Asus Zenfone 9
asus.com
asus.com
I'm in the market for a new phone right now, and it's baffling how ridiculously big most phones are right now. I only use mine for instant messaging and browsing Hacker News. 5" is more than enough for that.
One of my earliest smartphones was 4.2". That was already problematic for my hand. 5" is too large, 5.9" is out of question. I don't want a tablet for a phone. I want a phone that I can use with just one hand and still reach all corners of the screen comfortably with my thumb from a firm grip (i.e. not from the side, but with the bottom right corner firmly tucked in the palm of my hand, if that makes sense). And my hands are not even small.
The phone, or the screen? The Nexus 5S was the last phone I owned that I could comfortable hold and had a 4.9" screen (diagonal), but with a 70.8% screen-to-body ratio (5.43 inches tall). This Zenfone 9 has a 5.9 inches screen (diagonal) but is less than 1cm taller, and exactly as wide as the Nexus 5S.
This is so true. Typing this on a Mi A2 Lite released in 2018 rocking a custom A11 ungoogled ROM and squeezing almost 3 days of battery life out of it. It's screen size is 5.84" and it's perfect. I refuse to go any bigger.
1. They want OLED which has nothing to do with the phone size. I strongly prefer avoiding OLED because I prefer longevity / not having burn-in.
2. Hole punch front camera: I'd like to avoid any sort of notch/punch/deviation from standard rectangularish screens.
3. 2 rear cameras: I don't care. At least this one isn't a bad choice like the others, I just don't care.
and that is in their "must have" section, so I cannot commit my support.
Here is a comparison between a few phones: https://phonesized.com/compare/#1784,1862,1863,365,632,126 (the Zenfone 9 is not in the database yet, but it's almost identical at the Zenfone 8).
What I find more interesting is that their website focus so much on it being compact, but it's actually just pretty much the same size as the regular iphone.
I like it how in your comparison that these modern "compact" phones are almost the same size as the Note 3 which was a phablet when it came out.
If 5.9" were ridiculously large (it is), then so is anything bigger, including the phone that must contain the 5.9" screen.
A 'smaller' screen can actually be larger in area. Take the 5.7 inch note 3 mentioned earlier.
https://m.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=5665&idPhone2=1...
Its screen is nearly 7% larger than the 5.9 inch zenphone 9. Skinnier aspect ratios exaggerate the growth in phone screen sizes.
http://www.displaywars.com/5,9-inch-d%7B20x9%7D-vs-5,7-inch-...
Tallness doesn't make phones uncomfortable to hold (width does), it just makes them poke out of your pockets.
Why are screens getting so big? So they can shove more ads?
We could solve two problems at once: get rid of a camera bump and make the battery bigger at the same time by using the extra space of the camera bump to house a bigger battery.
Not sure why it hasn't happened yet or if it has I don't know if it.
I mean, we kinda do when it comes to EVs.
It takes 60 seconds to fill and fuel tank, it takes 60 minutes (if you're lucky) to fill an EV.
One is an insignificant amount of time, relatively speaking.
The person you're replying to isn't making the right comparison; do we care about waiting/wasting 1 minute vs 60+ minutes?
I sure as shit do.
Yes. I can't tell you why they thought it was important, but in my childhood I've heard multiple adults talk about "My car goes <x> miles before a fill-up". Never made sense to me, gas stations are everywhere and filling up is quick.
Gas stations are not everywhere, and can be few and far between on certain routes, and more to the point filling up being quick may be the normal conditions, but if you are old enough (or have lived in the right–or maybe wrong would be more accurate–places even without being that old), you have experience of times when filling up has not been quick, or even, on any given day for any given car, necessarily permitted.
Apple switched to a larger screen size not because they thought it was better but their phones were losing out in showrooms to the larger Galaxy phones.
Because that's what companies make. There are examples of smaller phones that were not successful, but they sucked for one reason or another.
Zenfone 9 is 2mm taller and 1mm narrower.
Lying in bed, on the bus, in the classroom, etc - less time to sit down in the living room and watch youtube/movies on the TV - especially with the TikTok(/vine?) generation latching onto vertical video formats too.
