We analyzed 576 reviews from verified owners of the Asus Zenfone 9 to understand its real-world performance. Our approach is to go beyond specifications and focus entirely on the user experience.
To do this, we read every review and identified all mentions of key aspects, including its Camera, Screen, Design, Performance, Software, and Battery. We then classified each comment as positive, negative, or neutral. This proces gives us a clear, data-driven percentage for what people truly think about each feature.
💰 Value for Money: Great Start, Pricey Finish
Evaluating the Asus Zenfone 9’s Value for Money reveals a story of two distinct phases: the initial thrill of a significant upgrade, followed by a series of post-purchase frustrations that temper the long-term value.
For many, the device delivers an immediate and powerful sense of worth, but this feeling can be eroded over time by unexpected hurdles.
A Powerful First Impression
The most compelling aspect of the Zenfone 9’s value proposition is how well it justifies its price as a clear step-up. An impressive 73% of users who commented on this felt it was a worthwhile upgrade, soaring 14 points above the category average of 59%.
This isn’t just a minor improvement; it’s a palpable leap that makes the cost feel immediately validated. Buyers describe a device that punches well above its weight, especially given its compact form factor. As one owner stated:
This phone is a power house like dynamite which comes in a small package… This phone is a huge step up from my Samsung A52!
Another echoed this sentiment:
compact but has the internals of a flagship. Has been a true upgrade from my previous phone.
Hidden Costs and Frustrations
However, the initial satisfaction often gives way to frustration when owners encounter unexpected costs and a lack of support. Only 23% of mentions regarding missing items or unforeseen expenses were positive, indicating widespread disappointment in the ownership experience.
This isn’t about the sticker price, but the hidden costs of life with the phone. Users repeatedly cite the difficulty of finding basic accessories, a major annoyance that undermines the premium feel. One reviewer explained the practical problem:
difficulty would be buying phone case/ screen and camera protector as there aren’t that many options out there compared to other phone brands.
This frustration is compounded by concerns over expensive repairs just outside the warranty period, with one user lamenting:
I have an accident and crack my screen and I cannot find the way to fix my screen because my phone is not covered by warranty, 2 months since I buy and it’s not covered by warranty.
Competitive Landscape
In the competitive landscape, this creates a nuanced picture. The Zenfone 9’s strength as a satisfying upgrade (73% positive) notably outperforms even the newer Google Pixel 8 (70%), suggesting that for those seeking a tangible sense of improvement, the Zenfone 9 delivers a more profound “wow” factor.
Yet, when it comes to fundamental satisfaction for the cost, its 81% positive score slightly trails the Pixel 8’s 83%, revealing that while the upgrade feels great, the overall long-term value proposition is more contentious.
Trade-Off: The Zenfone 9 delivers a powerful and satisfying upgrade experience that users feel is worth the price, but this initial value is tempered by frustrating downstream costs and a lack of accessory support.
📸 Camera: Stabilization vs. Stumbles
When it comes to the Camera on the Asus Zenfone 9, users describe a starkly divided experience. While some find its performance perfectly acceptable for a compact phone, a deeper look at the data reveals significant shortcomings that place it well behind its peers.
The story isn’t about a single failure, but a series of compromises that many photography-focused users are unwilling to make.
Exceptional Video Stabilization
The Zenfone 9’s most celebrated feature is its exceptional video stabilization, a bright spot in an otherwise mixed picture. While overall image and video quality earns a middling 68% positive score, users who value smooth footage feel a tangible benefit, with one user noting its unique advantage:
“especially the gimbal-type image stabilization forgives small vibrations.”
This practical feature provides a sense of confidence and professionalism to videos, a clear win for creators and casual users alike who find themselves filming on the move.
Low-Light and Processing Stumbles
However, the positive story largely ends there. The camera stumbles badly in low-light conditions, a critical area for modern smartphones. With a damningly low 42% positive score for low-light performance—a full 19 points below the category average—users are left deeply frustrated.
This isn’t just a number; it translates into missed moments and poor-quality memories. As one user laments:
“in the dark, it exposes slowly and the image processing is also slow.”
Another simply states:
“the quality of the night portraits is not that good.”
This weakness extends to general image processing, where users report unnatural results. One owner was particularly dismayed by the “over-sharpened, noisy, dead-colored images,” adding with visceral disappointment that it produces “no softness, just a terry cloth-like skin tone.”
