Zenfone 12 Ultra vs Zenfone 11 Ultra: find the differences
Intro
The Asus Zenfone used to be the "Compact flagship" of Android land. The last one! Until the Zenfone 10, that is, which is now 2 years old. Since then, Asus gave up on trying to support that segment of the market — apparently, it's very, very small. Last year’s Zenfone 11 Ultra, was anything but compact. With a 6.8-inch screen, it was about the size of the humongous Galaxy S24 Ultra.
And now, the Zenfone 12 Ultra comes in the same shell. Actually, quite literally — it's the same shape, size, and build. Minor facelifts here and there, and of course — new hardware inside.
But does the Zenfone 12 Ultra come with enough new features and updates to warrant its existence. Or is a discounted Zenfone 11 Ultra the better option in 2025?
But does the Zenfone 12 Ultra come with enough new features and updates to warrant its existence. Or is a discounted Zenfone 11 Ultra the better option in 2025?
Zenfone 12 Ultra vs Zenfone 11 Ultrra differences explained:
| Zenfone 12 Ultra | Zenfone 11 Ultra |
|---|---|
| Repeat of the same design, clean back with no accents | Extra-large Zenfone build, as big as contemporary phablets |
| Updates 6-axis gimbal optical image stabilizer | 6-axis gimbal OIS |
| Comes with Android 15, will get Android 17 | Came with Android 14, will get Android 16 |
| Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite, 3 nm | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, 4 nm |
| 12 GB / 256 GB 16 GB / 512 GB | 12 GB / 256 GB 16 GB / 512 GB |
| Loud, bassy stereo speakers, headphone jack | Loud, bassy stereo speakers, headphone jack |
| 5,500 mAh battery 65 W wired 15 W wireless | 5,500 mAh battery 65 W wired 15 W wireless |
Well that's a bit awkward. The differences are small, from the outside — miniscule. Let's delve a bit deeper.
Table of Contents:
Design and Display Quality
Pass me the Zenfone 12 Ultra. No, that's the 11 ultra
Minor differences (Image credit - PhoneArena)
The Zenfone 12 Ultra closely follows in the curves of the Zenfone 11 Ultra. In fact, some may say that it's encased in the very same body. It features a massive 6.8-inch display, an aluminum frame, and a matte glass back. While the 11 Ultra had a few streaks on its back to give it a bit of an aggressive styling, the Zenfone 12 Ultra opts for a cleaner look, with only a small, subtle logo centered on the back glass. The camera module on the 12 Ultra is slightly redesigned — it still sticks out, but it's overall a smaller block.
The Zenfone 12 Ultra is available in three colors: Ebony Black, Sage Green, and Sakura White (it's pink, despite the name). The Zenfone 11 Ultra was available on more color options — Eternal Black, Misty Grey, Skyline Blue, Verdure Green, and Desert Sand. So already, we are feeling like some things went missing.
The green one is the old one (Image credit - PhoneArena)
They weigh about the same at 220 g vs 224 g, and measure pretty much the same at 163.8 x 77 x 8.9 mm vs 163.8 x 76.8 x 8.9 mm (Zenfone 12 Ultra vs 11 Ultra, respectively).
Samsung-made AMOLED panels (Image credit - PhoneArena)
The displays are 6.78" in diagonal and have AMOLED panels made by Samsung. The resolution on both is 2400 x 1080 pixels, making for a PPI of 388. Purists would say "not sharp enough", but we find them to be nicely detailed. They are LTPO and can go from 1 Hz for always-on-display to 120 Hz for super-smooth animations. Within games, you can get them to 144 Hz for that extra oomph. But yes, they look and operate the same. And you have color calibration options within settings to tune them to taste — from saturated and cold to realistic and warm.
Display Measurements:
Our measurements also reaffirm that these are more or less the same panels. Of course, there are minor tolerances, but you will get the same 2,500 nit peak brightness and same 5.9 nit minimum brightness. That latter one is still a disappointment — it's not ideal for nighttime viewing, where you want 1 nit or less.
