Related
Today I have been looking at new phones to purchase since I broke my old one. I like the price and specs of the Asus Zenfone 2.
My question to those of you here who have used this phone is, have you had any major issues with it that would warrant a replacement? Also, would it be a good phone to set up a custom modded rom on or should I look into other alternatives?
Jokester22 said:
Today I have been looking at new phones to purchase since I broke my old one. I like the price and specs of the Asus Zenfone 2.
My question to those of you here who have used this phone is, have you had any major issues with it that would warrant a replacement? Also, would it be a good phone to set up a custom modded rom on or should I look into other alternatives?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Had mine since new , battery is better now than when I first used it at the beginning >19 months ago .
Brought it back from brick successfully every time .
Nougat is available now cm14.1 and although unofficial at the moment , it is great for me as main ROM and I am sure it will go from strength to strength.
Again , it all depends what you really want, I was contemplating a newer device this year but the devs bringing N changed my mind for at least another year.
This is the longest I have ever kept a phone BTW and its going no- where, any time soon.
Mines the ze551ml z00a 64gb 4gb ram 2.3ghz version comes with fast charger adapter.
timbernot said:
Had mine since new , battery is better now than when I first used it at the beginning >19 months ago .
Brought it back from brick successfully every time .
Nougat is available now cm14.1 and although unofficial at the moment , it is great for me as main ROM and I am sure it will go from strength to strength.
Again , it all depends what you really want, I was contemplating a newer device this year but the devs bringing N changed my mind for at least another year.
This is the longest I have ever kept a phone BTW and its going no- where, any time soon.
Mines the ze551ml z00a 64gb 4gb ram 2.3ghz version comes with fast charger adapter.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome! My biggest concern was going to be the battery. Some of the reviews I have read for the phone have been concerning in regards to the battery. Someone even said that the battery expanded and popped up their screen. Seemed a bit crazy. Is it true that the battery can't be removed? At least not by conventional methods... Also what carrier are you using it on?
Edit: Just noticed you are in the UK so the carrier thing won't help answer all my questions. LOL. However, it looks like it should be compatible with many of the carriers in the US.
Not seen many US people making threads about bands so should be OK
I definitely not suggest you this phone. (unless you pay it 100€)
-Poor battery life
-Bad quality construction (Speaker braking and ghost touch almost on every device after 6-12 months)
-Too big and heavy (this may be subjective).
-Bad software optimization
I'm moving to Lenovo Zuk Z2.
This is an old phone now. Get something new. :good:
timbernot said:
Had mine since new , battery is better now than when I first used it at the beginning >19 months ago .
Brought it back from brick successfully every time .
Nougat is available now cm14.1 and although unofficial at the moment , it is great for me as main ROM and I am sure it will go from strength to strength.
Again , it all depends what you really want, I was contemplating a newer device this year but the devs bringing N changed my mind for at least another year.
This is the longest I have ever kept a phone BTW and its going no- where, any time soon.
Mines the ze551ml z00a 64gb 4gb ram 2.3ghz version comes with fast charger adapter.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
DONT buy it
Reasons?:
-Poor battery life
-Ghost touches everywhere (defective phones, no matter how many times do you use warranty, ghost touches always come back)
-ASUS really dont want you to use other roms (its kinda easy to use other roms if you are experienced, but if you are a noob with android rooting, unlocking bl and that ****, you'll have some troubles).
gREENNNNN said:
DONT buy it
Reasons?:
-Poor battery life
-Ghost touches everywhere (defective phones, no matter how many times do you use warranty, ghost touches always come back)
-ASUS really dont want you to use other roms (its kinda easy to use other roms if you are experienced, but if you are a noob with android rooting, unlocking bl and that ****, you'll have some troubles).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mines great , like already mentioned.
I don't experience anything like you lot have experienced
Will do me for another year at least.
I had the HTC one m7 4g version from new , camera went pink and battery would be approx 27% when I got home from a shift(below health and battery longevity threshold) and it would get hotter than the sun , whereas same shift and I'm in the high 70's % with the zenny
Not a scratch on it , no ghost sh1t or anything.
When it was new , battery was like the m7 with stock ROM
Nothing but praise at a 3rd the price of the HTC one
Jokester22 said:
Today I have been looking at new phones to purchase since I broke my old one. I like the price and specs of the Asus Zenfone 2.
