Asus Zenfone 9 vs Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max
63
out of 100
VS
73
out of 100
Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 5.9-inch Asus Zenfone 9 (with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1) that was released on July 28, 2022, against the Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max, which is powered by Apple A15 Bionic and came out 10 months before. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.
Select the amount of RAM to evaluate performance and value for money more precisely
Key differences
Reasons to consider the Asus Zenfone 9
- 42% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (1640K versus 1153K)
- Newer Bluetooth version (v5.2)
- Fingerprint scanner
- Uses a faster type of memory: LPDDR5 3200 MHz
- Slow-motion recording at 480FPS
- Has 2 SIM card slots
- Better grip in hands – the body is 10 mm narrower
Reasons to consider the Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max
- The rear camera has a 3x optical zoom
- Has a 0.8 inch larger screen size
- Shows 34% longer battery life (28:08 vs 21:01 hours)
- Handles wireless charging up to 7.5W
- Delivers 27% higher peak brightness (1049 against 827 nits)
- Supports Dolby Atmos sound technology
- 37% faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 2427 and 1776 points
- Ready for eSIM technology
Review
Display
Screen quality, color accuracy, brightness
Camera
Photo and video recording quality
Performance
CPU and memory performance (apps, system)
Gaming
Capabilities for playing modern games
Battery
Battery life, charging type and speed
Connectivity
Networks, ports, data transmission
Scores with a red asterisk (*) are approximate and may change in the future as we gather more data.
Select your primary usage scenario to get a more accurate NanoReview Score
Value for money (Beta)
Tests and specifications
Comparison table of technical specifications and testsDisplay
| Type | Super AMOLED | OLED |
| Size | 5.9 inches | 6.7 inches |
| Resolution | 1080 x 2400 pixels | 1284 x 2778 pixels |
| Aspect ratio | 20:9 | 19.5:9 |
| PPI | 445 ppi | 458 ppi |
| Refresh rate | 120 Hz | 120 Hz |
| Adaptive refresh rate | No | Yes (10-120 Hz) |
| Max rated brightness | 800 nits | 1000 nits |
| Max rated brightness in HDR | 1100 nits | 1200 nits |
| HDR support | Yes, HDR10+ | Yes, Dolby Vision |
| Screen protection | Gorilla Glass Victus | - |
| Screen-to-body ratio | 84.3% | 87.7% |
| Display features | - DCI-P3 - Always-On Display - DC Dimming |
- DCI-P3 |
| RGB color space | 98.8% | 99.9% |
| PWM | 478 Hz | 238 Hz |
| Response time | 2 ms | 8.5 ms |
| Contrast | ∞ Infinity | ∞ Infinity |
Screen space comparison
iPhone 13 Pro Max
6.7″ (19.5:9 ratio) = 17.1 in2
Zenfone 9
5.9″ (20:9 ratio) = 13 in2
~31% more screen space
Peak brightness test (auto)
Design and build
| Height | 146.5 mm (5.77 inches) | 160.8 mm (6.33 inches) |
| Width | 68.1 mm (2.68 inches) | 78.1 mm (3.07 inches) |
| Thickness | 9.1 mm (0.36 inches) | 7.65 mm (0.3 inches) |
| Weight | 169 g (5.96 oz) | 240 g (8.47 oz) |
| Waterproof | IP68 | IP68 |
| Rear material | Plastic | Glass |
| Frame material | Metal | Metal |
| Colors | White, Black, Blue, Red | Black, Silver, Gold, Blue, Green |
| Fingerprint scanner | Yes, in-button | No |
Screen-to-body ratio
Performance
| Chipset | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 | Apple A15 Bionic |
| Max clock | 3190 MHz | 3230 MHz |
| CPU cores | 8 (1 + 3 + 4) | 6 (2 + 4) |
