Flat areas like that will still try to smooth with the edges that start to curve around the sides. You would need to either weight the edges or add an edge loop along the end of the flat areas.
You still need better topology in that area, try having an inset edge loop around the whole flat part side of it, that'll act as a support loop for the shading. It'll require some tweaking of your topology to achieve though. For the sake of it, try putting the flat side's faces into a unique smoothing group by themselves…
Thanks for that, I understand now. Is it a major issue or will the normal map take care of it? I think the circular bevels are also contributing to the shading irregularies. Would they also need edge loops around them? I'm trying the weighted normals plug in now. I'm fairly new to MAX as I was previously using Maya which…
Face weighting can be an extra step. Sometimes it's quicker to face weight, sometimes it's quicker not to worry about it. Definitely a tool artists should be aware of, can be a quick fix for highpoly issues, and an optimization and artifact reducing tool for lowpoly. So learn both how to use edge loops to control shading…