The ASUS ZenFone 9: A Flagship Phone with Some Caveats

As I sat down to test the new ASUS ZenFone 9, I was excited to see how it would stack up against last year's model and other high-end phones on the market. The phone is a significant upgrade over its predecessor, with a sleek new design that boasts a 6.3-inch AMOLED display, fast charging capabilities, and a powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip. While I had only a few days to test the phone, I was impressed by its performance and battery life.

One of the standout features of the ZenFone 9 is its improved battery life. In my previous experience with the ZenFone 8, I often found myself running low on power by the end of the day. However, with the new model, I consistently got between 20-25% of my battery left at the end of each day. This is a significant improvement over last year's phone, and it's a testament to ASUS's efforts to optimize the device for better performance and longevity.

Another feature that caught my attention was the phone's fast charging capabilities. The ZenFone 9 comes with reasonably fast 30W Hyper Charging, which is bundled in the box. This is a welcome addition, as it allows users to quickly top up their battery levels when needed. While I wish we had wireless charging on board, the lack of this feature is largely mitigated by the phone's impressive charging speeds.

Now, onto one of the biggest questions facing potential buyers: how does the camera compare to other high-end phones? ASUS has historically struggled with its camera software, but the ZenFone 9 seems to have made some significant strides in this area. The dual-lens setup features a 50-megapixel main sensor and a 12-megapixel ultra-wide lens, which also doubles as a macro lens. However, it's worth noting that this is not a flagship-level camera, and it won't quite deliver the same level of image quality as phones like the iPhone or Samsung Galaxy series.

In my tests, I found that the ZenFone 9's camera was often overshadowed by its competitors. In bright conditions, the phone struggled to capture the same level of dynamic range as other devices, resulting in a slightly washed-out look. Additionally, the camera tends to over-sharpen and lean towards contrast, which can make images appear slightly unnatural. However, I did find that the ZenFone 9's camera is still capable of producing some excellent results, particularly in lower-light conditions.

One feature that sets the ZenFone 9 apart from its competitors is its six-axis hybrid gimbal stabilizer. This technology is only available on a handful of phones, and it allows for incredibly smooth video recording capabilities. The phone's 1080p/30fps video mode benefits greatly from this feature, resulting in footage that's almost silky-smooth. However, the ZenFone 9 also supports 4K/30fps video, which provides an excellent balance between quality and smoothness.

The inclusion of a gimbal is a significant advantage for ASUS, as it brings the phone's video capabilities more in line with those of flagship devices like the iPhone. While not every camera feature can be replicated, the ZenFone 9's use of a gimbal makes a noticeable difference in its overall video performance.

In conclusion, the ASUS ZenFone 9 is a significant improvement over last year's model, offering improved battery life, fast charging, and a more powerful processor. While it may not quite match the camera capabilities of top-tier devices, the phone still delivers excellent results and has some standout features like its gimbal-stabilized video recording capabilities. If you're in the market for a compact flagship phone with great specs and performance, the ZenFone 9 is definitely worth considering.

I recently realized I had the box with the ZenPhone 6 on it the whole time. I'm not sure how that happened but I guess it's an Easter egg thing. Anyway, if you're thinking of buying the new Zenfone 9, I would say it's worth considering. It's a big step up from last year's model and offers some significant upgrades in design, camera capabilities, and performance. While it may not be perfect, with its compact size, fast charging, and great screen, it's definitely a compelling option for those looking for a high-end phone without the bulk.

That being said, I do think there are some areas where the ZenFone 9 falls short. For one, it's missing some features that other flagship devices take for granted, such as IP68 water resistance or more storage options. Additionally, while the phone's camera is improved, it still doesn't quite match the level of image quality offered by phones like the iPhone or Samsung Galaxy series.

Overall, I'd give the ZenFone 9 a solid 7 out of 10. It's not perfect, but it's definitely one of the best compact flagship phones on the market right now. If you're looking for a great balance between performance, camera capabilities, and portability, the ZenFone 9 is certainly worth considering.