Performance and Software
Elite vs 3rd gen
ZenUI for complete calm (Image credit - PhoneArena)
The Zenfone is considered a flagship, therefore it gets the flagship chip of the year. That'd be the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite this year — the first 3 nm Snapdragon with more power and more energy efficiency (and more heat). Thus far, every other phone that has launched with the Elite has beat the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in their predecessor. Surely, we'll get the same results?
Performance Benchmarks:
Surprisingly, no we did not. In fact, the Zenfone 12 Ultra hovers around the score of the Zenfone 11 Ultra. Why? Maybe thermals were an issue, or maybe Asus wants to keep the top score for the ROG Phone. It bears mention that, when it throttles, the Zenfone 12 Ultra throttles much less than the 11 Ultra did (3DMark low scores).
Both of these models come with either 12 GB RAM and 256 GB of storage, or 16 GB RAM and 512 GB storage. Those are LPDDR5X anf UFS4.0 chips, so we do get the fast hardware treatment, no worries there.
The software here is Android 15 on the Zenfone 12 Ultra. The 11 Ultra should get it soon. It comes with some new AI features, but we can't say which ones will also be available on the Zenfone 11 Ultra. Though, anything that's Google-provided (like Circle to Seach) definitely will.
- AI summary for websites and documents
- AI live translation for calls (even through 3rd party apps like WhatsApp)
- AI transcript for voice recordings
- Semantic Search
- Cirle to Search with Google
- AI object tracking when recording video
- AI-assisted video portrait mode
- AI Voice Clarity to clear noises from videos
- AI Magic Fill (Magic Eraser)
- AI Photo Unblur
The ZenUI interface is very light and vanilla-Android-like. But it comes with a pretty modest update commitment — 2 Android builds post-release, and 4 years of security patches. That goes for both Zenfones here.
Camera
Same specs, but new gimbal
Same specs, slightly different performance, but not better (Image credit - PhoneArena)
Last year, Asus started putting physical gimbal stabilizers in the ROG Phones and Zenfones — kind of part of the reason why the camera module looks a bit blocky. This year, the stabilizer was "upgraded" with a couple extra degrees of stabilization added. That's cool, but the camera sensors seem to be the same. And the post-processing hasn't gotten an upgrade, too, which was and us much-neeeded.
PhoneArena Camera Score:
And that can be see in our benchmark score. We use specific, set-in-stone processes to measure sharpness, exposure, and the overall camera experience. The Zenfone 12 Ultra doesn't show much improvement over the Zenfone 11 Ultra. And they are both lagging behind the competition.
Main Camera
The Zenfone camera struggles with details, dynamic range, and colors. Unfortunately, this hasn't approved this year. In fact, both cameras seem to deliver identical performance. Fine details are jagged and oversharpened, with some halo-ing around them. The colors and contrast of the Zenfone 12 Ultra are a step above the 11 Ultra, we will give it that. Its pictures are more textured and slightly more realistic, compared to the pink-ish pale imaging of the Zenfone 11 Ultra. But it still has a long way to go.
It doesn't get better in low-light situations when the phones amp the exposure up. Skintone gets easily washed out, and dynamics take yet another hit. The Zenfone 12 Ultra photo lacks detail and looks a bit like a painting with its wide contrast and sudden shifts in exposure. The Zenfone 11 Ultra photo is more evenly exposed, but looks a bit uncanny, with a pale skintone and lack of depth in the details.
Zoom Quality
The oversharpening is even more apparent when you reach for that zoom slider. At 10x, the phones generally keep it together to give you a clear photo, but not for beautiful memorabilia. Exposure starts to suffer, and details are visibly oversharpened by the software, giving you very clear halos and weird jagged edges.
Ultra-wide Camera
The ultra-wide camera of the Zenfone 12 Ultra does feel like it has been tuned to have a similar color reproduction as the main one, where the Zenfone 11 Ultra veers towards more saturated colors, and neon-blue skies. But you will notice that both create HDR ghosts — look at those birds! Again, not ideal, nowhere near what we'd want from a 2025 flagship phone.
