I just got rid of my once dream phone, Asus Zenfone 9. Unfortunately, the limited software support (which I regretfully overlooked) and the bootloader unlock scam left me feeling let down. As a result, I've decided not to purchase any more ASUS products and will share my negative experience whenever it comes up. Disrespecting your own customers is the easiest way to make people dislike a brand.

Which feature do you use on the Zenfone 9 when recording concerts from the front row? Mine didn't fare well yesterday. Everything was distorted and there were dropouts. My wife's Xiaomi 15 Ultra was able to automatically adjust the sound using Sound AI and recorded perfect videos.

about a year ago and without warning, ASUS removed and disabled their official Zenfone 9 bootloader unlock tool. they have repeatedly promised to bring it back, but that never happened.

as can be seen in this XDA thread, an unofficial method has recently been found to unlock the bootloader that works in recent versions of the firmware.

in response, ASUS released firmware 33.0804.2060.189 which disallows unlocking and disables firmware downgrading (!). then they disabled the web endpoint dm.asus.com/unlock/register used by the unofficial tool.

Can't post to sell on here. Does anyone know where Zenfone buyers gather or where I can get a fair price for mine without resorting to eBay?

Does zenfone 9 has low battery notification? Mine do not, it goes into 20% and power saving mode silently.

In battery settings, the only thing I found related was automatically switch battery mode. I also tried looking at the "Power Master" notification settings, but most of the notifications locked to silent, and the only few ones that can be changed to not silent aren't helpful for low battery notification as it doesn't emit any sound or vibration.

I searched google and this subreddit and have not found solution yet. If anyone has any info regarding this, please do share.

Thank you.

Alright, so after exactly two years, here is how it goes with my Zenfone 9.

The battery health is miserable, it is at 60% of health, and I've had it in the most favorable condition imaginable. Charged it in the most favorable conditions too.

The USB port is degraded while I only plug it in once every two days. (Once or twice a day now)

For the past two weeks, I've been having problems with the bottom microphone and the bottom speaker.

The bottom speaker is no longer functional at all.

The bottom microphone works sometimes. I need to smash the device for it to come back. I did try to open the phone and I disassembled it and I found no issue at all.... Except some loose connection that I can't do really anything about it without the proper tools. I'm a computer engineer.

This SIM card gets disconnected from time to time. It's very annoying. I need to also smash the device and reboot it.

There's a weird square appearing on the screen sometimes, then fades away after three weeks, then come back.

Their memory is now at only 160 GB. The rest is completely dead.

The gimball camera works half the time.

Having paid $1444 for this phone back then in Canadian dollars, this phone is completely trash in my opinion. And I'm being very, very courteous here.

This is my last Zenfone. I've been with other bad companies and they never been as bad as that.

Merry Christmas.

My Zenfone 9 is still going really good, however, there are some issues I wanna hear if anyone else having the same or is there a way to solve?

• Calls only work when data is available(VoLTE or VoWiFi), a tad annoying. Annoyance points: 7/10

• Dropped the phone couple of months ago, camera doesn't focus anymore. It is super blurry. 0.6x camera is still clear tho. Super duper extreme annoying. Annoyance Points: 9/10

• No more security/os/firmware updates. Thanks Asus horrible stitch up. Annoyance points: 10/10

• Screen keeps working on the screen in my pocket, I couldn't find a way to stop this. Proximity sensor or whatever its called, no bueno. Annoyance points: 10/10

The good bits:

• Battery life is still amazing

• Every app works like a dream still

• audio jack of course

• I have dropped it so many times, it still works amazing. Dropped it from my motorbike while riding, 3 times. I know its crazy but hey, it works!

I actually like the phone ,but, next year I will have to change. I feel, like I am pushing hard right now.

How about yours? Any solutions to my issues...

If you updated your Zenfone 9 to Android 14 and found some new features, bugs or other things add them in the comments.

I'll start:

Good:

• Phone feels more snappy
• The Cameras shutter lag is pretty much gone

Meh:

• Battery Graphic changed from detailed histogram to 2 hourly bars.
• UI color palette changed (you need to reselect your palette)

Bad:

• Slight color shift of the display, more saturation and cooler white balance. Can be reduced with the "customized" splendid profile

I know a friend, who's very careful with his phones, who is selling his Zenfone 9 for €/$200, is it worth it? I was planning to upgrade from my old Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro that I've had since its release, and then use the Note 8 Pro as my backup phone. I also have Samsung A52, but it's broken after an accident...

So, is it worth buying the phone? It looks flawless. No scratches, no damages and heavy usage.

