ZTE Max XL review

The ZTE Max Pro impressed us with just how much phone you can get with so very little money. This year, ZTE is back with the Max XL, which improves on the formula with a few notable upgrades and keeps the ridiculously low price of $130.

For 1/8th the price of a flagship smartphone like the Samsung Galaxy S8, you still get a fingerprint sensor, sizable 3,990mAh battery, fast charging and Android Nougat pre-installed. Sure, you won’t get waterproofing, NFC or a good camera but for those looking for a phone to do just the basics, the ZTE Max XL is an excellent choice. 

The biggest disappointment of the ZTE Max XL is that the phone doesn’t remedy the complaints we had about last year’s near-identical ZTE ZMax Pro, which was a MetroPCS and T-Mobile exclusive. The dim screen is still there and the Google Nexus 6-like design feels extremely dated today and the rear-firing speaker is particularly bad.

But it all comes back to the bargain-bin price. If you can live with compromises in specs and design, the ZTE Max XL is an incredible phone for doing just the basics.

Price and release date

• Only $130
• You’ll only find this US exclusive at Boost Mobile

The ZTE Max XL will cost $130 and is a Boost Mobile exclusive. Much like the ZTE ZMax Pro, its latest phone is a US-exclusive and will not be coming to the rest of the world.

At the time of this writing, Boost Mobile is having a promotional offer on the ZTE Max XL for $102, but is currently sold out.

Design and display

• 6-inch Full-HD display offers a lot of bang for your buck
• Rear fingerprint sensor is a nice addition, but the speaker is lousy
• Includes modern niceties like USB-C charging and 3.5 headphone jack

ZTE Axon 7, we were pleasantly surprised that ZTE opted for a stock Android experience. The notification shade and settings are stock Android with a few added features like the ability to swap the back and multitasking buttons, and custom network setting.

Even split-screen multitasking, one of Nougat’s marquee features, is available on this budget phone. Surprisingly, the phone didn’t bog down when using this feature to watch a video while chatting with friends in Google Hangouts. This is a nice surprise since the phone comes with a low-end processor and only 2GB of RAM.

On the front of the phone you’ll find the 5MP front facing camera, and capacitive touch buttons at the bottom. The home button doubles as notification light with a pleasing white glow. ZTE thoughtfully allows users to swap the back and multitasking buttons in the settings if you prefer Samsung’s reversed orientation. 

On the back, you’ll find the Max XL’s 13MP rear camera, LED flash, fingerprint sensor and rear-firing speaker. The speaker sounds tinny, quiet and is in the worst position possible on the phone, as it’s easily covered up by your hand and any sound that manages to leak out is pumped away from you. It’s disappointing ZTE didn’t address this as last year’s ZMax Pro suffered from the same unforgivable speaker issue.

For a budget phone, it’s nice to see the inclusion of USB-C charging port that supports Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0 technology. This means the large battery of the Max XL can be charged relatively quickly with the included fast charger, so you don’t  have to buy your own. You also get a 3.5mm headphone jack at the top of the phone for using wired headphones without an adapter.

All of the phone’s buttons are located on the right with volume up and down rocker above the nicely textured power button. The button placement is comfortable for such a large phone with buttons nearing the belt line of the phone.

Since the ZTE Max XL is a huge phone, it comes with an equally huge 6-inch display. The panel is an IPS LCD type, which looks good but just can’t match the brightness and vibrance of phones with AMOLED panels.

The 6-inch display comes sports Full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution which is high enough that you won’t notice individual pixels with the naked eye. This resolution makes typing and reading text a pleasure. While resolution could be higher for a display of this size, it was actually quite nice to have bigger elements on the screen which made typing easier. 

Although the Max XL doesn’t have an AMOLED panel, ZTE built in an “adaptive display” feature in the operating system that briefly turns on the display to show  notifications in black and white as they appear. Whereas AMOLED displays can light up only the pixels that are needed, the LCD of the Max XL turns on the entire display to show you notifications, which will take up some extra battery life.

