The Asus Zenfone 11 Ultra abandons the small-phone market

Asus’ latest flagship is the Zenfone 11 Ultra. For lovers of small phones, this represents one of the stalwart small-phone manufacturers abandoning you. I’m sorry. The Zenfone 10 was a unique little 5.9-inch powerhouse, but the Zenfone 11 is just another big Android phone with the same 6.78-inch display as everyone else. Big displays are expensive, so of course, the price is bigger, too: $899 instead of the $699 price of the smaller phone.

The whole phone looks a lot more generic than last year. Instead of the two big camera circles of the Zenfone 10, the back now has a square camera block that looks like every other phone. The front screen is flat, the sides are a flat metal band, and the only real identifying features are a few decorative lines on the rear panel.

That big 6.78-inch display is a 2400×1080 OLED. Normally, it runs at 120 Hz, but Asus says it’s capable of 144 Hz “for gaming only.” It has a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC, 12GB or 16GB of RAM, and 256GB or 512GB of UFS4.0 storage. The 5500 mAh battery is a bit bigger than most phones, so that’s something to cling to. The phone has 65 W wired charging and 15 W wireless charging, IP68 dust and water-resistance, and an in-screen fingerprint reader. There’s a 3.5 mm headphone jack on the bottom of the phone.