Samsung Galaxy S23
The smallest of Samsung’s 2023 flagships, the Galaxy S23 delivers a similar experience to its more expensive siblings, but in one of today’s most compact form factors. Its operating system, camera hardware, and performance all sit near the front of the pack, and it’s not even terribly expensive.
Long ago, thehigh-end smartphonemarket was rife with choices for those of us with small hands. Today, few manufacturers focus on compact phones because the demand doesn’t really exist. With the days of comparatively tiny, 5-inch screens apparently behind us (RIP Xperia XZ1 Compact), we’re left with just a handful of one-handable handsets to choose from.
Luckily for us small-mitted consumers, tech industry leaders like Samsung and Asus still offer moderately sized yet high-performing smartphones. The Galaxy S23 won awards across the field, with its streamlined operating system, overclocked SoC, andgenerally fantastic experience. While Asus sells considerably fewer units across the board, its compact Zenfone 10 doesn’t disappoint when it comes to performance and software. While the two share some similarities, plenty of users will clearly prefer the Galaxy, and vice versa.
Price, specs, and availability
Reasonably small price tags accompany both small phones. The S23’s $800 MSRP isn’t cheap, but the phone offers top-of-the-line performance, and even Samsung now retails it at $700. The Zenfone 10’s 128GB base model’s $700 list price sees occasional price drops, but you may also often find the 256GB model for nearly $100 less than a similarly equipped S23. That makes it a little more attractive for people who value a convenient form factor and powerful hardware.
The Galaxy S23 dropped in February 2023, with major deals available from most US carriers. It remains readily available and is one of the best-selling models of the year. By contrast, Asus doesn’t pair with any US carriers or offer any trade-in discounts, which makes it a slightly harder sell if you’re upgrading from another high-end phone.
Design: Two approaches to simplicity
The S23 looks and feels practically identical to the entire Samsung Galaxy lineup, which strikes a decidedly minimalist pose in its stark design. The flat back, ever-so-slightly rounded edges, and floating camera array look as simple as a smartphone can. The polished Armor Aluminum frame adds a touch of class, and the body as a whole remains comfortable after hours of use. However, we aren’t exactly wowed bythe S23’s muted color selectioncompared to its predecessor’s, but they don’t look bad.
The Zenfone 10 sports a clearly more notable look, even if it’s still somewhat understated. The front looks fine, although the uneven bezels look a bit awkward and might take some time getting used to. The back tells an entirely different story, with a soft-touch coating that’s a pleasure to hold, and will make you think twice about covering it with a case. But the real standout here is the pair of camera lenses, two immense, floating modules that renowned Android Police expert Matthew Sholtz pointed out look reminiscent of classic anime eyes.
The Zenfone also comes in a collection of significantly brighter colors, only made bolder by a black frame that stays consistent on all but the Comet White colorway. So, while the S23 maintains the sleek, professional look that a lot of today’s users love, the Zenfone’s design really pops without looking gaudy or over-engineered.
The durability of diminutive devices
Both use an aluminum frame and Gorilla Glass Victus over the screen, although the S23’s second-generation Victus is technically a bit more resilient (not that you’d notice in everyday use). The S23’s glass back, also made of Victus 2, isn’t exactly prone to cracking, but the Zenfone’s specialty-coated plastic back is essentially impervious to shattering.
Partly due to smart, premium materials and their small size and weight, neither phone shows any durability issues in practical use. The almost flagship-standard IP68 dust and water protection rating applies to both. In short, you’d be hard-pressed to physically damage either, which is key when you’re spending hundreds on an easily pocketable electronic device.
Display: No major cons to speak of
The S23 boasts one of the best screens on the market in its size and price range, with a 120Hz refresh rate, HDR10+ support, and an impressive peak brightness of 1,750 nits. Able to reach only 1,100, the Zenfone falls slightly behind in terms of brightness but basically matches it otherwise. Technically, the Zenfone can produce up to 144 frames per second, but that peak only comes in supported games, with 120Hz still the maximum for general OS operation. The 6.1-inch S23 and 5.9-inch Zenfone have 425 and 445ppi pixel densities, the difference respectively indistinguishable to the human eye.
