The ASUS ZenFone 9 compact top-of-the-range Android smartphone that we liked so much in the review phase has been dismantled in the video when there are now just 7 days left from the start of deliveries. Once again it is the work of the PBKReviews channel, which lately has become the most prolific and constant on this type of content: with its classic dry and analytical style, in less than eight minutes the YouTuber completes the “round trip” journey, in the sense that the phone is also reassembled to verify that it still works.
SOME NOTABLE ASPECTS OF THE TEARDOWN
- The plastic back cover is very flexible. It is therefore easy to remove and offers a minimum of extra resistance to shocks and stresses.
- The motherboard is very compact: as you can imagine, the chips are organized in multiple layers to save space. In fact, the presence of Thermo conductive paste is observed on both sides of the board.
- The heat dissipation system is very peculiar. The side of the motherboard that houses the SoC is completely covered with a copper sheet, but there is a hole in correspondence with the actual chip: there is a nice dose of thermally conductive paste that directly connects the chip to a vapor chamber, which is located “below” the battery (in the sense: between the display and the battery). There is also a drop of paste at the main camera. On the other side of the motherboard, there is instead a graphite adhesive sheet – again with a little thermal paste in correspondence with two chips.
- In the video, it might seem that the two main cameras are soldered to the motherboard because they are not removed, but that’s not true: just unplug the relative connector.
- The battery is relatively easy to remove thanks to a large tab and sensible use of adhesive.
- The display is rather complicated to remove, and it is also a necessary step to remove several other components.
Overall, ZenFone 9’s repairability score only stops at 4.5 out of 10 – the worst obstacle being the display. It should be noted that the device is very compact and despite this, it mounts components from the true top of the range, moreover with a more than decent battery – in short, the engineers of the Taiwanese company have been forced to work in even more cramped and restricted spaces than usual. . Let’s briefly recall the technical specifications:
- Screen : 5.9 “Full HD + OLED, 20: 9 aspect ratio, 120Hz refresh rate, 800nits (1100 max)
- SoC : Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1
- Memory : 8/12/16 GB of LPDDR5 RAM, 128 / 256GB of storage
- Cameras :
- Front wide: 12MP, Sony IMX663 with autofocus
- Rear: 50MP SONY IMX766 with 6-axis stabilizer OIS + 12MP, SONY IMX363
- Night Sight, Face Deblur, Magic Eraser, Real Tone
- Audio: stereo, 2 OZO microphones
- Connectivity : USB-C 2.0 (no video out), 5G (SA / NSA), Wi-Fi 6E, Dual Chain Bluetooth 5.2, NFC, GPS
- Operating system: Android 12
- Battery: 4,300 mAh with 30W charging
- Dimensions and weight : 146.5 x 68.1 x 9.1 mm; 169 grams
- Certification: IP68
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