Best Battery Life Smartphone – ASUS Zenfone 3 Max (ZC520TL) is Affordable And Not Too Thick
ASUS just recently released the ASUS Zenfone 3 Max (ZC520TL) which is the best battery life smartphone with a not too thick profile. More importantly, it’s also very affordable.
What I like about this smartphone and the Zenfone 3 series is that they have nice premium features despite the lower price.
How long is the battery life of the ASUS Zenfone 3 Max (ZC520TL)? What are the excellent features of this smartphone? Let’s take a look.
Device Type: Smartphone
Display: 5.2 inches (720 x 1280 pixels)
Camera: 13MP
Hardware: Snapdragon 615, Quad-core 1.5 GHz + Quad-core 1.0 GHz, 3 GB RAM
Battery: 4100 mAh
Price: US$ 210
Cheapest Place to Buy: Amazon.com
Awesome Battery Life
The best feature of the ASUS Zenfone 3 Max is the battery capacity which is 4100 mAh. For a 5.2-inch smartphone display, that is huge and amazing.
According to ASUS, it can allow up to 30 days of standby time, or up to 20 hours of 3G talk time, or up to 18 hours of Wi-Fi browsing, or up to 87 hours of music playback.
Based on these estimates, it will simply last for the whole day at least without charging if you are the average user.
Note that it can also function as a power bank so you can use it to charge your other mobile devices.
It also has software features that allow super battery saving modes.
Back in May 2016, ASUS also released the ASUS Zenfone Max (ZC550KL) 2016 which is a smartphone with a 5.5-inch display and 5000 mAh battery capacity. That’s larger than the ASUS Zenfone 3 Max.
Even if the ASUS Zenfone Max 2016 has a slightly larger display, it can provide a longer battery life compared to ASUS Zenfone 3 Max if you compare the ratio of the display size to the battery capacity of these two smartphones.
The downside of the ASUS Zenfone Max 2016 is the 10.6 mm thickness which is really thicker than the average smartphone as opposed to the 8.6 mm profile of the ASUS Zenfone 3 Max. But if you like a phablet size smartphone with a much longer battery life, the ASUS Zenfone Max 2016 is perfect.
And if you are a fan of smaller displays and slimmer profile, the ASUS Zenfone 3 Max is the better choice.
Design – Metal Build Even For A Cheaper Price
The ASUS Zenfone 3 Max comes with a metallic build just like the ASUS Zenfone 3 and ASUS Zenfone 3 Laser.
The overall form is very similar to the ASUS Zenfone 3 laser. The sides near the rear are curved for a natural and comfortable grip. It also has the silver lines near the top and bottom.
What I like about the camera design is that it is not protruding unlike in Zenfone 3 and Zenfone 3 Laser.
Due to the huge battery capacity, it sacrificed the thickness a little. At 8.6 mm thickness, it is still has a thin profile but it’s slightly thicker than Zenfone 3 and Zenfone 3 Laser which are 7.7 mm and 7.9 mm thin, respectively.
The front is also protected by a 2.5D glass like its siblings. The 2.5D design means it has a slight curve which does not give a sharp feeling when you are holding it unlike other smartphones with flat glass displays.
Overall, just like the ASUS Zenfone 3 Laser, the design of the ASUS Zenfone 3 Max is beautiful, stylish, elegant, sturdy, and provides comfort to your grip.
It comes in nice color choices such as Titanium Grey, Glacier Silver, and Sand Gold.
Display
The 5.2-inch display has an HD resolution with 282 pixels per inch. It’s definitely sharp, but not the sharpest around. Good smartphones around US$240 usually have a Full HD resolution.
But considering the lower price of the ASUS Zenfone 3 Max, I feel that the level of sharpness of the display is justified.
If I were to consider a smartphone with 282 pixels per inch sharpness, I will still get it because aside from the price which is worth it, the sharpness does not have a huge gap against the resolution of the iPhone 6s which is at 326 pixels per inch.
It also uses IPS LCD technology which is pretty much the standard display technology today. Even the iPhone uses this technology. It has excellent viewing angles and good color saturation.
Processing Power, OS, Storage Capacity
The ASUS Zenfone 3 Max features a Snapdragon 615 chipset which is more powerful than the chipset of ASUS Zenfone 3 Laser.
The Snapdragon 600+ series chipset is designed for mid-range smartphones while the chipset of ASUS Zenfone 3 Laser which is a 400+ series is for entry-level smartphones only.
So expect more power and speed on this one. Compared to the ASUS Zenfone 3 which uses Snapdragon 625, the latter is slightly better.
But if you look at the price, the ASUS Zenfone 3 Max is cheaper than the ASUS Zenfone 3.
The OS is Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow.
It has two internal storage variants: 32 GB and 64 GB. The 32 GB has a 2 GB RAM while the 64 GB variant as a 3 GB RAM. Both can use a microSD card up to 256GB.
Camera and Other Cool Features
The ASUS Zenfone 3 Max has a 13 MP rear camera resolution with f/2.2 aperture size. The low light mode makes the photo quality better in a low light environment by enhancing the brightness up to 400%.
Like the ASUS Zenfone 3 Laser, it has an image processing technology that expands the dynamic range up to 4 times. Which means that the 13 MP rear camera can produce images that are up to 52 MP resolution.
It can also record Full HD videos. The front camera has 5MP resolution with f/2.0 aperture size.
It has a fingerprint sensor which is cool considering the low price. It has good location technologies such as GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, and BDS.
It can also use USB OTG, FM radio, Bluetooth 4.0, and Wi-Fi.
ASUS Zenfone 3 Max, All Day and All Night
ASUS Zenfone 3 Max is an excellent choice if you need an affordable smartphone with longer battery life with a not too thick profile. It has an awesome design, powerful mid-range processor, huge storage, recent OS version, and a very good camera.
With the huge battery capacity, you can continuously play battery hungry games.
You can also watch more videos and listen to your music longer which makes this smartphone perfect during travel or if you are frequently outdoors.
Also check out our posts about:
- ASUS Zenfone 3 Laser
- ASUS Zenfone 3 (ZE552KL)
- ASUS Zenfone Max (ZC550KL)
- ASUS Zenfone 3 Ultra (ZU680KL)
- ASUS Zenfone 3 Deluxe (ZS570KL)