ROG Phone by Asus

A game-centric phone w/ cool features that make sense!

Product Shots

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Quick Review

Gaming-centered smartphones are the hype these days, evident from releases like the Razer phone and Xiaomi's Black Shark. As a result of this niche, Asus's ROG division has decided to release their very own gaming smartphone that does things right!

The ROG Phone

ROG is Asus' gaming division for their tech hardware, it stands for Republic of Gamers. ROG has the backing of a great team experienced in hardware production of the gaming niche to produce a really good smartphone like this one here.

Here are a few key specifications for this phone:

Processor: Exclusive 2.96GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 Mobile Platform
GPU: Qualcomm Adreno 630
Display: 6.0“ 18:9 (2160x1080) AMOLED
90Hz refresh rate with 1ms pixel response time
Memory: LPDDR4X 8GB RAM
Storage: UFS 2.1, 128GB / 512GB
Audio: Dual front-facing stereo speakers with smart amplifier
Battery: 4,000mAh

You can head over to the links at the bottom for full spec sheets and reviews for this product but I'll be sharing a few things I liked about this phone.

The built-in GameCool system and AeroActive Cooler accessory add-on is really helpful for graphic-intensive games and data-hungry games. As we know, high-end gaming on mobile consumes lots of thinking power and battery as well as being on data all the time, and that results in high temperature that will be a big downside to the gaming experience and your smartphone's life in the long run, so kudos to the ROG team for putting this into priority and coming up with a solution for it.
Side jacks are the best! Accessories need ports to plug into and usually those are at the bottom/chin of your smartphone and when you're into gaming, you would usually hold your phone in the landscape position and have either heaphones or chargers/usb plugged into your phone. This poses a big hindrance for your hands to grip your phone and can be strenuous on your fingers when you're already gaming for a while. Asus took that into consideration and added ports on the side resulting in smooth-sailing when gaming!
Docks! They were very generous to release 2 special docks for the ROG smartphone: The Mobile Desktop Dock and the WiGig Dock + GameVice controller. They have varied features that's worth checking out. The MDD (let's call it that) turns your phone into a PC while the WiGig turns your phone into a console gaming device (like a PS4 or Xbox); but all with so much more features, so do check it out.

The ROG Phone is dated to be available this coming summer in either the 128GB and 512GB worth of internal storage. With the AeroActive Cooler bundled. You can ask your local ROG representative/shop for details about release dates and pricing in your country.

All images are from Asus' ROG's official website: https://rog.asus.com

Official announcement by Asus ROG: https://rog.asus.com/articles/smartphones/announcing-the-rog-phone-changing-the-game-for-mobile/

External review for this product: https://www.anandtech.com/show/12853/asus-rog-goes-for-gaming-smartphones-rog-phone-with-speedbinned-snapdragon-845