ASUS Zenfone 12 Ultra vs iPhone 17 Air | TechTalkTown
ASUS Zenfone 12 Ultra vs iPhone 17 Air
ASUS Zenfone 12 Ultra
ASUS
7.4
Capable big-screen flagship, short support
iPhone 17 Air
Apple
7.1
Beautiful, but compromised
ASUS Zenfone 12 Ultra
What Reviewers Agree On
Snapdragon 8 Elite delivers excellent, lag-free performance and rock-solid gaming with no overheating in the slim body.
The 6-axis gimbal main camera is a genuine standout, with ~66% better stabilization than the 11 Ultra.
Strong battery life (~10–11 hours of screen time) with fast 65W wired charging plus 15W wireless.
It undercuts the Galaxy S25 Ultra and other flagships on price while keeping flagship hardware.
A clean, near-stock Android experience with rare extras like a headphone jack and IP68.
Deal Breakers
Pros & Cons
ASUS Zenfone 12 Ultra
Pros
Snapdragon 8 Elite delivers excellent, lag-free performance and rock-solid gaming with no overheating in the slim body.
The 6-axis gimbal main camera is a genuine standout, with ~66% better stabilization than the 11 Ultra.
Strong battery life (~10–11 hours of screen time) with fast 65W wired charging plus 15W wireless.
It undercuts the Galaxy S25 Ultra and other flagships on price while keeping flagship hardware.
A clean, near-stock Android experience with rare extras like a headphone jack and IP68.
Detailed Comparison
Design & Build
ASUS Zenfone 12 Ultra
Essentially a ROG Phone 9 without the gamer flourishes — a clean, premium, eco-conscious big-screen handset with rare enthusiast extras.
It's essentially a ROG Phone 9 stripped of its gamer credentials — flat screen, rounded corners, flat frame, and it loses the funky AniMe Vision rear display.
A minimal-looking handset that majors on eco-friendly materials — a 100% recycled aluminium frame and 22% recycled glass over the 6.78-inch screen.
Asus reveals the Zenfone 12 Ultra with a spotless design and a powerful flagship chip.
It keeps rare enthusiast hardware including a side-mounted fingerprint reader, IP68 and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
It carries an internal cooling system with a fan comparable to Red Magic gaming phones, helping it run cool in a slim 8.9mm body.
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Only ~2 OS updates promised — far short of the 7 years from Google and Samsung.
Camera quality is subpar versus rival flagships, falling away past 3x optical zoom with no ultrawide autofocus.
An 'Ultra' with no QHD screen, no ultrasonic fingerprint and no barometer — plus Asus stepping back from phones raises support concern.
iPhone 17 Air
What Reviewers Agree On
At 5.64mm thick and 165g the iPhone Air's hand-feel is the most genuinely new thing about any 2025 iPhone — almost every reviewer says you have to hold it to understand why people pay the premium.
The titanium grade-5 frame plus Ceramic Shield 2 makes it the most durable iPhone yet, surviving 130-pound Apple bend tests and JerryRig-style torture without bending or cracking.
The 6.5-inch ProMotion OLED with 3,000-nit peak brightness, anti-reflective coating and always-on display is identical in quality to the 17 Pro panel and gets praised across the board.
The A19 Pro chip with 12GB of RAM delivers Pro-tier performance in normal use — Geekbench multi-core lands around 9,600-9,800 and apps stay in memory noticeably longer than 8GB phones.
The new 18MP square Center Stage front camera is the year's standout iPhone feature — you can shoot landscape selfies while holding the phone vertically without rotating, and group shots auto-frame.
Battery life is better than the rumours suggested before launch — most reviewers can scrape through a normal day on the 3,149 mAh cell, though heavy travel days will need a top-up.
Deal Breakers
Single 48MP rear camera with no ultrawide, no telephoto and no macro is the most-cited compromise — even reviewers who like the phone admit they consistently miss the second lens, and Reddit owners flag it as the one regret six months in.
