Asus has lived up to its planned release of Android Marshmallow for Zenfone Zoom (ZX551 ML) in first half of 2016 be pushing out marshmallow 6.0.1! Now, with the slated release of Android Nougat (or android N or android 7.0) by the end of 2016, getting android marshmallow seems kind of boring and obvious but with features, especially like Doze, I was curious to know what it did to a powerful beast like Zenfone Zoom.
Anyhow, coming back to point, I barely like waiting for OTA updates and considering this is a major version jump (from 5.0 to 6.0.1), I like to start fresh. Thus, this tutorial will involve flashing your device with firmware and NOT installing an OTA update manually (though the steps remain the same). Alright, here we go.
Prepare Zenfone Zoom
First thing first, make sure that your device is fully charged. Although Asus requires you to have a minimum of 15% charge for installing system update but to be on the safe side charge your device to 100% (won’t take much time thanks to quick charge!).
Secondly, connect the phone to computer (windows/mac/linux/chromeOS) to ensure that you can access internal storage. If you can’t, then download and install the phone drive provided by Intel for phone’s running Atom processor (link below).
Lastly, backup all the content on the device. This is again to be on the safe side and in case of any possible data corruption. You should also know that following this method will not cause any data to be deleted.
Download Phone DriverDownload Firmware (Android Marshmallow 6.0.1 Image)
Once you have your phone setup and ready to go, the next step is to download the firmware file. Since it is the entire image of Android Marshmallow 6.0.1 and NOT OTA, therefore expect the file size to be huge (its roughly 1.15 GB). The link to download the file is shared below. Do note that you need to download the correct version i.e. WW -> WW, CN -> CN, TW -> TW. Incorrect version will not work.
Download Firmware (Asus Website)Prepare Firmware For Installation
After download completion, you’ll find a zip file. Open the zip and see if it resembles the image to the right i.e. it should contain folders like recovery, system, etc. If not, and you see another sole zip file within then extract that file. This is the file we will be using in next step.
Install and Wait
Last step is to connect your device to computer and transfer the zip file to internal storage. Do not place the zip file in any directory, put it in the root itself. After transferring the zip file, disconnect the phone.
Upon disconnection you’ll notice an exclamation mark in status bar. This signifies that the phone has recognized the firmware file. Tapping on that notification will show a prompt asking for your permission to install the update.
That’s it! Just wait for the phone to install update and you’ll have Android Marshmallow 6.0.1 running on Asus Zenfone Zoom.
Tip: After installing update, I would recommend you to reset the device to avoid any possible errors or app crashes.
