The Asus Zenfone Max Pro may be one of the best smartphones in its segment, but it does have one critical shortcoming that prevents it from being the segment leader – an underwhelming camera. While the hardware seems quite capable on paper, its the less-than-impressive software that’s believed to be the reason why the device’s dual-camera setup comes up short against its biggest rival in the segment, the Redmi Note 5 Pro.
Now, however, there might just a breakthrough on that front, thanks to an XDA senior member who claims to have come up with a method to enable the Camera2API on the Asus mid-ranger without modifying the build.prop in the system partition, thereby bringing the incredibly capable Google Camera app to the device without root.
According to shakalaca, the Camera2API can be enabled on the Zenfone Max Pro via a fastboot command that enables Camera HAL 3. Multiple senior members of XDA have since confirmed that the method works, so it very likely works as advertised.
How to Enable Camera2API on Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1
- Enable Developer mode on the phone by tapping the Build Number option seven times in quick succession by going over to Settings > About Phone.
- Once Developer Options is enabled, toggle on the USB debugging option.
- Now power off the phone and then enter Fastboot mode by pressing and holding the ‘Power’ and ‘Volume Down’ buttons together for a few seconds.
- On a PC (Windows/Linux/Mac), install the necessary drivers and ADB files for Android.
- Now connect the phone to the PC and launch a Powershell Window / Command prompt / terminal based on your OS.
- Make sure that it points to the same directory where the fastboot binary is located, and then enter the following command:
Windows Command Prompt: fastboot oem enable_camera_hal3 true
Windows PowerShell: .\fastboot oem enable_camera_hal3 true
macOS or Linux Terminal: ./fastboot oem enable_camera_hal3 true
Now you can download a Google Camera port of choice by going over to XDA’s hub for Google Camera ports and finding one for your device. Once that’s done, do let us know if you see any significant difference in imaging quality on your device.
