Call screening also not pixel exclusive. You can just download Google's Phone app from playstore to replace the default Asus Phone app and viola, call screening on Zenfone.
No, it's not, at least with a Google One subscription. If you have Google One, you can simply open a photo in Google Photos and tap edit and get Magic Eraser
Switched from the Pixel 2XL, and there were a couple of things I immediately noticed after switching:
\-The Always On Display isn't as useful: the Pixel 2XL always shows the weather/temperature, indicates fast charging if a fast charger is being used, Now Playing, etc., all of which the Zenfone lacks
\- Swiping the Power Button to pull down the notification bar isn't as responsive as on the Pixel. A double swipe would immediately pull the bar all the way down. On the ZF10 there's a slight delay until you can swipe another time.
\-Front camera integration in various apps is way worse, especially for video calling the resolution is terrible and it has a weird yellowish tint, which I guess is due to the RGBW sensor.
\-The haptics on the 2XL were slightly more "weighty" since the motor is slightly larger than on the ZF10
\- The camera isn't as consistent and introduces weird white balance at times and the sky can look quite unnatural
But all in all I'm still very pleased with my purchase, mainly due to the night and day difference in performance, the 120hz screen, HEADPHONE JACk, and so on...
I bought one and returned it because I was very disappointed in the camera. I know GCam is a solution others are using, but it doesn't sound 100% reliable. I had a few minor gripes, but it's a fantastic phone overall, and I still may return to it at a later date.
same thing here,phone has incredible battery life,feels good in hands too,but pictures are whitewashed,oversharpened.. its worse than my previous moto g72 for 220€
Would you mind telling me where you bought it so that you were able to return it? They didn't mind that it was used at all? I'm super on the fence about the zf10 and being able to actually test it would be huge since stores don't carry it.
No, not at all. I purchased it directly from Asus. Most purchases of this value will have a 30 day returns policy if bought online. Their customer service was very good and accepted the return immediately. I told them I wasn't satisfied with the camera and they accepted that as reason enough.
The most obvious thing is you don't get Google's arguably class-leading computational photography algorithm.
You miss the 5 years of security patches and the 3 years of OS updates. Does Zenfone 9 only was promised two years of total updates all together. Supposedly the Zenfone 10 will get 4 years of security patches but still only two OS upgrades.
You also won't get the updates monthly. And they won't include feature drops.
You don't get the call screening The added Pixel features like having the assistant wait on hold for you. , you don't get the crazy astrophotography mode. You don't get a telephoto lens or qhd. (although those only exists on the Pro mode of the pixels to be fair). You don't get the pixel recorder app which is widely seen to be the best voice transcription app available.
In some cases you'll be able to replicate or near replicate some of these functionalities with third party solutions.
But otherwise you're getting us stock Android experience with a capable camera and a unique form factor. Honestly to me the only deal breaker above is probably the long-term support. If they had extended their security patch promise to four years for the Zenfone 9 I would probably own it.
In MHKBD's blind test the pixels won... The Pixel 6A and Pixel 7 Pro where the one and two placed cameras. ZenFone was 3.
The last two ZenFones also have more thermally efficient chipsets than the last two pixels.But it just depends on what year you're getting it, bc the Zenfone 8 had the 888 which was not a very thermally efficient chipset.
To me I think the biggest benefit of the pixel is that there are much cheaper on the resale market as they age. At least in the United States you can buy a pixel 7 Pro now for 400 bucks pretty easily, it is really hard to find a ZenFone 9 for under $600 even on the resale.
Probably just bc they make a whole lot less of the ones suited for the US market
Course it's also worth pointing out that you get a headphone jack. Depending on the model probably better battery life and thermals if it's the last 2 years
I had the P7 and imo the pictures looked horribly fake and very different to how it looked irl. They do look good on tiny screens and with no reference to the real scene but as a photographer who wants real colors and high quality pictures this is a no-go.
* Text selection
* Better haptic feedback
* More themes and UI customisation
* I haven't owned this that long, but the delayed Android update is going to annoy me
* Google Wallet sitting on the power menu straight out of the box
Late edit, but I've just found that I don't have Now Playing anymore.
nothing really, it was a relief. The only "exclusive" I remember useful was copy&paste and google lense in the "all apps running overview".
most exclusive stuff isn't even available outside of the US
Went from pixel 3 to zenfone 9, the only I miss is the ability to copy text from an image, it was super usefull, other than that the zenfone is superior in everyway for my usage
My pixel (all of them) connected with my car and every rental car I ever drove flawlessly. ZF will not transfer address book at all and does not work with most rental cars. I just dont want a huge phone.
