Review Summary
Expert Rating
The Itel Zeno 10 is one of the most affordable entry-level smartphones on the market, starting at just Rs 5,699. For its price, it offers decent value by focusing on essentials like a good display, decent battery life, and reliable everyday performance.
Having used the phone for a while, I’ll share my thoughts on this budget-friendly device, highlighting its strengths and the areas where it could be improved.
Table of Contents
Verdict
The Itel Zeno 10 is designed for entry-level users, focusing on essentials like a stylish design, a good display, decent battery life, and reliable everyday performance. While it falls short in areas like charging speed and camera performance, it is a good option for first-time users, especially with its affordable price of Rs 5,699.
Design and display
| Thickness | Weight | IP rating | |
| Itel Zeno 10 | 8.7 mm | 186 grams | NA |
| POCO C61 | 8.3 mm | 199 grams | NA |
| Moto g04 | 9.8 mm | 179 grams | IP52 |
The Itel Zeno 10 adopts a simple design, with a brushed plastic back that helps evade fingerprints and smudges. There are three large circular rings that house the camera and flash unit, while the 3.5mm headphone jack, the USB-C port, and the speaker grille occupy the bottom spine. The power and volume buttons sit on their usual right. The phone has a stylish cover case, adding flair to an otherwise simple design. The side-mounted fingerprint scanner was inconsistent during my review, often misreading my thumb and making me rely on the PIN to unlock the device.
The device uses a 6.6-inch HD+ display with a 90Hz refresh rate and 600 nits peak brightness. The viewing experience on the device is satisfactory for its price, with good colour reproduction and an acceptable level of brightness indoors. Most of you would have seen better displays, but it performs well for its target audience.
To get more insight, I showed the phone to a few elders in my neighbourhood, who primarily use feature phones or other entry-level devices. They appreciated the tall display, sharpness, and colours, affirming that it’s a good panel for its segment and something they would buy. Compared to the POCO C61, the colours on the Zeno 10 are a bit muted, but this largely comes down to display tuning.
| Display | Peak brightness | |
| Itel Zeno 10 | 6.6-inch HD+ LCD | 600 nits |
| POCO C61 | 6.71-inch HD+ LCD | 500 nits |
| Moto g04 | 6.56-inch HD+ LCD | 600 nits |
Cameras
The itel Zeno 10 features a basic camera system with an 8MP rear camera and a 5MP selfie lens. It is designed for simple point-and-shoot photography and prioritises utility over style. Daylight shots tend to be somewhat bland, with washed-out colours, soft textures, and noticeable noise. While you can capture decent pictures with some effort, it’s best to manage expectations.
In low light, the cameras struggle significantly, with images showing a lot of noise and lacking detail. The selfie camera faces similar challenges, producing soft images in daylight, though the colours appear slightly better. I compared its camera performance to its competitor, the POCO C61. Let’s take a look.
Daylight
In daylight, the POCO C61 takes sharper shots, but it falls through since it overexposes the image and blows out the shadows. The Itel Zeno 10, instead, maintains a good contrast and preserves the shadows, which makes the shot look more appealing.
Selfie
Both the POCO C61 and Itel Zeno 10 fail to capture facial details in their selfies, although the latter’s image is comparatively sharper. However, the POCO C61 has a better colour balance, as the Itel’s image appears washed out.
Low-light
In low light, both phones struggle, which is expected given their small sensors. The phones fail to capture sufficient light, resulting in underexposed images with soft details. Without a dedicated night mode for long-exposure shots, this is the best they can manage. The Itel Zeno 10 performs slightly better and captures more detail and sharper images compared to the POCO C61.
Performance and software
The itel Zeno 10 uses a modest Unisoc T603 chipset, paired with up to 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. I reviewed the 3GB RAM variant, and overall, I’m fairly satisfied with its performance. As expected for a phone in this price range, day-to-day usage does have lag, whether you’re scrolling through apps or browsing social media. Although this is a common limitation across most budget smartphones and not unique to the Itel phone.
Here are some benchmarks against the Moto g04 (review), a closely priced rival with a slightly better processor. We also tried pitting Zeno 10 against the POCO C61, but the latter couldn’t run the benchmarking apps.
We even tested its gaming capabilities, and while it’s suitable for casual games, don’t expect it to handle BGMI at a playable frame rate. Regular, less demanding games run smoothly enough for casual play. For software, the phone uses itelOS 14 based on Android 14 Go.
The OS is fairly basic and works well enough, with a dynamic bar feature that emulates the iPhone’s dynamic island. It pops up whenever there is a notification for at-a-glance information like charging animation, low battery reminder, and charge completion reminder, among other things.
| Pre-installed apps | Software updates | |
| Itel Zeno 10 | 41 | 2 years security |
| POCO C61 | NA | 2 years OS + 3 years security |
| Moto g04 | 45 | NA |
Battery and charging
The phone comes with a standard 5,000mAh battery with only 10W fast charging support. The phone’s PCMark score is a little low for its price bracket, although the battery does have good endurance and will last a day for most users. In our lab tests, which last roughly 2 hours and include YouTube streaming and gaming, the phone’s battery dropped an aggregate of 26 percent, which is on par with the price segment.
The charging speed is slow, as the phone takes approximately 3 hours to go from 20 to 100 percent. This makes it essential that the device charges overnight since it may disrupt active usage during the day.
| Battery size | Charging time | |
| Itel Zeno 10 | 5000 mAh | 170 minutes (10W) |
| POCO C61 | 5000 mAh | 145 minutes (10W) |
| Moto g04 | 5000 mAh | 131 minutes (10W) |
Final verdict
The Itel Zeno 10 offers good value at Rs 5,699 for the 3GB + 64GB variant and Rs 6,199 for the 4GB + 64GB option. It has a satisfactory display, decent battery life, and reliable everyday performance. The phone’s major downsides are its extremely long charging time and a fingerprint sensor that feels inconsistent at times.
Its key rivals include the POCO C61 and the Moto g04 (review), which come at a similar price point. The Moto g04 offers better performance and slightly better cameras, while the POCO C61 matches the Itel Zeno 10 in performance and battery life but lags in photography. If you’re on a tight budget or need a phone for a first-time user, the Itel Zeno 10 is a practical choice at its price.
Editor’s rating: 7.5/10
Reasons to buy:
- The phone features a simple yet practical design and comes with a good-quality, stylish case.
- The display offers decent colours and smooth performance.
- The phone delivers reliable everyday performance.
- The battery life is sufficient to last an entire day with moderate usage.
Reasons not to buy:
- The fingerprint sensor on the phone is somewhat inconsistent.
- The phone takes a long time to charge completely.
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Rs. 5,799.00
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