The Zenfone 12 Ultra officially launches today, but unlike previous generations, this one won’t be sold in the US.
As expected, the 12 Ultra is a de-gamer-ified ROG Phone 9 Pro with a big screen, a Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, and a unique gimbal-like stabilizer in the main camera. It’s the same formula Asus followed with the Zenfone 11 Ultra, which was a fine device but failed to stand out in a sea of other big Android phones. Now, this edition isn’t even making landfall on our shores.
As you’d expect of a phone with gaming DNA, the 12 Ultra offers a big 5,500mAh battery. It supports 65W wired charging and up to 15W wireless charging via the Qi 1.3 standard — no Qi2 here. The 6.78-inch screen is an LTPO panel with variable refresh rates from 1 to 120Hz, and its 1080p resolution is a little low for a panel of this size.
The 12 Ultra, naturally, comes with a load of AI features. There’s AI background noise removal for video recording, AI-powered semantic search in the photo gallery, AI voice memo transcription, and AI document summarization. AI, AI, AI. These are all very familiar and seemingly a pre-requisite for any phone in 2025.
The 12 Ultra’s less familiar feature is its gimbal-like image stabilization, which is in its fourth iteration. Like previous versions, it offers hardware-based shake correction, combined with an updated electronic stabilization algorithm. In previous models, it’s been a genuinely cool feature and very effective at smoothing out bumpy camera footage.
Outside of the stabilization upgrade, the 12 Ultra’s camera hardware is unchanged from the 11 Ultra with a 50-megapixel main camera, 32-megapixel 3x telephoto, and a 13-megapixel ultrawide on the rear panel. On the software side, there’s a set of iPhone Photographic Styles-like color grading adjustments to adjust your preferred preset for color temperature and saturation in your shots.
Asus spokesperson Anthony Spence says that the decision to not bring the Zenfone 12 Ultra to North America “does not rule out the possibility of future Zenfone models being made available in the US,” so maybe this isn’t the end of the Zenfone line in the states. But it does seem to be further confirmation that the small Zenfone is dead. Long live the small phone.
The Zenfone 12 Ultra will start at €1,099 (about $1,145).
