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An ideal telephone that ought to value much less

February 7, 2025 11:01 pm

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ASUS phones have at all times piqued my curiosity partly as a result of I’m a fan of ASUS merchandise, however this could be my first time testing a Zenfone system. We did overview the Zenfone 11 Ultra final 12 months, however that was dealt with by one other individual on the staff. I’m sometimes concerned in reviewing ASUS’s ROG products as they revolve principally round gaming, so I used to be intrigued to see simply how a lot of ASUS’s gaming options bled into its extra common consumer-focused telephones. I’m completely happy to say that, as somebody who loves cell video games, the Zenfone 12 Ultra can suffice as a telephone that handles them nicely, even with out being designed round gaming.

All of that’s due to the inclusion of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset inside (you’ll additionally discover this contained in the Galaxy S25 Ultra and different telephones within the collection), together with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. Again, although, this isn’t a gaming telephone neither is it marketed to cell players. An enormous focus of the Zenfone line is capturing the patron who desires a high-quality telephone with good cameras and intuitive options. I’d say the Zenfone 12 Ultra matches in that class properly, nonetheless, ASUS is asking rather a lot by way of value for what’s being delivered.

Don’t get me mistaken, there are plenty of options right here on show (the show included) which can be very good to have. But some issues have me questioning if the Zenfone 12 Ultra is admittedly well worth the asking value of €1,099. That’s about $1,141.79 USD. So, it’s costly. That being mentioned, the Zenfone 12 Ultra is a well-made telephone that appears nice, and functionally I really feel it’s top-notch (for probably the most half). Does that warrant the value tag? Let’s dive deeper and have a look.

ASUS Zenfone 12 Ultra Review: Design and Build Quality

I’m simply going to come back proper out and say it with out beating across the bush. The ASUS Zenfone 12 Ultra is a really fashionable telephone. It has a modern, minimal aesthetic that I actually cherished concerning the ROG Phone 8 collection (the ROG Phone 9 carries the same minimal aesthetic) however dials issues again just a bit additional. Since this telephone is geared towards the typical shopper, you’ll discover no micro-LED shows on the again and no gaming design particulars of any type wherever.

What we’re left with on the Zenfone 12 Ultra is a telephone that feels premium and appears prefer it prices rather a lot (it does). One factor I feel ASUS has at all times been actually good about is telephone design. With the Zenfone 12 Ultra, it hasn’t dropped the ball, not even somewhat. Granted, I solely have many of the ROG Phones to go off of for comparability, however these have all felt and regarded actually top quality.

With the Zenfone 12 Ultra, the design is good and clear. The quantity up and down buttons and the ability button are on the fitting aspect of the telephone, with the USB-C charging port, 3.5mm audio jack, and SIM card tray on the underside. Since this isn’t a ROG Phone, there’s no secondary USB-C port on the left aspect. So like I mentioned, good and clear with no extras. The show is good and vibrant and seems to get very brilliant, and it’s an FHD+ Samsung Flexible AMOLED panel with a 120Hz refresh price.

The display can also be constituted of 22% recycled glass, whereas the telephone’s body is 100% recycled aluminum. My two favourite components of the design are the again of the telephone and the digicam bump. The digicam system on the again makes use of the identical dimension sensors as what’s on the ROG Phone 9 collection, however the bump is shorter and wider.

As for the telephone’s again, it’s a matte glass that’s good and clean and simply feels actually good to the contact. One of the principle gripes I had with the ROG Phone 8 Pro once I first held it was how slick the again felt. This nervous me as a result of I used to be afraid it will extra simply slip out of my arms. The Zenfone 12 Ultra doesn’t really feel like that in any respect, with the floor providing extra grip as you run your fingers throughout it. I’d nonetheless suggest getting a case although. The Zenfone 12 Ultra is available in three totally different coloration choices – Ebony Black, Sakura White, and Sage Green.

We have the Ebony Black mannequin, and it has an nearly tremendous refined blue tint in the fitting mild. Like a very, actually darkish midnight blue. It’s very good, and simply taking a look at every of the colours it’s clear ASUS put plenty of thought into deciding on those it did. Overall, the design is stable and to me, one of many best-looking telephones available on the market. The construct high quality additionally feels top-notch. In different phrases, nothing feels low-cost. When it involves the design and construct high quality, ASUS has knocked it out of the park.

