Design and Build Quality
Design Aesthetics:
The Asus ZenFone 4 Max doesn’t really wander too far off the usual smartphone design formula that was pretty common around that time. It keeps a clean, calm look, mostly aiming at practicality rather than any big, showy flair.
Front Design: On the front, you get a 5.5-inch display taking center stage, with bezels that are more than a little noticeable , especially at the top and bottom. In the upper section, you’ll find the earpiece, the front camera, plus a proximity sensor. Down below there’s a physical home button, which also works as a fingerprint sensor, and it’s split by capacitive navigation buttons on the sides
Back Design: The back cover comes with a matte finish , so it feels grippy and tends to collect fingerprints less easily. The dual-camera unit sits along the upper left area, placed horizontally, and right next to it is a single LED flash. The Asus logo is subtly engraved right in the middle of the back panel , which helps the whole thing stay minimal but not boring.
The frame is plastic, so the phone feels light, though it won’t carry that really “upscale” vibe you get from metal or glass. Still, the plastic shell brings a bit of everyday comfort, sort of because it stands up to little drops and small scratches more , than you might expect.
Build Quality:
Even with its budget- friendly stance, the Asus ZenFone 4 Max feels well put together. Holding it in hand, the body feels sturdy, no odd creaking or flexing when you press around. The materials aren’t premium, but they also don’t spoil the durability. The side buttons are tactile , and they give that satisfying click feel when pressed which honestly makes the whole user experience feel more solid.
Ergonomics:
With dimensions of 154 x 76.9 x 8.9 mm and a weight around 181 grams, the ZenFone 4 Max feels a bit more on the bulkier side , compared to a few other models from the same period. But honestly, that’s kind of the deal for having such a big battery inside. Still, the phone sits comfortable in the hand. The rounded edges plus that matte finish help with a firm, steady hold. One handed use is doable for most everyday tasks, though when it comes to reaching the top of the display, it can get a little annoying especially if you’ve got smaller hands.
Display
Display Specifications:
The Asus ZenFone 4 Max comes with a 5.5 inch IPS LCD display , resolution 1280 x 720 pixels so the pixel density lands around 267 PPI. That resolution might sound a bit underwhelming if you stack it against Full HD panels on a lot of other phones released roughly around the same moment. Still, for the kind of user it targets, it does the job, it looks perfectly fine really for day to day viewing and general everyday use.
Color Reproduction and Brightness:
This IPS LCD panel delivers solid color reproduction. Colors look fairly vibrant and stay true to what you’d expect, not washed out in the usual way. Brightness is pretty fine indoors, and under direct sunlight the screen is still readable, even if it does not fully shine when conditions get extremely bright. The contrast ratio is also decent: blacks appear dark enough for an LCD panel, but they won’t match the deeper contrast and richer “pop” you usually get from AMOLED displays.
Viewing Angles and Sharpness:
As expected from an IPS panel the ZenFone 4 Max delivers fairly wide viewing angles, with very little color shifting or weird distortion when you look at it from different spots. The 720p resolution is , well not the sharpest thing around , but it still looks fine for daily chores like browsing, messaging , and even watching videos. That said, if you are used to Full HD or higher, you might feel the display lacks a certain crispness , especially on small text or in more detailed images.
Touch responsiveness:
The display feels responsive, and it registers touches accurately, there’s no clear lag or delays when you tap around. Multi-touch moves, like pinch-to-zoom, run smoothly too, so the whole interaction feels pretty fluid.
Overall, the Asus ZenFone 4 Max doesn’t really feel like a major step up from its predecessor, but the battery life is good, the screen is nice, and the price is also cheap.
We have the ZenFone 4 Max gold. Beside of that, customers also have the option of ZenFone 4 Max Black is more elegant because the front of it is also designed with the same colar as the back. Compered with ZenFone 3 Max, it does not have many improvement in design.
The new version still adapt the design of ZenFone 3 Max/ ZenFone 3 Max 5.5. The difference is that the ZenFone 4 Max is upgraded dual camera. The navigation keys are brought out of the screen interface to make more space for the screen. It has two SIM card slots and a microSD card slot. Lucky for users who want to use 2 SIM that Asus has no longer use the same SIM card slot with microSD. Unfortunately, Asus arranges these trays are still in the same compartment so it is not very convenient.
About display quality, ZenFone 4 Max is just like its predecessor, only supports resolution at HD. However, ZenFone 4 Max’s display quality still acceptable. We highly appreciates ZenFone 4 Max’s automatic brightness control. The panel 5,2 inché on ZenFone 4 Max is bright enough to ensure good display quality in high-light environments. But we does not appreciate the aesthetics of panel layout 5,2 inches for ZenFone 4 Max. The ZenFone 4 Max’s screen border is not very thin and also bordered with black lines create a sense of thick frame, lack of aethestics.