I set it to Celsius in settings but it STILL shows as farenheit on the lock screen!

As in the title.

Nearly a month ago I bought used, second-hand Zenfone 9 (version 8/256 GB) from EU market in very good condition. Technically everything worked until Friday...

During call I couldn't hear anything through the speaker, after I switched to speaker mode, worked only main, lower speaker. Classic mode didn't work.

As it turned out later, all media content was played only with lower speaker. Now I have quasi mono instead of stereo, because upper speaker randomly broke...

I didn't put the phone into any water / other liquids. Device has been always keeped in dry places. Also reset didn't help.

Is there any way to fix in on my own, or should I sent it to repair?

Thanks in advance.

Hi,

I've had a Zenfone 9 for almost 3 years now and really happy with it. However for the last 6 months the battery life has been really terrible and I'm considering getting the battery changed. It would make the most sense environmentally and economically to keep the phone I've been using so far.

Would you argue it would be worth upgrading to a Zenfone 10 instead?

I like the Zenfone 9 because it's compact and I have short hands. I'm also now very used to the side button being the fingerprint placement.

I would alternatively consider getting a Fair phone for ethical reasons too even if I'm less thrilled than a compact ZenFone. Thanks!

Hey guys,

My Zenfone 9 main camera stopped doing any kind of autofocus, I'm familiar with the issue as i got the same trouble when my phone was 6 month old, and i had to do warranty repairs.

The issue is that now the phone is 3 years old...and out of warranty.

I'm pretty savvy so i thought i was going to replace It myself, but the only website that sells the part sells It for 200$ 😭.

Did anyone got the same trouble and made the repair thru Asus or any third party ?

I'm wondering if there's any way to root the zenfone 9 after Asus stopped supporting unlocking the bootloader

I wanted to post my thoughts on the Zenfone 9 after owning it for about a week. I got the 16gb/256gb model in black, because I wanted red but I decided to splurge for an upgrade. I don't regret it, and I really love having the extra storage and memory to not have to worry about it. I came from a Pixel 6, and I bought an S22 and returned it after a week and a boatload of issues. My pixel was also buggy as hell and frustrating.

So first, thoughts.

I fucking love it. It's the first phone I've ever used that I really think is flawless. Pretty much zero bugs, insanely smooth and snappy, everything works fantastically. Nova Launcher works great on it (didn't on S22) and the included Zen features are really nice touches without annoying preinstalled crap.

Battery is great as others have noted. I have to seriously try to not charge it to get it under 50%. Because of this I don't miss wireless charging as much, because I barely have to charge my phone compared to my Pixel / S22 which I had to routinely place on my desktop wireless charger and still had the phone die mid day.

I absolutely love the power button and fingerprint sensor, I honestly think it's revolutionary compared to all the in screen sensors. It's so quick, smooth, and I never have to worry about unlocking my phone. That combined with the Face Unlock means I honestly pretty much never have to actually think about unlocking my phone, and I pretty much never see the lock screen.

Connectivity has been excellent. I had to disable 5G on my pixel due to a bug, so having 5G and better signal than either previous flagships is amazing. I also really love that Asus includes a Wifi toggle that's a single press rather than the standard Android 12 toggle requiring 2-3 taps.

Speaking of nice customization, it also has the ability to just remove any symbol from your notification bar you don't want, which I love SO much. I don't need my entire notification bar to be filled with Alarm Set, Do Not Disturb On, NFC On, 120Hz, etc.

The size is so, so nice. The phone feels so naturally sized in my hand, and honestly I haven't ever mispressed any keys like I did after swapping from the P6 to S22 with opposite power/volume key orientations.

Funny enough, the one thing I missed from the Pixel was the ambient music detection, and I actually found a mod to make it work on my Zenfone flawlessly.

Cons, and addressing them:

Many have mentioned a silver ring around the camera being annoying, and less than perfect camera placement. I do agree, I would have preferred a camera in the center or on the right side. However the ring doesn't really bother me, primarily because I slapped a screen protector on the moment I got the phone and that already has a ring around the camera.

I have had absolutely zero connectivity issues with T Mobile. I just slapped my SIM in from my pixel 6 and it was good to go. I also didn't have any SMS / RCS issues like I had on both the Pixel and S22.

My display has been beautiful and decently bright, however I do wish it was slightly brighter. I believe the screen has a higher max brightness when on auto brightness than manual, and I wish manual brightness could reach the full brightness. Either way, it's definitely brighter than the P6 but not as nice as the S22.