My question to those of you here who have used this phone is, have you had any major issues with it that would warrant a replacement? Also, would it be a good phone to set up a custom modded rom on or should I look into other alternatives?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As you can see there are a few who have had issues with their device, but there are the exceptions rather than the rule. EVERY phone line will have some who have issues. I think some of those here wouldn't be happy with a phone that lasts ten years on a charge and could cook and clean for them, but I digress.
I have had the US version of the ZE551ML 64GB since launch day. Great phone, great performance, good battery life (lasts me all day and then some, but my wife can kill it in no time when she gets to seriously playing games on it; it is a phone and not a Gameboy). I have used mine on the AT&T/Cricket network with no problems whatsoever. It should work on T-mobile but it does not have band 12 so I don't know how solid it would be on LTE.
I did have to RMA my original phone just before the one year warranty ran out, but it was not for a failure. On mine the glue between the glass and LCD separated; this did not affect its performance but it did create a silver outline around the screen. Asus replaced my phone without an issue because they were out of replacement screens at the time. I would have no issue whatsoever with buying another ZE551ML.
Don't bother dude, it's got the ****tiest build quality. Mine looks like it came from the trash. Sure it runs smooth, but ghost touches are a *****.
Trotter516 said:
As you can see there are a few who have had issues with their device, but there are the exceptions rather than the rule. EVERY phone line will have some who have issues. I think some of those here wouldn't be happy with a phone that lasts ten years on a charge and could cook and clean for them, but I digress.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, there has been a lot of tossing and turning over the quality of this phone. As my issue is being the cost of the phone, I am trying not to spend too much more than $200. Actually noticed that the Zenfone 3 was around and considered getting the Laser. After some research and thinking though I'm going with the Moto G4, maybe the G4 Plus.
I'm actually in the same boat here.
I am tired of being stuck to a carrier.
Currently on sprint and the service just sucks. I can spend less than $200 for the 64gb ZE551ml and can switch to metro or something. I don't have the money to spend on super high end phones.
I saw the Zenfone 3 laser but not sure what to do.
I was super intrigued when I first saw this phone.
Dalamar1320 said:
I'm actually in the same boat here.
I am tired of being stuck to a carrier.
Currently on sprint and the service just sucks. I can spend less than $200 for the 64gb ZE551ml and can switch to metro or something. I don't have the money to spend on super high end phones.
I saw the Zenfone 3 laser but not sure what to do.
I was super intrigued when I first saw this phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
https://www.motorola.com/us/products/moto-g
This is the phone I have decided to go with. I have not ordered one yet as I am not in a dire need for a phone but it looks really good and its a more recent release compared to the Zenfone 2. The Zenfone 3 laser was my second choice or even the Honor 5x.
4gb ram 64gb version is $300
It is but I don't really have a need for all that. The biggest issue I had with my last phone was the processor was just crap.
Jokester22 said:
It is but I don't really have a need for all that. The biggest issue I had with my last phone was the processor was just crap.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
"..... I like the price and specs of the Asus Zenfone 2....." from your first post
You a real jokester ?
timbernot said:
"..... I like the price and specs of the Asus Zenfone 2....." from your first post
You a real jokester ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I mostly saw 2gb versions XD. Don't get me wrong. I would not mind a 4gb phone but as per preference I would rather just get the newer hardware.
Edit: I should also note that I had not looked at much other phones yet at the time of this posting.
O_O I think i may have misread something when i was looking at Zenfone 2's. Forgive my stupidity. It would seem I need to look more into it. In the end though its gonna come down to price at the time of purchase. Wouldn't happen to have link to your model for a decent price would you?
Jokester22 said:
O_O I think i may have misread something when i was looking at Zenfone 2's. Forgive my stupidity. It would seem I need to look more into it. In the end though its gonna come down to price at the time of purchase. Wouldn't happen to have link to your model for a decent price would you?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
USA right ?
:good:
Ah nice.
I hope its allowed too. That is a helpful one to look at, especially since I often overlook Ebay.
Thanks for that!
Hi I need a new phone and the Zenfone 2 seems to fit my needs. I'd like to know opinions from current owners regarding the following.
Community
How's the support for this phone? I don't need a bazillion ROMs just one official CM that works well and is solid. If there's no CM are there at least ROMs without the propietary UI? Also does double tap 2 wake work on other roms or just the stock and stock based ones?
