After having played around with this update for about a week, I am very pleased to say that it was worth the wait for me. Having seen Kitkat on the nexus phones and S4, I can say that the Asus ZenUI for me has been the best skin even compared to stock AOSP. It literally is AOSP but with a nice almost material design style aesthetic as well as a good amount of customization present to provide the most useful features easily.
I haven't had any real issues with this ROM so far, everything seems to be functioning well. The only minor issue I have dealt with is the mobile data being periodically shut off when the tablet is in sleep mode (noticed it while tethering). I think that might be a battery saving feature that isn't turning off even when the tablet is plugged in. Other than that, this has been a pretty solid update and the bloat is pretty minimal as well.
Give me your thoughts and suggestions if you have any. Also, if someone in Canada could test their 4g LTE situation and let me know if you are still having problems. I will be going to Canada soon and want to know if I should start working on a fix.
So far I'm really satisfied with the new ZenUI, I love it so much that I didn't even change the stock launcher. I just used an Xposed tweak to modify a couple icons so that Play Store and such have a ZenUI-styled icon, and that's all.
But I've had a couple issues with it though: -Screen brightness behaves strangely. I set it to minimum and deactivate auto brightness. But when I switch the screen on, brightness sets itself to maximum, and I have to switch it off and on a couple of times for it to work.
-When pausing music from quick controls on lockscreen and playing again, the current song will play ok. Next one will play through the speaker instead of through the earphones.
But I've reported it to Asus and they said that they would correct it through an update. I'm eagerly waiting for it. Then it'll be perfect.
For the first one, try setting it to more than 0, so like 1-10% and see how that works out. That might resolve the issue until they fix it. Also, the speaker thing hasn't happened to me yet but I haven't really listened to music through headphones lately. Hopefully they fix that soon though, since the majority of the updates are over they can probably resume their monthly bug fix cycle now.
I love the new ZenUI too! So much so that I haven't bothered replacing their launcher with my favorite replacements. I also love the look of ZenUI as a whole. As jnkstudios said, it's very close to AOSP with a material design feel to it, and, just the right amount of customizations.
However, I also am having issues with screen brightness. The auto setting doesn't seem to work. And when I set it manually, the dimmest setting still is too bright for me.
I have the Singapore version of PFI, but since there's still no update for it, I manually updated it using the TW version. Really loving it so far. I just wish I could remove the Garmin navigation app as it's useless for me. It can't even be disabled!
Again, really loving the update. But I still haven't forgiven ASUS for making us wait this long.
the new UI isn't bad. but the wifi quality/stability seems getting worse on my phone - don't know if this is a design issue or firmware thing.
1. Wifi weakness still there - in my home wifi network, where multiple other phones can receive stable wifi connection, PFI failes to maintain connected. the symptom is constantly disconnect/reconnect. this was evident from before the upgrade.
2. Bluetooth slowness - for personal reasons, i use bluetooth for keyboard and audio connection. my keyboard is logitech K810 which allows me to switch between PC and phone at pressing a channell buttons. This is experiencing slowness/delays. where switching from PC to phone with Nexus 5 was very snappy, now with PFI it has quite a few seconds of waiting time before I can type.
3. Phone Data connection - travelling on train using mobile data was not reliable in the last a few days - it seems whenever the phone is jumping network band (from LTE to 3G or back) the connection is cut, and takes as some 10 seconds to reconnect. this is making the internet on the train or buss nearly un-useable.
---------- so far, it doesn't seem PFI's connectivity is winning my heart at all.
File Manager can't establish management to Dropbox I use ES file manager and add all my network drives into the management. on PFI, I am able to add Google drive and One drive, but Dropbox won't connect - the validation page show up as blank, can't even complete the set-up.
Zen UI is winning some hearts, as the new color scheme and flatish design is gearing for the future. hope they will release minor fix soon as i think many of these are not hardware/design related.
They did do bug fixes monthly before they went on their ZenUI voyage. Hopefully they resume that cycle of updates and fix all of these issues. The connectivity problem you're getting has always been there and it is largely because of Asus's terrible power management. I have noticed during my development time and the debugging logs that it disconnects from the internet periodically to save batteries. But this is always on for some reason and doesn't stop even if you turn off power saving. It helps conserve battery but it is a pain if you are constantly tethering like me. I have found that if you leave a constantly running internet based activity on, it usually doesn't disconnect. So what I do is set a torrent to download using uTorrent and limit the download/upload to 1kbps.
They did do bug fixes monthly before they went on their ZenUI voyage. Hopefully they resume that cycle of updates and fix all of these issues. The connectivity problem you're getting has always been there and it is largely because of Asus's terrible power management. I have noticed during my development time and the debugging logs that it disconnects from the internet periodically to save batteries. But this is always on for some reason and doesn't stop even if you turn off power saving. It helps conserve battery but it is a pain if you are constantly tethering like me. I have found that if you leave a constantly running internet based activity on, it usually doesn't disconnect. So what I do is set a torrent to download using uTorrent and limit the download/upload to 1kbps.
I always know the wifi side PFI is weak. maybe coming back from Nexus 5 slightly spoiled me a little.
thank you for the tips - however it is tricky - sure within home i can set up something to steam bits at background - when travel out on the road on mobile data this might not always be possible, as we still have a hefty mobile data price to pay.
But I've had a couple issues with it though: -Screen brightness behaves strangely. I set it to minimum and deactivate auto brightness. But when I switch the screen on, brightness sets itself to maximum, and I have to switch it off and on a couple of times for it to work.
-When pausing music from quick controls on lockscreen and playing again, the current song will play ok. Next one will play through the speaker instead of through the earphones.
It's strange from Asus to actually listen to their customers and fix their issues, but I'm really happy with that change to be honest.
I was about to order a PadFone S next week (and keep my Infinity, of course) and this is comforting me in my choice. But this time I'll also order the Station, because PadFone S is really cheap (PFS + Station is 100€ less than what I paid for my PFI without Station...)
Connecting to my PC with the cable is a problem . I want to transfer my mp3s and films back onto the phone. .!!! A no Go . Only WiFi or Bluetooth, Today I can connect and transfer via USB .. I alsogot an Update to the padfone Station
So far I'm really satisfied with the new ZenUI, I love it so much that I didn't even change the stock launcher. I just used an Xposed tweak to modify a couple icons so that Play Store and such have a ZenUI-styled icon, and that's all.
Hey Demelza, which Xposed tweak did u use to modify icons? Does that modify the icons in the stock launcher too? Thanks man.