Asus Confirms It Won't Launch Phones in 2026, May Leave Android Altogether (pcmag.com) 27
Asus won't release any new smartphones this year, and that may signal the brand's exit from the Android space altogether. From a report: Asus Chairman Jonney Shih confirmed the news at an event in Taiwan on Jan. 16. According to a machine-translated version of quotes reported by Inside, Shih said, "Asus will no longer add new mobile phone models in the future."
Shih said Asus will continue to support existing smartphone users with software updates and warranty assistance. This matches a previous report from DigiTimes earlier this month that said Asus wouldn't introduce new models in 2026. The big question is whether that means stepping back altogether or a temporary pause. In his speech, Shih alluded to the possibility that Asus may return to smartphones, but did not confirm it.
Shih said Asus will continue to support existing smartphone users with software updates and warranty assistance. This matches a previous report from DigiTimes earlier this month that said Asus wouldn't introduce new models in 2026. The big question is whether that means stepping back altogether or a temporary pause. In his speech, Shih alluded to the possibility that Asus may return to smartphones, but did not confirm it.
Brings back sad memories... (Score:2)
... but I'm not even certain the ASUS was the worst smartphone I ever owned. I'm sure it was a contender for worst, but a lot of competition.
So should I go for funny instead? I think the best smartphones I've owned were probably from Huawei, but the secret ingredient in the high value proposition was probably secret government subsidies. More bang for the buck in exchange for trusting the Chinese government more than the American government? But at this late date I don't even know if Huawei was forced compl
Re: Gamers aren't game. (Score:3)
But the N-Gage was such a huge success! https://imgur.com/a/remember-n... [imgur.com]
Asus made phones? (Score:3)
But I can make a guess as to why they're stopping.
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Yes, and the Zen phone lineup was fairly popular. ROG phones had great features even for non-gamers, and once upon a time had the best speakers in the business (they got rid of those a few gens ago). ROG phones had tons of storage and RAM options which were nice for people that wanted that sort of thing.
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I have to wonder how many of the people "who wanted that sort of thing" ever actually put it to use. You can add all the RAM you want; it won't make a website download any faster or improve call quality. But it's not my place to decide for everyone else what's silly or not.
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It was mostly an epeen thing. Gamer phones were (and probably still are) very popular in se Asia. They never really caught on in the US market.
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Epeen or e-peen is just buying the bigger, better cpu/ram/gpu that you might not need just to impress your nerd friends. Mobile gaming caught on in a big way in many parts of Asia, giving rise to giants like Tencent. Most of their offerings focus on phones rather than PCs or consoles.
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Re: Asus made phones? (Score:1)
I know they whitebox some phones, but I've never actually met anybody with an Asus branded phone.
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There were some cheaper Motorolas but they had the older modem. So I spent the 500 bucks to get the OnePlus 13r. It did make a difference on the T-Mobile network I'm on. Not that I don't still have some problems with calling because T-Mobile kind of suc
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I don't like the idea of spending a ton of money to have "an incredibly powerful device in my hand" if I don't have any need for it. I use my phone for talking and web browsing. I want the cheapest phone that does that well.
And I find it disappointing that you are trying to use good fisc
Re: Asus made phones? (Score:2)
A bit too expensive for me.
SSDI isn't going to give you a raise. Like the AC said, just get a job. Work for McDonald's and KFC for 50 hours a week for like a month and then quit. Even at federal minimum wage you should have enough for whatever phone you want. You spend every waking minute on your phone, so in your case it should be worth it. Besides, you can snack on the leftover sludge from the fryer, saving yourself some lunch money. Sure, it's crap, but it can't be any worse than what you already eat.
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I don't do mobile gaming either. According to my phone, it's been about 13 years since I played any games on it or its predecessors. Though you clearly care more about what hardware your phone runs on than I. I target the "cheapest iPhone" market; could not care less about the chipset. I'd probably change carriers before I'd change phones to work better with my existing carrier, but I'd get my wife to deal with that hassle.
I think you're right - it should bug you that what you
Re:Asus made phones? Tip: Never ASUS, stay away. (Score:2)
I liked my ZenPhone 2 Laser back around 2018-2019, for a while.. but the camera was sluggish as all hell, and the ZenPhone 3 was, I'm told, even worse. ASUS did absolute dick all to improve the situation, despite the fact their forum was absolutely full of users complaining about camera issues.
And, idiot that I am, back in 2024 I bought an ASUS laptop (Duo Pro 2024) -- dual-screen beauty of engineering, but, you guessed it, ZERO support for issues and they pretend Linux doesn't even exist.
It's been about 2
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And that's why I'll never buy Asus again.
Asus phone? (Score:3)
No thanks. Asus has had shit thermal design on their mainboards for ages. That means they either do not care or are incompetent. Hence I will not buy Asus as long as there are alternatives.
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tbh my Samsung S21 Ultra overheats worse than my old ROG Phone 2 ever did. Different product divisions produce different results. Asus ROG phones were always pretty nice, even if they (ironically) lost gaming benchmarks to Samsung phones in a lot of cases.
The worst part of owning an ROG phone was wondering if American carriers would support them properly:
https://zentalk.asus.com/t5/ro... [asus.com]
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The zenfone also had widespread issues with just randomly bricking itself.
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More importantly Asus now has arguably the worst support in the business. It's impossible to get through to them and they have become infamous for denying valid warranty claims, claiming people scratched their PCI connector and such.
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Good to know. One more reason never to do business with them again.
Coincidentally (Score:4, Funny)
I will not be making a phone this year either. Maybe never.
I don't need a full slashdot story, though.
their Zenfones are the best (Score:2)
I had an ASUS Zenfone M and now a Zenfone 10. They last forever and feature great performance and great battery life. I would buy another. I had to buy a Taiwanese model as I couldn't get a Canadian model before they sold out, if they even existed. ASUS doesn't care about the Canada market much. Great phones tho. The ROG phones are in a class of their own. Crazy to abandon all of that.