Asus Zenfone 5 LTE - anyone got one?

[mole]

hi

 

as the title suggests - anyone got one? any good?

 

 

 

thanks

[Zer0]

I have the 8Gb 3G one. I got it end of 2014 and still have it, albeit a little banged up due to wear and tear (power button needs a hard press, data port won't transfer data but will charge, battery is going). The Data port is still under warranty but it will take 14 days, so I need to source another phone before I send it off.

 

Anyway, the camera is decent quality and so is the HDR on it. There are some odd issues I've had with it freezing once in a while and needing a reboot by holding the power button for a while until it does something. I've updated it to Android 5 Lollipop which has to be done manually as the Over the Air only goes to 4.4, but it's brought a new lease of life to the phone. Have to be careful with this and do it before you encrypt the phone as otherwise you will have to reset it to remove encryption (and back everything up). PITA but it was worth it. Also had trouble getting the thing installed after downloading the wrong firmware, even though the website said it would work, it didn't and needed a different firmware which the phone gave me a hint to, but after I got the right one it went on fine. There are tutorials online for this.

 

It's been a good phone for the Year and a bit I've had it. Still working fine despite the wear and tear issues. When I bought it it was £150. My girlfriend has just bought the 16Gb LTE one for £80 on ebuyer, which has now increased back to around £97 last I checked a couple week ago. But even for that price it's a steal. She's happy with it but needs help changing from iOS to Android and updating to Lollipop etc. The 8Gb I have is far too small, so the 16Gb would be best.

 

I read they have plans to release Android 6 for manual update, not so sure but if so then can also run apps from SD card.

 

It comes packed with bloatware though, so if you want to go down the rooting route to get rid of it I'm sure there are ways, but I haven't looked into it.

 

Also, I will mention, on both mine and my GFs phone, with 2 different network providers, neither phone works abroad. I'm not sure if it's the phone that won't or there is a setting I haven't found, but there is no signal out of of the UK. And I have no idea why, maybe I should contact Asus over that.

 

Overall, for less than £100 it's a good phone, especially if you can find one for £80 if ebuyer run that again. Can't go wrong. It's a nice 5.5 inch screen so you can get stuff done.

 

Hope that helps

[Chris_]

Overall, for less than £100 it's a good phone, especially if you can find one for £80 if ebuyer run that again. Can't go wrong. It's a nice 5.5 inch screen so you can get stuff done.

 

It's £80 on Ebuyer at the minute!

[Zer0]

It's £80 on Ebuyer at the minute!

 

They keep changing the price on it. For £80 I would definitely buy it if you're in the market for a new phone. It went from £80 to £97 a couple of days after my girlfriend bought it so not sure how often they drop and increase the price of it. That must have been about 3 week ago when she bought it.

 

I don't think there is a "named" phone for around the same price that's on par with the Asus one. All the ones at that price range or small named ones that I haven't heard of, like the wiley swift of something. At least Asus is a brand known among IT people, but then everyone has their opinions when it comes to Asus. I haven't had any issues with them personally.

[mole]

thanks for the info - really useful - yep got an ebuyer email with it on and as I'm looking for a new cheap phone right now it looked ideal.

 

purchased 2 from ebuyer with free delivery tomorrow. happy times.

Edited April 8, 2016 by mole

[Arthur]

The Huawei Honor 5X that eBuyer had last week for £149.99 was a better deal IMO.

 

Comparison: www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?&idPhone1=6429&idPhone2=7590

 

The 5X will get Android 6.0 soon too.

[Danp]

I bought one for my daughter for her birthday and the battery was absolutely shocking, like full drain within 3 hours of nearly no use. It's gone back and a replacement is on the way.

[Danp]

I've updated it to Android 5 Lollipop which has to be done manually as the Over the Air only goes to 4.4, but it's brought a new lease of life to the phone.

 

Any details on how you did this? I've seen a few different ways but would like to try a way that I know a real human has succeeded with!

[Poults]

I bought one for my daughter for her birthday and the battery was absolutely shocking, like full drain within 3 hours of nearly no use. It's gone back and a replacement is on the way.

 

That was more likely an app keeping the phone awake and running the processor at full tilt. Had a member of staff here that said her iphone was taking about 30 hours to charge to full and then draining in 2-3 hours, I took the case off and it was baking hot on the back so I factory reset it and it sorted it out. When i began adding the apps back on it turned out it was a kiddies game that was doing it. I have had the same on Android for not for a few years.

