ASUS ZenFone Max Plus (M1) gets Philippine release date

After launching in Russia in November, the ASUS ZenFone Max Plus (M1) will finally go international and get a local announcement this month, the ASUS Philippines Facebook page has confirmed.

ASUS Philippines announces ZenFone Max Plus (M1)’s launch date. Click on this for the full specs

The date to circle on your calendar is January 14, and the launch event will be open to the public and free of charge.

Here’s the thing: If all you really care about are the numbers on the spec sheet, then the ZenFone Max Plus (M1) might leave you disappointed. Outside of a trendy 18:9 display that stretches to cover most of the front, there’s not much else to get your teeth into here. Sure, the resolution is 1080p, but other affordable models offer just as many pixels — and on a bigger screen, mind you.

Then there’s the dual rear-facing camera unit, which incorporates a wide-angle lens on the second camera for taking better landscape photos. It’s nothing we haven’t seen before on a Max model (we’re looking at you, ASUS ZenFone 4 Max).

The cell is still large — a 4,130mAh battery keeps the screen on this time around — and it should be enough to keep the phone alive for days, though battery life may not be as long-lasting as previous Max releases. For comparison, last year’s ZenFone 4 Max packs a 5,000mAh battery.

Another possible downgrade can be found under the hood, where a dated — and cheap — MediaTek 6750T processor sits. We’re not particularly fond of this chipset, as it tends to heat up quickly when put under stress. It doesn’t offer strong gaming performance, either. Perhaps ASUS saw something we didn’t? We will reserve judgement until we see what the smartphone is capable of.

The ASUS ZenFone Max Plus (M1) is priced at RM899 in Malaysia. That’s around P11,155 in Philippine pesos and $224 in U.S. dollars, which is kind of steep given what’s on board. Hopefully, ASUS Philippines will have a wonderful surprise for us come January 14.

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Ramon Lopez

Reviews editor: Ramon "Monch" Lopez has 16 years of professional experience creating and editing content for print and digital publications such as Yahoo. He headed the gadgets-merchandising division of one of the Philippines’ largest retail operators somewhere in between.