Should I get the Zenfone 8 or Pixel 6a?

[narutokaya]

I've been looking at getting a new midrange/budget phone (£350 is what I have put aside for a phone) and both of these phones are £300 brand new atm. These two are my favourites at the moment, I have done my research and I know that both phones have their pros and cons over each other (mainly the longer software support time on the pixel and the more powerful hardware in the Zenfone 8). But before I buy I wanted to here from those that actually use zenfones. Any advice appreciated. TLDR: as a Zenfone user, what do you think I should buy?

[Danishblunt]

ZF8 is prone to failure.

Get the Samsung A34, I dislike Samsung as a company but the A34 is a banger deal. It's a flagship killer phone, kinda ironic that Samsung is the one with a flagship killer phone in their midrange segment.

[nasch007]

Interestingly enough, my Zenfone 8 is also failing. Started a week ago, couple of random reboots. No problem maybe it's weird connection or my VPN app. Today it random rebooted and is just stuck on the Zenfone "dancing dots" logo. I can get to bootloader and fastboot/recovery, but that's about it. Miffed as I only bough this phone last June. It's been just over a year. Now it's on to look at pulling my data (if possible) and warranty repair (if it's still under warranty otherwise I get to deal with my CC company)...

Due to the age of the phone and how incredibly gentle I've been with it (literally babied it -- Rhinoshield case, screen protector that's never been off, never dropped, never submerged; this is the most delicate I've ever been with a phone!!) and it's failed, NO I cannot recommend it. Asus has really been dropping the ball lately. Let's see how their support goes. Hopefully they don't treat it like their CPU melting motherboards or ROG Ally...

Best of luck!

[Danishblunt]

storage getting nuked on the ZF8 is more common that you'd like. It's barely alive and youll eventually see the dreaded "ramdump issue" followed by not turning on anymore.

As for ASUS support, it will depend on your region, likely itll be a "fun" experience.

[nasch007]

I wish you had better news. My device has a manufacture date of 08/2021. It didn't even last a full two years. $700.

They better have some good things to say at support... where the hell is my data how do I get it back? Ironically I was dumb enough to pay for 2TB of webstorage but hadn't yet set it up to use it :X

If they don't do right by their customers then I'm calling it a scam and washing my hands of them. We'll see.