Things didn’t quite go to plan with the Sony…..

One of the first things I aimed to do when I got the Sony was pick a Gallery app to use for my photos. Well that went fine, I found one.

Then I took a photo…..the Sony phone would not let me even VIEW my own picture unless I used Google Photos. What the FUCK. This is exactly why I installed a separate Gallery app (something you don’t need to worry about with ASUS Zenfones).

Then there came the low light ‘issue’. The issue being, when you don’t have much light, and you want to take a photo of something with the Zenfone, you just point it at the thing, and the Zenfone does the rest – suddenly what you’re looking at is bathed in light – the software doing its clever little thing. Now, I have no doubt at all that the Sony phone does take excellent low light photos – but what I DON’T want to have to do is faff around every single fucking time I want to see one to prove this! When I aimed my Xperia 1 III at an object in low light, nothing happened. The surroundings remained dark, and I could not see anything.

There was also a major flaw in Sony’s screen recording overlay for games. When I tried to record what you would assume to be the perfectly innocuous “Idle City Empire”, oh NO!! No you will NOT be recording that gameplay, Stephen – for “the creator has not permitted recording of this media” (or words very much to that effect if that’s not 100% word for word). So I was only going to be recording the audio. How about NO??!!?! Why even bother having a game recording overlay if it’s not going to do the main thing that everyone wants it to do – namely record a game?! For the record I tried to record that game again via the ASUS Game Genie and what do you know – not a hitch.

These 3 things combined, considering they are things I am going to be using all the damn time broke it for me. My Sony phone is up on eBay – currently sitting at £520 just 2 days after listing it. Making back what I estimate will be just over half is still going to hurt, but not quite as much as having to accept a paltry £456 from Cex (you thieving fuckers).

Anyway, the money I make, even after eBay’s stupid seller fees, should fund most of the chunk I need for the Zenfone 8. This phone is actually ‘just’ £529.99 on ASUS’ own site right now. But that’s for the 128gb variant. I have a strong feeling that 128gb will be nowhere NEAR enough to get all my games and photos on.

Of course, the biggest disappointment here is the fact that ASUS don’t have an SD card space. This makes very little sense to me when the phone IS a dual SIM phone. Why not make the tray a hybrid dual SIM like Sony do now? It makes even less sense when SD cards are something ASUS has always stood by since their very first Zenfone. They were the one you always knew was going to offer expandable memory – so much so that in reviews it barely even got a mention as their phone releases rolled on.

I’m just going to have to tighten my belt though and run a tighter ship, storage wise.

I also never, ever thought that I would miss the Zenfone alarms when I wake up! Sony no longer even have any option to fade it in, your wake-up call is just “BLAAAMMMM BLAAAAMMM” at full volume. Not subtle.

But one thing is for sure – after handling and using the Sony, which is MUCH less wide than the Zenfone 7 Pro, a reverse in sizing trends is definitely the way to go. Great though the Zenfone 7 Pro is, it’s headed towards mini TABLET proportions. And that is in no way practical. I’ll sure miss the audio on the Sony though. Fuck me I’ve never heard ANY phone like it. It somehow throws the sound around, so that in some cases some of the sound in what I was watching sounded like it was coming from about 30cm to the left of the phone. That is insane. I await to find out whether ASUS have improved the audio from the Zenfone 7 Pro. I know they improved it from the Zenfone 6 (for one the 100% elimination of hiss when you turn the volume right down).

My Sony has just clocked up £530 and there’s 5 days left to run.