| Architecture | - 4 cores at 2 GHz: Cortex-A510 - 3 cores at 2.75 GHz: Cortex-A710 - 1 core at 3.2 GHz: Cortex-X2 |
- 4 cores at 2.02 GHz: Blizzard - 2 cores at 3.23 GHz: Avalanche |
| L3 cache | 6 MB | - |
| Manufacturing | TSMC | TSMC |
| Lithography process | 4 nanometers | 5 nanometers |
| Neural processor (NPU) | Hexagon | Apple Neural Engine |
| Graphics | Adreno 730 | Apple GPU (5 cores) |
| GPU shading units | 1024 | 640 |
| GPU clock | 900 MHz | 1338 MHz |
| FLOPS | ~1843.2 GFLOPS | ~1712.6 GFLOPS |
Benchmarks
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU)
| Compute Score (GPU) | - | 21357 |
| Single-core score | 1776 | 2427 |
| Multi-core score | 4732 | 6142 |
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
| CPU | 610924 | 276639 |
| GPU | 435236 | 369897 |
| Memory | 198337 | 116764 |
| UX | 396337 | 390373 |
| Total score | 1640834 | 1153673 |
| Samples | Less than 3 | [3 tests] |
3DMark Solar Bay
| Stability | - | 75% |
| Graphics test | - | 14 FPS |
| Section 1 | - | 19 FPS |
| Section 2 | - | 14 FPS |
| Section 3 | - | 9 FPS |
| Graphics score | - | 3785 |
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
| Stability | - | 73% |
| Graphics test | - | 17 FPS |
| Graphics score | - | 2960 |
Recent User Tests
Asus Zenfone 9
No benchmark results yet
Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 📘 2026-09-12 (Simon) | AnTuTu | 1146332 |
| 📘 2026-08-11 (encore) | AnTuTu | 1335140 |
| 📘 2026-04-16 (Atomic) | AnTuTu | 1147534 |
| 📘 2026-02-28 (d3adlinee) | AnTuTu | 1153673 |
| 📘 2025-08-12 -> Lunuray1 | GeekBench GPU | 21357 |
Memory
| RAM size | 6 GB | 6 GB |
| Memory type | LPDDR5 | LPDDR4X |
| Memory clock | 3200 MHz | 2133 MHz |
| Channels | 4 | 2 |
| Storage size | 128 GB | 128 GB |
| Storage type | UFS 3.1 | NVMe |
| Memory card | No | No |
Software
| Operating system | Android 12 (Can be upgraded to Android 14) | iOS 15 (Can be upgraded to iOS 26.5) |
| ROM | ZenUI 9 | - |
| OS size | - | 13 GB |
Battery
| Capacity | 4300 mAh | 4352 mAh |
| Max charge power | 30 W | 23 W |
| Battery type | Li-Po | Li-Ion |
| Replaceable | No | No |
| Wireless charging | No | Yes (7.5 W) |
| Reverse charging | Yes | No |
| Bypass charging | - | No |
| Fast charging | Yes (57% in 30 min) | Yes (42% in 30 min) |
| Full charging time | 1:15 hr | 1:46 hr |
| Web browsing | 08:26 hr | 11:16 hr |
| Watching video | 14:17 hr | 17:03 hr |
| Gaming | 05:47 hr | 06:41 hr |
| Standby | 92 hr | 136 hr |
General battery life
Smartphones With Long Battery Life (#88th place)
Main camera
| Matrix | 50 megapixels | 12 megapixels |
| Image resolution | 8192 x 6144 | 4032 x 3024 |
| Zoom | Digital | Optical, 3x |
| Flash | LED | Dual LED |
| Stabilization | Optical | Optical |
| 8K video recording | Up to 24FPS | No |
| 4K video recording | Up to 120FPS | Up to 60FPS |
| 1080p video recording | Up to 60FPS | Up to 60FPS |
| Slow motion | 480 FPS (720p) | 240 FPS (1080p) |
| Angle of widest lens | 113° | 120° |
| Lenses | 1) Standard: 50 MP 2) Ultrawide: 12 MP |
1) Standard: 12 MP 2) Telephoto: 12 MP 3) Ultrawide: 12 MP 4) Depth |
| Camera features | - Bokeh mode - Pro mode - RAW support |
- Bokeh mode - Pro mode - RAW support |
| Image resolution | 50 MP | 12 MP |
| Aperture | f/1.9 | f/1.5 |
| Focal length | 23.8 mm | 26 mm |
| Sensor | Sony IMX766 | Sony IMX703 |
| Sensor size | 1/1.56" (≈ 0.64 inch) | 1/1.66" (≈ 0.6 inch) |
| Pixel size | 1 micron | 1.9 micron |