I think it's just a generational thing - I remember being amazed at how people are consuming vertical video now like it's anything else when 5-10 years ago people would give the cameraman grief for filming this "crazy moment!" in vertical format :P
Face it, you're a tiny minority. My wife made fun of my iPhone Pro Max, until she inherited my old one and now she can't go back, it's huge but the screen real estate is really nice to have.
I see what you did there. Anyway, I’m in the tiny minority.
All walls must fall looks cool, I'll have to check it out.
Thank you! Let me know what you think of it. :- )
No regrets.
The mini was big enough already to occasionally being forced to activate single hand mode.
But superior gestures navigation makes Zenfone so much easier to use with one hand.
Imho the move to higher than 16:9 aspect ratios has really made it harder to talk about screen size.
::Points to an iPhone SE::
Even the camera, less megapixels but Apple has far better computational photography algos.
i don't want to update. the persistent update notification in my note 10 is still here. i cannot dismiss it .
Every update is just more trackers and ads.
iOS generally is less at-risk for these botnet issues since any botnet needs to be actively embedded within a popular app-store-installed app, especially if it wants to run expensive background tasks hitting HTTP endpoints. To add, since apps can't JIT, the apps can't RCE a jailbreak that would allow full system compromise, besides if the exploit chain is possible via a WebKit exploit (which is exceedingly rare[1]).
Really? I always have issues after iOS upgrades, mostly related to iCloud. But I still update ASAP because as soon as a new iOS version is released, the old version causes even more iCloud problems. Apple and the whole iOS ecosystem just doesn't tolerate old versions (which is mostly a good thing but also has some downsides)
Further, there are time when I DONT want my devices to update.
Device management in iCloud is utterly poor, I should be able to manage all my privacy settings for all my iOS devices in FUCKING iCLOUD!
I've never actually noticed any difference after almost all of the updates since I purchased it. I'm assuming they either have all been security, "stability" or features that Samsung already had provided in their fork.
Ironically Samsung Health used to have a little "Ad" banner at the top but after some update that is gone now.
https://www.asus.com/us/Mobile/Phones/Snapdragon-Insiders/Sm...
Do they lock it down including the camera modules or are they fairly open?
you can bootloader/oem unlock zenphones, though that might wipe DRM keys.
samsung apparently also used to have a kill switch on their S22s with the Exynos cpus in EU (the only models that are unlockable...Snapdragons are not). i have a hard time believing this tho if they permitted unlocking at all. most likely it was some signed firmware snafu as you say.
https://www.xda-developers.com/samsung-galaxy-s22-bootloader...
Installed Lineage on my OnePlus 6 and it basically had no camera app. Using the Google Camera atm which crashes/freezes randomly.
Unfortunately I do not know anything about the camera modules. I only know that it works.
I beleive each model depends on the number of contributors working on image for that model, my phone is quite old yet it is now possible to upgrade (fresh install) to 19.1, which I will eventually get around to. I bought this phone specifically to use lineage. I use the camera, it works fine, and dont have any issues personally with the quality, although i am not really too bothered as long as its not shit, which it isn't IMO
But I have to say, Apple's OS version updates are not always quite what they seem. My 2 year old iPad gets OS updates in name only. None of the major new iPad OS features are supported.
That's fine if the hardware just isn't capable of supporting those features. But it sort of muddies the water compared to an Android device that doesn't get a nominal OS bump but still gets security updates and all the new features distributed through Google's Play services.
GrapheneOS on Pixel is probably the best bet right now.
Yes, absolutely. I didn't mean to imply anything else.
Google says Pixel 6 will get "at least 5 years" of security updates. We're going to have to wait and see if that's better or worse than what Apple does.
Compare that to Android where the best case is invisible security updates and guess which causes upgrade anxiety?
I'm an Android developer for a living but I use iPhones because the Android ecosystem is currently optimized for generating e-waste.
SoC manufacturers generally don't make enough money to want to do more than the bare minimum, so unless you're Google making billions off a hundred other angles you don't do OS updates for more than a few years and maybe pay lip service with security upgrades.
That's a truly terrible example...
