**Asus Zenfone 10 Review: A Decent Step Up, But with Some Disappointments**

The Asus Zenfone 10 is a 2023 flagship phone that offers a smaller form factor compared to its predecessor, the Zenfone 9. While it may not be a revolutionary device, it still has some impressive features that make it worth considering. In this review, we'll delve into the details of the Zenfone 10 and explore its strengths and weaknesses.

**Android Update Support: A Disappointing Two Years**

One of the most significant drawbacks of the Zenfone 10 is its limited Android update support. Asus only offers two years of updates with this device, which is way behind the three to four years that most competitors now offer. This is a bit disappointing, especially considering the fact that many flagship phones receive updates for an extended period. The lack of timely software updates can lead to security vulnerabilities and feature gaps, making it less desirable for users who value the latest technology.

**Camera System: Improved but Not Revolutionary**

The camera system on the Zenfone 10 is surprisingly similar to its predecessor, with a dual-camera setup featuring the same resolution, sensor, and aperture. While Asus claims that they have improved the cameras through tuning and benefits from the new Snapdragon chips' ISP, the results are not drastically different. The photos are a touch sharper, but there's no significant difference in terms of image quality or detail. The camera system also lacks a telephoto lens, which can be a limitation for users who want to capture distant subjects.

**Camera Features: A Mixed Bag**

The camera features on the Zenfone 10 are somewhat impressive, particularly with regards to stabilization. The second-generation hybrid gimbal stabilizer is genuinely good, and it keeps up well with the iPhone 14 Pro in terms of video stabilization. Additionally, we get real-time adaptive EIS for video, which automatically adjusts the field of view while maintaining smooth video. However, the quality of the camera can be inconsistent, with washed-out colors and struggles with bright highlights. The iPhone 14 Pro is more expensive than the Zenfone 10, but it's surprising that Asus didn't manage to deliver a more compelling camera experience.

**Selfie Camera: A Big Upgrade, But with Some Caveats**

The selfie camera on the Zenfone 10 is a significant improvement over its predecessor, thanks to the new RGBW sensor. This sensor allows for 67 more light intake and reduces noise by 50%, making it significantly better than before. However, there's one major drawback: autofocus is no longer supported in the selfie camera, which can be inconvenient. Additionally, the selfie camera is still limited to 1080p 30fps, whereas most flagship phones now offer higher resolutions and frame rates.

**Other Downsides: No LPDO Screen, Limited Battery Life**

In addition to the camera system's limitations, the Zenfone 10 also suffers from some other drawbacks. The screen is not equipped with an LPDO display, which means it can only reach a maximum brightness of 1100 nits. This is lower than most flagship phones that can go up to 1600 nits. Furthermore, the always-on display is stuck at 30Hz, which can impact battery life. Speaking of battery life, the phone's charging speed is also underwhelming, with only 15W Qi wireless charging and 30W regular wire charging. The lack of fast charging or reverse wireless charging is disappointing.

