Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra Review
Pros
- Supports on-device AI
- Highly customisable approach to Android 15
- Fast charging capabilities
- 144Hz refresh rate is great for gaming
Cons
- Hardware is near-identical to the Zenfone 11 Ultra
- On-device AI processing can be slow
- Some notable AI features are missing
- Only two OS upgrades promised
Key Features
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Snapdragon 8 Elite power The Zenfone 12 Ultra sports Qualcomm's top-end chipset for 2025, the Snapdragon 8 Elite.
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On-device AI Unlike most alternatives, all AI functions on the Zenfone 12 Ultra are performed entirely on-device.
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Universal 65W charging While not the fastest around, support for USB-C PD means you can use a regular 65W USB-C charger to achieve the fastest speeds.
Introduction
The Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra is the company’s non-gaming flagship smartphone for 2025, going all-in on AI rather than hardware upgrades.
That means that you’re getting a very familiar device despite an increase of €100 in Europe, with Asus hoping that the prospect of AI that runs entirely on-device is enough to entice them away from more established (and arguably more capable) flagship alternatives like the Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus, OnePlus 13 and Oppo Find X8 Pro.
Has the gamble paid off? I’m not quite so sure.
Pricing & availability
In a bit of a twist compared to the Zenfone 11 Ultra, Asus isn’t selling the Zenfone 12 Ultra in either the UK or US. It is instead focusing on the European market. For now, anyway.
In Europe, you’re looking at a starting price of €1099.99 for the single 16GB/512GB variant. An increase of €100 compared to last year’s flagship. It’s available for a slightly cheaper €999.99 until 28 February. That’s around £914/$1129 and £832/$1033 respectively.
It’s up for pre-order right now, with delivery expected around February 28.
Design
- Very similar design to Zenfone 11 Ultra
- Redesigned camera housing
- IP68 and Gorilla Glass Victus 2 protection
The Asus Zenfone 11 Ultra was a near-carbon copy of Asus’ ROG Phone 8 Pro in the design department. I thought this felt a little bit lazy. This year’s Zenfone 12 Ultra does look a lot like its predecessor, but there are subtle differences.
The most immediate difference is the shape of the rear camera housing. It’s still an oddly compact module that sits on the upper-left of the rear, but it’s more compact this time. Shaped more like a rectangle than a square. It still protrudes quite far from the already-thick phone, mind.
The glass within the camera housing also matches the colour of the rear panel, helping it blend in way better than its all-black predecessor.
There are three colour options to choose from this year: Sage Green, Sakura White and Ebony Black. The black is the most toned-down of the collection. Given that most people tend to opt for the more subtle colour options, I imagine it’ll be popular.
Asus has ditched the collection of lines that helped break up the Zenfone 11 Ultra’s otherwise blocky design. This time opting for simple Zenfone branding on the rear and not much else.
Combined with the frosted glass finish that negates fingerprints pretty well, it’s a fairly understated look. Though one that lacks personality – especially compared to the likes of the Honor Magic 7 Pro with its shimmering pattern finishes.
There’s no getting around the fact that this is a pretty thick, heavy slab. Measuring 8.9mm thick and a not-insignificant 220g. There are rounded edges on the rear to help the phone sit a little nicer in the hand, but that heft is noticeable in use compared to the OnePlus 13.
Durability is about on par with last year’s model. Elements like Gorilla Glass Victus 2 screen protection and IP68 dust and water resistance remain.
Screen
- 6.78-inch AMOLED screen
- 144Hz refresh rate when gaming
- AOD is brighter this year
The phone’s screen is a similarly familiar affair, sporting the exact same screen as its predecessor. You’re looking at a fairly solid 6.78-inch AMOLED screen with an FHD+ resolution, with the same maximum brightness of 2500nits for HDR content and 1600nits in HBM.
It once again sports a gaming-focused 144Hz refresh rate, though that top refresh rate is only available when playing games. Outside of gaming, you’re limited to an LTPO-enabled 120Hz. There’s such little difference visually between the two that you likely won’t be able to tell the difference.
That all said, there’s very little to complain about with the Zenfone 12 Ultra’s screen in day-to-day use.