Mono speaker in the earpiece (no bottom speaker) sounds thin and bass-light for movies, music and podcasts — multiple reviewers and Reddit users call it the deal-breaker that ruled the phone out for them.
Battery life trails every other phone in the iPhone 17 lineup — 27h Apple video rating, 6h 43m in The Tech Chap's real-world battery test (12 minutes behind the iPhone 17, 76 minutes behind the 17 Pro Max), and heavy users hit 20% before dinner.
$999 price is widely flagged as the single biggest problem — for $200 less you get a more-versatile iPhone 17 (two cameras, stereo speakers, longer battery), and for only $100 more an iPhone 17 Pro with vapor chamber, three cameras and 4x/8x optical zoom.
USB-C port is limited to USB 2 (480 Mbps) data transfer speeds and there's no mmWave 5G support — odd corner-cuts on a $999 phone in 2025.
Cons
Only ~2 OS updates promised — far short of the 7 years from Google and Samsung.
Camera quality is subpar versus rival flagships, falling away past 3x optical zoom with no ultrawide autofocus.
An 'Ultra' with no QHD screen, no ultrasonic fingerprint and no barometer — plus Asus stepping back from phones raises support concern.
iPhone 17 Air
Pros
At 5.64mm thick and 165g the iPhone Air's hand-feel is the most genuinely new thing about any 2025 iPhone — almost every reviewer says you have to hold it to understand why people pay the premium.
The titanium grade-5 frame plus Ceramic Shield 2 makes it the most durable iPhone yet, surviving 130-pound Apple bend tests and JerryRig-style torture without bending or cracking.
The 6.5-inch ProMotion OLED with 3,000-nit peak brightness, anti-reflective coating and always-on display is identical in quality to the 17 Pro panel and gets praised across the board.
The A19 Pro chip with 12GB of RAM delivers Pro-tier performance in normal use — Geekbench multi-core lands around 9,600-9,800 and apps stay in memory noticeably longer than 8GB phones.
The new 18MP square Center Stage front camera is the year's standout iPhone feature — you can shoot landscape selfies while holding the phone vertically without rotating, and group shots auto-frame.
Battery life is better than the rumours suggested before launch — most reviewers can scrape through a normal day on the 3,149 mAh cell, though heavy travel days will need a top-up.
Cons
Single 48MP rear camera with no ultrawide, no telephoto and no macro is the most-cited compromise — even reviewers who like the phone admit they consistently miss the second lens, and Reddit owners flag it as the one regret six months in.
Mono speaker in the earpiece (no bottom speaker) sounds thin and bass-light for movies, music and podcasts — multiple reviewers and Reddit users call it the deal-breaker that ruled the phone out for them.
Battery life trails every other phone in the iPhone 17 lineup — 27h Apple video rating, 6h 43m in The Tech Chap's real-world battery test (12 minutes behind the iPhone 17, 76 minutes behind the 17 Pro Max), and heavy users hit 20% before dinner.
$999 price is widely flagged as the single biggest problem — for $200 less you get a more-versatile iPhone 17 (two cameras, stereo speakers, longer battery), and for only $100 more an iPhone 17 Pro with vapor chamber, three cameras and 4x/8x optical zoom.
iPhone 17 Air
The iPhone Air is the most physically distinctive new iPhone in years — 5.64mm thick (down from 7.95mm on the iPhone 17), 165g (12g lighter than the iPhone 17, 41g lighter than the 17 Pro), grade-5 titanium frame with polished mirror-finish sides, and a horizontal 'plateau' across the top that houses the A19 Pro, single camera and speakers because the rest of the body is occupied by the battery. Apple says it's the most durable iPhone ever (Ceramic Shield 2 front, Ceramic Shield back, 130-pound bend test) and so far real-world durability tests agree — no bendgate 2.0. The polish does come with one consistent caveat: it's slippery and feels precarious without a case, and the optional case partly defeats the thinness.
It's 5.64mm thick versus 7.95mm for the iPhone 17 — challenge anyone to pick it up without being surprised at how much lighter it feels.
