23 ms·
Asus Zenfone 9
- langfo 4y agoI'm right handed but I hold my phone with my left hand. Am I in the minority here?
- MivLives 4y agoI'm the same, and I started using Niagara Launcher recently which made me ask the same question.
- weird-eye-issue 4y agoI started doing the same due to forearm pain
- markmark 4y agoI'm left handed but hold my phone in my right.
- mrweasel 4y agoWell… I do hold my phone in my left hand, but I’m also left handed. The one handed feature would be useless. 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.
- pzo 4y agoThey could just build one phone with fingerprint sensor on both sides and allow on app chose which side works as unlock button and which one as volume button. I doubt those fingerprint buttons are very expensive. Esthetically would even would look better and more symmetric with 2 buttons on each side - 2 as volume button on one side, one as unlock button, another one custom shortcut, e.g. Open camera
- Rebelgecko 4y agoI'm left handed but hold my phone in my left hand. Regardless, it seems like this phone isn't designed for people like us (unless you have much longer thumbs than I do!) "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...
- Toutouxc 4y agoI'm right handed and I too hold my phone with my left hand, but that's because I have to use my right hand to touch the screen. I have small hands and I'm unable to use my 74mm-wide phone one-handed. :(
- Foobar8568 4y agoAny current generation phone that could replace a desktop? From what I see, most of the desktop features are being deprecated, librem like are just outdated tech, and I feel that in 2022, it still a cloud based worklow for this type of feature.
- seydor 4y agoGlad to see the reasonable form factor and headphones jack combination. I ve stuck with my S10 for same reasons
- tauntz 4y agoHow can they claim that it's "ultra compact"? That's just plain misleading advertising. Heck, it's bigger than my current Pixel 3a, which is already a bit too large for my comfort.
- wryun 4y agoIt's shorter and narrower than a 3a (but deeper).
- unethical_ban 4y agoSensors on the side of the phone will throw off case design.
- Wowfunhappy 4y agoHeadline feature for me: it has a headphone jack! I wish that wasn't noteworthy, but it is, so I'll just be happy.
- givegivene8 4y agoWow I would of opted for this a few months ago instead of a Jesus phone 13mini. 5.9”, headphone jack, light, fast, wow
- muxator 4y agoA product marketing page that feels detailed and _honest_: this is something rarely seen in advertising material from big corporations. 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.
- cmroanirgo 4y ago... but it's so frustrating to click on some element of the page and then click/swipe back only to find suddenly you're back here on HN. Then, 2nd time around on the page you notice they've redesigned a simple web interface: Not a close button, but a 'minimise' but in a very light font. It seems they think throwing out tried and true user experience is a good thing. SPA has a lot to answer for. 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:
- marcusjt 4y agoDetails are scarce so I'm speculating, but it's likely configurable so you can set it to unlock only if actually pressed/clicked rather than just touched, which should solve the problem. 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/805106/asus-zenfone-9.html/amp https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.techadvisor.com/article/805...
- dsego 4y ago> Having a fingerprint reader as the power button just makes sure that my phone is unlocked just as I put it in my pocket Have the same on my xiaomi, but there is a setting so you must click to unlock which solved the issue for me.
- 4y ago
- rajman187 4y agoIt’s a bit funny to see 5.9” advertised as compact size given that just a decade ago the iPhone 5 had a sizeable 4” screen
- kcb 4y agoToo be fair it's not really comparable. The aspect ratio has gotten wider and bezels much smaller.
- lasc4r 4y agoThat's good since it's 9.1mm thick
- wryun 4y agoIt's only 1mm wider than an iPhone 6 with its 4.7" screen.
- zem 4y agoyeah, if it was 5.5" i would have ordered one immediately! that's my ideal size for a phone
- fomine3 4y agoYou'll found that iPhone 8 Plus (5.5 inch) is not for you. Screen diagonal inch is bad metrics. Let's check real outer dimensions.
- donkarma 4y agowhy is there no small android phone
- tintedfireglass 4y agoThis is a small android phone
- magila 4y agoFor sufficiently large values of "small".
- fomine3 4y agoWe're in inflation.
