Officially making its debut in last weekend’s FragFest 2018 held at SM North Cyberzone, ASUS is ushering a new era of mobile gamers with the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro M1.
We saw the phone in our Computex visit but didn’t get much chance to fiddle with it then, however ASUS graciously gave us the opportunity for a quick hands-on last June 7. From what we gathered during the intimate media briefing held at VERSUS Barcade, Taguig, the phone follows the solid form-factor of the previous ZenFone Max series, the difference, at least for the Max Pro M1, lies in its focus of delivering smooth and optimal mobile gaming to its users.
LIMITLESS GAMING FOR LESS
Let’s start with the display. With a 5.99”display, the ZenFone Max Pro M1 has the widest FHD+ display among the series line. This 18:9 widescreen format is ideal for most games out in the market and having an almost 6” display gives you more screen real estate so you have more space for your hands to roam around on.
It’s over! We have a winner!
The fingerprint scanner is found at the back and no, the ZenFone Max Pro M1 does not come with a notch – a feature that can obscure gamers from pertinent HUD icons and impede their total gaming experience. Whew.
Being a ZenFone Max, there is great focus on the battery and the Max Pro M1 does not disappoint. Say hello to a whopping 5000mah internal battery that will keep you gaming for hours on end! According to the press notes, the ZenFone Max Pro M1 can go up to 35 days on standby with 4G turned on, 20 hours of continuous video playback or 12 hours of pure gaming.
Aside from the battery, the ZenFone Max Pro M1 is equipped with a power optimizing Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 – one of the best releases from the chip manufacturer this year. Best known for handling resource-hungry applications like mobile games while balancing power output and usage.
Best of all, the ZenFone Max Pro M1 is one of the most affordable Snapdragon 636 to date. Clocking in at Php 9,995, this below 10k phone with mid-range chip is crazy affordable! Some compromises had to be taken into consideration like with the RAM only being at 3G and not even touching 4G which is a minimum for most mid-range phones. 3G, is, according to ASUS a sweet-spot compromise to ensure that gamers still get an amazing gaming experience without shelling out too much cash. The current ROM of the Max Pro M1 that came here is also set at 32Gigs but with an external memory slot. Still, we’re hoping for a souped up model of the Max Pro M1, the 64G ROM and 4/6G RAM come to our shores soon.
Look at that clean HUD!
To streamline everything, though, ASUS decided to release the ZenFone Max Pro M1 without the Zen UI. Yup, this is the first phone that ASUS launched that has stock vanilla Android on it (Android 8.1).
MOBILE GAMES, ESPORTS and ADVOCATES
ASUS PH Country Manager, Mr. George Su and Lazada Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Ray Alimurung
When given the chance, we asked ASUS Philippines Country Manager Mr. George Su about the future of Mobile Games in the ASUS ecosystem. “Building a more comprehensive gaming system was always the aim,” quips a determined Su. He goes to explain how they painstakingly created a PC-gaming ecosystem for ROG since 2006 and if they’re going to really energize the mobile gaming market, they will need to do the same thing.
“Mobile gaming is booming in the Philippines and around the world and answering the call of a lot of mobile gamers, ASUS feels the need to come up with more solutions, accessories for them.” He likens the ZenFone Max Pro M1 with their FX TUF Gaming line – being a phone with above-decent specs at a price-point that’s aggressive and welcoming to those who want to get their feet wet in mobile gaming.
A wild Gloco appears — and approves!
With the advent of the ROG Phone launched during Computex 2018, the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro M1 is a great addition to the seemingly growing “mobile gaming phones” suite of ASUS. Aside from closely connecting with gamers, whether existing ZenFans or grooming new ones to build their own ZenFone Gaming League, ASUS Philippines is taking the mobile gaming route seriously by tapping the country’s premier eSports and Gaming personalities like eSports shoutcaster, Darwell “Asurai” Llerena and Gian “Gloco” Conception. Here, check this promo out:
https://www.facebook.com/ASUSph/videos/10151079407904957/?t=1
ASUS and LAZADA
Interestingly, the ZenFone Max Pro M1 will be made available EXCLUSIVELY through one of the top online shops in the country, Lazada. The partnership of ASUS and Lazada deepens especially with a phone this good (and affordable) being made available through the online shops first. This exclusive deal may help usher in more Filipinos to purchase their wares online especially with the many payment option of Lazada such as paying through Credit Card, Bank Deposit, Cashless Payment Systems (GCash and PayMaya) and COD.
The Phone, for now, is a Lazada-exclusive
The ZenFone Max Pro M1 will be released to the public on June 25, 2018 but you can pre-order the phone now at Lazada. Oh, and just to sweeten the deal even further, a lucky buyer from those that pre-order can win a trip to Europe for FREE! For more information on the ZenFone Max Pro, the ZenFone Max series, and other incredible products from ASUS, tune in to the ASUS Philippines Facebook Page and the ZenTalk Philippines Forum.