The S23’s slight edge comes in its appearance, rather than its specifications. Samsung’s corner radius here remains very similar to the S22’s, and the S23’s centered punch-hole camera falls in line with a lot of high-end models today. We’re also glad that the bezel stays a consistent width around the entire screen.
Asus' flagship can’t quite claim the same. Its noticeably rounded corners and non-matching bezel widths immediately caught our eye, as did the punch-hole selfie camera in the upper right. None of these issues are the end of the world, but it took us a short while to get used to the non-symmetrical design. The upside is that if you’re playing games, which Asus clearly kept in mind when designing this device, at least the punch hole should stay mostly out of your focused field of view. Even though the S23’s screen delivers a touch more consistency, the Zenfone’s is still remarkable.
Software: Familiar and friendly or fresh and customizable
Users and experts alike rave about the straightforward implementation of Samsung’s OneUI, and for good reason. Its minimal bloatware, intuitive UI design, and high degree of customization make it well worth the praise. As one of the least buggy Android skins, it’s great for both neophytes and power users. Subtle but helpful features, and thoughtful integrations between them, make it a breeze to use effectively without annoyance or confusion.
In the other corner, Asus does include some interesting but not-quite-stock software features and helpfully allows you to tweak or disable them without navigating menus for hours. you’re able to go with Asus' preferred redesign, which makes drastic changes like sliding the notification drawer and brightness slider to the bottom (perfect for one-handed use), or you can choose an included skin that’s remarkably close to stock Android. For a company that doesn’t sell tons of phones and, therefore, doesn’t get nearly as much UI user feedback, we’re impressed with how versatile and dynamic its Android experience is. It even offers features specifically for streamlining one-handed use.
Samsung’s creeping up slowly on industry leaders as far as software updates go, with four years of Android versions in store, culminating in Android 17 (or whatever it’s called by then). You’ll then get another full year of security patches. Asus promises only two Android updates but will keep security up to date until 2028 as well.
Overall, for as much praise as Samsung’s OneUI gets, Asus Zen UI is every bit as good, if noticeably different, right from the start. The Zenfone’s Android 15 limitations don’t match the Galaxy’s promise of four full updates, though, so if you plan to keep it for the long haul, the difference is massive.
Bluetooth and wired audio: A strong case for the Zenfone 10
Plenty of us have decried the disappearance of the stereo audio jack from flagship smartphones. Well, the Zenfone 10 has one. You can use cheap earbuds, or reasonablyfancy over-ear headphones, and get a great wired audio experience with next to no distortion and zero noticeable lag. If you plan to play a lot of games (which Asus really wants you to do), the Zenfone’s a clear winner here — its TRRS jack even lets you use compatible headphones' built-in mic for talking trash to opponents (or teammates, if that’s your thing).
But it doesn’t just triumph by including a simple wired audio connector. Almost inexplicably, theGalaxy S23 lacks the aptX HD, aptX Adaptive, and aptX lossless codecs, instead forcing most headphones into the subpar SBC and less-than-ideal AAC codecs. OK, it’s not actually inexplicable: Samsung introduced the Samsung Seamless Codec with its own Galaxy Buds 2 Pro and claims it delivers real high-resolution audio (which most of us probably couldn’t differentiate, anyway). Samsung, then, is wasting the Snapdragon SoC’s baked-in Qualcomm codec support apparently to push its own, first-party headphones. While that might sell more units, it’s decidedly not consumer-friendly, and we’re not fans.
By contrast, the Zenfone 10 does offer the entire slate of aptX codecs, including HD, Adaptive, and Lossless, in addition to the even more refined Snapdragon Sound protocol. If you spend most of the day listening to your favorite tunes and don’t want to bother with a new pair of Samsung earbuds, only the Asus will get you the Bluetooth audio quality that your 320Kbps MP3 collection deserves.
Performance: A close race
Samsung’s custom For Galaxy set of Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipsets are nothing more than overclocked versions of the standard SoC. While it is a real increase in clock speed, you’re not likely to notice it in day-to-day use. The S23 performs as well as or better than anything on the market, although we do advise opting for the 256GB for the best experience, since it uses LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 storage, as opposed to LPDDR5 and UFS 3.1 in the 128GB version.
