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It’s no secret that I really like Asus’ ROG Phone series. It’s not only elegant to make no reservations about the size of the actual market they’re targeting, but to simply throw all the wild specs in front of the consumer, pair them with an over-the-top design, and then pull the trigger. And consumers have responded positively over the years, and not only that: the ROG Phone has beaten virtually every other “gaming phone” on the market, including from major competitors like Lenovo and Razer.
The ROG Phone 8, which was already presented at this year’s CES trade fair and surprisingly sent to us in a timely manner, is now on the way and here we have one of the biggest generational leaps for Asus’ important smartphone series in many years.
Okay, since specs and performance are truly some of the most important things about the ROG Phone, we won’t distract you any further with pointless descriptions of boring interfaces and design considerations. What does this year’s supercar have under the hood?
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, up to 24GB LPDDR5X RAM (yes, 24 incredible gigabytes), up to 1TB UFS 4.0 storage, 165Hz 6.78-inch AMOLED display with brightness peaking at 2500 NITS can, and a polling rate of 720 Hz. We again have the GameCool 8 cooling system, a DIRAC certified speaker system with 3.5mm headphone jack, WI-FI 7, IP68 certification and finally Qi 1.3 based wireless charging.
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And these are just the most important specifications. There’s a miniLED panel on the back with 341 programmable LEDs that can not only display things you can design yourself, but in true Nothing Phone style, it also supports certain system notifications, such as when you receive a text message or receive a call. It is around two millimeters thinner than the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate and also weighs a few grams less. Additionally, Asus has removed the rather prominent screen bezel in favor of a more Samsung-like Ultra design with a punch-hole selfie camera.
We’re not even done yet because we haven’t even mentioned AirTriggers, the X-Haptic vibration motor, the included AeroActive Cooler X cooler that comes with the Pro Edition, and improved camera lenses from Sony. Not only is Asus introducing the necessary generational improvements here, but it’s also making a welcome quantum leap, modernizing certain features and giving us long-awaited additions that fans have longed for.
£1,100 is a hefty price, and when you consider what Asus actually delivers, other competing flagships suddenly seem reserved, artificially limited and, above all, stingy. Sure, a Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra places a lot of its value on the camera system, but why not more RAM? Why is there no notification panel on the back? Why stop at 120 Hz?
Of course, there’s room for more identities on the Android Market, but there’s something completely pure about the ROG Phone 8. It has a clear priority, a clear personality and shows countless improvements this year that are worth mentioning. Of course, many will probably be stuck with one specification that has gone the other way, and perhaps rightly so. The decision to downsize the battery from 6000mAh to 5500mAh is strange to say the least. Yes, it charges at 65W wired and 15W wirelessly, and Asus says this shouldn’t have a significant impact on battery life, especially because the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is considered more efficient than the previous generation, but 500mAh is still there a lot, and if the battery had been the same size, we could have seen a significant quantum leap in battery life. However, it has to be said that we couldn’t notice any immediate difference even with the smaller battery.
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Asus has given us a slightly new design on the outside, thanks to the aforementioned bezel reduction, a different camera module and a matte black color that’s a little more subtle than last year’s white Ultimate Edition. The ROG UI is also an aggressive Android skin that offers plenty of options to customize its features. However, it’s still the case that if you really don’t like Asus’ specific skin, you can just swap it out for something more standard. All of this is acceptable and doesn’t stop you from enjoying the ROG Phone 8’s relatively unique purpose. The only real gripe is that Asus is only promising two OS upgrades over the life of the phone, which is unacceptable to say the least.
Finally, we have the camera, an aspect that Asus is constantly looking to improve, and while it’s completely understandable if poor camera quality holds back otherwise confident potential buyers, we can all agree that’s not the reason you should choose the ROG decide to call… well, a Pixel 8 Pro. This time you get a 50-megapixel IMX890 lens with gimbal stabilization, a 13-megapixel 120-degree ultra-wide-angle lens, and finally a 32-megapixel telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom. You can record up to 8K/24 frames per second, plus there are special features like stabilized action mode and much more. I can’t really point to a specific feature that’s missing, and it’s pretty impressive. The sensor itself is the same as that found on the Nothing Phone 2, for example, and the images are also quite similar. If Asus was really aiming for the stars here, you could call it a failed attempt, but even with three lenses, it’s still pretty clear that the camera isn’t given much consideration when developing a new ROG Phone considering everything else you get, it’s pretty decent.
The ROG Phone 8 is Asus’ attempt to break into the mainstream market. I don’t really know whether it will succeed or not. There isn’t much room for many established competitors and what’s more, we’re dealing with a pretty absurd level of platform loyalty. The most important thing is that Asus has once again managed to create a full-fledged, comprehensive and well-functioning smartphone that puts most people to shame in some important parameters.
#Asus #ROG #Phone #Pro