Compared to other smartphone makers like Samsung, Xiaomi, OPPO, and the likes, ASUS hasn’t been quite as active. The company releases the occasional Zenfone and its ROG Phone gaming series, but it definitely isn’t one of the big players. So it didn’t really come as a surprise to learn that ASUS will be hitting the pause button on its smartphone production.

ASUS will pause its smartphone production

A DigiTimes report from earlier this year revealed that ASUS had plans to pause its smartphone business . However, this has since been confirmed by ASUS chairman Jonney Shih, who during a year-end gala on 16 January, 2026 was quoted as saying, “Asus will no longer add new mobile phone models in the future.”

Now, this doesn’t mean that ASUS is exiting the market. It also doesn’t mean that all of the Zenfones and ROG Phones will be forgotten either. According to Shih, the company will continue supporting existing devices during the transition. The ASUS chairman does not mention if the company will eventually dip its toes back in the smartphone waters, so we’ll have to wait and see.

Like we said, ASUS isn’t exactly the biggest smartphone player in the market. While its Zenfones are typically overshadowed by the likes of those from Samsung and other major players, its gaming phone lineup does have fans . This is because it comes with features specifically for gamers. We’re talking about improved thermals, larger batteries, and built-in controls to make gaming easier. We’re sure that there will be some that will miss these devices.

If not smartphones, what?

So, what will ASUS focus on if it isn’t going to be smartphones? ASUS has its computing division that consists of laptops, monitors, and GPUs. Will it focus more on those? As it turns out, ASUS is looking towards the future where it wants to focus more on robotics and smart glasses.

The company gave us a sneak peek at its ambitions at CES 2026 with the ASUS ROG XREAL R1 glasses . This is a collaboration between ASUS and XREAL. The smart glasses space is still somewhat new. However, Meta appears to be dominating with its Ray-Ban smart glasses.

We’ve also heard rumors that Apple wants a slice of that pie too. Will ASUS be able to dominate the space? Only time will tell. In the meantime, who else is going to miss the Zenfone and ROG Gaming smartphone lineup?