Asus has carved out a niche for its Zenfone series – small, high-end phones with relatively large batteries, a 3.5mm headphone jack and more incredible customization options. Now it has thrown all that away.
A poll last week showed that 30% of voters were waiting for the small Zenfone 11 (we don’t even know if such a phone exists). Then, a whopping 41% of voters thought the Asus Zenfone 11 Ultra was not very good. Interest might increase if the price drops, but Asus phones rarely come with deep discounts.
Who is this phone for, anyway? People who don’t have the extra 100 euros to spend on the ROG Phone 8? That must be a small group of people, most of them either have ROG Phone 8 money or have lost more than 100 euros.
There’s nothing eye-catching on the spec sheet – sure, the Zenfone 11 Ultra is a powerful device, but so is its price. Some competitors offer better value for money and won’t quit after two OS updates like Asus.
We believe there is a unique market space for enthusiast phones – not gaming phones, but power user phones. Companies like Asus and Sony seemed to be in the best position to capture this market, but neither company succeeded.
ASUS doesn’t even let you unlock the bootloader anymore so you can keep using its great hardware and third-party ROMs (which stay up to date). We’ve heard rumors that Sony will provide up to 5 years of support (i.e. 5 OS updates + security patches), but we’ll see if that’s true. At least you can unlock the bootloader on Xperias.