Asus Zenfone 10 Review: Dinky Do-It-All

Finest Costs As we speak: Asus Zenfone 10

Asus is finest identified for its laptops and gaming gear, however every year it additionally releases a premium-spec smartphone below the Zenfone title.

The Zenfone 10 is the most recent iteration, and it’s very similar to 2022’s Zenfone 9: an Android cellphone marketed as a small, compact gadget with an eye fixed catching design, top-end specs, and considerate software program.

For probably the most half, the Zenfone 10 is all these issues, although it’s not the smallest cellphone round. It’s taller than the iPhone 13 mini and iPhone SE and is roughly the identical dimensions as an iPhone 14 however with a smaller display.

Don’t get me flawed, Asus has an excellent cellphone on its palms right here – it ticks virtually each doable field on the spec sheet. In doing so the Zenfone 10 finally ends up doing the whole lot fairly effectively, however its show and digicam aren’t high drawer.

Design & construct

• Slim design
• Paper-feel again
• Headphone jack

Asus has not modified a lot of the look of the Zenfone 10 from the Zenfone 9. In actual fact, it’s precisely the identical dimensions at 146.5 x 68.1 x 9.4mm. That’s smaller than lots of the greatest telephones on the market, however it’s not the smallest.

The iPhone 13 mini is 131.5 x 64.2 x 7.7mm and the Samsung Galaxy S23 is 146.3 x 70.9 x 7.6mm – each are thinner and shorter than the Zenfone. Heck, even the common iPhone 14 is 146.7 x 71.5 x 7.8mm, solely 0.2mm taller and 0.1mm thicker than the Zenfone 9.

I solely labour this level as a result of Asus markets the Zenfone 10 as some one-handed mini cellphone miracle, however it’s very equally sized to different globally accessible high-end handsets.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

My assessment pattern was the daring red-backed model, although there’s additionally inexperienced, white, black, and blue. The again is constituted of a bio-based polycarbonate and feels a bit like exhausting paper to the touch.

I grew to love it, however it gained’t be to everybody’s style. Neither will the daring round islands that home the twin rear cameras on the highest left of the rear. Below that’s some delicate Zenfone branding with a emblem on the underside proper.

It’s grippy and feels higher than a shiny glass end that pulls fingerprints, however I favor a matt glass texture such because the one discovered on the iPhone 14 Professional or OnePlus 11. Making up for that’s the headphone jack, which may energy hi-res wired audio. There’s additionally a side-mounted energy button with an embedded fingerprint sensor as an alternative of 1 below the display.

The cellphone additionally has an IP58/IP68 mud and water resistance score. This implies it’s protected in opposition to mud, jets of water, and immersion in water. It’s higher than telephones which have simply an IP68 score, which means this can be a cellphone that may take a couple of splashes and continue to exist.

Display screen & audio system

• ‘Small’ 5.9in display
• As much as 144Hz for gaming
• Twin stereo audio system

The Zenfone 10 has a 5.92in OLED 2400x1080p show. It’s fairly skinny with a 20.4:9 facet ratio, which makes it simpler to carry in a single hand and doomscroll.

It has a most refresh fee of 144Hz. That is increased than the 120Hz seen on most high-end telephones such because the Samsung Galaxy S23 Extremely and is a spec often discovered on gaming telephones, which is smart because the Zenfone can solely hit 144Hz in supported video games.

In any other case, you possibly can choose 60-, 90-, or 120Hz, or ‘auto’ that switches between these three to avoid wasting battery relying on what you’re doing.

It’s an excellent show, and noticeably pokier than, say, an iPhone 14, because it’s narrower than that and plenty of different compact rivals.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

I didn’t miss having the next decision given it’s fairly a small display by fashionable requirements. I want it went a bit of brighter although – it’s able to 1,100 nits at peak brightness however Asus says it solely has 800 nits of out of doors readable brightness. The display is tough to learn in daylight.

The twin stereo audio system are nothing to jot down house about. They’ll get loud sufficient for podcasts, however given the smallness of the cellphone they aren’t very full, and it could actually get fairly tinny at loud volumes.

Specs & efficiency

• Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
• As much as 16GB RAM
• As much as 512GB storage

Powering the cellphone is the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, Qualcomm’s finest cellular chipset but. In my assessment cellphone that was paired with 16GB LPDDR5X RAM and 512GB UFS 4.0 storage, however it’s also possible to get 8GB/128GB and 8GB/256GB variations relying in your nation.