In the end, the ASUS ZenFone 9 is a solid choice for anyone looking for a high-end phone with some impressive specs and features. While it may not be perfect, its improved battery life, fast charging, and great screen make it a compelling option for those in the market for a compact flagship device.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey guys i'm tom with techchap and i'm not going to make a single joke about whether size matters or is what you can do with it it's too easy and also i just like this phone too much to make fun of it there are so few good compact phones out there with high-end specs or in this case flagship specs for the most part that you can use comfortably one-handed and even putting it in your pocket and it doesn't sort of jab into your hips every time you sit down like most phones do because with a 5.9 inch screen which is the same size as last year's zenfone 8 it is actually a touch smaller than even the pixel 6a or the galaxy s 22 or the iphone 13 but it is still comfortably bigger than the 13 mini so i reckon the zenfone 9 has that goldilocks size it's easy to use one-handed but also not too small to feel confined or make typing on the keyboard a painful experience my only slight issue with the design is if you pick it up with your left hand then your index finger kind of naturally sits on the lower camera lens because the phone is so small which is not ideal i have to keep rubbing on my shirt to clean it now interestingly this is the same price as the iphone 13 mini starting at 700 or 800 euros i'll put uk pricing in the description and i would argue you're getting quite a lot more for your money with this although to be fair the iphone 14s are just around the corner in september so what do you get for your 6.99 well the zenfone 9 packs in the top-end snapdragon 8 plus gen 1. that's the brand new mid-year refresh we also get 8 or 16 gigs of ram and 128 or 256 gigs of storage we also get a 120 hertz screen and it's protected by the latest grille glass victus there's a dual camera setup on the back that also gives it a very fancy gimbal stabilizer built in there's a headphone jack incredible stereo speakers with lossless snapdragon sound support ip68 watch resistance wi-fi 6e we get solid battery life and i really like the software zenui doesn't feel too far from stock android but it also adds a few nice extras so for 700 i think this packs in quite a lot for the money but we are also missing a few features there's no telephoto lens which is a bit disappointing there's no wireless charging there's no micro sd card support although that's pretty rare these days also the camera sensors themselves while on upgrade over last year they are still kind of upper mid-range it also doesn't use the more advanced ltpo displays which gives you adaptive refresh although this can still dynamically switch between refresh rates but i think my biggest bug bear with this is that asus only promised two years of android updates samsung promised four years so that is a little bit disappointing for long term use so there are compromises but effectively we're still talking about a near flagship level phone that's only 700 and is actually comfortable to use with just one hand design wise there's a matte aluminium frame around the edges and also we get this new textured surface on the back it is a polymer so plastic but i like it and the texture makes it incredibly grippy i'm actually quite happy using this without a case which is a rare feeling and even though it's an identical size and weight from the zenfone 8 it is quite a departure in terms of style we have sort of right angled edges now they're trying to be as efficient with the space as possible and you can't have that as much if you've got curved edges and so while they're equally small i think this is a nice little step up in terms of look and feel although i would probably choose one of the other colors this midnight black is a bit dull i'd probably go with moonlight white or sunset red but i have to say as much as i do like a compact phone i think this looks good part of me kind of misses these old more fun zenfone designs who doesn't miss this now if you're thinking tom i love the size of that but it's still just too tall i can't quite reach the top well never fear because there is also a dedicated one-handed mode so you can actually swipe down at the bottom and then it brings the whole screen down making it easier to tap something that was at the top also the power button not only acts as a fingerprint reader but also a smart key swipe gesture so you can actually bring down a notification panel you can refresh a page play your pause or with your thumb by swiping up or down but wait there's more because round the back where your index finger rests while assuming you're holding with your right hand we also have back double tap which is well fairly self-explanatory but you can take a screenshot open the camera turn the torch on and off just by double tapping the back although i did find this a little bit more hit or miss because you're never exactly sure where to tap now one of the headlines of the zenfone 9 aside from the compact size and the relatively affordable price and also that gimbal stabilizer which we'll come back to in a second is the fact that we get that snapdragon 8 plus gen 1. right now there are only a handful of phones that offer that brand new qualcomm chip which they say should boost cpu and gpu performance by 10 each and also it's about 20 more power efficient which makes it a decent step up even over the already powerful 8 gen 1 and also this is the first time i've tested a phone with this new chip that also doesn't have an active fan that can almost flawlessly play gentian impact occasionally it'll drop to 59 but it's pretty much a smooth 60 most of the time although with longer gaming sessions it can start to slow down a little bit we also get some of those tasty rog features coming over to zenfone like the game