Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1 Gets Face Unlock, April Security Patch, and More With OTA Update

Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1 has received its first major update just 10 days after its launch in India. In the new update that's rolling out to the ZenFone Max Pro M1, Asus has introduced its Face Recognition feature, alongside improvements in battery, camera, fingerprint sensor, and gyroscope. It also brings the Android security patch for April 2018. The ZenFone Max Pro M1 was unveiled last week and goes up for pre-orders today (May 3), exclusively on Flipkart starting at Rs. 10,999. It competes with the Redmi Note 5 Pro, which recently received a price hike for the 4GB RAM variant.

Compared to the Redmi Note 5 Pro, the ZenFone Max Pro M1 appears to have got an upper hand in terms of speed of updates, apart from pricing. Asus says the first update for end users will be 125MB in size. Asus has provided the full changelog that reveals all the features and fixes that the latest update brings to the smartphone.

As mentioned, the key highlight of the new update is the Face Recognition feature, meant to unlock the smartphone. Apart from that, the Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1 gets improvements on gyroscope functionality, audio parameters, and more. The response speed of the fingerprint sensor is also said to have been improved. Additionally, the update brings optimisation in the front as well as rear cameras such as colour correction, HDR Algorithm, low light photography, and more. Notably, the 'ZenUI' will now change to 'ZenFone' on the system update screen.

The latest update to Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1 also brings battery optimisation during standby. Finally, the April 2018 Android security patch for the smartphone is also bundled in the update. Asus has said that it is continuously improving camera performance and features as well as battery life and overall performance, improvements, and optimisation.

As the latest update will be rolled out via OTA, the Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1 will get the download notification in a few days. Our review unit has received the update. Alternatively, you can look for a manual update by going to Settings > System > System updates. Users are recommended to factory reset their devices before installing the update. The company added it is working towards further improving camera performance and features, as well as battery life, performance, and optimisation.

To recall the specifications, the Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1 is a dual-SIM (Nano) smartphone that runs a pure version of Android 8.1 Oreo out-of-the-box. It will also get Android P and Android Q updates. The handset features a 5.99-inch full-HD+ (1080x2160 pixels) IPS Full View display with an 18:9 aspect ratio. It is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 SoC, coupled with an Adreno 509 GPU. Asus has announced three variants of the ZenFone Max Pro M1 for India, 3GB RAM, 4GB RAM, and 6GB RAM.

In terms of optics, the ZenFone Max Pro M1 sports a dual camera setup at the back with a 13-megapixel primary Omnivision sensor (f/2.2 aperture) and a 5-megapixel secondary depth sensing sensor. On the front there is an 8-megapixel selfie camera with f/2.0 aperture, an 85.5-degree wide-angle lens, and a 5P lens. Both the rear and front camera get soft-light LED flash. It has up to 64GB inbuilt storage, expandable via microSD card (up to 2TB). And, it is fuelled by a 5000mAh battery, and comes with a bundled 10W charger.

The connectivity options in the Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1 are 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n with Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 4.2 (with aptX), GPS/ A-GPS, BDS, GLONASS, Micro-USB, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Sensors onboard the handset include Face Unlock sensor, fingerprint sensor, and the likes. Dimensions are 159x76x8.61mm and weight is 180 grams.

We discussed whether Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1 is a Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro killer on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.