• Asus has said it won't launch any new phones in 2026
• It will still honor warranties and provide software updates for existing handsets
• Its future in the business beyond 2026 is uncertain, but doesn't sound promising

If you’re a fan of the likes of the Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro or the Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra, we have some bad news, as it seems new models in these lines won’t be coming for a long time if at all.

Asus has confirmed to DigiTimes that it currently has no plans to produce new smartphone models in 2026 – so we probably won’t see a Zenfone 13 or an Asus ROG Phone 10.

This isn’t entirely surprising news if you’ve been keeping up with the brand, as its latest gaming phones – the ROG Phone 9 series – launched back in November of 2024, so that series already didn’t get a new model in 2025. We did see the new Zenfone 12 Ultra in early 2025, but Zenfone is a fairly niche series, so this probably wasn’t a big money maker for the company.

A partial exit

Right now, Asus isn’t totally exiting the smartphone market. According to DigiTimes it has pledged to continue offering after-sales support, such as warranty coverage and software updates. But no new models will be developed, and it sounds like existing models may also cease being sold once stock dries up.

There is some small hope in the company’s wording, as it’s so far only talking about 2026, so it’s possible that it will resume making smartphones in 2027. It also said there are currently “no plans” to develop new phones this year, which leaves a bit of wiggle room for their plans to change. But it certainly sounds like this might be it for new Asus phones.

That’s a shame, as the company often made excellent handsets, with models in the ROG Phone line for example often topping our list of the best gaming phones. So while these might not have been best sellers, they’re sure to be missed by those who value these sorts of handsets.

Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra two-minute review

If you're going to call a smartphone ‘ultra’, it needs to embody that adjective. The Xiaomi 14 Ultra has a top-tier camera system. The Motorola Edge 50 Ultra has mind-boggling charging speeds and a chic textured look. The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra has a stylus (and lots more besides).

Throughout my testing of the Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra, I couldn't quite put my finger on what made it worthy of the 'ultra' designation. It’s undoubtedly a highly capable premium Android phone, but in the competitive mobile market, ‘good’ just isn’t good enough.

The latest entry in Asus’ one-per-year line of flagship Zenfone mobiles, the Zenfone 12 Ultra is another top-spec handset that costs a blisteringly large amount of money. On paper, it's a stablemate of the best Android phones and best iPhones – and it certainly competes with those devices in some areas.

Indeed, if you look at the specs sheet below, you’ll see that the Zenfone 12 Ultra bears all the hallmarks of a premium smartphone. Its Snapdragon 8 Elite processor provides a huge amount of processing power, and its giant 6.78-inch display is great for gaming or streaming movies. The phone's three-lens rear camera array also gives shutterbugs much to delight in.

Certainly, from a specs perspective, there's nothing to dispute the Zenfone 12 Ultra's status as an 'ultra' phone. But that's no longer enough.

All of those aforementioned ‘ultra’ phones go that extra mile to justify the suffix, offering unique features or specs that make their hefty price tags seem almost reasonable. I don’t see any such selling point in the Zenfone 12 Ultra. It’s not ‘ultra’, it just is. Ironically, the lack of a non-ultra Zenfone 12 seems to underline this fact.

If you were to ask Asus, the company would likely say that the killer additions here are the phone's AI features. Most new phones nowadays tout a long list of ‘AI features’, a buzzword given to what we’d otherwise call ‘new software tools’ or, less forgivingly, ‘unnecessary software extras’ – but you need to call everything ‘AI’ in today's tech landscape.

Among the Zenfone 12 Ultra’s AI features are an article summary tool, call translation, a feature that creates AI-generated wallpapers, and plenty of AI-powered camera tools. Now, regardless of the usefulness of many of these features (how many people actually phone someone else who doesn't have a language in common?) and the unproven interest of normal tech buyers in AI features, they don’t allow the Zenfone 12 Ultra to collect the 'ultra' suffix for one simple reason – so few of them are actually new. Honestly, the Zenfone 11 Ultra had most of them.

Speaking of the Zenfone 11 Ultra, the 12 Ultra barely brings any upgrades over it to the table. A newer chipset and some minor tweaks to the camera lenses are the only improvements I could discern. I checked the price of the now-year-old Zenfone 11 Ultra one week prior to the 12 Ultra’s release, and it was going for over a third off from Asus itself. So, you’d be saving loads of money on a pretty similar mobile.

What's more, the Zenfone 12 Ultra has even more similarities to the recent Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro. Their appearances are near-identical, as are their specs, with the scant differences being the 12 Ultra's smaller battery and a refresh rate that doesn’t go quite as high, and the ROG Phone's trigger sensors and LED back panel.

Okay, let's take a breath. I may sound down on the Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra in this review, but it's undoubtedly a good phone. It provides a top-tier experience across the board and I enjoyed using it throughout my testing process.

That said, Asus loaned me the device for review purposes, meaning I didn’t have to part with a scary amount of my salary to buy it. When you factor in the phone's high price, it’s hard to see why you should opt for the Zenfone 12 Ultra over its equally expensive rivals – or, for that matter, mid-range rivals that offer similar specs for a dramatically lower price.

Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra review: price and availability

• Released in February 2024
• Costs €1,099.99 in European markets
• US, UK, and Australian availability unconfirmed for now

The Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra was launched in early February 2024, a year on from its predecessor, and with nary a standard or Pro sibling to speak of.

At the time of writing, it's only available in European markets for a price of €1,099.99, which will net you 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. "As for pricing and availability in the US, UK, and Australia", Asus told TechRadar, "we have yet to get a clear date or price at this moment." That said, we expect the Zenfone 12 Ultra to launch in at least some of these regions soon.

For a little bit of context, the Zenfone 11 Ultra started at $899.99 / £869.99 (around AU$1,450) for its 12GB/256GB starter model. There was also a 16GB/512GB model, which offers a better price comparison to the Zenfone 12 Ultra, but it was only on sale in the UK (for £949.99). The Asus Rog Phone 9 Pro, meanwhile, is available globally for $1,199.99 / £1,099.99 / AU$1,999.99.

Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra review: specs

Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra review: design

• Blocky phone that looks like predecessor
• Still has a 3.5mm jack
• IP68 protection

There’s no getting around it: the Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra is a blocky phone. I won’t quite call it ‘ugly’, not when the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra lays claim to that term with such an iron rule, but it’s a little on the boring side.

It looks almost identical to the Zenfone 11 Ultra, and pretty similar to the ROG Phone 9 Pro, but without the lines pattern of the former and the ‘gamer chic’ of the latter.

It’s a big phone, measuring 183.8 x 77 x 8.9 mm and weighing 220g, so if you remember how Asus used to cater to the small-phone market with its Zenfones, you’ll be disappointed. It stretched my hands out and I’ve got fairly average-sized mitts, and it was a pretty big burden in the pocket too.

The right edge of the mobile has the power button – pretty easy to reach, despite the phone’s big size – and the volume rocker, which was a little harder to stretch to. There’s also an in-screen fingerprint sensor, positioned higher up than on other phones, which took a little getting used to.

Talking of acclimatizing, the USB-C charging port on the phone’s bottom edge isn’t right in the middle. Instead, it’s to the left – as far as I’m aware, Asus is the only company that uses this design quirk. There’s nothing wrong with it, once you get through the first few days of jamming your charger into the wrong place. There’s another novelty here too, in the form of a 3.5mm headphone jack. How many mobiles cater to wired headphone users these days?! Props to Asus for that.

I mostly used the Zenfone 12 Ultra in a protective case (provided) but even when I didn’t, it took drops and bumps like a champ. It has an IP68 rating, so it can withstand dust ingress, as well as brief drops in the tub or pool.

• Design score: 3.5 / 5

Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra review: display

• 6.78 inches, 1080 x 2400 resolution
• 144Hz refresh rate max, though usually at 120Hz
• A few display customization features

The Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra has a nice big display: it’s 6.78 inches diagonally, which explains how much of a hand-stretch the mobile itself is.

The screen’s resolution is FHD+ or 1080 x 2400 — that’s pretty standard for most smartphones, although you’d be forgiven for wanting a little more at this price range.

Mind you, the phone's refresh rate is super fast at 144Hz (good luck finding many games to utilize that spec, though) and the max brightness is nice and high at 2500 nits. In typical use, you can expect a buttery smooth 120Hz refresh rate.

There's another feature here I love to see in smartphones: a color temperature and balance mode for adjusting the way the screen looks. Max saturation with the warmest possible temperature? Don't mind if I do!

• Display score: 4 / 5

Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra review: software

• Android 15 with optional Asus overlay
• Only two years of OS updates
• AI features aren't very useful

In a pretty unusual move for an Android phone, you actually have your pick between two software systems when you first boot up the Zenfone 12 Ultra. Both are technically Android 15, but you can choose between stock Android and Asus’ reskinned version. The differences are minimal but it's nice to be given the choice.

Stock Android is, if you don’t know, the standard Google-made version of the Android operating system, and it’s popular for being quite clean-looking. However, it misses many custom features that certain other versions of Android have. Asus doesn’t add any of these features in its own version, mind; it’s just a redesign for how menus and icons look.

Whether you pick stock or Asus Android, you’re getting software that’s quite minimal, which is a good thing; there are few pre-installed apps (beyond lots of Google ones) and a smartly laid-out quick-settings menu with big icons that are easy to press.

Asus has only promised two years of software updates for the Zenfone 12 Ultra, which isn’t a particularly ‘ultra’ commitment given how many years of updates rivals offer. That doesn’t mean it’ll stop working after two years, but you won’t get new features added after that point.

As mentioned in the introduction to this review, a few AI features on the Zenfone 12 Ultra seem to be its main selling point, but I wasn’t hugely impressed by any of them. The option to use them is often buried in menus (to use the AI article summarizer, for instance, you need to go into the browser’s ‘share’ menu to share it with the summary tool) and they were often pretty slow to work. In fact, for summarizing articles online, I found it quicker to literally just read the article than to wait for the summary tool to work.

You have to download extra kits for most of the AI features, too, and they’re pretty big, often several GB each. I can see these tools eating up a fair amount of storage space.

I’m always a little cynical of AI features on phones, with most of them seemingly designed to fix problems that no one actually has, and offered in lieu of actual improvements to a given device. Suffice to say, I never used these AI features on the Zenfone 12 Ultra beyond my obligatory testing of them.

• Software score: 3.5 / 5

Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra review: cameras

• 50MP main, 13MP ultra-wide and 32MP telephoto lenses
• 32MP selfie snapper
• Scene optimization comes in clutch

The Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra may not offer the megapixel overload of its rivals, but it covers its bases.

On the back of the phone is a 50MP main camera, which is joined by a 13MP ultra-wide and a 32MP telephoto, the latter of which can reach 3x optical zoom.

All three combine to give you a decent level of versatility and control over the shots you take (as long as you don't want to go above the 30x digital zoom cap), and there's largely a consistency between image quality at these ranges

Coming in clutch is the image optimization and HDR, which was quick to punch up the contrast and saturation of pictures to improve their vibrancy without making them look unnatural. Look at the curry bowl or football field images below as cases in point; neither looked as bright in real life as they do on camera.

These improvements increase the Zenfone's camera grade from 'fine' to 'good', even if the phone misses the extra lenses, sensitive sensors, and super-high-res MP counts of its competitors. That said, the latter would have been preferable for situations in which the AI optimization didn't step in, like in the pizza pic below.

Another thing to note is that photos often took longer to capture than I'd expect; I'd often press the shutter button and assume the photo had been taken, only to move the phone and end up with a blurry end image. My advice to owners would be to hold the Zenfone 12 Ultra in place for a few seconds longer than you think you need to, or else you'll end up with a long list of camera reel mistakes.

The selfie camera hits 32MP, and its result is largely similar to the rear ones: it has the potential to make some bright and bold pictures, and succeeds most of the time, thanks to software.

The phone can record video in 8K/30fps, 4K/60fps, or down to HD/480fps in the slow-mo realm.

The Zenfone 12 Ultra also has a small selection of extra modes. Some, like Night and Portrait, work well; the latter was great at balancing contrast and exposure, as you can see in the photo below, and Portrait was fantastic at adding a natural-looking bokeh and also balancing the colors and tones of a shot.

There are a few modes being touted as 'AI' ones too, despite the fact that almost all camera software features use artificial intelligence in some way or another. These include AI Panning, which creates a "dynamic focus effect" on a moving object, and in effect, this is very similar to Portrait mode. The other is AI Tracking, which lets you record a video of something moving and it'll output a zoomed-in photo that keeps the moving subject framed center. I can see this being situationally very useful, although I only ever found myself using it for testing's sake.

• Camera score: 4 / 5

Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra camera samples

Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra: performance and audio

• Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset
• Fast for gaming and everyday use (mostly)
• Range of audio options

The Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra really embodies the ‘ultra’ in its name when it comes to performance: it’s a certifiable beast.

The processor at work here is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite, which is the chipset you'll find inside many of the current best Android phones (at the time of writing, at least) and it tells. It’s paired with 16GB RAM and 512GB storage.

Games were snappy to play, and could easily handle the highest graphical settings; they didn’t lag or stutter once and, in the most noticeable improvement (in my mind) over a lesser chipset, they were really quick to open too.

In a Geekbench 6 multi-core test, the Zenfone 12 Ultra returned a score of 9,818, putting it in the higher echelons of phones we’ve tested. For context, Geekbench’s own rankings mark the iPhone 16 Pro at a score of 8,528 (though no recent 8 Elite-toting phones are listed).

The speed is mostly noticeable in other parts of the phone, too, for example when you’re trying to edit a big photo. However, I noticed that the AI features could cause the phone to slow down noticeably. This isn't a deal-breaker, especially given that most of the features take only a second to use, but the minor slowdown was still noticeable.

The Zenfone 12 Ultra has stereo speakers and, in a surprisingly retro turn, a 3.5mm headphone jack. As a result, audio fans have a choice as to how they’d like to listen to content on this phone, which is a rarity in this day and age.

• Performance score: 5 / 5

Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra review: battery life

• Pretty big 5,500mAh battery
• Lasts for over a day of use
• 65W charging, 15W wireless

The Zenfone 12 Ultra packs a 5,500mAh battery — that's pretty big, but it’s also necessary for a phone of this size and power.

When I used the Zenfone as a normal mobile (i.e. not as a gaming phone) it could reliably coast through a single day of use and reach mid-way into the second day without trouble, but I wouldn’t go quite so far as to say it’s got two-day battery life.

When I did go heavier on the gaming side of things, I was happy with how well the Zenfone 12 Ultra could handle a few hours of gaming without losing too much battery — it’s hard to be scientific when talking about experiential battery use, but the phone lost charge slower than lots of other handsets I’ve tested recently.

Charging is a little slow. That feels silly to say for a phone with 'fast charging', but it’s at 65W, which is slower than lots of its rivals. There’s also 15W wireless charging.

• Battery score: 3.5 / 5

Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra review: value

The Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra is an undeniably pricey premium phone. While an argument could be made that no phones in this price range really offer value for money, it's doubly the case with the Asus.

I say this because it doesn't really offer any killer features, either over its predecessor or comparatively priced rivals, that make it a must-buy. When you cost this much, specs alone will only get you so far.

If you can find the Zenfone 12 Ultra at a meaty discount, it's potentially more deserving of your money, but I'm talking a 25% discount as a minimum for that to be the case.

• Value score: 2.5 / 5

Should you buy the Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra review: Also consider

If you want other 'ultra' smartphones to compare the Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra to, here are some other similar-priced picks.

How I tested the Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra

• Review test period = 2 weeks
• Testing included = Everyday usage, including web browsing, social media, photography, video calling, gaming, streaming video, music playback
• Tools used = Geekbench 6, Geekbench ML, GFXBench, native Android stats

To properly test the Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra, I used it daily for two weeks; this doesn't include a short period beforehand when I set it up, took the review photos, and played a few games on it.

The testing of the handset occurred in two parts. The first saw me run benchmark tests, take sample photos, and run down the battery. The other was more experiential; I used the handset for personal things like music and video streaming, social media scrolling, mobile game-playing, and other everyday tasks.

At the time of this review's publication, I've been writing reviews for TechRadar for exactly 6 years (happy anniversary, me!). I've reviewed countless smartphones in that time, including multiple Asus models as well as headphones, smartwatches, and tablets.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed February 2025

Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro: Two-minute review

Asus took a bold turn towards the mainstream with the Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro in 2023, repositioning its flagship (but typically niche) gaming phone as something you might actually want to use day-to-day. You don't get two consecutive radical overhauls in the modern smartphone era, so the Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro serves as more of a gentle refinement.

The chief improvement comes from the switch to Qualcomm's impressive Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, which provides a measurable bump in performance. This is paired with a whole lot of RAM and a passive cooling system that has been beefed up yet further.

Whatever the contributing factors, the ROG Phone 9 Pro addresses our concerns over its predecessor's sustained performance, remaining consistently fast over longer gaming sessions.

The ROG Phone 9 Pro sticks to the design template of last year's model, with the same (relatively) discrete shape and style. Quality of life features like wireless charging and IP68 certification make a return, too, and continue to be unique among gaming phones.

Hardcore mobile gamers will likely continue to regard this as a compromised layout, however. Asus has only half-heartedly addressed the lack of dual front-firing speakers, while the display continues to be partially obstructed by a hole punch camera, unlike that of the Red Magic 9S Pro.

One gamer-friendly change on the ROG Phone 9 Pro is the provision of a larger 5,800mAh battery, which ensures epic stamina in regular usage. More to the point, you'll be able to indulge in some serious gaming on your commute without fear of running out of juice. Charging speeds are quick enough, and there's a secondary USB-C port on the left-hand edge for easy charging while gaming.

Asus' rear-mounted AniMe Vision system, introduced in the ROG Phone 8 Pro, has been improved, with a bunch more LEDs. You can even play a series of simplistic games on it, using the returning mappable Air Trigger controls. It's a fun addition, but pretty superfluous given the range of games (both simple and otherwise) that can be played on the main screen.

Talking of which, Asus has stuck with broadly the same 6.78-inch AMOLED panel as before. The only real difference is that the refresh rate now goes up to 185Hz, but you'll struggle to find many games that can capitalize on such a feature.

Also similar is the ROG Phone 9 Pro's camera system, which adds an improved gimbal stabilization system to the package. It's far from one of the best camera phones out there, especially among its premium-priced flagship competition, but it's capable of capturing solid shots in a variety of scenarios.

The software provision remains the most thoughtful of any gaming phone, with a straight choice between Asus' bespoke gamer aesthetic and a more traditional stock(ish) Android UI. It's a real shame you'll only be getting two major Android updates, though at least the AI-enhanced Android 15 is available out of the box.

For all its many minor improvements, it's questionable whether the ROG Phone 9 Pro is the best out-and-out gaming phone on the market, and it's certainly not the best value. However, it's quite clearly the best option if gaming is merely the first among many interests.

Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro review: Price and availability

• From $1,199 / £1,099.99 / AU$1,999
• Shipping expected second half of December

Global Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro pre-orders are open now, with shipping expected to begin in mid-to-late December. The US launch will follow sometime later, but American customers can sign up to be notified of the announcement on the US Asus Official Store.

The ROG Phone 9 comes in three variants: the regular Asus ROG Phone 9 (eyes peeled for a separate review), the Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro, and the Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro Edition. It's the latter that I've been testing for this review, though it's broadly the same phone as the regular Pro.

Pricing starts at $1,199.99 / £1,099.99 / AU$1,999 for the ROG Phone Pro with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. The ROG Phone Pro Edition is the same phone, but with 24GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, as well as an external AeroActive Cooler X Pro fan included in the box. This top-tier model costs $1,499.99 / £1,299.99 / AU$2,499.

It's worth mentioning that there's a little more meaningful differentiation for the regular ROG Phone 9 this year. It has a simpler AniMe Vision LED set-up on the back, and swaps out the dedicated telephoto camera for a lesser macro one.

Pricing for the regular model starts at $999.99 / £949.99 / AU$1,799 for 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. In the UK and Europe, you can bump the latter up to 512GB for £999.99, but this model won't be available in the US or Australia.

All of this pricing is consistent with last year's models. Make no mistake, this is an expensive phone whichever variant you opt for, especially with Nubia turning out similarly performing gaming phones for hundreds less (see the Nubia Red Magic 9S Pro, for instance). However, the ROG Phone 9 Pro is a unique proposition for the way it attempts to give gamers a phone they'd be happy to use day-to-day.

• Value score: 3.5 / 5

Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro review: Specs

Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro review: Design

• Same more refined design as ROG Phone 8
• Dedicated Air Trigger shoulder buttons
• Two USB-C ports
• Bundled AeroActive Cooler X Pro fan

Asus dropped its juvenile gamer aesthetic for the ROG Phone 8 Pro in favor of something a little more subdued and mature. Indeed, so comprehensive was the transformation, Asus essentially re-released the phone several months later as the normie Zenfone 11 Ultra.

Unsurprisingly, it has stuck to its design guns with the Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro. The phone looks and feels almost exactly the same as its predecessor, with identical proportions of 163.8 x 76.8 x 8.9mm and a similar weight of 227g. That's big by normal standards, but not especially so for a gaming phone.

Like the ROG Phone 8 pro, this heft is partly softened by a soft-touch precision-etched glass material on the rear that curves off at the edges. The Pro model only comes in a sober Phantom Black finish, which has just the slightest of glimmers about it. It's totally non-reflective, however, and also mercifully resistant to fingerprints.

There are still a few gamery decals dotted around the back of the phone, but at least Asus has ditched the cheesy 'Dare to Win' message this time around.

One thing Asus has leaned into is the AniMe Vision secondary display that debuted on the ROG Phone 8 Pro. Completely invisible by default, this LED system (up from 341 to 648 LEDs) only lights up when you dive into the menus and activate it. You can have it play little animations when music is playing, for incoming calls and notifications, and more. I particularly liked the little countdown timer and smiley face that appears when you take timed photo.

The big new addition is the ability to play simplistic games on this stylized secondary display, but that's arguably the least consequential use for it. Using the Air Trigger controls, you can play crude knock-off versions of Space Invader, Snake, and the like. None of them are especially good, and I'm not sure why you'd ever opt for one of these given the range of games available for the main screen.

Asus added IP68 certification with the ROG Phone 8 Pro, and it makes a return here. It's something you don't get on the likes of the Red Magic 9 Pro with its big fan vents, and it's most welcome as the bad weather starts to roll in.

For gamers, this more accessible design is something of a mixed bag. On the plus side, you get a secondary USB-C port on the left-hand edge, which makes it easy to charge while you're gaming. You also get a 3.5mm headphone jack for latency-free audio.

Conversely, Asus' more streamlined design reduces the bezels to the point where there's no room for dual front-facing speakers. The earpiece fires frontwards, but the other speaker is on the bottom edge of the phone. This will never match true front-firing speakers for stereo clarity, and Asus knows it.

In a somewhat half-baked attempt to address this, the manufacturer has made it so that both of its official cases (including the bundled ChillCase) redirect the downwards-firing audio frontwards. It works to avoid you blocking the speaker with your finger while gaming, but it's still a half measure, especially if you don't care for the case.

As for the sound output itself, it gets nice and loud and clear, but it's no match for the nuanced output of similarly priced regular phones like the iPhone 16 Pro Max.

Those compact bezels also mean that the front camera is marooned in a sea of screen, which isn't optimal for gaming, even if it's a standard measure for the vast majority of non-gaming phones. Still, it does mean that the selfie camera is usable, unlike with the Red Magic 9S Pro's awful in-display solution. Again, it all comes down to your priorities.

I've already drawn a contrast with the way Asus handles cooling compared to Nubia. Instead of integrating a physical fan into the body of the phone, Asus includes the aforementioned ChillCase, which draws heat away from the body of the phone. It also bundles in the AeroActive Cooler X Pro, which is a clip-on fan that serves to draw heat away from the body, as well as provide additional physical shoulder buttons and a built-in stand.

This AeroActive Cooler X Pro runs off the phone's power by hooking into its extra USB-C port, and also uses this to run some ROG lighting, which you can adjust or toggle off in the Armoury Crate app.

Compared to last year's AeroActive Cooler X, the AeroActive Cooler X Pro features a 12.5% larger fan and extra thermal material, boosting cooling efficiency by a claimed 29%. Its design is fundamentally similar though, and it's good to see that Asus is continuing to sell the older fan as a cheaper alternative.

• Design score: 4 / 5

Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro review: Display

• 6.78-inch LTPO OLED
• FHD+ resolution
• Refresh rate now goes up to 185Hz

Asus has gone with a 6.78-inch E6 AMOLED display for the whole ROG Phone 9 range, which is the same as the ROG Phone 8. You might expect a sharper resolution than 1080 x 2400 (FHD+) given the price, especially of this top model, but image clarity is fine and fewer pixels make for better performance.

The brightness hasn't been cranked up at all, with the same claimed peak of 2,500 nits in HDR tasks and 1,600 nits in high brightness mode, which automatically activates in sunny outdoor conditions. It's far from the brightest screen on the market, but it proves to be more than enough in practical terms.

Color output is certainly on the punchy side, even in the supposedly Natural display setting. You can rein this in by switching to Standard mode, which offers a pleasingly balanced look, while you can also fine-tune the color temperature and saturation level according to your taste.

This is an LTPO panel, which means that it can operate at any one of 14 refresh rates depending on the task at hand, thus maximizing energy efficiency. This is actually one more gradient than the ROG Phone 8 Pro was capable of, and that's because the ROG Phone 9 Pro can extend beyond the previous 165Hz limit to 185Hz.

You can only access this elevated refresh rate when the screen is set to Auto, and it'll only activate within games. It's also a simple fact that vanishingly few games will actually take advantage of such a refresh rate. Indeed, most won't even hit 120Hz. Even the super-fluid Dead Cells topped out at 167fps for me.

Still, this is a phone built around high-end mobile gaming, which means it needs to offer the maximum possible gaming performance. In terms of display technology, it's mission accomplished.

• Display score: 4 / 5

Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro review: Cameras

• Familiar 1/1.56-inch main camera sensor with improved gimbal
• 13-inch ultra-wide with freeform lens
• Dedicated 32MP 3x telephoto on Pro models only

It might appear as if Asus has switched to a new main camera sensor on paper, but the Sony Lytia 700 is merely a rebrand of the 1/1.56-inch IMX 890 found in the ROG Phone 8.

All that's new this time around, at least from a hardware perspective, is an improved gimbal system. The six-axis Hybrid Gimbal Stabilizer 4.0 can manage five degrees of motion compensation rather than the previous three.

As we've seen with previous Asus flagship phones, this system results in freakishly stable images and video footage, which has positive ramifications for low-light shots. By keeping even steadier, the ROG Phone 9 Pro can keep its shutter open for longer without it negatively affecting clarity – so long as the subject is relatively static.

Sure enough, food shots taken in dim restaurant lighting looked appropriately sharp and delectable, while Night mode shots were reasonably crisp and clear. I didn't spot too much of that artificial brightening effect that often blights less-than-top camera systems either.

You get the same 13MP ultra-wide camera as before, which can't manage the same detail or contrast as the main sensor. The overall tone is broadly of a piece, however, and edge distortion isn't excessive thanks to the provision of a freeform lens.

We also get the return of the ROG Phone 8's 32MP 3x telephoto camera – or at least, the ROG Phone 9 Pro does. In a noteworthy downgrade, Asus has dropped the telephoto from the regular ROG Phone 9, replacing it with a 5MP macro.

Speaking of the Pro model, the dedicated telephoto camera takes sharp and balanced shots at its native 3x zoom, and usable snaps using the hybrid 2x mode. Things start to get soft at 10x, however, while the 30x hybrid zoom turns out awful impressionistic snaps. Some of the facial features I captured on distant subjects in these extended hybrid zoom shots will haunt my dreams for some time to come.