First off it's not "the major feature of iPadOS 16, it's one call out of many _many_ features: https://www.apple.com/ipados/ipados-16-preview/
Second, _massively increasing multitasking capabilities_ is being given to the models that have _a massively upgraded SoC_ there's nothing artificial about that limitation.
Older iPads cannot not hold 4 arbitrary apps in memory, try it yourself if you want. For anything but the most basic set of apps you'll find something evicted by the time you loop back...
Third, "the" major point of an OS upgrade if any is being on the latest development target. Ask Android devs still targeting versions of Android from 2015 about that...
As you know, Google updates apps and cloud features on a continuous basis while Apple holds back most new features until they release a new OS version. If you look through the list of iPad OS 16 features for instance, you'll see that almost all of them are in fact new apps, app features and sharing/cloud features that Android users would be getting anyway [1].
Of the very few actual OS features, the most substantial one by far is Stage Manager, which is only supported on M1 iPads as esteth has said. This isn't just "a few flashy features".
I'm a bit unlucky with my iPad purchases because this is the second time I'm missing out on the most important new OS features on a new-ish iPad. Granted, nothing of the sort ever happened to me on iPhone. I'm rather happy with Apple's iOS update policy.
You cannot keep 4 major apps in memory without seeing an eviction.
Also your comparison doesn't make sense, you're comparing iOS built-in apps to Android 3rd party apps by Google... AOSP's built-in photos and emails apps have barely been updated in the last decade.
All in all if you think iPadOS is letting you down, Android upgrades are a circus that Google refuses to rein in.
I'm not comparing them, I'm putting them aside for this comparison, because Apple links a lot of regular apps to the release cycle of the OS while Google doesn't do that. That's a separate issue that isn't relevant for the point I was making.
I'm only talking about features that would have to be part of the OS on iOS as well as on Android. There are very few new features of that sort in iPad OS 16. I'm not getting most of them.
I understand that this may be down to hardware capabilities. But Apple does have some wiggle room when it comes to deciding how to implement any new features and how much work to put into making them less resource intensive.
You realize the Gmail app is not the equivalent of the iOS Mail app right? That would be the AOSP email app which only gets updates when Android OS gets updates...
My point is that I didn't get the most important new iPad OS features on my new-ish iPad. Apple simply didn't implement those features in a way that makes them work on relatively recent devices.
>You realize the Gmail app is not the equivalent of the iOS Mail app right?
Yes, but the differences are not relevant to the debate. I'm talking about OS features only, and I'm disregarding regular apps that just happen to get distributed along with the OS for business reasons.
Like I said already:
- there was no magical way to make this feature work on your "newish iPad".
- You can even test it yourself: open Safari, open a few productivity apps, and watch the cold starts come flying.
- Stage Manager is not the most important feature, being on the newest development target is since if you're not most updated apps will not support your device in 12 months
> I'm talking about OS features only, and I'm disregarding regular apps that just happen to get distributed along with the OS for business reasons.
So you're arbitrarily deciding which OS features count, cool... you're free to do that... but that's the definition of a strawman.
Apple's approach to an OS places more value on built in apps, so you see a ton of app based features, that use OS level APIs that don't exist until a new OS upgrade.
You're trying to say Apple could just ship them as app updates, but no, they can't. The APIs they're built on don't exist until a new OS version comes out.
I don't know how difficult it would have been to support a broader range of devices. There are always trade-offs involved, engineering trade-offs as well as economic ones. Neither of us is familiar with the technical details or with the options they discussed.
Fact is, this major new feature (and others) is not supported on very recent hardware they sold to me. That's disappointing irrespective of the reasons. And it raises the question how meaningful those X years of OS updates really are.
>So you're arbitrarily deciding which OS features count
I'm counting all OS features but not apps that are only linked to OS releases as a sales strategy. Of course they want to show off new OS APIs in their apps when the OS gets an update. That doesn't require syncronising release cycles the way they do. Many if not most new app features do not depend on new OS APIs at all.
I'm sure some will appreciate the (security) updates, because the year or so of OS updates I've experienced have been a constant trend towards the worse.
