Asus Zenfone 9 With Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, Compact Body Launched Globally: Specifications

Asus has introduced its latest flagship smartphone, the Zenfone 9, for 2022. The Zenfone 9 is a successor to the Zenfone 8, aka the Zenfone 8z, which was launched back in 2021. The Zenfone 8’s USP was its compact form factor and one-hand usability, which is carried forward by the Zenfone 9. In fact, the Zenfone 9 is the smallest smartphone available with the 2022 flagship Snapdragon chipset. Let’s dive into the enormous list of features of the tiny device below. 

Asus Zenfone 9: Features, Specifications

The Zenfone 9 comes with a metal frame and a newly-developed material at the back, which is claimed to be durable and keeps the weight of the device in check. It gets a completely redesigned rear with two large camera sensors with chrome surrounds taking up most of the rear area. At the front, it gets a left-aligned hole-punch camera cutout and a bezel-less display. The device measures 146.58×68.17×9.45mm and weighs just 169 grams. 

The Zenfone 9 flaunts a 5.9-inch OLED panel with Full HD+ resolution, a 120Hz refresh rate, 115 percent sRGB coverage, 112 percent DCI-P3 coverage, and Delta E<1. The display supports HDR10+ and gets a peak brightness of 800 nits. It is protected by a layer of Corning’s Gorilla Glass Victus. 

The smartphone is powered by the latest Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor, which is based on TSMC’s 4nm fabrication process. It is more powerful and significantly power efficient when compared to the Snapdragon 888 chipset of last year’s Zenfone 8. The chipset made its debut with Asus’ own ROG Phone 6 series of smartphones recently. Furthermore, Asus has employed a 1727.17mm² vapour chamber cooling with a 230 percent larger attached area compared to the one on the Zenfone 8. This should keep the thermals in check during intensive tasks like gaming and 4K video recording. The device is equipped with up to 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage. 

In terms of optics, it comes with a 50MP Sony IMX766 primary sensor with six-axis gimbal stabilisation and 2×2 OCL PDAF. It is accompanied by a 12MP ultrawide IMX363 sensor, which gets dual PDAF and macro shooting functionalities. The rear camera can shoot videos in 4K at 60fps and in 8K resolution at 24fps. The selfie duties are handled by the 12MP Sony IMX663 sensor at the front. 

The smartphone comes with stereo speakers, a 3.5mm audio jack, Qualcomm Aqstic WCD9380, Qualcomm Aqstic amp (WSA8835), and Dirac audio support. Other noteworthy features include a side-mounted fingerprint sensor, IP68 water/dust resistance, 5G SA/NSA, Bluetooth v5.2, Wi-Fi 6E, NFC, and USB Type-C port, among others. The Zenfone 9 packs in a slightly bigger 4,300mAh battery unit coupled with 30W fast charging support. It runs on ZenUI 9 based on Android 12, with promised two years of Android OS updates and security patches.

Asus Zenfone 9: Price, Availability

The ASUS Zenfone 9 starts at a price of $699 (approx. ₹55,700) for the 8GB RAM + 128GB internal storage variant in the US. The device comes in Midnight Black, Starry Blue, Sunset Red and Moonlight White colourways. It will go on sale in Europe, Hong Kong, and Taiwan initially, followed by North America, Japan, Indonesia, and South America. There’s no word about the Indian launch yet.