ASUS has officially launched the ZenFone 5 series in MWC 2018. Despite that, the ZenFone 4 series still has kick to it before it’s officially replaced by its successor. Introduced to the market in early February, the ZenFone 4 Max Lite still carries over most of the essential features that you’d find in other higher-end smartphones such as dual cameras and since it carries the “Max” moniker, an above average 4,100mAh battery. Check out this review if the ZenFone 4 Max Lite is a smartphone worthy of your attention.
ASUS ZenFone 4 Max Lite
| Chipset | Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 |
| Screen | 5.2-inch, 1280 x 720, IPS |
| RAM | 2GB |
| OS | Android 7.0 Nougat with ZenUI 4.0 |
| Rear Camera | 16MP f/2.0 + 5MP f/2.4 (wide-angle), AF, LED Flash |
| Front Camera | 8MP with screen flash |
| Storage | 16GB expandable via microSD slot |
| Network | Dual-SIM, 4G LTE |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, A-GPS, Gyroscope, Fingerprint Scanner, Fingerprint Scanner |
| Battery | 4,100mAh |
Unboxing
The ASUS ZenFone 4 Max Lite comes with all the accessories to make your experience complete. Inside the box a silicone case, a pair of in-ear monitors with extra silicone ear tips, documentation, a microUSB cable, a wall charger, and a USB OTG cable.
Design and Features
The ZenFone 4 Max Lite carries over the design its ZenFone 4 siblings. Its simple box-y design and traditional 16:9 display won’t garner much attention compared to its contemporaries. Speaking of its display, the 5.2-inch screen comes with a 1280 x 720 resolution. Despite its IPS heritage, the screen does have a bit of color shifting when viewed on its side.
Color rendition of images are okay but not mind blowing, which is a given for an entry-level smartphone. Overall, the display is on the mediocre side of the spectrum; okay but not mind blowing.
The front portion of the smartphone comes with an 8MP front-facing camera with a dedicated LED flash, speaker grilles, and a light sensor. At the top of smartphone is a 3.5mm jack for your audio needs.
Down south are the ZenFone 4 Max Lite’s navigation keys with the Home button being integrated with a fingerprint scanner. The Home button might look like a physical button but it’s actually haptic, which means that you’ll only need to tap it to activate it. Further down is the smartphone’s speaker and microphone grilles, and a microUSB port.
At the right-hand side of the ZenFone 4 Max Lite are its volume rocker and power button, which deliver decent button response and feedback to let you know that the button has been pressed.
On the other side is a triple SIM slot that supports two SIM cards as well as a dedicated microSD slot in case you wanted to bolster the 16GB internal storage.
The rear is primarily made of plastic that’s only broken up by two antenna bands at the top and bottom and the ASUS branding. It feels nice to the touch without being slippery. We actually like this matte design compared to the glass rear of the ZenFone 4, which attracts dust and is a bit slippery.
Rear imaging is handled by two cameras; a 16MP f/2.0 primary camera and a 5MP f/2.4 wide-angle secondary camera. Both of which are bolstered by autofocus and a dedicated LED flash.
Design-wise, the ASUS ZenFone 4 Max Lite isn’t the flashiest smartphone in the market. Despite its lack of flair, its simple, timeless design would probably attract minimalistic users.
User Interface
The ASUS ZenFone 4 Max Lite ships out with Android 7.0 Nougat with ZenUI 4.0 on top. This means that most of the bloatware found on previous revisions of the ZenUI has now been removed. Pre-installed apps have been kept to a minimum with most of the essentials like messaging apps, Facebook, Instagram, and default Google apps are already installed on the system.
The notification screen and system shortcuts can be accessed by swiping down while customization options like wallpaper and themes can be seen by swiping up. You can also use split=screen by pressing the menu button on the navigation keys. All pretty standard stuff from ASUS.
Entertainment
We’ve been spoiled by smartphones with 18:9 displays since last year. ASUS has also given in to the 18:9 trend with the ASUS ZenFone Max M1 Plus. With the ASUS ZenFone 4 Max Lite, however, ASUS has gone to a more traditional 16:9 setup. This won’t make much of a difference when watching YouTube videos and TV shows. With movies, which have aspect ratios ranging from 1.85:1 or 2.39:1; however, the Max Lite will still show black bars that will affect the overall experience of the movie.