**Conclusion: Worth Considering, But Not Perfect**

Overall, the Asus Zenfone 10 is a decent step up over its predecessor, but it's not without its flaws. While the camera system has some impressive features, such as stabilization and EIS, it's let down by inconsistent image quality and the lack of a telephoto lens. The selfie camera is an improvement, but autofocus support and limited resolution options are drawbacks. The phone also suffers from limitations in terms of display brightness, battery life, and charging speed. Considering these factors, we think that the Zenfone 10 may not be worth considering if you're looking for a flagship experience. However, if you prioritize a smaller form factor and don't mind some compromises, it might still be worth a look, especially on a good deal.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enit's so funny Asus right now basically make the biggest phone you can buy this is the Rog Phone 7 and the smallest phone you can buy or one of them this is the new Zenfone 10. would they make something in between a Zenfone Pro or Plus or Pro Max or something at some point we shall see but for now we're talking about this guy the new Zenfone 10 is this little compact Flagship level phone actually worth buying well maybe I do love this thing there's a lot to like but also there's a couple of issues I do have with it anyway we'll come to that firstly let me give you a little bit of a size comparison so here on the left we have the Samsung Galaxy s23 Ultra on the right an iPhone 14 pro Max and then in the middle the positively cute Asus Zenfone 10 but don't let it small size fool you this is a bit of a beast so why would you want to buy one of these well essentially it is all about the size the compact 5.9 inch screen while also packing in some pretty impressive mostly Flagship level specs and also for good measure we've got a headphone jack as well there's just something refreshing about using a smaller phone where you don't have to do finger gymnastics to reach the top it'll comfortably fit in any pocket or cross body bag or clutch bag or whatever it is you use but of course it's not alone it does have some small competition uh the smallest phone really you can buy is the iPhone SE which itself is noticeably smaller but the problem with this is the battery is pretty terrible it's actually too small for most people and also not everyone wants to be on iOS so the Apple ecosystem in terms of Android competition you've got maybe the pixel 7A it's more affordable a little bit bigger 6.1 inches versus 5.9 although actually the new pixel folds front cover screen is 5.8 inches so it's technically a little bit smaller than this and maybe also you could wait for the Galaxy flip 5 perhaps so there are alternatives but there's still something about the Zenfone 10 that I just really like now compared to last year's Zenfone 9 and here is one I made earlier the design is broadly similar the two big camera lenses are slightly less pronounced the back also has a new material that feels more like how do I put this scratchy recycled cardboard maybe it reminds me of the pixel 5A if you remember that and I do like it it's a more sustainable polycarbonate material it doesn't pick up smudges or fingerprints and it is nice and grippy and it retains the headphone jack the Dual speakers the ip68 dust and water resistance the dual SIM although still no micro SD sadly and also once again the power button on the side doubles as a fingerprint reader now they're actually kind enough to send over two review units of the Zenfone 10. this is the eclipse red I believe as well as the comet white both lovely colors but certainly the Reds a lot more striking and these are in addition to the Aurora green Starry blue and midnight black options I also quite like how this aluminum frame around the side can be a different color as well so we've got red and black here and white and silver here so fairly subtle design changes then going from the 9 to the ten the big upgrades really are on the inside and the headliner really is the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip we also have faster RAM and faster storage a slightly longer battery life in the order of 10 to 15 more exciting though is we do now get wireless charging it is just your basic 15 watt Qi but it's better than nothing we also get a much improved 32 megapixel selfie camera along with even better stabilization courtesy of the six axis hybrid gimbal that's built into the main camera the full HD AMOLED screen now also supports a 144hz refresh rate although frustratingly it is only available in games that support it and we also get a handful of new software features a couple of new color options and this design and the packaging are a lot more environmentally friendly this time around so a nice little upgrade over the Zenfone 9 and I think considering that as I say mostly Flagship specs the price is pretty reasonable as well now technically they have increased the price last year they started at 6 9 nine pounds here in the UK now it starts at 749 but that's because they've bumped up the storage from 128 to 256 as the new engine model along with a gigs of RAM you can pay 70 pounds more so 820 quid if you want to double the storage and double the ram to 16 and 512 which is a pretty impressive spec for 820 pounds although I reckon the base model is all you're going to need kind of sits between say a OnePlus 11 and a pixel 7 Pro in that lower Flagship tier the most significant upgrade though is that new chip the 8 Gen 2 and while we're long past the point where new chips have any real impact in day-to-day scrolling for demanding games or if you're video editing it is quite a bit faster firing up the 3dmark extreme stress test the Zenfone 10 is 33 faster even the lowest Loop score is still 20 higher than last year and if we scroll down despite the high performance it actually used less battery the only downside is it did get a bit hotter and I have noticed while gaming the Zenfone 10 can get quite warm not uncomfortably