The 32MP selfie camera makes a return, and it continues to go about its business adequately. Skin still looks a little waxy, but detail is fine; it makes the subject pop against the background nicely, and I appreciated the option of a wider perspective for group and landscape selfies.

That above-and-beyond gimbal further earns its place when capturing video at up to 4K/60fps or 8K/30fps. You can add electronic image stabilization (EIS) to the equation in HyperSteady mode, but this is only available at up to 1080p/60fps. Auto HDR can also be applied to videos, but only up to 1080p/30fps.

More than any hardware improvements, Asus seems to have gone the extra mile on its camera software this year. The big addition is Photo Vibes, which let you fundamentally alter the tone of your shots between five major settings.

Standard is Asus' idea of a balanced look, and it was also my preference throughout my test period. Rich & Warm cranks up the contrast and drops the temperature. Soft & Warm drops both, Vivid gives you high color temperature and high contrast for that cool blue tint, while Gentle Cold gives you high temperature but low contrast.

The other new feature that feels potentially meaningful is the ability to map the right Air Trigger button to the shutter. It's turned off by default, but when activated it gives you something of a point-and-shoot camera feel.

This is still only a capacitive button, so you don't get the same tactile feedback as the iPhone 16's Camera Control button, but it's a welcome addition nonetheless. I particularly appreciated that the shot was taken on release, not the initial press, which helps with stability and shot composition.

Make no mistake, this still isn't a top-notch camera system, despite the premium price you're paying for the phone. Neither night nor daytime shots are up to the level of the iPhone 16 Pro Max, Google Pixel 9 Pro XL, or Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra.

That's part of the deal with even the best gaming phones, and this is still comfortably the best gaming phone camera in town. It's a low bar admittedly, but it's one that last year's ROG Phone 8 cleared with ease. The ROG Phone 9 Pro nudges things forward.

• Camera score: 3.5 / 5

Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro camera samples

Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro review: Performance

• Features the brand new Snapdragon 8 Elite chip
• 18GB or 24GB of LPDDR5X RAM
• 512GB or 1TB of UFS 4.0 storage

Let's face it, for all the ROG Phone 9 Pro's mainstream refinements, we're all here for the performance. You can take your gaming phone design in any direction you like, but if it can't run games better than regular phones, you're onto a loser.

Suffice it to say, the ROG Phone 9 Pro is very much a winner in the performance department. Much of that success can be laid at Qualcomm's door, with the third-party chip maker providing its latest and greatest 3nm Snapdragon 8 Elite processor with its brand new Oryon CPU architecture.

Now add in an absolute stack of fast LPDDR5X RAM – 18GB in the Pro, 24GB in the Pro Edition – and you have as good a foundation as any phone on the market. My benchmark tests indicate a healthy advance on the previous Android flagship generation, which tended to run on the older Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.

In the CPU-focused Geekbench 6, the ROG Phone 9 Pro scored an average of 10,106. That's a 40% increase on the ROG Phone 8 Pro, and a 15% increase on the iPhone 16 Pro Max.

There's a slightly less remarkable improvement in GPU terms, but Qualcomm's new Adreno 830 GPU still represents a solid bump. The improvement across a selection of GFXBench GPU benchmark tests stood at around 24% on average compared to the ROG Phone 8 Pro.

Benchmark tests are especially necessary in figuring out how fast this phone is, as no games available on the Google Play Store can really stretch it. Genshin Impact and Wreckfest both run on the highest graphical settings at a more or less consistent 60fps.

More noteworthy for gamers is the ROG Phone 9 Pro's improved sustained performance – that is, its ability to run consistently fast over extended periods, which is important for prolonged gaming sessions. In the 3DMark Solar Bar Stress Test, which runs 20 consecutive minute-long high-intensity graphical workouts, the ROG Phone 9 Pro scored 99.6% consistency.

That's better than the ROG Phone 8 Pro's 92.2%, and is right up there with the Red Magic 9 Pro and its integrated cooling fan on 99.7%. You might want to bring the AeroActive Cooler X Pro into play for hour-long sessions and beyond, but this is a meaningful improvement.

How much of this is down to efficiency gains on Qualcomm's part and how much is Asus' improved GameCool cooling system remains unclear. At the heart of this is Asus's custom X Mode which, as well as ramping up the clock speeds of the CPU and GPU, monitors thermal limits and adjusts output accordingly.

Besides a meaty multi-layer cooling system, Asus has positioned the heat-generating SoC at the center of the phone, away from your hands. It'll still warm up after a prolonged gaming session, but not uncomfortably so.

• Performance score: 5 / 5

Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro review: Software

• Android 15 with ROG UI
• Armour Crate app to fine-tune gaming settings
• Only two OS updates, five years of security updates

One of the big things that, for me, sets the ROG Phone 9 Pro apart from its Red Magic rivals and makes it a more pleasant phone to use day-to-day is Asus' approach to software. Right at the start of the set-up procedure, you're given a choice between a custom Asus UI or a more stock take on Android.

As a fan of Google's Pixel phones, I went with the latter, with its familiar icons, volume control system, and integrated quick settings panel. But tinkerers, power users, and those coming from non-Google-branded phones may appreciate Asus' alternative. The choice is most welcome, and I wish more manufacturers would offer it.

Asus adds a few of its own apps out of the box, including its own Gallery app and the usual everyday tools – think Clock, File Manager, Calculator, Themes, and the like. There's nothing too egregious here, though that depends on your opinion of Facebook.

Armoury Crate is the company's custom game interface, granting access to different power modes and display configurations. For popular games like Genshin Impact, you'll find downloadable Air Trigger button mappings.

Artificial Intelligence figured highly in Asus's press materials for the ROG Phone 9 Pro, but most of it is typical stuff for a high-end phone launched in 2024. There's an AI Wallpaper feature for bespoke backgrounds; natural language image search in the Gallery app; localized AI transcriptions and summaries within the Recorder app; AI call translations; and various image and video editing enhancements. Google's Circle to Search tool is also here.

Asus has also applied some AI smarts to its gaming UI with X Sense. It's only in Beta at present, but it can use AI to identify when the 'Pick up' button appears on a game like Genshin Impact, and automatically activate it. It'll also offer you the option to auto-run, and can speed up conversations in lengthy cut scenes. X Sense can even automatically hammer the escape button when it detects that your avatar is frozen or trapped.

All this positivity is tarnished somewhat by Asus' inexplicably bad update promise, which only commits to two additional major Android versions. Still, at least Android 15 comes with it out of the box, and you're also guaranteed a pretty decent five years of security patches.

There's also the simple fact that anyone splashing out $1,000 / £1,000 or more on a cutting-edge gaming phone is likely to be the type of person who upgrades fairly regularly. Even so, this is an area Asus needs to improve on if it really wants to break into the mainstream with its ROG line.

• Software score: 3.5 / 5

Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro review: Battery

• Larger 5,800mAh battery
• Comfortable all day heavy usage
• 65W wired and 15W wireless charging

One of the unwelcome compromises Asus reached in streamlining the ROG Phone 8 Pro was dropping the size of the battery to 5,500mAh, which isn't the sort of thing a committed gamer wants to hear. There's little point in being able to blast through Honkai: Star Rail at maxed-out settings for two hours straight if it means you're running out of juice on the journey home from work.

While it hasn't quite restored us to the heights of the ROG Phone 7's 6,000mAh battery, Asus has given us an improved 5,800mAh cell this time around. Together with the improvements to energy efficiency, I'm pleased to announce that the Asus ROG Phone 9 is once again a stamina monster.

On a 15-hour day of moderate usage, with around 4 hours 30 minutes of screen on time, I was left with 60% in the tank. That's notably better than the ROG Phone 8 Pro, which left me with less than 50% in similar scenarios, and is right up there around the Red Magic 9 Pro and Red Magic 9S Pro with their 6,500mAh cells.

Of course, at the time of writing, Nubia has just announced the Red Magic 10 Pro with its ridiculously large 7,050mAh battery, so Asus may still be a little behind on the gaming stamina bragging rights. Watch this space.

Asus hasn't changed its charging provision, and it arguably didn't need to. Once again it bundles in a 65W charging brick, which gets the phone from empty to full in a little over 45 minutes. That's a tad worse than the ROG Phone 8 Pro, but about the same as the Red Magic 9S Pro.

One thing that stands out from other gaming phones is the provision of 15W wireless charging. It's another small quality-of-life improvement that makes the phone a little nicer to use day to day.

• Battery score: 5 / 5

Should you buy the Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro review: Also consider

The Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro stands apart for its combination of gaming chops and everyday usability, but it’s not your only option. These phones will play games brilliantly without embarrassing you, but also have their own unique advantages.

How I tested the Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro

• Review test period = 1 month
• Testing included = Everyday usage, including web browsing, social media, photography, video calling, gaming, streaming video, music playback
• Tools used = Geekbench 6, GFXBench, 3DMark, native Android stats, bundled Asus 65W power adapter

I was sent the top Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro Edition model by a PR representative, at which point I commenced using the phone on a daily basis over a two-week period, followed by a further two weeks of intermittent usage.

For around a week of that time, the 9 Pro was my everyday phone. For the rest of the time, I swapped in another active SIM and continued to use the phone for benchmark tests, gaming, photos, and general browsing.

I'm a freelance journalist who got his start writing about mobile games in the pre-smartphone era. I was around to cover the arrival of the iPhone and the App Store, as well as Android, and their seismic effect on the games industry. I now write about consumer tech, games, and culture for a number of top websites.

First reviewed November 2024

• Danish pricing for the upcoming Asus ROG Phone 9 has seemingly leaked
• The phone could cost around $1,400, but we’ve only seen one model listed
• Both the ROG Phone 9 and its Pro variant are due to launch on November 19

The Asus ROG Phone 9 gaming phone is due to launch on November 19, but we may already have a fair idea of how much the phone will cost thanks to a new leak.

As Android Headlines reports, a Danish retailer was spotted listing the phone for 9,838 Danish Kroner, or around $1,400 / £1,100 / AU$2,150. That’s for the model with 12GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, and the Storm White color option.

That's quite a lot more than the base model ROG Phone 8, which started at $1,099 / £949 at launch, and around as much as the ROG Phone 8 Pro, which started at $1,199 / £1,099. It's possible, given the list price, that the retailer has erroneously labeled the Pro model as the standard, or maybe we're simply seeing a price hike this year. Of course, price conversions aren't always accurate.

For what it’s worth, the listed model carries the model number AI2501-12G512G-WH.

As spotted by 91 Mobiles Indonesia (via Android Headlines), the upcoming phone’s power certification was also listed publicly by the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) well before launch day. The WPC listing notes that the phone received certification on November 11.

The listing includes a rendered image of the front of the phone, too, which displays the phone’s home screen and looks much the same as it did during our hands-on time with the ROG Phone 9 at Snapdragon Sumit.

Though the ROG Phone 9 might not look much different than the previous generation ROG Phone 8, we’ve heard a steady flow of rumors suggesting the new phone will receive major upgrades in the performance department.

We previously reported that the ROG Phone 9 is tipped to best the Galaxy S25 in performance benchmarks, and that its Pro counterpart is rumored to launch with a blisteringly-fast 185Hz display.

Other leaks have pointed to the vanilla ROG Phone 9 sporting the same ultra-high refresh rate display. And Asus has itself confirmed that the phone will come equipped with the new flagship Qualcomm chipset, the Snapdragon 8 Elite.

It’s likely that we’ll see the ROG Phone 9, the ROG Phone 9 Pro, or even both make it onto our list of the best gaming phones.

Asus is due to officially reveal both phones on November 19, so we don’t have long to wait for official details on the new devices. For the latest official updates as we hear them, be sure to check out our Asus phones coverage – and for the latest mobile gaming news, head on over to TRG.

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• A leaked benchmark has appeared for the ROG Phone 9
• The score points to a jump in AI processing performance
• Asus will unveil the gaming phone on November 19

The Asus ROG Phone 9 is likely to be one of the best gaming phones of the year, and we know it's being officially launched on November 19. Now a new benchmark leak gives us some idea of just how powerful this handset could be.

As spotted by MySmartPrice, the Asus ROG Phone 9 has shown up on the Geekbench ML database. The ML (machine learning) benchmark tests how well a phone can handle a variety of artificial intelligence tests, and the Asus device scored 1812.

For comparison, the Samsung Galaxy S24 scored 1243 in the same test, so we're looking at a pretty substantial leap forward as far as AI goes – even if the Asus ROG Phone 9 won't have all of the Galaxy AI software tricks offered by Samsung.

We'll have to wait and see if the phone comes with Gemini Nano on board – that's the local AI model developed by Google, which helps run AI tasks (such as image and speech recognition) on-device without sending anything to the cloud.

Specs appeal

The benchmark listing also confirms that the Asus ROG Phone 9 will run the new Snapdragon 8 Elite processor from Qualcomm – something we already knew – and will boast a huge 24GB of RAM to further improve performance.

Those spec bumps help to explain the high AI processing score: if you read our Asus ROG Phone 8 review, you'll see it tops out at 12GB of RAM, and has the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor inside, which launched at the start of 2024.

However, the current Pro model does hit the same 24GB of RAM mark – see our Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro review for details – so it's likely that we're looking at the Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro here, rather than the standard version.

We were particularly impressed with what the Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro had to offer, so we're eager to see what its successor is going to bring with it – and as soon as Asus makes all the details official, you'll be able to read about it on TechRadar.

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• The Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro may have a record-breaking display
• These are the best Android phones you can buy
• We've already had a look at the Asus ROG Phone 9

The upcoming Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro gaming phone will break the record for the highest display refresh rate reached by a globally released phone, according to a new rumor.

Notable leaker Digital Chat Station shared a Weibo post on October 31 claiming that they had got hands-on with the upcoming phone, adding that it’s the “first to launch [with] a 185Hz extremely high refresh rate screen”.

If this tipoff is true, the ROG Phone 9 Pro will boast the fastest refresh rate found on a globally released smartphone.

Note the “globally released” prefix, though – the actual fastest refreshing phone screen is found on the Japan-exclusive Sharp Aquos Zero2, which comes equipped with a blazing-fast 240Hz panel.

Nevertheless, 185Hz is nothing to shake a stick at – the current industry standard for flagship phones is 120Hz, with some 144Hz models from the likes of Xiaomi. Apple, on the other hand, still fits the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus with a measly 60Hz display.

For those not in the know, Hz is short for 'Hertz', which in turn means how many times per second a display can refresh the image presented. A higher number means objects on screen will appear to move more smoothly.

By any current measure, 185Hz is extremely fast. It tracks that Digital Chat Station suggests the ROG Phone 9 Pro will feature the best heat dissipation efficiency presently possible, though we haven’t seen any metrics to support this claim nor any details on which tech enables it.

Asus has a track record of making phones with very high-refresh rate displays, which adds some credibility to this rumor. The current-generation Asus ROG Phone 8 sports a 165Hz panel, for example.

Digital Chat Station also shared some other potential specs for the upcoming ROG Phone 9 Pro, suggesting the phone will be IP68 certified and feature a centrally-positioned Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, a placement likely intended to assist with heat distribution.

The Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro and standard ROG Phone 9 are due to launch on November 19, following the reveal of the two phones last month, and we expect that both phones will have a chance of joining our list of the best gaming phones.

Until then, most of the above is based on rumors, so be sure to keep up with our Asus phones coverage for the latest official updates as we hear them.

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Asus has announced that the ROG Phone 9 will launch on November 19, and come equipped with the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset.

The company will launch the new gaming phone at its virtual “AI On, Game On” launch event, which suggest AI will play a role in the phone’s gaming experience.

Asus is likely to become one of the first phone makers to release a Snapdragon 8 Elite-equipped phone, and has presented the phone in live demos at the Snapdragon Summit 2024.

The ROG Phone 9 makes use of the Snapdragon 8 Elite’s second-generation Qualcomm Oryon CPU and Qualcomm Adreno GPU, and is “designed to offer an immersive, lag free gaming experience”.

This Oryon CPU has been the focus of much fanfare thanks to its two performance cores clocked at 4.32GHz – apparently the fastest mobile CPU cores on the market.

The ROG Phone 9 follows up the ROG Phone 8 Pro, our current pick for the best gaming phone, and we expect to see it join or replace its predecessor once we’ve had a chance to put it through our rigorous testing process.

In terms of design, Asus calls the ROG Phone 9 “gamer-centric”: an angular camera bump, textured back panel, and what appears to be a dot matrix display on the rear of the phone give it a unique look in keeping with the wider Republic of Gamers brand.

And while Asus are promising the “smoothest gaming experience with immersive features”, we’ve yet to see any performance benchmarks beyond the general specifications of the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset.

Snapdragon 8 Elite - the race is on

As mentioned, the ROG Phone will likely be one of the first phones to ship with Qualcomm’s new flagship chipset, and we expect to see the Snapdragon 8 Elite pop up in many of the best phones going forward.

Xiaomi is tipped to be the first company to release a phone powered by the new chipset, though with the upcoming Xiaomi 15 series unlikely to see a US release the ROG Phone 9 still has a chance of being the first globally released Snapdragon 8 Elite phone.

As we previously reported, the Snapdragon 8 Elite is probably the rumored Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 in all but name, and will likely represent an incremental upgrade for the de facto leader in the Android chipset world.

For the latest updates on the ROG Phone 9, be sure to follow our Asus phones coverage – and for all the latest from this year’s Snapdragon Summit, be sure to check out our phones coverage and computing coverage.

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Asus ROG Phone 8 two-minute review

The gaming phone market used to be an exciting and competitive niche, with companies innovating with newer and weirder ways to make their handsets great for mobile gaming. My use of the past tense there is intentional, as the Asus ROG Phone 8 is a sign of the times.

With Lenovo giving up its short-lived Legion Duel line in 2021, and my personal favorites, Black Shark, not having released a device since 2022, Asus doesn’t have much competition when it comes to producing the best gaming phone, and as a result, it doesn’t seem to be trying.

On paper, the Asus ROG Phone 8 looks like a decent gaming phone. It has a high refresh rate display, the newest and fastest chipset, and extra gaming features that you don’t find on most Android mobiles. And, to an extent, it is good for playing mobile games.

The ROG had no problem loading up the top graphical settings on any game I tested, and it easily ran higher refresh modes in the few games that offer it. Plus, it gives you lots of customization over the power allotment, so you can focus on latency, graphics, battery management and more – really useful tools for gamers on the go.

Asus’ Android fork is also one of the easiest to use I’ve seen in a gaming phone – it’s nice and clean, but with a few added extra features for gamers like customization modes. There’s no bloatware either, which isn’t something you can say about many Android phones. 

While I'm listing positives, I also want to commend the camera. It's not quite iPhone-level, but it's definitely the best I've seen on a gaming phone, given that manufacturers working in this niche rarely spare a thought for photography. It even has a zoom camera, which is quite the rarity these days!

However, I came out of my time with the Asus ROG Phone 8 not quite sold on its gaming chops beyond all that power. Gaming tech companies don’t seem to want to acknowledge the fact that there’s a lot more to making a good gaming phone than performance; case in point, the ROG Phone 8.

Instead of physical triggers, the ROG Phone 8 has ‘Air Triggers’, or haptic areas that you can tap to pre-mapped functions. These are finickity to use, requiring pronounced motions that take more time and attention than simply pressing on-screen buttons. Plus they’re quite buggy, sometimes not triggering and other times getting stuck.

Asus has also made the mistake of placing the side-mounted speakers right where your hand will be when you’re holding the mobile horizontally to game. I kept blocking sound when playing games, which was infuriating.

I imagine Asus hopes gamers will use the ROG phone alongside one of its peripherals, but expecting consumers to buy extra tech brings into view another issue with the ROG Phone 8 – it’s really expensive! Costing $1,099 / £949 (roughly AU$1,600), it’ll set you back more than many top-end flagships including the OnePlus 12, Google Pixel 8 or Xiaomi 14.

More importantly, the ROG Phone 8 costs a lot more than the Nubia Red Magic 9 Pro, which is its big rival in the gaming space, and I don’t think you’re getting your money’s worth with the price hike.

If the gaming phone space was more competitive, this price tag would get Asus laughed out of the room. As it stands, the high cost of the ROG Phone 8 and the lack of refinement in its gaming chops make it hard to recommend.

Asus ROG Phone 8 review: price and availability

• Released in January 2024
• Costs $1,099 / £949 (roughly AU$1,600)
• Has two more premium alternatives: Pro and Pro Edition

The Asus ROG Phone 8 was announced and released alongside the Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro and Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro Edition (yes, it's confusing) in January 2024, as the newest update in this long-running line of mobiles.

The ROG Phone 8 costs $1,099 / £949 (roughly AU$1,600), so it’s by no means a cheap phone; it’s barely more affordable than the Pro model, which starts at $1,199 / £1,099 (roughly AU$1,750) but gets you more power and storage. The aforementioned Pro Edition goes for an even higher $1,499 / £1,299 (around AU$2,200).

These prices put the ROG Phone 8 family as basically the most expensive gaming-focused phones you can buy right now; the Red Magic 9 Pro costs $649 / £579 (around AU$1,100) and offers similar specs, and with Black Shark seemingly out of the market, you’ll have to look outside the gaming phone realm for other competitors.

The ROG Phone 8 isn't exactly offering value for money either. While it’s certainly got impressive internal specs that make gaming a breeze, so do other phones that cost much less money. This phone’s asking price is especially egregious when taking into consideration many of the issues we'll get to later.

In the 'Also consider' section of this review, you’ll find recommendations for other gaming phones that offer better value for money, at different price tiers. 

• Value score: 2.5 / 5

Asus ROG Phone 8 review: specs

Let's check out what we're working with before we dive into the phone, section by section.

Asus ROG Phone 8 review: design

• Big phone which stretches the hand
• Black and gray options
• Two USB-C ports as well as Air Triggers and 3.5mm jack

Asus’ ROG Phones have never indulged in the garish design excesses of other gaming phones, but even for its own standards the ROG Phone 8 looks a lot like a ‘normal’ Android phone. No bold ridges, no angular blocks, no big triggers or nozzles.

It’s big for sure, with its 163.8 x 76.8 x 8.9mm body sure to stretch your hand. But at 225g it’s no heavier than it looks – you can game for long amounts of time, but it won’t replace your gym weights routine. Your fingers, though, might need the occasional rest.

You can pick the phone up in black or gray, and we tested the former. There’s an LED panel on the back, but I didn’t actually realize until I came to write this review – you have to find the option to turn it on buried deep in a menu. More on that in the software section later.

The camera bump on the back of the ROG sticks out a fair way, so the phone doesn’t sit flat on a table – that’s par for the course in many phones though. It’s prone to scuffing too, as you might notice in some of the review pictures.

A bit more interesting is the fact that the phone has two USB-C ports, which is something you see occasionally in gaming phones. This is so that you can charge the ROG Phone 8 while gaming, without a cable poking out at an inopportune angle. One of these ports is on the left edge of the mobile, and the other is on the bottom edge, joined by a 3.5mm headphone jack.

On the right edge of the phone are a power button and volume rocker, as well as two ‘Air Triggers’ as Asus calls them. These are basically haptic spots that you can tap to enact a certain function when gaming, so you can map them to, say, aiming and shooting a gun. 

Triggers are nothing new for gaming phones, but I wasn’t a fan of the Rog Phone 8’s. They need a firm press to select, with these pronounced gestures taking more time and requiring more effort than other gaming mobile triggers I’ve tested – in fact, I think it slowed down my reaction time in gaming, rather than speeding it up. In addition, the triggers sometimes wouldn’t function, and other times would stay held down when I pressed them once, causing me to repeatedly shoot my gun. For obvious reasons, this was annoying, and I slowly stopped using the triggers.

The ROG Phone 8 has an IP68 rating – this means it’s protected against dust and brief submersion in water, in case you decide to game in the bathtub. The phone has a glass front and back, though, so it might not survive a big drop.

• Design score: 3.5 / 5

Asus Rog Phone 8 review: display

• Giant 6.78-inch screen
• Super fast 165Hz refresh rate
• FHD+ resolution

With its 6.78-inch display, the ROG Phone 8 is a chunky boy, but that’s no surprise given that all of its predecessors since the ROG Phone 5 have been this exact same size (the ROG Phone 8 Pro, too).

The resolution is 1080 x 2400, or FHD+ – that’s the standard for most Android phones, and while it’s not the 2K or 4K of select rivals on the market, it’s the resolution that most games output at, so we’re not subtracting points for that.

It’s a good-looking display, with an AMOLED panel providing punchy colors, HDR10 boosting the contrast of images, and 2500 nits max brightness lighting up the dark side of the moon, it looks great for video streaming or gaming.

On the topic of gaming, the phone's 165Hz refresh rate is great for the select games that support high refresh rates. Not many do, but 120Hz is a lovely extra perk nonetheless.

• Display score: 4 / 5

Asus Rog Phone 8 review: software

• Android 14 with lots of Asus twists
• Clean software with customization options
• AI wallpaper generator may prove divisive

The Asus ROG Phone 8 comes with Android 14, and a home-brewed user interface laid over the top. It’s lathered with ‘gamer aesthetics’ – expect darker tones, minimalist icon designs (check out the camera icon in the review images!) and app icons with an irregular hexagonal shape. 

Beyond the looks, this software feels quite similar to stock Android, so it’s pretty clean. Apps are stored in an app drawer, and you can swipe down to get access to quick settings.

Asus has added a few of its own apps and functions that are tailored to gamers. These include a tutorial in how the gaming features work when you first boot up the phone (which is cool but makes the set-up processes incredibly time-consuming), Armory Crate, which gives you quick access to all your games, and an in-game swipe-up system that lets you fiddle with loads of pertinent settings. All of these features are handy extras to gamers, though I stopped using Armory Crate when I realized that it was creating an extra step between me and a game.

The ROG Phone 8 has a fair few customization options to personalize the always-on display, icon shapes, various animations and the font. You can also customize the LED panel on the back; to do so, you have to find the AniMe Vision feature buried in the settings menu (or Armory Crate). This lets you choose conditions for the screen to light up: on an incoming call, when you’re taking a picture, a camera countdown, a charging indicator and so on, with select graphics to indicate what’s happening. It’s definitely less garish than many gaming phone LED panels.

One feature of the Asus ROG Phone 8 that’ll either drive you crazy with glee or rage, depending on your views on the ethical dilemma of generative AI, is the AI Wallpaper feature. The phone has a built-in AI image generator, so you can create a wallpaper based on one of a few set themes including ‘Space’, ‘Cyberpunk’ and ‘Sci-Fi’ – you may be noticing a theme here.

I used this feature to make a few different wallpapers, and they were all suitably distinct, but they also had all the issues common to AI-generated images that you’ve seen and laughed at in the past. The phone does not, as I initially thought, generate you a new wallpaper each day. That’d be a cool feature, but no. The ROG Phone 8 just makes you one, and if you want a new one, you’ll need to go into the settings of the phone and re-generate it.

• Software score: 3.5 / 5

Asus Rog Phone 8: cameras

• 50MP main, 32MP telephoto, 13MP ultra-wide cameras
• 32MP selfie camera on the front
• Standard array of phone camera modes

Given that the focus of the Asus ROG Phone 8 is gaming and performance, I didn't expect great things from the device's camera, but I was pleasantly surprised. It's not going to replace your top-end iPhone, but it'll hold its own.

The main camera is a 50MP f/1.9 snapper with OIS that uses a gimbal, something that's not common in smartphones. Standard (1x zoom) pictures taken on the phone are quite bright and colorful, particularly in well-lit environments, but don't discount them in dimmer places either.

