What’s new with the flagship?

Asus has released its latest flagship Android smartphone in the form of the Zenfone 12 Ultra. 

Running on Qualcomm’s flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, just how different is the Zenfone 12 Ultra from last year’s Zenfone 11 Ultra?

Considering both the Zenfone 12 Ultra and Zenfone 11 Ultra received a less-than-stellar three-star rating, we’ve compared our experiences to determine whether you should consider upgrading or not.

Pricing and Availability

At the time of writing, the Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra is only available in Europe and is not currently available in either the UK or US, with a starting RRP of €1099.99 ahead of its official launch on 28th February. That roughly equates to around £915.96/$1134.74.

Available globally, the Asus Zenfone 11 Ultra has an RRP of £949.99/$899.99/€999. While we would normally expect the older handset to drop in price, we’ll have to wait and see whether the Zenfone 12 Ultra will launch outside of Europe first. 

Design

• Although the Zenfone 12 Ultra looks like its predecessor, there are some differences
• The Zenfone 12 Ultra has a more compact, rectangular-like camera housing 
• Durability remains the same with the Zenfone 12 Ultra

At first glance, it’s fair to say that the Zenfone 12 Ultra looks a lot like the Zenfone 11 Ultra, sporting the same 8.9mm thickness and rounded corners, which means both handsets are extremely similar to the ROG Phone 9 Pro. However, look closer and you’ll spot a few key differences.

The Zenfone 12 Ultra’s camera housing remains at the upper-left of the handset’s rear but is more rectangular than the Zenfone 11 Ultra. Having said that, it still protrudes noticeably far from the phone, which we think looks unappealing. 

This year, Asus has matched the camera housing’s glass with the rear panel colour, which is a nice choice as it helps it blend better than its predecessor. Similarly, the Zenfone 12 Ultra has simple branding on the rear in lieu of last year’s striped design.

Otherwise, both the Zenfone 12 Ultra and Zenfone 11 Ultra’s screens are protected with Gorilla Glass Victus 2 and sport an IP68 rating. 

Winner: Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra

Screen

• The Zenfone 12 Ultra has the exact screen as its predecessor
• Asus has fixed the overly dim always-on display on the Zenfone 12 Ultra
• Both can reach a 144Hz refresh rate when gaming

There are very few differences between the screens of the Zenfone 12 Ultra and Zenfone 11 Ultra, as the two sport a 6.78-inch AMOLED display with an FHD+ resolution and a maximum brightness of 2500nits. 

One of our only issues with the Zenfone 11 Ultra was its always-on display, which is noticeably dimmer than other smartphones sporting the tech. Luckily, Asus has fixed this issue with the Zenfone 12 Ultra, making the always-on display much easier to see at a glance.

Winner: Zenfone 12 Ultra

Camera

• Asus’ stabilisation technology remains the most impressive aspect of both handsets’ camera
• Zenfone 12 Ultra sees no changes with its camera hardware from the 11 Ultra
• Neither handset delivers awe-inspiring images

One of the standout features of the Zenfone series is Asus’ gimbal stabilisation technology which helps to steady and smooth videos and produces sharp, detailed images. Now in its fourth generation with the Zenfone 12 Ultra, we found the technology really does an impressive job.

Otherwise, the Zenfone 12 Ultra retains the camera setup of the 11 Ultra, with 50MP main, 32MP 3x telephoto and 13MP ultrawide lenses. Unfortunately, this isn’t necessarily a good thing, especially considering we hailed the Zenfone 11 Ultra’s camera as merely “fine”.

While the main lens can capture fairly detailed images in both well and low-lit conditions, with colours appearing more natural than the likes of Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, we did note that both image and HDR processing could be improved. Although the secondary 3x telephoto lens remains a solid choice, which is backed up with a 32MP resolution for detailed results, shots captured with the 13MP ultrawide are too muddy.

Choosing a winner here is difficult, as both handsets aren’t particularly inspiring with their photography prowess and certainly won’t find their way onto our best camera phones list. However, as the Zenfone 12 Ultra sports the fourth-gen of stabilisation technology, whereas the Zenfone 11 Ultra has the third, the 12 Ultra takes the lead.

