[Updated] Asus ZenFone 5Z 'camera focus or blur' issue & 'battery drain/wrong usage stats' bugs trouble users

This story is being continuously updated…. New updates are being added at the bottom…..

Original story (published on June 25) follows:

In many regions across the globe, Asus is well known for its computer hardware. You know, ultrabooks and laptops, desktop computers and monitors. But that is not the only tech scene that Asus is featured in.

Asus has a rather healthy smartphone business and its devices are rather popular in markets like India. These devices are well known for their build quality and more often than not, decent software that is updated pretty frequently.

One of the company’s devices is the Asus Zenfone 5Z, launched back in February 2018. The device was a true flagship at the time, running Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 chipset and sporting a 3300 mAh battery cell.

In recent times, however, users of the Zenfone 5Z have been a frustrated bunch, owing to a few issues that have been dogging their smartphone experience. A quick scroll through Asus’ Forum and the Zenfone 5Z users are complaining about two main bugs with their devices.

The first bug has to do with the camera on the Zenfone 5Z. According to affected users, the device is unable to focus, and therefore, photos taken appear very blurry and out of focus.

This problem has been reported by users running various versions of the device’s firmware, from the latest firmware version 100.10.107.70_20200320 to older firmware like 16.0615.1908.109.

Asus’ customer support has offered a generic troubleshooting solution, that is clearing user data on the device’s camera app but that doesn’t seem to help things for affected users.

Affected users are therefore waiting for an official acknowledgment of the issue by Asus and a way forward towards the resolution of this issue and fixing of this bug.

The other issue that is afflicting the Zenfone 5Z users has to do with the device’s battery life. A number of users are reporting heavy battery drains after updating their devices to the latest security update.

Some users are reporting background apps that remain present, even after rebooting or powering off the device. The system’s option to suspend background apps would still be switch is on but that doesn’t seem to help much.

Some users are also noticing that their Zenfone 5Z devices are not displaying an accurate estimation of the remaining battery. One user explains that the device would stick to a certain battery percentage but then deteriorate rapidly under light usage.

For the most part, it remains unclear why these users are facing these issues but most of them are noting that these issues began with certain updates. Confusingly, these issues are not indicating a single buggy update so it is hard to pinpoint where the issue stems from.

Also worth noting is that the Zenfone 5Z got an update in early June that brought the May 2020 security patch to the device and a bunch of other fixes.

We can only hope that Asus tries to find a way to address these issues as they are affecting a rather huge number of Asus Zenfone 5Z users if the comments and complaints on the Asus forum is anything to go by.

Update 1 (July 1)

Asus has requested users to provide information as much as they can so they can be helped.

Model Name: Zenfone 5z
Firmware Version:
Rooted or not:
Frequency of Occurrence:
APP Name & APP Version (If your issue relates to the app):

Thanks for the tip, Nidhin Kj.

Update 2 (August 10)

Asus ZenFone 5Z owners experiencing camera blur issue have been advised to visit an official repair center for further assistance. See the full story here.

NOTE: We have these and many more Asus stories in our dedicated Asus section.

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