Asus has a rather interesting history with its smartphones. The Zenphones, available since 2014, have repeatedly surprised with innovative ideas such as flip cameras. From 2021 onwards, the Taiwanese company, like Apple, rode the wave of popular but commercially unsuccessful compact flagship phones before returning to classic large smartphones with the Zenfone 11 Ultra in 2024 and the Zenfone 12 Ultra in 2025. Asus was among the first to offer gaming phones in 2018, but after the ROG Phone 9 Pro at the end of 2024, the series apparently came to an end, as no successor was released in 2025.
Rumors about the end of Zenfone were already circulating in 2023, but were vehemently denied by Asus at the time. Now, similar rumors have resurfaced, but there seems to be more to them this time, as confirmed in an article by Taiwanese industry publication Digitimes. According to the article, Asus is not (yet) withdrawing from smartphone production, but intends to take a break and not release any new smartphones in 2026. This means no Zenfone 13 this year and probably no ROG Phone 10 either, although Asus stresses that both software updates and warranty services will continue for all existing Zenfones and ROG phones.
It appears that Asus is struggling with increasingly fierce competition from mainland China and neighboring South Korea. PC counterpart Acer withdrew from the smartphone business back in 2016 and currently only sells mobile phones in India under a licensing program. Whether Asus will actually restart Zenfone and ROG Phone production in 2027, or whether this break will lead to a final end, remains to be seen.
As a young tech enthusiast with a history involving assembling and overclocking projects, I ended up working as a projectionist with good old 35-mm films before I entered the computer world at a professional level. I assisted customers at an Austrian IT service provider called Iphos IT Solutions for seven years, working as a Windows client and server administrator as well as a project manager. As a freelancer who travels a lot, I have been able to write for Notebookcheck from all corners of the world since 2016. My articles cover brand-new mobile technologies in smartphones, laptops, and gadgets of all kinds.
Growing up in regional Australia, I first became acquainted with computers in my early teens after a broken leg from a football (soccer) match temporarily condemned me to a predominately indoor lifestyle. Soon afterwards I was building my own systems. Now I live in Germany, having moved here in 2014, where I study philosophy and anthropology. I am particularly fascinated by how computer technology has fundamentally and dramatically reshaped human culture, and how it continues to do so.
