Asus Zenfone 5 A500CG (2014) - user opinions and reviews
- Edward
- uCj
Dodo, 06 Oct 2014Hi,
I ordered the Zenfone 5 today... and after ordering i just went through this forum and ... moreHello,
The phone itself has no issues, everything works smoothly, the only downside to it is that "sometimes" the battery drains fast, other times it would last a whole day with no urgent need for charging. Like you, I don't use my phone for anything heavier than playing videos as I'm no fan of phone games myself. I also noticed that the flash "may" not always coordinate properly with the camera while taking pictures at low lit areas, however I heard there was a fix for it, although I'm not sure if there's an app to fix it now, however you can probably search that up. So from my experience so far it's great and that's all that I found slightly inappropriate. But then again you will probably find this dude to be a good friend, hahaha.
Good luck
- AnonD-316185
- 2SL
AnonD-314939, 07 Oct 2014Tomazz i hope you must be the only guy on earth who is having battery of one day or more after... moreJainbull, Mostly Service center guys are untrained. They just follow text book processors. So it might had happened that service center guy messed up your rom info just like Bios in Computers. If that happened then there is no way your board can be repaired, it can only be reformatted at factory in Taiwan/China. The good thing is you're getting replacement, so just calm dowm and wait for the replacement to arrive.
- AnonD-316185
- 2SL
AnonD-279813, 07 Oct 2014Much better way. Gave you a plus :)Thank you Tomazz, I am reading this thread for couple of weeks now. You inspired me alot to post. The way and the patience you answer posts is highly appreciated. :-)
- AnonD-279813
- inE
AnonD-314939, 07 Oct 2014Tomazz i hope you must be the only guy on earth who is having battery of one day or more after... moreI fully agree with you. And that seems what Asus was trying to do with ZenUI, bring simplicity.
Unlike many of other vendors, most "cheeky" features that others leave on were intentionally disabled, which saved some frustration, but at the same time, JB to KK is still a full OS replacement and many things can go wrong.
I do hope that a better upgrade process gets dreamed up that fixes this utter fiasco.
As for the formatter board - the Zenfones (and new Padfones) are built like Legos. So if they put the same version of formatter board (meaning one for A501CG TOOJ) you will be fine - only thing is that the IMEI will change. Not sure if your centre is able to reset it to your previous one.
So if centre is half competent, this should be 20 minutes job, hopefully followed by a re-flash of the stock firmware (if not already loaded) and a diagnostic check.
That firmware caused the formatter board to fail… that part I do not buy. Maybe the guy toasted the OS partition and could no longer access it, and blamed it on KitKat instead? Anyway, the good part, at least, is that they accepted this as Asus problem and are replacing the part for you.
Had that been some unnamed other Chinese brand, they might blame it on Google and ask you to pay for service.
- AnonD-314939
- 2S8
Tomazz i hope you must be the only guy on earth who is having battery of one day or more after zenfone kitkat
update.
i am using android phones from last five years never has this happened that due to an update motherboard has become faulty.Apps get upgraded automatically when one moves from 4.3 to 4.4 and i have done that on my other phones.
Secondly most people here in India or even in your country do not know how to fully utilize even simple features of android phones.Every one is not a techno geek like you,so most of them follow what company gives them on their phone blindly.
When presumably Asus is acknowledging the mistake than why are you not ready to acknowledge.
Root/non root,linkages etc are not a part & parcel of common man using Asus or any other android phone.
Last and finally kindly advise me will the motherboard replacement in asus zenfone 5 solve my problem and make my phone as new as it was while un-boxing.Will it create any further issues as it will not be assembled in factory but authorised service centre of my city.
- AnonD-279813
- inE
AnonD-316185, 07 Oct 2014Mikkan, You have to fastboot recovery.img first before downgrading to 1.18.40.9 Otherwise you ... moreMuch better way.
Gave you a plus :)
- AnonD-279813
- inE
AnonD-316185, 07 Oct 2014Tomazz, That video is about from downgrading to WW from TW/CN not from Kitkat to Jellybean. th... moreEDIT: Much better way below - so deleting this
- AnonD-316185
- 2SL
AnonD-279813, 07 Oct 2014Watch first part of this video on how to root and downgrade to 1.14. http://www.youtube.com... moreTomazz, That video is about from downgrading to WW from TW/CN not from Kitkat to Jellybean. that guy copied WW's CSC files to TW/CN firmware via root to fool SKU so it can be downgraded.
- AnonD-279813
- inE
AnonD-292829, 07 Oct 2014Hi Tomazz,
I want to get down to 1.18.40.9.
But my earlier attempts to do a adb sideload was... moreWatch first part of this video on how to root and downgrade to 1.14.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCHeOd2lOms
Then load whatever other firmware you want in entirety, not OTA.
- AnonD-316185
- 2SL
AnonD-292829, 07 Oct 2014Hi Tomazz,
I want to get down to 1.18.40.9.
