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The ASUS ZenFone 10 is an ideal smartphone for many people in so many ways, it’s a shame it’s so underrated.
We’ve picked the ASUS ZenFone 10 as our ‘Most Underrated Smartphone’ of 2023, and gave it an award to recognize that. Well, our readers seem to agree with us, as they did the same. We’ve placed a poll on X (formerly known as Twitter), and allowed our readers to share their opinion. The ASUS ZenFone 10 won in that category, rather comfortably. It managed to grab 39.1% of all votes, and is followed by the OnePlus Open, which grabbed 26.1% of the votes. The Pixel 7a is third with 21.7% of the votes, and the Motorola Razr is fourth with 13%.
This does not surprise us, to be quite honest, and we did expect the ZenFone 10 to win. ASUS created a truly compelling smartphone, which is not only compact enough to be very comfortable to use, but also excels in so many ways. The phone offers outstanding performance, capable cameras, good display, and staggering battery life, especially considering its size. Its software offering is also great, as it’s basically stock Android with some useful features sprinkled on it. ASUS is unfortunately not as popular in the smartphone world as it should be in order for this phone to sell. So, this award does make sense. We’ll get more into it below.
This size is just right for comfortable, one-hand use… without the display being too small
One of the main selling points of the ASUS ZenFone 10 is its size. This smartphone has a 5.9-inch display, and it’s smaller than basically all flagship smartphones in the market. It is not nearly as small as something like the iPhone SE 2022, though, and that’s a good thing. The iPhone SE 2022 is too small for comfortable use, many people would agree. However, a 5.9-inch display is large enough for basically anything, and it doesn’t make this phone a brick that is uncomfortable to handle. This is one of the best phones for one-handed usage on the market, at least as far as flagship-grade devices are concerned. Not only is its size great, but it’s also not heavy at all.
The fact that ASUS opted for a somewhat grippy backplate only helps things. It used plastic, but it doesn’t feel like plastic. It feels like a combination of plastic, rubber, and paper, kind of. Regardless, it’s much less slippery than glass is. The sides of the phone are flat, with chamfered edges, and the device simply feels great in the hand because of it. The fact its corners are rounded also helps, of course. The ASUS ZenFone 10 also comes in some fun colors, including Black, Blue, Green, Red, and White, giving you plenty of options. The aforementioned display is good, and it offers a high refresh rate. It could be a bit brighter, but it’s bright enough as it is, so… it’s hard to complain.
Outstanding performance, and surprising battery life
The ASUS ZenFone 10 is one of the smoothest smartphones on the market. We were thoroughly impressed when we used the phone, and our ASUS ZenFone 10 review does reflect that. We’re still using the phone on and off, and even compared to some newer devices, it’s still flying high. Its software definitely has something to do with it, but its specs are also truly powerful. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is backed by up to 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 flash storage. The apps load fast, multitasking is a breeze, and the phone is even great for gaming, as long as you don’t find that display size too confining.
Also, the phone has outstanding battery life. When people talk about compact phones, the battery life argument always pops up. Smaller phones usually have worse battery life, unfortunately. Well, that’s not the case with the ZenFone 10, not at all. We managed to push this phone past the 10-hour mark a number of times. Even if you’re truly pushing it, getting over 8 hours of screen-on-time should be possible. It can actually go head-to-head with the best of the best in terms of battery life, and that’s a huge positive here.
ASUS did also add wireless charging to the phone, after omitting that feature on the ZenFone 9. So not only does it offer 30W wired charging, it also supports 15W wireless charging. Reverse wired charging is supported too, and the charger is included in the box.
What about the cameras?
Is the camera performance any good? Well, this phone does shine in so many ways, that the cameras are actually overshadowed by everything else. The camera performance is good, but there are limitations. The noise does tend to pop up in low light, and the phone often oversharpens images, while the saturation is also used a bit much in some scenarios. On the flip side, it is very consistent, it will stick to its style across all scenarios, and does a great job in HDR conditions too. The ultrawide camera is more than good enough, and it keeps up with the main sensor in terms of colors.
The ASUS ZenFone 10 is easily the most underrated smartphone of the year. I’m glad both us and our readers agree on that front. We do hope that ASUS will continue pushing out these compact flagships, and also work more on its marketing so that more people can experience how great they are.