When you take a picture, its resolution is only 12.5MP, with the camera employing pixel-binning from the 50MP. Unlike in most phones, I couldn't find a way to turn on full-res mode, so if you blow up the below camera samples, you'll see them losing quality quickly.

If you want a wider scope, you can jump to the second camera, a 13MP f/2.2 snapper with a 120-degree ultrawide lens. This offered a surprising amount of consistency in terms of color and quality compared to pictures taken on the main camera, so you can widen your shot without worrying about contending with a different color profile. In the camera section below, you can see a shot of London's Canary Wharf at different zoom levels to show this.

Going the other way, you can get closer to a subject with the 32MP f/2.4 snapper with a 3x zoom telephoto lens. Zoom lenses like this are disappointingly rare in all mobiles nowadays, so I was really surprised to see one in a gaming phone of all things, but it really elevates the photography experience.

As with the ultra-wide camera, the color profile consistency continues on this lens (something you can't guarantee in smartphones) and it has a decent amount of quality at higher zoom levels.

You can exceed 3x with digital zoom, which is basically cropping of the zoomed-in picture, up to 30x. Results for digital zoom pictures can vary wildly, but it was decent on the ROG, with far landmarks fairly easy to make out, as you can see below.

One thing about the telephoto camera is that it isn't as great for close-up pictures, so you can't use it like a macro camera to give great depth of field to snaps. If you look at the sixth camera sample below, you'll see a lack of dynamic range and low photo quality. I'm a big fan of using zoom snappers for detailed nature photography, but I don't think the ROG has the chops for it.

On the front of the phone is a 32MP f/2.5 selfie camera. I found that pictures taken in low-light environments had an odd yellow hue, but when I was taking selfies out and about, there was no such issue.

Portrait mode doesn't have as dramatic an effect as it does on most smartphones, with the bokeh quite light-touch and few beauty features applied to the face, but it's not the end of the world.

If you want to shoot video, you can shoot at up to 8K resolution at 24fps or 4K at 60fps. Or, slowing things down, you can get FHD at 240fps or 4K at 120fps.

There are a few extra modes on the phone, including the standards like Pro, time-lapse, panorama and night mode, as well as a light trails feature for ersatz shutter speed adjustments. There's nothing hugely out of the ordinary, but if you want wild camera modes, you probably want to look for one of the best camera phones.

• Camera score: 3 / 5

Asus Rog Phone 8 camera samples

Asus Rog Phone 8: performance and audio

• Snappy Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor
• 12GB RAM and 256GB storage
• Speakers poorly placed for gaming

Since the Asus ROG Phone 8 is a gaming phone, you’d think that performance is an area where it aces the test. Well… you’d hope so. The phone has the new top-end Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, paired with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage.

In terms of straight-up speed, the ROG is undeniably fantastic – I never encountered any stutters or issues during gameplay, and it could render the highest graphical settings and fastest refresh rates in titles like COD Mobile with no issue.

That performance was reflected in benchmarks. In a Geekbench 6 multi-core test, the phone returned a score of 6,524 – I tested it again after half an hour of gaming, to see if overheating could cause an issue, and the resultant score of 6,459 proves that it doesn't.

Notably, our tester for the Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro Edition got a score of 7,200, so the extra RAM of the highest-end versions will get you more power. But given that most mobile games are optimized to run well on any device, even low-end ones, that extra power won’t really improve your gaming experience all that much.

While the phone's performance is great on paper, I found gaming a little tiring. I’ve already discussed my issues with the ROG Phone 8's temperamental Air Triggers, but there were more problems. Notably, when you’re holding the phone horizontally, your hand blocks the speakers, so you need to use headphones to properly hear. The big size of the phone also meant I got hand ache when gaming for too long, and I'd also sometimes accidentally press the side of the device when reaching for buttons in the middle.

Oh, and gamers might like to know that you can play certain titles without having to unlock the phone – my go-to testing title, COD: Mobile, is one of these. However, features like Air Triggers don’t work unless you’ve unlocked the phone, which is a problem I kept running into.

None of these hiccups would be issues… in a non-gaming phone. However, in the ROG Phone 8, they detracted from the overall gaming experience for me. Damningly, I enjoyed my time gaming on the Samsung Galaxy A35, which I tested before this, more than I did on the ROG Phone.

• Performance score: 4 / 5

Asus Rog Phone 8 review: battery life

• Huge 5,500mAh battery
• Two charging ports for 65W speed
• Wireless and reverse wireless charging too

Keeping the lights on for the ROG Phone 8 is a 5,500mAh battery, which is as chunky as you’d hope for in a gaming phone like this.

If you’re planning on using the ROG Phone 8 like your average phone, then this battery is easily big enough to keep things ticking over for a whole day. Don’t worry about those extended video calls – this beast will keep you going.

When it comes to gaming, you’ll definitely get a good few hours of time out of the ROG, but I did notice that the battery was sapped quicker that on the non-gaming phones I tested prior to it – even when gaming on lower refresh rates and graphical options. That’s why the double charging ports are in play: to make sure you can charge nice and quickly. Powering is at 65W, which is lovely and fast, and you can get from empty to full in just under 45 minutes if you have a compatible charger.

There’s also 15W wireless charging, which obviously won’t be useful for powering while you’re gaming, but it's a useful addition. The same can be said for the 10W reverse wireless charging, so the 5,500mAh power pack is playing double duty as a portable power bank if you have wirelessly-charging gadgets.

• Battery score: 3.5 / 5

Should you buy the Asus ROG Phone 8?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Asus Rog Phone 8 review: Also consider

If you're looking for another Android phone to play games on, here are some other picks worth considering:

How I tested the Asus Rog Phone 8

• Review test period = 3 weeks
• Testing included = Everyday usage, including web browsing, social media, photography, video calling, gaming, streaming video, music playback
• Tools used = Geekbench 5, Geekbench 6, Geekbench ML, GFXBench, native Android stats

My Asus ROG Phone 8 testing process involved a lot of gaming. That's why the test period was three weeks instead of the usual two – I got a bit distracted!

For the main testing period, though, I used the phone as though it was a regular mobile – texting, streaming movies, listening to music, spending time on social media, taking pictures and playing lots of games. 

I've been testing smartphones at TechRadar for over five years, after spending time as a writer then editor of the phones section, and as such I've used plenty of other handsets. These include many gaming phones and rivals to the Asus. 

Read more about how we test

First reviewed July 2024

Asus has used the last three generations of Zenfone to carve out a niche as the purveyor of the best small phones on the market; flagship performance in one of the most pocketable form factors out there. The company's new Asus Zenfone 11 Ultra, however, is anything but compact.

Instead, Asus has poured in everything we've come to expect from a 2024 flagship: top-shelf chipset for excellent performance? Check. Expansive, vibrant, high refresh rate display? Check, large battery with super-fast charging? Of course. Trio of capable cameras on the back? Looks like it! Newfound AI functionality throughout? Yep; it's 2024, isn't it?

On paper, there's little to fault the Zenfone 11 Ultra's extensive list of specs and features; its inoffensive design and powerful internals should ensure that it delivers to discerning users in the market for a new flagship phone right now. But it steps away from what the Zenfone line has come to be known for.

The Zenfones 8, 9 and 10 have all been comparatively compact – relative to the status quo – with only Apple, Google and Samsung producing noteworthy alternatives that even approach Asus' phones' compact-but-powerful formula. So long as you were happy with the compromises of a smaller battery (and thus lesser battery life) and smaller thermal envelope (which affected sustained performance), there was little else out there that offered a 6-inch or smaller screen, paired to a flagship chipset.

2023's Zenfone 10 clocks in with a 5.92-inch display, while the new Zenfone 11 Ultra approaches the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra with its 6.78-inch panel; it's now among the biggest phones out there, and keen-eyed fans of Asus' wares might also notice that both the design and specs bear more than a passing resemblance to the company's other recent flagship phone release; the Asus ROG Phone 8 series.

Same screen, internals, cameras and battery – the Asus ROG Phone 8 is essentially Batman to the Zenfone 11 Ultra's Bruce Wayne. Of course, Asus doesn't deny the similarities, instead highlighting that beyond aesthetics and the unusual offset USB port, the 11 Ultra sports different cooling and performance tuning profiles to the ROG Phone.

Rather than gunning for the title of best gaming phone, the Zenfone 11 Ultra focuses instead on Asus' efforts with AI. Features like AI Transcript, AI Call Translator, AI wallpaper generation, AI-supported noise cancellation (in calls) and semantic search won't all be present at launch, but look set to help lift the Zenfone 11 Ultra from just-another smartphone to a direct rival to Samsung's Galaxy AI efforts and even the newly-release Xiaomi 14 series.

Of course, the big benefit to going big this generation is that you get a large AMOLED screen: a Full HD+ panel with a 1Hz to 120Hz refresh rate range in general use and the ability to step up to 144Hz with compatible games. Meanwhile, the 5,500mAh (with 65W wired fast charging and 15W wireless charging) promises to deliver the best battery life ever from a Zenfone (Asus quotes 26.5% increase in battery life versus its predecessor, and around 26 hours of regular use per charge, which we'll undoubtedly put to the test in our full Asus Zenfone 11 Ultra review).

Here's a full spec breakdown of the 11 Ultra:

Even with all this talk of new functionality and capable hardware, if you're still lamenting the loss of a compact flagship champ in the Zenfone line, the 'Ultra' suffix does leave the door open for a Zenfone 11 Pro, or an even more modest Zenfone 11. When asked directly, Asus representatives told TechRadar that it had nothing to share "at this moment," so make of that what you will.

If you're still onboard with the premise of the new Asus Zenfone 11 Ultra, the phone hits pre-order on March 14 and goes on sale in key markets, including the US, Europe and the UK on April 14.

Asus did also confirm to TechRadar that “yes, Zenfone 11 Ultra will be launch in Australia in Q2, 2024. But the pricing info has still not yet been revealed, even internally.”

You might also like

• Asus Zenfone 11 leak shows it’ll continue to fly the flag for small, powerful phones
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Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro: Two-minute review

Last year’s Asus ROG Phone 7 Ultimate was arguably the best gaming phone on the market, but there was a considerable price to be paid for such gaming excellence. Quite literally, thanks to its hefty price, but also because it wasn’t the easiest phone to live with day to day.

The Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro is still very expensive, and it’s still a superb gaming phone. However, a radical rethink from Asus means that it’s now also an accomplished flagship smartphone in its own right.

Its refreshed design is much more discreet than before, with less of the gamer bling that would embarrass anyone not in thrall to Twitch game streamer culture. Crucially, the ROG Phone 8 Pro has also gained a couple of quality-of-life features that we’ve come to take for granted in similarly priced non-gaming phones, including an IP68 rating and wireless charging.

Another welcome flagship addition is a decent camera system, which is capable of capturing bright, sharp images in a range of scenarios. It’s not a photography front-runner, but it’s plenty good enough for daily snapping, which is arguably a first in a gaming phone.

Slimmer bezels mean you’ll have to put up with a punch-hole selfie cam this time around, and there’s no dual front-facing speaker set-up. Meanwhile, the ROG Phone 8 Pro can’t quite offer the same level of sustained high-end performance as the Nubia Red Magic 9 Pro - not without the clip-on AeroActive Cooler X fan, at least, which only ships with the top model.

Even so, this remains a brilliantly balanced gaming phone. Performance is some of the fastest we’ve seen in any handset, while the ROG Phone 8 Pro’s 6.78-inch 165Hz AMOLED display is big, fast, and color-accurate.

You still get those little extras that make for a superior gaming experience, too, including flexible Air Trigger shoulder buttons and a secondary USB-C port along one of the longer edges.

All in all, raw performance aside, it’s difficult to say that Asus has made a flat out better gaming phone in the ROG Phone 8 Pro. What it’s made is a very good gaming phone that won’t let you down when you’re doing non-gaming things, which is arguably a way more valuable advance.

Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro review: Price and availability

• From $1,199 / £1,099 (around AU$1,790)
• Out now

The Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro is out now; it started shipping on January 16, 2024.

The phone ships in three variants: the standard Asus ROG Phone 8 (head to our dedicated Asus ROG Phone 8 review for our thoughts on that device), the Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro, and the Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro Edition.

Pricing starts at $1,199 / £1,099 (around AU$1,790) for the ROG Phone 8 Pro, which comes with 16GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, and LED lighting. For context, the standard ROG Phone 8 ships with 12GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and classic RGB lighting. At $1,099 / £949 (roughly AU$1,600), it costs less, too.

The top model – which, incidentally, is the one you'll see pictured throughout this review – is the ROG Phone 8 Pro Edition. It's available exclusively through the Asus official online store at a cost of $1,499 / £1,299 (about AU$2,240), and comes with 24GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, LED lighting, and an external AeroActive Cooler X fan bundled into the box.

For clarity, we'll be making distinctions between all three models throughout this review.

• Value score: 4 / 5

Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro review: Specs

Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro review: Design

• Brand new less ‘gamery’ design
• Air Trigger shoulder buttons
• Two USB-C ports

Asus has gone back to the drawing board with the ROG Phone 8 Pro design, having seemingly come to a radical realization: most people don’t actually want a gaming phone in their pocket. Even among those who do, most would rather it didn’t look like a prototype based on an 11-year-old’s sketch.

Simply by looking and feeling relatively normal and understated, the ROG Phone 8 Pro comes as something of a revelation. It’s still large by anyone’s standards, and at 8.9mm thick and 225g it’s precisely as thick as the Red Magic 9 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, and scarcely any lighter.

But its subtly rounded edges, sober color tones, and the nice shimmery finish of the Pro model, make it look and feel more like a phone you’d be comfortable whipping out among polite non-gaming company. The cringey ‘Dare to win’ decals are still there on the back, but they’re rendered in small, dark writing this time around.

Choose the Pro model and you won’t even get RGB lighting. In its place comes a small area on the back cover embedded with 341 subtle white LEDs, which Asus calls AniMe Vision. These are turned off by default, and in this state, you wouldn’t even know they were there. When they’re switched on, they offer heads-up information on the phone’s time, charging status, incoming notifications, and a few other things that can be set in the Armoury Crate app.

Another design feature that makes the Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro a more appealing mainstream proposition is the inclusion of IP68 certification. Finally, we have a gaming phone that won’t quit if you drop it in a body of water.

In order to hit that rating, Asus has done away with the huge AeroActive Portal from the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate, which exposed the internals of the phone when the AeroActive Cooler was attached. You still get an AeroActive Cooler X fan accessory with the top model of the ROG Phone 8 Pro, but it contents itself with drawing heat away from the rear surface. There’s a 2.6x larger cooling area and a slightly faster fan speed to compensate.

What might prove more disappointing to some gamers is the loss of two mappable physical trigger buttons with the AeroActive Cooler X. You now only get two, rather than four.

The other point to note is that, in radically reducing the size of the Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro’s bezels, it’s almost 10mm shorter than its predecessor. That’s great for portability, but it does mean that the display is now interrupted by a punch-hole selfie cam.

Personally, I’d rather that than the Red Magic 9 Pro’s woeful in-display selfie cam solution. But if you’re making a gaming phone, there’s an even stronger case to be made for leaving a slight forehead and chin in place.

That would also facilitate proper front-firing speakers, which are missing here. There’s one in the earpiece, but the other is on the bottom edge of the phone, which can be blocked when you hold it in landscape. These speakers still sound nice and clear, and they get plenty loud, but they’re shown up for separation and clarity by a teeny-tiny iPhone 15 Pro.

Two vital gaming design elements have been retained, however. One is a set of Air Triggers, which are dedicated capacitive buttons on the top edge of the phone. These can be mapped to controls in many games, which comes in very handy in competitive shooters and MOBAs. They can even be split into two for a total of four physical controls.

The other gamer-friendly feature to have been retained is a secondary USB-C port on the longer edge of the phone opposite the Air Triggers. This makes it much more pleasant to plug and play while you’re playing landscape games. And yes, there is still a 3.5mm headphone jack for that vital low-latency personal audio.

• Design score: 4.5 / 5

Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro review: Display

• 6.78-inch LTPO OLED
• Super-fast refresh rates up to 165Hz
• FHD+ resolution

Asus has fitted the ROG Phone 8 Pro with a new 6.78-inch E6 OLED display. It’s not particularly sharp at 1080 x 2400 (FHD+), especially when compared to other $1,199 / £1,099 Android phones, but I honestly have no complaints.

It gets extremely bright, with a claimed peak of 2,500 nits in HDR scenarios and 1,600 nits in high brightness mode, which will initiate when heading outdoors on a sunny day with auto-brightness on.

With auto-brightness switched off, I measured a maximum brightness of around 775 nits, which is excellent. The Red Magic 9 Pro, by way of comparison, could only hit 445 nits.

I also found the ROG Phone 8 Pro’s display to be extremely color-accurate and natural-looking, at least once I switched away from the default Optimal setting and flipped it to Normal mode.

This is an LTPO panel, so it can scale from 1 to 120Hz in regular usage depending on the use case, meaning it’s nice and energy efficient when flitting between non-gaming tasks.

Head into gaming mode, however, and it can ramp up even further to 165Hz. There aren’t many games that will step north of 120Hz, of course, but the ROG Phone 8 Pro is ready for any that do.

• Display score: 4.5 / 5

Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro review: Cameras

• Massively improved 1/1.56-inch main camera with gimbal
• 13-inch ultra-wide with freeform lens
• Finally, a dedicated 32MP 3x telephoto

Giving your gaming phone a chic design is all very well, but if you want the masses to take it seriously as a genuine flagship contender, you’d better get your camera game in shape. Thankfully, Asus has done just that.

It starts with a vastly improved main camera, fitted with the same 1/1.56-inch Sony IMX890 sensor as the OnePlus 11. This is then paired with a new generation of the impressive 6-axis Hybrid Gimbal stabilizer found in the Asus Zenfone 10, which keeps things way steadier than your standard optical image stabilization (OIS) system.

This combination of components, together with Asus’s contrasty image science, produces well exposed and detailed shots in a range of lighting conditions. Night shots are particularly crisp here, with that larger sensor and gimbal system holding things steady during the necessary extended shutter times.

It’s not just night shots that the gimbal helps with either, with video footage also kept super-steady. This is illustrated by a neat UI element: so long as you keep the dot within the circle, you can be sure the gimbal is doing its thing.

Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro camera samples

Hyper Steady mode goes even further, cropping in and using electronic image stabilization (EIS) to further even things out during particularly active shoots. You can shoot at up to 8K and 24fps or 4K at 60fps here, though Hyper Steady mode is only available at 1080p/30fps.

The photographic improvements continue with the provision of a 32MP 3x telephoto camera. Previous ROG Phone models haven’t bothered, supplying a pointless macro camera instead. Zoomed shots taken with this dedicated component turned out to be crisp, clear, and tonally similar to the main sensor.

If there’s a weak point it’s the ROG Phone 8 Pro’s 13MP ultra-wide camera, which notably falls off in tone, detail, and dynamic range compared to the other two. Still, Asus has supplied a freeform lens, which reduces distortion towards the edges.

Asus’s AI image processing didn’t always call the scene right in my experience. This is illustrated in one selection of shots of an old train carriage, which the main sensor and the telephoto seemed to overexpose, while the ultra-wide went in the opposite direction.

The 32MP selfie camera, too, lacks a certain degree of subject sharpness, with slightly smudgy skin tones. It does have the distinction of being capable of a wider ‘0.7x’ view in addition to a cropped 1x view, however, so you have some flexibility with group and landscape selfies.

To be clear, the Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro doesn’t rival the iPhone 15 Pro, Google Pixel 8 Pro, or Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra in the camera department. Which, given its pricing, you might well expect it to do. However, given the calamitous history of gaming phone cameras, this represents a huge step forwards into respectability.

• Camera score: 4 / 5

Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro review: Performance

• Packs the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip
• 12GB, 18GB, or 24GB of LPDDR5X RAM
• 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB of UFS 4.0 storage

As smart as the Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro looks in its new suit, we’re still all here for the performance. Thankfully, it’s an absolute barnstormer, with only the barest of wrinkles to speak off.

Let’s start with the specs, because they’re all cutting edge. You get Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, which is going to be the go-to chip for 2024.

This is accompanied by up to 24GB of LPDDR5X RAM in the top Pro Edition, which we’d ordinarily dismiss as overkill. In a pricey gaming phone such as this, though, it seems far more reasonable.

With such components at its disposal, Asus has turned the performance tap on full. My Geekbench 6 CPU benchmark tests reveal a multi-core score of around 7,200, which broadly matched side-by-side test results from the Red Magic 9 Pro and the iPhone 15 Pro.

Across the suite of GFXBench GPU-focused benchmarks, the ROG Phone 8 Pro trounced the Red Magic 9 Pro in the on-screen tests, and matches it in off-screen tests. You can likely put that disparity down to the Red Magic 9 Pro’s higher screen resolution.

Where the Red Magic 9 Pro wins back some ground – and it’s not an insignificant victory – is in sustained performance. The 3DMark Solar Bar Stress Test runs 20-minute-long loops of a high-intensity graphical workout, mimicking sustained high-end 3D gameplay. The ROG Phone 8 Pro scored 92.2%, reflecting the fact that its performance remained at a fairly consistent rate from the first loop to the last.

That’s much better than most normal flagship phones, which tend to score in the 70 to 80% region. However, it falls short of the Red Magic 9 Pro, which scored a nigh-on perfect 99.7%. The reason for this is almost certainly the ROG Phone’s lack of an integrated fan cooling system. Sure enough, with the AeroActive Cooler X attached to the back of the ROG, it scored 98.3% in the same test.

I should also note that the ROG Phone 8 Pro had gotten extremely toasty by the end of this 20-minute GPU workout, to the point where it was uncomfortable to hold. It’s something to bear in mind if you’re someone who plays graphically advanced games for extended periods, though no current games will push a phone quite so hard.

In summary, then, the Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro is one of the very strongest performers on the market. It falls slightly short of the Red Magic 9 Pro when it comes to sustained gaming performance, unless you purchase the top model and fit the AeroActive Cooler X fan, but it’ll still blow through any modern game you can throw at it on the very highest graphical settings with contemptuous ease.

There’s ample space for storing games and media files, too, with a choice of 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB of storage depending on the model.

• Performance score: 5 / 5

Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro review: Software

• Android 14 with ROG UI
• Armour Crate app to fine-tune gaming settings
• At least two OS updates, four years of security updates

Asus’s custom UI is one of the less tinkered-with on the Android market. Compared to Nubia’s Red Magic OS 9.0, it’s absolute bliss to deal with, and I encountered none of the set-up woes or bugs that we encountered with the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate.

The joy starts right at the outset, where Asus gives you the choice of the stock Android or Asus Optimized quick settings panel and a more Classic (i.e. stock) home screen layout. I dearly wish more (read: all) Android manufacturers did this.

Essentially, ROG UI is the same as Zen UI on the Zenfone 10. There are a few cosmetic tweaks to the Google formula, some ugly ‘gamer’ wallpapers, and some added pre-installed apps like Gallery and the Link to Windows app. There are also a couple of third-party apps pre-installed in Instagram and Facebook, but it’s nothing egregious.

The main nod to gamers here is the Armoury Crate app, which is where you can go to tweak performance modes, Air Trigger configurations, and to load up shared custom macros on a game-by-game basis.

You can also bring up an Armoury Crate UI over your current game by swiping down from the top corner. This is most useful when you want to map those Air Trigger controls.

Asus promises at least two major OS updates, bringing the ROG Phone 8 Pro up to Android 16, and four years of security updates. It’s not among the leading pack of premium Android phones in this department, which is shame give how future-proof the hardware is. And we are now in a time where people tend to hold onto their phones for longer, opting to stick with their phones for three years over two, meaning this level of support isn't really up to the standard we'd expect from a smartphone of this price. 

• Software score: 3.5 / 5

Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro review: Battery

• 5,500mAh battery is smaller than before
• All day usage, but not the strongest gaming phone stamina
• 65W wired and 15W wireless charging

In order to pull off this sleeker design, Asus has taken the slightly concerning step of downsizing the ROG Phone 8 Pro’s battery. While the ROG Phone 7 had a 6,000mAh battery, the new model only has a 5,500mAh cell.

Improvements to the efficiency of the chip and the display technology obviously go some way to offsetting this, but even Asus has admitted to a slight drop in stamina compared to its previous model. That’s not the ideal direction of travel for a gaming phone, where a ‘higher, further, faster, baby’ motto tends to apply.

It’s also worth pointing out that the Nubia Red Magic 9 Pro offers a 6,500mAh battery, which is significantly larger.

Sure enough, I was unable to get quite the same practical battery life out of the ROG Phone 8 Pro as its significantly cheaper rival. In an average full day of moderate usage with about four hours of screen-on time, I would be left with a little shy of 50% left in the tank. That’s not a bad result by any means, but it falls way short of the Red Magic 9 Pro on 65%.

Given the lower capacity of its battery, the 65W charger Asus bundles in yields similar results to the Red Magic 9 Pro. Charging from empty got me to 100% in around 40 minutes.

The ROG Phone 8 Pro also has an ace up its sleeve in the form of 15W wireless charging, which is something that previous gaming phones have omitted. It’s another feature that makes this the most easy gaming phone to live with.

• Battery score: 4.5 / 5

Should you buy the Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro review: Also consider

The Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro is a unique gaming phone that will serve you well in everyday life, but it’s not your only option. These phones can tick some of the same boxes, and a few others besides.

How I tested the Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro

• Review test period = 1 month
• Testing included = Everyday usage, including web browsing, social media, photography, video calling, gaming, streaming video, music playback
• Tools used = Geekbench 6, GFXBench, 3DMark, native Android stats, bundled Asus 65W power adapter

I was sent the top Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro Edition model by a PR representative, at which point I commenced using the phone on a daily basis over a two-week period, followed by a further two weeks of intermittent usage.

For at least a week of that time, the 8 Pro was my everyday phone. For the rest of the time, I swapped in another active SIM and continued to use the phone for benchmark tests, gaming, photos, and general browsing.

I’m a freelance journalist who got his start writing about mobile games in the pre-smartphone era. I was around to cover the arrival of the iPhone and the App Store, as well as Android, and their seismic effect on the games industry. I now write about consumer tech, games, and culture for a number of top websites.

First reviewed January 2024

Asus' ROG Phone series has established itself as the GOAT, as far as the best gaming phones are concerned, consistently landing the top spot on our shortlist, with each new iteration doubling down on standout features that serious mobile gamers will unquestionably love. With the newly-announed ROG Phone 8 line, however, gaming no longer feels like the priority, in fact, Asus outright states that it isn't.

There are a few established traits and tropes that help define a great gaming phone: a large, sharp display with a high refresh rate, solid sound – ideally through both stereo speakers and headphones (bonus points for a physical headphone jack); great cooling – in particular active cooling, through the use of fans, vents and a large vapor chamber; physical controls – this typically manifests as capacitive shoulder buttons; a large battery; dedicated software to manage notifications; device performance, and of course, heaps of power.

It's also understood that as part of striking a balance that prioritizes gaming, you have to expect some compromises too; mainly to areas like camera quality, physical dimensions and weight. These are accepted shortcomings that allow for more focused investment on a device's gaming prowess.

Breaking its own rules

At an embargoed briefing, ahead of the ROG Phone 8's unveiling at CES 2024, the company ran through the storied history of the series, with the first three models (which it considers to collectively be the line's first generation) helping define what it is to be an Asus gaming phone, followed by the second-generation ROG Phones 5, 6 and 7 (there was no ROG Phone 4), whose focus was on refining the series' now-established defining qualities: speed, cooling, X Mode (the company's proprietary gaming software), battery, tuning, audio and design.

