Asus launches the Zenfone 11 Ultra… and once again sweeps away small format smartphones

This seems clear: Asus is looking for his smartphones. After having given a saving facelift to the ROG Phone 8 at the start of the year, the turn of its more mainstream smartphone to undergo the same treatment.

Surprisingly, no Zenfone 11 seems to accompany the Zenfone 11 Ultra presented today – and of which you can already discover our full test right here. Perhaps the brand leaves itself a cartridge in its belt? After all, the Zenfone 10 was only released last summer.

Gigantism inspired by the ROG Phone

If you particularly like the 5.92″ screen of the Zenfone 10, bad news. This year, Asus has a desire for grandeur. In fact: the Zenfone 11 Ultra here displays a large 6.78″ AMOLED screen and dimensions which will certainly put off the detractors of “big phones”.

This is because in addition to its diagonal, the Zenfone 11 Ultra is sturdy: 224 grams on the scale. But, as you can guess, this is notably due to a particularly muscular technical sheet. The screen, to come back to it, displays an FHD+ definition and an adaptive refresh rate (1-120 Hz) of up to 144 Hz (in game only).

Of course powered by Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, the Zenfone 11 Ultra can be configured with 12 or 16 GB of LPDDR5 RAM and between 256 GB and 512 GB of storage. Its battery also has a substantial capacity of 5500 mAh. It is rechargeable at 65W but, new, the charger is no longer provided in the box. Seems like everyone goes through it. Oh, come to think of it: the jack socket creates resistance. The audiophiles in the audience can take a breath.

But the appearance of the Zenfone 11 Ultra is not the only thing that reminds us of Asus’ famous gaming smartphone. Even the photo configuration of this new model has the same characteristics. There is a 50-megapixel wide-angle (gimbal-stabilized), a 13-megapixel ultra-wide-angle and a 32-megapixel 3x telephoto lens. At the front, an RGBW sensor (W for White, the addition of which to the matrix would improve light capture) will take care of selfies.

AI, but above all software monitoring that questions

We can’t cut it, the Zenfone 11 Ultra makes a big deal of its ambitions in terms of AI. Running Android 14, the latest from Asus takes advantage of the power of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 to offer some fun features such as the generation of wallpapers by AI, or the summary of voice notes.

Other functions are also announced, such as that allowing a telephone conversation to be translated in real time — a feature already seen in the Samsung Galaxy S24. However, its availability at launch in France is still unclear.

But what raises more questions is the software monitoring policy announced by Asus. The Zenfone 11 Ultra will only be entitled to two major Android updates, and at least four years of security patches. At a time when the Apples, Samsungs and Googles of this world are promising more than six years each, that’s a stain.

Asus Zenfone 11 Ultra: price and availability

Announced today, the Zenfone 11 Ultra is already available for pre-order with a €100 discount until its release. Below, the prices are indicated without this exceptional reduction:

• 12+256 GB (Black, Silver, Blue or Copper): €999;
• 16+512 GB (Black or Silver): €1099.