The screen itself is big and bright. It benefits from the deep blacks and vivid colours of AMOLED display tech and sports relatively thin, uniform bezels around the edges. Asus has also fixed the overly dim always-on display with this generation, making it way easier to see at a glance.
I’d have liked to have seen a boost in peak brightness. This would help it compete with the OnePlus 13, but it’s still in line with what you’ll get from the Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus.
Thankfully for Asus, audio is an area where the Zenfone 12 Ultra stands out, sporting not only a 3.5mm headphone jack that’s very rarely seen in smartphones in 2025 at any price point but large stereo speakers that lend themselves well to binging YouTube and scrolling through TikTok.
It doesn’t deliver the same bass performance or overall volume as the high-end Honor Magic 7 Pro, but it’s fine for casual viewing and listening.
Cameras
- Fourth-gen gimbal stabilisation tech
- Same camera hardware as Zenfone 11 Ultra
- Image processing needs improvements
As with the past few generations of Zenfone, Asus’ big camera gamble is its gimbal stabilisation technology. Now in its fourth generation with the Zenfone 12 Ultra, it continues to work just as well at stabilising videos and producing sharp photos.
The secret sauce is the gimbal’s ability to move up to five degrees in any direction, giving it much more room to move than practically any other phone. The results are immediately noticeable – especially in video. You can still see minor movements from shaky hands, but it’s not jittery at all, providing more of a flowy motion to shots.
It’s a very familiar affair elsewhere, sporting the same combination of 50MP main, 32MP 3x telephoto and 13MP ultrawide lenses as last year’s Zenfone. There are no notable changes to the underlying hardware whatsoever. Considering I wasn’t all that impressed with the 11 Ultra’s camera performance, I’m a little disappointed.
The 50MP main camera is the lens you’ll default to most often. This is not only because of the aforementioned gimbal-powered stabilisation that negates blurry photos from shaky hands but also because it offers the best performance of the three rear lenses.
The main camera can capture fairly detailed images in both well-lit and low-light conditions, the latter again benefitting from that top-end stabilisation. Colours are also more natural than what you’d get from the likes of the over-saturated Galaxy S25 Ultra.
The image processing could be improved, with photos easily washed out by bright lights. Its HDR processing also needs work, struggling to capture both the bright highlights and dark shadows in particularly challenging scenarios.
The 3x telephoto lens is a solid option for getting closer to the action without relying on digital zoom. With a healthy 32MP resolution for pixel-binning, the results are often fairly detailed. The narrow field of view also lends itself particularly well to portrait photography, while OIS means that low-light photos are actually of decent quality.
I am disappointed that it’s a simple telephoto and not a periscope-style lens, limiting its zoom to 30x. By this point the images have that over-processed oil painting-esque look. You wouldn’t want to push this much farther beyond the 5-6x mark in anything but ideal shooting conditions.
The 13MP ultrawide continues to be the weakest of the trio of lenses. It’ll still deliver pretty good-looking ultra-wide-angle shots, but they aren’t exactly packed with detail. Lacking the pixel-binning tech and autofocus capabilities of alternatives like the OnePlus 13.
There is a slight improvement in low-light performance compared to last year’s Zenfone 11 Ultra with more detail in low-light conditions. However, lacking the OIS of the other lenses, you’ll often be left with slightly blurry-looking results.
It’s a fine camera setup that can deliver a decent-looking shot in a pinch. It’s just not something that gets my heart racing like some of the best camera phones.
Performance
- Snapdragon 8 Elite power
- Benchmark scores are lower than similarly-specced phones
- Responsive everyday performance
I’m baffled about the Zenfone 12 Ultra’s performance. When it comes to benchmark testing, at least.
Even though the Zenfone 12 Ultra sports the same top-end Snapdragon 8 Elite as the Galaxy S25 Ultra, the phone trails behind in the majority of CPU and GPU tests. That’s when paired with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, by the way.
Take Geekbench 6 for example. In multi-core tests, we’ve seen other 8 Elite-equipped smartphones easily clear the 9200 points mark. The Zenfone 12 Ultra? 7523. It’s a similar story in the GPU-focused 3DMark Wildlife Extreme, achieving 5170 when most of the competition boasts scores of over 6400.
