Now is a rare animal – Asus Zenfone 9 is a small cellphone with a large battery and a strong chipset. This is truly a wild animal, in our review outperformed the Galaxy S22 which is powered by Exynos, SD 8 Gen 1 powerful Xiaomi 12 and others.
This is in the performance mode and the cellphone cannot last long in the full throttle, but the Asus new steam chamber cooling system handles the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset is better than expected.
Zenfone 9 measured 146.6 x 68.2 x 9.5mm and weighs 165g. In comparison, the Galaxy S22 is 146 x 70.6 x 7.6mm and 167G (although it is with a smaller 600mAh battery). IPhone 13 mini is 131.5 x 64.2 x 7.7mm and 141g. So, Zenfone is not a mini, but this is as small as Android obtained (we know there is a small Android, but they are seriously compromising on features).
Zenfone has an IP ranking, Gorilla Glass Victus, 120Hz screen with always mode in mode, up to 16GB of RAM, 4,300mAh large battery with fast 30W charging (0-100% in more than one hour in our testing), plus a pair of quality speakers both set by Dirac.
Speaking of audio, there is a 3.5mm headphone jack, which is passed by most cellphones, and there are 10-band equalizers for boots. Plus there are many settings to charge, play games, and so on, so you can change the device according to your wishes.
This feels more like a fan’s phone than the middle offer (Zenfone is a mass market series from ASUS).
However, Zenfone 9 has several shortcomings. For starters, we will appreciate the microSD slot. Storage 128/256GB may be enough for most of it, but it will be another advantage compared to the main model.
However, software support is the biggest black sign on the phone. ASUS is only committed to two main OS updates (and Android 13 is near) and “at least” two years of security patch. That’s not much, given the price label $ 700/€ 800 and that the software on the telephone most of the Android stock with some Asus magic is sown above.
Samsung Galaxy S22 ($ 800/€ 850) will receive four OS increases and five years of security patches. That’s better than Google Pixel 6 (3 increases, 5 years of patches). And much better than Pixel 6A, which is more comparable in terms of size (but only gets 3 years of patches than 5).
S22 is not as fast as Zenfone and is not suitable in terms of battery life, but does have a 3X telephoto camera instead of relying on zooms from the main sensor. Zenfone is Chunkier (9.1mm vs 7.6mm) and although we like the back material, we feel that all writings and decals are included in the ROG series, not here.
As for Pixel 6 ($ 600/€ 650), this is much bigger so it does not make a good comparison. Pixel 6A ($ 450/€ 460) is closer to the sign. The OLED panel does not have a high refresh rate mode and only has Gorilla Glass 3 protection (overall telephone assessed IP67). It does use the same tensor chipset as the mainstay pixel, but the main camera is a small 12MP sensor that has to rely on Google’s processing magic to get a decent shot.
Sony Xperia 5 IV may be the most direct competitor, but that doesn’t exist yet, so let’s look at Mark 3 instead ($ 800/€ 900). The same width (68mm), which in our opinion is more important than the height of extra centimeters high. This one does have a 120Hz screen, a microSD slot and a 12MP telephone camera with two focal lengths, offering 3x and 4.4x magnification. The 4,500mAh large battery does not last during Zenfone (100H vs 108H endurance), but it is with an older Snapdragon 888 chipset. Sony is also not great with updates, so it can’t hold it on Asus.
If you want the right mini phone with high-class features, Apple iPhone 13 Mini ($ 700/€ 800) is only the only choice. This forgets luxury like the HRR display or telephone camera and, according to rumors, there will be no iPhone 14 mini to correct the error. Also, being small means that the battery life is not good (75H durability). That said, all iPhones from the end of 2016 or newer are happy to run the latest iOS.
Asus Zenfone 9 will be available in Europe, Hong Kong and Taiwan soon, coming to North America, Japan, Indonesia and the South American part a few weeks after that. You can read our reviews (and don’t miss our video reviews) if you want more details about the pros and cons.