Zenfone 12 Ultra is good but missing some of that Asus magic

Asus is trying to steal some of the press away from Samsung this year by launching its Zenfone 12 Ultra before the Galaxy S25 series sales date. Well, at least in places outside Canada – the Taiwanese company won’t release its latest flagship in the North. However, despite the lack of availability, I couldn’t say no when Asus asked me if I wanted to take a quick look at the Zenfone 12 Ultra.

In my opinion—and I swear it has nothing to do with nationality— Asus has replaced its Taiwanese brethren, HTC. The company puts out interesting devices that typically don’t match what the competitors are doing, which could be to their detriment; however, its handsets normally fill a niche, showcasing something interesting and unique. The Zenfone 5Z had an iPhone-like notch and a gleaming back panel. The Zenfone 6 and 7 had flip-up cameras, allowing you to use the rear camera setup as selfie cameras (still some of the best selfies you could ask for). The Zenfone 10 had a small body and giant cameras, making the handset stand out among other devices. The Zenfone 11’s Semantic Search was pretty useful. While AI is quickly becoming overused by all manufacturers, the Zenfone 11 was the first device I used with this feature, allowing people to swiftly find different settings on their handset by using natural language.

Unfortunately, while the Zenfone 12 Ultra is definitely a solid device, it lacks the pizzazz that I’m used to seeing from Asus handsets. Maybe it’s my fault for getting excited, but when my Asus rep sent the review guide, I waited until I had the phone to look at it. I did this specifically because I wanted to be surprised—it’s why I don’t watch movie trailers, as I find that they have too many spoilers – however, after finally looking, I realized there was nothing to be excited about.

Hear me out

The Zenfone 12 Ultra has flagship specs: a Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, up to 16GB of RAM (still waiting for this from Samsung), up to 512GB of storage, a 6.78-inch FHD+ flexible AMOLED LTPO dynamic refresh rate panel capable of peaking at 144Hz when gaming, a triple camera setup with a 50-megapixel primary shooter and a 5,500mAh battery (again, Samsung, let’s get a bigger battery). The Zenfone 12 Ultra has various AI features like AI Portrait Video, AI tracking, AI Unblur, Circle to Search, AI Article and Document summaries.

These are some reasonable specs, but unfortunately, nothing here outshines any of the other handsets on the market. And there isn’t anything that is all that unique either – probably the most interesting thing is still a handset with a headphone jack, but that’s not even unique to the Zenfone 12 Ultra.

I was hoping for something that would help the Zenfone stand out among the sea of other smartphones, but users purchasing the Zenfone 12 Ultra might have to settle for a solid device with an elegant design.

Elegance

I haven’t spoken much about the Zenfone 12 Ultra’s design yet, but I think it’s the best part of the handset. The front of the handset offers that typical Android large screen, selfie camera and slim bezels. On the side, we see a 100 percent recycled aluminum metallic green frame that looks stunning on the ‘Sage Green,’ smartphone. On the right side, the Zenfone 12 Ultra sports a power button and a volume rocker, and on the bottom, there’s a 3.5mm headphone jack, speaker grills, SIM slot, and a USB-C port. The smartphone’s rear also sports a fingerprint-proof panel with the subtle branding of the ‘Asus Zenfone,’ it feels incredibly slick, like porcelain. I like that it’s smooth and feels so nice to hold. Lastly, the camera bump is unique and framed by a metallic look similar to what’s on the handset’s sides. It’s pretty, and other smartphones don’t have a camera setup like this, there’s something about it that makes it look like a professional shooter.

The Zenfone 12 Ultra weighs 220g, heavier than I’d expect. The handset is heavier than the S25 Ultra and the OnePlus 13, the most recent devices I’ve reviewed, so it’s pretty noticeable. The handset’s 6.78-inch FHD+ panel looks good, but it’s not the best display on the market. It is solid, nonetheless, and I can’t honestly tell the difference between FHD+ and QHD+ on these small screens. However, I like a 120Hz refresh rate panel as it can make scrolling and gaming buttery smooth.

Not just looks

Powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite, the Zenfone 12 Ultra makes ordinary tasks look easy. It can quickly complete a regular day of usage without any slowdowns or problems. A regular day of usage includes scrolling through Instagram, watching videos on YouTube, reading and writing an article or two, and listening to music on Spotify. I also had no problem playing Blasphemous for over thirty minutes straight on the handset without the device warming up.

Benchmark-wise, the ZF12 Ultra performs very well, even better than the S25 Ultra and pretty much the same as the ROG Phone 9. This includes a single-core score of 3,136 and a multi-core score of 10,036, which are pretty impressive scores. The S25 Ultra with the same Snapdragon 8 Elite offers a single-core score of 2,101 and a multi-core score of 8,100. Benchmarks don’t always equate to real-world performance, but they definitely don’t hurt.

The Zenfone 12 Ultra also has a large 5,500mAh battery that can last more than a day. With 65W wired charging, the device can charge quickly. During my short time with the device, there wasn’t a day where I was worried about needing to charge the smartphone, but I don’t believe I used the handset enough to say how good the battery power was. However, if you grab the ZF12 Ultra, you shouldn’t be too worried.

The Zenfone 12 Ultra also has various AI features, including AI Article Summary, AI Documentary Summary, Semantic Search and more. It’s worth mentioning that most smartphones coming out this year offer similar features. I found the AI Article Summary a bit buggy; it takes a long time to summarize a three-hundred-word article, and the process of doing it is kind of odd. You select all, which will highlight the whole text in an article, and then, in the same menu where you ‘select all,’ AI Article Summary is also available. Then, it’ll bring you to a different app that summarizes your article. Google’s Circle to Search is also available, which lets you circle different parts of your screen and perform a quick Google Search for what you’re looking at.

The Zenfone 12 Ultra takes okay photos, but they look unsaturated and overexposed. Still, they’re decent. The handset sports AI functionalities like ‘AI Magic Fill’ and ‘AI Unblur,’ but I didn’t use these much when looking at the device. ‘AI Magic FIll’ removes unwanted people or objects from photos, and Unblur does as the name says.

Look below at some photos I took with the Zenfone 12 Ultra.

The Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra is a good phone; it performs well, offers AI features, sports a decent trio of cameras, and has an elegant design. The handset’s design is stellar, and it is definitely my favourite aspect. Its camera sensor looks pretty lovely, too. However, the smartphone doesn’t offer anything too special, which is unfortunate for a flagship Android and prevents it from standing out among the other manufacturers on the market.

The Zenfone 12 Ultra isn’t coming to Canada, but it’s good to see what’s on the market, and it helps put other phones into perspective. For instance, the Zenfone 12 Ultra’s battery seems better than the S25 Ultra, which is essential to note when discussing the S25 Ultra’s power source.