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The ASUS ZenFone 10 is easily the most underrated smartphone of the year; it deserves way more recognition.
ASUS has been releasing compact flagship-grade smartphones for years now. Both the ASUS ZenFone 8 and ZenFone 9 were very compelling devices, and this year, the company launched the ZenFone 10. Much like its predecessors, the ASUS ZenFone 10 did not get the recognition it deserves, which is why we wanted to highlight it as the most underrated smartphone of 2023 as part of our yearly awards.
The ASUS ZenFone 10 is not only a very powerful smartphone, but it’s a compact one on top of that. As if that’s not enough, the phone has a great price tag too. It’s almost identical to its predecessor in terms of design, but that’s not a bad thing, not at all.
Back when it launched in June, it featured not only the most powerful processor ASUS could find but also the fastest RAM and storage, and plenty of it. All the other specs are also very good, including its 144Hz AMOLED display, which is flat, a rather capable set of cameras, wired and wireless charging, and so on.
A truly comfortable-to-use smartphone, great for one-hand usage too
Let’s dissect this a bit more just to give you a better idea of what you’re getting here. The ASUS ZenFone 10 is made out of metal, and a soft-touch plastic, basically. That plastic placed on the back doesn’t feel like plastic at all, though. It feels like a combination of plastic, rubber, and paper. It sounds odd, but it feels great to the touch, and ASUS even improved it this year, compared to the ZenFone 9, so it should be more durable now. In other words, it should be able to keep its original look for longer. In our testing, that did happen; the phone did a great job even after months of use. It’s also very comfortable to hold and use, it’s easily one of the best smartphones out there for one-hand usage. We can always nitpick, like about the fact it doesn’t have uniform bezels, but the positives are heavily in the lead here, as far as the design is concerned. ASUS nailed it.
The performance is also buttery smooth. We’ve tested a ton of smartphones this year, and the ZenFone 10 is still one of the smoothest ones in terms of performance, if not the smoothest one. Its internals are powerful, sure, but the software is outstanding as well. ASUS’ ZenUI is basically stock Android with a bunch of useful additions from the company. There are only useful features added here, for convenience. These features are here to make your life easier, but you don’t have to use them, of course.
It offers outstanding battery life and wireless charging as well.
Despite the fact this is a small phone, the battery life is outstanding. That’s another main advantage of the ZenFone 10. We were able to hit the 10-hour screen-on-time mark with this phone. That’s unreal, considering that we’re looking at a phone with a 5.92-inch display. Getting 8-9 hours of screen-on time with this phone on a regular basis was easily doable. Its 30W wired charging was more than enough, and ASUS also added 15W wireless charging this time around for convenience.
The cameras on the phone may not be the best on the market, but they’re good. You’re missing the telephoto camera, but the main and ultrawide shooters do a good job. ASUS could tone down the sharpening and saturation, but this is the look the company opted for when it comes to its cameras, and that’s just fine. The camera performance is consistent, and it provides good results. This phone also has some of the best video stabilization you’ll see in a phone, which also comes in handy when you’re taking pictures.
The ZenFone 10 should be way more popular than it is
Why did people not recognize the phone more? Well, ASUS is a well-known brand, but it’s not as recognizable in the smartphone world as it should be. ASUS has to strive towards the goal of changing that. Making compelling devices will surely help the company, but the other part of the package is marketing, which needs to be more aggressive. The ASUS ZenFone 10 is yet another winner for the company; it’s an outstanding phone that deserves to be in the hands of many more people than it currently is. We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: this is easily one of the best compact smartphones on the market, and surely the best one with a sub-6-inch display.