The Asus Zenfone Max Plus (M1) is a smartphone with a 5.7 inch, 2160 x 1080 pixel display, a metal chassis, and a MediaTek MT6750T octa-core processor with Mali-T860 graphics.
It also has a 4,130 mAh battery that Asus says provides up to 13 hours of video playback or 21 hours of web browsing time (over WiFi).
Asus says the phone will be available in North America starting next month for $229 and up.
For that price you get a model with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, although Asus will offer a 4GB/64GB version in some markets.
The Asus Zenfone Max Plus is also the first member of the Zenfone family to support face unlock, allowing you to login to your phone by looking at the camera. There’s also a fingerprint sensor on the back if you’d rather use that.
Other features include a 16MP front-facing camera and dual rear cameras with a 16MP sensor and an 8MP 120 degree wide angle sensor, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, and an LTE Cat 6 modem.
The phone has a micro USB port, a microSD card slot, a headset jack, and dual SIM card slots. It’s expected to ship with Android 7.0 Nougat.
I knew ASUS had to respond to the Honor 7X buy killing their $400 Zenfone 4 with a cheaper phone to match the 7X spec’s
I’d like to see Asus put out an Android One phone, or an Android One version of it’s existing lineup. But it’s probably too much for them, the responsibility of updates and everything and not messing with the UI.
Why no USB C?
It could be an indicator that this phone was originally meant for the southeast Asia/India market where penetration of USB C is not as high.