Winner: Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra

Performance

• Despite the Zenfone 12 Ultra running on the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, it only slightly bests the benchmark results of the Zenfone 11 Ultra
• The Zenfone 11 Ultra runs on last year’s flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset
• Although both handsets are capable of a solid gaming performance, they do tend to overheat

Found in the likes of the OnePlus 13 and Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, Qualcomm’s flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite processor has seriously impressed us with its sheer power and performance. Strangely, the Zenfone 12 Ultra doesn’t benefit from such impressive results and only slightly betters the Zenfone 11 Ultra which runs on last year’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor. 

While the Zenfone 12 Ultra received a single-core Geekbench 6 score of 2385, which is only marginally better than the Zenfone 11 Ultra’s 2242, the ROG Phone 9 Pro earned a whopping 3055. 

Its multi-core score tells a similar story, achieving 7523. Though higher than the Zenfone 11 Ultra’s 7035 score, it falls seriously short of the ROG Phone 9 Pro’s massive 9658.

Even so, both handsets feel snappy and responsive, with “buttery smooth scrolling”. The Zenfone 12 Ultra does handle intense gaming titles such as Call of Duty Mobile better than the Zenfone 11 Ultra, which we found would over-heat during gameplay.

The biggest issue here really is that the Zenfone 12 Ultra isn’t as powerful as it theoretically should be. 

Winner: Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra

Software

• The ZenUI Android skin is the most customisable around
• Both handsets are packed with AI-powered features, which the Zenfone 12 Ultra can run on-device
• Only two years of OS upgrades promised for the Zenfone 12 Ultra and Zenfone 11 Ultra

We appreciate the Zenfone series’ customisable approach to Android, as compatible handsets allow you to choose between Asus’ ZenUI skin and stock Android features. Although ZenUI is very close to stock Android, it’s nice to have this option. 

Across both handsets are multiple AI-powered tools, including translation, transcription and various photo editing features. Although this sounds somewhat impressive, we found most are more niche features that “don’t provide much additional value”. 

It’s worth noting that the Zenfone 12 Ultra can run all its AI tools on-device for added privacy, although this does considerably slow down the entire process. 

The biggest issue with both the Zenfone 12 Ultra and Zenfone 11 Ultra is their software commitments. Unlike the similarly priced Google Pixel 9 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus, which both offer seven years, Asus only promises two years of major Android updates and five years of security updates. 

Similarly the Zenfone 11 Ultra was only given two years of Android and four years of security updates, which will only take the handset to Android 16. In 2025, this simply isn’t good enough. 

Winner: Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra

Battery Life

• Zenfone 12 Ultra retains the 5500mAh battery of its predecessor
• Although both have 65W support, the Zenfone 12 Ultra charges faster than the Zenfone 11 Ultra

Although we were initially impressed by the Zenfone 11 Ultra’s 5500mAh battery cell, we are disappointed to see Asus has retained this capacity for the Zenfone 12 Ultra.

Having said that, we found that the handset easily lasts a full day with 30-40% battery remaining, and takes just 47 minutes to charge from 1-100%. The latter especially is an improvement on the Zenfone 11 Ultra which took 53 minutes to see a full charge.

The Zenfone 12 Ultra’s battery also seems slightly more efficient, as 60 minutes of Netflix drained just 7% of charge while the same saw an 8% decrease in the Zenfone 12 Ultra.

Otherwise, both handsets can also support 15W wireless charging for added convenience. 

Winner: Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra

Final Verdict

Not much has really changed with the Zenfone 12 Ultra, as Asus has retained the same camera setup, screen and battery capacity found in the Zenfone 11 Ultra. Although the Zenfone 12 Ultra does sport Qualcomm’s flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, it results in only slightly better performance than its predecessor. 

Having said that, the 12 Ultra is undoubtedly more capable at gaming than the 11 Ultra, so if you’re an avid gamer then this may boast the upper hand, although you’re likely to be better suited to one of our best gaming phones instead. 

As both handsets are only promised two years of software updates, it’s tough to recommend either smartphone. However, if you are firmly fixed on choosing a Zenfone, then we’d suggest the Zenfone 12 Ultra is the better choice.