Asus ZenFone 3 Max (ZC553KL)

Asus ZenFone 3 Max : Review

The ZenFone 3 Max features a metal unibody and full-HD display
Camera and battery performance is good but the SoC is underpowered
The Asus ZenFone 3 Max (ZC553KL) is priced at Rs. 17,999 Taking a cue from Gionee’s Marathon series of smartphones, Asus introduced a new ZenFone Max model at the start of this year. The focus was on delivering the maximum possible battery life without making too many compromises. The result was a decent package that balanced performance and price well enough, while still delivering its key objective.

Asus ZenFone 3 Max design and build



The design is one of the first things that will catch your attention. It’s not as busy as the other higher-end ZenFone 3 models, yet ends up looking really good. It feels sturdy too when you hold it, which is partly thanks to the unibody aluminium chassis. The grip is ergonomic and the buttons lined up nicely against our thumb.
Asus has gone with a 5.5-inch full-HD IPS display which fixes one of the biggest gripes we had with its predecessors. It produces sharp pictures, and brightness is very good, even under direct sunlight. The slim bezel reduces the width of the phone, thereby making it a little easier to use with one hand. There’s also a one-handed mode which you can activate in case you wish to do some serious typing on the move. Fingerprints aren’t much of an issue as there’s an oleophobic coating on the glass. What's dissapointing though, is that there isn't any form of scratch protection for the display, which is something we usually take for granted in this price segment.


The ZC553KL is a hybrid dual-SIM phone, which is a bit of a letdown considering the previous model had true dual-SIM functionality. You can opt for a microSD card of up to 128GB in place of the second SIM. There’s a mono speaker on the bottom, just next to the Micro-USB charging port, while the headphones socket is placed on the top. There’s a notification LED in the front and capacitive navigation buttons below the screen, which annoyingly, aren’t backlit.

Around the back, we have a fingerprint sensor just below the camera module. You can use it to answer incoming calls, launch the camera app, or take a picture - but you can’t use it to lock apps or hide files. The bigger issue here is that fingerprint recognition was often not quick enough for us. It didn't misread fingerprints, which is flagged by a slight vibration, but it seemed more to do with the hardware not being able to authenticate fingerprints quickly. The issue was intermittent but was really frustrating when we ran into it.
Asus has done a commendable job in shedding the series’ budget image with the new Max. It looks and feels premium and has a much better display which we definitely appreciate. It’s not the slimmest phone around at 8.3mm, and is quite heavy at 175g, although you really don’t feel the heft too much when you carry it around. The phone ships with a headset, a 10W charger, a data cable, and an OTG cable. You also get 100GB of Google Drive space free for two years as a promotion.