ASUS

Zenfone 12 Ultra...The model shares several specifications with the ROG Phone 9, launched last year, but brings some refinements, mainly in the photography set.

The Zenfone 12 Ultra is launched a little earlier than its predecessor, which was made official in March last year. While the design does not bring significant changes, the hardware brings upgrades, such as the Snapdragon 8 Elite platform and the main camera sensor.

ASUS used 100% recycled aluminum in the frame of the device and 22% recycled glass for the screen. In terms of colors, the device is available in Sage Green, Ebony Black and Sakura White. It is also IP68 certified for water and dust resistance. The flagship features a 6.78-inch Samsung E6 LTPO AMOLED display with Full HD+ resolution, adaptive refresh rate of 1 to 120 Hz or 144 Hz in games, maximum brightness of 2,500 nits and Gorilla Glass Victus 2 protection.

Under the hood, there is Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite platform with up to 16 GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 512 GB of UFS 4.0 internal storage. The SoC promises 45% better CPU performance, as well as 40% faster GPU and NPU performance.

For energy, there is a 5,500 mAh battery unit, 65W fast charging and 15W wireless charging (Qi 1.3). According to data from ASUS, the device goes from 0 to 100% in just 39 minutes when plugged in and has a battery life of up to 26 hours.

In terms of photography, the Zenfone 12 Ultra features the new 50-megapixel Sony Lytia-700 main sensor with the new generation of six-axis hybrid gimbal stabilization (version 4) that promises to deliver 66% better performance than the stabilization of the Zenfone 11 Ultra (version 3).

The other sensors include a 32-megapixel telephoto camera with optical stabilization and 3x optical zoom with HyperClarity zoom that ranges from 10 to 30x, as well as a 13-megapixel ultrawide with a 120° field of view. For selfies and video calls, there is a 32-megapixel RGBW front camera.

The ASUS Zenfone 12 Ultra follows the industry trend and features several AI features, both local and in the cloud. One of them is Meta's Llama 3 8B model that works locally and can be used for high-quality text summarization. Another feature that works locally is AI Call Translator 2.0, which, as its name suggests, translates calls in real time in the Phone app and third-party apps that support VoIP calls. Recorder features AI Transcript 2.0, which summarizes and transcribes audio.

Interestingly, the Zenfone 12 Ultra is one of the few flagships on the market to feature a P2 headphone jack. The device features Dirac Virtuo technology, which works with both wired and wireless audio devices.

Asus' new phone won't be sold in the US but last year's model is heavily discounted...Asus just announced the Zenfone 12 Ultra but it will get limited availability, skipping key markets such as the US. There's the ROG Phone 9 if you absolutely want an Asus smartphone with the latest chipset and there's also last year's Zenfone 11 Ultra which has received a huge discount.

Asus has announced two new smartphones this week. The first is the ROG Phone 9 FE which is a cheaper version of the ROG Phone 9 Pro. It also unveiled the Zenfone 12 Ultra which is a sort of non-gamer version of the ROG Phone 9.

While the former is only available in Thailand for now with no report of its availability in other markets yet, the Zenfone 12 Ultra has been announced in multiple regions save for one key one. As a matter of fact, it won't be launching in that region.

According to The Verge, the Zenfone 12 Ultra will not be sold in the US and North America as a whole. Asus didn't provide a reason for this decision, but if we could wager a guess, we'd say the Zenfone line probably doesn't sell as much as the ROG Phone series in the region. Although an Asus spokesperson reportedly says that the Zenfone 12 Ultra not getting a North American release does not rule out the possibility of future Zenfone models being made available in the US.

The Zenfone 12 Ultra is available in Europe for €1,099 which converts to about $1,142. That's a little less than Samsung's Galaxy S25 Ultra which is available to pre-order on Amazon for $1299.99 (512GB version). Samsung's phone packs more features and will get significantly better software support but has less RAM, a smaller battery, and charges slower.

On the other hand, you can save yourself a lot of money by purchasing last year's Zenfone 11 Ultra which is available to buy from Asus's online store for just $629.99, a significant discount off its $899 launch price. It shares a lot of its features with the newer model such as the display size, camera configuration, battery capacity, and charging speed. However, it has just 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, whereas the Zenfone 12 Ultra has 16GB RAM and 512GB storage.]

mundophone