In April this year, ASUS stunned everyone by launching the ZenFone Max Pro M1 budget Android smartphone in the Indian market, taking Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 5 series head-on. While the company announced three different variants of the handset in April, only the 3GB RAM + 32GB storage and 4GB RAM + 64GB storage versions of…
In April this year, ASUS stunned everyone by launching the ZenFone Max Pro M1 budget Android smartphone in the Indian market, taking Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 5 series head-on. While the company announced three different variants of the handset in April, only the 3GB RAM + 32GB storage and 4GB RAM + 64GB storage versions of the handset have been made available so far. The company recently began teasing the imminent launch of the 6GB RAM + 64GB storage version and has finally confirmed that the variant will be going on sale in India starting this month.
At the ZenFone 5Z launch event in India today, ASUS officials confirmed that the top-end variant of the ZenFone Max Pro M1 will be available for purchase this month exclusively via Flipkart. While no specific date has been confirmed by the company just yet, we can expect Flipkart and ASUS India to share the release date in the coming days. The 6GB RAM + 64GB storage variant of the smartphone will be a direct rival to the 6GB RAM + 64GB storage variant of the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro, which is priced at Rs.16,999 in India.
As confirmed by ASUS previously, the 6GB RAM + 64GB storage variant of the ZenFone Max Pro M1 is going to be priced at Rs.14,999 in India. That’s identical to the current price of the 4GB RAM + 64GB storage variant of the Redmi Note 5 Pro in India. Similar to the 3GB and 4GB RAM variants, you can expect the 6GB RAM variant to be available in Deepsea Black and Gray color options.
The ZenFone Max Pro M1 sports a 5.99-inch IPS LCD display with 1080 x 2160 Full HD+ resolution and an 18:9 aspect ratio. ASUS claims the panel offers a peak brightness of 450 nits, 1500:1 contrast ratio, and 85% coverage of the NTSC color gamut. Powering the budget Android smartphone is Qualcomm’s 14nm Snapdragon 636 mobile processor clocked at 1.8 GHz with an Adreno 509 GPU. As mentioned already, the ZenFone Max Pro M1 comes in three memory configurations – 3GB RAM + 32GB ROM, 4GB RAM + 64GB ROM, and 6GB RAM + 64GB ROM. All three versions include a dedicated microSD card slot for further expansion up to 2TB.
In terms of optics, the ZenFone Max Pro M1 is equipped with a 16MP + 5MP dual-camera setup on the back with phase detection autofocus and an f/2.2 aperture. In comparison, the 3GB and 4GB RAM variants of the smartphone come with a 13MP + 5MP dual-camera setup. On the front of the 6GB variant is a 16MP snapper with an f/2.2 aperture and a soft LED flash. Face Unlock is supported as well for easy unlocking. Users can also use the rear-mounted fingerprint sensor to unlock the smartphone more securely.
Connectivity features include Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 5.0 Low Energy, GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS, and Dual 4G VoLTE. One of the key highlights of the smartphone is a massive 5000mAh capacity battery that offers fast charging support as well. ASUS smartphones are usually quite impressive when it comes to the audio department and the ZenFone Max Pro M1 is no exception. The manufacturer has equipped the handset with a 5-magnet speaker and an NXP Smart Amp. As for physical size, the ZenFone Max Pro M1 measures 159 x 76 x 8.46mm and weighs in at 180 grams. The smartphone runs on the Android 8.1 Oreo operating system out of the box and is guaranteed to receive at least two major OS upgrades.