Initially the lighter weight makes the Air seem 'cheap', but that notion quickly disappears — the phone feels strong, durable, and rigid thanks to the titanium frame.
Apple is setting new highs for mobile design with the iPhone Air — it's a 'sci-fi space pebble' that's a marvel of engineering you really have to hold to appreciate.
The iPhone Air is the radical redesign of the iPhone I have been wanting for years — perfectly balanced at 165g and the most fun I've had with an iPhone since the iPhone X.
Apple performed a bend test with 130 pounds of force and the iPhone Air showed no damage at all — Ceramic Shield 2 on the front and Ceramic Shield on the back make this the most durable iPhone yet.
The thinness is genuinely impressive, but the polished titanium edges are slippery — without a case I felt the phone could fly out of my hands, and it did once during testing.
The thin profile makes it harder to feel like you have a good grip on the phone, and holding it can feel precarious — adding a case helps but partly defeats the thin-and-light effect.
At 165g it's the lightest full-screen iPhone Apple has made, but it's still heavier than the iPhone 12 mini (135g) and 13 mini (141g) — so 'lightest ever' has caveats.
The frosted glass back resists fingerprints, isn't slippery once you adjust, and looks even better without a case — though it's still all-glass so AppleCare+ is recommended.
It's been five months and I still love the design — comfortable to pick up, hold, and use for long periods. Up there with the iPhone 7 and iPhone 12 mini as one of my favourite iPhones ever.
I'm disabled with a progressive illness and as my hands weaken, the Air has been a game changer — so light and easy for me to hold one-handed now.
The 'sexiest phone ever made' — I smile every time I pick mine up. It's the sexiest phone ever made.
Display
ASUS Zenfone 12 Ultra
A big, bright 6.78-inch 144Hz AMOLED that's very good in practice — but it's FHD+, not the QHD some expect from an 'Ultra'.
It's a 6.78-inch LTPO AMOLED at 144Hz, HDR10, with 1,600 nits HBM / 2,500 nits peak at 1080x2400 (20:9), with an always-on display — unchanged from the 11 Ultra.
Peak brightness hits 2,500 nits with a real-hero ~2,200 nits at 20% APL — though minimum brightness is a bit high at almost 6 nits.
It's an LTPO 1–120Hz panel with a boosted 144Hz refresh mode available during gaming.
Calling it an 'Ultra' but shipping no QHD screen is a recurring criticism among buyers.
iPhone 17 Air
The 6.5-inch LTPO Super Retina XDR OLED is identical in spec to the iPhone 17 Pro Max panel — same 1-120Hz ProMotion, same 3,000-nit peak brightness, same anti-reflective coating, same Dolby Vision HDR support, same always-on display. It sits exactly between the 6.3-inch iPhone 17 and the 6.9-inch iPhone 17 Pro Max in size, which most reviewers consider the sweet spot for a one-handable big-screen phone. The Dynamic Island sits slightly lower on the Air to accommodate the camera plateau, and a few apps haven't adapted, but the visual quality itself is universally praised. No reviewer found a real complaint with the display.
The 6.5-inch OLED screen feels improbable in this thin and light design — bright enough to read in direct sunlight, with a 120Hz refresh rate that finally brings the regular iPhone family up to Android-standard smoothness.
Peak brightness is 3,000 nits with ProMotion 1-120Hz, and putting a display this good in a body this thin sometimes really does look like a magazine page floating in your hand.
The iPhone Air screen is glorious — there's not much separating it from the Pro models in screen terms. Both hit 3,000 nits peak and 1 nit minimum, fantastic in bright and dark conditions.
I have no complaints about the Super Retina XDR display — great viewing angles, the new anti-glare coating actually reduces reflections, and it's as good as a phone screen gets.
A 6.5-inch screen is the perfect Goldilocks size — big enough to watch Netflix comfortably on the train, but small enough to use in one hand, something I couldn't do with the 6.9-inch Pro Max.
