ASUS - ZenTalk

fear_dot_com_20 · ‎11-10-2020

A week ago I finally decided to buy this phone, even though I knew I might face some problems with the camera quality( I have been reading all the posts from this forum). I was looking a lot on what phone could replace Xiaomi Mi Mix with custom rom(pixel experience). Since I was coming from big phone, I was looking for something with a screen to match Mi Mix , but also I was loving pixel experince Rom. So I had in mind this phone, Pixle 5 and OnePlus 8 Pro. Since OnePlus moved the software to a more Samsung like experience I dropped it. So it was somehow a tie between pixel and asus (pretty clean android experience better processor and bigger screen) , but the screen tipped the balance towards the Asus ( sorrry for the long post but I wabted to give you some history in here).
After a week with this phone I am starting to think I have made a mistake buying this one...Here are my problems so far:
Lack of Volte and Voice HD (biggest problem so far...even my 3 years old phone with a custom rom had it. They advertise 5g but it does not work correctly even with 4g. This might be fixed with a software update)
Lack of notification icons on AOD( here on the forum it was said this was implemented so, in order to to keep this feature from consuming battery. Guess what, it consumes more battery than the same feature on pixel 3a and it still lacks the icons. Initially I thought there might be a battery drain due to one of the apps I had...but I had the exact same apps as on my Mix and even with a newer processor on 7nm, a screen of about same size but amoled on this one - mix had LCD - and a battery with 500mAh more than Mix, I was getting only 5 hours or maximum 5h30 minutes of SOT on this phone compared with 4h30m constantly on Mix. Mix had ambient light on also. (Sort of AOD but on limited time). With AOD off I am getting more than 7h30m SOT...better but I would kinda like more the AOD, even with the poor screen on time, if it would had the notifications. Otherwise, for me at least it is useless...I have a smartwatch to see the time, I don't need AOD for this... Might be fixed with a software update)
Umbalanced stereo between speakers. Not really a big issue but still one can nitice it. The top one can be barely hearable on lower volumes with the bottom one suppressed.
Green tint of the screen mostly visible on dark walpapers or apps.( Not sure yet....but I am quite convinced the screen is not the problem but somethig from android and how it renders the black on dark mode. Pixle also seems to have a funny black in the same conditions this one has a funny green. I can leave with it)
Blue tint of the screen if the screen goes under 100% brightness. ( This is really starting to bother me and I think it is again a software issue since the screen looks decent at 100% brightness ). Funny but having night mode on makes the screen more pleasant ( a feature which made thw screen yellowish on my previos phone here the screen looks quite white compared with the blue tint when night mode is off ). Blue tint is very noticable compared with green tint( for green disabling datk theme fixes it...you cannot notice it...but the blue....it's just sad.... ( Blue tint diminishes to barely noticeable if you select Standard option on Splendid app. This appears to be the best calibrated option).
Bad quality of camera photos ( apparently pixel with an older sensor makes more beautiful photos that this beast with bigger and better sensor and 3 cameras) and not to mention the picture and video quality on 3rd party apps like whatsapp (software issue). Not to mention also that switching between cameras you will notice a totaly different white balance on all 3 cameras. (So won't see this on other phones in the same price range ...even on a few with lower price). Take 3 pictures with the same phone in the same lightning conditions and you will think them were made with different phones....
Sorry for the long post but it might help others decide whether to buy this phone or not...as far for me...I am still not 100 % convinced I am keeping this one. I still have 2 days to decide even though the hardware and the size of this phone I love...the software makes it a very unpleasant experience... Btw I will try to keep track of the problems if I keep the phone and the problems are solved...
Peace!

wirazo · ‎11-10-2020

Blue screen tone also here!!! Please solve this issue!!

Tagion · ‎11-10-2020

Can't you just adjust color temperature to remove blue tone?