ASUS Zenfone 12 Ultra Review: Display

When it involves the show on a telephone, it doesn’t take a lot to impress me. If it seems sharp and the colours are good, I’m pleased with it. If there are any little additional bonuses, it solely makes issues higher. In the case of the Zenfone 12 Ultra, the show is fairly good in nearly each means you’d desire a telephone show to be. It will get brilliant, the small print are good and sharp, and the colours are vivid.

And then there’s the added bonus right here of it being a 120Hz AMOLED panel. It may also enhance as much as 144Hz when gaming. So general, there’s actually nothing dangerous I’ve to say about it. Would it’s good if it was a better decision? Sure. I don’t assume it’s vital on a display this dimension, although, and I by no means have. I don’t assume I ever will. So whereas there are nicer shows on telephones on the market, I don’t assume it’s essential to have one for a greater consumer expertise.

In phrases of brightness, the display will get very brilliant when turned all the best way up. I haven’t been capable of check the height brightness because it’s chilly, wet, and snowy right here. But based mostly on how brilliant the show is now with simply maxing out the brightness bar, I don’t assume the Zenfone 12 Ultra may have a difficulty in direct daylight. ASUS says the height brightness is 2500 nits which is extremely brilliant. That being mentioned, you’ll probably by no means see the show get that brilliant since that was achieved in lab testing.

The extra necessary issue is the height brightness in High Brightness Mode, which ASUS tells us is 1600 nits. We didn’t fairly get these numbers in our personal testing. But we had been capable of get the display to round 1300 nits which continues to be extremely brilliant. There’s additionally an ‘Extra Brightness’ toggle you’ll be able to swap on to push the brightness a tad additional. This does make an precise distinction, too. It does drain extra battery life although. That being mentioned, this shouldn’t be an issue given the 5,500mAh battery and the 65W charging assist.

It’s additionally utilizing Gorilla Glass Victus 2 for display safety, and that ought to assist it resist scratches and perhaps even defend the panel within the occasion of a drop. Again, although, you’re higher off not taking the danger and placing a display protector on and slipping the telephone right into a case.

ASUS Zenfone 12 Ultra Review: Performance

This telephone has completely zero efficiency points relating to working any process you would possibly use a telephone for. You wouldn’t count on to have these sorts of issues anyway. With 16GB of RAM and the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, this telephone is a powerhouse. It even has the Game Genie software program that ASUS makes use of in its ROG Phone lineup. So if and while you do play cell video games, you’ll get some of these gaming options. Just not all of them.

With this sort of {hardware} on board, the Zenfone 12 Ultra crushes each single process you’ll be able to consider. In each day use, scrolling on the telephone was buttery clean, and launching apps or another operate by no means as soon as felt sluggish. As at all times, at the least from my perspective, gaming is the place this factor actually shines by way of efficiency.

Although it may possibly get a tad heat in the event you play demanding video games for an extended time period, that’s true of actually any high-performance telephone. After quite a lot of hour-long periods at minimal in video games like Honkai: Star Rail and Genshin Impact, the Zenfone 12 Ultra was nonetheless capable of coast alongside such as you’d simply booted up the sport. You can run graphics at max, with max body price, and all the things seems good and feels clean. It’s a efficiency powerhouse and that’s little question a part of this telephone’s excessive value.

Overall, there hasn’t been a single efficiency challenge when utilizing this telephone. Though, that’s to be anticipated with the form of {hardware} that’s inside.

Benchmarks

To put the efficiency on paper, we run all of our telephones by means of a collection of benchmarks to check how they deal with numerous duties. In the case of the Zenfone 12 Ultra, I’d say issues went fairly nicely. We use each Geekbench 6 and the 3D Mark Wildlife Extreme Stress Test to see the way it handles common CPU duties, in addition to high-performance GPU duties. Such as gaming. We additionally do a video export check utilizing CapCut. Unfortunately, I couldn’t run this check since CapCut is at the moment not obtainable to obtain from the Play Store within the US.

If that adjustments within the close to future, this overview shall be up to date to incorporate it.

First, let’s kick issues off with the Geekbench 6 check. When we ran this check for the single-core CPU rating, the Zenfone 12 Ultra really carried out fairly nicely. Outpacing the Galaxy S25 Ultra and popping out with a rating of three,170. For the multi-core CPU rating, it’s the quickest telephone we’ve examined thus far with a rating of 10,022, outdoors of the Snapdragon 8 Elite QRD which acquired a rating of 10,415. For the GPU rating, it carried out nicely right here too, with a rating of 20,351. Though it was far behind the iPhone 15 Pro Max and the iPhone 16 Pro.

