Make in India: Asus to start local manufacturing of Zenfone 3 Max next month
Make in India: Asus to start local manufacturing of Zenfone 3 Max next monthRohit KVN/ IBTimes India

Taiwanese consumer electronics major Asus has announced that it will manufacture the newly launched Zenfone 3 Max locally, giving a boost to the government's Make in India initiative.

The company has confirmed that the production of the Zenfone 3 Max will commence early next month at its facility in the union territory of Daman and Diu. This will be the third smartphone to be locally manufactured by Asus, after it initiated the production of Zenfone 2 Laser and Zenfone Go, last year.

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"Besides our headquarters, Taiwan, India is amongst the most important markets for us and we are constantly looking to strengthen our presence and operations in the country. We are excited to announce another smartphone that will be manufactured locally, apart from Zenfone 2 Laser and Zenfone Go. India is on its way to becoming a world leader in mobile phone manufacturing and we are proud to contribute to such a dynamic economy," Peter Chang, region head – South Asia & country manager for ASUS India, said in a statement.

For those unaware, Zenfone 3 Max is the successor of the company's best seller Zenfone Max (2015). The new phone comes in two variants -- 5.5 inch (ZC553KL) and 5.2 inch (ZC520TL). The key difference between the two is that the former device comes with the full HD (1920x1080p) resolution screen, Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 octa-core processor, 16MP camera with Laser autofocus and 8MP front snapper. Whereas the smaller model features HD (1280x720p) screen, MediaTek MT6737M quad-core CPU, a 13MP primary shooter and a 5MP camera in the front.

Other specifications such as battery, storage and RAM capacity are the same in both the devices. They house a 4,100mAh battery, which is capable of keeping the phone running for about 30 days under standby mode, up to 20 hours on talk time (3G) and 4G/LTE web browsing, and 15 hours on video playback, 32GB internal storage and 3GB RAM.

The Zenfone 3 Max's 5.2 inch (ZC520TL) is available at major stores and e-commerce sites for Rs. 12,999. On the other hand, the 5.5 inch (ZC553KL) model costs for Rs. 17,999.