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ASUS has been sticking with compact flagship smartphones for years now. I’m talking about the company’s main series of phones, not the ROG gaming ones. Well, the ASUS ZenFone 11 moniker has been confirmed, which suggests a larger flagship could be on the way.
The ASUS ZenFone 11 Ultra seems to be coming, as its name just got confirmed
The phone appeared on Bluetooth SIG, along with two ASUS ROG Phone 8 devices, the vanilla one, and the ‘Pro’ one. The ROG phones we expected, the ZenFone 11 Ultra, not so much.
We do know that the phone will ship with Bluetooth 5.4 support. It will also include a Snapdragon processor, it would seem. The phone appeared under the model number ASUS_AI2401_H. Everything else is a mystery at this point.
What’s odd is that this model number is in line with the company’s ROG phones. That is a bit confusing. Will ASUS rebrand one of the ROG Phones into a ZenFone 11 Ultra? That doesn’t make all that much sense to us from the design perspective, but the timing and the model number do point in that direction.
Does this mean we won’t get a new compact ZenFone flagship?
The question is, when is this phone coming, and what does that mean for the company’s compact lineup? If we had to guess, we’d say that ASUS will release both the ZenFone 11 and ZenFone 11 Ultra.
The ZenFone 10 did launch back in June, though, so we’re about half a year from the arrival of its successor. Well, unless ASUS plans to announce a mid-cycle upgrade, which is always a possibility, but it’s not as likely.
ASUS will likely stick with its release cycle
If the company ends up sticking with this release cycle, we’ll have to wait for quite a bit of time. We’re hoping that the compact line isn’t going anywhere, and that the ‘Ultra’ will only be a larger option of the ZenFone 11.
The ASUS ZenFone 9 and ZenFone 10 ended up being great devices. They’re also representing compact flagships in the market, and there are not many of those around. So… it would be nice to see the lineup stick around.