Popular gaming company Razer last year launched a gaming smartphone called Razer Phone. And since then, interest for gaming phones have picked up steam. After the launch of Razer Phone, Xiaomi launched a gaming smartphone called Black Shark back in mid-April. And then immediately a week later, Nubia too launched its gaming smartphone called Nubia Red Magic. Well now, at the ongoing Computex tech show in Taipei, ASUS too has announced its gaming smartphone called ASUS ROG Phone.
Those who are well-versed with the gaming universe already know what ROG stands for. But for those unaware, ROG stands for Republic of Gamers under which ASUS sells its gaming products. Just like what Dell does with Alienware.
Having said that, as we are talking about ASUS ROG Phone, which is a gaming smartphone, you must be interested in its specs, so let’s get done with it first. As one would expect, the ASUS ROG Phone comes powered by “speed-binned” Snapdragon 845 SoC which is clocked at 2.96 GHz and is paired with 8 GB RAM.
The smartphone runs Android 8.1 Oreo out-of-the-box which is layered with ASUS’ ROG Gaming x mode UI. The ROG Phone also comes with up to 512 GB of internal storage which means you don’t have to worry about running out of space while installing some heavy gaming titles.
That said, the ASUS ROG Phone also features dual camera setup at the back which is a combination of one 12 MP and one 8 MP snapper. For selfies and video calls, you get a single 8 MP snapper on the front.
When you are gaming on a smartphone, you need to have big battery so that you can carry on with your long stretches of gaming. Well, the ASUS ROG Phone has you covered in that department as well as it packs a huge 4000 mAh battery. And, what’s better is that it comes with ASUS’ HyperCharge charging tech which charges the phone from 0 to 60% in 35 minutes.
The ASUS ROG Phone flaunts a 6-inch AMOLED display with 18:9 aspect ratio and a resolution of 2160 x 1080 pixels. And thankfully, it doesn’t come with a notch. The display on the ROG Phone has a contrast ratio of 10,000:1, and, has an impressive refresh rate of 90 MHz and a response time of 1 ms. Something that gamers would love a lot.
When we are talking about gaming, heat is something that we talk about as well, because playing heavy games for longer period generates a lot of heat. On a smartphone, this not only makes it uncomfortable for the person to hold the smartphone, but also throttles everything down because there’s no easy way for heat dissipation. Well, that won’t be the case with ROG Phone as it comes with GameCool 3D vapor-chamber cooling that keeps the phone cool. Moreover, you can also get the AeroActive Cooler detachable external accessory that offers extra cooling. The accessory also has a 3.5 mm headphone jack and a USB Type-C port so that you can charge it and listen to audio at the same time.
The ASUS ROG Phone also features programmable ultra-sonic AirTrigger touch sensors that make gaming on it a whole of lot of fun. The ROG Phone comes with a total of three AirTrigger sensor, two of which are on the left and side of the top of display in landscape-mode with the third one designed for gaming in portrait mode.
With AirTrigger, you not only get extra controls to perform different actions, but you also don’t have to use a lot of energy to perform those same actions when relying on screen taps. You just need to touch the sensors lightly to send your opponent back home. That said, the ASUS ROG Phone also comes with an advanced haptic actuator, because you know, gaming without a powerful force feedback is no fun.
The ASUS ROG Phone also features a glowing ROG logo at the back along with ASUS’ Aura RGB Lighting. You can customize it to light up for incoming calls, notifications, and more. That said, the back of the ASUS ROG Phone is covered with 3D Gorilla Glass, and, it also has diamond-cut patterns with sides made out of metal.
Other features of the ROG Phone include side-mounted ports, fingerprint scanner, water resistance and dual front-facing stereo speakers.
The ASUS ROG Phone also has different accessories available like AeroActive Cooler (that we already talked about), TwinView Dock, Mobile Desktop Dock, Gamevice Controller and WiGig Dock. The AeroActive Cooler comes bundled along but you will have to buy other accessories separately.
ASUS ROG Phone Specifications
- CPU: 2.96 GHz speed-binned Snapdragon 845 octa-core processor
- RAM: 8 GB LPDDR4X
- GPU: Adreno 630
- Operating System: ROG Gaming X mode UI based on Android 8.1 Oreo
- Display: 6-inch Full-HD+ (2160 x 1080 pixels) 18:9 Always-On AMOLED Display with 2.5D Curved Gorilla Glass, 550 nits brightness, 10,000:1 contrast ratio, 90 Hz refresh rate, 1 ms response time, Gaming HDR, Mobile HDR and glove touch support
- Primary Rear Camera: 12 MP Sony IMX363 Dual Pixel with f/1.8 aperture, 1/2.55-inch sensor size, 1.4 µm pixel size, PDAF, 6P Lens, AI Scene Detection, Portrait Mode, PixelMaster Tech, 4-axis OIS and LED flash
- Secondary Rear Camera: 8 MP with 120-degree wide-angle lens
- Front Camera: 8 MP with f/2.0 aperture, 84-degree field of view and PixelMaster Tech
- Internal Storage: 128/512 GB UFS 2.1 (with 100 GB Google Drive space for 1 year)
- SIM: Dual Nano
- Connectivity: 4G LTE, GPS, Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, NFC, FM Radio, 3.5 mm headphone jack, USB Type-C port
- Other: Fingerprint Scanner, Water Resistance, Dual front-facing stereo speakers, 5-magnet speaker with dual NXP 9874 smart amplifier, Hi-Res 242-bit/192 KHz audio, DTS (Digital Theater System) Headphone:X™ 7.1 virtual surround sound for headphone, Qualcomm aptX for Bluetooth Wireless audio
- Battery: 4000 mAh with ASUS HyperCharge 20W Fast Charging and Quick Charge 4.0 support
ASUS ROG Phone Price and Availability
- Price: To be announced
- Availability: Q3 of 2018
