It looked like the upcoming Asus Zenfone 10 would be the company’s last in the series, but Asus has now denied the report.
Update: Asus has issued the following statement in regards to the fate of the Zenfone series.
"We would like to address the rumor that ASUS Zenfone 10 will be the last generation of the series and the ASUS Zenfone product line will be shut down. This is not true. We will continue our two main phone business product lines, the ROG Phone and the Zenfone. ASUS has a strong commitment to our smartphone business and customers. Please reference our Q2 earnings call for more information. Please stay tuned for our 2024 product lineups."
According to the Taiwanese site TechNews, the company was undergoing an “organizational restructure,” which initially involved moving employees from the PC department to the smartphone division, but ultimately resulted in layoffs instead.
Asus’ mobile division is divided into two teams: those who work on Zenfone and those who work on the ROG Phone. An insider source told the site that the restructure turned into layoffs because the Zenfone 10 will be the last of the series. We now know this is not the case.
The end of the Zenfone did seem a bit premature, given that Asus’ latest has only just become available to pre-order in the United States. But it's been out in other regions for a few months.
According to some estimates, Asus holds just a 0.26% share of the global smartphone market. The original Zenfone came out nine years ago.
Asus is one of the few companies making smaller Android handsets for those who favor portability over screen size. And we gave the latest model a glowing 4.5-star rating in our Asus Zenfone 10 review.
It packs a 5.9-inch, 144Hz AMOLED screen making it very pocketable indeed. It’s powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor and 8GB or 16GB RAM with a 4,300mAh battery keeping things running. It can be configured with 128, 256 or 512GB RAM with prices starting at $699.99.
“If Android's the software for you and small phones are your preference, there's little else that would suit you better than the Zenfone 10,” concluded our senior writer, Richard Priday.
So if you thought one of the best small phones was going away, you can rest easy.
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