We then reach the ROG Phone 8, the first of Asus' third generation of ROG Phone – an entry whose tag line is intriguingly "beyond gaming." 

Call me a cynic but doesn't "beyond gaming" sound like another way of saying 'things other than gaming'?

It's a cool slogan in a vacuum, but when you look at what the ROG Phone 8 actually brings to the table – in particular the ROG Phone 8 Pro – it doesn't simply build on the established formula of its forebares. 

Asus has instead chosen to strip away some of the defining aspects of the series to make its new gaming champ less about gaming and more about... everything else.

The phone still has the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset – ensuring plenty of power, an E6 AMOLED display with up to a 165Hz refresh rate, AirTrigger shoulder buttons and a graphite sheet paired to a revised heat sink – as part of its new GameCool 8 system. 

However, the outlandish AeroActive Portal of the last few generations – a motorized vent, that opened up to work in conjunction with the AeroActive Cooler 7 (a detachable fan accessory that clipped onto the phone's back) has gone. In its place the new AeroActive Cooler X misses out on the integrated subwoofer, as well as two of the four shoulder buttons its predecessor added.

By nixing series-defining traits, like the vent system and reducing battery capacity, Asus has instead been able to build a slimmer, lighter ROG Phone with narrower bezels around the same-sized display as the ROG Phone 7, added wireless charging, and more substantial IP68-certified dust and water resistance too. 

All welcome improvements, but ones that seemingly detract from Asus' own definition of what a gaming phone is meant to be. These all feel like improvements you'd more readily find on a conventional flagship, looking for the broadest appeal possible.

Is the Zenfone to blame?

Perhaps it's the Zenfone's fault. With the Zenfone 8 series, Asus moved towards a smaller form factor for its mainstream flagship phone, carving out a niche as the go-to small Android flagship phone-maker but creating a void in its portfolio as a result. For those after a more conventionally-sized competitor to the iPhone Pro Max and Galaxy Ultra-sized alternatives dominating the market, there suddenly wasn't anything Asus offered.

The ROG Phone was the right size, but until now wasn't a balanced enough device to step into that gap. With the changes made for the release of the ROG Phone 8 line – including a far bigger focus on camera quality and camera performance – it would appear that the company's gaming phone series is now taking that very step; now serving as its new mainstream flagship device.

The game has changed

There's also today's wider playing field to consider. As detailed by Visual Capitalist, the revenue generated by mobile gaming now eclipses that of more traditional platforms; including PC and console gaming combined. That blood in the water has attracted the sharks, which means a far more competitive mobile gaming scene than that of the ROG Phone series' debut.

Now, companies like Sony, Samsung and even Google bundle self-made gaming overlays on their mainstream flagship phones – devices that are marketed to support gaming, but not explicitly for gaming. At the same time, you now have Apple shouting about the gaming credentials of the iPhone 15 Pro Max too, with its ray tracing-capable A17 Pro chipset and exclusive console-quality ports of titles like Resident Evil Village.

More widely available gaming-capable smartphones and cloud gaming have also helped invigorate the gaming accessory market, with mobile game controllers like the Backbone One and the GameSir G8 Galileo further legitimizing mobile gaming in turn. Even Asus' own Tessen mobile controller – which was announced alongside the ROG Phone 8 – is the first of the company's mobile gaming controllers that isn't exclusively compatible with a ROG Phone, but is instead designed to work with most USB-C toting phones out there.

Coming from what was once the name in gaming phone pedigree, the Asus ROG Phone 8 looks more like just another excellent flagship phone in a crowd of excellent flagship phones. Not so much game over, but the end of an era.

Asus has taken the covers off the ROG Phone 8, its latest version of one of the best gaming phones, at CES 2024 in Las Vegas. 

Unlike previous ROG phones, which have been primarily focused on serious mobile gaming, Asus is aiming to take the ROG Phone 8 “beyond gaming” by giving it a slimmer and lighter design, with the goal of appealing to streamers and content creators as well as gamers. 

As a result, the design of the ROG Phone 8 is more refined than that of its predecessors. The fierce ROG eye logo is still present, but the aggressive slashes in the phone, and features like the 2-inch ROG Vision rear display, have been removed, ushering in a much cleaner looking phone.

The Pro and Pro Edition models, however, do have the Anime Vision Mini-LED display, which can turn the ROG logo into different animations via presets or user-created options. 

The ROG Phone 8 comes in at 163.8 x 76.8 x 8.9mm and weighs 225g, which is notably slimmer and lighter than the ROG Phone 7. Despite this, Asus has managed to pack in its Rapid-Cooling Conductor design, which helps conduct heat away from the center of the phone to its rear; and for people who want more cooling, there’s a new AeroActive Cooler X clip-on cooler that’s smaller yet more efficient than its predecessor.

Specs-wise, the ROG Phone 8 has a suite of flagship parts. At its heart is the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, which is supported by 12GB, 16GB or 24GB of LPDDR5X RAM depending on the storage option users go for, with a choice of 256GB, 512GB and 1TB UFS 4.0 variants. Keeping these parts ticking along is a 5,500mAh battery with support for 65W wired charging and 15W Qi wireless charging.

The 6.78-inch AMOLED display has a FHD+ resolution and peak brightness of 2,500 nits, with its LTPO panel supporting a variable refresh rate of 1Hz to 120Hz, but it can also be pushed to a max refresh rate of 165Hz; this is an upgrade on the ROG Phone 7 and ROG Phone 7 Ultimate, but is arguably overkill for mobile gaming.

Leaning into its ambition for the ROG Phone 8 to go beyond gaming, Asus has put an emphasis on the phone’s cameras. There’s a main 50MP camera with Asus’s third-generation Hybrid Gimbal Stabilizer, which should help deliver things like smoother video. The ultra-wide camera comes in at 13MP with an f/2.2 aperture, and the telephoto camera has a 32MP sensor and 3x optical zoom. On the front there's a 32MP selfie camera.

At first glance there’s nothing particularly attention-grabbing about the camera suite, but Asus notes that the camera can cover a range of focal lengths, and touts new AI and image processing to deliver things like improved night photos. Of course, we’ll need to try this for ourselves to see if the ROG Phone 8 can come close to some of the best camera phones.

We’ve got our hands on the ROG Phone 8 and we'll be reviewing it very soon, so watch this space – and in the meantime check out our unboxing video, on TechRadar’s TikTok channel and embedded below.

Other features on the Asus ROG Phone 8 include AI enhancements, including the AI Grabber, which can capture text from games, and X Sense, which can provide gaming tips on the fly – I can see the former tool being handy for content creators. There’s also AI-powered noise cancellation to improve phone calls and in-game communication.

Set for a February release date in the UK and Europe, with a US release date TBC, the ROG Phone 8 will cost $1,099 / €1,099 / £949 (approximately AU$1,640). The ROG Phone 8 Pro will come in at $1,199 / €1,199 / £1,099 (around AU$1,790) and the ROG Phone 8 Pro Edition will be a somewhat hefty $1,499 / €1,499 / £1,299 (some AU$2,240).

We’re looking forward to putting the Asus ROG Phone 8 through its paces to see if it can not only deliver on the gaming font, but also whether its flagship specs and features can, as Asus clearly hopes, get close to some of the best phones you can buy right now.

We’re covering all of the latest CES news from the show as it happens. Stick with us for the big stories on everything from 8K TVs and foldable displays to new phones, laptops, smart home gadgets, and the latest in AI.

And don’t forget to follow us on TikTok for the latest from the CES show floor!

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Asus Zenfone 10 two-minute review

If the Asus Zenfone 10 is a write-in for the title of ‘best small phone’, it’s only because it’s the only small phone to be released this year, with the ‘best’ designation used through gritted teeth.

Asus seems to keep bumping into the same problem with its Zenfone line of mini Android phones: in a world where mobiles are always getting bigger and bigger, what do you do with a device that’s defined by its small stature?

Not much, says the Asus Zenfone 10, because it’s a near clone of the Asus Zenfone 9 that we saw a year prior, but with a few specs tweaked and a higher price. And all in all, it offers the same package: it’s nice for people who want a one-handed phone, but its identity issues mean it’s not getting onto our list of the best Android phones.

Like a Michelin-star chef using cheap ingredients, Asus has a great recipe with its Zenfone mobiles but hasn't got the recipe right. There’s definitely a market for cutesy one-handed mobiles, but by combining both premium features (the chipset, the high-end price) and ones that leave a sour taste in your mouth (the camera, the design, the slow charging), the company is ending with a ‘jack of no trades’, so to say.

Case in point, the chipset. Asus has insistently pumped the newest and best Snapdragon chips into each entry of Zenfone series, which would ostensibly make them great for gaming – until you realize that they’re so small, that it’s hard to see what you’re doing in your game. 

The price is another sticking point, with the $699.99 / £749.99 (roughly AU$1,450) asking price putting the Zenfone at roughly the same price point as the iPhone 14 and Samsung Galaxy S22. Suffice to say, the Zenfone 10 is not a contender, given its weaker cameras and less impressive screen.

Asus has kept to its distinctly unimpressive specs in other areas. The camera array would feel at home on a mid-range mobile, while the charging speed gets beaten by many more affordable Android phones. 

If you’re looking for a small phone, though, you don't really have many other options. The market for new sub-6-inch mobiles basically gives you two options: Zenfone or iPhone SE, meaning Android phone fans will have to settle.

So far, the tone of this two-minute review has been negative, and that’s because it’s hard to recommend this phone to people who aren’t dead-set on getting a small phone, but there are some qualities to the Zenfone that make it worth considering.

Thanks to its small size, the Zen 10 is very easy to use one-handed, and it slips into even the smallest pocket or purse with ease.

Some of the Zenfone 10's improvements are welcome: the front-facing camera has gotten a lot better, and the selfie experience is noticeably improved. Plus, wireless charging will gain some converts into the Asus camp. We’ve also got to flag the wide variety of bright color options: Asus sees your ‘black or white’ binary choices for many modern mobiles and raises you red, blue and green to boot. 

But are more colors, more megapixels and more ways to charge that big of an upgrade, given the higher price? 

Why Asus won’t position its Zenfone devices as happy mid-rangers is a mystery to us – with some of the specs clipped, and at a more affordable price point, this mobile could do gangbusters. Sadly, that isn’t the Zenfone 10.

Asus Zenfone 10 review: price and availability

• On sale in the UK & Europe from July 31
• Pre-order in the US from August 22
• Australian availability TBC
• From $699.99 (128GB) / £749.99 (256GB)

After being unveiled on June 29, 2023, the Asus Zenfone 10 hit shelves on July 31 in Europe (including the UK). The phone hit pre-order in the US on August 22 and an Australian release hasn’t yet been confirmed.

The phone costs $699.99 (roughly £550 / AU$1,090) for the base 8GB RAM / 128GB storage variant (which seems to be a US-exclusive), $749.99 / £749.99 (roughly AU$1,450) for a bump to 256GB of storage and $799.99 / £819.99 (around AU$1,550) for the top-tier 16GB RAM / 512GB model. Our review unit was of the fully-loaded model, in its Aurora Green variant, but there are also white, black, red and blue options.

For some comparison, the Asus Zenfone 9 cost $699 / £699 / AU$1,199 for 8GB / 128GB and $799 / £749 (around AU$1,300) for 16GB / 256GB build. So there’s a slight price increase for each RAM model year-on-year, and while it arguably could be justified by the increased storage and other features, it does make the Zenfone even closer in terms of price to some top-tier rivals.

The Android champ, the Samsung Galaxy S23 costs $799.99 / £849 / AU$1,349 and the iPhone 14 costs $799 / £849 / AU$1,339; both for their base models, so although they’re both a touch costlier than the Asus, the margin between cheapest models is shrinking with each generation. And more importantly, the Zenfone 10 has crossed the border between ‘mid-range’ phone into ‘premium’, albeit at the cheaper end of the spectrum.

• Value score: 3.5 / 5

Asus Zenfone 10 review: Specs

The Zenfone 10 arguably boasts more power than it could ever use effectively, but it's nice to know that this pint-sized smartphone has room to spare, regardless of what you might throw at it.

Asus Zenfone 10 review: design

• One of the only noteworthy compact phones available
• IP68 certified
• Rare 3.5mm headphone jack
• Numerous color options

The Asus Zenfone 10 is a real dead ringer for the Zenfone 9 – the one small tweak is the design of the camera system, but even I didn’t spot this minor change before reading the company’s comments pointing it out.

The phone’s selling point is its size. At 146.5 x 68.1 x 9.4mm, it’s one of the smallest modern mobiles on the market, with only the iPhone SE being smaller. This is reflected in the weight too, with the phone being nice and light at 172g.

With these dimensions, the phone is easy to use one-handed, with all but the extremities of the display as well as the buttons on the right edge being well within reach. Those buttons are the volume rocker and power button, with the latter embedded in a side-mounted fingerprint scanner that was reliable at picking up my thumbprint during testing.

In theory, the size would make the Zenfone incredibly comfortable to hold, but Asus balances this by following the flat-edge phone trend that’s become popular in the last few years (despite common sense). The corners of the handset, therefore, dig into the palm and fingers a little when you’re holding it.

There’s a USB-C port for charging your phone as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack, with the Zenfone rapidly becoming one of the last bastions for wired audio fans (alongside the Sony Xperia 1 V).

If you like a well-protected phone, you’ll be at home here: there’s an IP68 rating against water and dust, and the frame is made of plastic, which may not feel too premium in the hand but it’s certainly more durable than glass.

As stated, there are quite a few color options for the Asus Zenfone 10, making it a rare exception to the modern rule of boring phone shades. We tested Aurora Green, though from Asus’ images, red seems like the real vibrant standout.

• Design score: 3.5 / 5

Asus Zenfone 10 review: display

• 5.9-inch Full HD+ display
• 144Hz refresh rate (up from 120Hz on Zenfone 9)
• Small screen size can make gaming difficult

A small body means a small screen, and at 5.9 inches, this is one of the smallest displays you’ll find on a current-gen smartphone. It does match the last few generations of Zenfone, in the resolution as well as the size, with 1080 x 2400 Full HD+ making a return.

An improvement here is the refresh rate, which has crept up to 144Hz, meaning that the screen refreshes 144 times per second, for smoother motion. This is only actually available in games though, not for everyday use, so non-gamers won’t be able to make the most of it.

We’re not sure why gamers would pick a 5.9-inch screen phone for gaming though, as it’s just not big enough to see details. When you’ve got icons cluttering the screen and your fingers blocking your vision you’ll find yourself begging for a bigger display.

• Display score: 3.5 / 5

Asus Zenfone 10 review: software

• Zen UI atop Android 13 out of box
• Smart Key is a great inclusion
• Promised two years of OS updates, four years security updates

Like most Android phone makers, Asus likes to layer its own user interface over stock Android – for the Zenfone 10, Android 13 is embellished with Zen UI.

Unlike some Android forks, Zen UI is quite a gentle overhaul, and you’d be forgiven for thinking the Zenfone 10 ran stock Android, and that’s largely because Asus lets you pick between its own features and the Android alternatives.

Zen UI gives you a redesigned and improved volume slider, a unique call display, reorganized quick settings panels and more, but many of the changes are purely in the appearance.

One bigger improvement is Smart Key, which lets you activate various functions by double tapping or pressing and holding the side power key, however we found that this was less reliable than simply using the tried-and-tested methods for, say, checking notifications or skipping songs.

If you’re the sort that cares about support length, then you should know that Asus has confirmed the Zenfone 10 will get two years of operating system updates (so, up to Android 15) and two extra years beyond that for security patches.

• Software score: 4 / 5

Asus Zenfone 10 review: cameras

• 50MP main + 13MP ultra-wide
• 32MP front-facer (up from 12MP on predecessors)
• Improved AI image processing but no autofocus on ultra-wide

The Asus Zenfone 10 has a few changes over its predecessor, but I'm loathed to call these ‘upgrades’. Side-grades?

The main camera is the same as on the Zenfone 9: a 50MP f/1.9 snapper that uses the ever-popular Sony IMX766 sensor. This is a good mid-range sensor that picks up light well, making for colorful pictures, and you'll find it in plenty of budget and mid-range mobiles.

As you can see from the camera samples below, the photos taken were reasonably rich, with decent contrast and saturation – and it seems Asus has improved its AI image processing from previous mobiles.

Joining that on the back is a 13MP ultra-wide camera, with a 120-degree field of view, which is slightly higher-res and wider than last year’s alternative, but with the curious omission of autofocus. Oops? Autofocus isn’t as important on this camera as on the main one, but with many people opting to use UW cameras to take macro pictures, some might find the lack of this feature critical.

A more jarring issue that I found with this camera is that photos were noticeably more desaturated and flat than on the main camera. Goodbye color.

There are only two rear cameras here – clearly Asus is taking the wrong leaf from the iPhone playbook – and so if you like a versatile photographic experience, the lack of a macro or telephoto lens will disappoint you.

On the front of the phone, the camera hardware has undergone a more drastic change, with the 12MP selfie snapper of years past ditched in favor of a 32MP shooter. This makes a marked increase on selfie quality – not only are they more high res, letting you edit and play with them more, but Portrait mode and AI processing upgrades are abound too. In this department, at least, Asus has sussed out how to upgrade its phones.

Video recording maxes out at 8K/24fps or 4K/60fps, or if you want to embrace slow-mo there’s 4K/120fps, FHD/240fps or HD/480fps. The other modes on the Camera app tick all the standard boxes: there’s time-lapse, portrait, light trails, Pro and night mode.

Please note, the two selfie camera samples had to be cropped to 1:1 in order to upload successfully. By default, the phone captures in 4:3.

Asus Zenfone 10 camera samples

• Camera score: 3.5 / 5

Asus Zenfone 10 review: performance and audio

• Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is overkill for a phone of this size
• Gaming is smooth but cramped
• Versatile audio experience

We’ve touched on the Asus Zenfone 10’s chipset already; it’s the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, the current most powerful processor available to Android phones and found in lots of the top models. Asus tends to use the best chips available to it, and the Zenfone 10 is no exception.

This amount of processing power is, unfortunately, totally unnecessary – with its small screen size, it’s really hard to use the Zenfone for power-hungry applications like games, photo editing and so on. Bear in mind that a 16GB RAM version of the phone is on sale!

I played lots of Call of Duty Mobile and PUBG Mobile to test the phone, and ran into multiple problems. On-screen icons were, by default, way to small to be reliably pressed at a moment’s notice, and resizing them only goes so far to fix this. My hands also ended up covering lots of the screen, my thumbs would frequently smash into each other when I was trying to run one way and look the other, and even short gaming bouts resulted in some serious hand cramp from grasping this tiny mobile – gaming on this device was really tough (somewhat ironic as Asus also makes the best gaming phone on the market).

Remove the human element, and games play well – toggle the 144Hz screen option, and the highest graphics options available, and the Asus still tanks through games (well, other than the long-running overheating issue of Qualcomm Snapdragon chipsets). But you’d be hard-pressed to notice if you can barely see the screen.

It’s getting tiring complaining about the Zenfone’s bizarre chipset choice – a Snapdragon 7-series chipset would let Asus sell its phone for less, would remove the overheating issue, and wouldn’t have a noticeable effect on the way people use the phone anyway. 

In terms of audio, the Zenfone has built-in speakers that are absolutely fine, but with a 3.5mm headphone jack and Bluetooth connectivity you can easily use your own headphones too.

• Performance score: 3.5 / 5

Asus Zenfone 10 review: battery life

On any other phone, a 4,300mAh battery would throw up red flags: this mid-sized battery wouldn’t normally support a mobile with a top-end chip, 5G connectivity and high-refresh-rate display for very long at all. Thankfully, the Zenfone’s small screen lets it skirt around this issue, and it ends up having a pretty standard battery life.

In our testing we comfortably used the Zenfone 10 for a full day of use without needing to charge it up, which is what you expect from the average mobile. It won’t serve you for two days – realistically no phone will – but you won’t need to worry about it running out of charge over the course of just one.

Charging is done via the USB-C port at 30W, which is pretty slow in the grand scheme of Android phones, and it’ll take you at least an hour to power it to full. There’s a new feature here in the form of wireless charging, which comes in at 15W. Again, that’s not fast, but it’s a useful extra feature for people who like charging docks or pads.

I’ve frequently tested phones that are so big that they’re tricky to use on wireless charging stands, but the Zenfone’s size made it easy to place and readjust against some of the chargers it was placed upon.

• Battery score: 4 / 5

Should you buy the Asus Zenfone 10?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Asus Zenfone 10 review: Also consider

Asus has settled into its comfort zone for the Zenfone 10, not changing much from the Zenfone 9, and if that didn't impress you then this won't either. In that case, here are some alternatives.

How I tested the Asus Zenfone 10

• Review test period = 2 weeks
• Testing included = Everyday usage, including web browsing, social media, photography, video calling, gaming, streaming video, music playback
• Tools used = Geekbench 5, Geekbench 6, Geekbench ML, GFXBench, native Android stats

I started using the Asus Zenfone 10 when it was shipped to me to review, using the 512GB storage and 16GB RAM unit in green, as you can see from the pictures accompanying this review.

I used the phone as my normal device during the testing period which included bouts of photography, gaming and streaming shows, but I mainly just used it for everyday tasks; to listen to music on the way to work, doomscroll through social media during work and work or play after work.

Having previously spent time in the TechRadar phones team, including as a staff writer and also Deputy and Acting Editor for the section, I have lots of experience testing many different mobile devices including phones, tablets and wearables, and have tested many of the Asus Zenfone 10's rivals and predecessors. Plus I go climbing, so know some handy hand exercises to stop the cramp from using the thing hurt quite so much.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed July 2023

One perk of Android phones is just how customizable they are, and that customization can go beyond simply using the tools Google has given you and the apps on the Google Play Store, because in many cases you can root these phones, giving you almost complete control over the hardware and software.

But this is a practice that some companies make easier than others, and it’s one that Asus might now be preventing altogether.

You see, to root a phone you need to be able to unlock the bootloader, and according to a post on the official Zenfone forums, a user was told by Asus support that this would no longer be possible on the Asus Zenfone 9 or the Asus Zenfone 10.

No other phones were specifically mentioned, but if Asus is blocking the ability on these handsets, then it’s likely that it will prevent rooting on future Zenfone models too, and perhaps also on its ROG line of gaming phones.

Unclear on unlocking

That said, there’s an element of uncertainty over the whole situation, because – as Android Authority notes – the company had previously said that the tool allowing you to unlock the bootloader was only being temporarily disabled, in order for it to be updated to support the Zenfone 10.

Additionally, a Reddit user claims that a developer liaison on the company’s Telegram channel has no knowledge of the company blocking rooting, and echoed earlier comments that the bootloader unlocking tool was simply being updated, and would return in the third quarter of the year.

So it’s unclear whether Asus is really locking down the bootloader or not, but we certainly hope it isn’t. While rooting phones is a fairly niche activity, it’s a major selling point for some users, and would have factored into their choice to purchase Asus phones.

It’s also something that can be tricky or impossible on some of the best Android phones, including some high-profile ones. For example, you can’t unlock the bootloader in North American models of the Samsung Galaxy S23.

Could this be the start of a trend?

Many other brands, such as OnePlus and Google do allow it, but if Asus really does remove support for this, then there’s a worry that other companies could follow suit.

After all, rooting can allow you to remove the bloatware that comes pre-installed on your phone, which may not be something manufacturers want you to do. It can also cause issues with your handset and lessen the security, so there are reasons phone makers might want to keep their devices locked down, and may use this move by Asus as a reason to do the same.

But that would be a real shame, because rooting also has all sorts of upsides, including giving you complete customization of the interface and even allowing for new operating systems to be installed. As such, we hope Asus isn’t planning to put a stop to this – or if it is, that it changes its mind.

Asus has officially lifted the lid on its latest premium handset, the Asus Zenfone 10 – and it has the makings of being one of the best small phones of 2023.

Owing to its unjustifiably high price, the Asus Zenfone 9 was among the most disappointing phones of last year, but its successor looks to have rectified some of those shortcomings by bringing top-end performance to the table.

Leading the charge is a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset – which is the same processor you’ll find inside many of the best Android phones, including the Samsung Galaxy S23 and Xiaomi 13 – and the Zenfone 10 pairs that superior power with more internal storage (up to 512GB) this time around.

The Zenfone 10 ships with up to 16GB LPDDR5X RAM, and battery life is up 13% over the Zenfone 9, despite the newer phone using the same 4,300mAh power pack. The Zenfone 10 boasts wireless charging capabilities, too, where the Zenfone 9 doesn't.

On the design front, the Zenfone 10 sticks with its predecessor’s 5.9-inch AMOLED display, and the device weighs a comparable 172g, making it one of the smallest and lightest flagships to hit the market in 2023. It’s worth noting that several rumors had hinted at a 6.3-inch display for the Zenfone 10, so it’s good to see that Asus has decided to roll the dice again on what is arguably the best feature of the Asus Zenfone 9.

The only real aesthetic differences between the Zenfone 10 and Zenfone 9 come in the form of re-shaped camera rings on the former, which, Asus says, have been adjusted to offer a “more distinct and discrete design” on the newer phone. There’s a new color option, too: Aurora Green.

Disappointingly, there are still only two rear cameras on the Zenfone 10, one of which is the same Sony IMX766 50MP sensor as seen on last year's model. The Zenfone 9’s 12MP ultra-wide camera has been upgraded to a 13MP ultra-wide on the Zenfone 10, though, and the former’s 12MP selfie snapper is now a 32MP front-facing camera.

Alongside Asus’ usual HyperSteady mode, a new adaptive EIS function is available on the Zenfone 10, with AI Object Sense and HyperClarity – which ensures detail preservation at high magnification – among the other new photographic additions. Oh, and you’ll also now get an extra 2x magnification Portrait Mode.

As for the phone’s price and release date, the Zenfone 10 is available to pre-order now from £749.99 / €799, which is the same starting price as the Zenfone 9. We haven’t had confirmation of pricing in the US or Australia just yet, but judging by that European starting price, we’re confident that Asus will stick with figures around the $699 / AU$1,210 mark. We’ll update this article once we know for sure.

With there being no iPhone 14 mini and no rumors of an iPhone 15 mini, it seems Apple has abandoned high-end, small-size phones. But not every brand has, as the Asus Zenfone 10 is launching soon with a 5.9-inch screen, and leaked images have given us a good look at the likely design.

These images, shared by leaker Roland Quandy via WinFuture, are apparently official marketing pictures, and they certainly look high-quality enough to be.

They show a similar design to the Asus Zenfone 9, with two large lenses on the back, a fairly plain finish, and a flat screen, with a punch-hole camera in the top left corner, and slightly bigger bezels than the priciest of phones. 

It's shown here in red, black, off-white, blue, and green shades, and there's also notably a headphone port on the top edge.

The design, then, is fine but doesn’t excite, and it’s worth noting that Asus itself has previously shown off the front of the Zenfone 10, so it’s only the back and sides that are unconfirmed.

Still, the Asus Zenfone 10’s main selling points aren’t its looks, but rather its high-end specs in a compact size. That 5.9-inch screen size we mentioned has already been confirmed by Asus, proving an early rumor of the Zenfone 10 having a 6.3-inch screen wrong.

High-end power and a 200MP camera

Asus has also confirmed that the phone will have a high-end Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset. This is the chipset you’ll find in the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S23 and the OnePlus 11, too. Plus, it will support wireless charging (which the Zenfone 9 doesn’t).

Previous leaks, meanwhile, point to a choice of 256GB or 512GB of storage, up to 16GB of RAM, water resistance, a 5,000mAh battery with 67W charging, and a 200MP primary camera (up from 50MP on the Zenfone 9).

