Now this is a rare beast – the Asus Zenfone 9 is a small phone with a big battery and a powerful chipset. It really is a beast, in our review it outperformed the Exynos powered Galaxy S22, SD 8 Gen 1 powered Xiaomi 12 and others.
This was in Performance mode and the phone can’t last long at full throttle, but Asus’ new vapor chamber cooling system handled the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset better than expected.
The Zenfone 9 measures 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 that’s with a battery that’s 600mAh smaller). The iPhone 13 mini is 131.5 x 64.2 x 7.7mm and 141g. So the Zenfone isn’t a mini, but it’s about as small as Android’s flagships (we know there are tiny Androids, but they seriously compromise on features).
The Zenfone has an IP rating, Gorilla Glass Victus, 120Hz display with Always On mode, up to 16GB RAM, a large 4,300mAh battery with pretty fast charging at 30W (0-100% in over an hour in our tests ), plus a pair of good quality speakers tuned by Dirac.
Speaking of audio, there’s a 3.5mm headphone jack, which most phones skip, and there’s a 10-band equalizer to boot. Plus, there are plenty of settings for charging, gaming, and so on, so you can customize the device to your liking.
This feels more like an enthusiast phone than a middle ground offering (Zenfone is Asus’ mass-market series).
However, the Zenfone 9 has some flaws. For starters, we would have appreciated a microSD slot. The 128/256 GB of storage will probably be enough for most, but it would have been another advantage over regular models.
However, the software support is the biggest black spot on the phone. Asus has only committed to two major OS updates (and Android 13 is just around the corner) and “at least” two years of security patches. That’s not much, given the $700/€800 price tag and the fact that the software on the phone is mostly Android with some Asus magic on it.
The Samsung Galaxy S22 ($800/€850) gets four OS upgrades and five years of security patches. That’s better than Google’s Pixel 6 (3 upgrades, 5 years of patches). And much better than the Pixel 6a, which is more comparable in size (but only gets 3 years of patches instead of 5).
The S22 isn’t as fast as the Zenfone and is no match for battery life, but it does have a 3x telephoto camera rather than relying on zoom from the main sensor. The Zenfone is sturdier (9.1mm vs. 7.6mm) and while we liked the back material, we believe all the writing and decals on the ROG series belong, not here.
As for the Pixel 6 ($600/€650), it’s a lot bigger, so it’s not a fair comparison. The Pixel 6a ($450/€460) gets closer to the mark. The OLED panel does not have a high refresh rate mode and it only has Gorilla Glass 3 protection (the phone as a whole is IP67 rated). It uses the same Tensor chipset as the flagship Pixels, but the main camera is a small, old 12MP sensor that has to rely on Google’s processing magic to take decent photos.
Samsung Galaxy S22 5G • Google Pixel 6a
The Sony Xperia 5 IV will probably be the closest competitor, but it doesn’t exist yet, so let’s look at the Mark 3 ($800/€900) instead. It’s the same width (68mm), which we think is more important than the extra inch of height. It does have a 120Hz display, a microSD slot, and a 12MP dual focal length telephoto camera, with 3x and 4.4x magnification. The large 4,500mAh battery didn’t last as long as the Zenfone (100h vs. 108h Endurance), but that’s with the older Snapdragon 888 chipset. Sony isn’t great with updates either, so can’t hold that over Asus.
Sony Xperia 5 III
If you want a true mini phone with high-end features, the Apple iPhone 13 mini ($700/€800) is just about the only option. It forgoes luxuries like an HRR display or a telephoto camera and rumored to have no iPhone 14 mini to rectify those mistakes. Being small also means battery life isn’t great (75 hours of endurance). That said, all late 2016 or newer iPhones will happily run the latest iOS.
Apple iPhone 13 mini
The Asus Zenfone 9 will be available soon in Europe, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and a few weeks later to North America, Japan, Indonesia and parts of South America. You can already read our review (and don’t miss our video review) if you want more details about the pros and cons.
Okay, time to vote – are you going to buy a Zenfone 9 or go for something else?
ps. If you’re having trouble voting with the poll widget above, you can cast your vote here.