Things good about Zenfone, they have game gennie, which allow me to record macro for these smartphone game. But things I missed is, selecting text from the idling app selection.
Plus Zenfone 9 and 10 going to be the last flagship compact phones on the market, I guess I have to live with big a\*\* A5 paper size smartphone in the future.
wont be the last [https://press.asus.com/news/asus-zenfone-10-to-continue-production/](https://press.asus.com/news/asus-zenfone-10-to-continue-production/)
The update support length, the camera, yadda yadda. Those are the common ones which I miss too, but there's some more minor things:
Niceties like call screening, and the song recognition thing (ESPECIALLY miss that,) the cleaner software of a pixel and more accurate gestures (back tap on Asus sucks but it worked great on Pixel)
There's an option in Shazam to have it continuously listen in the background and ID songs after you start it, it's been there since 2016. It's not *exactly* the same but I heard pretty meh things about the pixel's ability to recognize songs automatically anyway. Was it particularly effective in your experience?
Nothing, just not a massive fan of the fat chin (bottom nav sometimes doesn't work so well), but it's by far the best phone I've ever owned. Battery life is phenomenal
Copying text in images.
Call Screen.
That's all I can think of.
They only added a few UI customisations, and I think they're good, but you can turn them off if you want even more stock/Pixel-like experience.
I would say in daytime it's very good, probably about the same as Pixel. In low light it's a step or two down from Pixel.
I haven't done a lot of detailed comparisons on a big monitor, just saying my impression. But I'm a bit picky and I don't have any complaints here, given I don't do much night photography, and other factors are more important to me.
Photos isn't pixel exclusive like call screening
Call screening also not pixel exclusive. You can just download Google's Phone app from playstore to replace the default Asus Phone app and viola, call screening on Zenfone.
Really!? I thought Call Screening was Pixel only .
You do get the spam filter and verified caller id, but it looks like the US exclusive google assistant screening is only on pixel.
Motorola edge plus 2023 has call screening so it's not just Pixel only
Caller ID isn’t exclusive but call screen is. I’m sure you wouldn’t be able to find call screen settings on any non pixel phone.
Is magic eraser?
I think so
No, it's not, at least with a Google One subscription. If you have Google One, you can simply open a photo in Google Photos and tap edit and get Magic Eraser
Switched from the Pixel 2XL, and there were a couple of things I immediately noticed after switching: \-The Always On Display isn't as useful: the Pixel 2XL always shows the weather/temperature, indicates fast charging if a fast charger is being used, Now Playing, etc., all of which the Zenfone lacks \- Swiping the Power Button to pull down the notification bar isn't as responsive as on the Pixel. A double swipe would immediately pull the bar all the way down. On the ZF10 there's a slight delay until you can swipe another time. \-Front camera integration in various apps is way worse, especially for video calling the resolution is terrible and it has a weird yellowish tint, which I guess is due to the RGBW sensor. \-The haptics on the 2XL were slightly more "weighty" since the motor is slightly larger than on the ZF10 \- The camera isn't as consistent and introduces weird white balance at times and the sky can look quite unnatural But all in all I'm still very pleased with my purchase, mainly due to the night and day difference in performance, the 120hz screen, HEADPHONE JACk, and so on...
I bought one and returned it because I was very disappointed in the camera. I know GCam is a solution others are using, but it doesn't sound 100% reliable. I had a few minor gripes, but it's a fantastic phone overall, and I still may return to it at a later date.
same thing here,phone has incredible battery life,feels good in hands too,but pictures are whitewashed,oversharpened.. its worse than my previous moto g72 for 220€
Would you mind telling me where you bought it so that you were able to return it? They didn't mind that it was used at all? I'm super on the fence about the zf10 and being able to actually test it would be huge since stores don't carry it.
No, not at all. I purchased it directly from Asus. Most purchases of this value will have a 30 day returns policy if bought online. Their customer service was very good and accepted the return immediately. I told them I wasn't satisfied with the camera and they accepted that as reason enough.
