Asus has just announced its newest smartphone, the Zenfone 11 Ultra. As Asus’ flagship handset, the brand promises a high-end camera, design, AI and performance.
How does the new Asus Zenfone 11 Ultra compare with Honor’s newly launched flagship smartphone, the Magic 6 Pro?
We’ve compared the Asus Zenfone 11 Ultra specs against the Honor Magic 6 Pro to show you how the two Android handsets compare.
Zenfone 11 Ultra is cheaper
As it’s a newer launch, you’d be forgiven for assuming the Zenfone 11 Ultra would be the more expensive phone of the two. However, the Asus Zenfone 11 Ultra is actually slightly cheaper than the Honor Magic 6 Pro.
The Zenfone 11 Ultra is available with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage starting at £869.99 or you can get a larger capacity handset with 16GB and 512GB at £949.99. The Zenfone 11 Ultra is available for pre-order from 14th March.
The Honor Magic 6 Pro, however, comes equipped with 12GB and 512GB storage, and starts at £1099.99.
Honor Magic 6 Pro has a larger battery
Although both the Honor Magic 6 Pro and Asus Zenfone 11 Ultra feature large batteries, the Honor Magic 6 Pro’s is slightly larger at 5,600mAh over the ZenFone’s 5,500mAh. In his review, Mobile Editor Lewis Painter found the Honor Magic 6 Pro’s battery life to be impressive, ending a 16-hour day with around 45-50% left in the tank.
Asus claims that the Zenfone 11 Ultra will offer over 26 hours of battery life.. In our testing, we found the phone to have around 20-30% left in the tank by the end of the day, and so can’t quite match the Honor.
When it comes to recharging, the Honor Magic 6 Pro supports 80W Honor SuperCharge and 66W Wireless Supercharge. The Magic 6 Pro, however, has a slightly less powerful charging support, with 65W HyperCharge and up to 15-watt wireless charging.
It’s worth noting that neither handset includes a dedicated charger in their box, so this will need to be a separate investment.
Zenfone 11 Ultra has Gorilla Glass Victus 2
The Asus Zenfone 11 Ultra uses Corning’s Gorilla Glass Victus 2 for its screen. Although not Corning’s latest Gorilla Glass iteration, Victus 2 remains a solid choice as it can apparently survive up to one metre drops on surfaces replicating concrete.
Honor instead opted for its in-house developed NanoCrystal Shield. Honor claims that this is 10x more drop-resistant than its predecessor and has a 5-star SGS glass drop resistance ability rating.
Both handsets harness AI
Both handsets run on Qualcomm’s top-end processor, Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. This chipset comes with a particular focus on generative AI, which both the Zenfone 11 Ultra and Magic 6 Pro utilise in their own ways.
Asus promises that the AI features of the Zenfone 11 Ultra “bring unique quality-of-life improvements and revolutionise the user experience.” Its AI features include AI Noise Cancellation capabilities, which promise to ensure clear audio quality in all scenarios and AI Call Translator which enables instant speech-to-text conversion.
There’s also an AI Wallpaper feature on the Zenfone 11 Ultra which should allow users to create their own personalised wallpapers with the help of an AI algorithm, and an AI Transcript function which offers real-time transcription.
Honor revealed the MagicPortal and MagicLM with the Magic 6 Pro, which it says “offer a unique approach to GenAI.” MagicPortal analyses messages and other content to provide shortcuts it thinks you might need, and MagicLM is an on-device assistant that can handle general knowledge queries and assist you with locating files, creating schedules and more.
Zenfone 11 Ultra includes AI photo software
While both smartphones feature a similar rear three-camera setup, the Asus Zenfone 11 Ultra also includes various software tweaks to complement the hardware. Features include the AI Portrait Video mode, which offers a depth of field effect, as well as HyperClarity and AI Object Sense that helps you easily take realistic images with increased clarity and added details based on AI recognition.
Although the Magic 6 Pro may not have dedicated AI camera software, our reviewer did conclude that its camera setup is where the smartphone stands out. He stated “images from the main sensor certainly don’t disappoint. They’re crisp, vibrant without being too artificial-looking and, unsurprisingly, handle bright spots and low spots exceedingly well with very little blown out or too dark to make out details.”
It wasn’t just the main lens that impressed, as the Magic 6 Pro’s periscope lens surpassed that of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra as it “offers way more true-to-life colour tuning than Samsung’s flagship.”
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We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