Usually you lose access to things like GPay or certain NFC functionalities, and end up with a not-entirely stable experience anyway. I'd rather a phone that just worked. The half a dozen I had previously at least didn't struggle with the basics!
Every app I've tried to use on it has worked.
I recommend you give it a go.
If you don't like it, you can always reinstall the stock OS at https://pixelrepair.withgoogle.com/
> it is more secure than the stock OS
Maybe, but I don't trust community maintainers (nor auditing) enough. At least Google has a business entity that backs their services, community ROMs have nothing of the sort.
I dabbled in ROMs and the likes previously, but I just want a phone that works like a phone should right now. I've got too many other things to tinker with already.
However, re community maintainers, clearly you have read nothing about GrapheneOS, as security is by far their top priority, at the expense of nearly everything else.
I just want a relible, usable phone, and do not experience safety concerns that would warrant preferring a less convenient experience. I don't think most people do, for that matter.
Mine just gives up on connecting to things, WebView is absolutely broken, and the daily UX is just me rebooting it 5-10 times a day. Stupid.
Typing this on a Moto G6 (2018). I also have a fully patched Nexus 7 tablet (2013).
Technically, there's nothing wrong with them. It's just that the vendors can't bring themselves to do the work.
Hopefully some legislation will come into place at some point to enforce this.
In the same way, mods for games aren't an alternative to the developer just fixing issues.
I has received frequently updates until now, including the change of the major version of Android, from the one with which the phone had been initially delivered.
https://www.reddit.com/r/zenfone/comments/ollaq6/i_will_neve...
On chinese marketplaces there are batteries for almost any phone, might be in your local marketplaces as well, depending on location.
The core problem is security updates.
I've been running a Galaxy S7 since 2016 like that and only now do the first battery issues slowly start to appear.
https://www.androidauthority.com/phone-update-policies-16586...
The attacks sold to governments fighting such evils as journalists and pro-democracy youth haven't yet been shown to include persistency across reboots, AFAIK, but relatively small percentages of politically active people using insecure boot could encourage them to build those features to more passively monitor a sub-sample as it is relatively easy and makes their work less detectable.
You can often get android api updates like this but not any real security updates.
But lack of kernel updates is pita and absolutely true :(
Are there any workaround apps sort of like this now, or has Google finally plugged all the loopholes for this?
https://m.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=11656&idPhone2=...
The size is almost the same.
It's thicker, which is bad, but at least that allows for a side mounted fingerprint sensor. A rear mounted one is inaccessible on a phone holder, car or bicycle.
It weights a lot more.
No micro SD slot.
Anything else, I don't care, so I can't find a reason to pay at least 3 times the price. If it were a couple of cm shorter, maybe but probably not.
If it isn't buggy and the shipped features match the marketing, why would it ever need to be updated?
So it seems like any argument like "Vendor never updates it" needs to be paired with an argument that they ship buggy or incomplete software.
That's not how software works. Software is always buggy. Question is only how severely functionality is impacted and when those bugs will be found. Most bugs are never noticed since they only concern corner cases that you normally won't hit in the field or would even have a hard time driving the system into even if you tried on purpose.
The main issue is with security-related bugs. Especially with mobile phone software, which has an enormous attack surface and has really wide distribution, this is a constant issue. No mobile phone OS ever will be bug free and will always contain security flaws. Over time, more and more of them are discovered, and it's a race between the vendor fixing them and malicious actors exploiting them. That's why the OS (and all the apps) need to be constantly updated. The longer you skip updates, the more you fall behind and the more doors are open that better be closed once they are known.
> needs to be paired with an argument that they ship buggy or incomplete software.
That argument is an easy one to make and everybody familiar with software engineering should be intimately familiar with it. This is not about some button not working, it's about somebody pwning your phone.
I feel like Asus would do so much better if they opened up the ecosystem a bit.
- Zenfone 6: https://www.xda-developers.com/asus-zenfone-6-custom-rom-twr...
- ROG Phone II: https://www.xda-developers.com/asus-sending-rog-phone-ii-cus...
- ROG Phone 3: https://www.xda-developers.com/asus-rog-phone-3-custom-roms-...
Hopefully, Asus does something similar with the Zenfone 9.
