ASUS ZenFone Max Pro M2 launched – Officially available in Malaysia today onwards

The long-awaited ASUS ZenFone Max Pro M2 has finally launched in Jakarta, Indonesia. The successor to the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro M1 which happens to be ASUS’ best selling smartphone has finally got a refresh that everyone has been waiting for.

Started in 2015, ASUS introduced the ASUS ZenFone Max which boasted a large capacity battery circa ASUS ZenFone 2 era. Continuing the legacy, the ASUS ZenFone 3 Max was introduced a year later, spotting a fingerprint sensor. In 2017, the device was refreshed with the first ever dual-camera based ASUS ZenFone 4 Max. Earlier this year, the ZenFone Max series had a rebranding introducing the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro M1 that introduced Full view Display powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 entering the gaming segment.

Today, the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro M2 made its appearance, spotting everything that the past ZenFone Max devices had, topped with extra goodness. The highlight of the device is the legendary Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 under the hood, with an enlarged All-screen Display that is covered with the Corning Gorilla Glass 6 for the first time ever. That is not all, in fact, Here’s a complete comparison of the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro M2 against its earlier predecessor:

The ASUS ZenFone Max Pro M2 boots up faster than its two other competitors.

From the comparison chart, the specifications are definitely promising. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 is the SoC that we craved in the ASUS ZenFone 4 that never made it to Malaysia but was instead spotting the Snapdragon 630. A generation later, the Snapdragon 660 is still one of the best processors available in the market balancing perfectly between performance and battery life. In fact, this also makes the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro M2 honed compared to this years flagship, the ASUS ZenFone 5 that spots Snapdragon 636.

The ASUS ZenFone Max Pro M2 loads the Garena Free Fire fastest among its direct competitors.

To make this even better, the appearance of Adreno 512 GPU should be able to improve the graphics performance by 30% as it has been proven in plenty of devices so far. The Snapdragon 660 also allows the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro M2 to utilize its AI capabilities. This is achieved by the marriage of Snapdragon 660’s Hexagon Vector eXtensions, the Adreno 512 GPU, the Kryo 260 architecture and 14nm FinFET manufacturing technology in combination.

The display has been enlarged to 6.3″ and now has an all-screen display with a notch. While the previous generation had 100% sRGB which is equivalent to 85% NTSC color space, the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro M2 upped the ante with 100% AdobeRGB which is equivalent to 94% NTSC color gamut.

Under the lens, the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro M2 now spots a much better camera with 12MP Sony IMX486 sensor with f/1.8 aperture and 1.25μm sensor allowing 90% improved light sensitivity compared to its elder sibling. While the 4K UHD video recording is still maintained, the M2 now has EIS for electronic stabilization. The secondary camera has depth sensing capabilities that improves portrait with better depth-of-field (DOF) detection.

While the metal body has been replaced with acrylic body, it has been graced with 16 layers Wave finish to give a unique pattern, a process that ASUS calls Dynamic Optical Finish. On the front facade, the display is reinforce with Corning Gorilla Glass 6 which is touted as the toughest glass by Corning.

Storage options have been increased up to 128GB and the dedicated MicroSD card slot supports up to 2TB for plenty of data space.

The availability of the devices start from today and the options are separated between the two E-Commerce giants as follows:

The 4GB RAM and 64GB storage version will be available at RM859 and the exclusive pre-order will be running on Lazada from 11th to 17th December 2018.

The 6GB RAM and 64GB storage version will be available at RM999 and the exclusive pre-order will be running on Shopee from 11th to 17th December 2018.

All devices will begin shipping on the 18th December 2018 accordingly as ASUS claims that the unit are already available in Malaysia, pending clearance only.

If you want a dive-in of the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro M2, checkout our review of the device.