Asus Zenfone 9 review - Light 5G smartphone almost without any alternative with its compact size

[Redaktion]

The Asus Zenfone 9 is particularly attractive with its compact design. At the same time, the Asus smartphone also offers very powerful hardware with the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, 16 GB of RAM, and a gimbal main camera. Find out in our review whether a purchase of the lightweight smartphone is worthwhile.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-Zenfone-9-review-Light-5G-smartphone-almost-without-any-alternative-with-its-compact-size.651149.0.html

[x]

Close to the perfect phone. Shame about android updates.

[facelesscommenter]

Almost perfect. The lack of long time support kills it. 2 years of software updates? passssss

[NikoB]

It would be a good solution if there was a screen with a real resolution, as stated in the specifications, and not a filthy AMOLED with 1.5 times lower color resolution and vile flickering, which gradually undermines the autonomic nervous system and vision during prolonged reading from the screen.

Well, the weight is clearly too high for such dimensions and so many small batteries ...

Pay attention to the board 16 (!) GB of RAM. And a bunch of alternatively gifted individuals on this site in the comments on laptop topics still dare to write that 16GB is allegedly ENOUGH in laptops, especially for work! This is how frostbitten you have to be to buy a laptop today without the ability to install or get fast dual-channel 32GB from the factory, at least? =)

Why in a smartphone 16Gb ?! There simply are no tasks for which they are needed. Not only that, extra transistors consume extra energy for nothing, all the time the SoC is running. The casket opens very simply - Android (based on Linux) is such a crappy system in terms of memory consumption that in reality, even against the backdrop of monstrous handicrafts from Microsoft, it consumes at least 1.5-2 times more memory for 10 times less features than in Windows XP 2001...

[NikoB]

By the way, even the consumption of the device is measured incorrectly, which is easily proved by mathematics - the battery is 4.3Ah. This means that the maximum that it can give out is 4.3(А)x3.90~4(V)x3600(sec) ~ 16.7-17.5Wh. This means that the maximum operating time of the device with a minimum consumption of 1.01W at full rest is a maximum of 17 hours. 17 x 60 minutes gives a maximum of 1000-1050 minutes. Where did the testers count 1685 minutes in Reader/Idle mode and even more incredible 1401 min in H264 video playback mode?

One of the two - either the measured consumption figures are overestimated by a minimum of 1.5 times or the data in the report on the operating time is deliberately false.

[NikoB]

And by the way, I forgot to add the biggest shame of this model - it doesn't even support 4k@60fps recording on a top snapdragon at such a monstrous price!!! A smartphone that is not even capable of recording 4k@60fps with OIS is, by definition, worthless garbage.

[somebodyuusedtoknow]

So, there is still PWM dimming even at 75-100% brightness? The wording you use in reviews is very confusing in regards to that, the graphs seem to imply so.

[Sharkyy]

Does the DC dimming mode work? How come you never include oscilloscopes of the DC dimming modes of OLED smartphones? Videos seem to suggest it still strobes even with the option turned on. Does the PWM dimming curve change when switching refresh rates?

[No flip?]

No flip camera means the series is dead. That was literally the only reason to prefer a ZenFone over other manufacturers.

[Mark Taylor]

No flip camera means the series is dead. That was literally the only reason to prefer a ZenFone over other manufacturers.

^^^ this ^^^

The flip camera solved three problems in one masterful stroke:

1. No stupid notch or stupid hole punch in the screen
2. Front camera quality same as the back one.
3. Total privacy when keeping the phone face up on the table.

With the added bonus of shooting at creative or comfortable angles.

[veverone]

The review says it has an optical fingerprint sensor, which is definitely wrong. It has a "normal", classic, powerful sensor integrated in that button.