Asus Zenfone 10

It seems like Asus really found a place, a trend, a niche with their Zenfone line a couple of years ago. Whether it was because many people needed a slightly smaller flagship than the gigantic screen sizes most manufacturers were leaning towards, or whether it was Asus' almost total lack of annoying bloatware, or whether it was because it was one of the few Android phones that truly nails the idea of "jack of all trades".

The point is that Asus quickly went from being one of the more obscure Android manufacturers to launching two fairly central smartphones in the annual launch calendar, and there are therefore quite a few people eagerly awaiting the upcoming Zenfone 10.

At first glance, there's nothing significantly different about this year's Zenfone, but that's perhaps just as well. It weighs just 172 grams, offers pretty much the same 5.9-inch display, and the same almost vinyl-like texture on the back. It feels great in the hand, to say the least, and even though it's a slightly more budget-friendly smartphone, it's WIFI 7 Ready, has Bluetooth 5.3, a headphone jack and a solid fingerprint reader on the side. There's even wireless charging and 30 watts of wired charging for the 4300mAh battery.

The idea is to offer pretty much every aspect of the flagship experience at a slightly cheaper price, and in a slightly more compact shell, and Asus seems to have nailed that identity once again. The display is an AMOLED in FHD+ and offers up to 144Hz refresh rate. We measured over 700 NITS peak on ours, which is plenty, and combined with up to 16GB LPDDR5X RAM and 512GB UFS 4.0 space, the Zenfone 10 can dance with the big boys, no doubt about it. There's even a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 inside.

It's the specs that make the Zenfone 10 the market contender it undoubtedly is. And just like before, there's no bloatware. In fact, this is one of the cleanest Android editions we've seen. But while we're on the subject of "appeal". Yes, the two giant rear cameras are striking, and we applaud Asus' decision to launch the Zenfone 10 in several fun colours, but there's no inspiring design here. The regular customer base may love subtlety, but it would be nice to see Asus step out of the shadows and find an aesthetic that makes Zenfones more recognisable in the long run.

Okay, so far so good, but what Asus seems to be most proud of this time around is their optics upgrade. On the back you'll find a 50 megapixel wide at f/1.9, as well as a 120 degree 13 megapixel ultrawide at f/2.2. It's an optical upgrade, and it's not the most significant at all, because Asus leans more into video recording with the new Hybrid Gimbal Stabiliser 2.0 - it's a very fancy version of regular OiS, meaning that the lens inside the housing can move with your hand or other external vibrations, and thus compensate more naturally. If you've tried placing your phone in a DJI Osmo, for example, you'll know the effect this can have. It actually works well, thanks in part to Adaptive EiS, which uses software layers to further stabilise the footage.

It's actually pretty crazy to see Asus going for the gold here, because they're also introducing better audio recording through a collaboration with OZO Audio, and Quick Shot, which lets you take three shots even when the phone is locked, and then choose the best of the three. You can even shoot in RAW and use various AI optimisations, such as HyperClarity, to clean up the image.

That's a lot of fancy terms, no doubt, and it shows. The Zenfone 10 still doesn't take as good photos as Apple or Google, or even Samsung. That's simply because these manufacturers have had more time to refine their algorithm, their software, which is far more effective at reducing noise and smoothing out the rough edges of a given scene thanks to decades of experience. That said, Asus is taking a quantum leap forward here, and while we don't think the camera is the most important thing on a Zenfone, it's nice to see Asus being more competitive here, and they are.

Overall, there's not much to complain about. The Zenfone has the best chip, the best specs, wireless charging, solid battery life, a good camera and much, much more, and the top model with 16GB RAM and 512GB of space costs £700. That's a lot less than a Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus costs now - and that was released in January.

Well done, Asus. Well done, Asus.