so but it is noticeable I am very happy to see they have improved the battery life not a crazy amount and in fact this does use the same size sellers last year it's still 4 300 milliamps but in my real world test versus last year when this kicked the bucket when this ran out of juice the Zenfone 10 still had eight percent of its battery left which is about 45 minutes or so depending on what you're doing easily enough for a full day of use but maybe not a whole lot more beyond that heavy gaming will obviously drain it faster and speaking of which you can see some of that Asus Rog pedigree creeping in here with the Zenfone we do now have that 144hz refresh option and while you're gaming if you swipe in from the corner it'll bring up their game genie where you have a wealth of options and modes to play around with but equally important to good Hardware is good software and I think Asus zenui is fantastic as you can choose between what is basically just stock Android 13 or you have their own Asus optimized version which is what I've chosen to go with here and it adds some nice extras like Edge panels or quick app shortcuts I quite like how in the display settings you have access to the anime animation speeds which are usually hidden away in the dev menu and I do find switching everything to 0.5 times makes the phone feel even snappier the power button is also a smart key that can bring down the notification bar or even fast forward and Rewind videos now and even the back of the phone is a customizable button with a double tap opening the camera or taking a screenshot whatever you like and if you are looking at this thinking I like it but it's still just a bit too big for me well you're in luck because they do still offer a one-handed mode which you can turn on and then swipe down from the bottom to shrink the screen so the software is nice and fast very little in the way of bloatware it's lovely the problem is Asus only offered two years of Android updates with this which is way behind the three and four years that most competitors now offer and it's a bit disappointing and finally let's talk about this camera system because surprisingly not a whole lot has actually changed here well here on the back at least same resolution same sensor same apertures basically the same dual camera system as we had last year however despite very similar Hardware Asus do say they have improved the cameras thanks to some tuning and benefits from the new Snapdragon chips ISP photos are a touch sharpen some of the light Trail modes that used to require a tripod can now be done handheld and also we have the second generation of their six axis hybrid gimbal stabilizer which to be fair is genuinely really good and this year we get real-time adaptive Eis for video which means it automatically and in real time picks the best field of view while maintaining the Smooth video whereas last year you had to pick the different modes yourself before you started shooting so that is very helpful foreign and in terms of stabilization it absolutely keeps up with the iPhone 14 pro as I walk over these cobbled Stone streets and this is shot at 4K 60 plus we do have the option of 8K 24. the problem is the quality just isn't as good you can see colors are more washed out it really struggles with the bright highlights on Mrs Tech Chap's t-shirt there and it's notably less detailed fair enough the iPhone is more expensive but I did expect a bit more out of this for example I actually wanted to start this review with this little video which I shot on the Zenfone 10 but as good as the stabilization might be the quality just wasn't good enough it's underexposed and a bit slow to focus switching to photos and I must admit when I took these shots and then looked at them back in the gallery app on the phone I was quite impressed but now I've taken them off the phone and I'm looking a bit more closely I'm not so sure the skin tones are off I mean here my face is just red there's very little texture or detail and yet somehow it also has that over sharpened look to it as always lighting makes all the difference and some shots I actually do quite like but generally I found colors just aren't quite right or maybe they're over saturated and obviously there's no telephoto lens here either portraits can sometimes be okay and then other times it looks like I've photoshopped myself into the scene even if it is marginally better than these info 9 I still find the camera just a little bit disappointing foreign the good news though is the selfie camera is a lot better this year they've moved to a new rgbw sensor which lets in 67 more light and they've also reduced the Noise by 50 so the selfie camera is a big upgrade except for the fact that it no longer supports autofocus which it did on the Zenfone 9 which is a bit bizarre and disappointing and also it is still limited to 1080p 30. for a 2023 flagship phone hmm although what I do like is this little LED light that surrounds the selfie camera so you and your friends know where to look so when does that leave us well I've written a little list here of the downsides of the Zenfone 10. firstly no ltpo screen it is either 60 90 120 or 144 Hertz and actually the always on display is still stuck at 30 Hertz which obviously isn't great for the battery life it's also not the brightest this tops out at 1100 nits Peak most phones especially this price point can go up to 15 1600 nits so it is not the brightest the 15 watt Qi wireless charging is a very welcome upgrade but it's still not very fast nor is the regular 30 watt wire charging again no change there compared to last year's info 9. still no tire photo camera I still think the camera quality itself is a bit average even though I do like the gimbal stabilizer and I do appreciate the improved selfie camera so the Zenfone 10 is not perfect but for 750 pounds I do still think it's definitely worth considering particularly if you do want a smaller phone and while it is a decent step up over the Zenfone 9 I reckon if you can find this on a good deal there's