So, the Asus Zenfone 10 is shaping up to be an extremely capable little phone, perhaps even one of the best small phones. It won’t be cheap, but it shouldn’t cost more than other comparably spec’d phones, with a promotion from Asus – spotted by Android Authority – suggesting that the starting price will be $749 (around £590 / AU$1,120).

If you’re interested in the Asus Zenfone 10, there isn’t long to wait, as the handset is being unveiled on June 29, and you’ll be able to watch the launch on YouTube. In fact, the live stream page is already up.

The Asus ROG Phone 7 and Asus ROG Phone 7 Ultimate are launching later today (April 13), but as is so often the case, leakers got there first; revealing most of the specs and details ahead of the phones' official unveiling.

The latest leak is perhaps the biggest yet, as WinFuture has shared high-quality and supposedly official images of both phones, along with specs lists.

You can see some of these renders below, and they show a design that’s unmistakably that of a gaming phone, as well as being quite similar to the Asus ROG Phone 6. The main visual difference between the Asus ROG Phone 7 and the 7 Ultimate is that while the former is shown with some colored LEDs on the back, the latter has an entire second display.

The Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro had a secondary screen too, and on that it could be used to display battery percentage, incoming calls, and information about connected accessories. Functionality is likely to be similar here.

Another visual difference is that the Asus ROG Phone 7 Ultimate apparently has a flap on the back which can be opened to connect a cooling fan dubbed the AeroActive Cooler. This isn't a new accessory, though a new version of it will probably be launched with these phones.

As for the specs, this leak suggests that both phones will have a 6.8-inch AMOLED display with a 165Hz refresh rate, a 6,000mAh battery, a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, and a triple-lens camera, with a 50MP main camera, a 13MP ultrawide, and a 5MP macro snapper.

Those specs are largely in line with previous leaks, though we’d elsewhere heard the macro camera would be 8MP. The information in this latest leak though comes from Roland Quandt, who has a great track record for leaks, so we’d be inclined to believe the 5MP claim.

In any case, as is typical with gaming phones, the camera specs don’t sound special but the other specs sound exceptionally high-end.

More than just visual differences

It also sounds like the standard Asus ROG Phone 7 and the Asus ROG Phone 7 Ultimate might be quite similar, but they likely have more than just the design differences above separating them, with this leak adding that storage amounts will probably be the main difference.

There’s no mention here of how much storage each phone might have, but we’ve previously heard that the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate might come with 512GB of storage and 16GB of RAM, so one or both of those figures could be lower on the standard model.

From what we’ve heard so far though, both of these handsets could rank among the best gaming phones. We should have a clearer idea soon, as the Asus ROG Phone 7 series is being unveiled at 8am ET / 5am PT / 1pm BST / 10pm AEST today (April 13).

The Asus ROG Phone 7 Ultimate was always going to have high-end specs, and now we have an idea of just how high-end, as a leak has revealed many of the supposed specs for both this and the standard Asus ROG Phone 7.

According to leaker Abhishek Yadav on Twitter (via Phone Arena), both of these Asus ROG Phone 7 models have a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, run Android 13, and come with a trio of rear-facing cameras; with a 50MP IMX766 primary snapper, a 13MP ultrawide, and an 8MP macro sensor.

They also apparently both have a 32MP front-facing camera, and come in at 173 x 77 x 10.3mm and 239g.

On top of that, the Asus ROG Phone 7 Ultimate is said to have a massive 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. Based on past form, it’s likely that will be the only configuration this phone is available in.

They don’t mention the RAM and storage of the standard Asus ROG Phone 7, but do note that this is apparently the only difference between the standard phone and the Ultimate. They also claim that there won’t be an Asus ROG Phone 7 Pro.

This makes for a strong selection of specs, and you can see these along with previously rumored specs in the table below.

Great specs, but not much of an upgrade

Based on this latest specs leak, the Asus ROG Phone 7 and, in particular, the 7 Ultimate sound like very powerful phones. But the Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro actually comes with even more RAM at 18GB, paired with 512GB of storage.

The Asus ROG Phone 6 and 6 Pro also have the same weight and dimensions as the new phones will apparently have, suggesting that they’ll be physically very similar devices. Here's hoping for some accessory cross-compatibility.

The main camera sensor hasn’t been upgraded either, if this leak is right, and the ultrawide apparently has the same number of megapixels, though it remains to be seen whether the sensor is the same.

So what’s being upgraded? The macro camera here is likely better, as the Asus ROG Phone 6 series has just a 5MP unit, and likewise the selfie camera on those phones is only 12MP. So the photography experience might be slightly improved on the Asus ROG Phone 7 series.

The main upgrade though looks to simply be the chipset, which is reportedly a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 here. That should provide a significant power boost compared to the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 found in the current models, but that’s also about the bare minimum you’d expect from a new model.

Previously rumored specs don’t point to much of an upgrade either, with older leaks suggesting the screen size, resolution, refresh rate, battery capacity, and charging speed will all be about the same as before too.

So while the Asus ROG Phone 7 – and especially the 7 Ultimate – will probably rank among the very best gaming phones, they might not be worth buying if you already have a ROG Phone 6 series handset. We’ll have a clearer idea soon, as Asus is unveiling these phones on April 13.

The Asus ROG Phone 6D currently sits in the top spot of our best gaming phones guide, but it probably won’t do for long, as the Asus ROG Phone 7 is being unveiled on April 13.

Asus itself confirmed as much in a tweet, adding that this launch will kick off at 8am ET / 5am PT / 1pm BST / 10pm AEST. The tweet also confirms that you’ll be able to watch this launch live on the Asus ROG website, which currently has a countdown to the event. We imagine it will also be streamed on YouTube, but that hasn’t yet been confirmed.

Of course, we’ll be covering the launch in full here at TechRadar too, so you can also head back here for all the announcements and our in-depth analysis.

The tweet and site don’t provide any real clues about what the Asus ROG Phone 7 might offer, but we already know some things, and others have leaked.

A phone of beastly specs

Asus itself has previously said that one or more of its upcoming phones will use the top-end Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, found in other Android powerhouses, like the Samsung Galaxy S23 series and the OnePlus 11.

Though the company has additionally suggested that it will use the MediaTek Dimensity 9200 in at least one phone, and we don’t know for sure which will power the ROG Phone 7. That’s a similarly high-end chipset though.

As for leaks, the Asus ROG Phone 7 has seemingly been benchmarked on Geekbench multiple times, with the phone listed as having a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset and 16GB of RAM; so that's the silicon which seems most likely.

One of those listings was shared by leaker @Gadgetsdata, who additionally claims that the phone has a 6.8-inch Full HD+ AMOLED screen, with a 165Hz refresh rate, an under-display fingerprint sensor and a 6,000mAh battery, with 65W fast charging.

However, while the event invite and the above leak only mention the Asus ROG Phone 7 specifically, it’s likely that there will be more than one model. Based on past form and other leaks, we’ll probably also see an Asus ROG Phone 7 Pro and an Asus ROG Phone 7D, with some variations in specs.

From what we’ve heard so far, it sounds like the ROG Phone 7 itself might not be a vast improvement on the Asus ROG Phone 6 series, other than packing an upgraded chipset. So hopefully the Pro model – if there is one – is more of a step up. 

Still, either way, one of these phones will likely be the best gaming phone, at least until Xiaomi launches a successor to the Black Shark 5 Pro.

Asus is set to debut a new Zenfone-branded flagship smartphone in the Zenfone 10, if patterns hold. Now, according to a report from Price Baba – citing leaker Paras Guglani – the upcoming Zenfone 10 is set to supersede last year's Zenfone 9 in one important way. The report says that the brand is set to replace the compact 5.9-inch phone with a 6.3-inch model, abandoning its pursuit of the ironically small compact phone market.

Asus’s Zenfone 8 and Zenfone 9 had broken ground as powerful compact smartphones which boasted clean Android software, up-to-date hardware, and small frames. The Zenfone 9 was 5.9-inches, as we mentioned, as was the Zenfone 8 before it. The Zenfone 10, for its part, is rumored to sport a 6.3-inch display; the same size as the Google Pixel 7. It’s also to come with a 120Hz AMOLED display, though there are no resolution details shared in this latest report. 

Other than the size, the Zenfone 10 is set to be a powerful phone, on track to sport Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, which powers the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S23 and the OnePlus 11. Buyers can expect excellent performance and battery life, based on that alone, though Asus isn't content to coast on its laurels. A rumored 16GB of RAM means that all your apps and games should launch in moments and stay in memory. Similarly, a 5,000mAh battery, paired with 67W fast charging means that your phone should last a long time while charging up rapidly.

In addition, the camera is rumored to leverage a 200-megapixel sensor, while internally between 256GB and 512GB of storage is expected to be on board, built-in liquid cooling should keep the phone cool when gaming, there’s promised fast charging, and IP68 resistance should keep it safe from dust and rain.

 Smaller phones do the dodo 

All those specs – impressive as they are – are increasingly table stakes for Android phones. What is notable here is the increase in size. Compact phone fans have had it rough in recent years. Apple's iPhone 12 Mini and iPhone 13 Mini appeared to be the savior of smaller phones,  but the company moved away from them and adopted the iPhone 14 Plus instead. Not that the iPhone 14 Plus sold gangbusters instead, but it's likely a change that had little to do with its size.

At the same time, the Asus Zenfone 9 was touted as an excellent small Android phone as well. And now it's being replaced by a larger smartphone. Big phones offer space for larger batteries, better cameras, and bigger screens. Certainly, size and weight are a consideration, but the commercial repudiation of sub-six-inch phones has been sure to send a message to smartphone manufacturers – and it's not one smaller phone fans would like to hear.

If you’re a mobile gamer, the Asus ROG Phone 7 is a handset worth waiting for. After all, the Asus ROG Phone 6 and Asus ROG Phone 6D Ultimate both achieved 4.5 stars in their respective reviews, and the latter is in first place on our best gaming phones guide, for now.

At first blush, the newly-revealed ROG Phone 7 and 7 Ultimate look to be similarly impressive specimens – albeit with some all-important upgrades.

There's no 'Pro' model to speak of this year, Asus felt it best to jump straight to 'Ultimate' for the branding on its latest and greatest gaming behemoth. The nice thing between the ROG Phone 7 and ROG Phone 7 Ultimate, is that peak performance and almost all other hardware details remain consistent across both models; so you can bring your A-game regardless of which ROG Phone 7 you eventually swing for.

Now, let's dive into everything these phones bring to the table, including specs, features, accessories, pricing and availability.

Cut to the chase

• What is it? Asus' latest line of gaming phones
• When is it out? Pre-orders from April 13
• How much will it cost? £999 / £1,199 for the standard / Ultimate respectively

Asus ROG Phone 7: release date and price

Asus officially announced the ROG Phone 7 series on April 13, with pre-orders kicking off on the same day and running until April 30 (leading us to assume the phone goes on sale on May 1).

The ROG Phone 6 was unveiled in July 2022, while the Asus ROG Phone 5 landed in March of 2021, so the company 7 series looks to be splitting the difference, almost.

UK pricing places the base ROG Phone 7 with 16GB RAM / 512GB of storage at £999, while the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate (which comes with the same amount of memory and storage) costs £1,199.

We're still waiting on US and Australian confirmed release information but direct conversions from the models available in the UK set the ROG Phone 7 at around $1,250 / AU$1,850 and the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate at approximately $1,500 / AU$2,230.

In Europe, there's also a 12GB RAM / 256GB version of the ROG Phone 7, priced at €999, while the 16GB RAM / 512GB variant that's also up for grabs in the UK sells for €1,199 and the Ultimate comes priced at €1,399.

Asus ROG Phone 7: design and display

While both models sport a similar appearance to their predecessors, there are some slight differences. You once again get a 6.78-inch 165Hz Full HD+ display (albeit using a Samsung E4 AMOLED panel with a higher 1,500-nit peak brightness, compared to the ROG Phone 6), meaning the ROG Phone 7 series serves up familiar dimensions and even the same weight as previously.

The ROG Phone 7 boasts a two-tone finish in either Phantom Black and Storm White, with a mix of glossy translucent and matte back glass, housing an Aura RGB ROG 'fearless eye' logo, which comes with eight mood lighting presets and support for over 16 million colors.

The ROG Phone 7 Ultimate is only available in white and differs from the standard model with the addition of the AeroActive Portal – which we enjoyed on last year's ROG Phone 6D Ultimate and opens to allow directed airflow from compatible AeroActive Cooler accessories, while the 2-inch ROG Vision rear display also features to relay information like charge state and level, notifications, the time and more.

Both variants also pack in programmable ultrasonic shoulder buttons and IPX4 splash resistance.

Asus ROG Phone 7: camera and battery

Expect a similar camera hardware setup to the ROG Phone 6 series, with a 50MP Sony IMX766 sensor fronting the triple rear camera setup, supported by a 13MP ultrawide and a 5MP macro sensor.

Improved image quality – especially when zooming – comes from a features like 'RAW super resolution' and 'AI segmentation', while a high-resolution front-facing 32MP sensor means better selfies should be on the cards, compared to the 12MP snapper from previous models.

Battery details look familiar too, with 65W HyperCharge once more, supporting a huge 6,000mAh battery. Asus confirmed to TechRadar that the phone is USB PD 3.0 & PPS compliant, meaning you don't have to rely on proprietary cables to get the fastest speeded when charging the ROG Phone 7.

Asus ROG Phone 7: specs and features

The main upgrade is, obviously, the chipset, which bumps this generation of ROG Phone up from a Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 to Qualcomm's latest and greatest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC, bolstered by Asus' own X Mode, which can balance performance and power consumption, and even includes tailored optimization for specific games.

The AeroActive Cooler accessory (sold separately with the ROG Phone 7 but included in-box with the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate) also makes for a nice improvement over the AeroActive Cooler 6 that came with the 6D Ultimate.

Like before, it pushes cool air across the body of the ROG Phone to reduce temperature under load, making for longer gaming sessions and greater efficiency.

As well as a revised fan design that allows for more efficient cooling, there's also an additional duct compared to last year's AeroActive Cooler that directs air across the front of the phone at the same time and – in what is perhaps the wildest addition to a gaming accessory – this year's Cooler also boasts a '5-magnet super-linear' subwoofer that promises 77% greater bass performance, while also working in tandem with the phone's improved forward-firing stereo speakers to create a 2.1 channel audio system.

Of course, for those that want a more personal audio experience in order to reap the benefits of some Dirac tuning, the ROG Phone 7 line also sports a 3.5mm headphone jack, accepts audio over USB and includes a number of wireless audio standards over its Bluetooth 5.3 connection, including Qualcomm aptX adaptive and lossless, as well as wireless Hi-Res Audio.

Asus finally unveiled its latest compact champion, the Asus Zenfone 10, on June 29, with the device vying for a spot on our list of the best small phones.

Its predecessor, the Asus Zenfone 9, was a competent handset that we felt suffered from an unreasonably high price, but the Asus Zenfone 10 looks to have rectified some of those shortcomings by offering top-end performance at a similar cost.

In this guide, we detail everything you need to know about the Asus Zenfone 10, from its price and availability to confirmed features and specs. We'll be publishing our review of the phone very soon, so stay tuned for our verdict.

Cut to the chase

• What is it? The latest model in the Zenfone line
• When it is out? June 29
• How much will it cost? £749.99 / €799 starting price

Asus Zenfone 10: launch date and price

Asus lifted the lid on the Asus Zenfone 10 on June 29, confirming that the phone was available to pre-order from that date through July 31.

It's now shipping in the UK, US and Europe, though we don't yet have an Australian release date.

The Zenfone 10 starts at $699 / £749.99 / €799, which is the same starting price as the Zenfone 9. We haven’t had confirmation of pricing in Australia just yet, but judging by that European starting price, we’re confident that Asus will stick with a figure around the AU$1,210 mark.

Asus Zenfone 10: features

Leading the charge on the features front is a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset – which is the same processor you’ll find inside many of the best Android phones, including the Samsung Galaxy S23 and Xiaomi 13 – and the Zenfone 10 pairs that superior power with more internal storage (up to 512GB) this time around.

The Zenfone 10 ships with up to 16GB LPDDR5X RAM, and battery life is up 13% over the Zenfone 9, despite the newer phone using the same 4,300mAh power pack. The Zenfone 10 boasts wireless charging capabilities, too, where the Zenfone 9 doesn't.

In terms of its design, the Zenfone 10 sticks with its predecessor’s 5.9-inch AMOLED display, and the device weighs a comparable 172g, making it one of the smallest and lightest flagships to hit the market in 2023. It’s worth noting that several rumors had hinted at a 6.3-inch display for the Zenfone 10, so it’s good to see that Asus has decided to roll the dice again on what is arguably the best feature of the Asus Zenfone 9.

The only real aesthetic differences between the Zenfone 10 and Zenfone 9 come in the form of re-shaped camera rings on the former, which, Asus says, have been adjusted to offer a “more distinct and discrete design” on the newer phone. There’s a new color option, too: Aurora Green.

There are still only two rear cameras on the Zenfone 10, one of which is the same Sony IMX766 50MP sensor as seen on last year's model. However, the Zenfone 9’s 12MP ultra-wide camera has been upgraded to a 13MP ultra-wide on the Zenfone 10, and the former’s 12MP selfie snapper is now a 32MP front-facing camera.

The Zenfone 10 also offers a new adaptive EIS function alongside Asus' usual HyperSteady mode, with AI Object Sense and HyperClarity – which ensures detail preservation at high magnification – among the other new photographic additions. Oh, and you’ll also now get an extra 2x magnification Portrait Mode.

Two-minute review

If you thought Asus was done launching flagship gaming phones in 2022 after the excellent ROG Phone 6 was announced just two months ago – think again. The ROG Phone 6D and 6D Ultimate supplement the current line with MediaTek power, a mechanical air vent, and even a Batman Edition.

Very similar to the 6 and 6 Ultimate, the 6D series features a virtually identical design, except for the fact it now ships in a gunmetal grey. In its Ultimate edition,
the 6D also sports a flap around the back that raises when you hook up the AeroActive Cooler fan for improved airflow and heat management.

Advanced cooling may only be reserved for the Ultimate edition, but both the ROG Phone 6D and 6D Ultimate get a color screen around the back and are powered by MediaTek's new Dimensity 9000 Plus chipset.

The first time we've seen a mainstream smartphone maker pick MediaTek for a flagship experience in the West, the Dimensity 9000 Plus has big shoes to fill. After all, the ROG Phone 6 introduced the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 to the market – now the gold standard for Android performance.

Thankfully, in our time with the ROG Phone 6D Ultimate, MediaTek's chip performed incredibly well. And that winning impression was helped along by the phone's huge 6,000mAh battery and ample 512GB storage.

The ROG Phone 6D series has the same camera whether you get the vanilla version or the Ultimate, and it's the same camera mix introduced in the ROG Phone 6. That means it's good enough, but isn't best-in-class, especially in the Ultimate, which costs £1,199 (roughly $1,370 / AU$2,040).

The phone also misses out on wireless charging and has a relatively low-resolution Full HD+ screen. That said, those last two omissions make sense on a gaming phone. After all – wireless charging crams the chassis with more elements, which isn't great for heat management, and games are output in 1080p for Android, so the resolution is actually well-optimized for gamers.

And so, just as the ROG Phone 6 was the best gaming phone we'd tested, the ROG Phone 6D and 6D Ultimate are more of the same, with the 6D being a bit more affordable, and the 6D Ultimate being a bit pricier (and cooler).

Asus ROG Phone 6D Ultimate price and release date

• 6D and 6D Ultimate won't launch in US
• Entry-level 6D available in UK from £799
• 6D Ultimate available in UK from £1,199 w/ AeroActive cooler

The Asus ROG Phone 6D won't be available in the US, though has been confirmed for the UK and other regions. Pricing undercuts the original ROG Phone 6 in its base capacity. While the ROG Phone 6 launched at £899 (roughly $1,023 / AU$1,530) for the standard version with 256GB storage and 12GB RAM, the 6D costs £799 (roughly $910 / AU$1,360). 

In its most premium, ROG Phone 6D Ultimate guise, however, you can expect to pay £1,199 (roughly $1,370 / AU$2,040), which is £100 more than the 6 Pro. It's the first time we can recall seeing a MediaTek version of a smartphone cost more than the Qualcomm option. That said, the price difference is more likely down to the 6D Ultimate's advanced cooling system, as opposed to the choice of chipset.

As for availability, pre-orders are open right now, and the phone will hit shelves at the end of October 2022.

This is the same pricing structure we've seen from Asus's ROG Phone line before – charging more than much of the gaming phone competition but delivering a superior user experience. The Red Magic 7s Pro starts at £669, in contrast, and is a fine option for anyone who doesn't mind a few rough edges. That said, Asus offers a much more refined software experience and a superior accessory suite.

• Value score: 4/5

Asus ROG Phone 6D Ultimate design

• Available in Space Grey
• New AeroActive Portal for advanced cooling
• Heavier than ROG Phone 6 Pro at 247g

While we wouldn't go so far as to call the ROG Phone 6D understated, for a gaming phone, there's something quite restrained about its design. Sporting the same general shape and styling as the rest of the 6-series, it features a smooth, pearlesque, frosted glass back, and rounded metal sides. 

Unlike the ROG Phone 6, which was available in black or white, the 6D can be picked up in Space Grey, which is sort of a gunmetal grey, and it looks rich – a touch less standout than the white 6 Pro we reviewed. 

Measuring 173 x 77 x 10.3mm, the phone's is a tall, relatively narrow thing that's thicker than most smartphones, but doesn't quite feel unwieldy. At 247g, it's heavier than the 237g ROG Phone 6. For context, the iPhone 13 Pro Max and 14 Pro Max weigh 240g.

The curvy, frosty back and matte sides do make the ROG Phone 6D feel rich and alluring, but it is pretty slippery, so you'll want to put a case on as soon as you start using it. Luckily, in the box, you get a lightweight, hard plastic shell that protects the corners, adds a little extra grip, and works with the cooling fan. 

The ROG Phone's screen is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus, and while the phone doesn't sport IP68 water or dust resistance, it's IPX4 splash-resistant, even when the AeroActive Portal is open.

A flap on the back of the phone that mechanically rises when the fan's attached, the AeroActive Portal is inspired by the design of ROG gaming laptops. It features heat dissipation fins under the flap, and the other end of the vapor chamber is connected to the CPU. 

When the flap is open and the AeroActive Cooler fan is connected to the 6D Ultimate, Asus claims nearly one liter of cold air is blown into the fins per second, and by way of air ducts, directly cools the CPU and dissipates heat. Very cool stuff, and the flap even uses technology Asus developed for its Asus Zenfone series, with its flip-out camera.

Dotted around the curved metal frame of the ROG Phone 6D are more ports than we're used to seeing. In addition to the 3.5mm headphone jack, there's a second USB port on the side of the phone. This is for accessories – like the dock and fan – but it also makes for a comfortable charging option when gaming in landscape orientation. 

Asus doesn't install a pre-fitted screen protector on the ROG Phone 6D Ultimate, but does offer up an official option as a separate purchase. We had no issues with the in-display fingerprint scanner, and also set the phone's face unlock up to ensure we could get into it quickly.

It's worth dwelling on the OLED screen around the back of the ROG Phone 6 and 6D series. This is horizontal on the 6 Pro and 6D Ultimate models, and at an angle on the entry-level models.

More than just a flashy highlight for gamers, Asus adds some utility to the second screen. It can display your notification icons, and battery capacity while charging. The main purpose though is as a visual flourish, and the fact it can mirror the theme you're using on the 6D is excellent. We had our rear screen flashing up with the Streets of Rage 4 logo, and it was over the top in all the right ways.

• Design score: 4/5

Asus ROG Phone 6D Ultimate display

• 6.78-inch wide Full HD AMOLED display
• 2448 x 1080 resolution, 395ppi
• 165Hz refresh rate

The ROG Phone 6D has the same display as the 6, and that's no bad thing. It’s a 6.78-inch Samsung AMOLED screen with a 2448 x 1080 resolution. With a sky-high refresh rate of up to 165Hz, smoothness is in line with the best gaming phones on the block.

The ROG Phone 6D's 2448 x 1080 resolution may seem low for a smartphone that costs as much as it does, but it's on the money for a gaming phone. Most games are displayed in Full HD, and the lower resolution keeps frame rates nice and high. In turn, what you may lose in clarity, you make up for in motion smoothness, whether gaming, swiping through websites, or scrolling through social feeds. 

Asus has partnered with Samsung to create an excellent screen-quality experience on the ROG Phone 6D. Its colors are vibrant, perfect for gaming and watching movies on; and manual brightness is great indoors, going super-dark and climbing up to 800nits. In direct sunlight, you'll definitely want to activate high-brightness mode by turning on auto-brightness, and this peaks at 1200nits.

Asus loads up the display settings with plenty of viewing modes, including Natural, Cinematic and Standard– and you can also customize a personal color profile to suit your eyes.

• Display score: 4.5/5

Asus ROG Phone 6D Ultimate cameras

• 50MP camera features a Sony IMX 766 sensor
• 13MP ultra-wide camera
• 5MP macro camera

We had high hopes for the ROG Phone 6 camera when we tested it. After all, its main camera sensor was the same 50MP Sony IMX766 that spearheaded the Oppo Find X5 Pro's photography experience. 

We've seen this sensor on a few phones – though it's generally excelled when it's been matched with optical image stabilization (OIS). On the ROG Phone 6 line, however, none of the lenses are optically stabilized.

The phone packs three cameras around the back in total: the main 50MP, f/1.9 camera, an ultra-wide 13MP, f/2.2 camera, and a 5MP f/2 macro camera. Only the main camera packs autofocus, with the ultra-wide focusing from around a meter, and the macro camera focusing at 4cm.

That all isn't to say you can't grab good photos from the ROG Phone 6D. It picks up pleasingly shallow depth when photographing close-up objects, and shots taken in brilliant lighting are, unsurprisingly, rich in detail. 

Frustratingly, Asus overprocesses its images in auto mode, so photos are crammed with contrast. That said, it doesn't go to town on noise reduction, so dark areas captured in mixed-lighting environments look grainy when you pinch in. 

Many will like the ROG Phone 6D's punchy photos, however, if you really want to get the best from it on special occasions, you'll want to shoot in RAW and edit your pictures manually. It's also worth noting, that with no OIS, handshake creeps in to scupper your shots, so you'll want to keep the phone as steady as possible to give it the best chance of nabbing a great photo.

The phone's night mode is more impressive than its auto mode, interestingly, and it kicks in automatically when the lights drop, whether shooting on the primary or ultra-wide cameras. 

The ultra-wide camera shares similar weaknesses to the main camera, but they're a bit more pronounced when night mode isn't fired up. As for the macro camera, this is the weakest camera of the three. Most of the time, we were able to get better macro results by shooting with the main camera and cropping in. 

The ROG Phone 6D's 12MP selfie sensor is an IMX663, and its photo and video capture are among the most impressive aspects of the camera mix. While detail from the front camera isn't standout, it does a good job of capturing natural, flattering photos. 

Video from the ROG Phone 6D is captured at up to 8K resolution at 30fps, or 4K resolution at up to 120fps. Footage is well stabilized at up to 8K 30fps or 4K 60fps, and looks great in bright environments. Focus is swift too, and enthusiasts can fire up Pro video for more granular control over camera settings.

• Camera score: 3.5/5

Camera samples

Asus ROG Phone 6D Ultimate performance and specs

• MediaTek Dimensity 9000 Plus CPU
• Ultimate Edition: 16GB RAM and 256GB storage
• Runs cool even after an hour of gaming with fan

The Asus ROG Phone 6 introduced Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1, and the ROG Phone 6D introduces the MediaTek Dimensity 9000 Plus: the first flagship processor from MediaTek to feature in a top-tier device in the West. 

