This was posted 2 years 1 month 10 days ago, and might be an out-dated deal.

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Asus Zenfone 9 5G 128GB $899 (RRP $1199) + Delivery ($0 C&C/ in-Store) @ JB Hi-Fi

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Asus Zenfone 9 5G 128GB $899 (RRP $1199) + Delivery ($0 C&C/ in-Store) @ JB Hi-Fi
Go to Deal
TheNewDeal on 21/11/2022 - 22:19 jbhifi.com.au (837 clicks)
Last edited 22/11/2022 - 00:41 by 2 other users

This looks like the best small screen Android phone of the year (5.9inch screen, Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1).

The price is $899 for 128GB in all colours; and $999 for 256GB in black only.

Pros: excellent battery life; clean, near-stock Android skin with some customisation options; small size; VoLTE and VoWIFI out of the box (unlike the out of the box experience with the Zenfone 8); dual-SIM (but physical SIM only, no eSIMs); and a 3.5mm headphone jack(!!)

Cons: 2 years of OS support only (meaning once it gets the Android 13 update in December, the last OS update for this phone is Android 14 next year; image quality is not quite as good as Samsung flagships or the Pixel phones; no wireless charging (not such a big deal to me personally, but this may be a dealbreaker for others).

This is part of Black Friday / Cyber Monday deals for 2022
Mobile ASUS Black Friday Mobile Phone Android

Related Stores

JB Hi-Fi
JB Hi-Fi

closed Comments

  • starbearer on 21/11/2022 - 22:28

    Beat me by 3 mins!

  • TrevorX on 21/11/2022 - 22:33

    Smallest and lightest. And dual-SIM. Been waiting for this to drop, snagged it. Thanks OP, love you work!

  • michael9865 on 21/11/2022 - 22:42
    +2

    the camera makes it look bad, personally think zenfone as a company is above apple and Samsung but only if they perfected their swing cameras

    • TheNewDeal on 21/11/2022 - 22:45

      I reckon you could install the Gcam app to get improved image quality. I've heard it helps, but I've yet to try it on mine.

  • smerm07 on 21/11/2022 - 22:43
    +1

    garbonzo software support

    • stephendt on 26/11/2022 - 12:13

      It's not that bad.

  • humanpiranha on 21/11/2022 - 22:58
    +8

    You forgot there's a headphone jack

    • nformone on 22/11/2022 - 00:54
      +3

      For me this is a killer feature.

  • jonoo on 21/11/2022 - 23:04

    This or pixel 7?

    • SpicyPeanut on 21/11/2022 - 23:13

      to me, zenfone 9 have no wireless charging and camera is not as good as pixel (important features for me). I don't care about headphone jack. Pixel also have a lot of problems. Everything else about the zenfone is perfect. I can't decide either

      • twjr on 21/11/2022 - 23:20

        As an owner of a ZenFone 8, be prepared for problems with one of these too. Just enough bugs to be frustrating, not enough for me to give up and buy something else. The form factor is what really keeps me though.

        • SpicyPeanut on 21/11/2022 - 23:23

          thank you for your reply. I think I'm leaning towards Pixel 7 especially the price and possible improvement with updates.

        • dajackal on 22/11/2022 - 06:36

          What kind of bugs? They still haven't patched them after all this time?

          • twjr on 23/11/2022 - 23:09
            +1

            @dajackal: Despite having the correct patches and settings enabled VoLTE and VoWIFI are still giving me grief. I've also had long running issues with Google assistant not working and location services draining battery, although they may be Google's issues rather than Asus' issues.

    • aa1320 on 21/11/2022 - 23:34

      pixel 7 no doubt, got ROG5 and hate the buggy software and terrible camera.

    • bisaya on 22/11/2022 - 00:54

      Pixel 7 if you plan on keeping it longer than a year. It'll have better support long term. I've heard battery isn't great on these either.

      • humanpiranha on 22/11/2022 - 19:35

        I've only heard that battery life is excellent on the Zenfone 9, perhaps you are thinking about the Zenfone 8?

        • bisaya on 23/11/2022 - 10:14
          +1

          oh yeah my bad I was thinking of Zenfone 8 on battery.

          Software updates probably going to be similar tho, longer support with Pixels

  • cloudie9 on 21/11/2022 - 23:05

    Wouldn't it be better to go for Oppo Find X5 Pro for $999? I mean it has 3 year major OS updates with 4 years security patch? Probably folks would like the near stock android experience on this phone I guess.

    • Hornpub on 21/11/2022 - 23:13
      +1

      that looks a lot bigger

  • boretentsu on 21/11/2022 - 23:09

    As an owner of a Zenfone 8, I would highly recommend a screen protector. The victus gorilla glass is a scratch magnet. Never had a phone scratch so badly.

    • twjr on 21/11/2022 - 23:16

      And a case. The glass on the back is exposed and brittle. I'm not even sure how mine broke. I just picked it up one day and it had cracked.

      • TheNewDeal on 21/11/2022 - 23:22
        +1

        Thankfully the Zenfone 9 doesn't have a glass back, it's plastic.

        • twjr on 21/11/2022 - 23:33

          That's an improvement. Finally companies are realising that if they aren't going to make phones out of metal anymore then decent plastics are actually preferable to glass. I don't care is glass is the more "premium" material once it is spiderwebbed with cracks.

      • boretentsu on 23/11/2022 - 22:13

        Yes my back is cracked too. Except I know exactly how it happened. I fumbled it in the dark of early morning …

  • cowthunder on 21/11/2022 - 23:23

    So according to GSMArena, the Asus Zenfone 9 has the following dimensions: 146.5 x 68.1 x 9.1 mm. It apparently weighs 169g.
    GSMArena lists the dimensions of the Samsung S22 5G as: 146 x 70.6 x 7.6 mm with a weight of 168g.
    The S22 also has wireless charging, but no headphone jack.

    • dajackal on 22/11/2022 - 06:25
      +3

      S22 battery is really bad so a deal breaker for me

      • starbearer on 22/11/2022 - 09:30

        yep, S22 battery is 2700 mah whereas this one is 4300

  • Nobel on 22/11/2022 - 13:01

    Nice one. Have had my eye on this phone for a while. I've recently had a baby nephew, so camera has become a little more important for me and am a bit concerned regarding the camera quality on this phone.

    • Sean8802 on 24/11/2022 - 21:14

      Check YouTube for samples the camera is fine, people just love to blow the smallest things out of proportion these days. If you're uploading these videos/photos on instagram, facebook they compress the crap out of it anyway so at the end of the day it really doesn't matter that much.

      • bisaya on 24/11/2022 - 21:42
        +1

        This is a legit point. I hate the compression so much but not much we can do. So yeah next time I might look at the camera with less priority

  • weir23 on 25/11/2022 - 23:48
    -1

    Previous owner of zenfone 8. Small keyboard, middling fingerprint sensor, so so battery life, and vanilla camera became too much to bear. Only thing I miss is the compact firm factor. Pixel 7 pro is too big

  • DaDiesel on 14/12/2022 - 12:18
    +1

    It's on sale again at JB-Hifi if people are keen who missed out

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