genie which lets you switch performance modes change a bunch of settings turn off background stuff speed up your phone now the only downside despite some beefed up cooling this year with a new vape chamber cooler the zenfone 9 does still throttle you can see over this 20 minute 3d mark stress test the performance drops quite considerably it's got quite a low stability score especially next to its bigger brother the origi phone 6 and that's even without its cooling fan but still while it may not be a dedicated gaming phone the zoom phone with its new chip and up to 16 gigs of ram which i have in here is an absolute beast in terms of performance and combined with the 120 hertz screen with 240hz touch sampling and a nice and fast ui which also conveniently gives you the option to speed up animations within the display menu normally you have to dig down into the developer options for this it's incredibly fast and it's a lovely screen as well amoled 800 nits of brightness up to 1100 peak hdr which is close to the top end for most phones it's color accurate we get a nice symmetrical bezel the hole punch is definitely a larger size given the relatively smaller screen but i do quite like it's in the corner rather than central we also get stereo speakers which sound fantastic there's a surprising amount of bass and actually you can feel it just holding the phone at higher volumes which maybe is a little bit off-putting but they're some of the best speakers i've ever heard on the phone now small phone means small battery right well actually it's not too bad and it's a nice little step up from even last year's zenfone 8. this had a 4 000 million power cell now we're up to 4300 which is a touch smaller than the 44 10 on the pixel 6a although that is a bigger phone as well and it's significantly bigger than the 3700mah cell you get in the s22 so for a sub 6 inch size that battery is actually quite impressive and while i have only had a few days to test this so far i am impressed with the upgrade whereas last year with the 8 i was finishing the day with about 10 or 12 percent of my battery left now it's between 20 and 25 so battery life has gone from not great to actually decent it is a shame we don't get any wireless charging but we do get reasonably fast 30 watt hyper charging which does come bundled in the box i don't know how i've ended up with so many phones on this desk i'm talking about the zenfone 9 okay let's move on and talk about this camera that's one of the big questions i had about this how does it stack up uh given that generally asus phones aren't always known for the best cameras and i think even though we can describe this as a flagship in terms of the snapdragon chip and also some of the other specs the camera setup is maybe one of the areas where it falls down a little bit so it's a dual end setup with the main 50 megapixel camera getting a nice bump up from the sony imx 686 sensor last year to the newer imax 766 so much bigger sensor and also much bigger pixel size but to put it in context it is the same sensor used by the oneplus nord 2t the rog phone 6 the nothing phone one it's kind of upper mid-range not flagship and that's paired with a 12 megapixel ultra wide camera which also doubles as a macro lens but sadly there is no telephoto here so i took the zenfone 9 and the iphone 13 mini both 700 phones for a spot of lunch with my brother's family and also around my local town to get an idea of how they compared and most of the time i would say the iphone comes out on top the zenfone has a tendency to over sharpen lean a little heavy on the contrast and also in brighter conditions it doesn't quite deliver the same level of dynamic range to be fair it's not far behind and it can do a decent job but just don't expect proper flagship level quality out of it however the zenfone 9 does have a little ace up its sleeve in the form of a six axis hybrid gimbal stabilizer and that is an addition to both uh ois ois and eis now the gimbal is only built into the main lens on the back not the ultrawide or the selfie but it works in all modes so photos videos promo 30 or 60fps video they all benefit from the gimbal as well as that for videos specifically we have three eis options off normal and hyper steady this crops in so you're limited to 1080p 30 but you get the absolute smoothest video for me though i usually stick with the regular 4k 30 video for the best balance of quality and smoothness as far as i know though only vivo have experimented putting a gimbal into their phone so it's a pretty rare feature and it does certainly bring the zenfone 9's video capabilities and also to some extent the photos closer to that kind of more best-in-class iphone experience i've just realized i had this box there the whole time zen phone 6 zenfone never even thought about that i'm not recording the whole video again let's get me an easter egg now and i'm going to pretend that i'm going to do it on purpose okay let's wrap up should you buy the new zenfone 6 i mean nine well yeah i think it's worth considering it's a big step up over last year's zenfone 8 i think firstly in terms of design although i know it's more subjective but it's a better camera it's a longer battery life it's much more powerful and it is in the exact same compact size so nice little upgrade there and i also think for the 700 price tag it's not bad value for money although i would stick with that base model i don't think it's really worth paying extra for 16 gigs of ram it is missing a few features though and i do think it's still let down a bit by the camera it's very 7 out of 10 but taken as a whole i still come away impressed by the zenfone 9 and if you are after a fast compact phone with a good screen great speakers and a headphone jack definitely consider this and i'll leave a link below if you want to check it out but what do you reckon are you tempted by the new zen phone and also do you wish we had more high-end sort of flagship phones in this size