Zenfone 10, bugs and feedback

[PBN]

Firstly, I am not willing to send the logs so I will be as informative as possible here.

Attached build number on software etc

Now, let's get the bugs out of the way:

• After every call the phone Ringer mode goes from Silent mode to Ring mode, which is very frustrating. I didn't notice it when I first got the phone and I have had 2 updates since I got it. I see this problem is historic since the Zenfone 9. I am using ASUS Optimised for notifications shade, volume adjustment and volume panel. Volume key for incoming call is set to mute. Power button is Stock Android.
• Sometimes pinch to zoom stops working in some video apps. A reboot usually fixes this.
• I couldn't hear a call at all today. A reboot fixed this. Not great.
• Sometimes sound stops working from the top speaker, or entirely. A reboot fixes this.
• Sometimes Bluetooth crackles or audio goes blank even with no range between the connected headphones
• Audio Wizard sometimes resets EQ, Bass and Treble settings to default.
• Pocket mode is bonkers sometimes. Goes overkill with the notification to not cover the top.
• When in one handed mode, sometimes the notification shade won't come down with a swipe from the top. I have to use the Smart Key
• Double tap / Triple Tap back for functions is VERY inconsistent. After a while it just stops working. A reboot temporarily fixes this.
• The bottom 1cm of the screen registers I have touched it sometimes, e.g. in some Portrait mode games have buttons that low which shows an animation of being pressed, but does not act on the touch. I think the OS is trying to stop accidental touches from pushing through an action, but it is very aggressive. The latest software update has made this less obvious.
• For anyone on older software versions, sometimes my alarms failed to ring. This seems fine now on the latest software.
• The latest update has slowed down picture taking from the camera even in good conditions. In bad conditions this takes much longer.

General feedback / suggestions:

• Provide an option for System UI tuner to add seconds to the status bar clock. This is missing and it's really frustrating.
• Separate the screen-off gestures for Next/Prev track from the Play/Pause gesture, or give the option to make it two finger < & > or reduce its sensitivity. The Next/Prev gesture is far too sensitive and accidental track changes happen easily, whereas play/pause is more restrained. Also provide an option vibration feedback upon Play/Pause or Next/Prev being activated.
• Allow an option to tweak sensitivity of swiping Smart Key for bringing down notifications. It is great that it works so easily when you want it, but it also works too easily when you don't.
• The Ultrawide OmniVision sensor supports PDAF. Please enable Autofocus on the UW camera with a software update. I don't know if the selife camera sensor supports AF but if it does, enable this too. Also edge detection in portrait mode is not brilliant, but overall the RGBW setup results in good shots in tough lighting.
• Allow more apps for the Edge Tool. Adding one column of icons doesn't eat too much into my phone's display with my current settings and it could be very useful. Also adding more things you can do with system shortcuts would be great. Also, while I like the floating windows from the Edge Tool, many prefer opening an app in default (full) mode. This should be an option.
• In my OnePlus 7T Pro before, I had the Device Controls quick setting come up along with power options and Wallet preview to select cards for payment by long-pressing the Power Button. This was extremely useful and if ASUS incorporated something like this, it would be amazing. As it stands "ASUS Optimised" isn't really differentiated from the "Stock Android" power menu option enough.
• Google's Contacts app is better in some ways than the ASUS standard one, especially visually. However, it does not show call logs attached to the person in the contacts. Is there a way to allow Google Contacts to "Always" be the intended contact editor and for the app to also show call logs for each contact? I tried installing Google Phone app but no luck getting individual contact logs to the app. Also while we're at it, please make your favourites a tab like in the Google Phone dialler, with images etc. The list view is terrible.
  In addition, long pressing the icon on the home screen brings up the first three contacts in alphabetical order to be used for quick dialling from the long press of the icon. It should bring up the most contacted or be customisable in some way. Usually the top 3 favourites are brought up but as you don't have a customisable Favourites tab, it seems to pull it out in alphabetical order from the favourites. A bit of a poor experience. The fix would be just to have a visual Favourites tab you can customise in preference order by long press, drag and drop, not the list format. Both the Google and OnePlus dialler apps are customisable in this way.
• Wallpaper & Style, Basic Colours only offers quite muted pastels. Offering stronger colours against the white icon text / graphics would be beneficial.
• Camera app needs more explanation for some on screen settings. Also presets for standard pics outside of portrait mode would be great (e.g. clean, per sensor processing, with natural colours, vs. enhanced ASUS processing with the vibrant colours etc).