Selfies
Unfortunately, skintones remain pale and yellowish even with the selfie camera. And even though both front snappers have a 32 MP sensor underneath, we can't promise you much detail there. Yes, beard and hair will appear sharp, thanks to the software. But details like wrinkles in the skin dissapear in a smoothed mush.
More Camera Samples
Video quality
In video both phones' stabilization seems to be performing similarly. In terms of dynamic range and contrast, they appear to be the same. The Zenfone 12 Ultra definitely has a warmer, slightly more vibrant image to it. Oversharpening is present on both.
Battery Life and Charging
And again — same
5,500 mAh again (Image credit - PhoneArena)
The Zenfone 11 Ultra came with a 5,500 mAh battery. The Zenfone 12 Ultra... we are spotting a pattern here — comes with the same battery in the same-sized body. What's left to ask is "will the 3 nm Snapdragon drain less battery?". Well, we put them to the test:
PhoneArena Battery and Charging Test Results:
Well, it seems the Zenfone 11 Ultra is actually better in this field. More energy-efficient or not, the Snapdragon 8 Elite is a battery-guzzling beast. Though, the Zenfone 12 Ultra definitely keeps it together for a long time. It's a bit of a shocker that it's the YouTube streaming that knocks it down. But when it comes to gaming or constant web browsing, we still got it to run for well north of 10 hours.
Audio Quality and Haptics
Same body, same battery, did we expect different speakers? The Zenfone 12 Ultra is tuned slightly differently, with a bit of a shift in the bass, but nothing noteworthy. Both of these phones have loud, meaty speakers that you can fine-tune with an EQ baked into the software. And both click and clack with the same, responsive haptic motors.
Specs Comparison
Overall, if we have to find what's different about these phones, we have to look at the specs underneath the shells. Well, here we go:
| Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra | Asus Zenfone 11 Ultra |
|---|---|
| Repeat of the same design, clean back with no accents | Extra-large Zenfone build, as big as contemporary phablets |
| 6.45 x 3.03 x 0.35 inches (163.8 x 77 x 8.9 mm) 220 g | 6.45 x 3.02 x 0.35 inches (163.8 x 76.8 x 8.9 mm) 224 g |
| Recycled aluminum frame, matte glass back | Recycled aluminum frame, matte glass back |
| The fastest Qualcomm chip –– the 3nm Snapdragon 8 Elite | Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy, 4 nm, still pretty good |
| Gorilla Glass Victus 2 front | Gorilla Glass Victus 2 front |
| 6.8-inch Samsung AMOLED display 1-120 Hz, 144 Hz available when gaming | 6.8-inch Samsung AMOLED display 1-120 Hz, 144 Hz available when gaming |
| 12 GB / 256 GB 16 GB / 512 GB LPDDR5X / UFS4.0 | 12 GB / 256 GB 16 GB / 512 GB LPDDR5X / UFS4.0 |
| 50 MP main camera 13 MP ultrawide 32 MP 3x zoom camera 32 MP front camera | 50 MP main camera 13 MP ultrawide 32 MP 3x zoom camera 32 MP front camera |
| 5,500 mAh 65 W wired 15 W Qi1.3 wireless charging (no magnets) | 5,500 mAh 65 W wired 15 W Qi1.3 wireless charging (no magnets) |
Which one should you buy?
Is the new one even worth it? (Image credit - PhoneArena)
Let's say you are dead-set on buying a Zenfone because... you have your reasons. It's really hard to argue that the Zenfone 12 Ultra is the better pick here. The only thing that comes to mind is that its software support will ensure that you will get Android 17 and security patches up until early 2029, whereas the Zenfone 11 Ultra will stop at Android 16 with patches until 2028. Yeah, Asus still commits to 2 Android builds and 4 years of software patches.
So, if you happen to come across a Zenfone 11 Ultra at an incredible discount, and are wondering to yourself "Hey, maybe the Zenfone 12 Ultra is much better and worth full price?". No, jump on that deal.
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