Issues with the Zenfone 9? Or do you absolutely love it?

[charley672]

I'm considering getting a Zenfone 9 as a replacement to my just over 1 year old Pixel 5a 5G. I really don't want another phone, but my Pixel experienced the "black screen of death"

I'm now over Pixel phones after something similar happened to my OG Pixel. The Zenfone 9 has been the only android that's come out that I've actually liked. Great size, fast finger print reader, good battery life, good cameras. I've read the reviews and have seen many positives, but I know a YouTube review only tests so much and doesn't live with the phone for months going through the troubles that come later down the line with phones.

So my question is - how do you like you Zenfone 9? What specific or unique issues have you had with it?

[tochmi]

Highly recommended and satisfactory after one year.

My main advice is to buy it from an official local Asus dealer, so you can use the warranty in case of problems. It's very important. In Spain I enjoy a 3-year warranty, which is why it is more expensive here.

Currently the software is very polished and we only need security updates. I'm waiting for Android 14, at the moment there is no news or the beta program. I guess when they reach the final version Asus will implement it. 

From this phone I only miss the wireless charge. 

I put the thread where another user asked something similar and we answered:

https://zentalk.asus.com/t5/zenfone-9/how-well-does-android-run-on-zenfone-9-run-in-2023/m-p/375784/... 

[inbarr]

some really annoying bugs with voice calls.

ASUS is not fixing it for years (I saw those issues from Zenfone 7 users).

[landsome]

I'll repost this from another thread: "I had a Z8 for almost a year and a Z9 for some 9 months (but I have a few other compact phones of a recent or older generation). Both my Zenfones have been reliable, with reliable updates. The bugs I encountered were solved rather quickly for me. Overall, my Z9 is not buggier today than my Pixel 4 or S23."

In essence, no longer any significant bugs for me - never had many to begin with -, and the software is clean and very customizable. My OG Pixel died the same way as yours, but I still in have three smallish Pixels (4, 4a and 5), and they all work perfectly well. I prefer the Z9 for its abundance of customizations, the audio jack, the essentially perfect fp reader, and perhaps also its speed and fluency at 120Hz. Cameras are below the Pixels', though, with excessive sharpening and overbrightening. 

[inbarr]

generally the phone is ok,

but...

when I'm having a call, always after few minutes the other side will say they can't hear we well (like really bad). and then I need to switch to speaker and back or plug earphones. extremely annoying.

second, something with the proximity sensors doesn't work well. Ending a call I can find the phone changing settings, sending messages and what not.

or countless times the phone was calling to my emergency numbers when in the pocket.

ASUS is ignoring those issues and closing the threads in this forum with no answer.