[Zer0]

Any details on how you did this? I've seen a few different ways but would like to try a way that I know a real human has succeeded with!

 

You need to find out what model and what build number the phone is first by going to Settings > About. In here will show the correct info. The build number should contain the model and firmware version, so for example mine says "ASUS_T00J_WW", so the T00J is the model and WW is the firmware. On the ASUS support site (or google like I did as it's easier to find it), search for the model number of the phone and then look at the firmware for the correct version. Some versions says KK (KitKat) some versions may say it's Android 5.x.x. For my phone, the firmware said it was Lollipop, but for my girlfriends it was something like 12.x.x for lollipop.

 

Once it's downloaded as a Zip, copy the zip file to the root of your phone after connected it as a media device. Disconnect the phone from the PC and it should come up with a system update to install. Start this off and wait.

 

Mine repeatedly failed the update as it was the wrong firmware, even though ASUS website said it was correct. Luckily the phone told me I was missing something (I can't remember what it said) and it directed me to the correct firmware download. That installed fine. My girlfriends installed first time without any issues so I think there was a mix up on ASUS website with mine, but luckily when Android failed the update it allowed me to restart the phone as normal by using the volume buttons to select Reboot.

 

Hope this helps.

[Danp]

That was more likely an app keeping the phone awake and running the processor at full tilt. Had a member of staff here that said her iphone was taking about 30 hours to charge to full and then draining in 2-3 hours, I took the case off and it was baking hot on the back so I factory reset it and it sorted it out. When i began adding the apps back on it turned out it was a kiddies game that was doing it. I have had the same on Android for not for a few years.

 

Two factory resets, all apps disabled and it still did it. Loads online about others who had the same issue with these phones. Hopefully the new one will not have the same issue, it was my daughter's first phone and I had to take it away from her on her birthday to reset and test.

[Danp]

You need to find out what model and what build number the phone is first by going to Settings > About. In here will show the correct info. The build number should contain the model and firmware version, so for example mine says "ASUS_T00J_WW", so the T00J is the model and WW is the firmware. On the ASUS support site (or google like I did as it's easier to find it), search for the model number of the phone and then look at the firmware for the correct version. Some versions says KK (KitKat) some versions may say it's Android 5.x.x. For my phone, the firmware said it was Lollipop, but for my girlfriends it was something like 12.x.x for lollipop.

 

Once it's downloaded as a Zip, copy the zip file to the root of your phone after connected it as a media device. Disconnect the phone from the PC and it should come up with a system update to install. Start this off and wait.

 

Mine repeatedly failed the update as it was the wrong firmware, even though ASUS website said it was correct. Luckily the phone told me I was missing something (I can't remember what it said) and it directed me to the correct firmware download. That installed fine. My girlfriends installed first time without any issues so I think there was a mix up on ASUS website with mine, but luckily when Android failed the update it allowed me to restart the phone as normal by using the volume buttons to select Reboot.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Excellent, thank you.

[Zer0]

Two factory resets, all apps disabled and it still did it. Loads online about others who had the same issue with these phones. Hopefully the new one will not have the same issue, it was my daughter's first phone and I had to take it away from her on her birthday to reset and test.

 

May have just been unlucky. I haven't had any issues with battery until recently, but that's to be expected since I use it quite a lot. Depends on what I do with my phone to how long battery lasts for now, but I could do with either a new battery or a new phone soon. Girlfriends has been good too, she hasn't mentioned that it drains quickly, but then I think she got used to that since her iPhone was forever on charge.

Lets hope this one is OK for you as it's a good phone, especially for a first one, until you can't get your daughter off it!

[Danp]

May have just been unlucky. I haven't had any issues with battery until recently, but that's to be expected since I use it quite a lot. Depends on what I do with my phone to how long battery lasts for now, but I could do with either a new battery or a new phone soon. Girlfriends has been good too, she hasn't mentioned that it drains quickly, but then I think she got used to that since her iPhone was forever on charge.

Lets hope this one is OK for you as it's a good phone, especially for a first one, until you can't get your daughter off it!

 

Hopefully it was unlucky. The phone was great for the money and although it was a little bigger than I thought it was going to be it's an ideal first phone I think.