The hero image with (what I can only assume is) an NBA player's mammoth-sized hands holding this absolutely not-compact phone really shows the dichotomy between wanting to sell a small phone but not wanting to actually make one.
I am experiencing the curse of Apple’s ecosystem. Because all my photos and videos are on iCloud, it’s practically impossible for me to switch to android at this point. On top of that, I really like the hands off feature (which allows me to copy something on my iPhone and paste it on my Mac) and the fact that I can use my iPhone’s camera as a second WebCam for my MacBook.
there used to be a time when choosing a phone depended on its intrinsic value. But nowadays, the value you get from your phone depends on external factors, such as the cloud provider, the synergy between the phone and the rest of your computer setup, and the overall support you get from the company. I think this is the part where all android manufacturers get wrong: they focus so much on the intrinsic value of the phone without working on its extrinsic value within an ecosystem.
> I really like the hands off feature (which allows me to copy something on my iPhone and paste it on my Mac
Android and mobile linux phones can do this with KDE Connect with Linux computers. I think you can do this between two computers too. Maybe KDE connect also exists on Mac?
As someone who's not really into any ecosystem I'm currently thinking about switching from 14 years of Android to an iPhone and I'm absolutely not worried for all the important things, my only concern is basically losing access to a handful of apps or games I like.
Maybe I'm an outlier, but "ecosystem integration" for me means that my phone displays a google calendar and I have access to a non-gmail IMAP account. Phone is never paired with a computer and as far as I remember I could access photos in iCloud via a browser without a mac...
Passwords in iCloud Keychain have a very easy plaintext export option, and there's no social graph component to it, so I don't really understand how that's a lock-in vector.
And this particular metric is not a percentage increase in comfort or speed of operations, on the modern phones it can be above/below usability threshold. For example I have a droid phone with a width of 74 mm. But I can't reach with my thumb to the opposite side of the screen, and seems that making phone narrower by 5-6 mm would just about solve this. Thankfully droid OS doesn't require me to do this, but on the other hand I read that in iOS this is a key, most important gesture - "back". And UI button for this operation is in the most unreachable spot on iOS, in the top left corner usually. So users practically forced to do a gesture which is hard to do on a bigger phone.
I like small, if only anyone other than Sony could put a fucking SD card slot in their phones in 2023 (yes they manage IP6whatever even with the slot).
Though admittedly the only thing I really care about is simultaneously having root and tap-to-pay, and until that stops working on my pixel I'm not going to go through the multi day ordeal of figuring out how to hide root on another phone.
A smaller modern phone!!! I really hope this gets picked up by the LineageOS community and supported for many years, like the Poco F1, which I've used for many years very happily.
I also really hope more manufacturers produce non-giant smartphones, that'd be so cool!
but "iPhone 14/14 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy S23" ARE compact phones. At least by modern standard. They're not talked about as such because they're flagships deliberately made smaller so Apple and Samsung can charge more for the ultras
I couldn't see any information other than 'Android 13' on the page -- how long do Asus tend to support their devices for? Sibling comments about LineageOS do give me some hope that if I buy this for a family member that tends to keep their phones for 5-10 years, it might actually be able to go the distance.
Am I the only one who feels that a device this powerful and expensive lasting 2-3years (or less!) is crazy? Especially when it's a 'software' limitation.
And the software limitation seems to be a pretty weak excuse given that volunteer devs support LineageOS on devices well older than 2 years.
Plus other crazy things about the replacement cycle:
- Battery life (arguably) degrades faster than software support and yet the industry moved AWAY from replaceable baterries
- Software bloat makes hardware seem slower, where replacing a factory ROM with LineageOS or some other slimmer Android version can really feel like a hardware upgrade
- The e-waste, my word the e-waste! There's no cost to the manfacturer for any kind of lifecycle management of the (some very precious) resources used to create these devices (this is also true for pretty much every industry).
- The opposite of the "Microsoft Office feature" effect. The average consumer seems to need the latest trivial upgrade or new cool-but-actually-pointless function that manufacturers dream up as a differentiator. Remember when numerous iterations of Microsoft Office meant no actual usage difference to anyone but absolute power users. Times have changed, consumer culture is a tightening cycle. (not that I'm immune, and I have to consciously try quite hard to resist it).
- Counter to the point above: removal of general-purpose computing functions / use-cases. No SD card slot, no headphone jack. I used to have an Sony Ericsson that had a mini/micro HDMI port. Was able to output video to a TV with the appropriate cable. These devices are so capable of many things, but they're handcuffed and hamstrung by design.
My current phone is only 2.5 years old, custom ROM installed so it's on Android 13 and runs really well, and it's the battery life that's making it feel "old" (now that the custom ROM has solved the software old-ness issue).
Recent Android updates are boring (except foldable support), thanks to Google made apps and middlewares separated (unlike Apple iOS). I'm fine with older version with security patches.
The US version does not support band n28 according to their specs.
I hope to g*d this is a mistake because n28 is 50% of 5G in a lot of countries — and in particular, it often pairs with n78 (3.5GHz) which only gives shorter-range higher density coverage. n28 (700 MHz) covers the more rural areas. Except if you have this phone, then you better hope you can fall back to 4G?
