Home > Smartphone comparison > Zenfone 9 vs Zenfone 12 Ultra – which one to choose?

Asus Zenfone 9 vs Zenfone 12 Ultra

62 out of 100
Asus Zenfone 9
VS
79 out of 100
Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra
Asus Zenfone 9
Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra

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 Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra, which is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite and came out 2 years and 7 months after. 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
Memory
  1. Differences
  2. Review
  3. Specs
  4. Benchmarks
  5. Battery life
  6. Camera
  7. Comments

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each smartphone
Reasons to consider the Asus Zenfone 9
  • 15% higher pixel density (445 vs 388 PPI)
  • Better grip in hands – the body is 8.9 mm narrower
  • Weighs 51 grams less
  • The front-facing camera can record video at 4K
Reasons to consider the Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra
  • The rear camera has a 3x optical zoom
  • Delivers 138% higher peak brightness (1958 against 824 nits)
  • 2x better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (3247K versus 1640K)
  • Has a 0.88 inch larger screen size
  • Comes with 1200 mAh larger battery capacity: 5500 vs 4300 mAh
  • Has 2x more RAM: 12GB versus 6GB
  • Higher display refresh rate – 144 Hz
  • Handles wireless charging up to 15W
  • Newer Bluetooth version (v5.4)
  • Supports higher wattage charging (65W versus 30W)
  • More recent OS version: Android 16 versus 14
  • Compatible with Wi-Fi 7 wireless networks
  • The phone is 2 years and 7 months newer

Review

Evaluation of Asus Zenfone 9 and Zenfone 12 Ultra crucial features
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.
NanoReview Score
Final comparison evaluation
Select your primary usage scenario to get a more accurate NanoReview Score
📱 Primary usage:

Value for money (Beta)

Should I update?
No 79% Yes
Yes, we think most users will notice the upgrade.
Updating from Asus Zenfone 9 to Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra makes sense and should feel noticeably better in daily use.
Main improvements: gaming, performance, and connectivity.

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests
Phone:
Zenfone 9
vs
Zenfone 12 Ultra

Display

Type Super AMOLED AMOLED
Size 5.9 inches 6.78 inches
Resolution 1080 x 2400 pixels 1080 x 2400 pixels
Aspect ratio 20:9 20:9
PPI 445 ppi 388 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 144 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate No Yes
Max rated brightness 800 nits 2500 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR 1100 nits -
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ Yes, HDR10+
Screen protection Gorilla Glass Victus 1-120
Screen-to-body ratio 84.3% 88%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DC Dimming		 - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DC Dimming
Display tests
RGB color space 98.8% -
PWM 478 Hz -
Response time 2 ms -
Contrast ∞ Infinity -
Screen space comparison
Zenfone 12 Ultra
6.78″ (20:9 ratio) = 17.2 in2
Zenfone 9
5.9″ (20:9 ratio) = 13 in2
~32% more screen space
Peak brightness test (auto)
Zenfone 9
824 nits
Zenfone 12 Ultra +138%
1958 nits
Sources: NotebookCheck [3]

Design and build

Height 146.5 mm (5.77 inches) 163.8 mm (6.45 inches)
Width 68.1 mm (2.68 inches) 77 mm (3.03 inches)
Thickness 9.1 mm (0.36 inches) 8.9 mm (0.35 inches)
Weight 169 g (5.96 oz) 220 g (7.76 oz)
Waterproof IP68 IP68
Advanced cooling - Vapor chamber
Rear material Plastic Glass
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors White, Black, Blue, Red White, Black, Green, Yellow
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-button Yes, in-display
Repairability - Average (2.69/5)
Drop resistance - Average (D) · 45 drops
Screen-to-body ratio
Zenfone 9
84.3%
Zenfone 12 Ultra +4%
88%

Performance

Chipset specifications of Asus Zenfone 9 and Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra
SoC
Chipset Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite
Max clock 3190 MHz 4320 MHz
CPU cores 8 (1 + 3 + 4) 8 (2 + 6)
Architecture - 4 cores at 2 GHz: Cortex-A510
- 3 cores at 2.75 GHz: Cortex-A710
- 1 core at 3.2 GHz: Cortex-X2		 - 6 cores at 3.53 GHz: Oryon (Phoenix M)
- 2 cores at 4.32 GHz: Oryon (Phoenix L)
L3 cache 6 MB 8 MB
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC
Lithography process 4 nanometers 3 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) Hexagon Hexagon
GPU
Graphics Adreno 730 Adreno 830
GPU shading units 1024 1536
GPU clock 900 MHz 1100 MHz
FLOPS ~1843.2 GFLOPS ~3379.2 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of Asus Zenfone 9 and Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Zenfone 9
1776
Zenfone 12 Ultra +78%
3164
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Zenfone 9
4732
Zenfone 12 Ultra +109%
9880
Compute Score (GPU)
Compute Score (GPU) - 26325
Single-core score 1776 3164
Multi-core score 4732 9880
Sources: Geekbench [3]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
Zenfone 9
1640834
Zenfone 12 Ultra +98%
3247013
CPU 610924 932720
GPU 435236 1070835
Memory 198337 555786
UX 396337 687672
Total score 1640834 3247013
Samples Less than 3 Less than 3
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
Stability - 90%
Graphics test - 13 FPS
Graphics score - 1751
3DMark Solar Bay
Graphics test - 33 FPS
Section 1 - 37 FPS
Section 2 - 33 FPS
Section 3 - 28 FPS
Graphics score - 8559
Sources: 3DMark [5]
PCMark 3.0
Web score - 32932
Video editing - 9140
Photo editing - 61226
Data manipulation - 20968
Writing score - 33068
Submit your benchmark results