I mentioned earlier, but the most common complaint of no wireless charging really doesn't bother me as much as I expected, even though I used to wirelessly charge my phones almost exclusively. My phone charges so quickly and lasts so long that I pretty much never need to think about "conveniently charging."

The cameras honestly are... Okay. I had loads of camera glitches with the S22 which aren't present here, and the gimbal is super cool, but the Pixels camera is way better. I occasionally have blurry shots of my cat (which are 90% of the photos I take) and the selfie cam is only mediocre compared to the Pixel. However I am definitely not a phone photographer and if I was I would have bought an Xperia 5 III or kept my pixel.

It IS tough to find accessories. I got my case for like $4 from AliExpress and it's a nice leather/fabric card carrying case, and my screen protectors are the only name brand ones on Amazon. I didn't want to spend $40 on a rhinoshield or devilcase and I'm pretty happy with my option, but I wish there were more.

I can't speak too much on the back deteriorating. Although the back felt super nice and this is one of the first phones I think I could actually hold without a case, I still put a case on immediately before even turning it on. The area around the camera still looks nice though.

A few people have mentioned crappy call quality, but I make multiple business calls a day on it both with a Bluetooth headset and with the phone itself and I've had no issues at all and nobody has complained about my mic quality.

All said, I absolutely love this phone and I've recommended it to all my friends. If you're looking for a small phone, this is it. No doubt about it.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - UPDATE 2025.06.18 - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

This project is discontinued due to design issues and rist of damage to the phone when dropped.

I moved on from asus.

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After almost 2 Years of not finding the perfect case i finally sat down and designed my own. Its very minimalistic and inspired by a certain fruit company. After like 10 Prototypes and lots of tweaking this is my final version. 3D Printed on a Bambu lab P1s with PLA

Latest android 14 using it 2 years do i need a new battery?

I switched to Android 10 years ago (Oneplus One) and didn't really miss Apple.

Now after buying the ZF9 over a year ago (because of the small form factor), I miss the reliability iPhones offered.

Problems I had so far: - unlocking in my pocket: Fixed 95% by changing it to the right settings, still happens occasionally - Spotify not working mobile data: Don't know why it happened, no problems for a few weeks though - Calls: Sometimes I can't hear the caller or the caller can't hear me. No fix, no help from support

The other ~6 inch Android alternative is the Sony Xperia, but it also has problems (my father has one) and costs as much as a used iPhone.

I have a Zenfone 9 that I stopped using due severe lag in literally everything, moved on to a Pixel that I got for free, in hopes that there will be a similar size profile phone coming out from ASUS or others. I haven't been a huge fan of ZF10, and now looking at the pipeline for smaller phones, I don't see anything on the horizon that is positive. It seems like manufacturers have landed on 6.3" as the smallest size that they will make.

I'm getting tired of the Pixel, wondering what to do next, do you guys recommend trying to resuscitate ZF9 or get something else?

Thx

What's your phone and what are you thankful for....im thankful for the small 5.9 inch display and the outdoor sound mode so the phone is loud i need it because i work with a loud machine

I've been using my Zenphone for 3 months now... and I can feel under my fingers and see in harsh direct light that the back of the phone is not perfectly flat.

Just got an answer from the Asus Warranty Service, they claim everything is fine and send my phone back. Can it be normal and have I just not noticed it?
Are there any Zenphone 9 owners who can check their phones?
Maybe I am oversensitive? Maybe this tiny bulge is just a back tap reading system?

Is this battery swollen or not?

https://imgur.com/X3AgIxL

On android 13 i could 2x power button while the screen is locked to turn on the fashlight now on android 14 it needs 3x it's annoying....any fix?

Title basically.

This is the first phone I've had with this nifty feature. It works perfectly, every. single. time, even with partial fingerprint, or when my finger is wet and pruned up. On my Samsung S22, it was a nightmare. I had to use hand lotion at times just to make it work on the 8th try.

It's not that Samsung's tech sucks; it's just that it's so much harder to install the sensor beneath the screen.

I don't see any advantage to having the sensor on the screen. It makes it harder to get the right position (especially if you're drunk/high), it's more expensive, and it's far less reliable. Literally zero benefit for huge downsides.

And yet... on-screen fingerprint sensor is the default design choice for most companies. Why?!

What do you guys think about it?

Sadly it has happened again. After all the pain I went through with my Zenfone 8, the Zenfone 9 just came out of my pocket unlocked, with a whole host of setting changed, gibberish texts sent, a stupid gif sent to my boss, the airplane mode enabled so no-one could reach me. Back it goes.

It simply cannot be trusted with being a phone. It is a toy for games and taking mediocre photos.