- londgine 4y ago6" is not small to a large portion of smartphone users
- ehsankia 4y agoIt's almost exactly the same size as an iPhone 6: https://www.phonearena.com/phones/size/Apple-iPhone-6,Asus-Zenfone-9/phones/8346,11980 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.
- jshzglr 4y agoBezels have the opposite effect to what you are purporting. The most difficult to reach places on the iPhone 6 are the bezels. A 6 inch phone is not one-handable imo. That is coming from someone with larger than average hands.
- tintedfireglass 4y ago
- enragedcacti 4y agoOne thing that's really cool but that isn't clear from the copy (or maybe I just missed it) is that the image stabilization is actually moving the entire camera assembly rather than just the optics or just the sensor. I'm excited to see if this results in better low-light and video performance than previous techniques. https://www.theverge.com/2022/7/28/23280728/asus-zenfone-9-screen-camera-specs-price-ois-gimbal-stabilization-video https://www.theverge.com/2022/7/28/23280728/asus-zenfone-9-s...
- CarVac 4y agoIf it pivots the whole camera assembly, that should reduce the "wobbly corners" effect.
- graderjs 4y agoWatch the video on the page, it shows it happening. Looks cool :)
- tootie 4y agoIt's a neat trick but in the last 2 years that I've had a low light camera, I haven't used it once.
- arrrg 4y agoAre you talking about low light modes? 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.
- djtango 4y agoHmmm as someone who treats their phone very badly and often drops it, this worries me... Sounds like that kind of moving part could be quite fragile no?
- RockRobotRock 4y agoI had an Asus Zenfone 8 for around a month, and really liked the design and small form-factor. I am a serial phone switcher, and due to the high'ish price ($700) and mediocre battery life, I returned it. Hoping this one does better!
- don-code 4y agoFor what it's worth, I use a Zenfone 8 and regularly get 2-3 days of battery life off it. I came from older, sanely-sized HTC phones, and am actually pretty happy with it - I was lucky to get a day off any of the prior three HTC phones (Sensation, M8, 10) that I had.
- Vxbrown 4y agoWon't be upgrading until a New removable battery phone is made.
- naikrovek 4y agoThere are lots of removable battery phones, they just aren’t flagship phones. They’re the phones you find on shelves at retailers and that cost $100 or less. They all have headphone jacks, too. And _awful_ displays.
- opan 4y agoPinePhone has a removable battery.
- aembleton 4y agoFairphone 4 might suit you https://shop.fairphone.com/en/ https://shop.fairphone.com/en/
- RockRobotRock 4y agoI'm pretty naive about android phone optimization, so maybe that was part of the problem. Or maybe I'm just a heavy user
- joenathanone 4y agoCan't tell does this have wireless charging and NFC? Those would be the only show stoppers for me, otherwise this looks like my next phone.
- gtirloni 4y agoIt has NFC but it doesn't seem to have wireless charging (Qi/PMA). https://www.asus.com/Mobile/Phones/ZenFone/Zenfone-9/techspec/ https://www.asus.com/Mobile/Phones/ZenFone/Zenfone-9/techspe...
- imglorp 4y agoWhat's stopping everyone from adding wireless charging? Google and Moto had it and dropped it. Apple added it recently. Etc?
- stormbrew 4y agoThis is really bothering me too, as there's been a couple phones released lately that are as close to perfect for me as I'll get, but no wireless charging is basically a deal breaker for me. 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.
- fomine3 4y agoQi adds weight for coil and shield, and limits what material can be used for back surface that's also tend to add weight. For example, iPhone 8 added Qi and switched back surface material from aluminum to glass. 7 Plus is 188g then 8 Plus is 202g. It's not easy decision to have Qi for lightweight oriented device.
- darkwater 4y ago> iPhone 8 added Qi 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.
- ur-whale 4y agoLooks like a decent android phone, but ... what makes this special and HN front-page worthy?
- 51Cards 4y agoThere is another thread on the iPhone SE where a lot of people are commenting on how they miss compact phones. I suspect that is why this was submitted / upvoted. I'm glad it was, didn't know this device existed.
