Asus Zenfone Max review: Tanking up

Synthetic benchmarks

Inside the Zenfone Max the Snapdragon 410 hums - another in a line of endurance-focused decisions on Asus' part. The SoC relies on a quad-core Cortex-A53 CPU, clocked at 1.2GHz, and the Adreno 306 GPU. There are 2GB of RAM on board.

Mind you, there's a recently released version of this generation Zenfone Max, the ZC550KL-6A076IN, limited to the Indian market. That one features a more powerful Snapdragon 615 chip and 3GB of RAM in some variants, so it should score markedly better in benchmarks than our Snapdragon 410 version (check the Zenfone Selfie results for reference). It'll also likely show shorter battery endurance numbers.

Anyway, the Snapdragon 410 is a modest performer, there's no two ways about it, and benchmarks are certainly not its forte. That shows quickly in GeekBench, where the Zenfone Max scores in the fifteen hundreds in multi-core. The Snapdragon 615's in the Selfie and the X Play and the Mediatek MT6753 in the Vibe K4 Note are capable of about 70% higher scores, while the Helio X10-powered Redmi Note 3 scores three times as much as the Zenfone Max. That said, Asus' marathon runner is still a bit more powerful than all three of Samsung's offerings with the same chip inside, so at least there's that.

GeekBench 3 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  4537
• Samsung Galaxy J7
  3619
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  3570
• Meizu m3 note
  3028
• Asus Zenfone 2 ZE551ML (Z3580)
  2887
• Lenovo Vibe K4 Note
  2745
• Motorola Moto X Play
  2608
• Asus Zenfone Selfie ZD551KL
  2582
• Asus Zenfone Max
  1550
• Samsung Galaxy E7
  1468
• Samsung Galaxy A5
  1460
• Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
  1437

In single-core the picture is very much the same - the Max posts rather low scores, and yet it's marginally ahead of the Galaxy J5 (2016) with the same chipset.

GeekBench 3 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  1573
• Meizu m3 note
  807
• Lenovo Vibe K4 Note
  628
• Asus Zenfone Max
  493
• Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
  471

In Antutu 6 the Zenfone Max scores in the mid-20,000s, a value we hadn't seen for a while before the Galaxy J5 (2016) and the Zenfone Max came in for review. That said, the Galaxy's score is still a few percent higher in this benchmark, for a change.

AnTuTu 6

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  75051
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  45474
• Meizu m3 note
  44898
• Lenovo Vibe K4 Note
  38359
• Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
  27487
• Asus Zenfone Max
  25778

In Basemark II 2.0 it's more of the same - the Zenfone Max and its Snapdragon 410 are no match for higher-grade Snapdragons and Mediatek's alike. And yet, among its S410 peers, the Zenfone Max scores the highest.

Basemark OS 2.0

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  1537
• Asus Zenfone 2 ZE551ML (Z3580)
  1222
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  1018
• Asus Zenfone Selfie ZD551KL
  883
• Meizu m3 note
  852
• Motorola Moto X Play
  809
• Lenovo Vibe K4 Note
  729
• Samsung Galaxy J7
  709
• Asus Zenfone Max
  624
• Samsung Galaxy E7
  580
• Samsung Galaxy A5
  569

In the graphics department the Zenfone Max is underpowered as well. In Basemark X the roles are reversed and Samsung's S410-powered models are ahead of the Max, with the J5 (2016) a notable upgrade over last year's model.

Basemark X

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  14732
• Asus Zenfone 2 ZE551ML (Z3580)
  12426
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  8540
• Motorola Moto X Play
  5032
• Asus Zenfone Selfie ZD551KL
  4915
• Meizu m3 note
  4567
• Lenovo Vibe K4 Note
  4072
• Samsung Galaxy J7
  3922
• Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
  2180
• Samsung Galaxy E7
  1915
• Samsung Galaxy A5
  1897
• Asus Zenfone Max
  1844

In GFXBench the Zenfone Max manages a mediocre 1.8fps in the offscreen 3.0 Manhattan test, which jumps to 3.9fps in the onscreen version of the test carried out at the phone's native 720p resolution.

While these scores won't win any prizes, it has got to be said that the Snapdragon 410 delivers quite playable game framerates even if it doesn't allow the games to run at their highest graphics quality.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  14
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  8.5
• Motorola Moto X Play
  5.8
• Meizu m3 note
  5.4
• Asus Zenfone Selfie ZD551KL
  5.3
• Lenovo Vibe K4 Note
  4.2
• Samsung Galaxy J7
  4.1
• Asus Zenfone Max
  1.8
• Samsung Galaxy E7
  1.8
• Samsung Galaxy J5
  1.8
• Samsung Galaxy A5
  1.8

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  14
• Samsung Galaxy J7
  8.3
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  7.9
• Motorola Moto X Play
  6.1
• Meizu m3 note
  5.4
• Asus Zenfone Selfie ZD551KL
  5.3
• Lenovo Vibe K4 Note
  4.2
• Asus Zenfone Max
  3.9
• Samsung Galaxy E7
  3.9
• Samsung Galaxy A5
  3.9
• Samsung Galaxy J5
  3.8

Overall, the Asus Zenfone Max will deliver decent everday performance. We did observe the occasional stutter, but not to the point of it being an issue.