Intro:
Last year’s best compact phone is back with even more features and a few important upgrades. In this article, we are going to cover the Asus ZenFone 10 and help you determine whether you should consider buying this phone. We have gone through several user reviews and expert’s opinion and summarized it in this post. So let’s begin.
Quick Summary:
Asus Zenfone 10
Pros:
- Compact and ergonomic design.
- Powerful performance.
- Excellent battery life.
- Gimbal-stabilized camera.
- 3.5mm Headphone jack.
Cons:
- Only 2 years of OS update
- 144Hz refresh rate is only available in gaming mode.
| Specification | Details |
|---|---|
|
Network Technology |
GSM / HSPA / LTE / 5G |
|
Launch Date |
Announced 2023, June 29, Released 2023, July 10 |
|
Body Dimensions |
146.5 x 68.1 x 9.4 mm (5.77 x 2.68 x 0.37 in) |
|
Weight |
172 g (6.07 oz) |
|
Display Type |
Super AMOLED, 144Hz, HDR10+, 800 nits (HBM), 1100 nits (peak) |
|
Display Size |
5.92 inches, 84.6 cm2 (~84.8% screen-to-body ratio) |
|
Resolution |
1080 x 2400 pixels, 20:9 ratio (~445 ppi density) |
|
OS |
Android 13 |
|
Chipset |
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 (4 nm)
|
|
CPU |
Octa-core (1x3.2 GHz Cortex-X3 & 2x2.8 GHz Cortex-A715 & 2x2.8 GHz Cortex-A710 & 3x2.0 GHz Cortex-A510) |
|
GPU |
Adreno 740 |
|
Memory |
Internal 128GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 16GB RAM, 512GB 16GB RAM, UFS 4.0 |
|
Main Camera |
Dual 50 MP, f/1.9, 24mm (wide), 1/1.56", 1.0µm, multi-directional PDAF, gimbal OIS, 13 MP, f/2.2, 120° (ultrawide), 1/3.06", 1.12µm |
|
Selfie Camera |
Single 32 MP, f/2.5, (wide), 1/3.2", 0.7µm |
|
Battery |
Li-Po 4300 mAh, non-removable, 30W wired, PD3.0, PPS, QC4, 15W wireless, 5W reverse wired |
|
Price |
$ 779.00 / C$ 1,249.84 / £ 699.00 / € 799.00 |
Inside the Box :
You get to see environment-friendly packaging with recycled paper and soy-based inks. Apart from documentation, you get a USB Type C to a USB Type C cable, a Sim card tool, a 30 Watt fast charge adapter, and, of course, the Phone itself.
Design and Build:
The design language of the Asus Zenfone 10 is similar to Asus Zenfone 9 and is an upgrade from the previous version, which is a good thing. The phone is compact and lightweight, with a weight of only 172 grams, just slightly heavier than the previous model by 3 grams.
It is designed to be used comfortably with one hand, making it ideal for those who are into smaller form factors. The phone retains IP68 water and dust resistance. It has a side-mounted fingerprint scanner that works flawlessly.
Asus Zenfone 10 comes with 4 colour variants midnight black, starry blue, comet white, and eclipse red. The back is polycarbonate and won’t feel like plastic. It has a texture on it which makes it more comfortable to grip and use. However, because it has a polycarbonate back, it can get some wear and tear quicker compared to a glass back.
Performance and Battery:
Now let’s talk about the performance. Asus Zenfone 10 is powered by Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, which is the flagship processor from Snapdragon. On paper, the newest chipset is 15 percent faster in CPU, 20 percent faster in GPU and 15 percent improved in power efficiency.
We are also getting 16GB LPDDR5 RAM and 512GB of UFS 4.0 storage. On specs, this is a true flagship, but how does it perform in real life? The Asus Zenfone 10 can handle anything that you throw on it. It can handle multiple apps running in the background simultaneously without any slowdown. Biometrics, like fingerprint scanners and facial recognition, also work top-notch.
Coming to the battery life, Asus Zenfone 10 has the same battery capacity as the last year’s Zenfone 9, which is 4300 milliamperes. It’s impressive to see a phone this small with such a large battery capacity. You are going to get a full day of battery life easily even with medium to heavy usage. This year Asus added wireless charging support to Zenfone 10 which many users were requesting for. The wireless charging is capped at 15 watts, which is decent.
Talking about the audio, for a phone this small, it is always a challenge to get good audio, but Asus has done a good job. We have a dual stereo speaker setup, which is incredible for a phone this size. We get Qualcomm aptX Adaptive drivers and Dirac Virtue for spatial audio for wireless and wired setups. It also has a 3.5mm headphone jack.
Software Features:
Zenfone 10 supports both stock Android and Zen UI and that’s up to your choice which one to pick, so that’s a plus. The fingerprint sensor is placed on a button called Asus smart key, and this is completely customizable. You can assign the key to open the camera or set up the long press to open other apps and also slide on it to pull down the notification panel, which is pretty cool. Apart from this, there are many other features, including Game Genie, a fully customizable always-on-display, and so on.
In short, the UI is absolutely fun to use and has many features to take advantage of.
In terms of software updates, Asus has promised 2 Years of OS updates and 4 Years of security updates. Compared to other devices like Samsung, which are offering 4 Years of OS updates and 5 years of security updates, this is still pretty low.
Camera Quality and Features :
Now let’s talk about the cameras. Starting with a selfie camera which is 32 megapixels. It uses this high resolution to produce an 8-megapixel output. it uses RGBW technology and is equipped with a larger sensor. The image quality is okay ish with a green tinge and slightly noisy output, but probably that could be fixed with software updates.
The primary camera is the same as last year’s model in terms of hardware. It uses Sony IMX 766 sensor with a resolution of 50 megapixels, and it has something called 6 axis gimble stabilizer. It got a 1/1.56-inch sensor with an F/1.9 aperture. The image quality that the primary camera produces is really good. The gimble stabilization performs extremely well and the pictures come out almost the same as the tripod quality. It also comes with EIS, which makes the stabilization even more efficient.
Asus Zenfone 10 is also equipped with a 13-megapixel ultra-wide camera and compared to last year’s camera, it has a wider field of view, 120 degrees, which is great. Overall, the cameras do have some improvements but need more in terms of software improvements.
At night, the Razr Ultra performs better, maintaining contrast in low-light conditions. The cover screen makes it easier for taking selfies. However, the 4k videos appear choppy with inconsistent frame rates and muted colours. Switching between ultrawide and main cameras is also not supported.
Price and Availability:
The Asus Zenfone 10 is priced at around $800. It is available in two variants, including a basic 6GB/128GB model and a more advanced 8GB/256GB model. It is already on sale in the US from 29th of Jun, 2023, and is expected to be launched in India on 14 Dec, 2023.
Final Thoughts:
Asus Zenfone 10 is almost a perfect phone, especially in the compact form factor segment. There are many phones in the same price segment, but no other phone is available in this compact form factor with these sorts of specifications. Overall, if you are looking for a small, one-handed Android Phone, then Asus Zenfone 10 could be a top choice.
Sources: Flossy Carter, MKBHD, SuperSaf.
