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00:00What's up guys, today we're going to be unboxing the Asus Zenfone 9.
00:06Very excited to do this unboxing here, probably one of my most anticipated phones this year.
00:14Let's go ahead and get started here.
00:18This one I got for $750 after taxes, like $800.
00:23It is a flagship compact phone here and yeah I'm really excited because I'm a big fan of
00:32smaller devices.
00:39This one looks like it actually might have something in the box.
00:46You got a booklet, sim card, you get a, it looks like a little gel-skin case.
00:54I don't know if it's not gel-skin, it's a hard plastic case.
01:04Okay, it doesn't seem to offer that much protection on the front though.
01:14This is the white color, it's more kind of like a cream kind of color.
01:23Take the sticker off.
01:27And the back one here, really nice texture, but before we get to that, let's go ahead
01:33and see what else we got.
01:38Oh, they actually throw in the charger in the box, which is pretty interesting.
01:43So the charger in here is a 30 watt charger, then of course it is USB type C as well too.
01:51So the unboxing experience, much better than, you know, we got iPhones coming next month
01:58and you'll see that we get literally nothing but a cable.
02:01This one at least came with a case and the charger in the box, which is nice.
02:06Alright, so this guy has a polymer back on it as well too and it's just got a, almost
02:12like a sandpaper kind of texture to it, which is really nice here.
02:17And so far it's just small, it's really easy to hold in the hand here.
02:22Got some massive cameras on the back here, very big sensors here, dual camera set up
02:28here.
02:29Let's see what else we got, power button, volume rockers.
02:34There on this side, it's almost kind of like, I wonder if it can stand up.
02:38Not quite.
02:39Oh, it actually can.
02:40Yeah, it's got like these, almost flat, kind of reminds me of like an iPhone 4S.
02:45And then, boom, the headphone jack is up top here, which you do not see at all on new phones
02:51these days.
02:52So let's go ahead and boot it up, we'll get into all the specs and stuff like that.
02:55But so far for the hardware, really nice, it's IP68 dust and water resistant on here
03:01as well too.
03:03And I believe this is Gorilla Glass Victus as well here.
03:08So build quality, man, this is a very solid and very nice looking phone here.
03:12Alright guys, so my first impressions of the screen, it's very easy to one hand.
03:16It does have a little bit more bezel than you would find on like most flagships here.
03:21It is a completely flat display as well too.
03:24And it is a really beautiful panel here.
03:26One of the things I noticed with this screen in the settings is that this is like the only
03:32screen setting that can actually go ahead and choose a 90Hz option.
03:40So usually it's 120Hz or 60Hz, or if the phone is 90Hz, it can go down to 60Hz.
03:47But you never see that, you never see the 90Hz option on 120Hz phones.
03:51So this will allow you to save battery life and you can have that 90Hz on there.
03:55I thought that was awesome.
03:56I think every 120Hz phone needs to do that.
03:58Just to give you that option if you want a little bit more juice.
04:02So this phone has a Super AMOLED display, it's 120Hz, it's ACR10+.
04:07It gets to 1100 nits peak brightness as well too.
04:11It's at 5.9 inches and it's a 445 for the PPI Gorilla Glass Victus.
04:18You can see the punch hole on the left hand side.
04:20It's a beautiful display.
04:22It is very sharp to the eye, so icons and everything looks really sharp.
04:27Everything on here looks really great and it's bright enough for me outdoors.
04:31I went out and took some photos, had no issues with the display on here.
04:35So it's a great display, but I was more interested in how comfortable the display is.
04:40So even compared to a phone that I think is somewhat compact, it's even more comfortable
04:46than the iPhone 13 Pro here, which we can get into a comparison.
04:51Let me know what comparisons you guys want to see, I already got some requests.
04:55It's even more comfortable than this phone, the 13 Pro, because this has a smaller 5.9
05:00inch and that has a 6.1 inch.
05:02So I really like the 6.1 inch form factor, it's very easy to hold without your hands
05:08feeling strained, especially if you have smaller hands.
05:11So anybody who is looking for a phone and you want a flagship quality phone that is
05:16just going to be super comfortable, very small, then this is going to be great for you.
