zenfone 2 dpi display issues

Hi guys, I have the zenfone 2 ww version (ZE550ML) rooted.
Short version: received the system update notification and tried running it OTA but that failed, most likely due to root. So I decided to download the entire firmware build and manually flash. That seemed to go okay but it immediately caused some weird display driver issue. After doing google and threads on xda it seems like my DPI settings got screwed up. So by default my resolution or dpi results in very very small icons and text on screen.

I tried using the adb shell wm density command and editing build.prop (rebooting) to fix this but based on the output below the system isn't truly accepting the changes. This discrepancy is leading to some applications rendering badly. E.g) changing my display picture in whatsapp results in the app zooming the image to a humungous size and I can only crop a small section of the picture.

Output from adb shell wm density shows that no matter what I change the dpi to the phone registers the actual dpi as 320 instead of the normal 480. I did the command on a friend who has the exact same phone to get the different outputs. Does anyone know how to get the native dpi to register at 480 (3.0)?

I've tried re-flashing the firmware and using older versions..same issue.

Key differences evident:
Working zenfone 2
Display Devices: size=1
DisplayDeviceInfo{"Built-in Screen": 1080 x 1920, 60.000004 fps, supportedRefreshRates [60.000004], density 480, 403.0 x 403.0 dpi, appVsyncOff 7500000, presDeadline 12666666, touch INTERNAL, rotation 0, type BUILT_IN, state OFF, FLAG_DEFAULT_DISPLAY, FLAG_ROTATES_WITH_CONTENT, FLAG_SECURE, FLAG_SUPPORTS_PROTECTED_BUFFERS}
mAdapter=LocalDisplayAdapter
mPhys=PhysicalDisplayInfo{1080 x 1920, 60.000004 fps, density 3.0, 403.0 x 403.0 dpi, secure true, appVsyncOffset 7500000, bufferDeadline 12666666}

my zenfone 2
Display Devices: size=1
DisplayDeviceInfo{"Built-in Screen": 1080 x 1920, 60.000004 fps, supportedRefreshRates [60.000004], density 320, 403.0 x 403.0 dpi, appVsyncOff 7500000, presDeadline 12666666, touch INTERNAL, rotation 0, type BUILT_IN, state OFF, FLAG_DEFAULT_DISPLAY, FLAG_ROTATES_WITH_CONTENT, FLAG_SECURE, FLAG_SUPPORTS_PROTECTED_BUFFERS}
mAdapter=LocalDisplayAdapter
mPhys=PhysicalDisplayInfo{1080 x 1920, 60.000004 fps, density 2.0, 403.0 x 403.0 dpi, secure true, appVsyncOffset 7500000, bufferDeadline 12666666}

So it's clear his dpi settings are at 480 (density 3.0) and mine are locked to 320 (density 2.0) and this result is the same no matter what I change my display density to via build.prop or shell wm density.