Asus is set to debut a new Zenfone-branded flagship smartphone in the Zenfone 10, if patterns hold. Now, according to a report from Price Baba – citing leaker Paras Guglani – the upcoming Zenfone 10 is set to supersede last year's Zenfone 9 in one important way. The report says that the brand is set to replace the compact 5.9-inch phone with a 6.3-inch model, abandoning its pursuit of the ironically small compact phone market.
Asus’s Zenfone 8 and Zenfone 9 had broken ground as powerful compact smartphones which boasted clean Android software, up-to-date hardware, and small frames. The Zenfone 9 was 5.9-inches, as we mentioned, as was the Zenfone 8 before it. The Zenfone 10, for its part, is rumored to sport a 6.3-inch display; the same size as the Google Pixel 7. It’s also to come with a 120Hz AMOLED display, though there are no resolution details shared in this latest report.
Smaller phones do the dodo
All those specs – impressive as they are – are increasingly table stakes for Android phones. What is notable here is the increase in size. Compact phone fans have had it rough in recent years. Apple's iPhone 12 Mini and iPhone 13 Mini appeared to be the savior of smaller phones, but the company moved away from them and adopted the iPhone 14 Plus instead. Not that the iPhone 14 Plus sold gangbusters instead, but it's likely a change that had little to do with its size.
At the same time, the Asus Zenfone 9 was touted as an excellent small Android phone as well. And now it's being replaced by a larger smartphone. Big phones offer space for larger batteries, better cameras, and bigger screens. Certainly, size and weight are a consideration, but the commercial repudiation of sub-six-inch phones has been sure to send a message to smartphone manufacturers – and it's not one smaller phone fans would like to hear.
