Asus vs Redmi: The fight for India's best budget phone

Asus unveiled the Zenfone Max Pro M1 for India in partnership with India's leading shopping portal Flipkart.

Asus unveiled the Zenfone Max Pro M1 for India in partnership with India's leading shopping portal Flipkart.

Has Asus cooked the right recipe to dethrone Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro as India's best selling budget phone.

Let's walk through the specification and features to see if the Max Pro M1 is worth buying.

Build quality

The phone is built with aluminium, a unibody kind of design with front 2.5d glass that protects a 5.99 inch Full-View 18:9 aspect ratio, full HD (1080 x 2160), LCD display.

The protective glass used in front is unknown.

The phone does not support any IP certification for dust and water proofing.

The phone will be available in deep sea black and gray.

Hardware specs

The phone is powered by Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 636, an octa-core processor based on Kryo 260 for high performance and power efficiency.

Kryo technology is derived from the flagship 800 series processors.

The processor is embedded with Adreno 509 GPU for graphics.

While the processor supports On-Device Artificial Intelligence (AI), the company has not announced any features based on AI; perhaps further software update may bring AI to the phone.

The phone will be available in three variants: 3 GB RAM/32 GB ROM; 4 GB RAM/ 64 GB ROM; and a 6 GB RAM/64 GB ROM variant is expected soon.

Asus scores a plus point over its competitors over here as it provides a dedicated memory slot for expansion other than two SIM slots.

Cameras

The Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1 has a dual 13 MP f/2.2 + 5 MP f/2.4 camera setup on the rear; the 5 MP lens senses depth to create Bokeh effect.

Front camera is an 8 MP f/2.2 camera which is also supported by LED flash for selfies in dark.

The camera supports 4K video recording.

The camera comes with Electronic Image Stabilisation (EIS) but can be used only while shooting at 1080 full HD or less.

The 6 GB/64 GB variant will come with 16 MP + 5MP rear shooters and 16 MP front camera.

Sound quality

Asus is quite confident about the sound performance of the phone as it has embedded a 5 magnet speaker and a NXP Smart Amp.

Plus, Asus will be bundling Max-Box, a passive amplifier accessory, which supposedly amplifies the sound 2x of the base sound.

Battery life

The phone is embedded with a massive 5000 mAh battery, which can be fast charged using Asus's 10 Watt 2 Amp fast charger provided in the box.

Phone security

The phone comes with fingerprint sensor placed at the rear of the phone.

The phone will also support face unlock via future OTA update.

Everything boils down to the price. So we have compared the Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1 to its competitor Xiaomi's Redmi Note 5 Pro.

What differentiates Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1 from Xiaomi's Redmi Note 5 Pro?

Both the phones have almost the same hardware configuration except few features and price.

The IR sensor will be missed in the Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1.

The Redmi Note 5 Pro comes with a 20 MP front and 12 MP + 5 MP camera on the rear whereas the 6 GB variant of Asus comes with 16 MP front camera and 16 MP + 5 MP rear.

The major difference is the Operating System (OS). The Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1 comes with pure Android Oreo 8.1 out of the box where as the Redmi Note 5 Pro runs on Android based on Xiaomi's propriety MIUI 9.

Asus has confirmed that it would be pushing updates until two android iterations.

Conclusion

Based on the features and price, compared to Redmi Note 5 Pro and Xiaomi's irritating flash sales, Zenfone Max Pro M1 is going to be a hot seller, come May 3.