Bootloader and root
On my old Nexus 5 this was as easy as it gets. I know there are some phones that are a complete pain in the ass to unlock bootloader and root like some Samsung phones. So how easy is it to do these things on the Zenfone? How easy is to break (and brick) and recover?
Audio
I've owned a couple of seemingly badly engineered phones that would make headphones hiss and crackle when listening music and using mobile data or wifi at the same time. This phone doesn't suffer from anything like this does it?
GPS
My Nexus 5 was a disaster regarding this, sometimes taking 5-10 minutes to get a lock. Not terribly important but nice to have.
Screen
This is the most important factor, a bad screen is a deal breaker for me. I plan on watching lots of media on this phone so this is very important. I like neutral, slightly warm and punchy colors, can live with a too warm and yellow screen and absolutely abhorre blueish screens. How's the color and contrast on the Zenfone? Im quite pleased with my Nexus 5 screen, quite neutral and a bit punchy without overdoing it like some Samsung phones. I've also owned an lg optimus g that is the nexus 4 cousin, the screen on that was atrociously blue with no contrast. Thankfully there were custom kernels with fine color, contrast and gamma tuneablity, does the Zenfone have anything like this? I know it has a color profile picker by default but I'd like something with even finer control. Would like to know if said feature works on other roms or just the stock one and if its merely an overlay like those cheap apps on the playstore or if it works at kernel level. Max brightness and sunlight legibility are not important for me.
Battery
I've heard people say this phones battery life is atrocious but so did they about the N5 yet I was ok with my N5 battery life. I don't use my phone much so maybe that's why. Still would like to know if it's really bad, my N5 gets 4 days on standby and almost 4 on web browsing on wifi. Im perfectly ok with those numbers, is the Zenfone better or worse?
Camera
There's no mention of Optical Image Stabilization on reviews but most new phones have it, just want to confirm the Zenfone has it too. RAW support would be nice too.
Performance and x86
From all the info I could gather the Z3560 is roughly on par with my N5 old S 800, am I right about this? Also this would be my first x86 phone, it is my understanding that since android is a java vm I shouldn't have any app incompatibility problems, is this correct? Is the extra $ worth it for the 4gb z3580 version?
If it's of any importance my other options are the Note 3 and 4 and the LG G2 and G3.
All opinions appreciated.
I had a note 3 with an unlocked bootloader. Rooting and installing TWRP was very easy and there is a lot of support for the phone on XDA. It's pretty easy to recover from a soft-brick but a hard brick is very difficult.
The G2 is also a nice phone. Even with a locked bootloader, bumped TWRP and bumped ROMs make installation very easy. Autorec simplifies the rooting process. The G2 can be recovered from virtually any brick. For a soft brick, recovery is a bit easier than a softbricked Zenfone 2.
In my opinion, the note 3 screen is nicer than both the Zenfone 2, G2, and G3. The Note 4 screen is nicer than all 3 phones.
The camera on the G3 and Note 4 and better than the note 3 and G2.
Note 3 and 4 have great battery life and the battery is easily replaced with good aftermarket batteries from Anker and Stallion.
Hi all I have the Xperia 1 IV which I'm sending back due to overheating and I did have the s22 ultra but sold it
I'm looking at getting the pixel 6 pro and I'm thinking of rooting and flashing custom ROMs ect
Is they anything in place that causes problems (like on Samsung phone Knox,) where if I ever wanted to return to stock I could and it will be as if it was never rooted ect
And how are people finding the pixel now after all the updates ect does the tensor chip hold up (I don't really game)
Thanks
brockyneo said:
Hi all I have the Xperia 1 IV which I'm sending back due to overheating and I did have the s22 ultra but sold it
I'm looking at getting the pixel 6 pro and I'm thinking of rooting and flashing custom ROMs ect
Is they anything in place that causes problems (like on Samsung phone Knox,) where if I ever wanted to return to stock I could and it will be as if it was never rooted ect
And how are people finding the pixel now after all the updates ect does the tensor chip hold up (I don't really game)
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can return to stock fairly easily, especially if your bootlaoder is unlocked or unlockable. Android Flash Tool is probably your best bet. You can also flash the factory image via fastboot, sideload the OTA and factory reset. There is also a flash tool created by @badabing2003. There are many guides in this forum you can peruse through.
