Robert Triggs / Android Authority
I don’t know about you, but I miss the days of a burgeoning and diverse smartphone market — not the hegemony of copy-paste phones we see today. News that ASUS hit pause on smartphone development, quite possibly for good, has perhaps just ruined our chance at seeing another novel and brilliant compact smartphone. It’s genuinely disappointing.
Ever since the colorful little ASUS Zenfone 10 launched back in mid-2023, fans (myself included) have wondered if we’ll ever see another compact phone of this quality. 2024 slunk by with little more than a teaser of future possibilities. Instead, ASUS banked hard on the gargantuan Zenfone 11 Ultra. 2025 passed with virtual silence, and now it seems that any residual hope has been snuffed out.
Will we ever see a compact smartphone worth buying ever again? 8 votes Yes 50 % No 25 % I have no idea 25 %
ASUS finally nailed the compact formula
Robert Triggs / Android Authority
At 5.92 inches across, the Zenfone 9 and 10 weren’t a lot smaller than Samsung’s smallest Galaxy S entry or Apple’s baseline iPhone model. However, it’s the little things that ASUS packed into the series that help it make the most of its small stature and, in this reviewer’s opinion, helped set it apart from the competition. The Zenfone 10, in particular, really wrestled with the small form factor compromises and came out on top.
The magic was customization: ZenTouch smart key, Double Tap on the back, and a selection of gestures made accessing your favorite features effortless. Rather than shying away from its small stature, ASUS encouraged you to get hands-on with it, and what the phone lacked in screen real estate, it made up for in useful tools you’d rarely find on rival handsets. Spend a little time with the phone, and you could easily make it feel like your shortcut-infused, micro-powerhouse.
Powerful, colorful, and feature-packed, the Zenfone 10 was one of a kind.
The colorful grippy back options were also a big point in the phone’s favor. I still can’t get enough of the phone’s vibrant Eclipse Red colorway, but the Aurora Green and Starry Blue were lovely too. A little phone that makes a big statement is far more fun than the desaturated, gray slabs that everyone else puts out.
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