I just wrapped my Asus Zenfone 9 review And the honeymoon phase would normally have gotten worse by this point. most phone i review in its box and either return to a drawer or return to the manufacturer. But I don’t want to give back the Zenfone 9.
In fact, the Zenfone 9 has superseded the Pixel 6 Pro as my favorite Android phone. Its compact frame makes it easy to carry around or otherwise in my home; It has more power than I need; And battery life is about twice as good as the Pixel’s in our testing.
I love the Zenfone 9 a lot, but I have three main features that make the phone stand out above all others that have come out so far in 2022. But I don’t see this phone with rose colored glasses. It has flaws, especially software related, but I don’t think they really take away from what I love about this device.
perfect size
(Image credit: Tom Guide)
While I have big hands, certainly enough to dwarf most mice and controllers, I actually prefer smaller phones. I really enjoy the 6.1-inch iPhone or the smaller Galaxy S or Pixel A. I don’t like large slabs that are difficult to use one-handed.
In my book Zenfone 9 is a win as I can use it alone without any problem. Reaching the screen with my thumb doesn’t cause a problem, something I can’t say for the huge iPhone 13 Pro Max I use on a daily basis.
I would like to say that the Zenfone 9 is the perfect size. The 5.9-inch display is so big that I can’t even squint to look at it (something I noticed several times when I reviewed the iPhone 13 mini). The body of the phone is large enough to house a 4,300mAh battery and all the hardware needed for the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chipset. There’s even room for a headphone jack.
A week later and the size difference between the Zenfone 9 and iPhone 13 Pro Max amuses me.
surprisingly great battery life
(Image credit: Tom Guide)
With a small phone, you’d think that the battery life wouldn’t be great. Look at the iPhone 12 Mini from 2020. The iPhone 13 Mini performed better in our testing, but still below the 10-hour average we’d like to see from a smartphone in our custom battery life test.
The Zenfone 9 saw it all and laughed. It managed over 13 hours in our testing, earning a spot on our list of best phone battery life. Our testing involved the phone surfing the web continuously at 150 nits brightness. While not perfect, it is meant to give you an idea of how long a phone will last in your use.
In my usage, Zenfone 9 can last about three days without any charge. Granted, I don’t use it as much as my iPhone 13 Pro Max, but still. I have to recharge Pixel 6 Pro every night with the same usage pattern. during my review Period, I only had to recharge the Zenfone 9 once and that was after some intense gaming and a full run through Blade Runner 2049.
Asus seems to have fixed it. Usually when I see a phone that’s got ridiculously good battery life, I’m on the lookout for aggressive background task killing. Emails and Slack pings arrive on the Zenfone 9 with no trouble, before the Gmail site catches up on my laptop.
Battery life goes a long way in how I feel about a phone, and the ZenFone 9 definitely earns it a top spot in my mind.
the performance i want
(Image credit: Tom Guide)
Asus hasn’t skimped on the specifications of the Zenfone 9. It sports a Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chipset, which is the best processor you can get in an Android phone right now. Asus pairs that chip with 8GB or 16GB of RAM, making a device that can effortlessly steer through any task, even intense gaming.
In practice, the Zenfone 9 is everything I wanted in terms of performance. While most of the CPU power will be lost on a lot of people, it is the GPU that you will see. Phones like the Nothing Phone (1) with its mid-range Snapdragon 778G+ do very well for normal day-to-day tasks. Load up a game, though, and that’s where it shows its mid-range-ness.
Other flagships may be bigger, but the Zenfone 9 is well above its weight. In fact, it is more powerful than other top-tier options like Galaxy S22 Ultra, OnePlus 10 Pro and Pixel 6 Pro. The iPhone 13 series still outshines it, but the distance between them is so small that a normal person is unlikely to tell the difference.
Good things can come in small packages.
Zenfone 9: What I don’t like
(Image credit: Tom Guide)
Now, don’t think I’m just here thinking about the Zenfone 9. Yes I’m up to this point, but the phone isn’t perfect. It has two flaws that bother me, both of which could have been fixed if Asus wanted to.
First, the Zenfone 9 will see only two years of Android updates. In a world where most other Android phone makers do three or four, this is unacceptable. I don’t see any reason why the Zenfone 9 can’t last longer.
As for pricing, $799 isn’t bad for a phone, but it’s still a lot of money for a phone that effectively hits end of life in 2024. Asus can give at least three years of support.
The second issue I have is a much less serious one, but I don’t like how the Zenfone 9 processes certain photos. In my testing, I noticed overly warm tones in a lot of the photos I took. To be honest, I can only tell in some respects compared to the same shot from the Pixel 6 Pro.
Outside, it’s not so bad, but indoors, it creates a sickly yellow color. Camera hardware is good, but Asus needs to work on post-processing algorithms. The Zenfone 9 is very close to being a good camera phone. Not the best, mind you, but so much better than it is right now.
zenfone 9 outlook
The Zenfone 9 is a lot of fun to me. I love picking it up, enjoying how easy it is to use one-handed. There’s a lot more to it, things I appreciate like great battery life and top-tier performance. It’s a really cool phone – and it even has a headphone jack!
Sure, that’s not correct. The cameras aren’t more than good enough and the software support timeline is just awful. But I think the Zenfone 9’s strengths far outweigh those weaknesses… mostly. I can’t get over two years of platform updates.
Nevertheless, the Zenfone 9 is still my favorite phone this year. It beats other handsets like the Galaxy S22 and OnePlus 10 Pro, and comes as close to the iPhone 13 as a non-gaming phone to date.
Sometimes, a phone hits just right.
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