Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra review

Design, build quality, handling

The Zenfone 12 Ultra has pretty tame and subdued aesthetics. It will fit right into a boardroom setting. As we said, the design is quite similar to last year's Zenfone 11 Ultra, and, in fact, we would even say that it is more subdued this time around. Gone are the geometric patterns on the back from last year. The "ASUS Zenfone" writing has become more prominent and is now center-stage on the back side, but even it is kind of subtle and easy to miss.

Honestly, the almost excessively protruding rectangular camera island with all of its various chamfers ends up being the more signature design element in our mind.

Speaking of the back side, it has a sort of matte glass finish that looks good but is pretty hard to keep clean since it attracts fingerprints and smudges. Plus, it offers a great grip, and the phone doesn't slip away easily. That's assuming you won't be using a case.

As mentioned, the Zenfone 12 Ultra has a new trio of colors: Ebony Black, Sakura White and Sage Green. We have the black and green variants in the office. There is no point in commenting on how black looks. It is just as stealthy as you would imagine. The green color is very soft and pastel green that doesn't "pop" or stand out at all, likely by design.

The front of the phone is equally unassuming. It's a large, mostly flat surface, except for the very edges of the glass, which are ever so slightly curved. The display itself is absolutely flat. There should be no issue with a glass screen protector on this phone.

The bezels are very thin all around the display. Asus slimmed these down significantly in transitioning from the Zenfone 10 to the Zenfone 11. Now, we would say they are about the same in this generation as the previous one. There are no obvious sensors here. These are hidden away under the display. There is no notification LED to take up space either.

The cutout for the selfie camera is quite a bit bigger than the actual camera lens but not excessive by any means in absolute terms. The front glass is made of 22% recycled glass.

The Zenfone 12 Ultra has an in-display fingerprint reader. It's a standard optical-based reader that is both accurate and quite snappy. We have no complaints about it.

Thanks to a sturdy metal middle frame, the Zenfone 12 Ultra feels perfectly solid with practically no flex. It is made of 100% recycled aluminum, which is great to hear. It is sandwiched between two glass pieces - Gorilla Glass Victus 2 and some undisclosed glass on the back.

Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra

While it does not harm the overall structural rigidity of the phone whatsoever, it is perhaps interesting to note that there is a bit of hollowness to the rear panel. Does Asus actually have some leftover space on the inside?

We can't fail to mention that the Zenfone 12 Ultra has an IP68 ingress protection rating.

As we already mentioned, the finish on the back is surprisingly grippy. Still, it does tend to slide on surfaces other than skin, like glass or wood tables and countertops. We recommend using the provided case to prevent it from slipping away accidentally.