The Asus Zenfone 9 is the smallest phone you can get with the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1

The Asus Zenfone line of smartphones is the company's "normal" flagship that it releases every year. It pivoted towards releasing a smaller flagship when it came to the Zenfone 8, and this time around it's done the same thing. The Asus Zenfone 9 is a compact 5.9-inch flagship smartphone with a Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 in tow. It being small isn't the only trick that it has up its sleeve, though.

The Asus Zenfone 9 packs an improved primary sensor supported by a miniature gimbal stabilization system, a lightweight chassis thanks to the materials used in its production, and a fingerprint sensor inside of the power button that also doubles up as a gesture key. Asus went all out on its latest Zenfone, and from the specification sheet alone, you can tell.

If none of that is enough to convince you, this is very likely to be the first smartphone with the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 to arrive in the United States, and it debuts at $699. If you weren't interested before, maybe you are now.

Asus Zenfone 9: Specifications

Specification	Asus Zenfone 9
Build	IP68 dust and water resistance Polycarbonate back Gorilla Glass Victus front
Dimensions & Weight	146.5 x 68.1 x 9.1 mm 169g
Display	5.9-inch Samsung AMOLED 120Hz 1080 x 2400 800 nits peak brightness
SoC	Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1
RAM & Storage	8GB LPDDR5 RAM + 256GB UFS 3.1 storage 8GB + 256GB 16GB + 256GB
Battery & Charging	4,300mAh 30W wired fast charging support
Security	Side-mounted fingerprint scanner
Rear Camera(s)	Primary: 50MP Sony IMX766, f/1.9, supported by gimbal system Ultra-wide: 12MP IMX363, f/2.2
Front Camera(s)	12MP IMX663
Port(s)	USB Type-C
Audio	Stereo speakers
Connectivity	Dual 5G 4G LTE Wi-Fi 6 Bluetooth 5.2 BLE Audio support Snapdragon sound support AAC/LDAC/LHDC/aptX Adaptive Multi-functional NFC
Software	ZenUI based on Android 12
Other Features	Headphone jack 30W charger included

Design

Previous Asus Zenfone devices have featured pretty boring designs, not exactly deviating far from the norm. The Zenfone 9 shakes things up a little bit, arriving with a more unique design. The back is made of polycarbonate plastic with a soft touch feel, and it's a boxier design more akin to an iPhone. It still has chamfered edges to make it comfortable to hold in the hand, but it's definitely not rounded like most other phones are. Even still, there's a camera bump as well -- a pretty sizeable one at that.

On the front, the 5.9-inch Gorilla Gliss Victus display is unimpeded aside from a punch-hole camera on the top left. The bezels aren't quite symmetrical the entire way around and there's a bit of a chin, but it's nothing that I'd consider to be unsightly or weird. The phone's headphone jack is located at the top, and there are a pair of speakers at both the top and the bottom. Finally, there's IP68 dust and water resistance so you know your phone can withstand a splash or two.

Cameras

The Asus Zenfone 9 doesn't go all out on the number of cameras that it includes, but it does have two fairly decent specced cameras. The first is the big one: an IMX766 sensor supported by gimbal stabilization and capable of snapping up to 50MP shots. It's a big improvement over the company's previous camera hardware, and the gimbal can stabilize on both the x and y axes and on the z-axis, adjusting for yaw. The ultra-wide camera isn't too much to write home about, as it's just a 12MP IMX363 shooter.

It's capable of recording at 8K 24 FPS with OIS and EIS enabled, can take macro shots at up four centimeters, and the wide-angle camera has a field of view of 113°. HyperSteady uses the wider view camera to help analyze the situation and stabilize further, and this is only available when recording in 1080p.

Performance

The Asus Zenfone 9 goes all-out on specifications, particularly for a small smartphone. Typically we'd expect smaller phones to cut back on some hardware features, but this phone has all of the flagship basics. A high-refresh-rate full HD display? Check. High-speed RAM and storage? Check. The latest and greatest Qualcomm chipset? Check. If you're unconvinced, it even has a headphone jack!

To actually hone in some of the specifics, this phone packs an AMOLED full HD 120Hz panel and up to 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 256GB UFS 3.1 storage. The screen also has a default max brightness of 800 nits, with a high-brightness mode capable of 1100 nits.

If you're worried about the battery size which may seem small coming in at 4,300 mAh, keep in mind that due to the phone's size, the smaller display consumes less power. As we've also noted, the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 uses less energy anyway, so it's entirely possible that this size battery is completely fine. The phone can also charge up at 30W.

Software

On the software front, the Asus Zenfone 9 runs ZenUI. It's Asus' own Android variant that remains pretty close to stock Android in a lot of ways, surfacing useful features and adding a little bit more on top. It's teeming with cool things you can try out, with one example being ZenTouch. ZenTouch turns the fingerprint sensor in the power button into a gesture control slider, and you can assign actions to it from your phone's settings.

The Asus Zenfone 9 will have two years of major updates, and two years of security patches.