I just finished our Asus Zenfone 9 Review and the honeymoon phase would normally have disappeared at this point. Most of the phones I review are returned to their boxes and either put away in a drawer or returned to the manufacturer. But I don’t want to return the Zenfone 9.
In fact, the Zenfone 9 has superseded the Pixel 6 Pro like my favorite Android phone. Its compact frame makes it easy to transport around my house or elsewhere; it has more power than I need; and battery life is almost double that of the Pixel in our tests.
I love the Zenfone 9 very much, but I have three highlights that make the phone stand out above all the others that have come out in 2022 so far. But I don’t look at this phone with rose colored glasses. It has flaws, especially software-related, but I don’t think they really take away from what I like about this device.
the perfect size
While I have large 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 big blocks that are hard to use with one hand.
The Zenfone 9 wins in my book as I can use it on its own with no problem. Reaching the screen with your thumb doesn’t cause any problems, which I can’t say because of the huge iPhone 13 ProMax I use daily.
I would like to say that the Zenfone 9 is the perfect size. The 5.9-inch screen is big enough that it doesn’t make me squint to see it (something I noticed at times when reviewing the iPhone 13mini). The body of the phone is big enough to house a 4,300mAh battery and all the necessary hardware 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 the iPhone 13 Pro Max still amuses me.
Surprisingly great battery life
With a small phone, you would think that the battery life would not be very good. just look at the iPhone 12 mini 2020. The iPhone 13 mini fared better in our tests, but it’s still below the 10-hour average we like to see from smartphones in our custom battery life test.
The Zenfone 9 looked at all of that and laughed. It managed over 13 hours in our tests, earning a spot on our list of the best phone battery life. Our test involves a phone continuously browsing the web at 150 nits of brightness. While not perfect, it’s meant to give you an idea of how long a phone’s usage will last.
In my use, the Zenfone 9 can last almost three days without charge. Granted, I haven’t used it as much as my iPhone 13 Pro Max since then, but still. I have to recharge the 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 intense gaming and a full run of Blade Runner 2049.
Asus seems to have done well. Usually when I see a phone that has ridiculously good battery life, I keep an eye out for aggressive background task kills. Emails and Slack pings arrive seamlessly on the Zenfone 9, the first often before the Gmail site catches up on my laptop.
Battery life greatly influences how I feel about a phone, and the Zenfone 9 definitely gives it a high place in my mind.
The performance I need
Asus didn’t skimp on specs for the Zenfone 9. It has a Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chipset, the best processor you can get in an Android phone right now. Asus paired that chip with 8GB or 16GB of RAM, making for a device that can handle any task, even intense gaming, with ease.
In practice, the Zenfone 9 is everything you could have wanted in terms of performance. While many people will lose most of their CPU power, it’s the GPU that you’ll notice. Phones like Phone Nothing (1) with their mid-range Snapdragon 778G+, they’re great for normal day-to-day tasks. However, load up a game and that’s where it shows your mid-range.
Other flagships may be larger, but the Zenfone 9 punches well above its weight. In fact, it is more powerful than other top-tier options like Galaxy S22 Ultra, OnePlus 10 Proand Pixel 6 Pro. iPhone 13 The series still surpasses her, but the distance between them is so narrow that a normal person is unlikely to notice the difference.
In fact, good things can come in small packages.
Zenfone 9: What I don’t like
Now, don’t think I’m sitting here gushing about the Zenfone 9. Yes, I’ve been awake up to this point, but the phone isn’t perfect. It has two bugs that bother me, both of which could be fixed if Asus wanted to.
The first is that the Zenfone 9 will only see two years of Android updates. In a world where most other Android phone manufacturers make three or four, this is unacceptable. I don’t see any reason why the Zenfone 9 can’t last longer.
Price-wise, $799 for a phone isn’t bad, but it’s still a lot of money for a phone that effectively reaches end of life in 2024. Asus could offer at least three years of support.
The second problem I have is much less serious, but I don’t like how the Zenfone 9 processes some photos. In my tests, I noticed overly warm tones in many of the photos I took. Honestly, I could only notice it in a few cases compared to the same shot from the Pixel 6 Pro.
Outside, it’s not too bad, but inside, it creates a sickly yellow tint. The camera hardware is good, but Asus needs to work on the post-processing algorithms. The Zenfone 9 is very close to being a good camera phone. It’s not the best, mind you, but it’s more than good enough as it is right now.
Zenfone 9 Outlook
The Zenfone 9 is a lot of fun for me. I like to pick it up and enjoy how easy it is to use with one hand. It has a lot going for it, things I appreciate like great battery life and top-tier performance. It really is a great phone, and it even has a headphone jack!
Sure, it’s not perfect. The cameras aren’t more than good enough and the software support timeline is just horrible. But I think the Zenfone 9’s strengths outweigh those weaknesses… for the most part. I can’t get past two years of platform updates.
Still, the Zenfone 9 is still my favorite phone this year. Outperforms other phones like the Galaxy S22 and OnePlus 10 Pro, and it gets as close to the iPhone 13 as a non-gaming phone has ever done to date.
Sometimes a phone just hits the spot.