ASUS ZenFone Max Plus: Big screen, small price

If you love a big honking screen in a small smartphone body but you don’t have much money, there’s good news because your options for budget 18:9 minimal bezel smartphones are about to get wider. Equipped with what people are now calling the “Full View” display, ASUS‘ upcoming ZenFone Max Plus will be launching locally really soon.

And the best part is that it’s going to be more affordable than a large majority of its competition.

Most of the affordable smartphones that offer this immersive new display technology have prices that hover slightly over the RM1,000 mark. Notable mentions include the Huawei Nova 2i (RM1,299), OPPO F5 (RM1,298), and Vivo V7 (RM1,299).

ASUS’ upcoming device, on the other hand, looks like it’s set to retail for below RM1,000 because in their Facebook teaser, the company hints that the handset’s price will only have three digits. But, we don’t actually know how much the final price tag will be.

Looking at the specs, ASUS reveals that the smartphone will have a 5.7″ Full View display in a body of a conventional 5.2″ smartphone. It’s also going to sport a large 4,130 mAh battery and a Face Unlock feature (ala OPPO F5).

Of course, the ASUS ZenFone Max Plus isn’t exactly all-new because it has already been launched in Russia. There, the smartphone is powered by a 1.5GHz octa-core MediaTek MT6750T processor with two memory configurations: 2GB RAM + 16GB storage and 3GB RAM + 32GB storage. There’s also a dual-camera 16MP + 8MP setup at the back plus an 8MP selfie shooter in front.

Besides that, the ZenFone Max Plus also features a crisp Full HD+ 2160×1080 pixel resolution display. If the one that launches in Malaysia also comes with this Full HD+ display, it would make it the first Full View smartphone to cost less than RM1,000. Right now, the most affordable Full HD+ smartphone is the OPPO F5 Youth and that costs RM1,098.

ASUS will be running their Guess the Price contest from the 4th-6th of December 2017. Participants stand a chance to win a brand new ZenFone Max Plus. ASUS Malaysia will announce the official price on the 13th of December 2017.

What do you guys think of the ZenFone Max Plus? Let me know in the comments below.