Itel Zeno 20 Max

The Itel Zeno 20 Max has a straightforward, non-rugged and non-folding design that weighs 187 g and measures 8.6 mm in thickness. It carries an IP54 rating, meaning it offers a degree of protection against dust and water splashes, which qualifies it as water resistant under everyday conditions.

The Itel Zeno 20 Max features a 6.6″ IPS LCD touchscreen with a resolution of 720 x 1612 px and a pixel density of 267 ppi, delivering a reasonably clear image for its size. The panel runs at a 90Hz refresh rate and reaches a typical brightness of 480 nits, which provides adequate visibility in moderately lit environments. The display does not include branded damage-resistant glass, an Always-On mode, a secondary screen, or support for HDR10, HDR10+, or Dolby Vision.

The Itel Zeno 20 Max is driven by the Unisoc T7100 chipset, built on a 28 nm process with an octa-core CPU configuration running two cores at 1.6 GHz and six at 1.2 GHz across 12 threads, utilizing big.LITTLE and HMP technologies for workload distribution. It comes with 4 GB of DDR4 RAM running at 1800 MHz and 64 GB of eMMC 5.1 internal storage, with the chipset supporting a maximum memory amount of 8 GB. The SoC includes integrated LTE, ARM TrustZone security, and a PowerVR GE8322 GPU clocked at 550 MHz with one execution unit, supporting DirectX 12, OpenGL ES 3.2, and OpenCL 2. Cache configuration consists of 128 KB L1, 2 MB L2, and 1 MB L3, while the chip operates within a 9W TDP envelope. Geekbench 6 scores sit at 164 single-core and 725 multi-core, and the platform is fully 64-bit compatible.

The Itel Zeno 20 Max has a single-lens 13 MP rear camera with a CMOS sensor, supported by phase-detection autofocus, touch autofocus, continuous autofocus during video recording, and a single LED flash. Manual controls cover exposure, ISO, focus, and white balance, while shooting modes include HDR, burst, panorama, slow-motion video, and timelapse. Video recording tops out at 1080p at 30 fps, though HDR10 and Dolby Vision recording are not supported, nor is optical image stabilization, a BSI sensor, laser autofocus, manual shutter speed, or RAW capture. On the front, a 5 MP single-lens camera handles selfies without a dedicated flash, and it is positioned above the display rather than underneath it.

The Itel Zeno 20 Max runs Android 14, a free and open-source platform that supports multi-user access, voice commands, offline voice recognition, on-device machine learning, and phone tracking. On the privacy side, it includes clipboard warnings, location privacy options, camera and microphone access controls, and the ability to block app tracking, though Mail Privacy Protection and cross-site tracking blocking are absent. The software experience is fairly well-rounded, offering dark mode, dynamic and manual theme customization, customizable notifications with permission controls, a media picker, Live Text, full-page screenshots, split-screen multitasking, picture-in-picture, sharing intents, widgets, an extra dim mode, a child lock, and battery health checking. Users can also play games while they download, but focus modes, app offloading, Wi-Fi password sharing, Quick Start, and the ability to use the device as a PC are not available. Direct OS updates from the vendor are not provided.

The Itel Zeno 20 Max is equipped with a 5000 mAh rechargeable, non-removable battery that supports 15W wired fast charging, and a charger is included in the box. A battery level indicator is present, making it easy to monitor remaining charge at a glance. Wireless charging and reverse wireless charging are not supported.

The Itel Zeno 20 Max includes a 3.5 mm headphone jack for wired audio, but its speaker setup is limited to a single speaker rather than a stereo configuration. On the wireless audio side, none of the advanced Bluetooth codec standards are supported, including aptX, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive, aptX Lossless, or LDAC. The device also does not feature a built-in radio.

The Itel Zeno 20 Max supports dual SIM cards and connects via a cellular module with maximum download speeds of 300 MBits/s and upload speeds of 150 MBits/s, though 5G is not available. It features USB Type-C (USB 2.0), Wi-Fi, GPS with Galileo support, an accelerometer, and a fingerprint scanner for biometric authentication, while an external memory slot allows for storage expansion. NFC, HDMI output, DLNA certification, a gyroscope, compass, barometer, infrared sensor, heart rate monitor, and ANT+ are all absent, as are 3D facial recognition, an iris scanner, motion and optical tracking, satellite SOS, crash detection, a built-in projector, and a stylus.

The Itel Zeno 20 Max includes a video light, which can be used to illuminate scenes during video recording. The display is flat rather than curved, and it uses neither sapphire glass nor an e-paper panel.