"No longer adding new mobile phone models": one major Android phone maker axes future smartphone plans
An interesting phone maker is pulling out of the market entirely
Quick Summary
Asus has confirmed that it's pulling out of smartphones, saying that it won't release any new models.
That will mean an end to the Zenfone line, as well as (potentially) the ROG Phone too.
Asus has confirmed that it won't be launching any more mobile phones, with chairman Jonney Shih confirming the news at Asus' 2025 Year-End Gala in Taipei. The company, known for Zenfone and ROG models, will put the investment into PC and physical AI instead.
That marks quite a shift for Asus, although phone fans will be aware that Zenfone wasn't making a huge impact on the market, despite offering some great company flagship devices over the years.
Latterly, it has been better known for its gaming phones under the ROG Phone brand. It's assumed at this stage that the news affects ROG Phone too, although that's not completely confirmed as yet.
According to Inside, a Taiwanese new outlet, Asus has confirmed that it while it will "no longer add new mobile phone models", it will "take care of the brand's mobile phone users". This presumably means that it will honour existing support agreements.
The shift to physical AI devices might produce some interesting results for Asus however, with efforts focused on "AI robot and robotics" as well as "AI glasses" – an area that has seen a lot of interest recently with the advent of Android XR.
Asus already has smart glasses in the form of the AirVision M1, which are USB-C glasses designed to work with laptops, ROG Ally and phones. It's likely that the focus in future will be glasses that are standalone, powered by Android XR and offering Gemini AI access, rather than being tethered to another device and simply acting as a display.
Asus' Zenfone range had been shrinking over the past years, focused on a more compact devices like the 2023 Zenfone 10. The company's pitch was to offer flagship power in a smaller device, but in the past, we saw some great devices like the Zenfone 6 with its flip camera, designed to avoid the notch problem.
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For gamers, the problem is more acute: ROG Phone dominated gaming phones and now the baton is likely to be handed to RedMagic as the de facto brand of choice.
Chris has been writing about consumer tech for over 15 years. Formerly the Editor-in-Chief of Pocket-lint, he's covered just about every product launched, witnessed the birth of Android, the evolution of 5G, and the drive towards electric cars. You name it and Chris has written about it, driven it or reviewed it. Now working as a freelance technology expert, Chris' experience sees him covering all aspects of smartphones, smart homes and anything else connected. Chris has been published in titles as diverse as Computer Active and Autocar, and regularly appears on BBC News, BBC Radio, Sky, Monocle and Times Radio. He was once even on The Apprentice... but we don't talk about that.
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