- MiddleEndian 4y agoAs a user of the Palm Phone, I can't believe they call a phone with a 6" screen "compact" lol
- fomine3 4y agoI posted because small decent Android phone is now rare.
- Ekaros 4y agoAnd what makes anything Apple makes worth posting? Usually in many articles? Why shouldn't all consumer electronics releases get on front-page?
- mrweasel 4y agoIn the past week I’ve noticed a lot of coverage of the Nothing Phone. People seemed really hyped about it, and I can’t figure out why. It’s just a phone with a light on the back. 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.
- ARandomerDude 4y agoNo MSRP and a a quick web search didn't turn up anything solid looking. Anybody know?
- frostburg 4y agoI have a Zenfone 8 Flip because it's basically the only good phone without a punch-hole display or a notch (those really annoy me) except the Sony ones that are grey market only here. I suspect that Asus won't make a motorized camera version of this one, sadly (maybe behind-the-screen front cameras will solve the issue... I would just buy a phone without a front camera, I never use it).
- colordrops 4y agoI'm staying on my OnePlus 7 Pro until another true full screen phone comes out. Oh, and whatever it is also has to support loading a google-free OS, such as with MicroG or Graphene.
- kyriakos 4y agoOn the same boat with oneplus 7 pro. Every phone I see with a hole on the screen looks like a downgrade to me. Battery life went very bad unfortunately after so many years.
- colordrops 4y agoI've been lucky with the battery life for some reason. Still usually lasts through the day for me, even after 3 years. I think OnePlus only charges like $20 to replace it...
- kyriakos 4y agothanks for the tip. I'll have it replaced cause other than battery life i have zero complaints with this phone. I was even worried originally because the front camera is a "moving part" but even that seems to have outlasted my expectations.
- colordrops 4y agoThe pop-up camera is known to be very reliable. Unfortunate that they put so much work into it and abandoned it.
- VectorLock 4y agoOn a scale of Samsung to Google, how bad does Asus load up their Android with crapware?
- tintedfireglass 4y agonope it's just stock android
- smoldesu 4y agoNot sure, but earlier I looked it up and apparently Zenphones get really good LineageOS support.
- lkois 4y agoOoh neat. Definitely interested in this phone, with the short support life being one of the only apparent downsides. Am I right in thinking that lineageos support doesn't really have an "end of life"?
- Godel_unicode 4y agoYou are technically correct that there is not a formal end-of-life, but rather a point at which you will stop being able to update because there’s no longer a maintainer working on backporting patches for that device. 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.
- alfiedotwtf 4y agoLineageOS support is my only criteria for selecting a phone these days... this new Zenphone looks interesting
- igor47 4y agoWriting this on a Zenfone 8 running lineage, it works pretty well!
- bpye 4y agoThe focus on the camera here reminds me of the Lumia 1030 a bit.
- encryptluks2 4y agoAfter owning a previous Zenfone I cannot in good conscience recommend anyone ever purchase a Zenfone. Their support was terrible. If you don't mind spending a lot of money on a phone that you know you won't be able to resolve issues with the manufacturer, then maybe it is a good choice. However, if you have any issues and expect their support to be helpful then steer clear.
- kadoban 4y agoBeen looking for phones recently. The Asus ones looked actually quite good, the only reason I ruled them out (other than price) is they guarantee a pretty low number of updates. I can't find how many they say for this one, but I'd watch out for that.
- nitinreddy88 4y agoThey ship stock Android. It depends on Android update support by Google
- kadoban 4y agoNo, it doesn't.
- mastax 4y agoI'm surprised that Asus is still making phones after the market got so cutthroat and HTC and LG couldn't make it.
- Sunspark 4y agoThere's probably a niche where you sell so few devices, that manufacturing them is sort of a hobby. You can't lose money selling something you never made.
- happymellon 4y agoI had a couple of LG phones, both of them ended up getting a hardware fault. Both times I sent them in for service and the only response I got from LG was that somehow I made it damage itself. There was no replace, repair or purchase a replacement option. Just an email saying I was SOL, k, tnx, bye. 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.
- sofixa 4y agoThey have a good niche with the ROG phones which are considered the best gaming phones (don't ask me why, i don't know).
