprising since the aperture is smaller at f/2.2 v f/2 for the main camera). I appreciate Asus' effort to bring high end features to lower end devices, but I'd rather have something more useful like laser auto-focus, which they included in one of the lower-end ZF3 phones last year.

-Speaker is modestly loud, with just a hint of bass. Asus has an outdoor mode that increases the volume, but does away with any bass and sounds shrill at the highest volume levels.

Here's an album with some of the pictures I've taken with the ZF4Max.: https://photos.app.goo.gl/HV34VmlbL6FM9QRf2

 

[SharkyNY]

Disappointing development. The ZF4M got two big scratches. One is fairly deep as well. Not sure what sort of glass is supposed to be on this, but there's no indications on Asus' website. I have a feeling its not Gorilla Glass though because I've had a OPX for a couple years and it doesn't have any scratches that are as deep as the one that is on my ZF4M. Ditto for my Nexus 4 which I used for 2 years and has been rolling around in drawers and shelves for another 2 years. I haven't even been using the ZF4M as my daily driver, so I'm not sure what could have caused these scratches. Screen protector for the ZF4M is a must.

Shallower scratch: https://photos.app.goo.gl/XcEXxpkMH0yfeycK2

Deeper scratch: https://photos.app.goo.gl/b70UWct5Bh1jaIzV2

 

[bitek]

Yes it is. I like it a lot. I bought it for my girlfriend and I think it is excellent phone for the money.the batter is just insanely good.

 

[harmanhds]

i have it
it is the best phone for 200 and it has also 5000 mA battery

 

[Bosgarage57]

This one has been on my radar along with the Honor 7x, but I can't figure out which bands are on the 3GB/32GB variant. Looking for Bands 2/4/12/17 for AT&T.