let me know in the comments below if you did enjoy the video i check it like and subscribe would be very much appreciated and i'll see you next time right here on the tech chathey guys i'm tom with techchap and i'm not going to make a single joke about whether size matters or is what you can do with it it's too easy and also i just like this phone too much to make fun of it there are so few good compact phones out there with high-end specs or in this case flagship specs for the most part that you can use comfortably one-handed and even putting it in your pocket and it doesn't sort of jab into your hips every time you sit down like most phones do because with a 5.9 inch screen which is the same size as last year's zenfone 8 it is actually a touch smaller than even the pixel 6a or the galaxy s 22 or the iphone 13 but it is still comfortably bigger than the 13 mini so i reckon the zenfone 9 has that goldilocks size it's easy to use one-handed but also not too small to feel confined or make typing on the keyboard a painful experience my only slight issue with the design is if you pick it up with your left hand then your index finger kind of naturally sits on the lower camera lens because the phone is so small which is not ideal i have to keep rubbing on my shirt to clean it now interestingly this is the same price as the iphone 13 mini starting at 700 or 800 euros i'll put uk pricing in the description and i would argue you're getting quite a lot more for your money with this although to be fair the iphone 14s are just around the corner in september so what do you get for your 6.99 well the zenfone 9 packs in the top-end snapdragon 8 plus gen 1. that's the brand new mid-year refresh we also get 8 or 16 gigs of ram and 128 or 256 gigs of storage we also get a 120 hertz screen and it's protected by the latest grille glass victus there's a dual camera setup on the back that also gives it a very fancy gimbal stabilizer built in there's a headphone jack incredible stereo speakers with lossless snapdragon sound support ip68 watch resistance wi-fi 6e we get solid battery life and i really like the software zenui doesn't feel too far from stock android but it also adds a few nice extras so for 700 i think this packs in quite a lot for the money but we are also missing a few features there's no telephoto lens which is a bit disappointing there's no wireless charging there's no micro sd card support although that's pretty rare these days also the camera sensors themselves while on upgrade over last year they are still kind of upper mid-range it also doesn't use the more advanced ltpo displays which gives you adaptive refresh although this can still dynamically switch between refresh rates but i think my biggest bug bear with this is that asus only promised two years of android updates samsung promised four years so that is a little bit disappointing for long term use so there are compromises but effectively we're still talking about a near flagship level phone that's only 700 and is actually comfortable to use with just one hand design wise there's a matte aluminium frame around the edges and also we get this new textured surface on the back it is a polymer so plastic but i like it and the texture makes it incredibly grippy i'm actually quite happy using this without a case which is a rare feeling and even though it's an identical size and weight from the zenfone 8 it is quite a departure in terms of style we have sort of right angled edges now they're trying to be as efficient with the space as possible and you can't have that as much if you've got curved edges and so while they're equally small i think this is a nice little step up in terms of look and feel although i would probably choose one of the other colors this midnight black is a bit dull i'd probably go with moonlight white or sunset red but i have to say as much as i do like a compact phone i think this looks good part of me kind of misses these old more fun zenfone designs who doesn't miss this now if you're thinking tom i love the size of that but it's still just too tall i can't quite reach the top well never fear because there is also a dedicated one-handed mode so you can actually swipe down at the bottom and then it brings the whole screen down making it easier to tap something that was at the top also the power button not only acts as a fingerprint reader but also a smart key swipe gesture so you can actually bring down a notification panel you can refresh a page play your pause or with your thumb by swiping up or down but wait there's more because round the back where your index finger rests while assuming you're holding with your right hand we also have back double tap which is well fairly self-explanatory but you can take a screenshot open the camera turn the torch on and off just by double tapping the back although i did find this a little bit more hit or miss because you're never exactly sure where to tap now one of the headlines of the zenfone 9 aside from the compact size and the relatively affordable price and also that gimbal stabilizer which we'll come back to in a second is the fact that we get that snapdragon 8 plus gen 1. right now there are only a handful of phones that offer that brand new qualcomm chip which they say should boost cpu and gpu performance by 10 each and also it's about 20 more power efficient which makes it a decent step up even over the already powerful 8 gen 1 and also this is the first time i've tested a phone with this new chip that also doesn't have an active fan that can almost flawlessly play gentian impact occasionally it'll drop to 59 but it's pretty much a smooth 60 most of the time although with longer gaming sessions it can start to slow down a little bit we also get some of those tasty rog features coming over to zenfone like the game genie which lets you switch performance modes change a bunch of settings turn off background stuff speed up your phone now the only downside despite some beefed up cooling this year