The Asus Zenfone 10 is a tiny 5.9-inch phone with flagship specs

  • The Asus Zenfone 10 in a variety of colors.

  • Here’s a clear look at the front and back.

  • I guess Asus is trying to sell the small size of the phone with all these creepy hand photos. Look how holdable it is! I feel like that is a giant monster hand, though.

  • Ignore Thing from The Addams Family, we’re just here to see the top edge, which has a headphone jack!

  • The side rails get bigger around the power button, and here you can see the camera bump size.

  • The bottom, which features a speaker, USB-C port, and a SIM slot.

  • My favorite detail is that sim slot cover has to be curved because the phone is so small it needs to slightly wrap around the corner.

  • If you’re wondering where the cameras are on the back, Asus has helpfully labeled them with a set of arrows.

  • Camera specs.

Lovers of small phones: Meet the Asus Zenfone 10, a tiny little device headlined by a 144 Hz, 5.9-inch, 2400×1080 OLED display. For those asking for a one-hand device, this 146.5 mm×68.1mm×9.4 mm phone is one of the smallest on the market, and it has flagship specs. It’s not quite the size of the iPhone SE (138.4 mm×67.3 mm×7.3 mm) or the microscopic iPhone 13 Mini (131.5 mm×64.2mm×7.7 mm) but on Android, this is as small as you’re going to get.

With those flagship specs, you get a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 gen 2 SoC, a baseline of 8GB of RAM with an option for 16GB, and UFS 4.0 storage options of 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB. The big downside to a small phone is the battery, which here is only 4300 mAh. Asus somehow found room to pack in a 3.5-mm headphone jack, along with 15 W wireless charging (wired is 30 W), stereo speakers, NFC, IP68 dust and water resistance, Wi-Fi 7, and Bluetooth 5.3.

The back has two cameras, the main one is a 50 MP Sony IMX766 with a 1/1.56-inch sensor. This is where the “flagship” vibes dissipate somewhat, as this is the same sensor as a OnePlus 9 from 2021, and really nothing to write home about. The second rear camera is an anonymous 13 MP ultra-wide, while the front is 32 MP.

The phone body has a modern design, slim bezels, and flat metal side rails. The front display cover is Gorilla Glass, while the back is plastic, continuing Asus’ theme of shrugging off most industry trends. One interesting design decision is the power button, which is both a side fingerprint reader and a touch-sensitive scroll area when the phone is unlocked. If you’re looking at a vertically scrolling page, apparently swiping down on the power button will scroll your content.

In Europe, the Zenfone 10 ships at the end of July for 799 euros (~$872). The US will see a release in Q3, price unknown, where it will be compatible with T-Mobile and AT&T.

Listing image by Asus

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1951351