I'm sure there's more, but otherwise I have really enjoyed the phone and its features so far. The size and weight and performance overall coupled with decent battery life has been great. I am looking forward to a good few years with this phone and I am happy to feed back further as needed and as software updates (hopefully!) mature this phone (rather than break it)!

[woody_ww]

Well, posts like these are very useful, thanks @PBN! I hope ASUS takes a look at them and even better, takes action. I just preordered mine and can only hope that the bugs get fixed.
Your suggestion about camera improvement seems important for me as well. The camera was (or still is) somewhat of a dealbreaker again (I own the Zenfone 8 now). As I see the reviews now, I'll have to look for a GCAM port again to replace the ASUS camera in some situations.

[PBN]

Yeah I was thinking to look out for a GCAM port actually. I used to have one on my OnePlus before. Mostly the shots are fine, but there are situations where the processing algorithms don't hit. Certainly they are mostly pleasing results, but overall accuracy / balance between accuracy and pleasant viewing is the cost here.

The phone overall is a nice one with some software glitches needing to be tackled. Fingers crossed!

EDIT: Weird thing, today the phone doesn't automatically kick out of silent mode after a call. But now my Bluetooth isn't outputting any sound, either in audio mode, only in call mode. A reboot didn't affect it, I had to manually put the earbuds back in the case and pull them out again, which makes me think it was somehow stuck on the call channel.

This is hard to replicate behaviour indeed!

[Xenda]

I also experience most of these bugs, I'd also like the see the auto mode (refresh rate) to be further optimized. And also disable media icons from the AoD notification icons.  Bluetooth cracking is probably the most annoying issue I experience.

Asus contact app is also pretty inferior like you said, maybe better to allow us to remove it?

The front camera does support AF? Atleast when presented with a face.

I hope Asus takes a look at this thread, its really excellent.

[PBN]

I think you're right about the front camera autofocus actually. It seems to be relatively precise from 13-15cm up to arms length. (my 7T Pro keeps focus from about 8-10cm and adjusts accordingly). I guess I was just used to something with a little more AF ability.

I don't mind keeping the Asus Contacts app because it is the only way to see individual contact call logs, but just checking my 7T Pro I had the same situation - I would have to go into the OnePlus Contacts app because Google Contacts wouldn't show individual contact call logs).

The frustration here is I CAN set Google Contacts as default for opening contacts, but I can't set ASUS's own Contacts app to "Always". Really odd. On my 7T Pro I think I just resigned myself to manually using their own Contacts app when I wanted individual contact call logs and used Google Contacts for the majority of the time.

I think the real benefit (to allow retention of the call recording feature which you would lose going to Google's superior Phone dialler app), would come from ASUS updating their Dialler to have a decent, customisable favourites tab. OnePlus had it (on OOS11 at least), so I didn't need to use Google's Phone app, but ASUS is missing a trick here.

Bluetooth cracking is very rare for me and even when it happens its very intermittent or fixed with some form of reconnection or reboot.  Connectivity with my Bluetooth 5.2 TWS has been more stable than on my OnePlus overall.
What devices are you  getting this with? I mainly use mine with Bluetooth 5.0 and 5.2 devices.

On refresh rate, in auto mode it never hits 120Hz in daily use (checked with overlay through Developer Options). It is usually 90Hz when scrolling through settings or using home screens or Chrome. Kiwi Browser only gets to 60Hz for some reason. YouTube, MX Player etc all sit at 60Hz too. Of course you can force it to be 120Hz but that's not going to be great for battery. If this had an LTPO screen and I'd consider leaving AoD on, but as it only drops to 30Hz I have disabled the option in favour of battery life. Will test to see what you mean about notifications.

EDIT: I tested out AoD and yeah, any persistent notifications or "Silent" notifications shouldn't really be shown on the AoD, or at least there should be a toggle to disable it. Tbh a way to manage which apps can have notifications on AoD would be handy so you can select only the apps you want on there (option to select all / deselect all and manual ticking).