The Pixel Gap
This performance gap becomes a chasm when placing the Zenfone 9 next to its chief rival, the Google Pixel series. In the crucial low-light category, the Zenfone 9’s 42% approval is less than half the score of the Google Pixel 8 (82%).
Even compared to the older Pixel 7, the Zenfone 9 lags by 18 points. This significant quality deficit is not lost on buyers, with one noting the:
“main camera quality could be better, like other flagship phones [such as the] Pixel 7/Pro.”
Trade-Off: While the Zenfone 9’s excellent stabilization is a highlight, its deeply flawed low-light performance and inconsistent image processing make its camera a significant compromise compared to its main competitors.
📱 Screen: Vibrant, But Frustrating
For the Asus Zenfone 9, the screen experience is a tale of two extremes. On one hand, its visual quality is a genuine highlight. With a positive sentiment score of 82% for display quality and vibrancy—neck-and-neck with the category average of 83%—users are clearly impressed with what they see.
They describe it as a:
Super AMOLED screen with black blacks and colorful colors,
and praise its:
high-resolution screen with accurate coloring,
which provides:
daily satisfaction from using it.
The fluid motion, driven by a 67% positive score for its 120Hz refresh rate, further enhances this visual appeal, making for what one user called a “very fluid picture” that is “simply much more pleasant.”
Functional Flaws
However, this visual satisfaction is severely undermined by deep-seated functional flaws. The most glaring issue is the touchscreen’s responsiveness, which received a stunningly low 14% positive score, falling a massive 29 points below the 43% category average. This isn’t just a minor annoyance; it’s a source of daily frustration.
Users report that “the screen kept not working when you touch it,” and point specifically to the in-display fingerprint sensor as a major culprit:
The fingerprint reader often does not unlock the screen on the first, second, or third try. The one hidden in the screen is a nuisance.
Compounding this is a critical failure in brightness and outdoor visibility. Its 29% positive score is drastically lower than the category average of 74%, making real-world use a challenge. As one owner bluntly stated:
The screen brightness is barely visible even when set to 100%… in sunshine, it is not easy to use.
Competitor Comparison
These weaknesses are thrown into sharp relief when compared to a major competitor, the Google Pixel 8. While the Zenfone 9’s visual quality (82%) nearly matches the Pixel 8’s (85%), the usability gap is immense.
The Pixel 8 boasts a 91% positive score for brightness and a 51% for touchscreen responsiveness. For a potential buyer, this translates into a clear choice: the Pixel 8 offers a screen that is not only beautiful but also reliably functional in bright daylight and easy to unlock, whereas the Zenfone 9 presents a daily battle with practicality.
Trade-Off: Users get a vibrant, colorful, and fluid display at the significant cost of frustrating touch responsiveness and poor outdoor visibility, creating a screen that is often better to look at than to actually use.
📏 Design: Perfect Size, Weak Build
For the Asus Zenfone 9, the story of its design is a tale of one exceptional strength that overshadows a collection of notable shortcomings. The overwhelming source of user delight is its size and handling, which earns a stellar 78% positive sentiment, a full 7 points above the category average.
In an era of ever-expanding phones, users feel Asus has “hit the sweet spot on size.” This isn’t just a minor preference; for many, it’s the primary reason for buying the phone.
One user, who had grown weary of oversized devices, celebrated that they could “finally [find] a phone with a compact size,” while another emphatically stated:
I love the size, actually being able to use one hand is something that’s been missing from phones for a while now.
This praise for its pocketability and comfortable grip is the core of the Zenfone 9’s design appeal.
Durability Concerns
However, this satisfaction with the phone’s form factor is tempered by significant concerns about its physical resilience. The phone’s build quality and materials score just 71% positive sentiment, lagging 5 points behind the category average of 76%.
This isn’t just a number; it translates into real-world anxiety and disappointment for users who expect durability from a premium device. The contrast between how the phone feels and how it holds up is stark.
One owner’s experience was particularly jarring:
Screen cracked completely after 1 and only drop from waist level. Terrible. It should not be so weak for a premium phone.
This sentiment is echoed by another who bluntly stated, “The phone is not shock resistant at all. Camera function broke down after one week.” These accounts reveal a fragility that betrays the otherwise solid in-hand feel.