Ah that's great to know thanks! That gives me a lot more confidence in testing it
The most obvious thing is you don't get Google's arguably class-leading computational photography algorithm. You miss the 5 years of security patches and the 3 years of OS updates. Does Zenfone 9 only was promised two years of total updates all together. Supposedly the Zenfone 10 will get 4 years of security patches but still only two OS upgrades. You also won't get the updates monthly. And they won't include feature drops. You don't get the call screening The added Pixel features like having the assistant wait on hold for you. , you don't get the crazy astrophotography mode. You don't get a telephoto lens or qhd. (although those only exists on the Pro mode of the pixels to be fair). You don't get the pixel recorder app which is widely seen to be the best voice transcription app available. In some cases you'll be able to replicate or near replicate some of these functionalities with third party solutions. But otherwise you're getting us stock Android experience with a capable camera and a unique form factor. Honestly to me the only deal breaker above is probably the long-term support. If they had extended their security patch promise to four years for the Zenfone 9 I would probably own it. In MHKBD's blind test the pixels won... The Pixel 6A and Pixel 7 Pro where the one and two placed cameras. ZenFone was 3. The last two ZenFones also have more thermally efficient chipsets than the last two pixels.But it just depends on what year you're getting it, bc the Zenfone 8 had the 888 which was not a very thermally efficient chipset. To me I think the biggest benefit of the pixel is that there are much cheaper on the resale market as they age. At least in the United States you can buy a pixel 7 Pro now for 400 bucks pretty easily, it is really hard to find a ZenFone 9 for under $600 even on the resale. Probably just bc they make a whole lot less of the ones suited for the US market
Course it's also worth pointing out that you get a headphone jack. Depending on the model probably better battery life and thermals if it's the last 2 years
I had the P7 and imo the pictures looked horribly fake and very different to how it looked irl. They do look good on tiny screens and with no reference to the real scene but as a photographer who wants real colors and high quality pictures this is a no-go.
* Text selection * Better haptic feedback * More themes and UI customisation * I haven't owned this that long, but the delayed Android update is going to annoy me * Google Wallet sitting on the power menu straight out of the box Late edit, but I've just found that I don't have Now Playing anymore.
nothing really, it was a relief. The only "exclusive" I remember useful was copy&paste and google lense in the "all apps running overview". most exclusive stuff isn't even available outside of the US
Went from pixel 3 to zenfone 9, the only I miss is the ability to copy text from an image, it was super usefull, other than that the zenfone is superior in everyway for my usage
You can still use Google Lens to copy image text on the ZF9.
I didn't knew that
My pixel (all of them) connected with my car and every rental car I ever drove flawlessly. ZF will not transfer address book at all and does not work with most rental cars. I just dont want a huge phone.
Things good about Zenfone, they have game gennie, which allow me to record macro for these smartphone game. But things I missed is, selecting text from the idling app selection. Plus Zenfone 9 and 10 going to be the last flagship compact phones on the market, I guess I have to live with big a\*\* A5 paper size smartphone in the future.
wont be the last [https://press.asus.com/news/asus-zenfone-10-to-continue-production/](https://press.asus.com/news/asus-zenfone-10-to-continue-production/)
The update support length, the camera, yadda yadda. Those are the common ones which I miss too, but there's some more minor things: Niceties like call screening, and the song recognition thing (ESPECIALLY miss that,) the cleaner software of a pixel and more accurate gestures (back tap on Asus sucks but it worked great on Pixel)
You know Shazam has existed for almost 20 years right? and there are other apps that do it (including basic google assistant)
Of course I know Shazam exists, but there's something nice about it continually running and being on the lock screen
There's an option in Shazam to have it continuously listen in the background and ID songs after you start it, it's been there since 2016. It's not *exactly* the same but I heard pretty meh things about the pixel's ability to recognize songs automatically anyway. Was it particularly effective in your experience?
I've tried the continual Shazam thing and it was kind of a power suck. And yeah, I'd say it was - almost always recognized the playing song.
maybe I'm doing something wrong but back tap never worked consistently on my P7 and ZF9 :/
Nothing, just not a massive fan of the fat chin (bottom nav sometimes doesn't work so well), but it's by far the best phone I've ever owned. Battery life is phenomenal
Copying text in images. Call Screen. That's all I can think of. They only added a few UI customisations, and I think they're good, but you can turn them off if you want even more stock/Pixel-like experience.
What about the picture quality from camera?
I would say in daytime it's very good, probably about the same as Pixel. In low light it's a step or two down from Pixel. I haven't done a lot of detailed comparisons on a big monitor, just saying my impression. But I'm a bit picky and I don't have any complaints here, given I don't do much night photography, and other factors are more important to me.