- chrismarlow9 4y agoI will probably get this purely for the fact that it has a 3.5 mm audio jack
- aceazzameen 4y agoI think I might too! I'm still using a Galaxy Note 8 and this is the first appealing phone I've seen in ages. I'll miss the stylus, but don't use it as frequently as I used to.
- bjoli 4y agoA friend and I compared my $30 wired headphones to a pair of airpods. They of course has a lot of extra features, but my both of us agreed that my headphones had better audio quality. 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.
- geenat 4y agoNo flip = no buy. Otherwise looks good.
- King-Aaron 4y agoInteresting, personally I hate the extra mechanical point of failure on a flip phone, but I haven't seen anyone before say that not being a flip phone is a deal breaker for them
- CorpOverreach 4y agoThere's gotta be a bunch of shills out there trying to drive up the "acceptance" of the new flip phones out there. There were lots of nearly identical comments made on a few Reddit threads about this phone. 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.
- fomine3 4y agoI agree that Flip is meaningless, but having a foldable tablet in my pocket is game changer for me even if it's fragile. (I have Fold3)
- LAC-Tech 4y agoI'm a big Asus fan. Have an Asus Laptop, Asus monitor, an Asus mechanical keyboard, and Asus mini PC running linux. Maybe I'll grab the phone as well, particularly if it's stock android as one commenter indicated.
- sergiotapia 4y agoThe scrolling with the side-thumb is game changing. I just tried it on my pixel six w/case and it feels more natural and less stress on my hands in general. Woah!
- throwaway81523 4y agoThis completely wedged my browser and almost wedged my workstation. I had to kill the browser from another window. Just put up a spec sheet, Asus. Make it a pdf if you have to, but we don't need the TV show. I do like that LineageOS supports several Zenphones. I hope this new model also is amenable.
- cercatrova 4y agoThe only problem with Asus phones in general, which is also apparent in their ROG phones, is the lack of updates. Their hardware is top-notch, literally; I've never seen faster phones. But, they don't update them consistently enough, unlike Google and Samsung which have pledged multiple years of software support through Android releases.
- rjzzleep 4y agoBefore Xiaomi became mainstream they were quite supportive of the dev community. For example they sent a bunch of Poco phones to XDA developers before release. I feel like Asus would do so much better if they opened up the ecosystem a bit.
- commoner 4y agoAsus also participated in XDA's device seeding program with a few of their previous models. - Zenfone 6: https://www.xda-developers.com/asus-zenfone-6-custom-rom-twrp-lineageos/ https://www.xda-developers.com/asus-zenfone-6-custom-rom-twr... - ROG Phone II: https://www.xda-developers.com/asus-sending-rog-phone-ii-custom-rom-kernel-developers/ 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-custom-kernels-development/ https://www.xda-developers.com/asus-rog-phone-3-custom-roms-... Hopefully, Asus does something similar with the Zenfone 9.
- imwillofficial 4y ago“I've never seen faster phones” ::Points to an iPhone SE::
- cercatrova 4y agoROG phones are quite a bit faster than iPhones, not only in gaming but other software tasks as well [0], at least on the Android side [0] https://youtu.be/uWzwovY9u-E https://youtu.be/uWzwovY9u-E
- 4y ago
- patchtopic 4y agoI have an ASUS zenfone "max pro m2" I got for my wife. 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.
- vxNsr 4y agoThe fact that google so blatantly creates a better version of android that’s reserved for pixel kinda shows how bad the android ecosystem is. 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.
- curiousgal 4y ago> better version of Android 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!
- yellow_lead 4y agoThere are some Magisk modules you can use to enable certain pixel features also, but pretty experimental. https://github.com/Pixel-Props https://github.com/Pixel-Props
- imwillofficial 4y agoJeez I bet you can zoom in and see the future with those lenses
- zem 4y agomy ideal phone would be between 5.2 and 5.5", have enough resolution to make reading ebooks comfortable, and have a physical notification LED. i have resigned myself to never having one like that again :(
- leeoniya 4y agoit's gonna be between this phone and the xperia 5 iv when it gets released later this year, if rumors are true. 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)
- nazgulnarsil 4y agoI fear there may soon be zero phones on the market under 70mm wide
- molszanski 4y agoiPhone 13 mini is the smallest reasonable phone. 65mm Very few in that size class
- q7xvh97o2pDhNrh 4y agoBack in the day, I dreamed of ditching my phone entirely and just carrying an Apple Watch, without the band, in my pocket. 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!
