The Zenfone Max M2 was released not long ago and is one of ASUS’ recommended phones, the #PowerhouseKings. This is my full review of the smartphone.
The #PowerhouseKings compose of the ROG Phone, Zenfone Max Pro M2, and the Zenfone Max M2. The latter being the most budget friendly of the three. I’ve been using it as a daily driver for about a week now, and here are my thoughts.
What’s Inside the Box
Design and Build Quality
The Max M2 have the same design language as the Max M1. The back looks like plastic and it does seem light, but it is very solid to hold in the hand.
front 
back
The display is good and bright, but the colors are not that vivid. I would have also preferred if it was full HD, but I can understand considering its low price point. There is very noticeable notch. Personally, I’m not a fan of notches, but I don’t mind them that much most of the time.
Performance and Gaming
I was pleasantly surprised with the performance of the Max M2. It doesn’t really feel like a budget phone. It is a step up from the Max M1, rocking a Snapdragon 632.
To be honest, I haven’t had the time to fully test it’s gaming capabilities yet. I only played a couple sessions of Asphalt. It did ran smoothly with the phone, which leads me to believe that it would smoothly run most games.
Benchmark Results below:
- AnTuTu – 104045
- PCMark (Work 2.0) – 5931
- 3DMark (Sling Shot) – 932
- Geekbench 4 – 1252 (Single-Core), 4761 (Multi-Core)
Antutu 
PCMark 
3DMark 
GeekBench 4
Camera
Though it performed well, it does fall short with its cameras. This reminds me every time I use it that this is a budget phone. It actually shoots pretty well on perfect lighting. But it suffers on anything less than that. I often get blurry shots on low light situations. The colors of the photos doesn’t seem to pop. Although I think that it’s just because of the screen. The front-facing camera is just the same, if not a bit worse, than the rear-facing camera.
It has a Pro Mode for shooting photos manually. Although there a lot of basic features that are skipped. I couldn’t find a grid (which I personally use when taking photos). Aside from Auto and Pro, it only has three other modes, HDR, Sport, and Night.
Some sample shots below:
Audio Quality
Audio on the Max M2 is pretty good. It doesn’t get super loud, but it’s loud enough for you to enjoy. The quality of the speaker is pretty good also, but it needs more bass (just my preference).
The included headset is not that good though. You would be better off using one of your favorite earphones/headphones.
Battery Life
Battery life is what you’d expect at something from the Zenfone Max line. It has 4,000 mAh capacity, providing power to the phone for about two days. I am a power user, I drain batteries of phones a lot. And as same as my experience with others on the Zenfone Max line, I had no problem using the phone throughout the day. I even still had about 20-30% of battery life after a full days’ worth of testing it.
Features
Like most of the Zenfone line in its generation, the Max M2 has a fingerprint sensor at the back. It has about the same unlock speed as the others, so they’re not skimping on the feature for their budget phones.
Zenfone Max M2 Specifications
| Dimensions | 158 x 76 x 7.7 mm |
| Weight | 160 g |
| CPU | Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 632 |
| GPU | Adreno™ 506 |
| RAM | 3 GB |
| Storage | 32 GB (up to 2 TB microSD) |
| Display | 6.3-inch HD+ IPS display, 1520 x 720, 19:9 aspect ratio |
| Rear Camera | 13MP , f/1.8, phase-detection autofocus 2MP, depth sensing LED Flash |
| Front Camera | 8MP. f/2.0 Softlight LED Flash |
| Battery | 4,000 mAh |
| OS | Stock Android™ 8.1 Oreo™ |
| Color | Midnight Black, Space Blue |
| Price | Php 8,995 |
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