Anders_ASUS · ‎11-11-2020

fear_dot_com_2000
A week ago I finally decided to buy this phone, even though I knew I might face some problems with the camera quality( I have been reading all the posts from this forum). I was looking a lot on what phone could replace Xiaomi Mi Mix with custom rom(pixel experience). Since I was coming from big phone, I was looking for something with a screen to match Mi Mix , but also I was loving pixel experince Rom. So I had in mind this phone, Pixle 5 and OnePlus 8 Pro. Since OnePlus moved the software to a more Samsung like experience I dropped it. So it was somehow a tie between pixel and asus (pretty clean android experience better processor and bigger screen) , but the screen tipped the balance towards the Asus ( sorrry for the long post but I wabted to give you some history in here).
After a week with this phone I am starting to think I have made a mistake buying this one...Here are my problems so far:
Lack of Volte and Voice HD (biggest problem so far...even my 3 years old phone with a custom rom had it. They advertise 5g but it does not work correctly even with 4g. This might be fixed with a software update)
Lack of notification icons on AOD( here on the forum it was said this was implemented so, in order to to keep this feature from consuming battery. Guess what, it consumes more battery than the same feature on pixel 3a and it still lacks the icons. Initially I thought there might be a battery drain due to one of the apps I had...but I had the exact same apps as on my Mix and even with a newer processor on 7nm, a screen of about same size but amoled on this one - mix had LCD - and a battery with 500mAh more than Mix, I was getting only 5 hours or maximum 5h30 minutes of SOT on this phone compared with 4h30m constantly on Mix. Mix had ambient light on also. (Sort of AOD but on limited time). With AOD off I am getting more than 7h30m SOT...better but I would kinda like more the AOD, even with the poor screen on time, if it would had the notifications. Otherwise, for me at least it is useless...I have a smartwatch to see the time, I don't need AOD for this... Might be fixed with a software update)
Umbalanced stereo between speakers. Not really a big issue but still one can nitice it. The top one can be barely hearable on lower volumes with the bottom one suppressed.
Green tint of the screen mostly visible on dark walpapers or apps.( Not sure yet....but I am quite convinced the screen is not the problem but somethig from android and how it renders the black on dark mode. Pixle also seems to have a funny black in the same conditions this one has a funny green. I can leave with it)
Blue tint of the screen if the screen goes under 100% brightness. ( This is really starting to bother me and I think it is again a software issue since the screen looks decent at 100% brightness ). Funny but having night mode on makes the screen more pleasant ( a feature which made thw screen yellowish on my previos phone here the screen looks quite white compared with the blue tint when night mode is off ). Blue tint is very noticable compared with green tint( for green disabling datk theme fixes it...you cannot notice it...but the blue....it's just sad.... ( Blue tint diminishes to barely noticeable if you select Standard option on Splendid app. This appears to be the best calibrated option).
Bad quality of camera photos ( apparently pixel with an older sensor makes more beautiful photos that this beast with bigger and better sensor and 3 cameras) and not to mention the picture and video quality on 3rd party apps like whatsapp (software issue). Not to mention also that switching between cameras you will notice a totaly different white balance on all 3 cameras. (So won't see this on other phones in the same price range ...even on a few with lower price). Take 3 pictures with the same phone in the same lightning conditions and you will think them were made with different phones....
Sorry for the long post but it might help others decide whether to buy this phone or not...as far for me...I am still not 100 % convinced I am keeping this one. I still have 2 days to decide even though the hardware and the size of this phone I love...the software makes it a very unpleasant experience... Btw I will try to keep track of the problems if I keep the phone and the problems are solved...
Peace!

Problems I have with Zenfone 7 Pro so far...

Yes, it might change in the future as we talk to more and more carriers
We're already looking at how to improve the AOD
This isn't unique to this phone. The receiver (top speaker) is much smaller than the bottom speaker. Our design with the flip cam module doesn't allow for a bigger speaker
This is also not unique to our OLED. Even iPhone 12 show green tint. It's one of the draw backs with OLED
Make sure you have cinematic mode selected. It's supposed to be around 6500k. If it's very blue even with cinematic, then please send it for service.
Software is the hardest part and Google are magicians when it comes to software. Their sensor might be old(er) but it's not bad in any way. They chose this sensor because they know what they can do with it. We're still tuning our cameras. In a normal environment I'm pretty sure the white balance will come out the same but there might be scenarios where we need to tune more

fear_dot_com_20 · ‎11-11-2020

Hi Anders_ASUS,

Thanks for replying. I really hope that you can fix the issues with this phone. I did not made this thread to put mud on the ASUS brand, but for a phone that costs 800 euros I was expecting a little more. For the time being the blue tint is fixed( well not 100% fixed , but better by choosing Standard in Splendid ) and I striked through that issu as it can be seen. I made this thread to keep track of the issues I have and see whether they get fixed or not.
I will keep it updated for as long as I have the phone or as long as problems still exists.
The audio is not also 100% an issue is just what I noticed...I know it is due to the camera module. What bothers me the most right now is the lack of Volte and audio HD. Searching in internet while speaking with someone on this phone, is really not working fine in DE due to 3g step back while calling. Also the AOD was a little step back for me on this phone...since I was expecting something greater than a simple watch that's eating battery for nothing on a amoled screen.
Green tint does not bother me that bad since it is not always noticible, but the blue one did bother me a lot since it was always present on white. Finally I adjusted that as well and it is more pleasable.
Camera, hmm, I hope you can adjust it...but it is, again, not a major drawback for me since I mostly use a full frame mirror less for photos...The phone is just a bonus for me...but for others it can be a draw back as it can be seen on the forum.
Now I decided to keep the phone and hope for the fixes...
Regards!