Performance
ASUS Zenfone 12 Ultra
Snapdragon 8 Elite plus ROG-derived cooling makes this a fast, stable performer with no thermal drama.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite provides excellent burst performance.
Paired with up to 16GB RAM and UFS 4.0, load times are fast, app switching is seamless and gaming performance is rock solid.
The most demanding titles held a steady frame rate with no lag and no overheating, impressive given the slim 8.9mm body.
It carries thermal controls (limit CPU boost, dim brightness, disable 5G when hot) so you can tune sustained performance outdoors.
Its gaming result was slightly better than the 11 Ultra despite the overall battery regression.
iPhone 17 Air
Apple put the A19 Pro chip in the iPhone Air rather than the regular A19 — but it's a slightly cut-down variant with five GPU cores instead of the six in the 17 Pro, no ProRes video support, and crucially no vapor chamber cooling. The result is benchmark scores roughly on par with the iPhone 17 (sometimes lower, because of thermal throttling), but with the 12GB of RAM the iPhone Air keeps apps in memory longer than 8GB phones. Day-to-day everything feels snappy. Under sustained gaming or 4K editing the camera-bar area heats up noticeably and frame rates drop — Ars Technica measured aggressive throttling that put the Air's GPU performance closer to last year's A18 than the 17 Pro. The C1X modem (no mmWave) is up to 30% more efficient than the iPhone 16 Pro's Qualcomm chip and tested faster in weak-signal areas.
The A19 Pro has 12GB of RAM and benchmarks 15% faster in CPU and GPU than the A18 Pro — though we'd expect the Air's performance over time to be worse than the Pro's because of thermal throttling.
Geekbench multi-core hits 9,630 and 3D Mark Wild Life 3,626 — great in short bursts, but it falls off compared to the iPhone 17 Pro in longer tests because of the missing cooling chamber.
Without a vapor chamber, performing intensive tasks heats the area around the camera module noticeably — I measured 115°F on the Air after an hour of Assassin's Creed Mirage versus 110°F on the iPhone 17, and the extra heat throttled performance.
Flipping between apps is essentially instantaneous and demanding titles like Destiny: Rising kept stable frame rates — but watch out, the Air can get a bit warm on the camera bump during prolonged high-performance tasks.
Apps stay in memory longer on the iPhone Air than my iPhone 16 Pro thanks to the 12GB of RAM — Reminders stayed alive across three different grocery store trips with Apple Maps in between.
Battery & Charging
ASUS Zenfone 12 Ultra
Strong real-world endurance from the 5,500mAh cell with fast 65W charging — though lab testing shows a regression versus the 11 Ultra.
The 5,500mAh battery delivered an easy 10–11 hours of screen-on time across a mix of socials, YouTube and light gaming.
65W wired charging takes it 0–100% in roughly 39–45 minutes, with 15W wireless and 10W reverse wired charging.
GSMArena's testing showed a regression — the 11 Ultra hit ~17h14m of battery life versus ~14h11m for the 12 Ultra.
It carries an IP68 rating and a large 5,500mAh cell — strong stamina credentials for the class.
One tester reported no wireless charging on their unit, though most sources confirm 15W wireless is supported.
iPhone 17 Air
Apple's biggest engineering challenge: fitting useful battery life into a 5.64mm chassis. The Air ships with a 3,149 mAh cell (the smallest in the iPhone 17 lineup), rated 27 hours of video playback versus 30/33/39 hours for the 17/17 Pro/17 Pro Max. The Tech Chap's real-world battery test pegged it at 6h 43m — about 12 minutes behind the iPhone 17 and 76 minutes behind the 17 Pro Max. Reviewers split between 'better than I expected, fine for a normal day' and 'this is the lineup's weakest battery and you'll need to top up before dinner on travel days.' Charging tops out at 20W wired (USB-PD 2.0) and 20W MagSafe/Qi2 — slower than the 40W wired and 25W MagSafe on the iPhone 17. Apple sells a $99 dedicated MagSafe battery pack that adds ~65% charge and is sized specifically for the Air; whether you 'need' it depends entirely on usage and routine.
