<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no shortage<\/span> of big phones these days. Apple even went so far as to nix a successor to last year\u2019s iPhone 13 Mini and instead replaced it with the iPhone 14 Plus. Small phones are hard to come by, but they\u2019re not completely extinct yet. If you\u2019re tired of straining your fingers to reach parts of a screen, then the Asus Zenfone 9 is your friend.<\/p>\n I have to mention a few major caveats before you read any further. This Android smartphone is available in the US, but it will not work on Verizon\u2019s network at all. It works best on T-Mobile and AT&T. Asus also doesn\u2019t support its smartphones for a long time. Most Android phone makers now offer three to five years of software support, but Asus is sticking with a paltry two. Get with the times! It\u2019s a shame, because the Zenfone 9 has perks that are hard to find: a compact screen with flagship performance, plus a headphone jack. That\u2019s super rare.\u00a0<\/p>\n Small but Mighty<\/p>\n It might not look like a glitzy flagship phone, but there are a lot of goodies in this little package. It all starts with its size\u2014at just 5.9 inches, it\u2019s easy to wrap my fingers around. It\u2019s not as<\/em> small as the iPhone 13 Mini (5.4 inches), but it\u2019s still one of the smallest screens out there today.\u00a0<\/p>\n This AMOLED display never felt too cramped with everyday tasks, but it did<\/em> feel limiting when I watched episodes of Love, Death & Robots<\/em> while on the exercise bike at the gym. I had to bring the phone close to my eyes to catch details in the \u201cNight of the Mini Dead\u201d episode (fitting). Otherwise, the screen is sharp, looks colorful, and manages to get just<\/em> bright enough to use on sunny days. The 120-Hz refresh rate is a treat too, and a feature you won\u2019t find on the iPhone 13 Mini\u2014every swipe and scroll feels smooth.<\/p>\n Photograph: Asus<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n Size isn\u2019t the only thing that makes this phone so nice to hold; it\u2019s also the texture Asus uses on the back of the device. It\u2019s soft and feels kind of like the rubber mats on a playground. I like when phone manufacturers play around with designs and textures (RIP LG)\u2014props to Asus for making this phone feel distinct, unlike its predecessor. Just know that this rear material can scuff up; it\u2019s easy to clean, but you\u2019ll still see some light marks.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a side-mounted fingerprint sensor embedded in the power button, and it\u2019s a quick and reliable way to unlock the device. A headphone jack sits at the top if you prefer to wear corded earbuds\u2014this port is a rarity on flagship phones these days\u2014and the Zenfone 9 has stereo speakers that get loud and sound pretty great. It also packs a near-field communication (NFC) sensor so you can make tap-to-pay payments. The screen is protected by Corning\u2019s Gorilla Glass Victus, and it has IP68-rated water and dust resistance, which is as good as you\u2019ll find on most high-end phones these days.\u00a0<\/p>\n What\u2019s missing? Wireless charging. You can only recharge this phone with a cable, but there\u2019s good news here too: Asus is one of the few phone makers these days that still includes a charging adapter along with the USB-C cable. (It even comes with a case, though it\u2019s not terribly protective.) Speaking of charging, Asus has managed to fit a 4,300-mAh battery into this small phone, which comfortably lasts a full day. Actually, it usually gets me through a day and a half with average use. It\u2019s pretty great!\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There\u2019s no shortage of big phones these days. Apple even went so far as to nix a successor to last year\u2019s iPhone 13 Mini and instead replaced it with the iPhone 14 Plus. Small phones are hard to come by, but they\u2019re not completely extinct yet. If you\u2019re tired of straining your fingers to reach […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1238626,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1238624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrity-gossip"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1238624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1238624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1238624\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1238624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1238624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1238624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}