I switched to the Zenfone series (around 6 or 7) after the HTC ones died a death. I like that they have an SD card and dual SIM. Happy with the Android version too; it's been fine from my perspective. I found them reliable and will probably upgrade my 8 flip at some point soon for this one (or a flip version), if only to try to vote with my wallet to keep Asus making more; we need more competition in the phone space.
I could shill more but that's probably enough for one evening.
I had an Asus probably 5 or 6 years ago and remember they had something called 'parallax wallpaper' or similar which sounds kinda lame, but was honestly trippy to look at and amazed me. Do you know if they're still doing that?
Yeah, unfortunately Asus took that away a couple of generations back. It's the main thing that keeps me away from their more recent phones.
I can sort-of understand omitting microSD support in a "compact" phone that's targeting a more mainstream market, but the part that really boggles my mind is that they've never had a microSD slot in any of their "gamer" ROG phones. Those things are huge, and also sold to a demographic that is more likely than average to want all the storage they can get.
I could shill more but that's probably enough for one evening.