To Asus and all owners of a dead Zenfone 8

[leoncarrera]

By now is it clear the Asus Zenfone 8 has a weakness when it comes to its motherboard. Phones are dying in very comparable situations; after installing an update or patch and/ or when charging. The died phones show the same state: a sudden black screen, no response on buttons or screen, sometimes an orange fast blinking LED for about ten seconds when the charger is attached, after which also this stops blinking. Even the life duration of the phones are alike when this happens;  around two years.  Some people are lucky that it can be repaired under warranty, most aren't when warranty has just expired.

All of the phones which were repaired received a new motherboard. So also in here the fix seems comparable. Or at least not repairable with a soldering or partial replacement of other components. There is no wide variety of repairs to be found on ZenTalk on this. 

This issue goes beyond individual or even wrong use, a single faulty or unfortunate phone. All phones that died did this in comparable situations and after comparable life times. There is something wrong with the design or components of the Zenfone 8, or at least a batch, which can't be put on warranty alone when it comes to a repair. 

Asus, please take this matter and your clients serious. At least more then you have proven till this date. Asus can't just address this matter with the initial question if the phone is still under the warranty. Asus does know what the technical issues are with these phones, so please then also take your responsibility. Asus put this premium phone on the market at a premium price. This comes with an expected life duration that goes beyond a hard line of just 24 months. Warranty is for specific situations. These dying Zenfones are not specific. It is a general issue. So please handle it as such.

Can Asus confirm that they will keep addressing issues regarding these dying Zenfones as individual technical matters? And thus with warranty as strict and main component to define if Asus or customers are financially responsible for further action? And if so, what is their response to these resembling dying phones that Asus will keep holding onto this strict warranty duration when it is clear customers can't be held responsible for their broken Zenfones, since they die during normal use or especially after installing new and updated Asus firmware?

To all users of a died Zenfone 8: please add your phone to this thread, when it died (lifetime) and on which occurence. 

Kind regards,
León

[zenfone8-user]

I bought my phone on March 25, 2022 from a store, after it was previously purchased, unpacked and returned by another customer. The phone was in flawless condition, as new - I wouldn't have guessed it was previously touched by anyone. The phone was never wet (recently, and also never during its lifetime) and never fell to crack a screen or get a bruise. It was never repaired and never had any issues, replacements etc. It was always kept in a case, the default one and later a silicone one. I usually (when not on vacation without a power source) kept the battery in the 30-70% range, I used scheduled charging and had good ranks in battery care. The battery health was reported as good.

The phone worked perfectly for me for the 2.5 years I had it. It was slightly bigger than I would have wanted, but it was the smallest on the market, and I was happy with the UI, features and performance.

It died on the first of August 2024 while I was on vacation. The battery was discharging, and I have plugged it into a powerbank when it was at 4% battery. The phone charged to up to 11%, at which point I unlocked it and took a picture. Moments later, I wanted to take another one, but the phone wouldn't unlock or react to the button at all. It also didn't react to the powerbank - the diode wouldn't light up. At the time of the death, the phone was lukewarm, as was usual when charging. The temperatures outside were not extreme, and the phone didn't fall or get wet.

I have left the phone on the powerbank, thinking the battery somehow drained. The phone diode was not on during charging, but the phone was lukewarm (as always when charging) and the powerbank charge lowered by the amount usually needed to fully charge the phone. The phone did not turn on, react to buttons or getting connected to a computer. When back from vacation, the phone diode started flashing red when connected to a power supply. The phone got lukewarm (again, it is charging), but eventually, the diode turned off and the phone is still dead.

EDIT: I do not recall any recent updates. The last update must have happened at least a week before the incident, as I have not updated while on vacation.

I will be contacting a repair shop soon to see if the repair is worth it and if some data can be recovered.

Now, even though I am sad my phone died, I was very happy with it while it lasted. If anyone from Asus is reading this, please consider designing a small (~5 inch) well performing phone. People around me are all looking for phones that fit in pockets and can be controlled by one small hand. All of such phones now are cheap and slow. The alternatives (Zenfone 10, Google Pixel 8, Samsung Galaxy S24) are too big, and only the Zenfone 10 is under 6 inches. Switching to Apple is not an option for me. See https://smallandroidphone.com/.

[zenfone8-user]

My phone (which I posted on here about earlier) was repaired free of charge by Asus, 5 months after warranty expired. After some back and forth, the Asus repair service told me the repair would be done if:
- warranty expired less than a year ago
- the phone was not water damaged
- the phone was not mechanically damaged
For context, I am in Czechia, EU.

Here is a brief timeline:
- March 2022: I purchased the phone
- 2 August 2024: The phone died
- 12 August: I wrote my earlier post here
- 14 August: I contacted the local Asus repair center, where I learned that nothing can be done unless I paid
- 13-16 August: communication with Falcon_ASUS, exchanged serial number
- 16 August: The local Asus repair center reached out to me, offering free diagnostics AND repair (under the conditions above)
- 19 August: shipped phone to Asus
- 22 August: repaired phone was delivered back to me

During the repair, the motherboard was replaced and my data was unrecoverable. Also, my protective glass was removed, all of which was understandable and expected.

[Falcon_ASUS]

@zenfone8-user 
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
Please check the top right corner and kindly share the serial number and details requested in the PM inbox.
Thank you.

[BIONICNPU]

Bought it in August 2022 and just had it bricked in 2024 May. Right after taking all my holiday photos..

[BIONICNPU]

Will add that plugging it in to my pc the device shows in device manager only with the ID QUSB_BULK_CD