- aembleton 4y agoI think in the last couple of years we've had more <70mm phones than we have for a while. Xiaomi 12, S22 and the iPhone Mini all come to mind.
- Markoff 4y agoWhat? Newest Xiaomi flagship has less than 70mm. Newest Asus flagship has less than 70mm. Samsung flagship is 70.6 mm, Sony flagship is 71mm if you don't need flasghip Xperia 5 III has 68mm, Xperia 10 IV has 67mm. It doesn't really feel like width would be problem, now jack, SD card or less than 150mm, those are more difficult to get.
- iamsrp 4y agoI switched to the Zenfone series (around 6 or 7) after the HTC ones died a death. I like that they have an SD card and dual SIM. Happy with the Android version too; it's been fine from my perspective. I found them reliable and will probably upgrade my 8 flip at some point soon for this one (or a flip version), if only to try to vote with my wallet to keep Asus making more; we need more competition in the phone space. I could shill more but that's probably enough for one evening.
- silisili 4y agoI had an Asus probably 5 or 6 years ago and remember they had something called 'parallax wallpaper' or similar which sounds kinda lame, but was honestly trippy to look at and amazed me. Do you know if they're still doing that?
- tim-- 4y agoIt looks like there is no SD Card slot in the Zenfone 9.
- nfriedly 4y agoYeah, unfortunately Asus took that away a couple of generations back. It's the main thing that keeps me away from their more recent phones. 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.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- tronganh 4y agoWow I would of opted for this a few months ago instead of a Jesus phone 13mini. 5.9”, headphone jack, light, fast, wow
- kartoshechka 4y agoI've never had an Asus phone but i like their direction in nerd-ish niche (maybe not so niche after all?). Having an under 150mm phone with 120hz screen AND a 3.5mm audio jack? If I hadn't bought Xperia 5 iii not so long ago, I'd definetely consider Zenfone 9. 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
- simonmales 4y agoI have the Asus Zenfone 8 and the sub 150mm form factor, 3.5mm jack and already supported by LineageOS were the selling factors to me.
- RGamma 4y agoCool device. Too bad it won't get updates after a short while. My older gen Zenfone crashes when it gets a call, and it'll never be fixed...
- exhilaration 4y agoAnybody know where these are made? Asus is a Taiwanese company, right? Any chance they're made in Taiwan instead of China?
- 999900000999 4y agoHad one of the Intel Zenhones, very neat hefty device. 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.
- kirenida 4y agoJust a heads-up for anybody considering picking this up soon after it's released: 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-on-waiting-for-flashing-full-ramdump https://zentalk.asus.com/en/discussion/52713/zenfone8-stuck-... 2 - https://zentalk.asus.com/en/discussion/60547/zenfone-8-face-id-not-working https://zentalk.asus.com/en/discussion/60547/zenfone-8-face-... 3 - https://zentalk.asus.com/en/discussion/60709/notification-panel-broken-after-31-1010-0410-61-update-on-zenfone-8-android-12 https://zentalk.asus.com/en/discussion/60709/notification-pa... 4 - https://zentalk.asus.com/en/discussion/62156/screen-cast-issue-after-android-12-update https://zentalk.asus.com/en/discussion/62156/screen-cast-iss... 5 - https://zentalk.asus.com/en/discussion/60831/proximity-sensor-problem-during-conversation https://zentalk.asus.com/en/discussion/60831/proximity-senso...
- magic_hamster 4y agoI guess I've been lucky because I had nothing but a great time with my Zenfone 8. I don't remember smoother sailing for so long with a phone and that includes some iPhones I used to own. I dread the day I will have to replace it because not sure I'll find something that fits my needs so well for a long time.
- yxhuvud 4y agoSame. There is only two things I don't like with mine, and it is the battery life and that swiping left to go back is interfering with dragging left to go to the next panel. Everything else is stellar.