Finally, for the 3D Mark Wildlife Extreme Stress check, the Zenfone 12 Ultra did fairly nicely save for the steadiness rating, which wasn’t nice. Its greatest loop was 6,958 whereas its lowest loop was 2,538. Meanwhile, its stability was solely 36.5%. So, not incredible. However, that is only a benchmark, and thus far in my expertise enjoying any video games with high-end graphics, the telephone has been high quality. Even after lengthy periods. So I wouldn’t fear an excessive amount of concerning the stability within the 3D Mark check.

Overall, the telephone did simply high quality within the benchmarks and is more likely to be one of many better-performing telephones on this space.

ASUS Zenfone 12 Ultra Review: Battery Life and Charging

Having used loads of ASUS ROG telephones by this level I used to be assured that the battery life on the Zenfone 12 Ultra wouldn’t disappoint me, and I used to be right. With a 5,500mAh battery inside, one wouldn’t count on the telephone to be something in need of superior by way of battery life. Especially while you couple that with fairly quick charging instances. The Zenfone 12 Ultra shines relating to longevity making it doable to take this telephone by means of about two days of use earlier than needing to plug it in.

That is after all, relying on how you utilize it. If you’re like me on some days, you utilize your telephone extra sparingly and you possibly can in all probability go away it off the charger for a second day with out fear. On different days, like on days once I not solely browse Reddit and the online but in addition play some cell video games, and many others., I’ll have to plug the telephone in at evening to ensure I’ve a full day of use the following day.

There had been instances like this for me up to now week of use with the Zenfone 12 Ultra. Where I’d used up many of the battery however not fully. I’d nonetheless have round 20%-30% battery left, however I knew that wouldn’t final me by means of one other full day, so I needed to plug it in. The good factor is that this telephone helps 65W charging (it additionally helps 15W wi-fi charging). During my check, it charged up somewhat quick. So all I needed to do was give myself simply sufficient time to get from 0% to 100% which was below an hour.

With my much less heavy use days, I used to be simply ready to make use of the telephone for a number of hours of screen-on time all through the day and nonetheless have battery life left. Specifically, I used to be capable of push it to about 11 hours of screen-on time over a 32-hour interval. That’s fairly good in the event you ask me. It’ll additionally turn out to be useful on days once I use the telephone rather a lot. Now, not everybody goes to want battery life like this, however let me inform you, it’s definitely good to have this sort of peace of thoughts. Knowing for a certainty that you just gained’t drain your telephone’s battery in below a day.

And on prime of that, even in the event you did, you possibly can cost it again up shortly. That’s the form of expertise you’ll be able to count on from the Zenfone 12 Ultra.

Benchmarks

When it involves battery life benchmarks, we check the battery life of each system by streaming a video till the telephone will get to 1% down from 100%, or till it dies in some circumstances. I prefer to take the telephone all the best way down till it shuts off. So what we do is we play a 24-hour YouTube video on the telephone and let it stream over Wi-Fi till it will get up to now. For my check, I pulled up this video, began a timer on my Pixel 8 on the actual second the video began, and I let each the video on the Zenfone 12 Ultra and the timer on my Pixel 8 run till the Zenfone 12 Ultra shut down.

When doing this, the Zenfone 12 Ultra ran for a complete of 23 hours, 28 minutes, and 18 seconds. It’s not the perfect battery lifetime of all of the telephones we’ve examined since we began doing these benchmarks. However, it’s definitely excessive up there, and higher than most. As for the charging, keep in mind this telephone has a 5,500mAh battery. It additionally helps 65W charging. In my testing, the telephone was capable of cost as much as 100% in 49 minutes and 18 seconds. This is fairly good, though there are a number of telephones we’ve examined that cost in much less time.

That being mentioned, a few of these telephones assist quicker than 65W charging. So that performs a think about these telephones charging up quicker, naturally. Overall, the battery life on the Zenfone 12 Ultra is admittedly fairly good. It costs up loads quick, too. In brief, I don’t assume any customers who decide this system up are going to have points with the battery life or the charging speeds.