05:23And not to the point where I wouldn't say, if you guys want the wallpapers, it's in the
05:27link down below, I wouldn't say that it's small to the point where the content doesn't
05:32look that great, right?
05:35Like you're watching videos and stuff like that, because even when I pull up a video,
05:39I think the screen is still big enough, right?
05:44It's still big enough to enjoy your content.
05:46So I really like the display size on here, I think that's one of my favorite things about
05:50this phone so far.
05:51Now this phone is running Android 12 with the Zen UI and it's basically almost kind
05:56of like stock Android.
05:57Asus throws in some settings and stuff like that, that we will dive into a little bit
06:02more in depth.
06:04I'll make a tips and tricks video for this phone, but you can see it's really like mirroring
06:08stock Android here.
06:10I really like the audio wizard feature on here as well, but it's really close to stock
06:16Android.
06:17So one of the things you have to know about Asus phones is that they typically get like
06:20two years of major OS updates and security patches.
06:24Hopefully if this phone sells enough, we'll get that three years of major OS updates as
06:29well too.
06:30You can see the system modes here, I can go put it on high performance if I want to, but
06:37we'll keep it on.
06:39And it gives me options to save as much power as I want to as well too.
06:43So there are some really cool little software features in here.
06:46There is a one-handed mode, but like I said, the one-handed mode isn't really necessary
06:50on here because, you know, it's just small enough.
06:55You can see all of our toggles here.
06:57So I really like how they really just left it alone, right?
07:00And they just kind of, it's sort of like a stock experience.
07:04Even down to what's installed on here, you don't have a ton of Asus apps and stuff like
07:07that like you would find on Samsung phones.
07:09There's like Asus data transfer and I can't really find anything else.
07:13I think Instagram, I did not install that.
07:16Facebook Messenger, didn't install that, but yeah, that's pretty much it.
07:21I think those are apps that people would typically install anyway, but yeah, I didn't install
07:25those.
07:26Also guys, let's talk about the specs a little bit more here.
07:29So I ran the Geekbench scores.
07:30We do have the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 processor in the Adreno 730.
07:36No SD card support.
07:38If this phone had SD card support, I think it would put it over the top.
07:42You also have 128 gigs of internal storage and 8 gigs of RAM on here as well too.
07:48All right, so performance wise, just using the phone, it's just a really bouncy and fast
07:55phone.
07:56There's nothing slow about this phone at all.
07:58This new 8 Gen 1 processor is just super, super fast here.
08:02Even when it comes to just a little bit of gaming and I will drop a full gaming test
08:06for you guys, but just gaming on here, you get some, of course the highest settings.
08:12I mean, it's the latest chip right now.
08:14So actually let's go to like Battle Royale and that'd be better.
08:18As you guys can see here, if I go ahead and open the graphic settings, I believe we can
08:23play this at the highest FPS as well too, as you can see.
08:28So this thing just plays extremely smooth.
08:30Like I said, I will go ahead and drop a gaming test for you guys.
08:34There's also a game mode on here as well too, if you guys can see that I can go ahead
08:38and just get to my quick settings real quick and just go ahead and mess with stuff, which
08:43is really nice.
08:44So it's very convenient to have this right here and have a speed up, all that good stuff.
08:49Very easy to access.
08:50So this will be able to play games at a very high settings with no issue.
08:56So that's one of the things that I really like.
08:58And one of the questions that I got was, well, is the gaming experience good with such a
09:03smaller display?
09:04Me personally, that's something that you would have to see for yourself, but I usually typically
09:09like to game on phones that are smaller.
09:12I think they're more comfortable to me.
09:14And so this is like a sweet spot as well too.
09:18It's just very comfortable to sort of just access all the buttons.
09:22I don't do a ton of phone gaming, but I do like the smaller screens for it.
09:29But yeah, this is going to play games great.
09:31And I'm really watching the heat on here as well too.
09:34So far, just using the phone, it's warm, but it hasn't got really hot yet.
09:38So I'm curious on how this 8 Gen 1 Plus processor, how's it going to do for long periods of gaming?
09:47That's just something we're going to have to see.
09:49But so far, it's just warm.
09:50It's nothing out of the usual when gaming.
09:53So let's talk about your additional features here.
