While the Philippines did not get the ZenFone 9, we loved that ASUS did make a compact flagship with the ZenFone 8 back in 2021. With flagship phones becoming bigger, the ZenFone was a rare breed of compact phones that offered flagship-caliber internals. However, that might change with the upcoming ZenFone 10, according to new reports.
In an exclusive by PriceBaba, the ZenFone 10 will reportedly be bigger than the vanilla Galaxy S23, as it will come with a 6.3-inch AMOLED display with a 120hz refresh rate (the Galaxy S23 has a 6.1-inch display). However, the bigger display also means that the ZenFone 10 will pack a bigger 5000mAh battery that should address battery life concerns with the previous two ZenFones. Wired charging will reportedly be faster at 67w, so topping up the battery should be roughly less than an hour.
As a flagship device, the ZenFone 10 is expected to have a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, 16GB RAM, and up to 512GB storage. Instead of going for a larger sensor, ASUS will reportedly equip it with a 200-megapixel camera with OIS. You will still get an IP68 rating on the ZenFone 10, though ASUS plans to introduce a liquid cooling solution to the phone for better heat dissipation.
While the ZenFone 9 went official in select countries last July, ASUS will launch their next flagship device at a later date–in the latter half of the year. With that, the vanilla Galaxy S23 will be your best choice for a compact flagship–unless ASUS finds ways to trim down the bezels or go for a curved display.