Email is critical.
Other option is a yubikey
Instead of that, like any other Android manufacturer in the market, they ship great hardware with shitty or soon-to-be shitty software that will make your premium phone worse than the next Chinese phone.
They are either open or isolated in Librem 5.
It's not viable for a company like ASUS to go for the same approach. And not many consumers would buy them, either.
It feels like we need consumer protection laws that require companies to prominently advertise the software "warranty". So Google and Apple can put "5 years" on the box and Asus needs to put "0 days". The problem is that it isn't something that most people think about. But when you point it out to them it definitely changes how they evaluate phones when you show them that this one will be dangerously insecure after 1y but this other one is good for 3y.
I think it's hard to have easy open-source support by default as ARM hardware needs a model specific device tree and some of the required software might not be fully open.
Asus might not own either all software or rights to release a fully open model themselves, even if they'd like the idea.
How about this one: https://puri.sm/products/librem-5?
Since I have choose to use CalyxOS/any privacy focused ROM, I have been locked to pixels, because all the others have some crap in the system that devs don't want to deal with.
I do think most phones with a notch have it at the top, though!
ZenFone 8 is being supported. So, there's good chance that ZenFone 9 will be as well.
Kudos to Asus, not only for the phone, which, by the way, seems interesting.
If only the various hardware subsystems were supported natively in mainline kernel (and open source apps), we'd live in a hacker's dream world.
Also, while I'm on my soapbox... Having a fingerprint reader as the power button just makes sure that my phone is unlocked just as I put it in my pocket, just after I've locked it (by clicking the power button). Just today I've spammed a couple of voice messages to people just because of that. I'll not be buying another phone with one of those again!
:rant off:
While the phone is on, the power/fingerprint button "also acts as an extra input, allowing you to pull down the notification shade by swiping across the button – or set it to refresh a page, scroll to the top, or control media playback if you prefer." [1]
[1] - https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.techadvisor.com/article/805...
Have the same on my xiaomi, but there is a setting so you must click to unlock which solved the issue for me.
Detailed and honest would be spec sheet, camera samples, couple of standardized benchmarks, basically a Kimovil.com description page.
According to GSMArena, the Zenfone 8 did not have an SD slot either. [1]
Which is too bad, if Asus offered expandable storage on the Zenfone it would be the ideal phone for me.
It is good that Apple offers mobile phones with internal storage of 1tb where Samsung ends up in 512gb but in this times of large photos and movies 2 TB should appear soon.
For some reason sd card slot is like audio jack, it's considered a thing for middle tier phones. Xiaomi have a bunch of them (various Redmis for instance), and Samsung at least used to, I haven't checked recently.
Samsung ditched both of those features in recent years.
I kind of hate sony, but in this instance they seem to be less shitty than everyone else.
Right now I'm on a Moto g100/Edgs S, which is a mid-range phone with a microSD slot and a headphone jack, but it has two camera holes in the screen, it's not waterproof and it has a single shitty down firing speaker. However, it was $270 used, so I figured I can live with this until I find something I actually like.
Oh, and both Motorola and Sony make it easy to unlock the bootloader, which is sadly not guaranteed anymore. I'm still a little salty at Google for permanently locking the bootloader in my old Pixel 2 and I sent it in for a repair.
https://www.phonearena.com/phones/size/Asus-Zenfone-9,Apple-...
Apple has absolutely lost this game. The iPhone wants to be magic. I want mechanical joy.
I also want to upgrade, but it's difficult to pick which phones will have equally good fingerprint reading.
Also hoping for eSIM support, in case anyone has suggestions.
Note that S10 is totally different than S10e when it comes to the fingerprint reader, though. On the S10e, the power button is the fingerprint reader. The position is perfect. Contrast that with phones like Pixel 4 or Pixel 5, where Google think a sensor in an awkward location on the back of the phone is the right move.
However, both of them are leaps and bounds better than the optical in-screen sensors that fucking blind you if try to use the phone somewhere dark. I had a phone with one of those for about 2 weeks before I returned it.
