There are five key ingredients of any smartphone in 2022: Camera, Battery, Hardware (raw performance), Software (efficiency and ease of use), Build Quality/Software Updates (hardware and software durability).
Camera
On all of these metrics Zenfone 9 produces a high score. Let’s talk about that camera. People love to take photos from their smartphones and Zenfone 9 will not disappoint. While it’s got an average sensor: Sony IMX 766 for main camera and Sony IMX 363 for the ultra-wide. It makes up for the lack of camera hardware with software optimization. The photos taken from it are clean, bold and saturated with lots of contrast. Although, it does have a tendency to over sharpen the image sometimes. A nice little feature is the added stability because of the “six-axis hybrid gimbal” setup it’s got. That allows for less noisy night-time photography and stable videography. Now that is something to brag to your friends about!
Battery
The area where this phone really shines however, is the battery. The phrase “Chota packet bada dhamaka!” sums it up nicely. It has a 4300mAh battery, pretty big for a compact phone such as this. It lasts amazingly long, up to 7+ hours of screen on-time with heavy usage and multitasking. What makes the battery so great are the software and the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip that it’s rocking inside. The new chip is extremely efficient and when combined with the lightweight software, it was sure to have an excellent battery life.
Performance
That brings us to the next segment: performance. Asus Zenfone 9 is blazingly fast with a 120hz refresh-rate display and super-responsive with a 240hz touch sample rate. Gaming on this phone is an absolute delight. The animations are fluid and smooth with barely a stutter. You can even change the animation speed, a setting which is usually buried in the developer settings.
Software
Another thing that makes the user experience so great on this phone is its lightweight software as previously mentioned. Asus calls it the Zen UI, an apt name. It is pretty close to stock android without any preinstalled bloatware. It still offers customization like changing the look and feel of the always-on display. Asus guarantees 2+ years of software updates with a possibility of extending it in the future.
Cherry on Top!
You would think that’s where Asus would call it a day but no. They did something else. They made an ordinary power button extraordinary. First, the power button doubles as a fingerprint sensor which is incredibly fast. Second, it triples as a smart key. It can be customized for a long and double press. You can do things like trigger Google Assistant and open any app of your choice. But wait there is more, it also quadruples as a notification slider (just swipe your finger on the button).
Nothing is Perfect
There are of course a few downsides to the phone, nothing is perfect. Its screen is not on the level of other flagships maxing out at 1080p and 800nits of brightness (up to 1100 nits for HDR content). That makes it look a little washed out in the sunlight. Also, since it has a plastic back the durability takes a hit. Be sure to put a case on it! Lastly, it’s a bit pricey. In India it’s not domestically available, so after importing it will easily cost you around 60K plus.
There you have it. Asus Zenfone 9 is the biscuit sized delight we didn’t need but wanted.
