Smallness is, in fact, greatness

My Zenfone 9 is finally with me, and I am happier than I ever thought I would be.

This is because I was looking at the specs for the Sony Xperia 5 IV – and they’re fucking incredible. 5000mAh battery (at LAST in a Sony phone!! – AND in small form factor!), Dolby Atmos audio, dual front facing speakers, and critically, critically (something almost no “tech journalist” will even fucking MENTION because they’re paid up by Samsung who are moving away from them) it has an SD card slot.

BUT, I remember the last Sony I bought – the Xperia 1 Mk III, and being driven to absolute distraction trying to NOT have all my fucking photos funnelled to Google. When you try and kill Google even having access to them in the permission settings, it then gives an error message after you’ve taken a picture!!

I also remember the faff of low light settings. When I snapped in low light – nothing happened! It just snapped a fucking god-awful photo. Now obviously it is without question that Sony phones will take extremely good low light photos. My point here is that when I snap in low light with the Zenfone – it just adjusts it itself automatically. I don’t want to have to go in and have to manually adjust all that myself.

Anyway I stuck with my pre-order in the end and I think I am going to be happy, so long as I sadly now have to a check on my photos and videos, now there’s always going to be finite space. The thing is a JOY to hold, after nearly 4 years now of too-big phones. I mean here’s the facts: phones are getting bigger and bigger: my hands are not!! Now I will easily be able to type again with one hand, when holding the phone with one hand – something I end up needing to do a LOT, if I’m walking into town, or messaging round the supermarket, etc etc.

The audio is really nice – something ASUS usually seek to upgrade every year, rather than the likes of Samsung who just chuck in the latest CPU, add another camera lens, and sit back and watch the suckers ‘upgrade’ to it. I had wondered if ASUS had actually used Dolby Atmos with the Zenfone 8 and then not used it for the Zenfone 9….must have been the dreaded “Mandela effect” because, in fact, they didn’t use it for the Zenfone 8. Would have been a bizarre decision anyway – although maybe a costs based one if it had been the case. But I must get this point across – the audio is the equivalent quality to my Sony Bluetooth speaker! Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes is also sounding much much more impressive than on the Zenfone 7 Pro. It’s these quantifiable differences in the things that the likes of Samsung just can’t be bothered with that really marks ASUS out as the company that DOES make an effort with each new phone.

Oh my god how could I forget to mention the one BIG surprise that made me SO happy..even a bit emotional!! ASUS included a UK charger in a UK territory phone!! I fully expected to be confronted with their usual 2-pin and a horrible, ugly adaptor to have to charge it, alongside the risk of repeating the Zenfone 8 fault of not being chargeable with anything other than the ASUS charger, but NO! A beautiful ASUS 3 pin charger was in the box. The final, lovely touch from ASUS to what will hopefully be a very good year for them with this phone.

I’m currently trying to locate all the videos I need to get off the Zenfone 7 Pro to be able to temporarily transfer them to PC to use for my YouTube, and I’m ready to clear the phone off!

Welcome back to a phone!!