Asus ZenFone 4 Max Philippines Price, Specs, Initial Review, Dual Camera Feature Explained

Donning an official suggested retail price of Php 9,995 in the Philippines, the all-new Asus ZenFone 4 Max is the most affordable of the give new Android smartphones that Taiwanese electronics company Asus officially unveiled via their media and consumer event held last Saturday - August 19, 2017 - at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City.

Although the metal shell and overall footprint of Asus ZenFone 4 Max ZC554KL are largely the same as that of its predecessor - the Asus ZenFone 3 Max - which was released earlier this year, this new model does offer a number of enhancements in specs as well as fresh features that we're seeing for the first time in the Max series.

The face of the handset gives you two new obvious enhancements coming from the older model. To specific, there's now a physical home button below the display, which features a Fingerprint Scanner for quickly unlocking the device all while making it more secure.

Also, above the 5.5-inch HD IPS display, underneath the 2.5D Curved Glass touchscreen, you'll find the Soft LED Flash for the 8 MegaPixel f/2.2 front-facing camera, which comes in handy when snapping selfies in low to zero lighting conditions.

Sidenote: Asus ZenFone 4 Max's aluminum unibody enclosure looks and feels almost exactly like the shell of the Asus ZenFone 3 Max, which is not a bad thing given that the earlier release was one of the better-looking handsets in its price category. On a separate note, the concentric Zen design element of this new smartphone is found on the real metal volume and power buttons.

Another notable improvement implemented on the ZF4Max is its even bigger battery pack! Whereas the 5.5-inch ZF3Max was powered by an already big 4,100 mAh Li-Ion battery, the follow-up has an even higher capacity 5,000 mAh non-removable pack, which ensures longer uptime with regular use and gives more juice when the phone is used as a powerbank via reverse charging.

Apart from the larger battery, my favorite new feature of the Asus ZenFone 4 Max ZC554KL is its Dual Rear Camera module, which is made up of two 13 MegaPixel optics with varying field of view.

Regular or Standard View

Wide-Angle View using the secondary camera

Notice the subtle protrusion of the Dual Camera Module at the back.

The first lens has a standard 80-degree field of view while the other is wide-angle at 120-degrees. Hence, with this Dual Cam set-up, you can capture a wider view of the subject in front of you with just a click of a button -- no need to take a few steps back. This comes in handy when taking photos of buildings or even groups of people.

As I've mentioned above, Asus ZenFone 4 Max supports reverse charging, which gives it powerbank functionality. Simply use the USB-On-The-Go cable provided in the package to use this phone as a power source for your other mobile devices, including other Android smartphones.

Connecting your other smartphone to the Asus ZenFone 4 Max via charging cable and USB-OTG instantly activates Reverse Charging or Powerbank feature.

On the software side, the biggest enhancement that Asus fans will experience on this model is its new ZenUI 4.0 interface for Android 7.1.1 Nougat operating system. This version of the UI is simpler and has fewer bloatware, giving users a near-vanilla Android experience and eliminating unnecessary apps and processes running in the background.

Overall, I think all these improvements make the Asus ZenFone 4 Max a great option for consumers who are looking for a fairly affordable mid-level 2017 Android smartphone -- even if some say that the internal hardware - which include the Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 chipset, 3GB of RAM, and 32GB of expandable storage - could have been better.

If anything, however, I wish the company retained the Full HD resolution of the Asus ZenFone 3 on this refresh. But I understand that to keep the price of the device low all while incorporating new parts, they had to make such compromises. Not so sure, though, how fans of the brand will take this.

For those who are interested, Dual SIM 4G-enabled Asus ZenFone 4 Max ZC554KL is now available at all Asus Concept Stores and partner dealers across the Philippines. It's out in three classy colors, namely, Sand Gold, Rose Pink, and - the one I have here - Titanium Gray.

TechPinas Smartphone Technical Specs Table (TSTST)Name : Asus ZenFone 4 Max ZC554KL
Type : Slate Form Factor (Full Touchscreen)
Price Category : Midrange
Dimensions : 154 x 76.9 x 8.9 mm
Weight : 181 grams
Available Colors : Rose Pink, Sand Gold, Titanium Gray
Operating System : Android 7.1.1 Nougat with ASUS ZenUI 4.0
Display : 5.5 inches (~70.4% screen-to-body ratio), 1280 x 720 pixels, S-IPS LCD, capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors, 2.5D Curved Corning Gorilla Glass
Processor : 64-Bit Octa Core 1.4 GHz ARM Cortex-A53, Adreno 505 GPU, Qualcomm MSM8937 Snapdragon 430 chipset
RAM : 3GB RAM
Internal Storage : 32GB ROM, expandable via dedicated microSD card slot supporting up to 256GB
Camera : Back: Dual 13 MegaPixels, f/2.0 aperture, autofocus, LED flash, standard 80-degrees and wide-angle 120-degrees field of view
Front: 8 MegaPixels, f/2.2, LED flash, 85-degrees field of view
Video Capture : Front and Back: Full HD 1080p 30 frames per second
Audio and Video Playback : MP3, WAV, eAAC+, FLAC, MP4, H.264
Ports : microUSB 2.0, USB On-The-Go, 3.5 mm audio jack
Connectivity : Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth v4.1 with A2DP, EDR, 3G HSPA+; LTE Cat4
GPS : A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS
FM Radio : Yes
Sensors : Accelerometer, Digital Compass, Proximity, Gyroscope, Fingerprint Scanner in front
Network : 2G bands GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 - SIM 1 and SIM 2,
3G HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1700(AWS) / 1900 / 2100
4G bands LTE band 1(2100), 3(1800), 5(850), 7(2600), 8(900), 20(800), 40(2300)
SIM Card Type : Dual nanoSIM
Battery : Non-removable 5,000 mAh Li-Po battery
Uptime : 3 Days of Regular Use (TBC)
Value-Added Features : Big Battery, Dual Camera Module with Wide Angle Shot, Front Flash, Aluminum Alloy Shell, Reverse Charging
Announcement : Philippines - August 19, 2017
Availability : Philippines - August 2017
Price : Official Suggested Retail Price in the Philippines - Php 9,995