Report: Asus to discontinue Zenfone series

28 August 2023
The Zenfone 10 may very well be the last of its kind.

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  • dSV
  • 28 Aug 2023

Eh. Gave up since they gave up on the thing that bought Zenfone to life.

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    • Moki
    • 04M
    • 28 Aug 2023

    Anton., 28 Aug 2023Another one to go! next is sonySony can't fail. Sony reduced the amount of models they sell each year to only 3. They ship only on Pre-Order and they are mostly bought by Camera lovers.
    Their flagships offer 10x more than any common chinese company like Xiaomi,Huawei,BBK electronics,Zte and other wannabees copy pasting 40 models each year. Sadly Asus was no different than the wannabees with their last 2 models.

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      • ASket
      • pXC
      • 28 Aug 2023

      Well, people here saying "oh no, another one, oh its sad, why?, blablablá" but beber buy an ASUS phone...so, why you bother to say that if you never had one?!

      Ahahahahah, its like saying "i dont like Ferrari" - but beber had one, like saying "i love Starbucks" - but never drink nothing there.

      Just saying that cause, i never had and ASUS phone, but...Im not sad about, not happy about that eighter. Its what it is, market does this, not deliver what people really want make this.

      Sadly is another one, like LG, HTC...but i think LG os the most underated brand of all in terms of phones, they are trully inovative, i have more than 8 LG since G2 until G6, V10 and even G Flex2...thats great phones.

      Sony cant compete today and their prices is high high high but even they are not quitting as other have done. Idk why.

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        • Moki
        • 04M
        • 28 Aug 2023

        There were way too many reasons why Zenfone failed:

        1. Offering nothing new to the market. After 2021 they stopped putting sd cards on flagships and went the Apple way. Their Cameras were also unbranded and Audio was ok.
        The camera app sees next to no changes for this generation. Basic operation remains largely the same as before and the same as on any other camera app.The 10's ultrawide does have slightly wider dynamic range, but then the one on the 9 is doing a better job with white balance. With detail levels being generally similar.
        They also made 0 differences between models, aka 9 vs 10.

        2. They didn't sell globally. In Europe they would only sell in Uk and Germany. All other countries were forgotten. Asus also didn't sell in Africa and South America, which are massive market places.

        3. They priced Zenfones same price as last gen ROGs which made Zenfones sort of ... Unwanted. People chose ROGs and stick with those.

        4. They did 0 advertisement on Zenfones and only focused on Advertising ROGs. No one knew Asus sold flagship phones.

        5. They didn't have any kind of Downgrade or Upgraded model. People love buying "Pro" or "Ultra" or "Lite" in their names. Asus only went with 1 name. Simplicity doesn't always work as intended.

        6. Lackluster software support. They did release updates to Android 13 but it was a long 1 year wait time for their older models AND only for models released 2021-2022. The 2020 and older Flagships are forgotten. Zenfones are same priced as Samsung S series and yet they offer only 2 years of upgrades. They also barely release software supports.
        Thankfully Asus phones are perfect software wise and don't need updates.
        Asus would have made more money if they were different than all other Chinese companies and offer 3-4 year Android support. But they didn't.

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          • Anonymous
          • 0vE
          • 28 Aug 2023

          Ouifuf, 28 Aug 2023If this is true, then it would be sad to see them stop. If ... moreThe only reason small phones are niche are because companies forced large phones on us, and made us think there is only that.

          Same with removing 3,5mm and microsd card slot.

          And sure there are plenty of people that didn’t care about that in the past, but now the choice has been made for everyone, no matter if you like big phones or not, and no matter you want 3,5mm, sd and so on or not.

          Companies made that choice for us, that’s the worst part of it.

            Another one to go! next is sony

              Nick Tegrataker, 28 Aug 2023Rest in peace, Zenfone. A truly good, underrated series of ... moreIf all people who claimed it to be a good phone actually bought one, Asus would probably be fine. The reality is, even those Youtubers praising this phone are actually iPhone users (or Samsung). They themselves don't walk the talk. Thus the market has spoken. If Apple, the brand juggernaut with cash to spare, couldn't even justify the iPhone mini, nobody else can. Heck, they are even rumors of Apple increasing the size of the iPhones (from 6.1" to 6.3").