I personally find this phone very good. Opinions will differ, of course, depending on people's experience.
I've had mine since March. The Only issue(s) I had was the fingerprint sensor was a bit laggy, but one of the updates fixed that.
The only "real" issue I've had, as have many, is the modem chip still has a few bugs.
The signal level is a bit hit or miss. On my previous phone, I pretty much has full strength all the time in the area I typically operate in. With the 6Pro, sometimes the signal level drops. Most of the time if you put it in airplane mode for a few seconds, then turn it back on, it corrects. To me, it's a minor glitch that doesn't bother me.
The 6 Pro overheats on warm days too unfortunately. It's been happening a lot lately.
The camera stops working and the phone gets very slow. 5G gets disabled too when it happens.
I think your first mistake was selling the S22U. The second would be buying the 6 pro.
At least wait to see what the 7 pro has to offer. Hopefully it addresses the 6's shortcomings.
I've been using the six pro for 4 months now and didn't have the heatimg or the fingerprints or any other issues.
Solid experience for me, I highly recommend the device
I've had 1 overheat warning (and that was yesterday) but we are seeing shade temperatures up to 40C in the UK at the minute, stands to reason the hardware isn't going to be cooler then the air around it. Any use in direct sunlight even on cooler days has always made my P6P feel really hot in the hand but when you look at the battery temperature it isn't even at charging temperatures.
When the weather is a bit more normal for the UK though i can shoot video at 4K 60FPS without any problems or heating warnings.
Here is a quick story about my experience with the Realme GT ME. You can call it a review, i guess.
So i’ve been using a Honor 8x since it’s release in 2018 and it was all working fine. After 3.5 years it became kinda laggy and slow-ish so it was a time for upgrade. After some research etc. i choose the Realme GT ME (8GB ram 256GB rom model) and i bought it in december 2021 as a christmas gift for myself. It all started fine, the phone was amazing and all of that. After around 8 months i started to experience sound issues. System sounds (touch sound, camera shutter, lock/unlock sound etc.) sometimes were on big delay, they would play after 5 minutes or more (software issue/bug? Audio IC issue?), multimedia sounds worked fine tho. I ignored it and used the phone. Almost 10 months after i bought it i started experiencing weird graphical glitches, usually while scrolling (CPU/GPU issue?). That got me a little mad but i decided to ignore that too. 10 months after another issue appeared. There were no sound during call and i couldn’t hang up. That got me ultra mad. I said **** it and bought myself a Honor 70. Let’s hope the quality of this brand didn’t go down since 2018. So far it’s good, im typing from it. About realme, what i am trying to say is that they have tendency to break. Mine broke, my friend’s C11 broke 2 times already, another friend’s 50 pro completly broke after 5 months. As a conclusion, don’t buy a realme phone if you wanna use it for longer than a year.
Thats all from me, bye.
Why didn't you benefit of warranty?
mattia.b89 said:
Why didn't you benefit of warranty?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looking at other people experiences i think it would be a waste of time because it can break again. It's laying in my phone drawer, im proabably going to fix it on warranty and sell it.
RealmeUI is a piece of **** without a name. So we can wonder about the quality of firmwares... But the components are of good quality. I recommend to install a custom rom based on AOSP.
i don't think this is a review, it's a unit failure and it should be repaired by warranty. Units fail here and there, it has nothing to do with the model or the brand
barcode99 said:
i don't think this is a review, it's a unit failure and it should be repaired by warranty. Units fail here and there, it has nothing to do with the model or the brand
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm totally agree with that. "Don't buy Realme GT ME !". Lol. Unnecessary comment on XDA.
Gabiblocks said:
Looking at other people experiences i think it would be a waste of time because it can break again. It's laying in my phone drawer, im proabably going to fix it on warranty and sell it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I own this phone and its working as it should. charging only with original cable , keeping it away from water and dont flex-it . maybe there is something that you guys do wrong with your phones . i'm not shure , what do you expect from cheapest mid-range phones on the market to do ? gt master's equiped with same hardware as samsung phones and the software pack is from google so it should be just fine with normal usage
Hardware 4.5 stars.
Camera 4 stars.
Realme OS: Negative 5 stars.
I have posted about the weird in pocket behavior when using wired headphones where skin touch on the screen registers even when the phone is in pocket triggering mute, hold, record etc.
