Asus had carved out a niche for its Zenfone series \u2013 small premium phones with relatively large batteries, 3.5mm headphone jacks and more customization options than you can shake a stick at. And now it has thrown it all away.<\/p>\n
Last week\u2019s poll<\/a> shows that 30% of those who cast their vote are waiting for a small Zenfone 11 (and we don\u2019t even know if such a phone exists). Then a whopping 41% of voters think that the Asus Zenfone 11 Ultra<\/a> just isn\u2019t all that good. Interest might pick up if the prices drop, but Asus phones rarely get serious discounts.<\/p>\n Who is this phone for, anyway? People who don\u2019t have \u20ac100 extra to spend on an ROG Phone 8? That must be a small group, most people either have ROG Phone 8 money or they are missing more than \u20ac100.<\/p>\n Nothing on the spec sheet stands out \u2013 sure, the Zenfone 11 Ultra is a capable device, but it is priced as such too. Some of the competition is better value for money and won\u2019t call it quits on OS updates after two versions like Asus will.<\/p>\n We believe that there is a niche for enthusiast phones \u2013 not gaming phones, just power user phones. And companies like Asus and Sony seem positioned just right to capture that market, but neither has managed it.<\/p>\n Asus doesn\u2019t even let you unlock the bootloader anymore, so that you can continue using its awesome hardware with a third-party ROM, one that is kept up to date. We hear murmurs that Sony will go up to 5 years of support (that is 5 OS updates + security patches), but we will see if that\u2019s true. At least you can unlock the bootloader on Xperias.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"Weekly](\"https:\/\/fdn.gsmarena.com\/imgroot\/news\/24\/03\/weekly-poll-results-asus-zenfone-11-ultra\/inline\/gsmarena_001.png\")
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