09:55So this phone does have some pretty impressive stereo speakers on here as well too, guys.
10:14Really, really good bass quality.
10:16Asus always has some really great speakers in all of their flagship phones, by the way.
10:25Just super heavy bass on here as well too.
10:35Really well-balanced speakers here.
10:37And like I said, that audio wizard, you can go ahead and sort of get it to sound how you
10:41want with the presets.
10:44Game mode on here.
10:56Yeah, so the speaker quality is just really nice.
11:05Very detailed bass on here.
11:08Just an excellent sound.
11:09I think anybody would be happy, even if you cover this one up.
11:11The top speaker still puts in a good amount of work.
11:14Vibrations are pretty good on here as well too.
11:16The fingerprint scanner is actually in the power button right here, as you can see.
11:21You also have the ability to do face unlock, but this is just extremely easy and convenient
11:26to open your phone like this.
11:28So I really, I've always loved this method of getting into your phone.
11:32But like I said, you do have that face unlock as well.
11:34This phone does have NFC as well.
11:37And then you also have the headphone jack.
11:39Not a lot of phones have a headphone jack these days.
11:42So that is awesome.
11:43If you're a diehard headphone jack person and you need one, this is just going to be
11:49awesome experience for you.
11:51Now, it just doesn't stop there.
11:52This phone has some pretty impressive cameras.
11:54So it's got a dual camera setup, a 50 megapixel standard, and then a 12 megapixel ultra wide.
12:01It can shoot in 8K 24.
12:03And then you also have a 12 megapixel selfie cam on here that shoots in 4K 30 on here.
12:10First off, the software is really nice as well too.
12:13It almost reminds me of like, you know, the stock Google app.
12:18But let's talk about these photos.
12:21So these images come out really crispy, really nice.
12:25It kind of reminds me of the Pixel phone.
12:26So I'll compare it to the Pixel 6a.
12:30But I was really impressed with image quality on here.
12:32Just tons of detail with that 50 megapixel lens on here.
12:35So that's not an issue.
12:37Like I said, dynamic range is good.
12:39The color science is pretty good.
12:40It's almost pretty, gives you like a natural kind of color.
12:43And then it gives you these nice vibrant shots.
12:46The selfie cam came out really great as well too.
12:49It got my skin tone pretty good as well.
12:53Yeah, I just love the cameras on here.
12:55Just super crisp and clear cameras.
12:57Even does a pretty good job even in a lower light setting.
13:01You're still able to get some really nice crispy shots with this phone here.
13:04So I think image quality is definitely great on here.
13:08Flagship level quality as you would expect.
13:12And I'll also let you guys see the video as well too, so you can get a feel for it.
13:15All right guys, here is the video on the Zenfone 9.
13:19It's a little rainy outside here.
13:22Here's our 0.6, and this is just full HD.
13:35So what do you guys think?
13:41Now let's talk about the battery situation on this phone.
13:44This phone has one of the highest rated batteries for especially this size.
13:49This has good battery life in general.
13:50So I will personally be putting this to the test.
13:53I'll even do a drain test on this phone, because I'm extremely curious.
13:56But just using the phone and watching how it drains and stuff like that, I can definitely
14:00see.
14:01I mean, it barely moves, right?
14:02For this size phone, it's really surprising.
14:05So just reading about this phone and watching other people, yeah, this phone has really
14:12good battery life.
14:13But I will let you guys know and do a drain test for this phone.
14:17It's got a 4,300 milliamp battery, 30 watt charging on here as well too.
14:22And then you have the reverse charging functionality that you can do on here as well too.
14:27So yeah, the battery situation is great.
14:31But like I said, there's no wireless charging on this phone, oddly enough.
14:35So that's kind of weird.
14:36But like I said, the 30 watt is decently fast.
14:41But if the battery life is actually good on this phone, like everyone says it is, then
14:45that's exceptional.
14:46Because most small phones have terrible battery life, especially if they're an Android phone.
14:51So that is pretty much it, guys.
14:53Really impressed with this phone.
14:55It's definitely a top quality, high quality phone.
14:58Be sure to let me know, what do you guys think of the Zenfone 9?
15:02And I'll catch you guys in the next one.