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! ;)

It is a good phone as a back up or emergency Still good phone for the price

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.

I'd like to start by addressing the SIM card boot issue. The phone has an issue where it will force shut down if it connects to 4G or LTE. As the phome default connects to 4G or LTE, this means you won't even make it through set up with a SIM inserted. To fix the issue, set up the phone without the SIM card inserted. Once you can reach the home page, go to settings. Go to mobile networks and look for "Preferred Network: 2G/3G/4G". With this screen open and the device on, insert the SIM card. As soon as you can switch your network, click it and choose "2G/3G" from the menu before the phoke shuts down again. From here, the device will function as normal. This device has a decent processor, an ok camera, and good battery life. With Android GO edition, the device's 16GB of storage and 1GB RAM seems like a lot. The phone has Android 8 Go Edition and seems to get monthly security updates. If you're willing to go through the painful SIM setup process, I'd say it's a fine budget phone.

I bought this phone as a low cost replacement. It was about $100. It has a nice display, good memory (16 GB), is a name brand, and seems to be working good. One of the buttons stopped working a couple of days after I bought it, but I power-cycled the phone and removed the battery for about a minute, and that fixed it. There have been no problems for since then, about 3 weeks so far.

Good price, capable to use 2 lines (2 simcards) and unlocked. All that I was looking for in one cellphone. Otherwise, it has a good camera, the lifetime battery is okay, the screen has a good resolution. Just one point, when it is running a very hard task, sometimes it took more time than I expected.

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.

Good sleek phone. Good when it works. But cannot handle latest phones. May be a secondary backup phone but never a daily driver