(And the Zenfone 9 had n28 on the US version too… in fact the US version was a superset of all the other versions. I absolutely cannot understand how someone would even think to remove n28. International air travel is a thing, and people take their phones with them on vacation?!?)
Diagonal screen size is a terrible measurement when different phones have different aspect ratios.
That said, even when going by volume, this isn't a particularly small phone at 94 cm3.
A current-gen iPhone SE is only 68 cm3. The zenphone 10 sits in between the 81.8 cm3 iPhone 14 and the 99 cm3 iPhone 14 Pro Max.
Or compared to Samsung, the "regular sized" Galaxy S23 is 78.8 cm3. Even the S23+ is slightly smaller at 91 cm3! Only the S23 Ultra is significantly larger at 114 cm3.
(All volumes here were determined by multiplying the deminsions listed on GSM Arena. They're probably all slightly off due to camera bumps, but should be comparable to each other.)
I hope the Zenfone 10 does well. And to prove there is a market for smaller phone.
I know I may be in the absolute minority, but even the iPhone 12 / 13 mini is larger than the iPhone 5S, which is larger than the iPhone 4. I just want an iPhone 4 design with some / tiny bezel. ( I dislike Bezel-less design )
We used to be very happy if a phone SKU could do a million unit sales. Now most vendor would stop and suggest the market doesn't exist.
I'm in the same boat, I do think we are in the minority. At least the market trends point that direction.
& I agree, I'm still rocking a pixel 4 because I can't bring myself to buy a new phone (when there really hasn't been any note worth advancements in years), especially when the avg phone these days are just mini tablets IMO.
As of now I am waiting for the Nothing Phone 2 announcement to see what I get. But this Zenphone 10 is now a contender.
HN has to be the _worst_ audience to poll when looking for ideas about a mass market product. To the point you can probably do the exact opposite of every suggestion and work out what the average person wants.
I'd be willing to overlook a lot for a new Android phone with dimensions similar to the Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact. The market for small Android phones is extremely thin right now. There are only two phones which can run Android 13 and are less than 145 mm tall, and they're both less than a year away from EoL (Pixel 4a and Pixel 5).
I bought a zenfone 9 because it's reasonably sized, not underpowered, and has a 3.5mm jack. You can find phone preferences as amusing as you want, but at least it's still possible to vote with my wallet to some degree.
Same reason I'm still on the Xperia 5 line of phones. Relatively small (narrow, which I care about more than overall size) with SD card slot and 3.5mm jack.
Though, I wouldn't buy a phone that didn't have both an official and clean bootloader unlock (not a root exploit binary downloaded from some sketchy forum thread) and full support by GrapheneOS.
Clicked on the Asus.com link here on HN and checked out the phone. Then went to Amazon.com for something else and got an ad for the new Motorola RAZR flip phone[1] which comes in at 6.9" unfolded but has a 3.6" external display when folded.
I think a folded phone would suffice for a "compact" phone but after some negative experiences here on HN[2][3], maybe not.
I did an exhaustive search scraping all of the supported Lineage OS devices to find a good tradeoff between modernity and a handset that isn't giant, resulting in my Zenfone 8. I'm not ready to upgrade yet but I'm very pleased to see Asus fighting the good fight for reasonable size.
I made the mistake of getting a samsung s22+, thinking the battery life would be better than the s22 (yes it is), but it just doesn't fit well in my front pocket (and I don't like having it in my back pocket). So I'm hoping that between the zenfone 10 and the xperia 5 v, I will have a better choice by the end of the year.
One thing I love about galaxy S series is their desktop mode. Has that been standard android yet? How's the desktop mode in zenphone?. I'm using S10E, one of the very few compact phones left and zenphone is the obvious next choice, just wondering about that one thing.
I don't understand why the selfie camera isn't put in the middle. Pixels do this. There are usually elements on the left and right of the status bar, so just put it in the middle. It's also symmetrical and more aesthetically pleasing. And your photos are centered.
I use it all the time for photos of interiors and landscapes/buildings. It’s no good for pictures of people. But it’s great to capture an entire building or whatever which normally wouldn’t fit in view.
Why is everyone talking about the size as the innovation here, when the most impressive feature of this phone is its internal hardware-based gymbal?
If the quality is like the advertised in the video, this might be a game changer!
Look promise for an compact phone.
Just one thing about front camera. I think it's much better if the front camera is put in the center instead of left side as now. Hope the dev community on XDA will support this device.
I’ve owned a couple of Asus phones (and three laptops) and have found them best in class for mid-range android phones and windows laptops, respectively.
Honestly after 15 years of use, no real complaints about either.
I am surprised by the quality of this launch, and yet there isn't any call to action. No "buy now", no "preorder", not even a "subscribe to know when available"
Would be sad if this turns out to be just another phone with "up to 16G of RAM" only to be wasted on stupid things like gaming and have no hardware capability for desktop mode or KVM.
I switched from a S10e to a zenfone 9 and the screen feels smaller while the body feels larger, mainly due to the thickness and rectangular profile. The 10 is the same size as the 9
I had my Zenfone 8 randomly die after 13 months. Fixing it costs more than getting a new one & no unofficial repair shops can handle it. I'm never buying a Zenfone again.
Will this phone support quad-band? I believe one of the major drawbacks of the Zenfone 9 was the lack of quad-band support. I see nothing on the promo page about it.