I have this once a month super slowdown issue where screen starts flickering which is only fixed with a reboot.
Not to mention unremovable apps (except via adb)
The bluetooth sound dampening issue after android 12 update is also noticeable. (audio suddenly drops to about 80% and looses clarity a bit, feels dampened. )
Pixel 6 pro, had it for like 3 months and this is getting outrages, fingerprint sometimes not working, phone buggy as hell, always over heating over the most basic of task, the battery life is mediocre compared to other phones of the same size and price, so many bugs like camera dot being turned upside down, things not loading and now?? None of the Chargers are charging the phone after the January update. Like not even the pixel 30W adapter and cable will charge it. Like what is this crap, $1200 CAD phone and it barely works and runs on an operating system that runs worse than window Vista. I thought Google had standards but clearly this phone is such a giant letdown, I could go on and on about all the problems this phone has and now the simplest of task can't even be accomplished by it, it can't even charge with a OEM cable and adapter and needs to be restarted 3 times a day when the system bugs out. I have never had such an awful experience with a phone and the pixel 6 pro just proves Google is incapable of making an actual flagship phone. I won't even start with my pixel buds 2 and how bad they are always disconnecting, every time one side earbud dies before the other even hits 90%. I've had enough of Google. It's been out for like 3-4 months and they still can't even fix this. Imagine if they focused on the phone with the same effort they do in the ads department.
As with your phone, have you tried a factory reset?
Your ear buds have gone bad. I had the same problem with my Sony wf-1000xm4 and Sony acknowledged it was a problem caused by a software update. I got mine replaced under warranty after almost a year.
I get you. I've felt like crushing the phone into bits with my hands, or snapping it in half.
But windows 11 for me is the same. My pixel watch etc. I think technology as a whole just isn't a user friendly experience
I got a Samsung a34 5G. Same. It's like the manufacturers of devices conform to deliberately build tech to screw up.
But having said all that, android Z is about 4-5 years away, and with enough people complaining about stuff not working, I think things will need to evolve
how did you get fricked over so badly with the price you paid for it - 1200 cad for a pixel 6 pro in feb 2023? you got ripped off, i got mine for the equivalent of 940 cad in june 2022
I've paid 350$ and i think that I'm ripped off
The phone is good but not as quality of 'google'
It makes some headache from time to time
I came from a oneplus 7 pro /8 5G about 2 years ago and it was a tough transition admittedly. However, I have to say that I've come to find this thing to be both versatile and quite resilient. I put it through hell and it only costs 30 bucks to replace the screen on Google's $9 protection plan. And thanks to the work of the development community, I enjoy a lot of cool features and privacy protection. After hearing about Google's plan for dashcam (supposably, you'll be able to user pixel as a dash cam via the safety app) I will give serious consideration to Pixel 8 Pro.
I'd say Android Flash Tool, flashing al partitions and formatting device, that worked for me, from hating it to loving it, try it if you want as your last choice, if that does not fix it, nothing will
Justarandomguy said:
I'd say Android Flash Tool, flashing al partitions and formatting device, that worked for me, from hating it to loving it, try it if you want as your last choice, if that does not fix it, nothing will
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
my battery life was so bad, even after doing that, but a custom kernel fixed that
Main problem with mine has been the mediocre modem. Constantly have bad signal and at least twice a day whilst not on WiFi I will lose all connectivity. Even though shows I have signal and on 4g/5g I have to toggle airplane mode to get it talking again. My first experience on a Google phone and possibly my last
Bliss 16.7, radioactive kernel, with pictured modules, and LSPosed modules. Best phone setup I've had in awhile. Then get ReVanced modded apps. Hmu if you need help making your P6P better.
fil3s said:
I get you. I've felt like crushing the phone into bits with my hands, or snapping it in half.
But windows 11 for me is the same. My pixel watch etc. I think technology as a whole just isn't a user friendly experience
I got a Samsung a34 5G. Same. It's like the manufacturers of devices conform to deliberately build tech to screw up.
But having said all that, android Z is about 4-5 years away, and with enough people complaining about stuff not working, I think things will need to evolve
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was a bit harsh in my statement about modern tech's shortcomings.
With AI manifesting itself daily into most applications I think things will change. I rooted my a34 and it is a little less powerful than the 6pro, with just 6gb of ram.
The pixel 6 pro isn't a bad phone, I was just having a bad day when I posted that.