It’s called Ultra though there is no regular, smooth, non-Ultra version. The new Asus Zenfone 11 is Ultra not in relation to other smartphones in its range but in relation to those that preceded it.
Unlike them Zenfone 10 from 2023 (here is our test), Zenfone 9 of 2022 (trial) e Zenfone 8 of 2021 (trial)which had one of their strengths and uniqueness in compactness, this Zenfone 11 Ultra is anything but small: compared to last year’s smartphone, the size of the display Passa is 5.9” and I am 6.78”. It’s an advantage, but it’s also a bit of a disadvantage.
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Asus Zenfone 11 Ultra, the technical characteristics
It must be said that the display is a great display: it is a Amoled Ltpo panel (what does it mean?) with refresh rate that when playing video games can even reach 144 Hz, very bright, always easily readable and receptive to inputs. This despite some touch inaccuracies especially in the lower part, when closing an app by swiping up and down you end up inadvertently opening another one or to switch to the closest one when multitasking.
Multitasking which for this smartphone is really a walk in the park, thanks to one hardware equipment very respectable. Ultra, in the true sense of the word: available with 12 or 16 GB in Ram and with 256 or 512 GB of storage space respectively (the latter is the version we tested), it is equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor which makes him able to tackle any task that comes before him without difficulty.
The phone weighs 225 grams, detected during testing, has a nice rear finish that does not retain fingerprints and hides a 5500 mAh battery (definitely larger than that of the old Zenfone 10) which supports both 65W fast charging and 15W wireless charging. There are 3 rear cameras: the main one is 50 MP and is still excellent 6-axis stabilization from Asus, which we have found very effective; then there is a 13 MP wide-angle lens and a 32 MP telephoto lens with 3X optical zoom.
The battery life graph of the Asus Zenfone 11 Ultra
How the Asus Zenfone 11 Ultra fares in everyday life
The smartphone from the Taiwanese company, one of the few that still has the headphone jack (and the curiously offset charging port compared to the center), it works very well. And God forbid it wouldn’t do so, given the technical characteristics: there are no operations that put it in crisis, the screen is a beautiful screen, the battery lasts a couple of days peacefully even without making any leaps or giving up and the photos are basically always beautiful. Maybe not at the level of those that come out of a Pixel 8 or a Galaxy S24, but beautiful.
To accompany everything there is a streamlined and convincing software: the basis is Android 14, to which Asus has added a slight customization, not very invasive and can still be bypassed or deactivated. We really appreciated the small side menu, which is activated with a touch and allows quick access to the apps or functions used most often, while we didn’t like the keypad that opens every time that you access the call log, covering half the screen: you can certainly prevent this from Settings, but we haven’t been able to figure out where.
We reiterate: the Zenfone 11 Ultra is fine, just as the Zenfone 10, 9 and 8 were fine. It is fine as are the aforementioned Pixel 8 Pro and Galaxy S24 or also like the Phone 2 (proof)which is a good thing but is also a problem: the new Asus phone is as good as its competitors, it costs a little less or a little more (it starts from 999 euros) but it has lost the peculiarity that distinguished it from everyone else. No longer being able to choose it due to its compact size, it must possibly be done for its performances. But they are the same as the others. Will people prefer it to products from Google, Samsung or Nothing? Asus’ bet is all here, after all.
The useful retractable side menu of the Asus Zenfone 11 Ultra Artificial intelligence We tried Perplexity AI, the search engine that wants to challenge Google by Emanuele Capone 17 March 2024
What we liked
What we didn’t like
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