Having turned its back on compact flagships last year, Asus has doubled down on big-screen smartphones for 2025 with the Zenfone 12 Ultra. This photography-focused beast might not offer much for fans of minuscule mobiles, but everyone else can expect top-tier performance, a big battery, and a lead shooter that promises gimbal-level stability when snapping or filming. And naturally there’s been a slathering of AI as well.
Essentially an ROG Phone 9 stripped of its gamer credentials, the Zenfone 12 Ultra sticks to current phone trends (flat screen, rounded corners, flat frame) and loses the funky AniMe Vision display at the rear. At 6.78in it’s as big as its closest competition, and the same size as last year’s Asus Zenfone 11 Ultra – despite that phone getting a tepid reception after years of compact Zenfone flagships.
What’s left is a minimal-looking handset that majors on eco-friendly materials, with a 100% recycled aluminium frame and 22% recycled glass for the 6.78in screen.
There’s a Samsung-supplied LTPO AMOLED panel underneath, with a 1-120Hz adaptive refresh rate that can hit an even speedier 144Hz while gaming. Expect a 2400×1080 resolution and 2500 nit peak brightness. It’s paired with dual stereo speakers and – in what might be the last of a dying breed – a 3.5mm headphone port.
Underneath, a Snapdragon 8 Elite CPU provides the performance muscle, along with up to 16GB or RAM and 512GB of storage. The chipset’s NPU will come in handy for Asus’ comprehensive suite of AI-accelerated apps, which use Meta’s Meta Llama 3 8B language model. Live foreign language translation while on phone calls, voice recorder transcription, and document and web page summaries can all be done on device, rather than rely on the cloud. Google’s Circle to Search also makes an appearance, and Asus’ own semantic search should make it easier to find specific shots in your camera gallery app.
Speaking of cameras, Asus reckons the Zenfone 12 Ultra’s lead 50MP snapper is as stable as it gets. The latest version of the firm’s 6-Axis Hybrid Gimbal promises ±5 degrees of vibration compensation, which is a whopping 66% improvement over the outgoing Zenfone 11 Ultra. AI powered subject detection and tracking with smooth automatic zoom should make for properly smooth video, without the need for any extra hardware.
There’s also a 32MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom and optical image stabilisation, a 13MP ultrawide with 120 degree field of view, and a 32MP selfie cam up front. They get access to Asus’ new Photo Vibes colour presets, and an AI Panning Shot for crisp snaps of fast-moving subjects.
The 5500mAh battery isn’t quite as beefy as the one find in the ROG Phone 9, but charges at a respectably speedy 65W over USB-C. It can handle 15W wireless top-ups too, but unfortunately becomes the latest high-end Android phone to arrive without Qi2 magnetic charging support.
The Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra is hitting Europe and Asia first. Snap one up between the 6th and 28th of February and it’ll set you back €1000, with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage in Ebony Black, Sakura White or Sage Green colours. Prices will climb to €1100 once the early bird special runs out.
There’s currently no word on a UK or US release.