- f1refly 4y agoI just gave up a few weeks ago and bought a pixel 6, but this phone might make me rethink that decision. It's smallish and has a 3,5mm jack? That's as close to my ideal phone as it's going to get in 2022!
- curiousgal 4y ago> pixel 6 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".
- krit_dms 4y agoExactly in the same boat. Did a thorough research of the entire market, and pixel 6 seemed like the least problematic choice - so I got it three weeks ago. Are you happy with the p6 so far?
- strix_varius 4y agoI'm happy I returned my on-order Pixel 6 when the 6a came out... the 6a is the smallest in their lineup and it's still a little bigger than my preference. 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.
- chrysoprace 4y agoNowadays when researching a new phone I just immediately go to see if it's got a 3.5mm jack and to my surprise it does! That automatically makes it a step up from all the competition that refuse to let the trend of not including a 3.5mm jack die.
- t0bia_s 4y agoThis. And size. Anything with width over 70mm is big for me. Not comfortable to hold and operate by one hand and hold it in pockets. I would really appreciate to have not shi*y Android with custom ROM in size of iPhone SE.
- maxpert 4y agoNot a single link to buy from official site? What am I supposed to do? Look at the how awesome your Go fund me project is?
- andrewia 4y agoAfter confirming your country, there should be a popup along the bottom right of the window (at least if you are in the US): "This product is not yet available for purchase. To receive a text message when it's available & other messages from ASUS, text ZENFONE to 278762"
- differentView 4y ago> One-handed to the max Unless you primarily use your phone with your left hand.
- andrewia 4y agoI think this design should be comfortable for lefties too. On my Xperia 5 II, it's more comfortable to reach the right-sided fingerprint sensor and buttons when using my left hand.
- simfoo 4y agoWill buy this purely for the fact that it has the 3.5mm jack and a separate finger print sensor. Sensor placement on the side is perfect, I've long been searching for a successor for my trusty S10e
- xbar 4y agoI like your eye for user-focused design. Apple has absolutely lost this game. The iPhone wants to be magic. I want mechanical joy.
- niek_pas 4y agoI doubt there are many users who still want a headphone jack.
- pmontra 4y agoOne here.
- tradesmanhelix 4y agoI do!
- eadmund 4y agoI do. A phone without a headphone jack is like a car without an air conditioner.
- dang 4y agoSorry for the offtopicness, but could you please email hn@ycombinator.com? I want to send you a repost invite.
- slotrans 4y agoI use mine frequently. Any phone without one is a non-starter.
- jfoster 4y ago
- mmanfrin 4y agoEvery single ASUS product I've ever purchased had been slickly designed and terribly QCed. And they have a nightmarish support system.
- nfriedly 4y agoI've had decent experience with an Asus motherboard, but yea, everything else fits that description. 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.
- sandGorgon 4y agoMKBHD has given a cool early 1-minute review of the Zenfone 9 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMRN12HRQK4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMRN12HRQK4
- ActorNightly 4y agoI think this takes the cake as the most counterculture phone. https://www.unihertz.com/collections/smartphones/products/titan-pocket https://www.unihertz.com/collections/smartphones/products/ti...
- column 4y ago"Yes! We know exactly what you need!" ..and they remove SD card support.
- nfriedly 4y agoSeriously! Sony seems to be the only manufacturer that still includes microSD support in their high-end phones.
- wiz21c 4y agoSmall on Linux. Too bad, won't be my next phone.
- Markoff 4y agoAsymetric punchhole 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).
- diego_sandoval 4y agoWe've gotten to the point of peak absurdity where 5.9" is considered "ultra-compact". 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.
- enlyth 4y agoOn the flip side, I have wide thumbs and find it hard to type on smaller phones, so I welcome this trend
- wildmanx 4y agoYeah, this is ridiculous. Notice how all the models on the page have big to giant hands? 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.
- lopis 4y ago> One of my earliest smartphones was 4.2" 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.
- kqr 4y agoUnrelated: I want physical keys on my phone, and ideally Android. I have used a BlackBerry Key2 for the last few years, but it could break and it is discontinued I think. Is there any alternative?