not that much of a difference between these guys particularly if you're not going to miss say Wireless char that this may not actually end up being a better value option let me know what you make of this and if you have any questions in the comments below if you did enjoy this review and want to see more from me cheeky like And subscribe we'll be very much appreciated and I'll see you next time right here on the tech chatit's so funny Asus right now basically make the biggest phone you can buy this is the Rog Phone 7 and the smallest phone you can buy or one of them this is the new Zenfone 10. would they make something in between a Zenfone Pro or Plus or Pro Max or something at some point we shall see but for now we're talking about this guy the new Zenfone 10 is this little compact Flagship level phone actually worth buying well maybe I do love this thing there's a lot to like but also there's a couple of issues I do have with it anyway we'll come to that firstly let me give you a little bit of a size comparison so here on the left we have the Samsung Galaxy s23 Ultra on the right an iPhone 14 pro Max and then in the middle the positively cute Asus Zenfone 10 but don't let it small size fool you this is a bit of a beast so why would you want to buy one of these well essentially it is all about the size the compact 5.9 inch screen while also packing in some pretty impressive mostly Flagship level specs and also for good measure we've got a headphone jack as well there's just something refreshing about using a smaller phone where you don't have to do finger gymnastics to reach the top it'll comfortably fit in any pocket or cross body bag or clutch bag or whatever it is you use but of course it's not alone it does have some small competition uh the smallest phone really you can buy is the iPhone SE which itself is noticeably smaller but the problem with this is the battery is pretty terrible it's actually too small for most people and also not everyone wants to be on iOS so the Apple ecosystem in terms of Android competition you've got maybe the pixel 7A it's more affordable a little bit bigger 6.1 inches versus 5.9 although actually the new pixel folds front cover screen is 5.8 inches so it's technically a little bit smaller than this and maybe also you could wait for the Galaxy flip 5 perhaps so there are alternatives but there's still something about the Zenfone 10 that I just really like now compared to last year's Zenfone 9 and here is one I made earlier the design is broadly similar the two big camera lenses are slightly less pronounced the back also has a new material that feels more like how do I put this scratchy recycled cardboard maybe it reminds me of the pixel 5A if you remember that and I do like it it's a more sustainable polycarbonate material it doesn't pick up smudges or fingerprints and it is nice and grippy and it retains the headphone jack the Dual speakers the ip68 dust and water resistance the dual SIM although still no micro SD sadly and also once again the power button on the side doubles as a fingerprint reader now they're actually kind enough to send over two review units of the Zenfone 10. this is the eclipse red I believe as well as the comet white both lovely colors but certainly the Reds a lot more striking and these are in addition to the Aurora green Starry blue and midnight black options I also quite like how this aluminum frame around the side can be a different color as well so we've got red and black here and white and silver here so fairly subtle design changes then going from the 9 to the ten the big upgrades really are on the inside and the headliner really is the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip we also have faster RAM and faster storage a slightly longer battery life in the order of 10 to 15 more exciting though is we do now get wireless charging it is just your basic 15 watt Qi but it's better than nothing we also get a much improved 32 megapixel selfie camera along with even better stabilization courtesy of the six axis hybrid gimbal that's built into the main camera the full HD AMOLED screen now also supports a 144hz refresh rate although frustratingly it is only available in games that support it and we also get a handful of new software features a couple of new color options and this design and the packaging are a lot more environmentally friendly this time around so a nice little upgrade over the Zenfone 9 and I think considering that as I say mostly Flagship specs the price is pretty reasonable as well now technically they have increased the price last year they started at 6 9 nine pounds here in the UK now it starts at 749 but that's because they've bumped up the storage from 128 to 256 as the new engine model along with a gigs of RAM you can pay 70 pounds more so 820 quid if you want to double the storage and double the ram to 16 and 512 which is a pretty impressive spec for 820 pounds although I reckon the base model is all you're going to need kind of sits between say a OnePlus 11 and a pixel 7 Pro in that lower Flagship tier the most significant upgrade though is that new chip the 8 Gen 2 and while we're long past the point where new chips have any real impact in day-to-day scrolling for demanding games or if you're video editing it is quite a bit faster firing up the 3dmark extreme stress test the Zenfone 10 is 33 faster even the lowest Loop score is still 20 higher than last year and if we scroll down despite the high performance it actually used less battery the only downside is it did get a bit hotter and I have noticed while gaming the Zenfone 10 can get quite warm not uncomfortably so but it is noticeable I am very happy to see they have improved the battery life not a crazy amount and in fact this does use the same size sellers last year it's still 4 300 milliamps but in my real world test versus last year when this kicked the bucket when this ran out of juice the Zenfone 10 still had eight percent of its battery left which is about 45 minutes or so depending on what you're doing easily enough for a