ASUS - ZenFone Live with 16GB Memory Cell Phone (Unlocked) - Midnight Black

Recently I had lost an HTC Smart phone when I was grocery shopping. And I didn't expect to have to buy another phone. I was looking for an unlocked Google Pixel or Google Pixel 2 phone since it was on my wishlist. But I could only afford what was on my budget. I found that this Asus Zenfone was at that time was under $100 unlocked. So I think I got a pretty good deal, since most of the phones at BestBuy would cost as much as a laptop or desktop PC. Atleast it was the 2nd or 3rd cheapest phone I found. For my 1st time setup of this phone I did have a little trouble setting up the Sim Card. Since there were two slots, I had to make sure that I put the Sim on slot (1). Cause before that, for some reason the phone was force shutting itself. But once I followed basic instructions from the manual, it was a sigh of relief for me. After switching from 2G, 3G to 4G & updating the Asus firmware, the Asus phone was ready for use. So far, I haven't had any issues with this phone since I've only had it for almost 2 weeks since Feb. 7th. P.S. I want to inform Asus that Lycamobile Sim card is also compatible with this phone since I haven't had any issues so far! Thx Asus, you've got me as one satisfied customer! ;)

I bought the Asus Zenfone Live L1 because I was looking for an inexpensive dual-SIM phone to use with 2 different USA GSM providers. The good: The phone is a nice compact size for me. I was concerned by the Android Go OS with the related small RAM size. (Which seems to be the maximum RAM allowed for Android Go.). The phone runs smoothly with no real lag for light duty use, with a few apps and general web browsing. Touch screen response, and screen display are both good for a budget phone. Looking through the apps I usually load from the Google Play Store, only a few non-critical ones (for me) are not available for Android Go, and there seem to be good alternatives that are Android Go compatible. I do not play games or use Social Media apps, to no opinion there. The Dual Sim technology itself is well implemented. I could assign one SIM as 2G/3G, and the other as 2G/3G/LTE (LTE preferred). This allows me to use one SIM for calls/text, and a different SIM for LTE data, with both active at the same time. (I did test for incoming call availability while loading a web page, which worked fine. I did not te4st for whether or not taking that incoming call would interrupt streaming-- and I expect it will.) You can install an uSD card in addition to the 2 SIMs. Really nice, since many Dual-SIM phones lose the uSD capability if you install 2 SIMs. The Unknown: I have read some less than favorable comments about the Go version of Google Maps. I use a different navigation program that runs fine on Android Go, so this was not a critical feature for me. If it is for you, I would advise reading reports of the Go version. The Bad: It's difficult to get information about this phone for T-Mobile compatibility. It apparently has Band 12, and the manual says both SIMs are capable of VoLTE. However, unless I'm missing something, the phone is NOT certified for T-Mobile VoLTE, so it will not work despite meeting both those requiremenets. I could place a call on a T-Mobile SIM, but the phone dropped back to 2G/3G to do so. If you use the T-Mobile network, this is a serious issue moving forward, since T-Mobile is aggressively shutting down all but VoLTE voice-- it may or may not work for you in your location. (T-Mobile data worked fine on LTE-- just no VoLTE.) There seems to be something wrong with the Android Notification Dot implementation-- I could not get it to work at all, even after going carefully through the menu settings several times. It does have a notification LED which seems to work OK. I sent a request to Asus Customer Service asking for input on the T-Mobile VoLTE issue, and the Notification Dot implementation. I did not receive a reply. Summary: I like this phone for use on the AT&T network, and for it's Dual-SIM implemenetation. I would not recommend it you use the T-Mobile network. The dual-SIM function works well.

Coming from the Zenfone 3 Max Unlocked to this one was a matter of need (thanks to the person who stole my Z3...) and the price was definitely a factor, yet I am fairly impressed with this one as it is a very good product (as usual with ASUS) and would definitely recommend it to anyone that is needing a low price spare (edc possibilities) or temporary solution.

I've owned a handful of different phones through the years, ranging from iPhones, mid to high-level Android performing devices. I snagged two of these at a great discount deal to hold me over during travel I have coming up to Asia -- this phone performs well/is usable in the region I'm going to. The second one was for a family member..it's only been four days and I'm returning them. This is truly one of the worst phones I've ever owned, and I love ASUS products. It is slow to the point it's unusable, struggles with even simple day-to-day tasks (even texting), apps crash randomly..I've even opened up the developer console to make alterations and it still performs terribly across both devices. My older aunt can barely even make a phone call without the phone freezing or giving her trouble, let alone have issues hearing people on calls. I think this was a sign early on that the devices wouldn't perform well in the long-run, so I'll be returning them. I write this to encourage people that this is most definitely a phone geared towards children or someone who has never, ever had a smartphone who won't notice the horrible speed. I'm by any means very practical when it comes to Androids and budget-friendly devices, this is certainly a very, very low-performer on a budget. The redeeming qualities of this device are definitely the design, ability to expand your internal storage with an SD card, and the battery (which was just okay -- for a large battery I definitely expected more). I honestly advise staying clear unless you're extremely on a budget -- I'd opt for a Motorola or LG budget device. Even on the low-performing end, they are much quicker. The 1GB of RAM I think is what really inhibits the device, no wonder it's so cheap.

I bought this for an elderly relative because it had Android One, which I assumed meant updated software Unfortunately this phone is still in Oreo 8.1 and had it's last security update in February 2019 Still, it's more up to date than their previous phone

The phone has not shutdown, i put the sim after i updated the latest software and no issues with phone shutting down as per earlier comments. Thanks to previous reviews to not experience the shutdown issue. Its a nice phone for kids to ensure they can make calls to parents as needed. It unlocked with dual sim. Haven't tried another sim but so far works good. Also was trying to put Garmin Connect app but that is not visible it the appstore on the ASUS phone, though that is available on the google appstore.

This is a very good device for non intensive users, no games no big files, it gets de job done, looks very nice and is really light. I'm not sure if that's good or bad, it doesn't look robust, but I love this brand so that why we gave it a chance.

It is cheap but ok to use as a backup phone. Android one does not require much RAM and CPU so it is a good phone. The screen looks good. Speaker is ok