- barbs 4y agoThe Unihertz Titan Pocket might be up your alley? https://www.unihertz.com/collections/smartphones/products/titan-pocket https://www.unihertz.com/collections/smartphones/products/ti...
- AdrianB1 4y agoI am happily using a 6 year old Zenfone 3. It was high quality and very cheap, ~ 200 EURO. It was a good phone to own, but Zenfone 9 is not a good replacement, it costs 4 times more. While some people still want to buy 800 EURO phones, they are a small minority, for people like me phones like Google Pixel 6A will be the next purchase.
- instagraham 4y agoThe Zenfone 6 remains the best Android phone I've used since 2019. Stock android, a fingerprint scanner, a headphone jack, a customizable hardkey on the side, notchless display and a great processor that still holds up today. Not to mention having what is easily the best selfie camera in the world (the back camera flips to the front to take selfies). 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.
- spuz 4y agoAre there any other phones that have a gimballed camera? Are they any good? That seems like the most remarkable feature of this phone but there isn't a single mention of it in this thread.
- Agemon 4y agoIndeed, it is not an ultra-compact phone, unless you have huge hands All the more so if you put it in a case in a while after purchase it will be oversized, I was looking for one that does not overly enlarge the phone and I arrived at thin fit Spigen, it is really shades, shock https://www.spigen.pl/pl/products/etui-iphone-13-thin-fit-spigen-black-case-96783 https://www.spigen.pl/pl/products/etui-iphone-13-thin-fit-sp...
- major505 4y agoLove that it have a headphone jack. It's ridiculous that this is a feature these days.
- Macha 4y agoThe Pixel 6a abandoned the headphone jack, so is this the last premium phone to have one?
- spiffytech 4y agoAs a left-hander, I hope other manufacters don't move their fingerprint reader to the right edge of the device. 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.
- ClumsyPilot 4y agocan't you just use index finger on the sensor?
- tluyben2 4y agoThat might increase the chance of dropping the phone as it's not made to operate it that way?
- SECProto 4y agoI have a side mounted fingerprint reader, and from my experience, I can easily unlock it with either hand - using my right thumb or my left index finger. I think i also have a couple finger tips in there so I can unlock it when it's laying on a desk without needing to pick it up.
- spiffytech 4y agoOh, good to know! The phone sounds nice otherwise, so I'm glad to hear this isn't a problem for you on similar devices.
- btbuildem 4y agoIt really should come in two options
- enragedcacti 4y agoI had a Nextbit Robin which was one of the first with a side fingerprint reader, back in 2016. I'm right handed so I didn't use it often but when I did pick up the phone with my left hand my index finger worked pretty well. It was also 3mm wider than the Zenfone 9, so as long as you have an average sized hand and they haven't bungled the implementation I think it would probably work okay.
- KaoruAoiShiho 4y agoWhile I had a zenfone back in the day I'm a little confused about why this is on the front page. I looked for some special feature that was newsworthy but it looks just like a regular ass android phone?
- catwoe 4y agoI like what I see but my 4 year old LG V30 still ticks all the boxes (speedy, 3.5mm, microSD and a whole lot more). I hope I dont have to get a new phone anytime soon.
- drakonka 4y agoI had a Zenfone 6 and loved the reversible swivel camera. It resulted in a consistently nice picture quality regardless of whether I was taking a vapid gym selfie or a picture of my cats. I feel like that was the only real unique selling point of the Zenfone, and it's unfortunate that they've moved away from it as I was considering going back to it at some point for that reason. 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.
- m3kw9 4y ago“Unbeatable performance” then says 15% faster. Then in foot note says “ Manufacturer’s performance data. Compared to Snapdragon® 888.”. Lmao
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- tigerBL00D 4y agoIs this thing going to overheat like all other snapdragon 8 phones (pixel 6 etc.)?
- pshirshov 4y agoCan I install GrapheneOS on it? Nope? What's the point then?
- ppipada 4y agoLot of people seem to judge based on screen size rather than dimensions for size experience. 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.
- unethical_ban 4y agoSame weight as the S21 (169g), 3mm narrower (71.x vs. 68.x). 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).