ASUS Zenfone 12 Ultra Review: Software

When it involves software program, ASUS might be my favourite producer of Android gadgets. The expertise might be extremely personalized to provide the UI a personal touch. What’s good concerning the UI that ASUS makes use of is that it’s principally inventory. There’s little or no bloatware on the system to start with. And that’s already an enormous leg up on gadgets from different manufacturers.

That being mentioned, ASUS additionally offers you the flexibility to tweak this with the ‘ASUS Optimized’ UI. This adjustments just a few issues like the best way the amount slider seems and features. You may also do the identical factor for the incoming name display and some others. Additionally, there’s an possibility to separate the notification dropdown. On one thing just like the Pixel 8, while you swipe down on the show, you’ll get the notification panel. Swipe down once more and also you’ll get the short settings panel.

On the Zenfone 12 Ultra, you can preserve it like this. Which is nice in the event you take pleasure in this expertise. ASUS additionally has an possibility the place you’ll get a kind of panels or the opposite, relying on the place you swipe down from. This is the best way I’ve been utilizing the Zenfone 12 Ultra as a result of I like this consumer expertise. If I swipe down on the display within the left half of it, it brings down the notification panel. If I swipe down on the fitting half of it, I get the short settings panel.

ASUS shouldn’t be the one model to do one thing like this. That being mentioned, most manufacturers don’t implement it. And it’s really a very nice technique to preserve issues environment friendly. Less swipes and all that. The UI expertise outdoors of that is fairly much like the ROG Phone 8 Pro Edition I reviewed. Almost an identical actually. Save for just a few issues. For occasion, the Zenfone 12 Ultra is working on Android 15 out of the field. So it has just a few of these Android 15 options, which the ROG Phone 8 Pro didn’t have immediately.

It additionally has a number of new AI options, a lot of that are catered to the digicam. There are just a few that aren’t camera-related, although.

AI options, for higher or worse

Many of the AI options which can be geared towards the digicam I didn’t actually get to check correctly. However, there are a number of obtainable that may improve the images and movies you’re taking. For occasion, the Zenfone 12 Ultra gives AI Unblur, AI Magic Fill, AI Panning, and AI Tracking options. AI Magic Fill isn’t essentially what it seems like. It helps you to take away stuff from images. Like folks within the background and such.

AI Panning, then again, is form of like a portrait mode for shifting objects. Outside of those digicam options, AI has been baked into a number of different features. There’s an AI Call Translator for instance. This helps you to primarily translate calls in one other language in real-time as the decision is going on. You principally choose the incoming and outgoing languages, allow the AI Call Translator, after which begin the decision. I sadly couldn’t check this out, because the Zenfone 12 Ultra shouldn’t be being bought within the US.

Therefore, it didn’t work with my Google Fi service for voice calls. On a associated observe, the Zenfone 12 Ultra does assist eSIM. So in nations the place it does assist the networks, this can be a good characteristic. As previous ROG Phones have but so as to add this. There’s additionally an AI Article Summary characteristic. I discovered this to be most intriguing because it helps you to generate summarized variations of an article you discover on the internet. The AI works to create key factors of the article to provide you specifics. And ASUS even lets you choose localized or cloud-supported AI processing.

You can clearly choose localized on-device processing for extra privateness. However, having the AI faucet into the cloud works quicker and extra effectively. One main downside with this characteristic is that I couldn’t get it to work. I’ve had an article processing for days now. And it’s nonetheless telling me “Please wait” whereas it tries to summarize issues. This characteristic and a number of other of the opposite AI options are in beta. So that is partially to be anticipated. Still, it’s form of a bummer.

Additionally, the telephone has an AI Document Summary and AI Transcript. Not to say Google’s Circle to Search. There’s plenty of AI-powered performance right here. Some of it really works nice, and a few of it doesn’t, at the least in my expertise.

Game Genie

This may not be a gaming telephone however it does have the efficiency of a gaming telephone. This can also be an ASUS telephone, so it’s good to see that ASUS left the Game Genie in for the Zenfone 12 Ultra. What this characteristic does is carry up a UI overlay whereas in-game with a number of gaming-related options and settings. This solely comes up in video games and also you activate it by swiping towards the center from the highest left nook of the show.

