Zenfone 12 Ultra teaser shows a feature you may have loved - a decade ago

Zenfone 11 Ultra. | Image Credit - PhoneArena

The phone will be unveiled on February 6, and the teaser shows the phone itself very briefly. We are able to see the Zenfone's thin bezels and center punch-hole for the selfie camera. It's pretty much looking quite like the ROG Phone 9 Pro, which is already on the market.

But then the teaser's main focus is the headphone jack. I still remember the shock almost all of us felt when the iPhone 7 came without a headphone jack. It wasn't the first phone to remove the headphone jack but it set the trend, and before we knew it, we became accustomed to not seeing headphone jacks on phones anymore. And we seem to have moved on.

Nevertheless, some argue (and rightfully so) that wired headphones deliver better sound quality than wireless ones, no matter how fancy. There will always be some sound loss over Bluetooth, but to many people, the difference isn't that perceivable.

How good of an idea is to flaunt a headphone jack on a flagship in 2025?

First of all, wireless headphones are continuously improving in audio quality. Active noise cancellation, something many models of best wireless headphones and earbuds offer, is not prevalent in wired headphones.

Then come the actual numbers. According to a Canalys report from 2024, wireless earbuds experienced an 8% growth while wireless headphones a 12% growth compared to 2023. Meanwhile, a study from Research and Markets shows a growing trend of wireless audio equipment that is expected to continue in 2025 and even into 2030.

This basically means that the market is expected to demand more wireless earbuds and headphones instead of wired ones. Of course, wired ones will remain in use as they are still offering studio-quality sound and professional musicians, producers or video editors definitely need the top gear. But then comes the Zenfone, which isn't technically positioning itself as a musician's phone, right?

Of course, in the wired headphones defense, I need to mention that having wired headphones is also better for gaming due to latency that some wireless headphones or earbuds experience. The Zenfone 12, however, isn’t the gaming-centered ROG Phone either, despite certain similarities between them.

Nevertheless, some people may like to have the headphone jack on the Zenfone. Wireless headphones are more convenient as they don't get impossible-to-fix dangles in their wires, but they do come with the drawback of needing to be charged every now and then.

However, it does seem that having a headphone jack on the phone won't be the real game-changer Asus is looking for. In order to challenge the likes of the Galaxy S25 Ultra, Pixel 10 Pro, OnePlus 13, and others, the Zenfone will need to pack some serious power.

And it may probably do so, judging by leaked details. We expect the phone to come with the flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite, a hefty 5,800mAh battery, and "the full AI experience", whatever this would mean (contextual AI?). Meanwhile, rumors indicate a 6.78-inch LTPO AMOLED display, IP68 rating, 16GB of RAM (that would once again rub salt in the Galaxy S25 Ultra's 12GB RAM wound), and a triple camera system with a 50MP main camera to complete the package.

Unfortunately, the phone is said to come with only two years of Android updates, which is seriously lacking compared to the competition.