Memory

RAM
RAM size 6 GB 12 GB
Memory type LPDDR5 LPDDR5X
Memory clock 3200 MHz 5333 MHz
Channels 4 2
Storage
Storage size 128 GB 256 GB
Storage type UFS 3.1 UFS 4.0
Memory card No No

Software

Operating system Android 12 (Can be upgraded to Android 14) Android 15 (Can be upgraded to Android 16)
ROM ZenUI 9 -
OS updates - 2 years
Security updates - 2 years

Battery

Capacity 4300 mAh 5500 mAh
Max charge power 30 W 65 W
Battery type Li-Po Li-Po
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging No Yes (15 W)
Reverse charging Yes Yes
Fast charging Yes (57% in 30 min) Yes (77% in 30 min)
Full charging time 1:15 hr 0:45 hr
Battery cycles - 1200 cycles
Battery life tests
Web browsing 08:26 hr 09:46 hr
Watching video 14:17 hr 12:28 hr
Gaming 05:47 hr 07:02 hr
Standby 92 hr 98 hr
General battery life
Zenfone 9
21:01 hr
Zenfone 12 Ultra +5%
21:58 hr
Add your battery life

Main camera

Matrix 50 megapixels 50 megapixels
Image resolution 8192 x 6144 8192 x 6144
Zoom Digital Optical, 3x
Flash LED LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording Up to 24FPS Up to 30FPS
4K video recording Up to 120FPS Up to 60FPS
1080p video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
Slow motion 480 FPS (720p) 480 FPS (720p)
Angle of widest lens 113° 120°
Lenses 1) Standard: 50 MP
2) Ultrawide: 12 MP
1) Standard: 50 MP
2) Telephoto: 32 MP
3) Ultrawide: 13 MP
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support		 - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
Standard lens
Image resolution 50 MP 50 MP
Aperture f/1.9 f/1.9
Focal length 23.8 mm 24 mm
Sensor Sony IMX766 Sony LYT-700
Sensor size 1/1.56" (≈ 0.64 inch) 1/1.56" (≈ 0.64 inch)
Pixel size 1 micron 1 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus Phase autofocus
Stabilization Optical Optical
Telephoto lens
Image resolution - 32 MP
Aperture - f/2.4
Focal length - 65 mm
Sensor size - 1/3.2" (≈ 0.31 inch)
Pixel size - 0.7 micron
Stabilization - Optical
Ultra-wide lens
Image resolution 12 MP 13 MP
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.2
Focal length 14.4 mm 13 mm
Sensor Sony IMX363 -
Sensor size 1/2.55" (≈ 0.39 inch) 1/3.0" (≈ 0.33 inch)
Pixel size 1.4 micron 1.12 micron
Stabilization Digital Digital

Selfie camera

Megapixels 12 megapixels 32 megapixels
Image resolution 4247 x 2826 3264 x 2448
Aperture f/2.5 f/2.5
Focal length 27.5 mm 22 mm
Sensor Sony IMX663 CMOS
Sensor size 1/2.93" (≈ 0.34 inch) 1/3.2" (≈ 0.31 inch)
Pixel size 1.22 micron 0.7 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) No
Stabilization Digital Digital
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 30 FPS 1080p (Full HD) at 30 FPS
Depth sensor (TOF 3D) No No

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 6E (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) Wi-Fi 7 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be)
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 5.4
Bluetooth features LE LE
USB type USB Type-C USB Type-C
USB version 2 3.2
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG		 - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, NAVIC GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, NAVIC
NFC* Yes Yes
Infrared port No No
Network
Number of SIM* 2 2
Type of SIM card Nano Nano
Multi SIM mode Standby Standby
eSIM support* No Yes
Hybrid slot No No
LTE Cat* 20 20
5G support Yes Yes

Sound

Speakers Stereo Stereo
Headphone audio jack Yes Yes
FM radio No No
Dolby Atmos No No
Speakers test
Max loudness

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced July 2022 February 2025
Release date August 2022 February 2025
Launch price (MSRP) $800 $999
Successor - Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra -
Sensors - Hall-effect sensor
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint		 - Hall-effect sensor
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
Bundled charger Yes, 30 W Not included
*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 Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra is definitely a better buy.

Cast your vote

So, which phone would you choose?
7 (100%)
0 (0%)
Total votes: 7

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