Good for gamers and heavy multitaskers, even the base model Zenfone 10 relies on the faster RAM and storage controller. Plus, you get 16GB of RAM if you opt for 512GB of storage, something the Galaxy S23 doesn’t even offer. With the inevitability of code bloat and generally resource-intensive software, the additional memory can help ensure continued high performance over the device’s lifespan. If you plan to play fast-paced games or run a lot of apps at once, the Asus wins. In general, though, both offer a snappy Android experience with no noticeable slowdowns.
Battery life: Hard to find fault with either
Even when spending most of the day on the go, away from Wi-Fi, and often in bright sunlight, we routinely got several hours of screen-on time each day and never ran out of battery before bedtime. This pleasantly surprising real-world battery efficiency contrasts somewhat with the relatively small 3,900mAh capacity, proving once again that specs aren’t always everything.
The Zenfone 10 lasts even longer. According tothorough test numbers from GSMArena, it runs for about 10-15% longer than the S23 without needing a charge, depending on whether you’re browsing the web, watching videos, or gaming. It ships with a handful of features enabled that optimize battery usage, but could also affect the performance slightly, like making less-used apps take longer to load than frequently used ones. We didn’t notice a huge difference, but as purists, we turned them off pretty quickly. Luckily, they’re easy to track down in the menus (like most Zen OS features), and easily tweaked and disabled. With the optimizations disabled, we felt the full force of the Snapdragon power and still had zero battery life complaints.
Middling charging speeds that may or may not matter
We’re pretty picky about charging speeds, especially in a day and age when some smartphones can fill their entire batteries in less than a half-hour. So we’re quick to point out that Samsung, for example, offers merely 25-watt Fast Charging on the S23, while Asus barely exceeds it at 30 watts using HyperCharge. Both support 15-watt wireless Qi charging.
In our day-to-day testing, though, we didn’t run into as much of an issue as we anticipated, thanks in part to both devices' above-average battery life. They both go from empty to about 60% in roughly 30 minutes, with a full charge taking around 1 hour and 20 minutes. The Zenfone’s numbers came back slightly better, but only slightly.
The real kicker here is that Asus does something almost no other manufacturer dares to in 2023: It includes a real-life charger, right there in the box. In some kind of unsettling, Bizarro-World twist, it’s even a 30-watt HyperCharge wall wart designed to take advantage of the company’s own fast-charging spec. By comparison, the S23 famously ships without a charging brick of any kind, and you’ll need to make sure you get theright kind of PPS chargerto max out the Galaxy’s refill speed. That makes for yet another Zenfone win within the battery category, and while they’re all somewhat minor, for some people, they’ll add up.
Cameras: One for pictures, one for video
The last couple generations of Samsung Galaxy S cameras have seen a lot of praise, but also some criticism. To be clear: they take great photos, but the characteristic heavy saturation puts some people off. We’ve taken tons of photos with all the 2023 Galaxy S flagships, including the S23, and while the criticism can be valid, we don’t think it’s a huge deal.
For starters, these bold, vibrant photos tend to look pretty darn good. Just check out the extensive image gallery Android Police pro Ara Wagoner put together for our Galaxy S23 review, and you’ll see a litany of fantastic (and mostly Disney-themed) images that really do evoke the feeling of being there in the moment. If the colors really are too much for you, don’t worry — you can easily disable the AI post-processing, which mutes the saturation somewhat but retains the overall quality and still looks great.
Samsung does continue to tweak its imaging algorithm and overall camera software, but they do still have their quirks. Pictures of fast-moving subjects may come out a bit blurry, especially in less-than-perfect lighting. And the electronic image stabilization works fine, but doesn’t quite meet the high standards set by competitors like the iPhone 15.
The Zenfone operates somewhat on the opposite end of the spectrum. Its photos are, by any measure, very good, and definitely don’t deserve some of the negativity they’ve seen from some of the most demanding users on social media. Our own real-world testing revealed bold, well-contrasted colors, crisp lines, and decently fast autofocus. While we wouldn’t quite call the Zenfone 10 one of thebest picture phones, it is quite good.