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                • Anonymous
                • a0V
                • 28 Aug 2023

                Very sad news, but kinda expected that.

                Zenfone 10 base model is €50 here more than base S23, and while Zenfone is specs wise the better phone, software, software support and camera wise Samsung is (sadly) better.

                I mean heck, if you don’t mind iOS, iPhone 14 is still €10 euro less than base Zenfone 10 here, and looking at the past Asus their phones never drop in price in my country, they go out of stock before that happens (because store here get a stupidly small unit allocation of them, while going 4x on the ROG)

                Still sad news.

                  Same price as S23 with worst support. Only not so smart person would bye Asus.

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                    • Anonymous
                    • mv8
                    • 28 Aug 2023

                    Too small market i guess.. now with google pixel its hard compete...

                      good

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                        • Technical
                        • CbE
                        • 28 Aug 2023

                        Good... Concentrate ROG series Mobilewith all latest QHD LTPO Screen and Fast Charging 150W.

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                          • Anonymous
                          • AZY
                          • 28 Aug 2023

                          samsung prices are often discounted, so they are cheaper, at least in Europe. You add better support, and better cameras for sammy and people wont buy asus. even apple is priced the same as them. I seen 600 euros for s23. asus is 200 euros higher, similar to iphone 14. people wont buy asus even if they are the same price...

                          they went with flagship because they wanted to have bigger margins, but with a phone at 300 euros, with decent specs, they will probably sell more, but not that bigger margins.

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                            • BJRG
                            • g3$
                            • 28 Aug 2023

                            RIP Zenfone. You will be missed (by Marques Gandhi and 2 others)

                              Their phones and computers are super expensive. Even worse, they have multi-level cartels on their distribution network, causing prices for their devices to skyrocket.

                              It's almost impossible to buy a PC from Asus directly. They're always out of stock. Only for the same devices to appear in other marketplaces selling at 1.5X the recommended RRP.

                              I had to switch to Dell after being a loyal Asus user for a decade.

                                If this is true, then it would be sad to see them stop. If they made a larger version, I would've 100% bought their phone. The compact flagship phone is a niche that not many people cared about sadly.

                                Here's hoping everyone moving to the rog team can convince asus to make a "stealth" variant that's just a normal looking phone and not smth incredibly ugly

                                  Welp, looks like their efforts in sending every 2 bit Youtubers review units and had them say nice things didn't work out afterall. LOL.
                                  In reality, this phone is barely any smaller than a Galaxy S22/23. Meanwhile, the Samsung has triple cameras, more premium built, and longer software support.

                                  It makes me wonder why the Taiwanese, who were pioneers in the smartphone (take HTC), just cannot do a good job nowadays. I mean we're not talking about the cheap Chinese phones at the low end, but why can't they even compete with Samsung at the mid/high end? It's just bad for consumers. I'm quite tired of the market where in many countries, the choice is either Samsung or the Chinese trio (Xiaomi, BBK, or Transsion). And we know sometimes they all are using the same ODM, resulting in phones that are generally about the same with only minute differences here and there. Miss the old days where competition were more vibrant with Sony, HTC, Motorola, Nokia, and Samsung all duking it out with their own uniqueness.

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                                    • Anonymous
                                    • YYX
                                    • 28 Aug 2023

                                    Mobilemaster, 28 Aug 2023We will see about that!It’s all just a matter of time now.

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                                      • Nikojas
                                      • 6t8
                                      • 28 Aug 2023

                                      Anonymous, 28 Aug 2023If Asus had bet in the marketing department instead of rele... moreCoincidentally the only time I bought a Zenfone was when I lived in Portugal. Worten Lisboa had a big selection of ASUS phones in 2017/8 and I was intrigued and eventually bought the Zenfone 5. Great phone and good value at the time. There was a whole range of ASUS phones, the Max series, and they seemed popular. If they had stuck to good value mid tier phones I think they would be still doing ok because they essentially abandoned that market segment.

                                        Anonymous, 28 Aug 2023If Asus had bet in the marketing department instead of rele... moreGreat post, you explained it perfectly

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