News Weekly: Alphabet's earnings soar, new Zenfone Ultra, and more

ASUS Zenfone 12 Ultra home page with device in a case

(Image credit: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)

News Weekly

(Image credit: Android Central)

News Weekly is our column where we highlight and summarize some of the week's top stories so you can catch up on the latest tech news.

This is Android Central's News Weekly, your go-to source for a concise roundup of the week's most significant tech stories. This is where we delve into the top headlines that provide the latest developments and innovations contributing to the digital landscape.

This week we got a glimpse of how Alphabet faired this quarter, Zenfone 12 Ultra launches, Nothing teased yet another part of its Phone 3a, Huawei's trifold phone and Meta gets into AI wearables while its Vice President of VR steps down.

Alphabet's Q4 report

Alphabet Results Numbers — (Image credit: Android Central)

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Alphabet announced its Q4 results this week, and it looks like it had a 12% revenue increase year-over-year to $96.47 billion in Q4 2024. This brought the company's total revenue for the year to $350 billion, a 14% increase year-over-year.

Google Service's revenues increased by 10% to $84.1 billion in the quarter, which the company attributed to the "strong momentum across Google Search & other and YouTube ads."

Looking ahead into the year, the company’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, said in the earnings statement that the quarter was strong "driven by our leadership in AI and the momentum across the business."

"We are building, testing, and launching products and models faster than ever, and making significant progress in computing and driving efficiency," Pichai said.

This year's statement was very AI-focused, underscoring the launch of DeepSeek, which has turned the tables for many such companies developing AI.

"The reason we are so excited about the AI opportunity is we know we can drive extraordinary use cases because the cost of actually using it is going to keep coming down, which will make more use cases feasible. And that's the opportunity space, you know, it's as big as it comes. And that's why you're seeing us invest to meet that moment," Pichai noted during the earnings call.

ASUS launches Zenfone 12 Ultra

ASUS Zenfone 12 Ultra running Balatro — (Image credit: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)

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ASUS launched its newest Zenfone 12 Ultra. That comes packed with "prioritized simplicity, elegance, and beauty," according to the company.

On the display front, it consists of a 6.78-inch FHD Plus screen with a 120Hz refresh rate, and users can bump this up to 144Hz while gaming for titles like Honkai: Star Rail or Zenless Zone Zero.

When it comes to the phone's cameras, it has a 50MP Sony Lytia 500 primary lens with 2x lossless zoom, a 13MP ultrawide lens, and a 32MP telephoto sensor with "built-in" OIS (optical image stabilization). On the front, it gets a selfie camera at 32MP with a 90-degree FOV (field of view).

At the core, the Zenfone 12 Ultra comes with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite, just like the Samsung Galaxy S25 series. The device also comes packed with AI tools like AI Tracking for subject detection in videos, AI Portrait Video 2.0 during 4K recordings for "precision tracking," and AI Voice Clarity.

Zenfone 12 Ultra is available in three colors: Sage Green, Ebony Black, and Sakura White. This phone is only available in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Europe at €1,099 (~$1,143).

First look at Nothing 3a's camera

Nothing March 2025 event teaser — (Image credit: Nothing)

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Nothing seems to be playing its cards right leading up to its new flagship launch that is set for March 4. This week, Nothing posted an official teaser image of the side of the Phone 3a that was glowing white. The only tagline by the company reads, "Your second memory, one click away."

This left many speculating on X if Nothing has teased a physical camera button for the Phone 3a — much like what we get to see in the iPhone 16 series. This would let users place the phone in landscape or portrait mode and press the side-mounted button instead of tapping the display.

If this were true, Nothing's Phone 3a would likely be the first ever Android phone to feature a camera button that could potentially allow users to control and swap between camera modes by slowly swiping along the button or pressing to snap a photo.

Huawei leaps on the multi-fold game

Huawei Mate XT side profile showing how thin it is

(Image credit: Huawei)

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Recently, Huawei posted an "innovative product launch" teaser on X, which left people to wonder if the company's first multi-fold phone is arriving in global markets outside of China. The Chinese OEM said, "Be part of the extraordinary as we unveil the ultimate." The final part, "the ultimate," seemingly refers to the Mate XT, also known as the Mate XT Ultimate Design.

Additionally, the post features a teaser image that looks like the Z-Shape. Aside from users speculating it could be the Mate XT in its X thread, the company has only responded with "Stay tuned!"

In September 2024, Huawei launched the world's first multi-fold phone, which, when fully unfolded, the device features a tablet-like 10.2-inch display. The interesting thing about this phone is that users can use it in different "modes" or "states." Using a singular screen will give you a phone-style 6.4-inch OLED display while unfolding an additional screen provides a 7.9-inch experience.

At its maximum, the Mate XT is said to utilize the company's "golden ratio" of 16:11 in 3K resolution.

Meta's chase for the Metaverse

Meta AI with Llama 3.2 adding a goat to a surfboard. — (Image credit: Meta)

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Meta's Andrew Bosworth says 2025 is the 'make-or-break' year for the Metaverse. In a leaked internal memo, Bosworth hinted at the Reality Labs’ work in mixed reality will either be game-changing or a potential "legendary misadventure."

Bosworth adds that Meta is sticking with the metaverse, including Horizon Worlds, through 2025, although the company will have to "need to drive sales, retention, and engagement across the board but especially in MR." Reality Labs, Meta's VR division, has taken several billions in funding, but it hasn't yet lived up to its word of making it big in the VR world. Reality Labs also added nearly $5 billion in losses last quarter,

In other news, Meta's VP of VR and mixed reality (MR) has quit the company. Mark Rabkin has had the title of VP of VR/MR since the Oculus Quest 2 launched in 2020.

In a letter shared on Facebook, Rabkin describes his time at Meta as a "foundational, formative experience." Rabkin said he's leaving due to family health struggles at home, noting that he'll be taking some time off work rather before moving to a different position inside the company.

Rabkin has worked on many major projects from the ground up, like the Meta Quest headsets, over the past six years, including the transition from Oculus to Meta branding, creating record revenues of over 1 billion dollars last quarter alone. And played a major role in the Meta Quest 3S launch. According to Rabkin, Ryan Cairns, who formerly led Portal and Meta for Work initiatives, will now be filling his shows. Cairns is expected to assume the full title of VP of VR/MR at the beginning of March and will report to Vishal Shah, who will remain VP of Metaverse.