I've actually underclocked mine, limited the maximum frequency that is, to conserve battery because I don't need all that power. It gets quite hot if you unleash it and do something like have a constantly re-rendering map as you move about (OsmAnd routing). Aside from software problems that are not Samsung's fault (base android just gets more annoying with every version), the "too fast" cpu is the only flaw I've found with it and I'm kind of dreading needing to upgrade in a few years when android degraded further and headphone jacks are entirely unavailable.
My work phone (released 2021) doesn't have a headphone jack. Took a few hours to find a USB C converter where the reviews didn't say "doesn't work with <phone version 7>" (version 6 worked fine, it seems the manufacturer removed support for all the ones that previously worked) or "lots of noise on the mic" or "broke after 2 weeks". Couldn't find one where you could also charge without getting a ton of noise, so I got a wireless charger plus with a simple C to headphone converter. Wireless charging makes it extremely hot and the C converter has a loose contact on the third use. Great success, loving the headphone jackless experience.
https://www.phonearena.com/phones/size/Asus-ZenFone-8,Samsun...
I would really appreciate to have not shi*y Android with custom ROM in size of iPhone SE.
Early batches of Zenfone 8 started dying after around six months of usage. Even though there were a lot of users complaining on the official forum [1], there was no official statement from Asus except "send your phone in for service.".
Also, recent updates seem to break random funcionality like Face ID [2], the notification pulldown menu [3] and screen casting [4]. Most of those problems are fixed, but in every instance the fix was only issued after a few weeks or a month.
One more problem present from the beginning (IIRC) is a malfunctioning proximity sensor [5] that activates the screen during conversation.
It's a good phone (in my opinion), but I feel that Asus started kinda ignoring it after the A12 release. And of course, I really don't like that they didn't officially comment on the bricking issue, so now I travel with a backup phone just in case.
1 - https://zentalk.asus.com/en/discussion/52713/zenfone8-stuck-...
2 - https://zentalk.asus.com/en/discussion/60547/zenfone-8-face-...
3 - https://zentalk.asus.com/en/discussion/60709/notification-pa...
4 - https://zentalk.asus.com/en/discussion/62156/screen-cast-iss...
5 - https://zentalk.asus.com/en/discussion/60831/proximity-senso...
The stock android it came with had some annoying rough edges compared to a google pixel. This is in terms of the audio levels for apps and notifications, basic user level experience stuff, not advanced nerd stuff.
She moved to a google pixel and was much happier. I installed LineageOS on the ASUS and it's been great with this "upgrade"
I'm hoping they put more effort into refining the OS on this phone.
It used to be that people really wanted stock android, now because google spends so many resources (i.e. UI/UX devs) on The Pixel Experience(tm) stock android has slowly become less user friendly and requires significant changes from the OEM partners to get it to a usable state. And of course those changes are not OSS and don’t contribute back to the original code. Plus it further fractures the whole ecosystem.
I'm sorry but have you used Android 12 on a Pixel 6? It's awful! Even basic things like navigation (gestures or 3-buttons) doesn't work properly!
In short, I think it's a good metric.
That same iPhone 5 clocked in at just 112g. This phone is a full 50% heavier.
You can't lose money selling something you never made.
I found the phone quality to be bad and customer service to be bad and avoided them. I was not surprised that they didn't survive.
Maybe they were at one point, but the Zenfone 8 was never carried at retail in Canada, and Staples doesn’t currently have any Asus phones in stock.
Am I right in thinking that lineageos support doesn't really have an "end of life"?
At the end of the day, lineageos is best effort from volunteers, and you should weigh that fact when you decide what you want to use day to day.
Asking as someone who's only had a Pixel, or iPhone before that.
Samsung has their own version of every built-in app. Text messages for example, they have a much shittier version of "Messages" (no RCS support at least a few months ago). Their apps get set back to default randomly. Photos/Gallery, email, web browser, you name it.
They then have other junk installed. Their own app store, their own voice assistant, and other useless/niche apps.
You are blocked from uninstalling any of it.
It is the scourge of Android. "Android One" was an effort by Google to curb it, but I think only Motorola signed up (in addition to Google, obviously). OnePlus started on the premise of a clean/stock experience, but have started losing their way (rather rapidly). "Nothing" is a new manufacturer aiming for a stock experience. Asus seems to be doing stock.