Competitive Comparison
The Zenfone 9’s unique appeal becomes crystal clear when placed next to its key Google competitors. Its 78% positive score for size and handling decisively beats the Google Pixel 8’s 72% and completely eclipses the Pixel 7’s 55%.
This significant gap demonstrates that Asus is serving a specific, and grateful, market segment. Buyers are consciously choosing the Zenfone 9 *because* of its manageability, a quality they can’t find in the mainstream competition.
As one user explained, “Phone bloat was getting me down. Non-huge options were generally less powerful or boutique expensive.”
The Zenfone 9 is their answer—a powerful phone that doesn’t require two hands.
Trade-Off: The Zenfone 9 delivers a supremely comfortable and pocketable experience that its competitors can’t match, but this comes at the cost of questionable durability and uninspired design features.
⚡ Performance: Speed vs. Heat
Regarding its Performance, the Asus Zenfone 9 is a study in contrasts, delivering an experience that thrills users with its speed one moment and frustrates them with its heat the next. The overwhelming sentiment is driven by its exceptional processing power, a factor that earns a stellar 93% positive score, a full 10 points above the category average.
This isn’t just a number on a spec sheet; it translates into a tangible feeling of effortless power that users enthusiastically praise. Many describe it as having “the internals of a flagship,” with one owner calling it “a power house like dynamite which comes in a small package.”
For those upgrading from other devices, the difference is profound:
Came from a Galaxy S21 Ultra and much prefer this phone. Size is perfect and everything is incredibly fast and easy to use.
The Overheating Problem
However, this raw power comes at a significant cost. The phone’s primary weakness is its thermal management, which scored a dismal 22% positive sentiment, falling 11 points short of the category’s already low average of 33%.
This deficit manifests as a very real, physical problem for users who find the device gets uncomfortably hot. The issue isn’t limited to intensive gaming; it surfaces during everyday activities. As one user starkly reported,
Another big issue is heat dissipation, even just switching on hotspot for 30 minutes heats up the phone to a degree that makes me put it down immediately.
Others noted similar problems, with one finding the…
Phone heats up while using the camera for even 10 minutes.
Competitive Context
This duality becomes even clearer in a competitive context. The Zenfone 9’s processing speed (93% positive) leaves its main rivals, the Google Pixel 8 (79%) and Pixel 7 (72%), far behind. To users, this isn’t a minor win; it’s a game-changing difference in daily use.
A former Pixel owner expressed their surprise, stating,
it’s much much faster which I’m surprised at because the pixel was a quick phone.
Yet, while the Zenfone 9’s overheating is a significant flaw, its competitors fare even worse on this front, with the Pixel 8 and Pixel 7 earning thermal management scores of just 18% and 10%, respectively. This suggests that while Asus hasn’t solved the heat problem, it has managed it slightly better than its direct competition, offering a noticeably faster experience as a result.
Trade-Off: Users gain class-leading processing speed that outshines key competitors but must accept significant thermal issues that can make the phone physically uncomfortable during common tasks.
⚙️ Software & Operating System: Stable Yet Flawed
When evaluating the Software and Operating System of the Asus Zenfone 9, users describe a dual reality: an experience of exceptional, rock-solid stability paired with some surprisingly frustrating design choices. The phone’s software story is one of excelling where others falter, yet stumbling on seemingly simple usability hurdles.
Exceptional Stability
The most significant strength, and a massive driver of user satisfaction, is the phone’s incredible software stability. With a 69% positive sentiment for this factor, the Zenfone 9 dramatically outperforms the category average of just 27%. This isn’t just a number; it represents a profound sense of reliability for users who simply want their phone to work.
They praise a “smooth and flawless operation so far,” with one user noting,
“I come from using several Pixels and I can assure you that the Android experience with this phone and its performance is better than the aforementioned.”
This feeling is rooted in what many describe as a “close to stock android experience” free from the “dreaded Samsung bloatware.” For these owners, the clean, uncluttered interface translates directly to dependability, with one summing it up perfectly:
“after a few months of use… without any detectable failure so far.”
Frustrating Design Flaws
However, this clean experience is not without its blemishes. The phone’s overall user interface and smoothness score of 68% actually trails the category average of 74%, indicating that while stable, the design isn’t always intuitive. This deficit is felt in small, daily annoyances that build into significant frustration.
