We saw a load of mid-range phones released in 2017, and unless there's a big shift in the market, we'll likely see a lot in 2018, too. The Asus ZenFone Max Plus was a mid-ranger that first announced in late November, but now during CES 2018, Asus has announced that it's bringing the phone to North America.
Asus's 'Max' series of smartphones is best-known for having large batteries, and the ZenFone Max Plus is no exception to this rule. There's a 4,130 mAh battery that's promised to offer 26 days of standby time, and while that is smaller than the 5,000 mAh unit included on the ZenFone Max that came out in 2016, the Plus appears to be a much nicer all-around phone.
In addition to a metal body that comes in three colors, the ZenFone Max Plus has a 5.7-inch 'Full View Display' with an 18:9 aspect ratio. The bezels aren't the slimmest we've ever seen, but they're also far from obnoxious.
A fingerprint sensor is on the back of the phone for quickly unlocking it, but of course, Asus is also including its new Face Unlock feature just a few months after the iPhone X's launch. It remains to be seen how well this actually works, but phones like the OnePlus 5T have proven you don't need to be Apple to create a genuinely good facial recognition system.
The Asus ZenFone Max Plus will launch in North America in February for $229 with 3GB RAM and 32GB of internal storage.
