ASUS shutters smartphone unit, no new ROG Phones and Zenfones coming
When you think of smartphones, ASUS might not be the first brand to come to mind. And maybe because of that, ASUS has apparently shut down their smartphone unit at the end of 2025, with no future smartphones planned. ASUS has committed to continue supporting the existing lineup of smartphones with software updates, maintenance and warranty support, but won’t be launching any new ROG Phones or Zenfones in 2026.
No future smartphones from ASUS
ASUS started their journey in the smartphone market with the trio of ASUS Zenfone 4, 5 and 6 in 2014, powered by the maligned Intel Atom processors. After focusing on the competitive entry-level and mid-range segments until 2018, ASUS trained their sights on the flagship market with the very first ROG Phone and funky ASUS Zenfone 6, harnessing the flagship chipsets from Qualcomm.
The ROG Phone stood out from the competition with a gaming-focused design complete with RGB lighting and capacitive AirTrigger shoulder buttons for a more intuitive gaming experience. Meanwhile, the ASUS Zenfone 6 debuted the motorized flip-up camera design, serving up a true bezel-less display and the ability to use the 48MP camera as your selfie camera. These two series underlined ASUS’ smartphone strategy: the ROG Phone for gamers, and the ASUS Zenfone for camera enthusiasts.
The Zenfone series went on the test the waters in the niche market of compact flagships too, starting with the ASUS Zenfone 8 series available in two options: The compact Zenfone 8 and aptly-named Zenfone 8 Flip. This was also the last generation of Zenfones to make it officially to the Malaysian market. The Zenfone 9 dropped the flip-up camera, and fully focused on capturing the attention of compact smartphone enthusiasts. However, the plan apparently didn’t quite work out for ASUS, as the lines between the Zenfone and ROG Phone series started blurring with the ROG Phone 8 and Zenfone 11 Ultra generation.
After years of being an unapologetic gaming-focused smartphone with relatively basic camera features, the ROG Phone 8 took a leap and brought the flagship gimbal stabilization system from the Zenfone 10 to the ROG series. Now packing a flagship camera system, the ROG Phone 8 straddled the line between the two series, and ASUS further muddied the waters with the Zenfone 11 Ultra being essentially a reskinned ROG Phone 8, albeit without the gaming features like the side-mounted USB port and AirTrigger buttons.
I have always advocated for specialization in the smartphone market. Focus heavily on one feature, and make it great. There’s only so much space in a smartphone’s chassis, so if you have big cameras, you will definitely have to sacrifice precious space for larger cooling or battery components. However, it is pretty obvious that consumers want a device that can do it all in their pockets. And smartphone gamers aren’t spending flagship money on the ROG Phone series, as most mobile games are casual enough that just about any recent mid-range or better smartphone can handle them sufficiently well.
In any case, it’s a rather sad situation for ASUS. As a person who has enjoyed the experiencing of literally dominating in Call of Duty Mobile and PUBG Mobile with the ROG Phones, I guess it’s time to look at other brands like Nubia Redmagic which offer shoulder buttons.