The MediaTek Dimensity 9000 Plus 5G is produced on a 4nm process, features an CPU clock speed of up to 3.2GHz and a Mali G710 MC10 GPU. It has 16GB RAM and 512GB storage – all top-tier numbers,

As with the ROG Phone 6, Asus has positioned the processor (the heat source) in the middle of the phone for the 6D, which is why the 6D Ultimate's AeroActive Portal is in the center of the phone. 

Putting the processor and cooling system in the centre of the phone does a few neat things: it moves the heat further away from your hands, especially when playing in landscape orientation. It also moves it further from two sides of the metal frame (heat conductors) and positions it exactly under the included fan accessory.

We already appreciated how cool the Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro ran, but the 6D Ultimate runs even cooler. Using the AeroActive Cooler fan, we were able to play an hour of Genshin Impact at maximum graphics settings while keeping the temperature below 40 degrees.

We also gamed with the phone using the Kunai 3 gamepad, which we were easily able to map the buttons on-screen, even for touch titles like Genshin Impact. The AeroActive Cooler also has four shoulder buttons too, making for a really customizable gaming experience.

It isn't just heat that's managed well by the ROG Phone 6D. We were able to stream games super-smoothly using Asus's WiFi and cellular aggregating feature. Where we tested, our 5G speeds actually outperform our WiFi speeds, so using both meant we got excellent results while streaming Nvidia's GeForce Now, or Xbox Game Pass.

• Performance score: 4/5

Asus ROG Phone 6D Ultimate software

• Runs Android 12 with Asus's gamer-centric UI
• Armory Crate aggregates games library and settings
• Game Genie features loads of in-game tools

Asus's ROG Phone 6D Ultimate runs with Android 12, and games and apps are widely available through the Google Play Store. 

The whole interface is gaming-themed, and when you squeeze the sides of the phone, the ROG Phone's performance mode – X-Mode – activates; complete with a wallpaper change.

This over-the-top interface won't be for everyone, but for gamers and geeks, the ROG Phone's 6D's UI shines, loaded up with motion wallpapers and lock screens. That being said, if you want to dial things back, you can activate a much more stock mode. This gives you access to all the apps and features you'll need from your gaming phone, but with a much more conservative look and feel.

Put the phone in a traditional case, and when the dialed-back theme is active, you wouldn't be able to tell the ROG Phone 6D is a gaming phone. 

It's a shame the phone doesn't support multiple user profiles. With the 512GB inside the Ultimate Edition, there's plenty of room, and it could have been a great tool for a parent or spouse who wants to add extra users while keeping their data private. 

The best software enhancements on the ROG Phone 6 series come in the form of Armory Crate and Game Genie. The first, Armory Crate, is where you can find your games, control your official accessories, find new high-refresh-rate titles, and access the ROG community and your own profile. 

This is also where you can control the OLED screen around the back of the phone, and open the AeroActive Portal for cleaning.

Game Genie is Asus's in-game software that supports game-specific profiles, be they mapped keys, macros, or setting crosshairs – and that's just scratching the surface.

We used Game Genie to map keys for our various controllers, converting non-controller optimized games, and playing them back on our TV, plugged in via an HDMI adapter.

• Software score: 4.5/5

Asus ROG Phone 6D Ultimate battery life

• Large 6,000mAh battery
• Fast 65W charging
• No wireless charging

Just like the ROG Phone 5 and ROG Phone 6, the 6D and 6D Ultimate get 6,000mAh batteries, and we couldn't be happier. Unsurprisingly, the phone lasts a full day with regular use, and up to two if you're conservative. But it's when you plug in the accessories that battery life goes way down. 

With the fan fired up at maximum power, an hour of gaming drained the battery by over 30 percent. Add the Kunai Gamepad to the mix, and you can expect a couple of hours of gameplay in X Mode when tearing through a demanding title. 

Asus has included an optional, bypass-charging mode. This provides power to the system from the charger without actually powering up your battery, thereby reducing battery wear and managing heat just a bit better.

With 65W fast, wired charging, the ROG Phone 6 charges up by 18 percent in 10 minutes, 50 percent in 22 minutes, and 100 percent in under 50 minutes. The phone also ships with a fast charger in the box.

Don't expect wireless charging – the feature hasn't made it into any gaming phone just yet – though we live in hope. If the ROG Phone 6D Ultimate had a better camera and wireless charging, it would be one of the best phones around.

• Battery score: 4/5

Asus ROG Phone 6D Ultimate score card

Should I buy the Asus ROG Phone 6D Ultimate?

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• First reviewed September 2022

Two-minute review

It took a week of testing for this Asus Zenfone 9 review before we realized that our struggles to ‘get’ this phone stemmed from the device’s own identity issues.

The Zenfone 9 is a cheap phone playing dress-up as a premium one; it’s two middling phones standing on each others’ shoulders in a trench coat and pretending that they’re comparable to the Samsung Galaxy S22 or iPhone 14.

The phone simply shouldn’t cost as much as it does. Asus has given it a similar price to flagships from Samsung and Apple as well as the Xiaomi 12 and OnePlus 10 Pro, but the user experience just doesn’t justify this cost.

That’s most evident in the camera - there’s a 50MP main and 12MP ultra-wide, but no third lens like Samsung’s telephoto or Xiaomi’s telemacro in their respective flagships. This means the photography experience is more limited than it is in other phones at this price.

The chip is also an issue. Asus packs in the top-end Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1, which is great for things like gaming or video editing - in theory.

However, one of the Zenfone’s key features is its small size - that makes it easy to use one-handed, and truly pocket-sized… but when the display is this small, who’s going to be buying the phone for gaming anyway? The chip just doesn’t make any sense, and the phone would have been better off using a mid-range processor.

The phone is just ‘fine’ in many other aspects too - a statement that wouldn’t be as scathing if it wasn’t for the price. The battery life is fine, the display is fine, the front camera is fine. Fine, fine, fine - but not great.

This is a shame because on the surface, there are things to like about the phone. Its small form factor is fantastic for people who find modern phones too big, as you can easily reach all parts of the phone’s display, and pocket the device without trouble.

Too few brands are making small phones these days - possibly because too few people are buying them but there’s definitely a vocal audience for compact devices like this.

The phone also has some neat navigation tricks. You can double-tap the back of the phone or swipe up or down on the power button and you can map these shortcuts to certain tasks.

Plus, the phone has a 3.5mm headphone jack - how many premium phones have one of those nowadays? Not many!

With these pleasing features in mind, it’s hard not to be disappointed that the Asus Zenfone 9 has so many rough edges.

It’s not competitive in terms of price or specs and that makes it very hard to recommend, but people who desperately want a small phone might look past those issues - or consider waiting for the Asus Zenfone 10, which might fix them when it launches, probably around mid-2023.

Asus Zenfone 9 price and availability

The Asus Zenfone 9 costs $699 / £699 / AU$1,199 for the 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage model, and $799 / £749 (around AU$1,300) for 16GB/256GB.

For context, the Samsung Galaxy S22 starts at $799 / £769 / AU$1,249 and the base iPhone 14 goes for $799 / £849 / AU$1,399, and Asus fits into the same rough price category as them which makes comparisons natural, though it slightly undercuts both.

However, it costs a lot more than the $599 / £599 / AU$999 Google Pixel 7, which is a newer and higher profile - if slightly less powerful - phone.

The iPhone 13 mini is a worthwhile comparison point too, as it's a bit older but similarly powerful and compact, and starts at $599 / £649 / AU$1,049, so it's slightly cheaper despite coming from Apple.

The Zenfone 9 launched at the end of July 2022 - quite late compared to the May 2021 launch date of the Zenfone 8, and it didn't land in the US or Australia until even later.

• Value score: 2.5/5

Asus Zenfone 9 design

The Asus Zenfone 9 would look like a by-the-numbers ‘chocolate-bar’ style smartphone if it wasn’t quite petite - it’s smaller than most other Android phones on the market.

This makes it very comfortable to use with one hand, at least compared to some of the other mega-mobiles you get at the same price.

The phone has a USB-C port, as well as the 3.5mm headphone jack - wired audio fans will be impressed. On the right edge, there’s a volume rocker and side-mounted fingerprint scanner - this is fairly quick and easy to use, working 9 times out of 10, which is better than some phones.

One distinctive feature is the massive rear camera array, with each of the two lenses getting its own huge circular bump.

The Zenfone isn’t clad in glass, like many similar-priced phones, but instead has a plastic case. However, it feels hardy and has a textured grip so it’s easy to hold. It comes in four colors - we tested the black one, but there’s also red, blue and white.

The phone has an IP68 rating against water and dust, so it should survive a drop in water or in the dirt.

• Design score: 3.5/5

Asus Zenfone 9 display

Like we said, the Asus Zenfone 9 is small - its display clocks in at 5.9 inches, making it one of the only Android phones launched in 2022 with a screen size below 6 inches.

Specs-wise, it has a FHD+ display, 1100nits max brightness and 120Hz refresh rate - that’s more or less what you’d expect for the price, though there are a few handsets at this price with a higher resolution.

We called the display ‘fine’ before, and it’s hard to think of a more descriptive word than that. It does what you need it to, with a resolution that matches most apps’ outputs and a refresh rate that makes motion look smooth, but it doesn’t do anything better than any other phone.

• Display score: 3.5/5

Asus Zenfone 9 cameras

With two rear cameras, the Asus Zenfone 9 just can’t compete with many similarly-priced phones.

The main snapper is a 50MP one using the Sony IMX766 sensor - we’ve previously been impressed by the low-light capabilities of this component, and it performs well here. 

If we have a slight issue, it’s that some images looked flat, while others looked oversaturated and too vibrant - it seems the AI processing can get confused.

The other camera is a 12MP ultra-wide snapper with a 113-degree field of view. This works about as well as most shorter-focal-length lenses do, with minimal (though sometimes apparent) edge distortion.

There’s no zoom camera, despite many same-price rivals having one, which means that if you want to get closer to a subject, you have to use digital zoom or cropping. This rarely looks great and quickly results in grainy images if you zoom too far.

However, the biggest issue with the camera is that it often took a while to actually capture an image after pressing the shutter button. We took many blurry shots while lowering the phone before we noticed this issue, so make sure your photo has actually been taken before you move your hand.

It's not clear if this is a bug, or whether the phone has a startlingly slow shutter speed, but we're assuming it's the former.

On the front, there’s a 12MP selfie camera and this performed fine, taking pictures with sufficient detail and light. It performed pretty well in low-light conditions too, though Portrait mode brought quite a bit of inaccurate artificial background blur.

When it comes to video, the phone supports recording of up to 4K and 60fps, which many phones support, but we were pleasantly surprised to see a Pro Video mode, something only a select few devices have.

This is like Pro Photo, but lets you change the shutter speed, ISO, white balance and more for video recording, giving you lots of versatility in the movies you shoot.

There are a few other modes beyond that but nothing unique; staples like light trails, slow-mo, panorama and time-lapse are all available here.

• Design score: 3/5

Camera samples

Asus Zenfone 9 performance and specs

When we heard about the Asus Zenfone 9’s processor, shortly after hearing about its screen size, we couldn’t help but ask “why?”.

The handset uses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chipset. This is the most powerful chip Android phones are using right now, which really lends itself to intensive processes like gaming or video editing… but it doesn’t really matter here.

With a 5.9-inch screen, you’re not buying the Zenfone for gaming. Sure, it’s powerful, but there’s just not enough useful screen space - when you’ve got your hands in position you’re basically covering half of the screen and can barely see any of the action. Similarly, the screen makes editing video too imprecise to be worth it.

So the power is unnecessary; there’s also the issue that Qualcomm’s 8-series chipsets overheat easily, even when you’re not doing an intensive process.

It would’ve been better for the phone to have one of Qualcomm’s 7-series chipsets, which provide enough power for most circumstances, and don’t turn into infernos at the drop of a hat.

The phone also has a 16GB RAM option, which is ludicrous even on Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra-sized giants, let alone on this toddler of a mobile. That’s paired with 256GB storage, though you might find the 8GB/128GB version is good enough for you.

• Performance score: 4.5/5

Asus Zenfone 9 software

The Asus Zenfone 9 uses stock Android 12 without many Asus tweaks to it, so you have a nice clean experience with Google’s baked-in apps and the customization benefits of this version of Android.

There are two changes we noticed from stock Android. The first one is basic, and it’s that the default wallpaper is an Asus one, instead of one of Android’s options. The second is a gaming mode that pops up when you play a game, letting you fiddle with settings and mute notifications.

As mentioned above, Asus has introduced two cool navigation options to get you around the phone with ease. One is the ability to double-tap twice on the back of the phone, and the other is to swipe up or down on the side-mounted fingerprint scanner.

You can map these tools, meaning you can choose what they do. We used the swipe for the Notification Shade and the double-tap for opening the camera. However, we soon disabled the double-tap, as it would repeatedly trigger it in our pocket. The scanner swipe is useful though.

• Software score: 4/5

Asus Zenfone 9 battery life

While the Zenfone’s 4,300mAh battery would seem on the small side for most phones, thanks to its petite display that’s not really an issue here.

That doesn’t mean the Asus’ battery life is good, it’s decidedly average. The phone lasted for a full day of use most of the time, and only struggled through intensive use - saying that, it couldn’t be counted on to last into a second day.

That’s basically average for a smartphone but Asus claimed in our briefing that the phone would last for “1.9 days,” which is clearly not true.

Charging happens at 30W, which is admittedly a little on the slow side for a flagship phone, but Apple and Samsung haven’t really embraced fast charging either so we can’t be too miffed. That does mean this is an overnight-charging phone though.

Asus has a few battery health features to ensure you don’t overcharge too much, including one that lets you set the time the phone should be fully powered by each morning. Techniques like this ensure the phone will last longer before the battery health falls away.

• Battery score: 3/5

Asus Zenfone 9 score card

Should I buy the Asus Zenfone 9?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Also consider

• First reviewed July 2022

If you're looking to buy a small phone, one of the only companies that really services you is Apple, with devices like its iPhone 13 mini giving you lots of power in a compact body.

But it sounds like one of the few other names on the scene is gearing up to launch another product: the Asus Zenfone 9, which we've already heard a few leaks about, has been confirmed for a July 28 launch date.

The launch is due to take place at 6am PT / 9am ET / 2pm BST / 9am ACT, at simultaneous events in New York, Berlin and Taipei.

This is likely to be a pretty mini phone - not only did an early leak say it'd have a 5.9-inch screen, but we can literally see it in someone's hand in the above teaser image, and it's clearly not a massive mobile.

The above image seems to tease some functions of the phone - there's a camera, a games console, a loudspeaker, a telescope, some more things that we really can't place. There's no front-facing camera in some of the images that Asus has shared, like the above one, but in others it is present - so don't expect an under-display camera (UDC).

We'll bring you more information on this phone as it comes out, particularly around the July 28 launch.

Analysis: taking over from Apple

While Apple is currently the key player in the small-phone space, that likely isn't going to last for much longer.

Rumors point to the iPhone 14 not coming with a mini version, marking the end of Apple's jaunt with compact phones (other than its SE devices).

If that turns out to be true, fans of small devices will have to look elsewhere - and that's going to be a challenge, because very, very few phone makers opt to make sub-6-inch devices.

Asus will likely be one of the few brands catering to that need, so the Zenfone 9 could prove to be very popular - maybe it'll hit our list of the best smartphones.

Via GSMArena

Two-minute review

Do you even need a gaming phone when handsets like the iPhone 13 Pro Max or Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra are such capable pocket powerhouses? Asus thinks so, and the ROG Phone 6 is its latest attempt at giving you a smartphone by daylight, and handheld console by neon lights of your RGB-lit den. 

If you're not a gamer, then the ROG Phone 6 isn't for you. It's that simple. Starting with its design, this phone looks like it could transform into a tiny robot and take over the world; you'll probably either love it or hate it. We love it.

Both the ROG Phone 6 and 6 Pro get a color screen around the back, a feature that was previously reserved for the Pro version. Also new, the ROG Phone 6 is available in both black and white – the latter looking particularly sleek when matched with the new selection of off-white accessories. 

Given that the phone also sounds good and lasts a full day without a midday charge – thanks to its huge 6000mAh battery – it's safe to say our general impression of the ROG Phone 6 has been an excellent one. That said, it isn't perfect.

While gaming phone cameras are usually mediocre to bad, the ROG Phone 6's is just good enough. This phone is pricey, so it's natural for us to expect a little more – possibly OIS on the main lens, a bit of telephoto reach or a wide/macro camera with autofocus.

The phone also misses out on wireless charging, which is becoming more ubiquitous, and is something of a must in the ROG Phone 6's price bracket.

Despite those quibbles, the ROG Phone 6 is still the very best gaming phone you can buy. While it costs more than the Poco F4 GT, it's more powerful and features a richer accessory suite. The Red Magic 7 and 7 Pro are also cheaper alternatives but lack the polish Asus brings to the table.

Asus ROG Phone 6: price and availability

• Starts at £899 (US price TBC)
• Available in three versions
• Regional availability TBC

The Asus ROG Phone price ranges from high to eye-watering, starting at £899 for the standard version with 256GB storage and 12GB RAM. Alternatively, for £999, you can pick up the phone with 512GB storage and 16GB RAM. If you want to spend even more, the Pro version, which also has 512GB storage, but takes the RAM up to 18GB, – and adds an LED light on the back – costs £1,199. US pricing will be confirmed imminently, so we'll update this as soon as Asus announces it. 

This is the same pricing structure we've seen from Asus's ROG Phone line before – charging more than much of the gaming phone competition but delivering a superior user experience. The Red Magic 7 starts at £529, in contrast, and is a great option for anyone who doesn't mind a few rough edges. That said, Asus offers more storage at the ROG Phone 6's starting capacity and a much more refined software experience. 

We know the phone's coming to the UK and will be available from Asus's online store. Other regions and retailers are yet to be confirmed. 

• Value score: 4/5

Asus ROG Phone 6: design

• Striking gaming phone look
• Available in two styles
• Excellent accessory support

As far as gaming phones go, the ROG Phone 6 is one of the more elegant options around with its curved, smooth, pearlesque, frosted glass back, and its rounded metal sides. If you close your eyes while holding it, despite being big, it's still a comfortable, premium smartphone – nothing too standout. Open your eyes though, and you'll be sucked into a world of RGB lighting, second-screen action, and Stargate-style glyphs. 

Measuring 173 x 77 x 10.3mm, the ROG Phone 6 is a tall, relatively narrow thing that's thicker than most smartphones, but doesn't quite feel unwieldy. At 239g, it's one of the heaviest phones on the scene, with the iPhone 13 Pro Max weighing just one gram more at 240g.

The curvy, frosty back and matte sides do make the ROG Phone 6 feel rich and alluring, but it is pretty slippery, so you'll want to put a case on as soon as you start using it. Luckily, in the box, you get a lightweight, hard plastic shell that protects the corners and adds a little extra grip. 

The ROG Phone's screen is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus, and while the phone doesn't sport IP68 water or dust resistance, it's the first gaming phone with IPX4 splash-resistant certification. As for color options, the standard ROG Phone 6 is available in Phantom Black and Storm White, while the 6 Pro is available exclusively in Storm White.

Dotted around the curved metal frame of the ROG Phone 6 are more ports than we're used to seeing. In addition to the 3.5mm headphone jack – a unicorn by today's high-end smartphone standards – there's a second USB port on the side of the phone. This is for accessories, like the dock and fan, but also makes for a comfortable charging option when gaming in landscape orientation. 

Asus doesn't install a pre-fitted screen protector on the phone, but does offer up an official option as a separate purchase. We had no issues with the in-display fingerprint scanner, and also set the phone's face unlock up to ensure we could get into it quickly.

The most standout design highlight of the ROG Phone 6 is definitely on the back. Sprinkled among a bunch of etchings and visual flourishes – as well as a confident, angular camera bump – is an OLED screen. This is horizontal on the Pro model, pictured above, and pitched at an angle on the standard ROG Phone 6.

More than just a flashy highlight for gamers, Asus adds some utility to the second screen. It can display your notification icons, and battery capacity while charging. Really though, who are we kidding? This thing is totally unnecessary – pure indulgence and we're more than okay with that. 

• Design score: 4.5/5

Asus ROG Phone 6: display

• Custom Samsung AMOLED display tech
• Tall and smooth with a 165Hz refresh rate
• Wide, Full HD resolution

For the most part, the ROG Phone 6 has the same display as its predecessor. That means it’s a 6.78-inch Samsung AMOLED display with a 2448 x 1080 resolution. It's improved in one key area though: refresh rate. While the ROG Phone 5 had a 144Hz refresh rate, the ROG Phone 6 climbs up to 165, bringing it in line with the best gaming phones around.

The ROG Phone 6's humble 2448 x 1080 resolution is low for a smartphone that costs as much as it does, but it's on the money for a gaming phone. Most games are displayed in Full HD, and the lower resolution keeps frame rates nice and high. In turn, what you may lose in clarity, you make up for in motion smoothness, whether gaming, swiping through websites, or scrolling through social feeds. 

Samsung and Asus have teamed up once again to create an excellent screen-quality experience on the ROG Phone 6. Colors are vibrant, perfect for gaming and watching movies on; and manual brightness is great indoors, going super-dark and climbing up to 800 nits. In direct sunlight, you'll definitely want to activate high-brightness mode by turning on auto-brightness. Otherwise, you might struggle to see very much.

Asus loads up the display settings with plenty of viewing modes, including Natural. Cinematic and Standard,– and you can also customize a personal color profile to suit your eyes.

• Display score: 4.5/5

Asus ROG Phone 6: cameras

• 50MP primary camera with IMX766 sensor
• Up to 8K 30fps and 4K 120fps video recording
• Mediocre secondary camera mix

We always curb our expectations when testing out gaming phone cameras, but were delighted to discover the ROG Phone 6 features the same 50MP camera sensor as the Oppo Find X5 Pro: a Sony IMX 766. We've seen this on a few phones – though it's always been matched with a lens featuring optical image stabilization (OIS). On the ROG Phone, however, none of the lenses are optically stabilized.

The phone packs three cameras around the back in total: the main 50MP, f/1.9 camera, an ultra-wide 13MP, f/2.2 camera, and a 5MP f/2 macro camera. Only the main camera packs autofocus, with the ultra-wide focusing at around a meter, and the macro camera focusing at 4cm.

Out of the gate, we were able to grab some decent photos with the ROG Phone 6. Asus's processing is a bit heavy-handed, so photos are crammed with contrast – but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Many will like the very shareable veneer of ROG Phone's photos, especially those shot in well-lit scenes. The shift from a 64MP Samsung sensor to a lower-resolution – but larger – 50MP Sony sensor has definitely paid off for Asus.

The phone's night mode is also impressive at grabbing a bit of extra detail with a long exposure. The best thing about it is that it kicks in automatically when the lights drop, so you don't need to activate it, whether shooting on the primary or ultra-wide cameras. 

The worst photos we took on the ROG Phone 6 were those taken with a shaky hand or in semi-well-lit environments, that cusp between activating night mode and utilizing the short shutter speed with just enough light. This is where OIS would have really helped things along.

The ultra-wide camera shares a similar weakness, but it's a bit more pronounced when night mode isn't fired up. As for the macro camera, this is the weakest camera of the three. Most of the time, we were able to get better macro results by shooting with the main camera and cropping in. 

The ROG Phone 6's selfie camera and video capture are among the most impressive aspects of the camera mix. While detail from the front camera isn't standout, it does a good job of capturing natural, flattering photos. Meanwhile, video is captured at up to 8K resolution at 30fps, or 4K resolution at up to 120fps. 

Video is well stabilized at up to 8K 30fps or 4K 60fps, and looks great in bright environments. Focus is swift too, and enthusiasts can fire up Pro video for more granular control over camera settings. A couple of features missing from the ROG Phone that we're seeing on more camera phones are LOG mode and 21:9 capture. Maybe next time, Asus?  

• Camera score: 3.5/5

Camera samples

Asus ROG Phone 6: performance and specs

• Powerful Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset
• 256GB or 512GB storage
• Stays cooler than much of the competition

The Asus ROG Phone 6 introduces Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, a higher-clocked version of the 8 Gen 1 found in flagships like the Sony Xperia 1 IV and Xiaomi 12 Pro. 

While the original 8 Gen 1 has become known for getting hot under pressure, Asus has done a lot to help the ROG Phone 6 keep its cool, despite its mightier iteration of Qualcomm's processor. 

Asus has repositioned the processor (the heat source) to the middle of the phone. This does a few neat things: it moves the heat further away from your hands, especially when playing in landscape orientation. It also moves it further from the metal frame (a heat conductor) and positions it exactly under the optional fan accessory. We were dubious at first, given the fact that it has no ventilation channels, but have been impressed with the ROG Phone 6's heat management during our time with it.

Hours of playing emulators and low-stress games like Streets of Rage and Final Fantasy IX didn't heat the phone up at all, and it took about half an hour playing Genshin Impact on maxed-out graphics settings before we really started to notice things get close to hot at those points where our hands held the phone.

What heated the phone up more than gaming was 5G downloads, with a 13GB download heating the ROG Phone up to about 42º C; 20 minutes of gaming only heated it to 40º C. 

About 10 minutes with the AeroActive Cooling Fan dropped the temperature by 3ºC, and if we started playing with it plugged in, the phone stayed relatively cool – so we used it specifically for graphically intensive titles.

It isn't just heat that's managed well by the ROG Phone. We were able to stream games super-smoothly using Asus's WiFi and cellular aggregating feature. Where we live, our 5G speeds actually outperform our WiFi speeds, so using both meant we got excellent results while streaming Ghost Runner through Nvidia's GeForce Now, or playing back Dragon Ball Fighter Z on Xbox Game Pass.

• Performance score: 5/5

Asus ROG Phone 6: software

• Runs Android 12 with Asus's Zen UI
• Optional non-gaming UI available
• Game Genie software great for gaming

Asus's ROG Phone 6 runs with Android 12, and games and apps are widely available through the Google Play Store. Out of the box, while you shouldn't expect any pre-loaded games, you should expect big-gamer energy. The whole interface is gaming-themed, and when you squeeze the sides of the phone, its performance mode, called X-Mode, activates, complete with a wallpaper change.

While we're normally in favor of more stock interfaces, the spirit of gaming gear is often celebrating excess – maximalism for the win. With that attitude, the ROG Phone's UI shines, loaded up with motion wallpapers and lock screens. That being said, if you want to dial things back, you can activate a much more stock mode. This gives you access to all the apps and features you'll need from your gaming phone, but with a much more conservative look and feel.

However, the best software enhancements on the ROG Phone 6 come in the form of Armory Crate and Game Genie. The first, Armory Crate, is where you can find your games, control your official accessories, find new high-refresh-rate titles, access the ROG community and your own profile.

Game Genie is Asus's in-game software. There's virtually no end to what you can do with it – but the crux of the functionality comes down to creating game-specific profiles, be they mapped keys, macros, or setting crosshairs – and that's just scratching the surface.

We used Game Genie to map keys for our various controllers, converting non-controller optimized games, and playing them back on our TV, plugged in via an HDMI adapter. 

While non-gamers and folks who don't want a gaming phone might find the whole ROG Phone experience overkill, the fact it can all be dialed up or down means if you're prepared to invest in making the phone your own, the payoff will be sweet.

• Software score: 4.5/5

Asus ROG Phone 6: battery life

• High-capacity 6,000mAh battery
• Fast 65W charging
• Accessories drain battery fast

Another year, another 6,000mAh ROG Phone, and we couldn't be happier Asus didn't shave down the capacity. Unsurprisingly, the phone lasts a very long time, dropping 80 percent in around 16 hours with the screen on, doing automated tasks like web browsing and basic photo and video editing. 