full day of use but maybe not a whole lot more beyond that heavy gaming will obviously drain it faster and speaking of which you can see some of that Asus Rog pedigree creeping in here with the Zenfone we do now have that 144hz refresh option and while you're gaming if you swipe in from the corner it'll bring up their game genie where you have a wealth of options and modes to play around with but equally important to good Hardware is good software and I think Asus zenui is fantastic as you can choose between what is basically just stock Android 13 or you have their own Asus optimized version which is what I've chosen to go with here and it adds some nice extras like Edge panels or quick app shortcuts I quite like how in the display settings you have access to the anime animation speeds which are usually hidden away in the dev menu and I do find switching everything to 0.5 times makes the phone feel even snappier the power button is also a smart key that can bring down the notification bar or even fast forward and Rewind videos now and even the back of the phone is a customizable button with a double tap opening the camera or taking a screenshot whatever you like and if you are looking at this thinking I like it but it's still just a bit too big for me well you're in luck because they do still offer a one-handed mode which you can turn on and then swipe down from the bottom to shrink the screen so the software is nice and fast very little in the way of bloatware it's lovely the problem is Asus only offered two years of Android updates with this which is way behind the three and four years that most competitors now offer and it's a bit disappointing and finally let's talk about this camera system because surprisingly not a whole lot has actually changed here well here on the back at least same resolution same sensor same apertures basically the same dual camera system as we had last year however despite very similar Hardware Asus do say they have improved the cameras thanks to some tuning and benefits from the new Snapdragon chips ISP photos are a touch sharpen some of the light Trail modes that used to require a tripod can now be done handheld and also we have the second generation of their six axis hybrid gimbal stabilizer which to be fair is genuinely really good and this year we get real-time adaptive Eis for video which means it automatically and in real time picks the best field of view while maintaining the Smooth video whereas last year you had to pick the different modes yourself before you started shooting so that is very helpful foreign and in terms of stabilization it absolutely keeps up with the iPhone 14 pro as I walk over these cobbled Stone streets and this is shot at 4K 60 plus we do have the option of 8K 24. the problem is the quality just isn't as good you can see colors are more washed out it really struggles with the bright highlights on Mrs Tech Chap's t-shirt there and it's notably less detailed fair enough the iPhone is more expensive but I did expect a bit more out of this for example I actually wanted to start this review with this little video which I shot on the Zenfone 10 but as good as the stabilization might be the quality just wasn't good enough it's underexposed and a bit slow to focus switching to photos and I must admit when I took these shots and then looked at them back in the gallery app on the phone I was quite impressed but now I've taken them off the phone and I'm looking a bit more closely I'm not so sure the skin tones are off I mean here my face is just red there's very little texture or detail and yet somehow it also has that over sharpened look to it as always lighting makes all the difference and some shots I actually do quite like but generally I found colors just aren't quite right or maybe they're over saturated and obviously there's no telephoto lens here either portraits can sometimes be okay and then other times it looks like I've photoshopped myself into the scene even if it is marginally better than these info 9 I still find the camera just a little bit disappointing foreign the good news though is the selfie camera is a lot better this year they've moved to a new rgbw sensor which lets in 67 more light and they've also reduced the Noise by 50 so the selfie camera is a big upgrade except for the fact that it no longer supports autofocus which it did on the Zenfone 9 which is a bit bizarre and disappointing and also it is still limited to 1080p 30. for a 2023 flagship phone hmm although what I do like is this little LED light that surrounds the selfie camera so you and your friends know where to look so when does that leave us well I've written a little list here of the downsides of the Zenfone 10. firstly no ltpo screen it is either 60 90 120 or 144 Hertz and actually the always on display is still stuck at 30 Hertz which obviously isn't great for the battery life it's also not the brightest this tops out at 1100 nits Peak most phones especially this price point can go up to 15 1600 nits so it is not the brightest the 15 watt Qi wireless charging is a very welcome upgrade but it's still not very fast nor is the regular 30 watt wire charging again no change there compared to last year's info 9. still no tire photo camera I still think the camera quality itself is a bit average even though I do like the gimbal stabilizer and I do appreciate the improved selfie camera so the Zenfone 10 is not perfect but for 750 pounds I do still think it's definitely worth considering particularly if you do want a smaller phone and while it is a decent step up over the Zenfone 9 I reckon if you can find this on a good deal there's not that much of a difference between these guys particularly if you're not going to miss say Wireless char that this may not actually end up being a better value option let me know what you make of this and if you have any questions in the comments below if you did enjoy this review and want to see more from me cheeky like And subscribe we'll be very much appreciated and I'll see you next time right here on the tech chat\n"