Asus rolls out its official Android 13 update... schedule for recent Zenfones and ROG Phones
0Never one to threaten Samsung's mobile industry supremacy as far as either global sales or quick software updates are concerned, Asus appears to be (at least) one step behind a number of other smartphone manufacturers as well in terms of stable Android 13 rollouts this fall.
While owners of devices like the OnePlus 9, 9 Pro, 10 Pro, and Sony Xperia 1 IV in certain markets can already get a taste of Google's sweet new goodies, UI tweaks, and security patches, Zenfone and ROG Phone users still have quite some time to wait before receiving the same treatment.
We're obviously not talking about all Asus Zenfone and ROG Phone models ever released either, but a measly grand total of four handset families. The first to leave Android 12 behind will unsurprisingly be the refreshingly compact Zenfone 9, which was somewhat surprisingly released by itself a few months back with a state-of-the-art Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor under the hood.
The 5.9-inch Asus Zenfone 9 is scheduled for its first major OS promotion "from" December 2022, which sounds very near and encouraging but also just vague enough to potentially end up keeping some of you waiting until next year.
Of course, any kind of timeline is better than no timeline at all (we're looking at you, Motorola), and that goes for the even vaguer ROG Phone 6D, 6D Ultimate, 6, and 6 Pro "vow" of official Android 13 updates starting "from 2023 Q1."
Q1 could mean the beginning of January... or the end of March, mind you, and so there's a very good chance the older Zenfone 8 "series" will manage to beat all those 2022 gaming powerhouses to the stable Android 13 punch "from" January 2023.
The Zenfone 8 family includes a "regular" 5.9-inch member and a jumbo-sized 6.67-inch Flip variant, and unfortunately, there are no words on a potential third OS promotion for the even older Zenfone 7 and Zenfone 7 Pro. Meanwhile, we do know the 2021-released ROG Phone 5 and ROG Phone 5s "series" are set for Android 13 deliveries "from 2023 Q2", which is a loooong way off.