Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro vs Asus Zenfone 3 Ultra Comparison + Camera Review

The biggest and the heaviest from Samsung and Asus meet in our Ultimate Comparison. Which from the Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro and the recently launched, massive Asus Zenfone 3 Ultra makes a better phablet? Let’s find out in our review.

• Asus Zenfone 3 Ultra Review
• Samsung Galaxy A9 vs A9 Pro
• Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro Review

Design

It’s a battle of all-glass vs all metal in design and build. The Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro retains the curved glass yet premium feel of the vanilla version of Galaxy A9. It has dedicated dual SIM slot but misses the LED notification which is mostly present to the unibody, metal-clad Zenfone 3 Ultra.

While sporting a flat back and aluminum finish, the Zenfone 3 Ultra is as sleek as the Galaxy A9 Pro. But it’s also thinner and a few grams heavier though a lot wider due to the massive 6.8-inch display compared to the 6-inch of its rival.

Both fingerprint sensors are embedded on the home button are fast and accurate. We did not face any issues on the back-lit capacitive buttons on the Galaxy A9 Pro whereas there’s sometimes a slight delay on the Ultra especially when our fingers are wet. Nonetheless, all other physical keys on two phablets including the back-positioned on the Asus phablet are very responsive.

In terms of ports, we liked the new reversible USB Type-C port on the Ultra while supporting Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 2.0.

Personally, either phablet felt premium and sold making this round a tie for both.

Display

At first, we’re very skeptical about the extra wide 6.8-inch display of Zenfone 3 Ultra on what could it bring into the tablet as it’s a few notches away from the tablet category. But after getting used to it, we realized that it’s a bold move for Asus to clearly close the gap between tablet and phablet.

In terms of quality, the 6.8-inch 1080p display backed by Gorilla Glass 4 on the Ultra is considerably bright enough at any condition. The colors are accurate and the legibility is impressive. There’s barely any reflections under sunlight when the brightness is maxed out and the sharpness level is just close to the Retina level.

There’s hardly any noticeable sharpness difference between the two phablets. But as usual, the Super AMOLED on the 6-inch 1080p display of Galaxy A9 Pro is just as astounding as the high-end Galaxy S series.

Choosing a winner in this round is a very hard choice since either display is really good on their respective sizes, so you’ve guessed it, it’s a tie.

Camera

Despite Samsung improving the 13MP main camera to 16MP f1.9 on the Galaxy A9 Pro, it’s still no match to the new 23MP sensor of the Zenfone 3 Ultra and Deluxe.

In terms of color accuracy and details, the Asus shooter easily trumps the Galaxy shooter. What we liked on the latter is the bright shots at night shooting but these tend to look overexposed and lacking in natural colors compared to the saturated night shots of Zenfone.

The same goes for both 8MP selfie cameras. The quality on Galaxy shooter is bright and sharp but the color is just too pale for our liking.

The 4K video on the Zenfone camera adds extra miles in lead. No question, Asus has just made the new cameras on both Zenfone 3 Ultra and Deluxe top-class.

Performance and benchmark

With the same Snapdragon 652 chipset, performance is on neck-and-neck, especially in the actual speed test. For the benchmark, there’s a small difference but scores may vary depending on the ambient temperature.

Also, it seems Asus will be focusing on the 4GB RAM variant of the Ultra and making it standard so it will sit closely to the likes of Galaxy A9 Pro with the same amount of RAM. The two will only differ in storage where the former could be maxed out up to 128GB.

Battery and charging

Battery endurance ratings on the phablets are phenomenal. The Asus Zenfone 3 battery life is solid and above average, but the extra juice on the Galaxy A9 Pro produces several hours more in endurance.

Charging either phablet will just take 2 hours or less than. Still, we give this round to the Galaxy A9 Pro for the larger cell and more screen-on time.

Audio

If you’re an audiophile that listens to a lot of music or watches a lot of videos, then the Zenfone 3 Ultra is the best phablet choice, thanks to the dual speakers and high-res audio upscaling. These easily beat the Galaxy A9 Pro’s already loud single speaker and even the speakers on tablets like the Apple iPad.

Pricing and Verdict

The Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro retails for about P24,000 or more than $500 US in the Philippines while the Zenfone 3 Ultra with 64GB storage and 4GB RAM costs at P32,995 pesos or $700 USD. Though obviously being more expensive, we think the difference is worth spending to the Zenfone 3 Ultra because of the flagship class camera, high-res audio, and best dual speakers in a phone.

But if you’re not considering the extra wide screen real estate and other features, the Galaxy A9 Pro remains a solid phablet. Either way, these phablets are the best you could buy right now.
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