We’ve already seen from the ROG Phone 9 Pro that Asus can really squeeze the best out of the chipset, so why hasn’t it done so here? I get that the ROG Phone is tailored to get the very best performance possible with its gaming focus, but even without the same cooling system or 24GB of RAM, it shouldn’t score quite this low.
In everyday use, you can’t really tell the difference. The Zenfone 12 Ultra feels about as snappy and responsive as any other premium phone in 2025. It has buttery smooth scrolling, smooth animations and the ability to handle Call of Duty Mobile. It’s just not quite as powerful as it should be.
Elsewhere, expect the latest in wireless connectivity. There’s Bluetooth 5.4 and Wi-Fi 7 along with NFC for mobile payments and 5G. There’s also eSIM support this time around, marking a first for the Zenfone series – in the EU, at least.
Software & AI
- Highly customisable ZenUI based on Android 15
- New AI features run entirely on-device
- Only two OS upgrades promised
Much of the Zenfone 12 Ultra’s hardware is identical to its predecessor. Instead, Asus is putting all of its eggs into an AI-shaped basket. It’s a massive gamble considering, especially given that Asus isn’t doing anything new or unique.
The Zenfone 12 Ultra sports all the staples of AI we’ve seen from brands like Samsung, Apple, OnePlus and Honor. You’ve got AI-powered translation, transcription, summaries and a handful of photo editing tools. However, I wouldn’t describe the experience as transformative. Most of these are rather niche features that don’t provide much additional value.
Credit where credit is due, however; the Zenfone 12 Ultra is the first to run Meta’s Llama 3 8B Model entirely on-device. All AI features can run entirely on-device for added privacy. You won’t find that from any other AI-powered smartphone right now, usually offering a hybrid of on-device and cloud-based processing.
However, I now understand why most opt for a hybrid model. Aside from having to download almost 6GB in LLMs for on-device use, I found it to be way slower at processing.
A 2000-word article took well over a minute to summarise, compared to around 10 seconds when connected to the cloud. Asus also limits how many tokens you can use for cloud-based processing, and once you hit that limit, you’re forced to use on-device processing.
AI-aside, the Zenfone 12 Ultra offers a refreshingly customisable approach to Android 15, giving you the option to choose between Asus’ ZenUI and stock Android features on a rather granular basis. Even if you go all-in on ZenUI, it’s still very close to stock.
That experience won’t change much, given that the Zenfone 12 Ultra falls way behind competitors with its paltry software commitment of 2 major updates and 5 years of security updates. That would’ve been passable five years ago, not in 2025.
Considering the similarly-priced Pixel 9 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus offer seven OS upgrades, and even budget phones like the Galaxy A35 offer four OS upgrades, it’s hard to overlook. It essentially means that despite paying over €1000, your phone might not get any OS upgrades beyond Android 17. Yikes.
Battery Life
- Same 5500mAh battery and 65W charging
- Lasts all day with average use
- Can use any USB-C PD charger to achieve fastest charging speeds
While the Zenfone 11 Ultra led the pack with its larger-than-average 5500mAh battery, the same can’t be said for the 12 Ultra. It still sports the same 5500mAh cell, but it’s no longer that impressive. The OnePlus 13, for instance, sports an even larger 6000mAh battery.
That said, I had no real complaints about the battery life of the Zenfone 12 Ultra. Like its predecessor, it manages to last all day without much of an issue, managing to retain about 30-40% of its battery after a full day of use. This is with a combination of 3-4 hours of screen time over a 16-ish hour day with battery-draining features like the AOD active.
However, when the OnePlus 13 offers a more comfortable two-day experience, it does fall short of what you can find elsewhere.
It’s a similar story when it comes to charging. While I do love the fact that the Zenfone 12 Ultra charges at 65W when using a regular USB-C charger that supports PD 3.0 and PPS tech rather than leaning on a proprietary alternative, it means that the competition offers much faster charging.
Still, the Zenfone 12 Ultra achieved an impressive 43% charge in 15 minutes, with a full charge in 47 minutes using the third-party Anker Prime 250W charger. That’s not quite up to the task of the Xiaomi 14T Pro, achieving a full charge in 23 minutes, but I think you’ll struggle to complain about the speeds on offer.
