[2022] Long-term experience/review of the ZenFone 7/7 Pro?

[ChristianHamilt]

Hi
 
The ZenFone 7/7 Pro has now been out for more than a year, and I'm considering buying it. How has your experience been so far? How is the hardware holding up after (approximately) one year of use?
 
Please share your long-term experience of the device. I’d be great if you note how long you’ve owned it, and if you’ve encountered any problems/surprises etc.
 
This will be interesting for both current and potential ZenFone 7/7 Pro owners 🙂
 
Looking forward to reading your replies!

[topolov]

fear_dot_com_2000

It was written a couple of times...

https://zentalk.asus.com/en/discussion/41283/squared-shadow-white-screen-under-sunlight

and the thread point to the original thread too

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Cool, haven't seen this topic previously. Arguments there are correct - "Do you have a premium car with a hole in the roof, prepared for sunroof ?"
On phones with oled panels and fingerprint sensor implemented there are no such dark areas.

[Aryan202]

topolov

https://zentalk.asus.com/en/discussion/comment/202597#Comment_202597

Cool, haven't seen this topic previously. Arguments there are correct - "Do you have a premium car with a hole in the roof, prepared for sunroof ?"

On phones with oled panels and fingerprint sensor implemented there are no such dark areas.

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There are two possible scenarios
1.Asus was initially planning to implement under display scanner and side FP was a later change
2.Considering that almost all OLED panels have an under display fp the panel sourced from samsung had thar cutout by default or the particular batch asus ordered

[topolov]

Aryan202

https://zentalk.asus.com/en/discussion/comment/202636#Comment_202636

There are two possible scenarios

1.Asus was initially planning to implement under display scanner and side FP was a later change

2.Considering that almost all OLED panels have an under display fp the panel sourced from samsung had thar cutout by default or the particular batch asus ordered

View post

Anyway, if I knew that in time, I wouldn't buy ZF7, because it looks terrible during summer. Like you have some strange shadow over your screen. Maybe it's because screen is too bright, lol.
Reviews I checked before buying were written during winter, so probably authors didn't notice this issue as well.

[edddd]

I've had it for 13 months now, 4 Zenfone 7 Pros in total due to unnecessary RMA, to be exact.
Pros:
it's a brick when used with Rhinoshield.
Very loud bottom speaker. It can ring VERY LOUD. You can turn the volume so high that you will definitely hear it, whatever you are playing.
Notification LED
Very bright and very dark screen when required
Good GPS (as long as it's not broken by updates)
High performance. I already forgot what it means to wait.
Great videos (4K 60fps + OIS + very good sound) and good photos overall.
True 64MP photo mode with some limitations (e.g. rolling shutter). Not many phones can boast about it
3 slots: 2 SIM and 1 SD Card
Good battery for such specs
Ability to use main camera for selfies
Good overall build quality
Fast charging
Battery saving options (charge capacity and power limit)
OS literally never crashes (it has quirks and bugs) but I think it never crashed even once on me.
Cons:
Plain phone calling is no longer working reliably here in Germany, as 3G got permanently disabled. Sound is interrupted in calls randomly as soon as phone jumps to 4G.
Battery capacity is around 4500, not 5000 as advertised.
Too aggressive noise reduction in photos. Some places it works, some places it is annoying.
Not well calibrated focus to infinity. Landscapes come out blurry. Best distance for focus is a few meters.
The camera module hinge does not have an encoder, it is mostly very loose when taking photos of documents from above.
There are random software bugs and they are REALLY random. I guess this is the reason why the phone never crashes - maybe it has all bugchecks disabled?
Many quirks are unknown to ASUS itself, even less to its support staff. I sent my phone 3 times back for non-issues.
USB 2.0 only, but I don't care that much.
No headphone jack.
Not even minimal waterproofing.
Touch input is jittery in some apps, especially multi-touch.
Fingerprint readers annoy me. This one cannot bare sweaty, greasy, manly fingers. You need to wash them, dry them, clean the sensor, then hold the finger for 1min for it to register inside apps sometimes. My Dell laptop from 2007 is better at this.
I don't know if this is ASUS-only: My old Android phone allowed me to boot without entering SIM PIN, but this one insists on unlocking SIM first. This is not that useful for some scenarios, where I can't remove the SIM immediately.
Speakers have barely any bass.
Speakers are unbalanced.
Zoom sensor is a bit weaker, also not convinced by its focus to infinity.

[ChristianHamilt]

edddd

I've had it for 13 months now, 4 Zenfone 7 Pros in total due to unnecessary RMA, to be exact.

Pros:

• it's a brick when used with Rhinoshield.
• Very loud bottom speaker. It can ring VERY LOUD. You can turn the volume so high that you will definitely hear it, whatever you are playing.
• Notification LED
• Very bright and very dark screen when required
• Good GPS (as long as it's not broken by updates)
• High performance. I already forgot what it means to wait.
• Great videos (4K 60fps + OIS + very good sound) and good photos overall.
• True 64MP photo mode with some limitations (e.g. rolling shutter). Not many phones can boast about it
• 3 slots: 2 SIM and 1 SD Card
• Good battery for such specs
• Ability to use main camera for selfies
• Good overall build quality
• Fast charging
• Battery saving options (charge capacity and power limit)
• OS literally never crashes (it has quirks and bugs) but I think it never crashed even once on me.

Cons:

• Plain phone calling is no longer working reliably here in Germany, as 3G got permanently disabled. Sound is interrupted in calls randomly as soon as phone jumps to 4G.
• Battery capacity is around 4500, not 5000 as advertised.
• Too aggressive noise reduction in photos. Some places it works, some places it is annoying.
• Not well calibrated focus to infinity. Landscapes come out blurry. Best distance for focus is a few meters.
• The camera module hinge does not have an encoder, it is mostly very loose when taking photos of documents from above.
• There are random software bugs and they are REALLY random. I guess this is the reason why the phone never crashes - maybe it has all bugchecks disabled?
• Many quirks are unknown to ASUS itself, even less to its support staff. I sent my phone 3 times back for non-issues.
• USB 2.0 only, but I don't care that much.
• No headphone jack.
• Not even minimal waterproofing.
• Touch input is jittery in some apps, especially multi-touch.
• Fingerprint readers annoy me. This one cannot bare sweaty, greasy, manly fingers. You need to wash them, dry them, clean the sensor, then hold the finger for 1min for it to register inside apps sometimes. My Dell laptop from 2007 is better at this.
• I don't know if this is ASUS-only: My old Android phone allowed me to boot without entering SIM PIN, but this one insists on unlocking SIM first. This is not that useful for some scenarios, where I can't remove the SIM immediately.
• Speakers have barely any bass.
• Speakers are unbalanced.
• Zoom sensor is a bit weaker, also not convinced by its focus to infinity.
• 
  

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Wow, what a great summary! May I ask why you decided to RMA your previously 3 ZenFone 7 Pros? Has your current device had any severe hardware issues?