In the past couple of years, smartphone users have started shifting from small screen devices to much bigger phones, which are generally referred as the phablets. In India, the phablet market is on the boom, and multiple vendors are launching their devices in this segment. Taiwan-based ASUS is one of these vendors, which has had a great success in the phablet market with its ZenFone series of smartphones. The company recently unveiled its biggest smartphone till date called the ASUS ZenFone 3 Ultra. The brand is all set to launch the phone in India alongside the other new ZenFone 3 series models in the coming weeks.
While ASUS hasn't even announced a launch date for the ZenFone 3 Ultra in India, one of its biggest competing brand in India, Xiaomi, has already launched its latest offering in the phablet segment. Called the Xiaomi Mi Max is the Chinese vendor's largest offering till date. If you are confused over choosing the just launched Mi Max or the upcoming ZenFone 3 Ultra as your next phablet, then let's compare their specs to find out how they stand against each other.
ASUS ZenFone 3 Ultra vs Xiaomi Mi Max - Comparison of high-end phablets
Design:
Talking about the design first, the ASUS ZenFone 3 Ultra is the world's first full-metal smartphone with invisible antenna lines. The phone flaunts a premium metal unibody design, sports a sleek profile with a 6.8mm waistline, and is reasonably lightweight at 233 grams. The phone offers a fingerprint sensor in the home button, and is the world's first phone to deliver virtual 7.1-channel surround sound with DTS Headphones. The Xiaomi Mi Max also sports a metal unibody design, a sleek 7.5mm waistline, and weighs 203 grams. The fingerprint sensor of the handset is located on the back panel. Overall, as far as the durability and appealing design is concerned, the ZenFone 3 Ultra and Mi Max are quite similar.
Display and OS:
The ASUS ZenFone 3 Ultra blurs the line between a smartphone and tablet with its gigantic 6.8-inch full HD display. The phone is being touted as the world's first phone to utilise ASUS-exclusive Tru2Life+ technology. This tech is powered by a 4K UHD TV-grade image CPU, which delivers superior contrast and clarity. The Mi Max on the other hand sports a slightly smaller 6.44-inch full HD display, which offers a pixel density of 344 pixels per inch. Both the phones offer excellent media viewing experience, but the ZenFone Ultra 3 offers better contrast and clarity than the Mi Max. As for the OSS, both the phones run Android Marshmallow out of the box with their company's respective custom UI on top.
Configuration:
Moving on to the configuration, the ASUS ZenFone 3 Ultra utilises a 1.8GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 SoC. The performance is further enhanced by a meaty 4GB of RAM and an Adreno 501 GPU. The phone comes with 128GB of built-in storage, which users can further increase up to 256GB by inserting a microSD card. The Mi Max on the other hand comes in two configurations - one with a six core Snapdragon 650 processor, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of built-in memory, and another with an octa-core Snapdragon 652 SoC, 4-gigs of RAM and 128-gigs of internal memory.
Camera:
Talking about the camera prowess, the ASUS ZenFone 3 Ultra sports a 23MP rear snapper with Tri-Tech autofocus system, which is capable of offering accurate focus via laser, phase detection and continuous autofocus technologies. It also gets 4-axis OIS, 3-axis EIS, 4K videos, a Sony IMX318 sensor, dual-tone LED flash, and PixelMaster autofocus. Selfies are handled by an 8-megapixel front-facing shooter. The Mi Max on the other hand offers a 16-megapixel rear snapper with an LED flash and phase detection autofocus, and a 5-megapixel secondary shooter for selfies. The Mi Max offers some of the best camera specs found on the smartphones in its price range.
Connectivity and battery:
In terms of connectivity, the ZenFone 3 Ultra offers the latest connectivity options available on the market. It comes with dual-band Wi-Fi, Cat 6 LTE, Bluetooth 4.2, A-GPS, USB OTG, and a reversible USB Type-C port. The Mi Max offers 4G LTE, dual-SIM slots, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, micro-USB 2.0, VoLTE, an Infrared sensor, and A-GPS. The phone doesn't offer a USB Type-C port, which has now become a standard on smartphones. As for the battery, the ZenFone 3 Ultra offers a 4,600mAh battery with QuickCharge 3.0 technology, which can also be used to charge other devices. The Mi Max on the other hand is fuelled by a much bigger 4,850mAh battery.
Conclusion:
As you can see, the ASUS ZenFone 3 Ultra is certainly a better flagship phablet than the Mi Max. The phone offers a close-to-tablet display, Tru2Life+ video technology, invisible antenna lines, impressive camera features including Tri-Tech autofocus system, a beefy battery with fast charging, and 7.1-channel surround sound output. However, it's worth mentioning that the phone is priced on the higher-end of the price spectrum with a starting price of Rs 33,300. The Xiaomi Mi Max on the other hand is a budget offering that delivers an excellent phablet experience for its starting price tag of Rs 14,999. It offers a large screen, decent configuration, decent camera specs, and a large battery capacity. So, which one is your pick, or do you have some other device on your mind? share in the comments below.
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