If you held out hope that Asus would reconsider its decision to go from a rare compact Zenfone 10 flagship to a trend-following Zenfone 11 Ultra giant last year, the Zenfone 12 Ultra will likely greatly disappoint you with its massive 6.78-inch display.
Does that number sound familiar? That's probably because the freshly unveiled ultra-high-end Android handset retains the screen size (and resolution) of the 2024-released Zenfone 11 Ultra... and ROG Phone 9 Pro. Unfortunately, that's far from the only thing the "new" phone "borrows" from its forerunner and gaming-centric cousin, and after taking a quick look at the following spec sheet, you may well be left scratching your head and wondering exactly what's changed here.
Death to innovation!
Flexible AMOLED screen with 2400 x 1080 pixel resolution and up to 144Hz refresh rate support;
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite processor with up to 4.3GHz CPU clock speeds and Adreno 830 GPU;
12 and 16GB RAM options;
256 and 512GB storage variants;
50MP primary rear-facing camera with Sony Lytia 700 sensor and updated gimbal stabilizer;
13MP secondary ultra-wide-angle lens;
32MP telephoto camera with f/2.4 aperture, 3X optical zoom, and built-in OIS;
32MP single front-facing camera;
5,500mAh battery with 65W wired and 15W wireless charging capabilities;
Android 15 software;
Dual stereo speakers;
3.5mm headphone jack;
In-display fingerprint sensor;
IP68 water and dust resistance;
163.8 x 77 x 8.9mm dimensions;
220 grams weight;
Ebony Black, Sakura White, and Sage Green color options.
Okay, so the big change is basically Qualcomm's state-of-the-art new Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC, which will obviously vastly improve the Zenfone 12 Ultra's overall performance compared to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3-powered Zenfone 11 Ultra. But that was kind of a given, especially after the ROG Phone 9 Pro came out with Snapdragon 8 Elite inside nearly three months ago.
The Zenfone 12 Ultra and Zenfone 11 Ultra are nearly identical at a first (and second, and third) glance. | Image Credit -- PhoneArena
Pretty much everything else is unchanged, and I do mean every... little... thing from the 50 + 32 + 13MP triple rear-facing camera system to the 5,500mAh battery capacity and charging support, the storage and memory options, and even the overall design language.
Like its undeniably gorgeous predecessor, the Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra comes with a matte glass body, "elegantly" rounded corners, and "ultra-narrow" bezels, although for what it's worth, the product weight is reduced by a few grams while the height, width, and depth are essentially unchanged.
That's really not worth much in terms of design innovation or even refinement, but if we leave the Zenfone 11 Ultra (and ROG Phone 9 Pro) aside for a second, the Zenfone 12 Ultra's specs are objectively not bad. They're not groundbreaking, but they're largely in line with many of the best Android phones out there right now.
Betting everything on AI
Do you want to guess how many times AI is mentioned in a roughly 700-word press release announcing the launch of the Zenfone 12 Ultra? 26 times. And that's not counting the 19 additional mentions in the spec sheet below the actual announcement that I intentionally left out of the list above to quickly discuss in the following lines.
It's crystal clear that Asus expects artificial intelligence to prove the key selling point of its latest Android flagship, but unfortunately for the Taiwan-based outfit, the same essentially goes for every other smartphone manufacturer in business today.
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And as intriguing as some of these AI Magic Fill, AI Unblur, AI Document Scanner, AI Tracking, AI Voice Clarity, AI Portrait Video 2.0, AI Transcript 2.0, and AI Article Summary tools might sound to people unfamiliar with the mobile industry's progresses this last year or so, it's hard to find something truly unique or revolutionary in there.
Our in-depth Zenfone 12 Ultra review (which is already live) largely confirms that assumption, describing most of these AI-powered features as a "proof of concept" rather than fully fleshed-out components capable of revolutionizing your user experience as you used to know it and setting this particular device apart from the competition.
Pricing and (lack of) availability
You know how the Zenfone 11 Ultra is not available through any US carriers, but can be purchased from its manufacturer's regional website starting at $899.99 (or a lot less if you know when to look)?
That's apparently not going to be the case for the Zenfone 12 Ultra, which is definitely sad but not entirely shocking. In Europe, the ultra-high-end handset is priced at €1,099 in an entry-level configuration, which equates to nearly $1,150. Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean the Zenfone 12 Ultra would have started at over $1,100 or even $1,000 stateside, but hypotheticals like that no longer matter very much.
The Zenfone 12 Ultra is not coming to the US. | Image Credit -- PhoneArena
What matters instead is that Asus is leaving the door open for "future Zenfone models" to be made available in the US, so perhaps we'll see a redesigned and substantially improved Zenfone 13 Ultra released around those parts next year. Let a boy dream, will you?
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Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian's passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for 'adequate' over 'overpriced'.
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