The Zenfone 9 is small but powerful and continues the 8’s tradition of packing premium specs in a compact phone. The display is a 5.9-inch 1080p OLED with a smooth 120Hz refresh rate, and the phone uses a Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chipset — Qualcomm’s latest and greatest. The base model includes 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, and the phone is IP68 certified. One-handed usability is a top priority for the Zenfone 9. There’s a 4,300mAh battery that supports 30W fast charging and an adapter included in the box, but wireless charging isn’t supported. The back panel of the phone is an embossed composite plastic, although the frame is made of sturdy aluminum and the front panel is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus. And there’s a headphone jack! How thoughtful. There are only two rear cameras on the rear panel of the Zenfone 9, which is fine: no excessive macro or depth sensors here. The main camera’s 50-megapixel sensor and f/1.9 lens are the stars of the show with what Asus calls a 6-axis hybrid gimbal stabilizer OIS/EIS. Below that, there’s a 12-megapixel ultra-wide camera that does double duty as a macro camera, plus a 12-megapixel selfie camera on the front. The main camera stabilizer compensates for x- and y-axis movement (side-to-side and up-and-down), but also uses information from the gyroscope to correct sudden forward and backward z-axis movements. Asus says this makes the camera capable of three degrees of motion compensation, compared to one degree on the Zenfone 8, which uses traditional OIS. Better shake compensation means the camera should be able to use slower shutter speeds and capture more light in low-light conditions, resulting in better detail and color. It’s a more robust system than the usual OIS or even the sensor-based stabilization that Apple uses on some of the iPhone 13 cameras. 50 megapixel main camera on the top, 12 megapixel ultrawide on the bottom Including this kind of stabilization required rethinking how the camera module is connected to the processor. The cable connecting the two had to be shorter and arranged in an S-shape rather than a folded configuration. The ribbon itself is also softer, to apply less inertia to the camera unit. All of this is hidden inside the phone, of course, but the results are visible on the surface: with the camera in video mode, you can actually see the entire camera package moving under the fixed, large external lens element. Seriously, it’s wild. The Zenfone 9 will be sold unlocked in the US, but the price is still TBD. in Europe, it will cost €799, which is about… $800 USD (sorry about your currency, European friends). It will be available first in Taiwan, Hong Kong and parts of Europe. Photo by Allison Johnson/The Verge
