Employee's tweet leaves Asus ZenFone 5 Android 10 update prospects hanging in the air

Asus has been pretty good with Android updates for most of its handsets so far, with even the budget-friendly ZenFone Max Pro M1 from 2018 recently getting updated to Android 10. However, a few Asus devices may not be so lucky. 

An Asus France employee, who goes by the name Olivier Vongxay tweeted in January the status of Android 10 rollout for various Asus devices in France. According to Vongxay, Android 10 for the ZenFone 6 and ZenFone 5Z has already been deployed while the ROG Phone 2 got the update in January (most regions are still in Beta 6, however). The ZenFone Max Pro M1 is already on Android 10 in most regions while the ZenFone Max Pro M2 is slated to get the update sometime in February 2020.

Users of ZenFone 5 (Snapdragon 636), which launched as a mid-range version of the ZenFone 5Z, asked Vongxay about the update status for their device but did not get an answer in the affirmative. Vongxay replied that the Max Pro M1 is easier to update as it is running stock Android compared to the ZenUI-based ZenFone 5. But when reminded about the fact that even the ZenFone 5Z runs ZenUI, the Asus France representative said that completely different chipsets means a lot more work needs to be done. 

While Vongxay's tweets imply that there is a chance of the ZenFone 5 not getting provisioned to receive Android 10, employee tweets do not always indicate the official stance of the company. OEMs generally prioritize major OS updates based on various factors including device age, sales, and customer demand, among others. So, for the moment, there is no clue as to when (and if) Android 10 would grace the ZenFone 5. We will update the article if we get any official confirmation directly from Asus.

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