Asus Zenfone 11 Ultra review

Design, build quality, handling

The Zenfone 11 Ultra has pretty tame and subdued aesthetics. It will fit right into a boardroom setting. Still, Asus tried to give it some signature "flair" with a slight geometric pattern on the back, inspired by the Asus anniversary monogram. Honestly, however, 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. On the plus side, it offers a great grip, and the phone doesn't slip away easily. That's assuming you won't be using a case.

The Zenfone 11 Ultra is available in a total of four colors: Skyline Blue, Eternal Black, Misty Grey and Desert Sand. Our review unit has the blue colorway, which is a very soft and pastel blue that doesn't "pop" or stand out at all, likely by design. The same is true of the other colors as well.

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 says they have been slimmed down drastically since the Zenfone 10. This includes the top bezel, which still houses a tiny slit for the earpiece/speaker. There are no obvious sensors here. These are hidden away under the display. There is no notification LED either to take up space. The screen-to-body ratio is now up to 94%.

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 11 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.

The Zenfone 11 Ultra feels perfectly solid with practically no flex, thanks to a sturdy metal middle frame. 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 11 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 11 Ultra has an IP68 ingress protection rating.

Handling is always going to be a subjective matter. Still, now that the Zenfone has grown so much, it is objectively more unwieldy than its predecessor. It is both less pocketable and harder to operate one-handed. Still, if you have big enough hands, it is not more uncomfortable to operate with one hand than any other phone of its size.

As we already mentioned, the finish on the back is surprisingly grippy. Still, it does have a tendency 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.