powerful smartphone in a compact jacket

Asus is not an unknown name in the technology world. The brand is mainly known for computers, but also makes smartphones. This also applies to this compact Asus Zenfone 9. We have tested it in recent weeks, and you can read our findings in the Asus Zenfone 9 review.

Asus Zenfone 9 review

The smartphone world has once again added a compact smartphone; the Asus Zenfone 9. Still a high-end smartphone. And that is quite special, because this segment is no longer served by any manufacturer. Sony has kept the Compact series for years, but has also stopped doing so. Now there is also the Samsung Galaxy S22, although we would not quickly give it the predicate ‘compact’.

Smartphones have become much larger in recent years, and not everyone is waiting for that. With the Asus Zenfone 9, the brand wants to appeal to this market. The Asus Zenfone 9 is a powerful smartphone in a compact housing. Time to put him to the test.

Sales package

The Asus Zenfone 9 comes in a rectangular box, which immediately contains everything you need. This means a 30W charger with USB-C cable and a cover that can absorb the worst blows. Excellent!

Design and interface

With the Zenfone 9, Asus focuses on the consumer who is looking for a compact smartphone. Given the specifications of the device, that certainly seems to work. As compact as the Xperia XZ2 Compact from Sony, for example, or the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini, we will not see them that small anymore, but the Zenfone 9 is indeed smaller than many competitors. The smartphone fits well in the hand with its size of 146.5 x 68.1 x 9.1 millimeters and a weight of 169 grams.

On the front of the Asus we see a 5.9-inch OLED screen with a Full HD+ resolution and a refresh rate of 120Hz, so it’s completely ready for high-end work. The front camera offers a 12 megapixel lens. The sides of the device are filled with the volume key and a special shortcut key. You can link an action to this yourself, with which, for example, an app of your choice is started when the button is pressed twice, or when the button is held down. The fingerprint scanner is also incorporated in this button, so it is not in the screen itself. The fingerprint scanner is also of excellent quality and a light touch is enough to unlock the device.

The back of the Zenfone 9 can charm us. This one is different from many other smartphones. The housing is made of soft plastic and feels a bit leathery. It provides just that little bit more grip and a premium look. Whether the rear is to your taste at all, that’s a personal thing. The camera module with two large lenses immediately attracts attention. In addition, we also see a lot of logos and texts on the back. Due to the gigantic lenses, which also protrude quite a bit, this phone also wobbles a lot when it is on the table. A case can minimize or eliminate this. At the top, the smartphone is equipped with a 3.5 millimeter connection for a headset.

Interface

Asus uses its own skin on the Zenfone 9 that is over Android 12. It is user-friendly, but I don’t think it looks as modern as skins from other manufacturers. It sometimes feels a bit more outdated, without being disturbing. We see Asus’s own influence in the notifications screen, among other things. This bar, which you can of course swipe down, has large icons, so that the individual options take up more space than, for example, with a Samsung. It is not disturbing, but it is a matter of getting used to.

What is striking is that tasks are performed quickly, the device is certainly not slow. Various things in the interface can be adjusted. Think of the scroll effects, the label color of icons, the map theme and so on. The theme options as we know them from Android 12 are also processed in the Asus skin.

Communication: calling, surfing the internet and networking

The Asus Zenfone 9 is a high-end smartphone, so everything is there in terms of connectivity. There is support for dual SIM, 5G support and of course the well-known things such as Bluetooth, NFC and location determination via GPS, among other things. WiFi is also an option and we did not experience any problems with any of them. This results in hassle-free web browsing and pleasant phone conversations. Nothing to complain about. For calling, the manufacturer provides its own phone app, but you can also download the one from Google itself (from the Google Play Store).

Multimedia: music and film

Multimedia is something that people often use their smartphones for. The well-known options can of course also be found on the Asus Zenfone 9. You can listen to music, for example, via the 3.5 millimeter connection on the top of the device. So you can just connect your own headset; something that has certainly become rare in the higher, more expensive segment. Asus also gives you a set of speakers, which deliver excellent sound quality.

In the field of multimedia, the Zenfone 9 also does well. The image quality is excellent, as are the minimum and maximum brightness.

Camera: photo and video

Asus has equipped the Zenfone 9 with a dual-camera that protrudes quite a bit at the back. The camera app is easy to operate, although it can be a bit more convenient with the use of the zoom mode; that button is higher. It is striking that Asus offers a zoom function. The phone does not have a telephoto lens, a feature that I personally find very pleasant. Instead, the device offers a 50-megapixel main camera, along with a 12-megapixel wide-angle lens.

If we look at the photos taken, we can conclude that the Asus Zenfone 9 has a great camera. The daytime photos are of good quality, although it can sometimes get a bit dull on a sunny day. No exaggerated colors or crazy contrast differences. The wide-angle lens usually produces excellent photos. With zooming in, so without the telephoto lens, you can take beautiful pictures despite the fact that it is not an optical zoom.

In the evenings you can use the night mode, if you wish. In low light, the quality itself is quite nice, although indoors sometimes quite a bit of noise can be observed. In addition, it is not always an equally beautiful photo that comes out of the camera in dark conditions. With the night mode on, the darkest elements in a photo are further brightened. The performance of the wide-angle lens in the evening is less good, with the photos sometimes being dull.

Photos that we have taken with the device can be found in the digital photo album.

Selfies and video camera

You shoot selfies with the 12-megapixel camera. The quality of this is excellent, with the colors being well matched to reality. The video quality is also a plus with the Zenfone 9. The image stabilization in particular deserves praise. A video we shot with the Zenfone 9 can be found below.

Performance: battery, speed and memory

The Asus Zenfone 9 comes with an excellent processor; the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1. This delivers all the power you need, as you would expect in a high-end device. We have not experienced any annoying hitches or crazy things with the device in recent weeks.

Battery life

The battery of the Asus Zenfone 9 has a capacity of 4300 mAh. This battery can be charged with a 30W charger, which is included with the device. Fully charging the battery takes approximately 75 minutes. You can indicate in the battery settings that certain things should be taken into account. For example, it is possible to switch off the fast charging, to charge regularly between certain times and to apply a charging limit, so that, for example, no more than 80 or 90 percent is charged, in order to keep the battery in the best possible condition. to keep.

With above-average usage, we see the battery capacity at 40 percent at the end of the day. We note a screen time of approximately 2.5 hours. This means that the smartphone gets about 4.5-5 hours of screen time, which can be even more when used via WiFi. A very neat score.

Update Policy

We have asked Asus about the update policy for the Zenfone 9. The company hereby reports that the smartphone will receive two Android OS updates and two years of security updates. That is really very minimal for a device in this price range. There are many devices on the market that cost less and that are kept much longer in terms of updates. Definitely a big improvement for Asus.

Rating

We have extensively tested the Asus Zenfone 9 for several weeks and we really liked it. Asus has launched a serious player that fulfills the wishes of a large group of consumers; a compact design. This without major concessions having to be made on the screen, the camera or the battery life. Because this is all well with the Zenfone 9.

On the other hand, I do miss the telephoto lens, which broadens the possibilities of the camera just a bit more. In addition, in the review, we should pay special attention to the update policy of Asus. For a device of 800 euros, you got away with a promise of two Android updates and two years of security updates for a few years; that’s really out of date now. A longer maintenance period with security patches and perhaps an extra Android update could have been the crown on this otherwise very fine device.

Can you live with the scanty update policy and are you looking for a compact smartphone? Then the Asus Zenfone 9 will definitely please you. You can now buy the phone from Belsimpel and Amazon.