If you ever consider moving away from Pixel I strongly recommend prioritizing a stock experience over _anything_ else. Crapware is maddening, full of bugs, and likely full of vulnerabilities.
The updates are decent and I had no problems with them.
main complaint is probably that the buttons are too easy to press. every time i pick it up i inevitably press something to wake it. hoping the 9 is better.
Maybe the button is placed okay for another finger to wrap around the device and reach it? That probably depends on how finicky the reader is.
I could shill more but that's probably enough for one evening.
I can sort-of understand omitting microSD support in a "compact" phone that's targeting a more mainstream market, but the part that really boggles my mind is that they've never had a microSD slot in any of their "gamer" ROG phones. Those things are huge, and also sold to a demographic that is more likely than average to want all the storage they can get.
I have asus (rog) pc headphones and mouse and they're both well thought out and functional devices. Same with Asus Zypherus laptop I was looking at recently - 2k 120 hz screen, quite slim, sodimm ram slots, 180 degrees fold so you can use it with other monitor. Hopefully other dumbass vendors are going to compete with Asus
Now, I didn't buy them for the audio but for the fact that I lose things constantly. I can't have $100 headphones despite any quality of life improvements that they bring.
I will never buy a phone without a 3.5mm jack.
Oh, and whatever it is also has to support loading a google-free OS, such as with MicroG or Graphene.
I think OnePlus only charges like $20 to replace it...
I'm still happy with my POCO F2 Pro, but if I were to lose it right now I think I would import a Mi Mix 4. Under-display selfie camera is a little downgrade from the pop-up one, but the specs are better and I don't take that many selfies anyway.
The same guy who ported the CrDroid ROM to the F2 Pro also did it for the Mix 4, so I'd be pretty confident of successfully de-googling it.
https://www.theverge.com/2022/7/28/23280728/asus-zenfone-9-s...
Image stabilization is of immense value pretty much whenever you take a photo not in bright sunlight. Any kind of indoor scene benefits from it.
This is independent of any low light modes and does not require second or longer exposure times.
It‘s also limited in that it can’t stop action (meaning if someone moves fast they will still be blurry, though at least their background will be sharp), for that you need sensors where you can really crank up the gain and that‘s not really realistic on any kind of smartphone sensor.
Sounds like that kind of moving part could be quite fragile no?
I wish that wasn't noteworthy, but it is, so I'll just be happy.
still, i wish they still made truely compact phones, like 5" (used to have the sony xperia compacts). also, i can live with slower performance and less screen refresh and resolution for much improved battery life.
(typing this on a zenfone 8)
Very few in that size class
If they would squeeze a faster processor and a few more apps in there, I think it could be totally doable. We're so close!
It doesn't really feel like width would be problem, now jack, SD card or less than 150mm, those are more difficult to get.
My condolences! I hate this phone so much that I am taking evey chance to shit on it and warn people. I never realized how perfect the pixle 5 and A11 were until I "upgraded".
Are you happy with the p6 so far?
I've been rocking an iPhone 7 since it came out - I want a true one-handed, pocketable phone - but nobody tests software on them anymore and things are glitching hard. Plus, battery life is half a day now.
https://www.unihertz.com/collections/smartphones/products/ti...
Unless you primarily use your phone with your left hand.
Here are relative dimensions:
Pixel 3 phone dimensions: 145.6 x 68.2 x 7.9 mm
Zenfone 9 phone dimensions: 146.5x68.1x9.1mm
Pixel 6a phone dimensions: 152.2 x 71.8 x 8.9 mm
Pixel 6 dimensions: 158.60 x 74.80 x 8.90mm
With current slim bezels and modified aspect ratios, dimensions have gone down for relatively larger screen sizes.
No updates compared to 4-5 years at other brands
Buggy unoptimized softare
Unoptimized camera
Removed SD card
and most importantly horrible built quality
At least it seems they improved horrible battery life from Zenfone 8 which was also victim of their bad software optimization.
This company just can't do (optimizd/stable) software and (reliable) hardware, but their paper specs are sure nice.