with a new vape chamber cooler the zenfone 9 does still throttle you can see over this 20 minute 3d mark stress test the performance drops quite considerably it's got quite a low stability score especially next to its bigger brother the origi phone 6 and that's even without its cooling fan but still while it may not be a dedicated gaming phone the zoom phone with its new chip and up to 16 gigs of ram which i have in here is an absolute beast in terms of performance and combined with the 120 hertz screen with 240hz touch sampling and a nice and fast ui which also conveniently gives you the option to speed up animations within the display menu normally you have to dig down into the developer options for this it's incredibly fast and it's a lovely screen as well amoled 800 nits of brightness up to 1100 peak hdr which is close to the top end for most phones it's color accurate we get a nice symmetrical bezel the hole punch is definitely a larger size given the relatively smaller screen but i do quite like it's in the corner rather than central we also get stereo speakers which sound fantastic there's a surprising amount of bass and actually you can feel it just holding the phone at higher volumes which maybe is a little bit off-putting but they're some of the best speakers i've ever heard on the phone now small phone means small battery right well actually it's not too bad and it's a nice little step up from even last year's zenfone 8. this had a 4 000 million power cell now we're up to 4300 which is a touch smaller than the 44 10 on the pixel 6a although that is a bigger phone as well and it's significantly bigger than the 3700mah cell you get in the s22 so for a sub 6 inch size that battery is actually quite impressive and while i have only had a few days to test this so far i am impressed with the upgrade whereas last year with the 8 i was finishing the day with about 10 or 12 percent of my battery left now it's between 20 and 25 so battery life has gone from not great to actually decent it is a shame we don't get any wireless charging but we do get reasonably fast 30 watt hyper charging which does come bundled in the box i don't know how i've ended up with so many phones on this desk i'm talking about the zenfone 9 okay let's move on and talk about this camera that's one of the big questions i had about this how does it stack up uh given that generally asus phones aren't always known for the best cameras and i think even though we can describe this as a flagship in terms of the snapdragon chip and also some of the other specs the camera setup is maybe one of the areas where it falls down a little bit so it's a dual end setup with the main 50 megapixel camera getting a nice bump up from the sony imx 686 sensor last year to the newer imax 766 so much bigger sensor and also much bigger pixel size but to put it in context it is the same sensor used by the oneplus nord 2t the rog phone 6 the nothing phone one it's kind of upper mid-range not flagship and that's paired with a 12 megapixel ultra wide camera which also doubles as a macro lens but sadly there is no telephoto here so i took the zenfone 9 and the iphone 13 mini both 700 phones for a spot of lunch with my brother's family and also around my local town to get an idea of how they compared and most of the time i would say the iphone comes out on top the zenfone has a tendency to over sharpen lean a little heavy on the contrast and also in brighter conditions it doesn't quite deliver the same level of dynamic range to be fair it's not far behind and it can do a decent job but just don't expect proper flagship level quality out of it however the zenfone 9 does have a little ace up its sleeve in the form of a six axis hybrid gimbal stabilizer and that is an addition to both uh ois ois and eis now the gimbal is only built into the main lens on the back not the ultrawide or the selfie but it works in all modes so photos videos promo 30 or 60fps video they all benefit from the gimbal as well as that for videos specifically we have three eis options off normal and hyper steady this crops in so you're limited to 1080p 30 but you get the absolute smoothest video for me though i usually stick with the regular 4k 30 video for the best balance of quality and smoothness as far as i know though only vivo have experimented putting a gimbal into their phone so it's a pretty rare feature and it does certainly bring the zenfone 9's video capabilities and also to some extent the photos closer to that kind of more best-in-class iphone experience i've just realized i had this box there the whole time zen phone 6 zenfone never even thought about that i'm not recording the whole video again let's get me an easter egg now and i'm going to pretend that i'm going to do it on purpose okay let's wrap up should you buy the new zenfone 6 i mean nine well yeah i think it's worth considering it's a big step up over last year's zenfone 8 i think firstly in terms of design although i know it's more subjective but it's a better camera it's a longer battery life it's much more powerful and it is in the exact same compact size so nice little upgrade there and i also think for the 700 price tag it's not bad value for money although i would stick with that base model i don't think it's really worth paying extra for 16 gigs of ram it is missing a few features though and i do think it's still let down a bit by the camera it's very 7 out of 10 but taken as a whole i still come away impressed by the zenfone 9 and if you are after a fast compact phone with a good screen great speakers and a headphone jack definitely consider this and i'll leave a link below if you want to check it out but what do you reckon are you tempted by the new zen phone and also do you wish we had more high-end sort of flagship phones in this size let me know in the comments below if you did enjoy the video i check it like and subscribe would be very much appreciated and i'll see you next time right here on the tech chat\n"