Asus has upgraded the ZenFone 4 Max with the SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 hardware, 3GB RAM. However, with this hardware, we can imagine the performance of the ZenFone 4 Max, especially when the product is still has BXL on its own, processor is configured in the popular segment and is still manufactured on a 28nm process
The benchmark score has unexpected results. Compared with its predecessor, the processor performance Asus equips on ZenFone 4 Max does not really outperform. But compared to some competitors in the same segment, the performance of ZenFone 4 Max is still acceptable.
Througt the experience of the ZenFone 4 Max, it can run every daily apps smoothly like surfing web browser, facebook, zalo and simple game apps that do not require a lot of resources to handle grapics. Conpared with the old version, ZenFone 4 Max has also been upgraded to the new UI. But the icon set application is almost not change much and Asus is still quite “greedy” when packaged with many apps that this manufacturer developed. With the ZenFone 4 Max, we can easily navigated between screen pages, moving between categories in the menu controls smoother. The speed of ZenFone 4 Max’s heavy application load is not fast but it does not slow enough to make the user experience feel shaky.
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About camera, the ZenFone 3 Max’s camera quite good but the enhanced on camera of ZenFone 4 Max is somehow not as good as the previous one. From the interface, it shows minimalism when it only has basic setting like Auto, Pro, Beauty, Super Resolution, Panorama, Time Lapse or GIF Animation. With fully automatic settings, the quality of photos taken in bright light conditions can be set to an acceptable level. This make us feel bad for ZenFone 4 Max, especially whe the ZenFone 3 Max has ability to bring nice shot, good movie recording and support many recording modes for creativity.
Fortunately, the ZenFone 4 Max still carries a solod battery. Testing with the PCMark tools shows it can give battery life of 11 hours 38 minutes compared to the time 11 hours 23 minutes that ZenFone 3 Max had scored before. It can also used as a backup battery to power another smartphone in an emergency. But, what makes this smartphone lose points is that it needs more than 2 hours 30 minutes to fully charge as ZenFone 3 Max.
Performance
Hardware Specifications:
So, under the hood on the Asus ZenFone 4 Max it runs the Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor , kinda steady in an “everyday” way. This one is an octa-core setup built around the ARM Cortex-A53 architecture , and it can clock up to about 1.4 GHz. Then you have the Adreno 505 GPU side, that is basically the part responsible for graphics handling, rendering and all that stuff you kinda notice when you swipe and scroll. The phone also shows up in two RAM choices 2GB or 3GB depending on the model you pick, and it brings either 32GB or 64GB of internal storage , plus there’s a microSD card slot if you want extra space.
Processor Performance:
The Snapdragon 430 is kinda an entry level chipset, so it leans more toward efficiency, not really raw muscle. In regular day to day use, the ZenFone 4 Max seems fine for the typical things like browsing, social media, and light multitasking. Most apps pop up with a decent sort of quickness, and the UI navigation feels pretty smooth, but yeah, every so often you might catch small stutters , especially when you’re juggling too many tasks at once, or when you open something more demanding.
Gaming Performance:
Now for gaming, the Adreno 505 is not made for high-end titles, but casual games still work without too much hassle. Lighter games like “Subway Surfers” and “Candy Crush” tend to run smoothly, however when you jump to heavier options such as “Asphalt 8” or “PUBG Mobile” , you’ll likely need to drop the graphics settings to keep frame rates in a playable zone. Even after that tweak, some users might still see occasional frame dips or a bit of lag during longer sessions , it’s just the typical tradeoff with this class of hardware.
Storage and Expandability:
The Asus ZenFone 4 Max comes in with 32GB or 64GB of built in storage, and yes, it’s pretty adequate for keeping apps, photos, and everyday media. Still, if you end up needing extra space, the device also supports microSD cards up to 256GB which is enough room for more stuff, like additional videos or catalogs of files. I also like that it has a dedicated microSD slot, not a hybrid SIM slot, because that means you can expand storage without losing dual SIM functionality, which is a relief.
Overall, ZenFone 4 Max is a product that gives us mixed feelings. No doubt, ZenFone 4 Max has long battery life, performance is good in the price range, but it takes long time to fully charge. It’s a bit change in looks, but not attractive enough because the design of the screen border. Compared with its predecessor, the ZenFone 4 Max is enhanced with a dual camera, but the photography experience seems to fall back. With a lot of disadvantages, the ZenFone 4 Max is not yet a complete upgrade that Asus’ fans expect. Hopefully, Asus ZenFone 4 Max will soon be upgrading to Android 8 Oreo in a short time.
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Tech Reviewer & Product Analyst
Định Bia has spent over 10 years testing consumer electronics with a focus on smart technology. He work as a product advisor at Biareview where he helped customers find the right devices for their needs. He personally tests every product featured on this site using a consistent evaluation framework covering quality, durability, and value. All reviews are based on experience, not influenced by the manufacturer.