Zenfone 12 Ultra teases the return of the 3.5mm jack – but does it matter anymore?

ASUS is getting ready to launch the Zenfone 12 Ultra next week, precisely on February 6, and ahead of the final reveal, the company has officially given us a quick glimpse of the phone in a new teaser.

The 15-second clip posted on X shows the Zenfone 12 Ultra just for a brief moment, but that’s enough to see that the phone sports ultra-thin bezels and a center-placed punch-hole selfie shooter. Actually, the front panel of the Zenfone 12 Ultra is identical to the ROG Phone 9 Pro, which was also made by ASUS and is already on the market. This is no surprise since the upcoming Zenfone is most likely a repurposed version of ASUS’ gaming phone.

ASUS’ teaser also shows a sight we don’t come across often these days — a man wearing a pair of wired 3.5mm headphones connected to the device. ASUS is one of the few smartphone companies still offering users a 3.5mm headphone jack, which we suspect may not be such a pull for buyers anymore, given that there are enough and more quality wireless earphones on the market.

Meanwhile, ASUS hopes AI will be the bait to hook buyers this time. The company says the phone offers “the full AI experience,” so expect a ton of software-based AI trickery to make its way to the Zenfone 12 Ultra.

As far as specs go, the ASUS Zenfone 12 Ultra can be expected to come with Snapdragon 8 Elite power, a larger 5,800mAh battery, a 6.78-inch LTPO AMOLED display, IP68 dust/water resistance, up to 512GB storage and 16GB RAM, a 50MP + 32MP + 13MP camera configuration, and Android 15. We would be pleasantly surprised if ASUS improves its software update policy, but we’re not optimistic. The ROG Phone 9 Pro delivers just two years of Android updates, and we’re not expecting any better for the Zenfone 12 Ultra.