Typing this from a ZenFone 9.

I like the physical parts of it, camera's good, but OS leaves a bit to desire. The largest gripe which I experience daily is it's horrendous pocket detection, or rather lack thereof. Until I figured out what tap-to-wake and other combos to disable, it went off in my pocket and pocket dialed my emergency contact at least five times daily. Now I've only had issues once a month or so.

I put up with it, since there's no other brand making a similarly sized phone, with good camera and 3.5mm jack.

I have a Zenfone 9, and it's fine basically. The size, 3.5 mm jack, and battery life are all good.

There currently isn't a boot unlocker from Asus though there apparently used to be one. The UI is pretty stock-ish, so it isn't too bad, but I do wonder about updates in the future.

also typing from a Zenphone 9. The dual sim slot is killer if you travel overseas a lot. I keep one sim card for when I'm at home, and swap out the second sim card for the location specific sim I use when I'm overseas. I can easily switch between the two sim cards, or select which sim to prioritize for what service (phone call/text messages, data, etc)

Extremely long battery life and is comfortable to hold in my hand. The fingerprint reader is the fastest and most accurate I've used. (Cough cough looking at Samsung phones that literally force me to readd my fingerprint every 3 months)

The only issue I have with this phone is I wish the camera could be better.

Typing this on my ZenFone 10. I like the size, speed and battery life. The cameras are fine for my use. Though lacking telephoto might be an issue for some. And the 3.5mm jack is a nice addition. Got the 256gb version so plenty of space for music, videos and photos. I like the fairly clean Android with some useful Asus additions and the regular updates. All in all I'm satisfied.

ROG Phone lineup would be interesting if they didn't go with proprietary connector because now it's useless. If anything breaks, they are the only ones that can repair/replace it, and once they discontinue all the accessories they will be just an expensive pile of waste.

Using a Zenfone 8. I like that they are keeping the 3.5mm plug. I don't use it very often but it is nice to know i have a backup. I still have the bundled earbuds from old phones in my bag as spare.

Having upgraded from a Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact, I would have preferred another phone with the same physical dimensions but we all know that's not possible. It is a nice screen, no doubt about it but I prefer pocketability and useability over a nice screen.

I was initially a bit apprehensive after reading all the reports about the ramdump issue but it seems to have been blown out of proportion?

Love my Zenfone 8! I've had no issues with it, though I think ASUS did just stop updates for it.

I'm a pretty big fan, my last phone was an ROG Phone 2 and now I have an ROG phone 6. I stream a lot of PC games to my phone when I'm hanging out, so the triggers are really useful and I like having a headphone jack.

Their selling point now seems to be that they make small flagships, which is cool, I guess. Could use more of them in the Android space. But their promised support period (maybe 2,3 years?) and the whole thing with their bootloader unlock leave a bad taste in my mouth.

I don't mind the lack of an unlockable bootloader, and I'm a happy customer. I've used my Zenfone 10 for about 3 months, will continue to use for at least 5 years.

They (allegedly temporarily) removed the software and the required server-side service to unlock the EOL Zenfone 8 (and all other phones for that matter) to install custom ROM.

Asus is walking a very thin line here including the recent motherboard BIOS fiasco.

On the other hand I have my zenfone 8 now, and it has been perfectly good for over 2 years now.

I think ASUS should stop making phone and stick to what they are good at. Which is making laptops