I'm in Germany which makes it a bit harder. Someone in the UK went through the trouble and all they got was an offer for a refund or an insanely outpriced option to downgrade the os iirc.

About the lie, they've repeated multiple times this would be an option a year ago...

See https://www.reddit.com/r/zenfone/comments/1ccy11g/asus_is_wo...

Zenfone is smaller and has a headphone jack. It's the superior phone

What cempler said. I tried the dongle approach when the jack in my pixel 4a was failing but found I didn't like it. Having the cable go out the bottom in the center is a terrible place for me, as I rest my phone on my outstretched pinky. The zenfone ticked all boxes on paper and in reviews. Great chipset, solid build, a form factor fitting my tiny hands(though in retrospect it's so heavy that my pinky hurts after a couple hours of reading). And a headphone jack which I use to plug my phone in my stereo and my Sennheiser headphones. Really the jack is the primary reason I got this phone. Coupled by the fact that until now all zenfones had a hassle boot loader unlock and a decent rom community it really was the best choice on paper. God damn it Asus, I wasn't aware they're that dodgy :/