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I reviewed an Android phone that simply doesn’t make any sense © Provided by Digital Trends
It’s worth addressing all the confusion first. For a while, Asus has embraced the “compact smartphone” market with its Zenfone range, giving those who want a high-performance, small Android phone a choice, rather than just buying the Samsung Galaxy S24 or Apple iPhone 15. The Asus Zenfone 10 is still that phone, and it continues on in Asus’s range, but it lags behind the Galaxy S24 in outright power as it’s a device from mid-2023.Asus has decided not to announce a compact Zenfone 11 to replace it, making the Zenfone 11 Ultra the only phone in its 2024 Zenfone family. Here’s where problems arise, as we’ve become accustomed to an “Ultra” name indicating the manufacturer has thrown everything at the device to make it stand out — see the Galaxy S24 Ultra and the Xiaomi 14 Ultra for evidence — but Asus hasn’t done that with the Zenfone 11 Ultra. Why? Probably because the ROG Phone 8 Pro exists. © Asus Zenfone 11 Ultra’s colors Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
The Zenfone 11 Ultra is a simple, chunky smartphone made of metal and glass, and there’s nothing subtle about the 8.9mm thickness or 224-gram weight. There are large phones that have been thoughtfully shaped to make general use comfortable, such as the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, but the Zenfone 11 Ultra is not one of them. You always know it’s in your pocket, and it’s practically impossible to use with one hand. I like to take my time browsing social networks or Chrome, and the Zenfone 11 Ultra makes this an arduous task after a while due to its slab sides and big dimensions.There are four colors — Skyline Blue, Eternal Black, Misty Grey, and Desert Sand — and I implore you to get one of the brighter ones, as the rear panel is rather dull otherwise. There is the hint of Asus’s stylized A logo, but in some lights, the slim, polished line just disappears, making it an expanse of nothingness. The big, black, thick, square camera module is far too ordinary to add much to the look of the phone. If you crave subtlety and want nothing else than to disappear in a crowd, the black Zenfone 11 Ultra will be the phone for you. © Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
If it’s going to slap the word Ultra in the name, Asus needs to back it up by giving the Zenfone 11 Ultra some impressive performance. The screen is a 6.78-inch flexible LTPO AMOLED made by Samsung, so it adjusts between 1Hz and 120Hz to maximize battery life and can boost to 144Hz for some games. It has a peak brightness of 2,500 nits and will normally operate at a maximum of 1,600 nits in sunlight. Gorilla Glass Victus 2 protects it from harm. The screen is a beauty and great for games and video.The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor with up to 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage space powers the phone, and a 5,500mAh battery provides the energy. A charger does not come in the box, but you do get a USB-C to USB-C cable. The Zenfone 11 Ultra has both 15W wireless charging and wired fast charging. This supports the PD3.0 PPS standard despite being labeled as Asus’s proprietary-sounding 65W HyperCharge system. I used an Asker 313 GaN charger rated at 45W to charge the Zenfone 11 Ultra, and it went from 2% to 100% in 45 minutes. Battery life is excellent at about five hours of hard use from a single charge, but light use of less than three hours a day will see it last for two to three days. © Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
The camera module on the Asus Zenfone 11 Ultra contains a 50-megapixel IMX890 camera with Asus’s 6-axis Hybrid Gimbal Stabilizer, a 13MP wide-angle camera, and a 32MP telephoto for 3x optical zoom shots. This is all exactly the same as the ROG Phone 8 Pro, right down to the 32MP selfie camera. When the camera system is called Pro one minute and Ultra the next, you can probably work out that the Zenfone 11 Ultra will not be troubling the Galaxy S24 Ultra when it comes to taking photos. © Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
Asus has nailed smartphone software, providing a generally clean and logical interface over the top of Android and offering a few subtle enhancements — for example, an alternative volume menu, a split Quick Settings view, and a different look to the incoming call screen — that can be manually activated if you want them. It’s all built around Android 14 on the Zenfone 11 Ultra, and the general software use is one of the best parts of the phone. It’s not exciting, but you buy the ROG Phone 8 Pro if you want the option of a flashy interface as well.But wait, there is some AI to jazz it up! In what is rapidly becoming one of the least interesting “feature” sets on 2024 phones, AI modes like AI Transcript, AI Noise Reduction, and AI Call Translator are all onboard for your enjoyment. The noise reduction for calls seems to work well, and I’ve left it active throughout my time with the phone, but I have not found any use for the other features yet. This is a problem with AI on other phones and not exclusive to the Zenfone 11 Ultra. © Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
Available from March 14, the Asus Zenfone 11 Ultra with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage space costs $899, or $949 with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage space. In the U.K., the phone costs 869 British pounds for the standard model or 949 pounds for the higher-spec version.While not overpriced, the Zenfone 11 Ultra is a very hard sell due to the massive amount of competition around it. The 16GB/512GB OnePlus 12 is $900, and the Google Pixel 8 Pro is $999, as is the Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus. Sure, the $1,299 Galaxy S24 Ultra is much more expensive, but its kitchen sink spec and feature list justify much of it. The Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro costs $1,099 (and is actually on offer for $999 at the time of writing) and is considerably more interesting. © Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
I have no idea why you would really want to buy the Asus Zenfone 11 Ultra. I like Asus phones and usually take pleasure in recommending them, but in this instance, I genuinely think you should just buy the ROG Phone 8 Pro with its toned-down (but still cool) design and unobtrusive but useful gaming features. It’s the Zenfone 11 Ultra, just more interesting.But if you never play games, it would be a waste, and the trouble in this situation is the Zenfone 11 Ultra’s competitors are all much more compelling, often better looking, and come with longer software update commitments. Sadly, Asus hasn’t given you a real reason to buy the Zenfone 11 Ultra over them and has simply stripped back all the bits that make the ROG Phone 8 Pro fun and exciting to leave a rather forgettable phone. At least a small Zenfone 11, should it have been made, would have something unusual about it.I’ll close by saying that I have experienced no problems with the Zenfone 11 Ultra. Everything works exactly as you’d expect, and the build quality is excellent. It’s a perfectly acceptable smartphone, but a big screen and the latest chip aren’t really enough to get a strong recommendation these days — especially when the competition is going out of its way to do all this and more.The Latest Tech News, Delivered to Your Inbox © Andy Boxall / Digital Trends