Plug in some accessories and this number goes way down. With the fan fired up and the Kunai Gamepad physically plugged into the phone, expect a few hours of gameplay at most. 

Knowing you'll likely want to charge your ROG Phone 6 while playing games, Asus made an optional, bypass-charging mode available. This provides power to the system from the charger without actually powering up your battery, thereby reducing battery wear and managing heat just a bit better.

With 65W fast, wired charging, the ROG Phone 6 powers up in under 45 minutes – a perfectly respectable, though not class-leading, charging speed. The phone also ships with a charger in the box – bad for the planet, potentially good for your wallet. We've yet to see any gaming phone brands take Apple, Samsung, and Sony's route, zapping charging components from their smartphone boxes.

Something else gaming phones don't tend to feature is wireless charging, so its absence on the ROG Phone 6 is no surprise. That said, with the feature becoming more widespread, with any luck, that will change soon. 

• Battery score: 5/5

Asus ROG Phone 6 scorecard

Should I buy the Asus ROG Phone 6?

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Also consider

Now you've read this Asus ROG Phone 6 review, here are some other phones that might also interest you.

• First reviewed July 2022

Two-minute review

The Asus Zenfone 8 represents a paradigm shift for a flagship phone – not to higher prices and more features, but to greater affordability, with essential specs and strong cameras. It’s the kind of device phone brands like OnePlus used to release, and it’s just as welcome.

Greater affordability inevitably comes with compromises though, and the Zenfone 8 misses out on out the feature that made its predecessor stand out: its flip camera, which enabled the Zenfone 7 to take rear-facing and selfie photos with the same set of lenses.

You can still get this novel camera functionality, but only in a larger specialty version of the phone – the aptly-named Zenfone 8 Flip, which will be a limited release, cost more, and come in a single RAM and storage configuration. 

Asus is envisioning the Zenfone 8 to be the standard version of the phone, with high-end specs in a variety of configurations – a top-tier Snapdragon 888 chipset and up to 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage – at a very competitive price. That means consumers comparing the Zenfone 8 to other flagship phones will have to get on board with other compromises Asus has made – there are only two rear cameras (there’s no telephoto lens), and this is a smaller phone with an under-6-inch screen. 

Those two cameras are impressive enough – there’s a 64MP main shooter and 12MP ultrawide camera, and a front-facing camera in a punch-hole. As we’ve seen with previous Asus phones, these cameras perform well in good light, although they lag behind other flagship phones in low-light and night photography. 

As mentioned, Asus’ new flagship phone is a small device, with design considerations tailored to one-handed use that include a tall and narrow design and refined one-handed interface mode. Its size makes it something of a rarity among phones with flagship specs, rivaling the iPhone 12 mini and lower-specced Google Pixel 5 in what it offers. 

Otherwise the phone inherits a lot from its predecessor and other Asus phones, from the 120Hz screen refresh rate and ZenUI OS overlay to gaming modes and a 3.5mm headphone jack. And while its 4,000mAh battery capacity won’t turn heads, it’s still enough to keep the phone going through a day.

All in all, that makes the Zenfone 8 a compelling and powerful phone that’s smaller than a lot of the competition – which may suit some consumers more than others who want more screen area to watch media or play games. The Zenfone 8 Flip does have a bigger 6.67-inch display, plus the aforementioned flip camera capability, although as mentioned it costs more, and availability is limited. 

Zenfone 8 price and release date

The Zenfone 8 launched on May 12 and starts at €499, and has gone on sale on Asus' US store for $629, though it's already discounted down to the price we expected of $599 (around £425 / AU$769) for 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. You can bump that up to 256GB for $699 (around £505 / AU$929) in the US store, but it's not selling any variants with higher RAM. 

The Zenfone 8 is also available in configurations up to 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage for an expected $799 (around £565 / AU$1,025). The Zenfone 8 comes in two colors: a matte Obsidian Black and silver-framed, white-colored Horizon Silver.

The Zenfone 8 Flip will have a far more limited release, and Asus has confirmed that it won’t be coming out in the US. In Europe it will retail for €799, which is around $970 / £690 / AU$1,240). 

Those prices are similar to what we saw for the Zenfone 7 and Zenfone 7 Pro, although the Zenfone 8 seems nominally cheaper than its predecessor, likely owing to its static camera and simpler design. That makes the Zenfone 8 a potentially tempting proposition, undercutting phones like the Google Pixel 5 and OnePlus 9 by around $100, and the Samsung Galaxy S21 by $200. While those phones have some advantages (notably their cameras), the Zenfone 8 does feature top specs at a very competitive price.

Design

The Zenfone 8’s design won’t turn many heads, but it packs those impressive specs into a compact package that’s more or less usable with one hand. These days, that’s novel – it’s not a phone for users who want more screen area to watch media or who need larger text, but for those who want a smaller handset the Zenfone 8 is one of the few options with flagship-level specs and finish.

There are few phones in this niche, with the Zenfone 8 (148 x 68.5 x 8.9mm) coming in at roughly the same size as the Google Pixel 5 (144.7 x 70.4 x 8mm) while the iPhone 12 mini (131.5 x 64.2 x 7.4mm) is noticeably shorter in length, narrower in width, and thinner than either. Compare that to phones like the Asus ROG Phone 5 (172.8 x 77.3 x 10.3mm), which is so wide and tall that it’s difficult to reach a thumb more than two-thirds of the way across its 6.8-inch display when holding the phone one-handed. 

The Zenfone 8 has a smooth matte glass back with a camera block in the upper-left corner, and rounded edges that curve into the aluminum frame, making for a solid and classy feel. While the phone is a little thick at nearly 9mm, the sides are wider towards the back and narrower toward the front glass, which makes it slightly easier to wrap your fingers around the phone. It’s easier to see this in our hands-on photos than it is for us to describe a bit tough to explain, but it’s a nice design consideration that encourages one-handed use.

The phone otherwise has a pretty standard design, with a volume rocker towards the top of the right edge and a metallic blue lock button below this. Gone is the thick lock button with built-in fingerprint sensor found on the Zenfone 7, as Asus has finally implemented an in-screen fingerprint sensor in the Zenfone 8. On the top of the handset are a microphone on the right and 3.5mm headphone jack, and on the bottom is a central USB-C port with a speaker to the right, a microphone to the left, and a SIM slot to the left of that (there’s no microSD capability). 

During our briefing, Asus took time to point out the phone’s two speakers – a 10 x 12mm one at the top and a larger 12 x 16mm one at the bottom that’s the same size as the speaker at the bottom of the Asus ROG Phone 5, though with a slightly smaller 1.0cc speaker box volume. It’s unfair to compare the two handsets, as the latter, larger phone has forward-firing speakers while the Zenfone 8 has one in the earpiece and the other firing out of the bottom for less evenly-distributed sound. Suffice it to say that the Zenfone 8’s speakers – tuned by Swedish audio company Dirac – put out a good volume, and we noticed more high and middle tones, although with some lows missing, compared to the sound from the Zenfone 7. 

Zenfone 8 vs Zenfone 8 Flip

Before we dive deeper into the Zenfone 8, let’s go over the differences between it and the Zenfone 8 Flip. The biggest one is, of course, the flip camera, which gives the Flip another telephoto lens and keeps the edge-to-edge front display clear of notches or punch-holes. 

While the Zenfone 8 Flip essentially retains the same cameras as in the Zenfone 7 lineup, its flipping mechanism does enable features beyond taking selfie photos or videos with the main suite of rear cameras – for example you can hold the phone in landscape and use the flip action to take an automatic panorama. It’s a bit gimmicky, but there’s no denying that selfies taken with rear-facing shooters are superior to those taken with front-facing cameras.

With its 6.67-inch display, the 8 Flip is noticeably larger than the Zenfone 8 with its 5.9-inch screen. But there is a curious difference in terms of the refresh rate, with the smaller Zenfone 8’s screen refreshing at 120Hz compared with the 8 Flip’s at 90Hz. It’s likely not enough for anyone to notice other than in a side-by-side comparison, but it’s still an interesting distinction, suggesting that the 8 Flip simply inherited the Zenfone 7’s screen and 90Hz refresh rate wholesale. Both the Zenfone 8 and 8 Flip have in-screen fingerprint sensors, however.

Both the Zenfone 8 and 8 Flip pack a Snapdragon 888 chipset but different specs: while the 8 Flip comes in one configuration – 8GB RAM and 256GB storage – the standard Zenfone 8 starts at 8GB RAM / 128GB, and caps out at 16GB RAM / 256GB. Neither phone offers expandable storage via microSD. 

Display

The Zenfone 8 has a 5.9-inch AMOLED display with a Full HD Plus (2400 x 1080) resolution. As we’ve mentioned, the screen features a 120Hz refresh rate for silky-smooth browsing, media viewing and gaming (for supported titles), as well as a 240Hz touch sampling rate that reads finger inputs 240 times per second for faster gaming inputs. 

Compared to other ‘small’ flagship phones, the Zenfone 8’s 5.9-inch screen has a very slightly smaller area than the 6-inch Google Pixel 5, but as the Zenfone 8’s display is longer and thinner, it doesn’t feel lacking. That’s far more display area than the 5.4-inch iPhone 12 mini (especially considering that phone’s notch), and about comparable to the 6.1-inch screens on the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro, though the Zenfone 8 is noticeably thinner than either Apple flagship.

You can dial the Zenfone 8’s 120Hz maximum refresh rate down to 90Hz or the standard 60Hz to save battery, although you can’t just switch this in Settings > Display as you might expect. Instead, you’ll have to head to Settings > Battery > System Mode and select one of five options that balance performance and battery life (hint: choose ‘Dynamic’ to let you pick which refresh rate you want in Display settings). It’s a well-intentioned setup to give users high-level overviews of what they want to prioritize, but it’s still frustrating if you just want to fiddle with settings one by one.

The 20:9 ratio display is tall and narrow, and while bigger thumbs might be able to stretch across its width when the phone is held one-handed, the top of the screen will be out of reach for everyone. The one-handed mode pushes everything on the screen down to the bottom half by default, but you can customize that ceiling to whichever height you’d prefer.

The on-screen picture quality is very good – it’s even sharper than the iPhone 12 Pro’s screen in a side-by-side video test, with good colors and brightness producing a picture that feels more true-to-life than the one on its predecessor, the Zenfone 7. 

While having a smaller display makes the Zenfone 8’s picture theoretically sharper than phone screens with identical resolutions (Full HD Plus), the color balance is a real differentiator between this phone and the competition, showing nuanced differences in hues between adjacent but not identically-colored elements where other phone displays would blend them together.

In a first for the Zenfone line (though beaten to the punch by the ROG line), the Zenfone 8 has an in-display fingerprint sensor that works accurately and very quickly. The phone can also be unlocked via facial recognition.

Cameras

The Zenfone 8 has two rear cameras (main and ultra-wide) and one 12MP front-facing camera in a punch-hole in the front screen. While its predecessor packed a telephoto lens (as does the Zenfone 8 Flip), the Zenfone 8 makes do without.

The 64MP f/1.8 main camera looks to be inherited intact from the Zenfone 7 Pro, down to its Sony IMX686 sensor and optical image stabilization, and likewise with the 12MP f/2.2 ultra-wide camera and its Sony IMX363 sensor.

Daylight photos look very respectable, with good clarity in well-lit shots and plenty of detail in up-close captures. Colors can look a little too vibrant though, and the cameras start to struggle in lower light, losing clarity in dusk and twilight shots. 

Performance

The Zenfone 8 packs the best specs you’ll find outside of a gaming phone, with a Snapdragon 888 processor, from 8GB to 16GB of RAM, and 128GB to 256GB of storage (although you can’t expand on this as there’s no microSD slot). 

The phone we tested was packing the maximum specs, and wasn’t slowed down by any tasks we put it through, from casual browsing to media binging to gaming. The phone averaged a Geekbench 5 score of 3508, which is far below the comparably-specced Asus ROG 5 Pro (3678) and the OnePlus 9 (3654), but above every phone released in 2020 except the iPhone 12 line. 

The Zenfone 8 comes running Android 11 out of the box, with the latest version of Google’s mobile OS featuring improved media controls, word prediction tools, and other features. The phone has Asus’ ZenUI overlay, a clean skin over the operating system that mainly adds the Game Genie skin (featuring a menu for in-game options like tweaking performance and muting notifications), as well as offering settings that are more granular than on many Android phones, including the aforementioned System Modes to balance battery life, display refresh rate, and other parameters.

Battery

The Zenfone 8 packs a 4,000mAh battery, which is enough to power it through the day, although screen-intensive activities like watching media and playing games will diminish the battery life at a quicker pace than on other phones. The various power-saving modes allow users to eke out more battery life by reducing brightness and screen refresh rate, turning off the always-on display, and managing other power-hungry settings.

There are also recharging settings inherited from the ROG 5, such as reducing the charging cap to 90% or 80% to prolong battery longevity, as well as scheduled charging to keep the battery at those caps while charging overnight – only topping it up to 100% right before a user’s wake-up alarm is scheduled to go off.

The phone comes with a 30W charger out of the box, which offers comparatively fast charging, although it’s not quite to the level of the 60W charger that comes with the Asus ROG 5. Still, the 30W charger juiced the phone up to 32% in 15 minutes, 58% in 30 minutes, and 70% in 45 minutes, and fully charged it in around an hour. Unfortunately, the Zenfone 8 doesn’t have wireless charging, like every previous Asus phone.

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

Two-minute review

The Asus ROG 5 is one of, if not the, best gaming phones out there. But it’s also one of the best phones for enjoying any type of media given its great display, extensive battery life and charging speed, and excellent speakers. There are some upgrades on its already-powerful predecessor - and they even found a way to get a 3.5mm jack back in.

The phone’s few shortcomings, like its limited camera suite, haven’t been radically improved to come to parity with standouts like the Samsung Galaxy S21 range. But they get fewer and fewer with every new ROG phone, and the Asus ROG Phone 5 has managed some quality-of-life advantages over other Android phones to the point that it’s competitive with non-gaming smartphones – so long as you don’t need the best camera smartphones.

Asus has also hit a nice balance in the visual design of the phones, which has dialed back its ‘gamer chic’ angled plastic in the earlier ROG phones to more modest lines racing across the back cover of the ROG 5. 

Where its predecessor the ROG 3 (there is no ROG 4; we explain why below) had a see-through window on the rear peering into the phone’s internals, the aesthetic tithe to ‘gamer expression’ in this ROG generation is a light-up panel on the back – which either illuminates a ROG logo or, in the pricier ROG 5 models, has a small OLED screen to display whatever you want.

Yes, the ROG 5 is the first Asus phone to have three models: the standard version, the Asus ROG 5 Pro, and the Asus ROG 5 Ultimate. The latter two have slightly  better specs and those small OLED displays on the rear cover to flex your gamer cred. They’re aesthetic upgrades, but also the only way to get one of the highest-performance gamer phones out there. To wit: the ROG 5 Ultimate packs 18GB of RAM.

What you actually get with so much RAM isn’t clear, and even Asus described it as more of a flex – a “mix of extravagance and ROG flair,” as a company spokesperson described it to TechRadar – than a noticeable upgrade while playing games, though they expect you’ll be able to keep more games and apps open at once. 

But even the baseline Asus ROG 5 packs refinements that should draw attention from mainstream Android users. Thanks to some rearranged internals, the phone recharges its 6,000mAh battery in under an hour with its 65W in-box charger. Its side USB-C port is easier to access than its predecessors to recharge while watching media or gaming. Its speakers are better than ever. And who doesn’t love a 3.5mm jack?

And that doesn’t even touch the peripherals. Did we I mention the new version of the AeroActive Cooler 5 fan (included in the box for Pro and Ultimate) has trigger buttons?

The ROG Phone 5 is the best version of the ROG phones yet, and while it might not convince consumers who need what it can’t provide – great zoom or low-light photography – it’s still a contender for a great all-around phone with powerhouse specs.

Asus ROG Phone 5 price and release date

The Asus ROG 5 was announced on March 10, 2021, with staggered availability for its three models. The standard version started availability in some regions later in March, the Asus ROG 5 Pro went on sale in April, and the Asus ROG 5 Ultimate will start being available in May – but only in limited numbers. While availability for all models may vary by region, the Ultimate will be sold everywhere, but will be in short supply.

The Asus ROG 5 is now on sale in the US, but only in a single configuration – the highest – 16GB RAM and 256GB of storage for $1,000, which is on sale on Asus' site.

A quick note on naming: yes, the Asus ROG 5 is the direct successor to the Asus ROG 3 released in 2020. The company decided to skip ‘ROG 4’ given some cultures’ reticence to the number four.

The Asus ROG 5 standard price starts at €799 (around $950 / £684 / AU$1,233) for 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, €899 (around $1,069 / £769 / AU$1,367) for 12GB RAM and 256GB storage, and €999 (around $1,188 / £855 / AU$1,541) for 16GB RAM and 256GB storage. 

The Asus ROG 5 Pro will cost €1,199 (around $1,426 / £1,027 / AU$1,849) for 16GB RAM and 512GB storage, putting it around the same price as the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra. The Asus ROG 5 Ultimate’s price tag will be €1,299 (around $1,545 / £1,112 / AU$2,004) for 18GB RAM and 512GB storage.

The Asus ROG 5 comes in black in most regions, although there is a white variant that looks a lot like the ROG 5 Ultimate (below) released in some areas. The Asus ROG 5 Pro comes in a single black hue with its programmable OLED screen on the back cover. The Asus ROG 5 Ultimate has its own white color with blue accents and monochrome OLED screen. 

Design

The Asus ROG Phone 5 has a largely similar design as its predecessor, the ROG 3: a black rectangle (or white, if you get the Ultimate version) with the buttons and ports in the same places. There are several improvements, of course – for instance, the back cover’s RGB-lit ROG icon is now filtered through blocks that make it look 8-bit – but most are less noticeable.

There’s a volume button rocker above a power button on the right side, with capacitive touch buttons on the extreme top and bottom edges of the right side that act as shoulder buttons. On the left side is the USB-C port that’s been in the ROG series since its inception, but this time around, instead of another cable port there’s a capacitive strip to connect to accessories. And since that’s shallower than a port, it makes the rubber plug (to keep out dust and sand) easier to pop out. 

That’s symbolic of the ROG 5’s small but noticeable quality-of-life improvements: the 6.78-inch display is slightly larger than the ROG 3’s thanks to smaller top and bottom bezels, more responsive shoulder buttons than in the ROG 3, and of course, the 3.5mm headphone jack. Don’t expect improved materials, though: the back cover is still plastic, with a bit of a cheaper feel than glass that we’d hold against Asus if this wasn’t a growing trend in flagship phones to cut costs (we see you, Samsung Galaxy S21).

(Just...put the phone in a case or secure the phone when setting it down. It will slide at the slightest incline. Trust us.)

A bigger change is the back cover’s design. Gone is the ROG 3’s cut-out window into the heat sink; there’s still a ROG logo on the standard ROG 5 (albeit with a blocky filter that makes it look retro 8-bit) that lights up in programmable patterns, much like gamer-chic light-up components inside a PC desktop build. In the Pro and Ultimate versions, the logo is swapped for a small (about 1-inch) OLED panel which can display a symbol or message of your choice.

While RGB and OLED panels certainly scream ‘gamer aesthetic,’ they’re a far cry from the first ROG phone which had such deep grooves zig-zagging across the back cover it looked like an incognito Decepticon. These flourishes were tamed over the ROG phone generations, and the minimal lines seen today are the culmination of a more mainstream look, with a geometric but rounded camera block at the top of the back cover. 

Other things haven’t changed from the ROG 3: for instance, the ultrasonic shoulder buttons haven’t shifted in placement or function (they still have , though we’re told there’s a greater density of sensors that are placed nearer to the edge, making them more responsive, at least in theory. In practice, we simply found the ROG 5’s shoulder buttons easier to use, map, and enjoy in gaming. 

The phone has four microphones placed equidistant around the phone – at the top, bottom, right side, and next to the camera block on the back – to pick up voice from most angles, no matter how the phone is held or what accessories are clamped on.

For our money, there’s one thing the ROG 5 does better than anyone else in the smartphone business: speakers. The dual 12x16mm front-facing speakers with Dirac HD sound are pretty spectacular, projecting overlapping layers of audio: if you set the ROG 5 down and walk around it, you’ll hear a far more balanced mix of sound from both speaker sources than any other phone (and especially those with single and/or bottom-firing speakers). There may be phones with more particular audio tuning – the iPhone 12 Pro, for instance, seemingly favors a mix that makes dialogue easier to hear at the expense of background noise – but the ROG 5’s sound can fill a room, and you won’t cover the speakers while you’re gaming.

That’s the broad design of the Asus ROG 5, but there are slight differences between the standard, Pro, and Ultimate versions – read on for those:

ROG 5 vs ROG 5 Pro vs ROG 5 Ultimate

By and large, the Pro and Ultimate versions don’t have much over the standard Asus ROG 5 aside from better specs and a couple design changes. If you want the best mobile gaming experience, you’ll need to pay for the pricier versions of the phone.

Specs-wise, the standard ROG 5 caps out at 16 RAM and 256GB storage. The Asus ROG 5 Pro comes in one configuration: 16GB RAM and 512GB storage. For the best specs in this generation, the Asus ROG 5 Ultimate has 18GB of RAM and 512GB storage. None of them can upgrade their physical storage, as there is no microSD slot. 

Design-wise, both of the pricier versions ditch the plastic rear cover for a classier glass back, and also drop the RGB panel for a small (around 1 inch) OLED screen that can display a customizable message or logo. 

The Pro and Ultimate have one more thing the standard version doesn’t: a pair of touch sensor strips on the back of the phone that operate like extra buttons. They’re long yet narrow, and honestly much more difficult to hit reliably than the ultrasonic shoulder buttons. They’re reachable with your ring or pinky fingers, just subtle to the touch, with little width or texture to guide your fingers. 

But otherwise, all three phones are identical: same display, same Snapdragon 888 chipset and Adreno 660 GPU, same 6,000mAh battery and 65W charger in the box. 

The differences in RAM do affect the phones’ benchmarks, but as for performance, we can only compare the standard ROG 5 we tested with 16GB RAM and the ROG 5 Ultimate with 18GB of RAM (we were not sent the ROG 5 Pro for review). Predictably, they performed nearly identically, though the standard version curiously performed better on a multi-core Geekbench 5 benchmark: 3732 for the ROG 5 standard versus 3678 for the ROG 5 Ultimate. At this level of RAM, 2GB is apparently negligible.

There’s a gaping hole here, of course: how do the 8GB of RAM and 12GB of RAM configurations’ gaming capabilities match up against the top-tier 16GB and 18GB phones we tested? Regrettably, we can’t answer that right now, but if and when we get our hands on a lower-spec phone, we’ll refresh this section. The least we can say is that the advantages of the pricier Pro and Ultimate versions seem to be wholly cosmetic.

Display

The Asus ROG 5 has a 6.78-inch Full HD Plus (2440 x 1080) AMOLED display with HDR10+ certification – it’s capable of displaying sharp visuals and vibrant colors. The front-facing camera is located in a thin black bar, a classy move to avoid a notch.

The picture is crisp, and the only nitpick we could bring was that images lose clarity in deep shadow or very dark patches. Naturally, the ROG 5’s Full HD Plus display doesn’t produce as sharp of a picture as phones with displays having higher resolution – like, say, the WQHD Plus (3200 x 1440) screen on the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus. Overall, the ROG 5’s display is as good as if not better than nearly every other flagship smartphone out there (the iPhone 12 Pro has just a bit of a clarity and color balance edge on it). 

The real benefit for gamers, of course, is the 144Hz refresh rate, which makes browsing the internet a smoother experience than typical 60Hz displays, not to mention much smoother gameplay when playing games that support higher frames-per-second rates. 

The screen has a 300Hz touch sampling rate, responding to finger presses far faster than most phones – the Samsung Galaxy S21’s screen samples at 240Hz, for instance.

Camera

The Asus ROG Phone 5 packs a modest array of cameras for its price range, notably missing a telephoto lens for zoom photography. While its high-megapixel main lens does manage to take sharp enough images to crop-zoom, it’s not a replacement for the kind of magnification that the Space Zoom-packing Samsung Galaxy S20 and S21 feature.

Still, the Asus ROG 5 has casual photography covered with its triple rear cameras: a 64MP main shooter, 13MP 125-degree field of view ultra-wide camera, and a 5MP macro lens. There’s a 24MP front-facing camera that works just fine.

The ROG 5 takes decent photos in daylight, capturing a vivid range of colors and a decent level of clarity, though it’s handily outclassed in the latter by top-tier phones like the iPhone 12 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus (the phones we tested against). And while the Samsung phone won out overall in distance photography thanks to its Space Zoom, the Asus ROG 5 actually outperformed the iPhone 12 Pro at maximum (8x) zoom in daylight conditions, producing images with less blur and more true-to-life balance of light and shadow.

The Asus ROG 5 is capable of good depth of field effects, producing decent background blur, though its portrait mode isn’t quite on the level of top-tier flagships. The low-light performance is respectable, though better with ambient light, and you may have to wrestle with the camera to switch focus (like if you’re trying to secure depth-of-field.

The ROG 5 can shoot up to 8K video at 30fps, 4K video at 60fps (or 30fps with the ultra-wide camera), slow-motion video in 4K at 120fps, and take still photos while shooting video.

Gaming: hardware and software

The ROG series of phones has improved the rest of its kit to be more appealing to the average consumer, but they’ve always focused on gaming, and the ROG 5 is the best gaming phone yet. That may be fainter praise than in prior years when it had more competition, but the new handset still has the best hardware and software for gaming in phones today.

If you got to know the Asus ROG 3, not much has changed: the phone still has roughly the same combination of hardware and software. There’s two ultrasonic buttons on the top and bottom of the right side that, when the phone is rotated sideways, become shoulder buttons. They’re responsive and easier than prior ROG phones to map to whatever game you’re playing, though you’ll have to pull out the ‘Game Genie’ overlay menu (swipe from the left side) to manually turn on and place the activation area that the buttons trigger. 

The Armoury Crate software is fairly unchanged - it’s still a repository for all your games, though there’s even more ways to customize how your phone runs for each particular game. The performance-enhancing X-Mode returns as well, though we didn’t notice a significant increase in Geekbench 5 benchmark scores when it was activated  with default settings- instead, it seems to benefit more by tinkering to maximize performance.

There’s new functionality for the phone’s mid-gaming software, too: Game Genie has a more understandable mapping interface, and there’s a new esports mode that disables distracting notifications and any macro software (which you can set up in the in-game Game Genie menu, admittedly) to keep the playing field even.

As far as accessories, one has gotten a big change: the AeroActive Cooler 5 now has two physical buttons that function mode like the underside paddles on pro console controllers. While novel and delectably clickable, they’re not easily reachable, so they’ll work better for occasional actions like crouching or jumping - save the frequently-needed fire and reload actions for your shoulder buttons.

There’s a refined version of the Kunai 3 gamepad built specifically for the ROG 5 - even if it looks identical to the older model built for the ROG 3, there’s no interoperability, meaning you’ll have to buy a whole new one if you pick up the new phone. It works just like it always did: slide the ROG 5 into the special case (and its USB-C plug) and you’ll be able to slide each half of the Kunai pad on to each side, Nintendo Switch style. 