| Autofocus | Phase autofocus | Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) |
| Stabilization | Optical | Optical |
| Image resolution | - | 12 MP |
| Aperture | - | f/2.8 |
| Focal length | - | 77 mm |
| Sensor | - | Sony IMX713 |
| Sensor size | - | 1/3.4" (≈ 0.29 inch) |
| Pixel size | - | 1 micron |
| Stabilization | - | Optical |
| Image resolution | 12 MP | 12 MP |
| Aperture | f/2.2 | f/1.8 |
| Focal length | 14.4 mm | 13 mm |
| Sensor | Sony IMX363 | Sony IMX772 |
| Sensor size | 1/2.55" (≈ 0.39 inch) | 1/3.4" (≈ 0.29 inch) |
| Pixel size | 1.4 micron | 1 micron |
| Stabilization | Digital | Digital |
DxOMark main camera tests
Photo quality
Video quality
Generic main camera score
| Bokeh | - | 75 |
| Preview | - | 81 |
| Zoom | - | 119 |
| Samples | - | Photo samples of Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max from DxOMark |
Selfie camera
| Megapixels | 12 megapixels | 12 megapixels |
| Image resolution | 4247 x 2826 | 4032 x 3024 |
| Aperture | f/2.5 | f/2.2 |
| Focal length | 27.5 mm | 23 mm |
| Sensor | Sony IMX663 | Sony IMX514 |
| Sensor size | 1/2.93" (≈ 0.34 inch) | 1/3.6" (≈ 0.28 inch) |
| Pixel size | 1.22 micron | 1 micron |
| Autofocus | Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) | Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) |
| Stabilization | Digital | Digital |
| Video resolution | 2160p (4K) at 30 FPS | 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS |
| Depth sensor (TOF 3D) | No | Yes |
DxOMark front camera
| Photo | - | 128 |
| Video | - | 143 |
Connectivity
| Wi-Fi standard | Wi-Fi 6E (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) | Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) |
| Wi-Fi features | - Dual Band - Wi-Fi MiMO - Wi-Fi Direct - Wi-Fi Hotspot - Wi-Fi Display |
- Dual Band - Wi-Fi MiMO - Wi-Fi Direct - Wi-Fi Hotspot - Wi-Fi Display |
| Bluetooth version | 5.2 | 5 |
| Bluetooth features | LE | LE, A2DP |
| USB type | USB Type-C | - |
| USB version | 2 | 2 |
| USB features | - Charging - USB-Storage mode - OTG |
- Charging - USB-Storage mode - OTG |
| GPS | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, NAVIC | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS |
| NFC* | Yes | Yes |
| Infrared port | No | No |
| Number of SIM* | 2 | 1 |
| Type of SIM card | Nano | Nano |
| Multi SIM mode | Standby | - |
| eSIM support* | No | Yes |
| Hybrid slot | No | No |
| LTE Cat* | 20 | 18 |
| 5G support | Yes | Yes |
Sound
| Speakers | Stereo | Stereo |
| Headphone audio jack | Yes | No |
| FM radio | No | No |
| Dolby Atmos | No | Yes |
Speakers test
Max loudness
Other
| Category | Flagship | Flagship |
| Announced | July 2022 | September 2021 |
| Release date | August 2022 | September 2021 |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $800 | $1100 |
| Successor | - Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra | - Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max |
| SAR (head) | - | 0.99 W/kg |
| SAR (body) | - | 0.98 W/kg |
| Sensors | - Hall-effect sensor - Proximity sensor - Gyroscope - Accelerometer - Ambient light sensor - Compass - Fingerprint |
- Barometer - Proximity sensor - Gyroscope - Accelerometer - Ambient light sensor - Compass - Face recognition sensor |
| Bundled charger | Yes, 30 W | - |
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.
Conclusion
After analyzing all the data, we think that the Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max is definitely a better buy.
Cast your vote
Total votes: 13