How to Get Google Camera Port for Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1

One of the most popular phones in the Asia region, particularly India, is the latest Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1, due to its 6-inch FHD+ display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 SOC, its 4GB / 6GB RAM options, Android 8.1 Oreo, and the enormous 5,000 mAh battery (you usually see a battery of that size in tablets or ‘rugged’ phones, not mid-range brand-name devices) – in fact, Asus has been having trouble keeping up with consumer demand, as the ZenFone Max Pro M1 has gone out of stock on several occasions.

Of course, no matter how good the camera hardware is on paper on some budget and even premium range flagship devices, the camera can often be limited to the software API that drives it – and generic, pre-installed camera apps are often anything but glorified selfie-capturing apps. Hence why there’s a bit of demand for porting Google Camera to various devices.

Google Pixel’s amazing Google Camera app has an HDR+ and Portrait Mode features that are highly rated by Android photographers around the world, because Google uses truly awesome software algorithms for taking pictures – and why wouldn’t it, considering that Google developers Android. Even in comparison to devices like Huawei P20 Pro which has triple cameras, the Google Pixel 2 has a single camera and takes very comparable photo quality with the Google Camera app.

Well Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1 owners have reason to rejoice, as Google Camera app has found its way to the device via porting – though there’s a few steps involved, as we can’t simply sideload the APK or flash it in something like TWRP. The Google Camera app requires that Camera2API be enabled, and usually this requires a rooted device because you need to modify the build.prop in the /system partition – but its been recently discovered that we can enable the Camera2API on the Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1 via a fastboot command in ADB, so really all you need are ADB drivers on your computer for this to work.

Requirements:

• ADB tools on your computer (see Appual’s guide “How to Install ADB on Windows”)
• Google Camera Port for Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1

1. Download the latest platform-tools for your operating system. We’ll need the latest version of the fastboot binary in it. Fastboot is used to issue commands to your device’s bootloader.
2. Power off your phone and enter the bootloader mode. (Hold power and volume down when booting to enter the bootloader screen.)
3. Open up a command prompt or PowerShell (Windows) or terminal window (macOS or Linux) in the same directory where the fastboot binary is located.
4. Enter the following command based on your OS:

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

Reboot your device.

Now download the best Google Camera port for your Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1 from the Requirements section link above this guide.

Alternatively, you can check whether Camera2API is enabled by using the Camera2 API Probe app from the Google Play Store.

Enjoy using the Google Camera port on your Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1! This method works because it uses a built-in bootloader command to enable Camera HAL 3. This command was left in by Asus, so thanks to them for making this possible!