As we’ve mentioned, there’s a bit of color shift with the ZenFone 4 Max Lite when looked at an odd angle. This can be mitigated by looking at the screen dead on but that’s not the case in most situations. The color shift isn’t noticeable in heavily colored scenes but in images that have light or pastel colors, the shift will be apparent.
The ASUS ZenFone 4 Max Lite might be an entry-level device, but its bottom-firing speakers are surprisingly good. The smartphones’ speakers was able to keep up with tracks from Dream Theater such as Hollow Years with the speakers able to deliver crisp highs and punchy bass notes.
Camera
The ZenFone 4 Max Lite’s camera up is fairly expected stuff from ASUS. The camera can do Video, Auto, Manual, HDR, and eight different filters. You can even time stamp your photos or apply the ASUS watermark when taking photos. Changing from the primary 13MP shooter to the 5MP wide-angle lens is as easy as tapping the “mountain” signs beside the shutter button.
Manual Mode lets you take control of the camera with options such as White Balance, Exposure Value, ISO, Shutter Speed, and Manual Focus. Of course, you can let the system take over specific options if you ever feel it’s too much.
The smartphone’s 13MP primary rear camera takes decent photos both in well-lit conditions and dark scenes. The images, however, do have a tendency to look a bit under saturated. The 5MP wide-angle camera, meanwhile, does let you take a wider field of view although you are sacrificing image quality due to the lower pixel count of the secondary camera. Overall, the setup is decent but a bit lacking in color.
The 8MP front-facing camera, on the other hand, had some mixed results. The camera is a bit slow when taking photos as the system prefers lower shutter speed even in well-lit conditions. This will result in some shots becoming blurry if you have shaky hands or if the subject moves while the camera is taking a shot. Beautification is aggressive at its highest level. We recommend sticking to level 5 beautification via the Selfie master app to get relatively natural selfies with beautification.
Performance and Benchmarks
We rarely had any significant slowdowns with the ASUS ZenFone 4 Max Lite’s Qualcomm Snapdragon 425. You might need to close an app every now and then since the smartphone only comes with 2GB of RAM.
Despite its low RAM capacity, the smartphone was still able to reach a reasonable score of 3360 in PCMark Work 2.0 benchmark and 43766 in AnTuTu.
Battery Life
It is expected that the ASUS ZenFone 4 Max Lite will last a long time in terms of battery life since it is carrying the “Max” moniker. Despite having “Lite” in its name, the battery performance of the 4,100mAh battery was nothing but light.
The smartphone was able to last more than a day under medium usage with WiFi turned on. On benchmarks, the Max Lite was able to last 13 hours and 10 minutes with medium brightness and the volume turned up to 50%. Charging, however, is a bit of a wait of around an hour and a half since the Max Lite doesn’t support fast charging.
Using the ASUS PowerMaster app can also net you additional usage of the battery. You can use the smartphone to charge other devices as well as close power-hungry apps. You can also increase the longevity of the battery by letting it charge slower. So if you’re in no rush, charge the battery slowly to get some needed longevity out of your smartphone’s battery.
Conclusion
The ASUS ZenFone 4 Max Lite does bring justice to the Max name despite being branded as “Lite.” Its battery was able to last more than a day with medium usage and it does net you additional functionality such as reverse charging.
The rear cameras of the ZenFone 4 Max Lite do a decent job of capturing their subjects although you might need to do some work in post-processing since some of the images do come out as under saturated. The front-facing camera, however, is a bit slow so you might need to have a steadier hand than usual to get great selfies.
All in all, the ASUS ZenFone 4 Max Lite at PhP 7,995 brings the Max name to the entry-level does its predecessor justice. With respectable system and camera performance together with its long battery life, we’re giving the ASUS ZenFone 4 Max Lite our Value Smartphone award. If you’re ever looking for an entry-level smartphone with a long battery life and good performance, then have gander at the ASUS ZenFone 4 Max Lite.