Battery life is just okay — heavy use brought the battery into the 20s before dinnertime with around five hours of screen-on time, and Apple's recent track record on battery longevity isn't stellar either.
Battery life is better than I expected — five hours of screen-on time with 18% left by 10:30pm. I didn't feel as battery-anxious as I did with the Galaxy S25 Edge.
Streaming video rundown lasted 23h 39m — barely an hour less than a base iPhone 17 — and on a day with over seven hours of screen-on time I still had 25% left in the tank.
Aggressive thermal throttling under sustained GPU load — the lack of a vapor chamber means Genshin Impact and similar games measurably slow down within an hour, and the camera-bar plateau heats up noticeably.
USB-C port is limited to USB 2 (480 Mbps) data transfer speeds and there's no mmWave 5G support — odd corner-cuts on a $999 phone in 2025.
Aggressive thermal throttling under sustained GPU load — the lack of a vapor chamber means Genshin Impact and similar games measurably slow down within an hour, and the camera-bar plateau heats up noticeably.
After a year on the 6.3-inch iPhone 16 Pro, holding the Air's 6.5-inch panel in a 5.6mm chassis feels like holding the future.
The screen is wider and taller than the 6.3-inch phones, but a little of that size is wasted on the no-man's-land above the Dynamic Island, which iOS apps can't really use.
In GSMArena's lab the panel hit 998 nits in auto mode and 780 nits in manual mode, with exceptional sunlight legibility in real-world use.
The Dynamic Island sits slightly lower on the iPhone Air to accommodate the camera plateau, and some notifications expanding from it haven't been updated to accommodate that change.
Apple's new C1X modem benchmarks around 15-20% faster than the iPhone 16 Pro's Qualcomm chip in weak-signal areas, using 30% less energy — but it doesn't support mmWave 5G.
Gaming on the iPhone Air is slightly worse than 17 Pro Max — testing Genshin Impact maxed out, the Air experiences a lot more lags despite the phone being in normal temps.
The A19 Pro is FAST — trades blows with the iMac Pro, RX 570, and even the M4 chip. Apps launch faster than the iPhone 14 Pro and browsing feels app-like rather than web-like.
Ars Technica's graphics tests showed aggressive thermal throttling on the iPhone Air — the GPU sometimes performs more like the A18 from last year's iPhone 16.
After a week I can confidently say I can't make it through a full day on a single charge — on a good day I make it just past dinner, on a bad day I'm on the charger by late afternoon.
The Tech Chap's real-world battery test had the iPhone Air last 6 hours 43 minutes — 12 minutes behind the iPhone 17 (6h 55m) and 76 minutes behind the 17 Pro Max (7h 59m).
Six months in, battery life has not been a problem — the iPhone Air consistently delivers around four hours of screen-on time, comfortably covering my daily needs. For mostly-communication usage it lasts a full day without issue.
Five months on the verdict has stood the test of time — I almost always get through the full day with a 90% charge limit set, typically finishing with over 30% remaining, sometimes 40%.
The iPhone Air is not an endurance champ. It's also not an endurance also-ran — I'm fairly sure it slept through its alarm and forgot there was a race. I never had a full day off the charger.
The Air contains a very small 3,149 mAh battery, but the phone can just about squeak by an 11-hour day for me on a single charge — enough for a normal work day, not a full-on all-day-outside type of day.
Apple's $99 MagSafe Battery is more than erases the size and weight advantage of the Air, spoiling its light weight and thin profile — paying for Apple's particular solution feels sort of silly and only medium-elegant.
Charging is slower than the iPhone 17 line — 50% in 30 minutes instead of 20 minutes — and the USB-C port is limited to USB 2 speeds (480 Mbps) versus 10 Gbps on the iPhone 17 Pro.
Real-world battery from an early adopter: 7:10am to 3:42pm before dropping to 4% — 'not an all-day battery but passable if you don't mind the range anxiety.'