There’s also 15W wireless charging for added convenience. Plus, like a growing number of Android manufacturers, Asus has worked with case makers to provide a range of magnetic cases for a MagSafe-like experience.
Should you buy it?
You value on-device AI
The Zenfone 12 Ultra is the first smartphone to offer Meta’s Llama 3 8BN model on-device, meaning you don’t need to send any data to the cloud when using AI features.
You want the best smartphone experience
AI-aside, the Zenfone 12 Ultra lacks the finesse of other 2025 flagships, with better cameras, better performance and better battery life available elsewhere.
Final Thoughts
I had high hopes for the Zenfone 12 Ultra. Sadly, those have been all but dashed after properly testing it.
Considering it’s €100 more in Europe (where it’s exclusively available for now), the fact that the hardware is essentially identical is a particularly hard sell. Yes, the Snapdragon 8 Elite is a nice upgrade, but even that falls behind the similarly specced competition in benchmark testing.
You’re getting the same overall look, same screen, same cameras, same battery and same charge speeds as the Zenfone 11 Ultra. The only real discernable difference being new AI features baked into the Android 15 experience.
While the ability to run all tools on-device is a nice touch, the features themselves aren’t that exciting, offering the same capabilities as most of the flagship competition with a few notable features (like the ability to rewrite text) missing from the experience.
Given that the Zenfone 11 Ultra will get the same Android 15 update, it’ll be interesting to see how many of these AI features appear on the older device. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is still capable enough to run most of the AI functions offered here, as we’ve already seen from a swathe of 2024 flagships sporting the same chipset, but in doing so, it’d make the Zenfone 12 Ultra all but redundant.
If all it takes for your (more expensive) 2025 flagship to be near-identical to its predecessor is a software update, that’s a very hard sell – especially in a year where we’re seeing massive gains not only in AI but hardware elements like camera tech and battery life.
For something more capable and more exciting, take a look at our selection of the best smartphones.
Trusted Score
How we test
We test every mobile phone we review thoroughly. We use industry-standard tests to compare features properly and we use the phone as our main device over the review period. We’ll always tell you what we find and we never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
- Used as a main phone for a week
- Thorough camera testing in a variety of conditions
- Tested and benchmarked using respected industry tests and real-world data
FAQs
Yes, it offers IP68 dust and water resistance that should protect it in up to 1.5m of fresh water for up to 30 minutes.
Asus has committed to two OS upgrades and five years of security patches.
Test Data
| Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra Review | |
|---|---|
| Geekbench 6 single core | 2385 |
| Geekbench 6 multi core | 7523 |
| 1 hour video playback (Netflix, HDR) | 7 % |
| 30 minute gaming (light) | 6 % |
| Time from 0-100% charge | 47 min |
| Time from 0-50% charge | 18 Min |
| 30-min recharge (no charger included) | 75 % |
| 15-min recharge (no charger included) | 43 % |
| 3D Mark – Wild Life | 5170 |
| GFXBench – Aztec Ruins | 142 fps |
| GFXBench – Car Chase | 144 fps |
Full Specs
| Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra Review | |
|---|---|
| EU RRP | €1099 |
| Manufacturer | Asus |
| Screen Size | 6.78 inches |
| Storage Capacity | 512GB |
| Rear Camera | 50MP + 32MP + 13MP |
| Front Camera | 32MP |
| Video Recording | No |
| IP rating | IP68 |
| Battery | 5500 mAh |
| Wireless charging | No |
| Fast Charging | No |
| Size (Dimensions) | 77 x 8.9 x 163.8 MM |
| Weight | 220 G |
| Operating System | Android 15 |
| Release Date | 2025 |
| First Reviewed Date | 06/02/2025 |
| Resolution | 2400 x 1080 |
| HDR | No |
| Refresh Rate | 144 Hz |
| Ports | USB-C, 3.5mm headphone port |
| Chipset | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite |
| RAM | 16GB |
| Colours | Sage Green, Sakura White and Ebony Black |
| Stated Power | 65 W |
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