Video capture is a different story. The latest Zenfone employs in-body image stabilization, which Asus straight-up calls a gimbal. Technically, a gimbal is actually a separate accessory (like theInsta360 Flow, for example) you strap your smartphone or camera into. The Zenfone’s IBIS implementation is actually the reason behind the extra-large primary lens jutting out from the phone’s body, and while it’s not technically a gimbal, it performs a similar function and does so quite well. If you’re into action shots with minimal shaking and great motion handling, the Zenfone 10 clearly wins over the S23.
Level up Android photo quality by side-loading the Google Camera app
The S23 takes great photos, and lets you adjust AI processing and perform moderate edits after you snap your pictures. Samsung’s done a good job improving its imaging, which was somewhat maligned a few years ago, and our minor complaints shouldn’t put most people off. Similarly, the Zenfone 10 doesn’t disappoint, as we were pleasantly surprised to dispel the internet rumors of a bad camera during our testing.
Nonetheless, some people are picky about pictures, and we totally understand. you’re able to actually get a little more out of the Zenfone’s excellent camera hardware if you don’t mind acting like a power user. If you’re willing to side-load a third-party APK, called Gcam, you can add an essentially forked version of Google’s Pixel Camera engineered to work on any Android phone.Reddit user JordyNLwas kind enough to track down aZenfone 10-stable Gcam APKand share it with the community. If you’re up to the relatively minor challenge, it’ll bring the Zenfone’s picture quality even closer to the S23’s. It almost certainly won’t be able to utilize the IBIS, though, so you’ll still want to use the stock camera app for videos that need stabilization.
Which one’s right for you?
Let’s make one thing clear: Both the Galaxy S23 and Zenfone 10 are excellent phones, and definitely the best in their form factor. We’re cautiously optimistic that they’ll both see enough success to merit more relatively compact smartphones, even if we never go back to the minuscule (by today’s standards) dimensions of my personal favorite old phone, the Xperia XZ1C. What’s more, we don’t usually have this tight of race when comparing phones; They’re both so great that we’re confident you’ll be happy with either.
With that said, we’re going to do a little trend-bucking and recommend the Zenfone 10 as 2023’sbest compact flagship. It feels better in the hand, with a novel, soft-touch back panel we wish more manufacturers would mimic. Its Zen OS software dashed our (mostly non-existent) expectations, and delivered a smooth experience with plenty of novel customization and quality-of-life enhancements. We also love the Zenfone body’s bright colorways and contrasted frames.
Then there’s the audio situation, where the Asus blows the Samsung out of the water in both wired and wireless listening. It’s even a hair cheaper, especially for the 256GB model, and the S23 simply can’t compete with the 512GB version that has 16GB of RAM. While nobody offers microSD card slots on their flagship phones anymore, the Zenfone 10 comes closer to the long-lost compact, ultra-versatile, modestly priced flagships than anything else in the last year.
Asus Zenfone 10
Not large, but very in charge
The most recent, but hopefully not the last small phone, the Zenfone 10 offers a truly flagship experience with no big sacrifices. It’s a pleasure to hold, the screen looks great, the audio experience is about as good as they get, and it performs as well as phones twice its price.
But the Galaxy S23 was one of 2023’s best phones for a reason. Its software boasts tons of refinement based on years of user feedback and OneUI updates. Its display also shines brighter than the Zenfone’s, making it easier to use in direct sunlight. And if you’re a fan of extra-vibrant pictures, its imaging delivers a bolder and, importantly, more consistent photo experience than the 2023 Asus flagship. It also stands to receive full Android updates through version 17. So we’re confident that if you’ve got your sights set on a small phone, the Samsung will satisfy.
Slim, powerful, minimalist, and refined
Even smaller than the already-compact Zenfone 10, the Galaxy S23 lives up to its reputation in more ways than one. The intuitive software, nearly unrivaled display, and vibrant photo quality make it a wonderful choice for the mainstream smartphone consumer who wants something they can use easily with one hand.