Once this comes up, you’ll be able to swap between totally different efficiency modes like High Performance or Dynamic. There’s additionally a mode geared towards extending battery life. Additionally, you could have choices for dashing up the efficiency, organising macros, and disabling notifications. There are a number of options lacking from the ROG Phone model of the Game Genie, however it’s simply good that that is right here in any respect. As it’s a part of what makes gaming on an ASUS telephone particular.

ASUS Zenfone 12 Ultra Review: Camera

When it involves the digicam, I’m straightforward to please as a result of I keep in mind the times of completely horrible telephone cameras. I’m sufficiently old to have been round for the reason that first digicam telephones and again then, you had been simply completely happy to have a digicam in your telephone. Let’s be actual although. They had been horrible high quality footage.

Today’s telephone cameras are by comparability, distinctive. The high quality has gotten so good, it’s actually arduous to inform the distinction between most gadgets within the higher mid-range and above. With regard to the Zenfone 12 Ultra, the digicam is sort of good. I nonetheless assume the Pixel 8 digicam is best, however the Zenfone 12 Ultra takes some respectable images. Most of this comes right down to the software program and actually solely comes throughout (to me), with sure modes.

For instance, the portrait mode on images is simply not so good as it’s on the Pixel 8 which is my major each day driver. In common, although, the Zenfone 12 Ultra images are of nice high quality with clear particulars and fairly respectable coloration replica. The digicam additionally has some enjoyable AI-powered modes like AI Panning. What this does is allow you to take a photograph of a shifting object, comparable to a automobile, and it makes an attempt to maintain the topic as in focus as doable. Once the picture is taken, you’ll be able to faucet a button to extend this focus and blur extra of the background.

Similar to a portrait mode picture, however with a special form of blur. The form of blur you’d see in the event you had been photographing a fast-moving object. In phrases of specs, the Zenfone 12 Ultra makes use of a 50MP major digicam with a Sony Lytia 700 sensor and an up to date gimbal stabilizer. It additionally has a 13MP ultrawide-angle sensor with a 120-degree field-of-view and a 32MP telephoto digicam with 3x optical zoom and built-in Optical Image stabilization.

For the entrance digicam, it makes use of a 32MP RGBW sensor. Nothing wild. It can document in as much as 8K at 30 frames per second, too. If you need the perfect mixture of readability and smoothness, nonetheless, keep on with 4K at 60 frames per second. As this finally ends up wanting fairly good resolution-wise and it has little to no stutter. The zoom is fairly good however not almost pretty much as good as you’ll discover on telephones just like the Galaxy S25 Ultra. And that comes right down to each the sensors used and Samsung’s digicam software program.

Additionally, there’s an AI Portrait Video characteristic to blur the backgrounds of movies and an AI Voice Clarity to hone in on the vocals of movies the place there’s numerous background noise. This is very nice in the event you shoot plenty of movies along with your telephone. Especially in busy areas the place there are many folks or numerous ambient noise from the encompassing space. Such as a big metropolis. Overall, although, the digicam is fairly good and I’ve no actual complaints.

Should you purchase the ASUS Zenfone 12 Ultra?

Now, the massive query. Should you purchase this telephone? This system isn’t excellent, however then once more, no telephone is. There will at all times be a fault or two to search out with a brand new system, even these on the highest finish. That being mentioned, there are only some faults right here with the Zenfone 12 Ultra. It’s an important system. However, the few faults it does have are large enough that it would flip some folks off.

The digicam is fairly good however it gained’t be adequate for individuals who demand the perfect. The telephone additionally has fairly restricted international compatibility. ASUS might change that sooner or later. That being mentioned, ASUS was fairly clear earlier than we obtained the overview unit that the telephone was not going to be bought within the US. Which means it has no purpose to make the telephone work right here both. That’s a disgrace, as a result of it’s a very nice telephone, albeit a bit costly for what it’s.

So right here’s my take. If you reside within the US or the UK, it is best to clearly skip this telephone. Even in the event you might discover a technique to get your arms on it. It probably isn’t going to work in your wi-fi service. And on the finish of the day, the entire level of a telephone is to have the ability to make calls. If you reside in a area the place this will be bought, I feel it’s a good possibility. So lengthy as you don’t thoughts the excessive price ticket. Then once more, I do assume there are alternatives that may very well be thought-about a greater worth.

The Pixel 8, Pixel 9, and Galaxy S25 collection are all glorious. These additionally work in much more areas, and value much less for the bottom mannequin system.