My top-spec Zenfone 10 completely flew by means of the whole lot I threw at it, dealing with all apps and demanding video games corresponding to Name of Obligation Cellular, not getting too scorching within the course of regardless of its small dimension. The fashions with 8GB RAM would possibly fare much less effectively, however I haven’t examined these.

Asus admirably went full kitchen sink with the specs of the Zenfone 10: 5G, NFC, Bluetooth 5.3, Wi-Fi 7. It additionally helps hi-res audio through the headphone jack and helps it wirelessly with the LDAC codec, along with aptX, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive, and AAC codecs. Audio can also be tuned in partnership with Dirac. That’s a really spectacular record, upgrading in a number of areas over the Zenfone 9, and you’ll battle to seek out all of this on every other cellphone.

The one factor it’s lacking is a microSD slot for expandable storage. There’s a twin bodily SIM slot, however no eSIM assist.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

Cameras & video

• Inconsistent principal lens
• Primary ultra-wide lens
• No telephoto

I discovered the Zenfone’s cameras stable however a bit of inconsistent. In daylight, the 50Mp, f/1.9 principal sensor, a Sony IMX766, takes tremendous, sharp pictures with respectable color copy. Low mild pictures are additionally good, and the excessive dynamic vary (HDR) produces some enjoyable, punchy pictures.

Its principal situation is saturating colors, although that is one thing Samsung telephones additionally like to do, and it struggles with oversharpening. At different occasions, pictures appears too pale. Listed here are some examples:

It is a broadly used sensor additionally present in cheaper telephones such because the OnePlus 10T and Nothing Telephone (1). Given the Zenfone 10 prices rather more than these, the digicam is a weaker level. The twin lenses on the $799/£849/€1,019 iPhone 14 and the $499/£449/€509 Google Pixel 7a are higher.

As there’s no telephoto lens, it’s a must to depend on the principle lens to digitally zoom. There’s a 2x button within the digicam app and you may go to 8x. Outcomes are combined however usually usable:

The 13Mp, f/2.2 ultrawide is merely tremendous for grabbing extra of a scene. The pictures are ok to share with buddies on WhatsApp however you’re not going to be shocked by outcomes or need to publish them on social media. Colors are over-saturated and there’s a lot of noise while you zoom in.

I used to be disenchanted with the entrance 32Mp digicam, which pixel bins pictures right down to 8Mp. It was really higher for fast enjoyable movies of teams, whereas pictures have been generally washed out and missing intimately like the primary one under. Evaluate that to the second selfie, which is great. It’s as inconsistent a sensor as the principle one:

Asus is de facto pushing the principle digicam’s 6-axis gimbal stabiliser, which it claims improves picture stability greater than conventional optical picture stabilisation (OIS) tech. There’s even a dot and line animation within the digicam app to ensure you aren’t shaking round an excessive amount of.

That is all effectively and good and appears to work, however it appears overkill on what’s a firmly mid-range sensor, and Asus doesn’t see to do a lot extra computational processing on the pictures to enhance them like you’ll discover on Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy telephones of the identical value.

The actual check of a cellphone digicam is taking it to an vital occasion and seeing if you’re pleased with the outcomes. I took the Zenfone to an excellent good friend’s wedding ceremony, and although I bought some respectable pictures, I additionally bought some terrible ones, and was annoyed with the expertise of utilizing it for the day as my digicam. It left me not desirous to take pictures with the cellphone.

Video is okay, although I don’t shoot extreme video on my telephones. It may possibly seize as much as 4K at 60fps, and outcomes seemed nice with the gimbal stablisation.

Battery & charging

• Glorious longevity
• Gradual 30W wired charging
• Glorious software program charging choices

From slight disappointment with the digicam to being shocked with battery life. I don’t know what wizardry Asus is doing right here, however the Zenfone 10 has no proper lasting this lengthy contemplating it’s working the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and solely has a 4300mAh battery.

Different premium telephones just like the Galaxy S23 Extremely have the identical chip however barely eke out a day’s energy on 5000mAh batteries.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

I thrashed the Zenfone 10 from 8am on the day of that wedding ceremony, utilizing Google Maps, the digicam, and WhatsApp extensively, and it lastly died at midnight. That was the one approach I may kill the factor.

Most different days I used to be ending up with 40% or so at 11pm. It’s probably the greatest issues concerning the cellphone, and proves smaller telephones can have good battery life.

It’s an excellent factor it lasts so lengthy, as a result of charging is annoyingly gradual with the included 30W wired charger. From 0% it solely bought to 18% in quarter-hour, and was at 35% in half an hour.