So sadly while I like the specs (especially dimensions) I can't afford to waste my money on Asus phone, because I want phone which works and it's available and not in repair at least once a year.
If you are looking for smaller phone your current options with decent cameras are pretty much only Samsung S22, Xiaomi 12/12X and Xperia 10 IV each with own set of compromises (Sony horible SoC (for the price) with unoptimized camera, Xiaomi no jack/SD, same goes for Samsung plus price).
https://www.phonearena.com/phones/size/Apple-iPhone-6,Asus-Z...
A little bit taller, but still very one hand usable. Screensize is misleading given that bezels have shrunk.
The ZenTouch button on this looks great - main complaint with my Mini is not being able access Notification Center easily one handed. Unfortunately it looks to be right hand operable only…
Yes I use a powerbank on multiday backcountry trips, but it stays in my pack, not on my person and especially not in my hand.
I can't say enough good things about them - for $2 they transform even the largest phones to being one-handable. It's miraculous. They make this conversation obsolete without the slightest exaggeration. They systematically prevent fragile holds and - they're cool,
https://www.gsmarena.com/results.php3?nHeightMax=135&nDispla...
So for current small android phones I'm guessing the unihertz Jelly 2 is one of the few remaining.
or https://www.unihertz.com/collections/smartphones/products/je... if you can deal with something a bit older.
https://www.gsmarena.com/balmuda_phone_unveiled_with_49_disp...
Here's supported bands https://tech.balmuda.com/jp/support/phone/faq/network/48/
I only regret getting it in 64GB because after a point, I've run out of apps to delete as every app has gotten bigger - and I can't install to SD card.
A shame that the new Zenfones skip the flip camera.
From a compactness perspective, I now have a Samsung Z Flip 3 and it works just fine for me size-wise. I do always miss that reversible camera, though.
https://www.unihertz.com/collections/smartphones/products/ti...
I had an asus monitor that would freeze if my macbook woke from sleep while connected to it - I'd have to unplug the monitor from the wall power and plug it back in to reboot it.
I also had an asus laptop that I sent in for repair because it had dead pixels. I should have just returned it, because it took them months to get it back to me, and when they finally did, the plastic around the screen was cracked. And, at that point it was too late to return it for a refund.
This is not a compact phone. It's on the smaller side of the standard range.
Compare this to the iPhone 13 mini, 140g, 64mm width (and a full 20cm shorter than the s21).
I do like that LineageOS supports several Zenphones. I hope this new model also is amenable.
The issue is that when companies produce product like this, which ignore left haneded users, I get suspicious: What other details did they overlook?
It’s most certainly just a cost issue, ignoring 10-15% of potential users is cheaper than building two versions.
"Unlock your Zenfone 9 by touching your thumb on the conveniently located sensor on the power button at the right side of the phone — it’s as simple as that. Just a touch, and you’re in! We’ve banished the hassle!" Banished my ass...
Maybe I'll grab the phone as well, particularly if it's stock android as one commenter indicated.
If the Pixel 6 wasn't literally my favorite phone of all time, the built in call screening alone is priceless, I'd consider this.
I hope I dont have to get a new phone anytime soon.
Why shouldn't all consumer electronics releases get on front-page?
It’s much the same with this phone. It’s a default phone with a small gimmick.
At least the iPhone ship with new versions of iOS when they upgrade the hardware.
Honestly as long as manufacturer just ships Android as the OS, new phone just aren’t news worthy.
https://www.asus.com/Mobile/Phones/ZenFone/Zenfone-9/techspe...
I think maybe it's the resurgence of metal frames on lower priced phones, which maybe doesn't work as well as glass or plastic.
Which is also annoying because I despise glass as a back surface for phones. Makes them slide off every surface.
Are you sure? My wife has an iPhone 8 and it doesn't charge in our car which has wireless charging in the phone tray.
Otherwise looks good.
I'm with the other guy in this thread - the whole bendable screen/flip concept is a total gimmick in its current state. Phones are already fragile enough with most phone makers providing hardly any warranty support for what they deem as "accidental damage", we don't need bendy screens to make them more failure prone.