Asus Zenfone 9 5G Smartphone (5.9 Inch Super AMOLED, Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1) 128GB 8GB £649 / 16GB 256GB £699 + Free Case (Pre Order) @ Asus

Only black or white colours. No blue or red.

It's pick your poison when it comes to smaller compact phones.

The S22 is a lovely phone and great cameras, update commitment but the battery life ☹️. And it's an exynos CPU and not Gen 8 SD.

The 6a has a 60hz screen... Which isn't a deal breaker for many, but even mid tier phones offer 120hz screens and it's going to be tough going back to 60hz once you've experienced 90\120hz.

This has a has the best SD copy at the moment and good battery life. But not the best cameras and lousy commitment to updates. Depending on your rate of upgrading phones, that may not be too much of an concern.

Can anyone explain the downsides to not getting android updates? I ask as until earlier this year I was using a Samsung S9 which was on an old Android version. I now have a new phone with Android 12. Can't say it's got anything on it that I feel I was missing from the S9 and there are a few things I found a lot easier to do on the older version (notifications for example). Is it more a security issue that's the problem? Feel like most the time after 2-3 years phones need replacing because of the battery anyway.

I had high hopes for this model but £700 for two years of updates just isn't cutting it. There are hardly any new phones of this size now, especially on the android platform. I feel that they really missed an opportunity. With the up and coming removal of the iPhone mini as well.
You would have to be brave to spend £700 and only receive two years of support.

Is it correct that this phone only gets 2 years of Android updates to 2024?

In the market for a decent small phone. (edited)

Review
gsmarena.com/asu…php

Not the most attractive phone, but has a great battery, average cameras, poor video and only two years of confirmed updates.

Its smaller compared to the cheaper 6a and about the same size as the S22

Red and blue now available

Not sure why the site lists the phones as they are "in stock" - I just received an update from Asus stating they are excpecting stock mid-september now! Frustrating!

I went for the 16GB/256GB black one for £699 - first and last time I pre-order a phone. Let's just hope this phone is as good as user reviews state it is... my Pixel 6 needs to be retired.

In a number of countries Asus is offering free chromebook worth around £250-£270 when pre-ordering zenfone 9. Not in the UK, despite the price of the phone being the same.. I called Asus but their sales support is not aware of any planned promotions.. And obviously, they cannot match the offer they have for customers in other countries..

That's still pretty expensive for a "midrange" phone.

Good luck receiving many timely updates.

Useful link for all the followers of our most prolific poster MrS

The only downside of this is the software support. I think Asus is going to support just for 2 years.

Tempted by the pre-order, but probs gonna wait and see what other retailers stock it.

The only good part is that the £50 upgrade is actually reasonable price for double storage + ram compared to other phone. But the 2 year update is a deal breaker like most people have mentioned.

That's a lot of money for the chin so big
Thanks for the share (edited)

Switchy you should set the first picture to one without the case on. It really doesn't flatter the phone. I'd argue it makes it quite ugly looking.

Love that it's a smaller size phone...struggle with anything above 6.5inch really. For me this would be a perfect phone if it had faster charging, I knows it's 30w but once you have had 67w it's hard to go back. Also does it not have a under screen finger print reader as I do like these compared to the side mounted ones as they just unlock your phone when you put them in your pocket lol. Leather back on this would look the cats flaps 👌

now it looks like Nothing Phone(1) actually makes sense. wish their cameras took better photos.