[Asus Zenfone 9] Yoodj:
Hi people, a little greeting from France!

I would have liked to have some information before falling for the Zenfone 9 and i thanks @Nexr0n; I second him with my views on the phone.

Here's my review, figuring it might be useful to others who, like me, spend their time looking at online tests and searching for the best option.

Background:

I came from a Note 9 (snapdragon) but broke the screen and while it still works, the Zenfone 9 was giving me the eye.

I didn't want to change, not finding anything in the landscape that is as qualitative and meets my criteria. Namely: good screen (especially brightness, the 120hZ was a plus, the QHD too), good speakers, a mini-jack port and a good autonomy. The Note 9 has features that are now unavailable: the clickable home button hidden under the screen, the heart sensor, the rear fingerprint reader (I like it), the notification led, etc.

The new Samsung S22 didn't have any jack or SD and despite their great screens, they seemed to me to be a regression on the points mentioned above, minor of course, but which, cumulatively, I didn't like. In particular the autonomy, which everyone thinks is bad.

I had a SONY 5 III in my sights, but the lack of brightness and the price dissuaded me. I couldn't find a new S21 anywhere else than on Rakuten, so I preferred to avoid it.

I went for the Zenfone 9. The + would have been an SD port but I bought this to keep my data (movies, videos) when I need it, not being a big fan of the cloud: https://www.amazon.fr/Essential-Câble-recharge-synchronisation-données/dp/B0917DWGC6/ref=sr_1_1?adgrpid=1348002191584416&hvadid=84250559089415&hvbmt=bp&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=125745&hvnetw=s&hvqmt=p&hvtargid=kwd-84250662755975:loc-66&hydadcr=29650_2344758&keywords=budi&qid=1662197734&sr=8-1

In use:

The positive:

Ultra responsive, on par with an iPhone. Going back to my Note 9 makes me realize that this is where the gap is most pronounced.

Autonomy:

I have 4 Gmail accounts, 1 exchange account, 2 SIM cards and a company email. 2 whatsapp, 2 Facebook, 1 discord. I play between 1 and 2 hours a day (clash royale, Brawl star) and I am at 75%-80% brightness.

I oscillate between 6 and 8h of SOT (related to a 100% battery, but I use the battery saving functions by charging at 80% maximum). On average, I lose 20% of battery for 1h20 of screen on.

The fingerprint reader, fast and reliable (my right thumb, my right index (when my Asus lay on the table and my left index, when i grab it with my left hand.

The recharge :

The block is provided, the cable too, and it is appreciable. The recharge is not at the level of a One Plus or an Oppo of course, but it takes me less than an hour to go from 20% to 80%. That's enough for me.

The sound quality and its power. The Dirac profiles are ... strange, games / video / cinema do not put the voices at the same level. You have to change regularly depending on what you're listening to, but there's bound to be a profile that will fit before you even bother with the equalizer. On the other hand, what they did with the feeling of having real bass (example with " clap your hands " of Kungs is bluffing). The power with the outdoor mode is quite substantial, but I imagined EVEN more and it transforms the sound, which becomes less pleasant and immediately loses the bass.

The Medium:

The screen

I love the size, I appreciate that it is flat, but the maximum brightness is below what I expected based on the advertised numbers. Side by side, while my Note 9 is very marked (I used Waze a lot, I have a huge burn-in), I feel like the samsung is still brighter than the Asus. It is also better defined, even if the white balance is better on the Zenfone side.

As a reminder: Samsung Note 9 for GSMArena (White 100% luminosity: 367 cd/m2 and 658 cd/m2 in max auto) Asus Zenfone 9 (White: 100% luminosity: 449 cd/m2 / 831 in max auto)

The quality of the photos with the native application, oversharpeing everywhere and bad color accuracy. I prefer the Gcam rendering, but we will have to tweak the application because we are not yet at the level of the Pixel !

The power of vibrations. The Note 9 is *vastly* superior

The Software:

ZenUI is less complete than Samsung, with ALL its little cool tricks (the double broadcast of a video on the phone to show something but music on a speaker for the party at the same time! - the integrated Hiya blocker to know if you're being canvassed or if it's spam when you have a call and all the possibilities offered to power users with Nicelock, Multistar, etc. It's missing).

It's related: the brightness bar is poorly done, you have to swipe down twice to get access to it (there is an option on Samsung so that it's not the case). Moreover, the curve is badly thought out, the progressiveness is not smooth enough. The automatic management of brightness is not bad, but not at the level of my Samsung.

But all in all, ZenUI is usefull and with some cool tweaks. I like Game Genie !

Given the power of the phone, I would have liked a "durable" mode that could rather downclock the processor than prevent applications from waking up with the screen off... Asus, if you read me ...

Notifications: this is probably related to the versions of android and the QHD screen but I had a LOT more notifications on a much smaller space on the Samsung, it was really better. With the Asus, every single notification takes up half of my panel ! Is it a toy or a phone ?!

It's not very important for some, but the jack port on the top of the phone is more restrictive than the bottom, as a rule. I sometimes put my headphones on in the car to listen to stuff while the kids are asleep, the wire sticks up over my phone, it's less convenient. When you're walking around town listening to podcasts, taking it out of your pocket and having to use both hands to put it in the right direction to unlock it, that's handling that was unnecessary with the Note. Manipulations that increase the risk of dropping it.

The negative:

Stand by time:

Turning off the internet at night + having checked that nothing is running in the background, I go from 62% to 52% battery between 11pm and 8am... I'll test in airplane mode, but this loss seems huge !

When i play Genshin Impact, not even in performance mode, it runs HOT !

USB 2.0 ? really ? It was not so long to perform a transfer of my 30k photos from my samsung to my Asus but nevertheless, it was nearly painfull ! Thanksfully my 256 go are in UFS 3.1 !

All in all, I find it a bit expensive for what it is although I'm not disappointed. But if I could, I think I would have waited for a smartphone with the Snapdragon 8 gen 2.

Or go back to Samsung on the mid-range to keep a decent screen but benefit from the jack and micro SD.