Overall, the display is perfectly fine for a phone of this price range but it is quite dim outdoors. With the brightness slider all the way up, the display still struggles to be visible outdoors. 

Interface and reliability

• Android 7.1.1 Nougat pre-installed
• Stock Android experience
• Tremendous amount of bloatware

While we expected to see ZTE’s skin found on its bigger brothers like the ZTE Blade V8 Pro and ZTE Axon 7, we were pleasantly surprised that ZTE opted for a stock Android experience. The notification shade and settings are stock Android with a few added features like the ability to swap the back and multitasking buttons, and custom network settings.

Even split-screen multitasking, one of Nougat’s marquee features, is available on this budget phone. Surprisingly, the phone didn’t bog down when using this feature to watch a video while chatting with friends in Google Hangouts. This is a nice surprise since the phone comes with a low-end processor and only 2GB of RAM.

Now, the bad news. The ZTE Max XL comes a tremendous amount of bloatware, rivaling even the HTC Bolt. Boost Mobile loads up the phone with a bunch of its own apps like its music store, TV and “Dealz” apps. It’s no wonder that this phone is so cheap.

Beyond the carrier-installed bloatware, ZTE bundles the Max XL with apps like Facebook, Instagram, Amazon Kindle and Amazon Prime video, just to name a few.

On the home screen, there are a number of “apps” like the game Mobile Strike that appear to be pre-installed but simply link to the Google Play Store to download. Thankfully, you can delete or disable most of these apps, but it’s a frustrating introduction to the phone.

While it’s great that ZTE shipped the Max XL with the latest version of Android, we don’t expect this budget phone to be updated to Android O in a timely manner. ZTE says its software resources are prioritized for its flagship Axon phone but is still committed to updating its budget phones with monthly Android security updates. 

Specs and performance benchmark explained

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 puts it just above the Moto G5
• 2GB RAM, 16GB onboard storage with microSD expansion up to 128GB
• Graphics quality is lackluster with 3D games
• Headphone jack sounds good, but its speaker is terrible

A Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 chipset and 2GB of RAM work in tandem to power the phone and overall, it’s adequate for browsing the web, listening to music and watching video but it won’t win many benchmark battles, unless you pit it against other popular budget phones like the Moto G5, which houses a Snapdragon 430.

As mentioned earlier, we were pleasantly surprised that the Max XL had no problem with split-screen multitasking a YouTube video while chatting in Google Hangouts. The phone did stutter when returning to full screen YouTube, taking a couple of seconds to catch up.

There’s 16GB of onboard storage with the ability to expand up to 128GB via microSD. This is a great option to have, especially if you take a lot of photos or have a big local music library. You can add a microSD card by popping out the phone’s SIM tray.

If benchmarks are your thing, the ZTE Max XL received Geekbench 4 scores of 679 and 1,917 for single-core and multi-core respectively. This makes the ZTE Max XL slightly slower than the Nexus 5X. 

Gaming on the ZTE Max XL worked just fine but expect long load times and reduced graphics with demanding games like CSR2. We noticed a dip in texture quality as well as painfully slow menu loading. For lighter games like Super Mario Run, the Max XL played just fine with slightly reduced graphics quality. 

Watching video on the large 6-inch display is great as the resolution is high enough that you won’t see individual pixels. However, you’ll want to watch video with headphones as the rear-firing speaker sounds awful. Its tinny, quiet, prone to distortion at high volumes and easily blocked by your hand. Thankfully, the 3.5mm headphone jack sounds quite good with the included Dolby Audio enhancements built in. 

Camera

One common area budget phones compromise is the camera and the ZTE Max XL is no exception. In ideal lighting conditions, the Max XL is actually capable of some good looking photos but the camera quickly falls on its face in low light. This is something that many flagship smartphones can’t get right, so it’s expected for a budget device to struggle especially here.

