ASUS ZenFone Max Pro M1 cheaper than Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 in PH

ASUS Philippines made a big announcement today, revealing the price of the highly anticipated ASUS ZenFone Max Pro M1 for the local market. The smartphone, which has been launched in other countries — India, Indonesia, and Malaysia, to name but three — features comparable specs to the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 at a cheaper price to boot.

Locally, the ZenFone Max Pro M1 sees a price of P9,995 (roughly $190), which we correctly predicted, for the base model with 3GB RAM and 32GB storage. It will be available exclusively on Lazada Philippines from June 25. Preorders start June 8.

ASUS didn’t make it clear whether the 4GB RAM and 64GB storage variant of the phone would eventually hit domestic retail as well. An offline release might follow later this year.

As a refresher for those who wonder about its specifications, the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro M1 will come with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 inside. It’s the same chip that powers the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 and ASUS’ very own ZenFone 5 using eight high-performance CPU cores and Adreno 509 graphics. It’s one of the fastest chips you can get on the market on a reasonably priced smartphone, hence the excitement around this particular ZenFone.

Moving to the front, you’ll find a 6-inch, 2,160 x 1,080 LCD display without a notch or cutout for the selfie camera on the top bezel. Highlights from the back include a capacitive fingerprint reader and a dual-lens array featuring a portrait lens for taking pictures with a sharp foreground and blurred background.

The high-capacity 5,000mAh battery is said to provide roughly 20 hours of YouTube playback, 12 hours of continuous gaming, or up to 35 days in standby mode.

On the software front, the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro M1 runs stock Android 8.1 Oreo out-of-the-box for a clean user interface. All in all, the specs sheet looks very promising. More importantly, it’s priced cheaper than the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5, which goes for P11,990 ($228) at retail. Granted, the ZenFone has less RAM and storage. Check out the image below for the full-on comparison between the two value-for-money phones.

ASUS ZenFone Max Pro M1 vs Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 (global version): Price and specs comparison

Image via Guiding Tech

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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.