For example, one user points out a specific design flaw, stating,
“The classic 3 button navigation is too close to the chin of the phone making me miss to tap at least 50% of the time. It is very frustrating.”
While most users enjoy a bug-free experience, a small but significant minority reports severe issues, such as incompatibility with Android Auto in certain cars, which one person calls a “known issue for over 2 years.” For an unlucky few, the problems are even more catastrophic, with one user lamenting,
“The phone stopped working. Keeps bootlooping and nothing will fix it.”
A Clear Choice Against Competitors
This contrast becomes even sharper when set against its main competitors. The Zenfone 9’s 69% positive score for stability doesn’t just beat the average, it completely eclipses that of the Google Pixel 8 (42%) and the Pixel 7 (a dismal 10%).
For buyers weighing their options, this presents a clear choice: opt for a Pixel with its AI-centric features, or choose the Zenfone 9 for a fundamentally more reliable day-to-day software foundation. Users seem to consciously make this trade, praising Asus for providing an OS that is “nearly stock with smart customizations only,” and one owner who switched from a competitor confirmed,
“I also love the UI better than the Pixel 6 Pro. I actually couldn’t be happier!”
Trade-Off: Buyers get a remarkably stable, bloat-free Android experience that often surpasses even Google’s own Pixels, but they must accept some frustrating UI design flaws and the small risk of significant, device-breaking bugs.
🔋 Battery: Great Life, Bad Habits
The battery performance of the Asus Zenfone 9 presents a story of contradictions. While many users are thrilled with its core stamina, deep-seated frustrations with reliability and modern features reveal a more complicated picture.
Impressive Stamina
The primary source of user delight is the phone’s fundamental battery life, which earns a 69% positive sentiment score. For a compact device, this endurance is a significant achievement, freeing users from the constant anxiety of seeking a charger.
The feeling of liberation is palpable in their reviews. One user reported exceptional longevity:
“Battery lasts for 2+ days with moderate use.”
Another expressed their astonishment under heavy load:
“The biggest shock is the battery, which, with non-stop use of navigation and many other applications with the screen on full, lasts for 2 days!”
This exceptional longevity gives users the confidence to use their phone heavily without worry.
Frustrating Inconsistencies
However, this strength is severely undermined by alarming inconsistencies. Not a single user had anything positive to say about the phone’s battery drain patterns, a 0% positive score that falls 15 points below the category average. This translates into real-world frustration, as power can inexplicably vanish. One owner described the problem perfectly:
“Everything is smooth and perfect… just the battery draining issue when the phone is idle!”
Compounding this are outdated charging options, scoring a low 17% positive sentiment, nearly half the category average of 32%. The lack of a key modern feature is a recurring complaint, with one user stating the phone:
“Could be perfect. Just missing wireless charging.”
Competitive Comparison
This mixed experience becomes even clearer when compared to its rivals. The Zenfone 9’s raw battery life (69%) is a significant advantage over the Google Pixel 8 (59%), a difference that convinces many buyers. As one user who switched from a competing flagship noted:
“I bought the Samsung S22 earlier this year and was totally disappointed: Poor battery life… This ASUS was night and day, almost twice the battery life.”
Yet, the Pixel 8’s superior charging methods (43% positive) highlight the Zenfone’s feature gap. This shows that while the Zenfone may last longer on a single charge, competitors offer a more convenient and modern overall experience.
Trade-Off: You’re getting impressive raw endurance that often outlasts key competitors, but this comes at the cost of modern conveniences like wireless charging and the risk of unpredictable battery drain.
Bottom Line
- ✅ Speed Powerhouse: Delivers class-leading performance, with users rating its processing power at a stellar 93% positive.
- ⚠️ Screen is a Critical Flaw: Users report disastrous usability, citing a 14% positive score for touch responsiveness and just 29% for outdoor brightness.
- 🔻 Camera Disappoints: The camera feels like a regression, with low-light performance scoring a damning 42% positive—19 points below the category average.
- 🏁 Crushed by Competitors: In photography, it’s no match for rivals; its 42% positive low-light score is less than half that of the Google Pixel 8’s (82%).
- 🤔 Long-Term Value is Questionable: Initial satisfaction is undermined by repair woes and a lack of accessories, earning only 23% positive sentiment.
- 💡 Bottom Line: The Zenfone 9 is the king of compact power, but only for users who can forgive a deeply flawed screen and camera.