There are wonderful charging choices within the software program too, together with excessive efficiency, dynamic, sturdy, and extremely sturdy modes, three of which could be scheduled to kick in when the battery hits your chosen degree, scheduled charging to slower cost at sure occasions to guard the battery, and regular charging to all the time cost it slower.

Software program & updates

• Very customisable
• Intelligent additions to Android
• Solely two Android OS updates

The Zenfone 10 runs Android 13 however Asus solely guarantees two updates to take it to Android 15 in 2025. This isn’t nice, and lags behind Google, Samsung, Apple, and Oppo.

It barely makes up for it by promising 4 years of safety patches to 2027, however there’s no assure they are going to be month-to-month.

Asus provides you so many customisable choices that it’s a bit of overwhelming. The Android pores and skin may be very plain, nearer to ‘inventory’ Android than Google makes use of on Pixels. The one duplicated app is Asus’s Gallery, in any other case Asus simply permits you to use Google’s apps for the whole lot.

You possibly can select to run the inventory look, or choose ‘Asus optimised’ parts corresponding to an altered fast settings design, energy button menu,  clock dimension, incoming name show, and quantity adjustment choices. The facet key can be set to react to swipes – I used it to swipe down the notification shade however you may get quirky and use it to clean backwards and forwards by means of YouTube movies.

Henry Burrell / Foundry

Although not a gaming cellphone, the Zenfone 10 inherits the Recreation Genie software program discovered on Asus’s ROG gaming telephones. Gestures are additionally nice – drawing letters on the locked display to open sure apps, flipping to mute, and double tapping to lock on the house display are all right here.

However the cellphone’s narrowness means apps can really feel ever so barely cramped. The Gboard software program keyboard feels squished, so I modified the settings to make the keys greater, regardless that I’ve fairly small palms. I discover it exhausting to sort shortly on this cellphone.

The default textual content dimension can also be weeny and though you possibly can enlarge it, you’ll match much less on the display. If you happen to want studying glasses or battle with small textual content, this isn’t the cellphone for you.

Worth & availability

The Asus Zenfone 10 prices from £749.99/€799. It’s accessible to pre-order now within the UK direct from Asus till 31 July.

The cellphone is coming to the US with a Q3 launch deliberate. There’s no confirmed value or actual launch date but, although.

European pricing pitches the cellphone as a premium gadget shut that undercuts the $799/£849/€799 Samsung Galaxy S23 and the $799/£849/€1,019 iPhone 14. It’s across the similar value because the $699/£729/€849 OnePlus 11, however I believe the OnePlus is a greater purchase for its superlative cameras, software program assist, and charging speeds until you actually need the compact type issue.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

For extra choices, try our rankings of the most effective small telephones and finest Android telephones.

Verdict

The Zenfone 10 is a powerful cellphone with a spec sheet rammed filled with the whole lot you may probably ask for. It’s bought wonderful battery life, top-tier efficiency, a headphone jack, and a few of the most customisable software program going, all in a cellphone that’s really going to slot in most pockets.

Regardless of this, it’s a premium-priced cellphone that has below-flagship cameras. If you happen to don’t care about having the most effective cellphone digicam then you definitely gained’t thoughts, however you may get a greater shooter, and spend a lot much less, with the Google Pixel 7a.

Asus additionally must do higher with software program assist. A cellphone with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 will carry out effectively for at the least 5 years, however Asus solely guarantees two Android model updates with 4 years of safety patches.

However in case you don’t care about Android’s newest options then that is nonetheless a wonderful small cellphone with battery life that defies perception.

Specs

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 
• 8/16GB LPDDR5X RAM 
• 128/256/512GB UFS 4.0 storage 
• 5.92in 144Hz AMOLED show 
• Digicam:
  • 50Mp, f/1.9 Sony IMX766 principal digicam with OIS & gimbal-stabilisation 
  • 13Mp, f/2.2 ultrawide digicam 
  • 32Mp, front-facing digicam 
• 4300mAh battery 
• 30W wired charging 
• 15W wi-fi charging
• Twin stereo audio system with Dirac HD Sound 
• USB-C 
• Headphone jack 
• Wi-Fi 7
• Bluetooth 5.3
• Twin-SIM 
• Sub-6GHz 5G 
• IP68 score 
• Gorilla Glass Victus show 
• 146.5 x 68.1 x 9.1 mm 
• 169g 
• Android 13 with Zen UI