But my earlier attempts to do a adb sideload was... moreMikkan, You have to fastboot recovery.img first before downgrading to 1.18.40.9 Otherwise you will get "getprop("ro.build.asus.sku") == 'WW'" error.
1.18.40.10 upgrades recovery to v2.19. so you have to downgrade the recovery to 1.18.40.9. Here's the process to follow :
1) Download the recovery from
http://www.mediafire.com/download/r0rslaz1wdp4y70/1.18.40.9_ww_recovery.img
2) type this at fastboot :
"fastboot flash recovery 1.18.40.9_ww_recovery.img"
3)boot to recovery and sideload 18.40.10.9
- AnonD-292829
- t}f
AnonD-279813, 07 Oct 2014Yes, both 1.18.40.10 and 2.19.40.6 were removed, both from download site and from FOTA.
The... moreHi Tomazz,
I want to get down to 1.18.40.9.
But my earlier attempts to do a adb sideload was failure when I was trying to a downgrade.Can you pl confirm whether ,on a normal course,I can just use the complete 1.18.40.9 zip file and do adb sideload?
- AnonD-279813
- inE
AnonD-303138, 07 Oct 2014Asus has withdrawn the kit Kat updates ? The version 2.19 updates are not seen there now and o... moreYes, both 1.18.40.10 and 2.19.40.6 were removed, both from download site and from FOTA.
The reason is the many complaints received, since the previously installed apps and settings break the KitKat after it is installed, and Asus does not want to ask users to do a full system overwrite like some of the other brands.
Eventually that's what is most likely to happen.
I was asked to remove my KitKat update, which I am considering, given the number of complaints in this forum, but then again - if users follow the instructions I've posted in here several times, the order and which files to use, even rooted phones can be brought to perfect order.
That said - anyone wanting to use my files is doing so at his or her own risk, so make a backup to gmail account, and do a recovery when done, if there is any issue after upgrade.
As for the battery lasting only a couple of hours in KitKat - please see this:
http://www.mega-networks.asia/ZenFone/Screenshot_2014-10-07-20-58-04.jpg
That is the battery status after 1 day and 10 hours or so.
And next is the firmware version, so I'm not accused of using JellyBean.
http://www.mega-networks.asia/ZenFone/Screenshot_2014-10-07-21-00-31.jpg
In comparison, this is from JellyBean:
http://www.mega-networks.asia/ZenFone/Battery-after-2-days.jpg
- Batzuy
- t7X
I got my zenfone 5, 2 weeks ago and updated it to the last small update before kitkat and all is good even the battery. I play nba2k14 every day and the cpu are not getting hot. Lucky me I didn't update to kitkat when it got released. My advise it to stay on the JB until Asus fix the firmware.
- Harshit
- utm
Marinos, 07 Oct 2014The phone is amazing! Is very beautiful, very nice touch sensor, very fast. Also the battery a... moreGood charging means 4 to 6 hrs of chargings
- AnonD-300572
- teu
Can anyone please state the whole steps of upgrading to kitkat (with every little thing) ThnQ.
- AnonD-303138
- uuq
AnonD-279813, 07 Oct 2014Did you place the ZIP file from my server, or did you unzip it first and place the file from i... moreAsus has withdrawn the kit Kat updates ? The version 2.19 updates are not seen there now and only 1.18.40.9 only is available for ww version .. check plz in the Asus firmware download site.
- Marinos
- Sb6
The phone is amazing! Is very beautiful, very nice touch sensor, very fast. Also the battery at first was bad. After 2-3 times of good charging became better!!
I recommend this phone! Value for money!
- AnonD-279813
- inE
NBI EXECITIVE OFFICE, 07 Oct 2014it is normal heating the phone asus zenfone 5 and battery very fast drained, can you explain ... moreWho are you threatening? Asus in China? Go ahead…
Just out of curiousity - did you investigate Microsoft for the Windows 8 upgrade over Windows 7 causing troubles to users, which could only be fixed by hard disk format and clean reinstall?
Or did you investigate Apple for causing the same issue on… well, nearly every new OS that came out, in case it was upgraded over the previous version?
Right - on a PC you would always consider wiping partition and installing it from scratch to avoid problems.
Why don't you do it on your phone? Today's phones are personal computers in small package, that on the side can also make phone calls.
So push that 2 buttons together on starting up the phone, and choose recovery mode, then restore from recovery partition, and enter your gmail account details again, and your phone will be like new again. Without all that heating, black screens, battery drain, etc.
As for the battery draining GPS, Google Play Services and camera controller library bug - blame Google.
- AnonD-279813
- inE
Florian, 07 Oct 2014hi Tomazz,
i am using an incomplete 1.18.40.9 firmware via OtA...i tried your 1.18.40.10 as... moreDid you place the ZIP file from my server, or did you unzip it first and place the file from inside the ZIP file into the internal storage?
You should be placing unzipped file into root of internal storage.
If for some reason my file doesn't work for you, you can try to get it from Asus
http://www.asus.com/my/Phones/ZenFone_5_A500CG/HelpDesk_Download/
Select Android, then WW version of 1.18.40.10.
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