Even with photographic subjects in direct sunlight, the ZTE Max XL’s camera struggles with dynamic range, blowing out highlights or obscuring details in the shadows. Looking at photos at 100% crop, there’s a noticeable lack of sharpness with details blurring into one another.

The 5MP front facing camera is even worse, struggling to show any sort of dynamic range and sharpness. Selfies look like they’ve been put through a softness filter, though it does have a nice smile detection feature.

On the positive side, the camera software of the ZTE Max XL is good, offering a ton of customization for filters, HDR, self-timers, panoramas, timelapse and multiple exposures. There’s even a manual mode to adjust aperture, ISO, white balance, and exposure independently. These are nice features to have but users will quickly bump into the camera’s limitations. 

• Large 3,990mAh battery can last two days with moderate use
• Quick Charge 3.0 compatible
• Idling lost only 4% overnight

Perhaps the biggest selling point of the ZTE Max XL is its huge 3,990mAh battery. In our week of testing, we managed to get two full days of light use out of the Max XL. With heavier use like watching video and constant texting, you’ll still need to charge the phone overnight but most users will get through a typical day comfortably.

In terms of idling performance, the ZTE Max XL lost about 4% overnight, thanks to the battery optimizations done in Android 7.1.1 Nougat.

For those who are constantly on their phones, the ZTE Max XL comes with Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0 built-in so topping up from flat takes about less than 2 hours. ZTE includes a USB quick charger and USB-C cable in the box, which are nice additions for a phone this cheap.

Verdict

Although its low-end specs suggest it will be unremarkable, the ZTE Max XL is actually a pleasure to use. We were surprised that the Max XL was able to split-screen multitask and performed most tasks with just some split-second hesitation.

After using the ZTE Max XL for a week, we didn’t really itch to go back to a flagship phone. Sure, it’s only skilled with tackling the basics, the design is dated and its speaker is terrible, but the Max XL still did 90% of what we needed it to do without issue. Just don’t expect to play demanding 3D mobile games or multitask heavily.

For $130, you’re getting a lot of phone for your money. However, you will have to be a Boost Mobile or Sprint customer for this phone to make sense, which is a shame. We wish ZTE would sell an unlocked version of the Max XL. 

Who’s it for?

The ZTE Max XL is for existing Boost Mobile or Sprint customers looking for a basic smartphone. The Max XL is also a great choice for someone graduating to his or her first smartphone. It’s also a great phone for those who can’t get to an outlet throughout the day as its 3,990mAh battery can last two days of light use. 

Should I buy it?

If you’re a Boost Mobile customer, the ZTE Max XL is an excellent choice for a budget phone. The phone retails for a ridiculously low price of $130 and at the time of this writing, Boost Mobile is having a promotional price of $102. For everyone else though, the Max XL is not worth switching carriers for. 

Competition

Blu R1 Plus

For a little more money, you can get the unlocked Blu R1 for $159. Amazon currently has a deal for $109, making the Blu R1 a steal. However, the Blu R1 lacks features like Android 7.1.1 Nougat and features a 720p screen versus the Max XL’s 1080p display.

If you’re not a Boost Mobile customer and don’t plan on switching, the Blu R1 is your next best bet. 

Full review: Blu R1

ZTE Blade V8 Pro

If you can stretch your budget to $225, the ZTE Blade V8 Pro is an excellent choice for a mid-range smartphone. For the extra money, you’ll get a faster processor, one extra GB of RAM, NFC, a much better camera and nicer build quality with its metal frame and rubberized back.

However, the Blade V8 Pro comes with Android 6.0 Marshmallow installed and it’s questionable if the phone will be updated to Android 7.0 any time soon. It’s a little strange that the budget Max XL features the latest version of Android while its more expensive mid-range brother doesn’t.

Full review: ZTE Blade V8 Pro