ASUS ZenFone Max Pro M1 vs Redmi Note 5 Pro vs Honor 9 Lite vs Redmi Note 5 vs Moto X4: Mid-range showdown

ASUS has just launched its latest smartphone in the Indian market, the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro M1 .

The ZenFone Max Pro M1 will go on sale exclusively on Flipkart from 3 May 2018. Talking about the specifications of the device, the Max Pro M1 will come with a 5.99-inch FHD+ screen with 18:9 aspect ratio. ASUS claims that the device will come with 1,500:1 contrast ratio and 450 nits of brightness level.

Max Pro M1 will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 SoC with an Adreno 509 GPU. ASUS has launched three variants of the device with 3/32 GB for Rs. 10,999, 4/64 GB for Rs. 12,999 and 6/64 GB for Rs. 14,999. Users have an option of expanding the storage with up to 2 TB with the help of the dedicated microSD card slot in addition to the two nano-SIM slots. The device will run Android 8.1 Oreo out of the box on the software side of things.

ASUS has added a dual camera setup on the back of the device with a 13 MP and 5 MP camera sensor. The Pro M1 also comes with an 8 MP camera sensor on the front of the device. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro-like hardware is powered by a mammoth 5000 mAh battery along with support for fast charging.

The launch of the ASUS Max Pro M1 seems like the right time to find out how it stacks up against the competition in the budget and mid-range segment. For this roundup, we’re going with the Redmi Note 5 , Redmi Note 5 Pro , Honor 9 Lite and Moto X4 . The reason we selected these smartphones is that all these smartphones pack somewhat similar hardware on paper.

Talking about pure specifications, Max Pro M1 comes with similar specifications that Xiaomi packs in its Redmi Note 5 Pro. ASUS is offering more RAM variants with the 3 GB RAM and 32 GB internal storage option priced at Rs 10,999 in comparison to the 4 GB RAM and 64 GB internal storage variant that Xiaomi is offering at Rs 13,999.

ASUS has priced its top end variant with 6 GB RAM and 64 GB internal storage for Rs 14,999, which is Rs 2,000 cheaper than Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 5 Pro with 6 GB RAM and 128 GB internal storage. ASUS will be competing with Huawei’s Honor 9 Lite when it comes to pricing and storage variants in the market as Honor manages to match ASUS in pricing with a stellar offering.

Max Pro M1 comes with a 13 MP and 5 MP dual camera setup while the Redmi Note 5 Pro packs 12 MP and 5 MP and Honor 9 Lite packs 13 MP and 2 MP camera setup. The Redmi Note 5 Pro does beat the competition with its 20 MP front camera offering which clicks impressive images as we noted in our review .

Asus does offer an almost stock Android experience with Android 8.1 Oreo out of the box running with a 5,000 mAh battery with the competition offering 4,000 mAh battery. This makes the competition between the Note 5 Pro and ZenFone Max Pro M1, a fierce battle in a price sensitive market such as India.

Bear in mind that we’re still not done testing some of these smartphones, so we’re currently comparing them going only by their specifications on paper.