The Kunai 3 can only work with games that support it, and some you’ll have to map each button to whatever on-screen area you need, an onerous but not agonizing process. Thankfully, this is automatically done for some games like Dead Cells, which I could pick up as easily as if I’d just loaded it up on the Nintendo Switch - a serious bonus. But for titles like Call of Duty: Mobile, individually mapping buttons one by one was tiresome but not terrible. Unfortunately, it was impossible to get the controller to invert the Y-Axis for the right ‘look’ joystick as this reviewer prefers to do, which was a dealbreaker for the Kunai - but thankfully, most gamers aren’t cursed with this idiosyncratic gaming quirk.

Overall, it’s no surprise that the Asus ROG 5’s hefty specs, fantastic display, game-assisting hardware and software, and respectable battery life combined for a better gaming experience than on any other phone on the market right now.

Specs and performance

The Asus ROG 5 packs top-tier specs and gets top-tier performance, making it competitive with 2021’s best smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S21 range in terms of sheer muscle. Whatever we put the phone through, from switching apps to browsing the web to watching media to playing games for long sessions.

The one variable between the different Asus ROG 5 versions is RAM and storage: the standard version starts at 8GB of RAM but you can get it in 12GB and 16GB configurations, all in the latest LPDDR5/UFS 3.1. We should be clear that Asus sent us the 16GB RAM version, and it hummed through everything - which is to be expected when paired with its powerful processor. 

But given the configuration with the top RAM selection for the standard ROG phone is about the same price as the Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus, our current best smartphone, this is a competitive set of specs that gets results: the ROG 5 with 16GB of RAM achieved a multi-core Geekbench 5 score of 3732, handily beating the S21 Plus with 8GB of RAM’s 3170 score. 

The ROG 5 starts with 128GB of storage, which is a baseline for most 2021 Android phones, but can be expanded to 256GB - but despite the brightly-colored SIM tray on the bottom of the right side of the phone, there is no expandable storage via microSD. The ROG 5 Pro has 512GB of storage, as does the ROG 5 Ultimate.

The Asus ROG 5 runs Android 11 out of the box, with the usual – but still appreciably minimal – Zen UI overlay that’s attractive and simple. and includes the Armoury Crate gaming software out of the box along with ROG’s particular gamer-chic wallpapers that rev into action when X-Mode is activated. The phone is 5G-capable, but only sub-6 frequencies – there’s no mmWave connectivity.

Battery life

The Asus ROG 5 has the same 6,000mAh capacity as the battery in its predecessor, though it’s been redesigned internally to achieve better charging performance. Instead of a solid 6,000mAh unit, the ROG 5 has two 3,000mAh batteries placed on either side of the center-CPU, which allows the phone to recharge faster with both units charging at the same time, refilling over two-thirds (4400mAh) of the battery in 30 min using the 65W in-box charger, by Asus’ reckoning.

Splitting up the CPU also reduces heat - up to 46% lower temperature generation while charging the battery to full, Asus claims. And in casual play sessions - say, twenty minutes of Call of Duty: Mobile matches - the phone did stay pretty cool, with only the metal frame warming up a bit after the session. 

Asus introduced a neat feature in the Asus ROG 3, and it returns here: slow charging. Instead of wearing down your battery faster using the top charging speed, you can have it fill up at a slower rate, like if you were plugging it in overnight. If you want to recharge your phone as fast as possible, that 65W charger isn’t just for show: we started at 6% battery life and shot up to 75% in half an hour, rounding on 90% in 45 minutes and a full charge not long thereafter.

If you’re going to charge overnight, there’s a new feature called scheduled charging that lets you enter a wake-up time, and if the phone is plugged in, it will start charging to top off right around the time you select. It’s pretty sensical, and once again allows those concerned about the longevity of their battery life to cut down on unnecessary charging cycles. You can also set a cap of 80% or 90% if you don’t want the phone charging all the way up.

You can also use bypass charging, which allows you to simply plug in the phone to power your gaming sessions - and don’t refill a mAh more. Why? To avoid building up extra heat, and given your ROG 5 might already be warm after long gaming sessions, this is a nice option to have.

There’s also a new ultra-durable battery mode, which is to preserve as much power as possible while still leaving the phone functional – mostly by dialing back the phone’s performance. When the mode is active, its CPU and GPU run at a lower clock, the display’s refresh rate is lowered to 60Hz, the touch input is lower, and background processes are restricted. It’s just the essentials to eke out even more life from the battery.

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

First reviewed: March 2021

The launch of the 5.9-inch Asus Zenfone 8 will be a litmus test for whether or not phone buyers care about small, powerful phones – or whether Asus will regret withholding a plus-sized Zenfone 8 Pro.

Many of the best small phones, like the Google Pixel 4a and iPhone SE, offer mid-range specs to go with low prices for bargain shoppers. Anecdotally, some critics and consumers like these devices, but it’s not clear whether people buy these phones because they’re easier for one-handed browsing, they fit smaller hands, or simply because they’re more affordable. 

Obviously, that’s a matter of preference. Different people will see their phone as a simple browsing and texting hub, a gaming powerhouse, a streaming display, or something else that requires more or less screen space. And folks with cartoonishly large or dainty hands will have different definitions of ‘one-handed’ phones.

But I suspect that most people choose cheap, one-handed phones for the price, and because large cheap phones can have underwhelming displays. Meanwhile, many buyers choose larger, expensive phones in part because Apple, Samsung and the rest reserve their best cameras and displays for the ‘Max’ or ‘Ultra’ handsets – not necessarily because of the mini-tablet size.

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That’s what makes the Zenfone 8 – with its powerful specs in a condensed, boring frame – such a rare bird. It doesn’t have a Pro or XL model, except for the novelty Zenfone 8 Flip that retains the flipping cameras but doesn’t upgrade much on last year’s model. We liked the Zenfone 7 Pro, but Asus evidently decided to push people towards its flagship and let more affluent buyers go for the 6.8-inch ROG Phone 5 instead.

Will a mid-range, one-handed phone stand out in a crowded smartphone market? Our reviewer was generally impressed by its quality, but by omitting last year’s flipping camera, Asus left the Zenfone 8 without many standout qualities besides its compact frame. And other similar phones arguably haven’t performed well in recent years.

Disappointing sales for other small flagships

One of Apple’s best-selling phones in recent years is the budget iPhone SE, of which Apple allegedly sold about 24 million units in 2020. It successfully cut into the cheap phone market that had previously been dominated by Android phones, the Samsung A series in particular.

Compared to that, the iPhone 12 mini – Techradar’s favorite small phone – reportedly accounted for just 5 percent of Apple smartphone sales in January 2021, according to Reuters. Apple had reportedly slashed its 12 mini production targets by ‘more than 70 percent’, Nikkei Asia reported in March.

In our iPhone 12 mini vs iPhone SE breakdown, we ruled strongly in favor of the mini for its display quality, performance, camera capabilities, 5G speeds and durability, though its lower battery capacity can be an issue. But more people are consistently buying the 4.7-inch SE than the more expensive 5.4-inch 12 mini.

Both are much smaller than the 5.9-inch Zenfone 8, but the 6-inch Google Pixel 5 and 5.8-inch Pixel 4a offer an even more appropriate case study. The Pixel 5 is a mid-range, one-handed flagship with a middling chipset and good point-and-shoot cameras; the Pixel 4a has a cheaper build, worse chipset, less RAM, disappointing battery life and other compromises to make it half the price as the Pixel 5.

We don’t have hard Pixel sales figures, but we do know that the downgraded Pixel 4a quickly sold out at launch; we also learned from Nikkei Asia that Google’s internal estimates suggested it would sell just 800,000 Pixel 5 phones, compared to about 2 million Pixel 4a and Pixel 4a 5G units. 

Plus, back in 2019, Google was apparently very disappointed by its Pixel 4 sales numbers – around 2 million in its first six months – while it sold upwards of 7 million Pixel 3a units, per Android Authority. Again, the bargain phone triumphed while the mid-range, 5.7-inch flagship flopped by comparison.

Overall, flagship phone displays these days tend to be at least 6.1 inches (iPhone 12) or 6.2 inches (Galaxy S21), with Pro, Plus or Max displays trending about a quarter- or half-inch larger. Aside from the iPhone 12 mini, most manufacturers aren’t making compact flagships, only downgraded models with different names. 

Sony used to reliably release a Compact version of its best Xperia every year, but stopped with the Xperia XZ2 Compact in 2018, while the rumored 2021 Sony Xperia Compact turned out to not be real. 

Will the Zenfone 8 buck the trend?

Generally speaking, phone industry data provider Counterpoint found that small phone sales numbers have consistently dropped over the past couple of years (via Reuters). Phones under 6 inches represented 50 percent of sales at the end of 2018. By December 2020, that number was just 10 percent.

That doesn’t necessarily mean people don’t like small phones! We know that recent chip shortages have limited how many phones that companies can manufacture; in fact, Google will supposedly limit the number of Pixel 5a phones it sells in order to save more chips for the Pixel 6. It could just be that companies are prioritizing massive phones that turn a greater profit until more chips become available again.

That’s why I respect Asus’ plan to sell just one reasonably-sized flagship (the novelty Flip aside), instead of cannibalizing its sales figures with a cheaper downgrade or a larger Pro version. It will be a useful test to see if small phones still have a place in the $500+ smartphone market.

Personally, I have a variety of phones for work and personal use, from a 5.6-inch Pixel to a 6.5-inch OnePlus. As an avid gamer, I generally prefer laying down with a larger screen so I’m not straining my eyes. At the same time, I’m currently reckoning with my steadily worsening carpal tunnel syndrome, and find myself preferring to hold a narrow phone that doesn’t strain my hand and wrist for daily use.

The Zenfone 8 hits that sweet spot for buyers who want a new, affordable phone with great specs in an easy-to-hold package, without any FOMO for a Pro version that’s too big and expensive but gives you better performance.

I’m just curious how many other folks besides myself find that particular blend of qualities appealing enough to buy it – and in numbers that convince phonemakers to keep trying out new small-format devices.

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Say hello to the Asus Zenfone 8 and the Zenfone 8 Flip: Asus has unveiled both handsets at a virtual product launch, and straight away there's a lot to like about these new phones (it's also nice to see the flipping camera from the Zenfone 7 series make a return).

Let's start with the Zenfone 8, which with a screen size of 5.9 inches is very much taking on the likes of the iPhone 12 mini in terms of its compactness. That screen also boasts a 2400 x 1080 pixel resolution and a super-smooth 120Hz refresh rate.

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Under the hood there's the premium Snapdragon 888 processor, and you can get the phone with either 8GB or 16GB of RAM and either 128GB or 256GB of internal storage. 5G is on board, as is a 4,000mAh capacity battery.

Camera duties are handled by a 64MP+12MP dual-lens rear camera that has ultrawide and macro capabilities, and there's a 12MP selfie camera around the front in a punch hole notch. 

The handset is IP68 rated for full protection against water and dust, and this can all be yours for a reasonable starting price of €599 (about $725 / £515 / AU$930).

Flipster vibes

On to the Zenfone 8 Flip, which has the same flipping camera trick that we saw last time around with the Zenfone 7 – the rear camera flips over to sit above the main screen when needed, so it does double duty as a selfie camera too (and means there's no need for a notch on the display).

Asus says the light and strong metal alloy used for the camera housing means that it's good for at least 300,000 flips – that's 150 flips a day for 5 years, which should be enough for even the most enthusiastic mobile photographers.

Aside from the flipping mechanism, the camera setup adds an extra lens and a 3x optical zoom compared with the Zenfone 8, so this might be the one to go for if photography is a priority. There's also an extra feature called Object Focus, that can automatically snap the focus to objects in the foreground.

The screen size is bigger on the Flip model, going up to 6.67 inches, but the refresh rate drops to 90Hz. There's a bigger battery capacity to go with the bigger screen as well: 5,000mAh. All of this comes at a higher asking price, with the Zenfone 8 Flip starting at €799 (about $970 / £685 / AU$1,240).

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Spoiler alert: a massive leak just revealed the designs and specs of the Asus Zenfone 8 flagship series ahead of its launch on May 12 – and it looks as though the flip camera that we saw on the Zenfone 7 handsets is making a return after all.

The team at 91mobiles and well-known tipster Ishan Agarwal have shared leaking duties to reveal both the compact Zenfone 8 (previously rumored to be called the Zenfone 8 Mini) and the Zenfone 8 Flip. There's no mention in this leak of an extra Zenfone 8 Pro model.

Starting with the Zenfone 8, it has a simple design with two cameras on the back and a punch-hole camera on the front. With a screen apparently spanning 5.92 inches, it will be amongst the smallest high-end Android smartphones on the market, though it doesn't quite match the compactness of the iPhone 12 Mini.

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According to 91mobiles, the diminutive Zenfone 8 will bring with it a Snapdragon 888 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of internal storage. The battery size is said to be 4,000mAh, with 30W fast charging supported, and the phone will apparently also find room for a 3.5mm headphone jack.

As for the Asus Zenfone 8 Flip, it's seemingly going to retain the iconic flipping camera module of some of its predecessors: the triple-lens 64MP+12MP+8MP module in this leak can do double duty as a rear camera and a selfie camera, so you get the same results whichever side of the phone you're on.

Here the screen is rumored to be a 6.67-inch AMOLED display supporting a 90Hz refresh rate – thanks to that flipping camera, there's no punch-hole of course. A larger 5,000mAh battery capacity is predicted, though the 30W maximum wired charging rate is the same as the standard model.

The rumored internal specs of the Flip model line up with the standard Zenfone 8 as well, except the internal storage gets a bump to 256GB. If there is a Pro model that 91mobiles hasn't mentioned, it will almost certainly use the same Snapdragon 888 processor inside, and we've also heard whispers about a 16GB of RAM configuration.

It looks as though we're in line for silver and gray versions of both phones, based on these renders – which match up nicely with other leaked renders we've seen. All will be revealed on May 12, and we will of course bring you every announcement from the event.

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The Asus Zenfone 8 launch has been confirmed for May 12, with Pro and Mini models also said to be on the way – and thanks to a new leak and a new teaser from Asus itself, we now know a little bit more about the upcoming handsets.

First Gadget Tendency has pictures of what is purportedly the Asus Zenfone 8 Mini, inside transparent and opaque cases – and these pictures have indeed come from a third-party case maker rather than directly from Asus.

The images don't actually reveal a whole lot, but you can see the rear camera array up in the corner on the back of the phone, and the position of various ports and buttons. The Zenfone 8 Mini is shown in a stylish black and blue gradient color too.

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The blog post predicts a Snapdragon 888 chipset and a 5.9-inch display for the Asus Zenfone 8 Mini, which matches up with rumors that we've already heard. The fingerprint scanner is built into the screen apparently, and the on-board battery capacity is rumored to be 4,000mAh.

Another little Zenfone 8 tidbit that we've come across today has been provided by Asus itself: in a tweet, the company has confirmed that the handsets will have full water and dust protection thanks to an IP68 rating.

That just about confirms that the Zenfone 8 won't have the rotating camera that the Zenfone 7 had (something we already suspected). Trying to seal so many open and moving parts would be a considerable challenge, so it's much more likely that Asus is going to go with a more conventional front and rear camera – just like the one shown in the case renders.

Mosey on over to the official splash page for the launch and you'll see that Asus is promising something "big on performance" yet "compact in size" – that "compact" reference is presumably in regards to the Mini model, and we haven't heard as much about the standard or Pro models yet.

We will of course be bringing you all the announcements as they happen from the Asus event. The show gets underway on May 12 at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm BST (that's 3am AEST on May 13 in Australia).

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While the Asus Zenfone line of smartphones aren't exactly huge, the line of Android phones has one noteworthy feature that draws eyes. They don't have front-facing cameras, and instead boast rear cameras that can flip up to face the front for selfies - you probably already know what this looks like, since you've scrolled past the header image that shows it.

The upcoming Asus Zenfone 8 seems to have ditched this novel feature, though, in favor of a more generic punch-hole cut-out in the screen for the selfie camera. We know this because, on Twitter, Asus posted a tease of the phone, which shows as much.

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In the video, we can see a cartoon version of the phone with a cut-out for the front camera in the top-left of the display - with that there, a flip-up camera would be redundant, so it seems almost certain the feature has been dropped.

The tease was actually meant to show off the 120Hz display of the phone - there are 120 'o' letters in 'smooth' on the screen, again all-but-confirming the phone has a high-refresh-rate screen.

The new Asus Zenfone 8

The Asus Zenfone 8 has been confirmed to launch on May 12, so there's a little while longer for Asus to tease more features of the upcoming phone - and inadvertently reveal more lost features.

We've heard rumors that there's a Zenfone 8 Mini too, which will likely be a compact version of the 'standard' 8 model - perfect for people who like small phones. Previous generations of Zenfone have also had a 'Pro' model, so we could see one of them too.

The only confirmed phone, though, is the Zenfone 8 itself, as that's the one Asus name-dropped. If there's anything new shown off on the day, we'll bring it to you.

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Attention fans of smaller phones: Asus has announced a product launch for May 12, during which the Zenfone 8 is going to get its official unveiling. As per recent rumors and the event invite, a more compact version of the handset could also be in the offing.

The tagline on the new splash page on the Asus website – "Big on Performance. Compact in Size." – certainly suggests that a smaller model is going to be introduced, perhaps called the Zenfone 8 Mini.

An event invite sent to outlets including PhoneArena includes a screen protector with the dimensions 148 mm x 69 mm (5.83 inches x 2.72 inches), so that might be a clue as to the size of the smaller model. The iPhone 12 mini has dimensions of 131.5 mm x 64.2 mm (that's 5.18 inches x 2.53 inches).

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Based on benchmarks supposedly from the Asus Zenfone 8 Mini, the phone is going to come carrying the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor – and we would assume that the other Zenfone 8 models would have the same chipset in too.

A state of Zenfone

We haven't heard too many rumors about the Zenfone 8 up until now, but we were very impressed with what the Zenfone 7 and the Zenfone 7 Pro had to offer last year. It would seem that Asus has now decided that a mini model is required as well.

Given the Zenfone 7 handsets were unveiled in August 2020, having their successors arrive in May 2021 is a bit of a surprise – though it's certainly plausible that last year's models were delayed due to the effects of the global coronavirus pandemic.

It's going to be interesting to see if the Zenfone 8 phones keep the rotating flip camera on the top of the device, which serves as both a selfie and rear camera. It certainly helps the Zenfone series stand out from the rest of the market, though it's perhaps not as convenient as having regular rear and selfie cameras installed.

We'll find out for sure on May 12 – and we will of course bring you all the announcements as they're made. The event is scheduled to get underway at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm BST (that's 3am AEST on May 13 in Australia).

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If you're a fan of small-body phones you likely followed the Sony Xperia Compact news - rumors suggested the Xperia 1 III would be joined by a small-form cousin, yet at the launch event for that phone, the 1 III was only joined by the Xperia 5 III and Xperia 10 III. No small phones to be seen.

However we've been hearing about another compact Android phone that might actually launch, called the Asus Zenfone 8 Mini. Various small rumors have hinted at this phone's existence, and Pocketnow has now spotted the handset listed on benchmarking website Geekbench.

It seems this mini-sized phone will have the top-end Snapdragon 888 chipset, according to the listing, and the benchmark test shows some pretty impressive results. So not only could this compact phone fill in the Xperia Compact-shaped hole in your heart, it could be pretty great too.

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More information

Various rumors suggest the Asus Zenfone 8 Mini will have a 5.92-inch screen, a surprising 16GB of RAM, a FHD+ screen with a 120Hz refresh rate, and a 64MP main camera.

As the 'Mini' prefix suggests, there's also expected to be a 'standard' version of the phone, though we haven't heard much about that. Most rumors have concerned the Mini model, perhaps because many tech leakers and writers have an affinity for small-body phones.

We'll hopefully find out more about the Asus Zenfone 8 Mini soon, but we don't really have any clue when - stay tuned to TechRadar for more information on the matter if and when we get it.

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The Asus ROG 5 just launched with up to 16GB of RAM – and if you somehow snag the limited-release Ultimate model, you can hold one of the only smartphones in the world with a whopping 18GB of RAM. But... what does all that RAM get you?

For years, RAM has been used alongside chipset and storage space as shorthand for a phone’s performance. Roughly, the more RAM, the more the phone can do at once: currently open applications use RAM as quickly accessible memory, with excess RAM keeping track of other applications in the background so you can swiftly swap back and forth. Graphics-intensive games may use more RAM, too, to produce lots of complex on-screen effects.

The gold standard of Android phones, the Samsung Galaxy S21, only packs 8GB of RAM, while the S21 Ultra starts at 12GB and maxes out at 16GB. In our testing, these phones handled every task a consumer would put it through, from browsing the internet to binging media to gaming. But they are aimed at mainstream consumers. 

Thus, it’s no surprise to us that Asus – itself a producer of gaming-focused products – is signaling to its demographic of performance enthusiasts that its new handset’s 18GB of RAM is an extravagance that can, in theory, push a lot of pixels. 

So does that mean you’ll instantly have better graphics in today’s games by playing on an 18GB phone? Not really, according to experts, as you’ll get much the same performance out of phones running 12GB so long as you’re playing casual games. 

But we did reach out to ask one developer to explain exactly how that much RAM can help in their AAA mobile game as a case study.

The 18GB question: how will it improve games now?

Kabam's Marvel Realm of Champions stars some of the brand's most iconic heroes in team-based 3v3 arena combat between players. We'd asked Kabam's Ethan Young, development director of the game, to explain the differences in playing on an older iPhone 6S vs. playing on a brand-new iPhone 12 Pro – so we wanted his take on the highest 18GB RAM end of the performance spectrum.   

"Having 18GB of RAM when playing MARVEL Realm of Champions will ultimately reduce loading times over long play sessions," Young told TechRadar over email. "Because all assets are cached,  the more memory that is available means that the game will not need to release and reload assets frequently if MARVEL Realm of Champions needs to use additional memory."

As we noted in the previous piece, Realm of Champions plays perfectly well on the 2016 iPhone 6S, which has 2GB of RAM. Young stated that Kabam ensures its games are playable on older devices through some compromises: when playing on a phone with 3GB of RAM, the game "will need to release and reload assets frequently as players enjoy the game. With more memory comes more room to frontload assets, which allows for more efficient and enjoyable play."

Naturally, the game is designed to play on a range of phones with different specs, and it'll be awhile before 18GB RAM devices are the norm. Playing Realm of Champions on devices with 8GB or 12GB of RAM is just as enjoyable, Young assured.  

"The only advantage phones with additional memory above 8GB is if you’re playing for multiple hours in an individual gaming session, though 8GB devices are also capable of extended play," he said.

But what 18GB of RAM can do for tomorrow’s games – especially in mobile esports – is another question.

Games will harness 18GB of RAM...when more phones have 18GB of RAM

Mobile games will obviously evolve to take advantage of more powerful components in phones, and we’re already seeing some with graphics rivaling their PC versions – just look to Genshin Impact, suggests Jennifer McLean, VP of Industry Relations at industry analysis firm Niko Partners. But it might be a few years before games come out that can truly harness 18GB RAM.

“As far as game developers taking advantage of the new higher RAM devices – there will need to be a significant enough installed base before developers will make games that require those specs,” McLean told TechRadar in an email.

But there are some gamers who can really use 18GB RAM, according to McLean: “Mobile esports will benefit greatly from these devices NOW.” 

Mobile esports has been growing, but is especially embraced in East and Southeast Asia: a Niko Partners report noted that in 2018, mobile esports generated $15.3 billion, of which $5.6 billion came from China alone, compared to $16.1 billion earned by PC esports. Mobile esports games have higher install rates than their PC and console counterparts, which translates to better revenue per player. 

Mobile esports require higher-performing phones, so consumers may naturally gravitate toward higher-spec devices like the Asus ROG 5. But it’s not just consumers playing mobile esports – pro players and streamers who need these high-performance phones could drive adoption, too.

“Niko's data on Asia's gamers shows that hardware and peripherals used by esports competitors and streamers influences gamers and fans to purchase those devices as well,” McLean said. “So as we see competitors and streamers adopt these more powerful devices, we will see gamers and fans follow suit.”

Given the release of mobile esports outside East Asia around PUBG Mobile and Call of Duty: Mobile, along with upcoming titles like the still-in-beta League of Legends: Wild Rift and the just-announced PUBG New State, we could see this phenomenon become even more mainstream in the US and Europe.

The magic RAM number

The good news, then, is that you don’t need to upgrade to 18GB this year. That amount is aspirational – even the upper limit of phones today with 12GB breeze through tasks.

“I don't think that there is a perfect number for how much RAM a smartphone needs. It varies on the operating system and the application,” says Anshel Sag, analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy. “For example, my [Samsung] S21 Ultra is using 75% of RAM on 10GB, which means that 12GB seems pretty reasonable to give breathing room for top-end models.”

That makes even 16GB RAM an edge case for consumers to consider, Sag says, though phone configurations have had that much RAM since 2020 when the Samsung S20 Ultra first offered it. 

Of course, the rules are different between Android and iOS. Even the iPhone 12 Pro Max only has 4GB of RAM – and still beats out every other phone yet released on Geekbench 5 benchmarks (4240 iPhone 12 Pro Max vs 3518 Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, per GSM Arena). This isn’t exactly new: Apple has always done more with less in terms of RAM thanks to, logically, its control of the entire hardware-software ecosystem in its phones. 

That’s very unlike Android, which has to work on devices of far more spec configurations, as Sachin Dev Duggal, Founder & CEO of Engineer.ai, explained in a 2019 Firstpost interview.

“Android is built for various devices with varying hardware specifications, hence, it needs more memory to execute the right code for the right device,” Duggal said. “Also, apps on Android are allowed to use as much of RAM that is required, so, they end up collecting more data on the RAM and when it is not used the data is cleaned.” 

iOS, on the other hand, has multiple reasons it needs less RAM – but a big one is memory management: Apple’s operating system “doesn’t rely on Java Virtual machine to execute its codes and the app codes are directly executed on the hardware thus limiting the need for RAM to run virtual machines on iOS,” Duggal explained.

Given that article was written in August 2019, its aspirational questions are correspondingly quaint from today’s perspective: Duggal noted that 6GB of RAM is “more than enough to future-proof a device” and 8GB will be good in the near future. 4GB of RAM was the standard of the day, and continues to be overrepresented in terms of global smartphone distribution: after the iPhone 7 and 8, some of the most popular phones in the world outside China are the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S9 (both of which have 4GB of RAM), according to an April 2020 Yahoo Finance report. 

But in the intervening two years since Duggal’s estimations, Android phones have included more RAM, and developers will likely start upgrading their system requirements for more functionality and, in games, more advanced graphics. The high-water mark for RAM will rise as original equipment manufacturers (OEM) aka phonemakers stuff more and more in their devices.

“Android is inherently a more memory-hungry operating system, so it appears that OEMs are looking for ways to up the specs for differentiation but also to improve the user experience as apps get more memory-hungry on Android,” Sag pointed out. 

In short: you probably won’t need an 18GB RAM phone for awhile, but as always, it’s nice to be ahead of the curve when developers start adapting to the new cutting edge.

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The Asus ROG Phone 5 is the brand’s latest gaming phone, but a ton of little improvements add up to the most powerful Android smartphone released yet in 2021 – which can even outperform the Samsung Galaxy S21 in some benchmarks.

That’s no surprise given the phone packs some monstrous specs: all versions of the phone pack a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset and the basic model can have 8GB, 12GB, or 16GB of RAM. There’s also two pricier editions of the phone: the Asus ROG 5 Pro, which comes in 16GB of RAM, and the limited-run Asus ROG 5 Ultimate, featuring a world-first 18GB of RAM.

Those pricier versions come with a slightly more refined design and OLED panel on the back to display a customizable message or logo. But even the stock Asus ROG 5 is powerful and versatile, with ultrasonic shoulder buttons, fantastic speakers, wildly fast 65W recharging for its 6,000mAh battery – and a 3.5mm headphone jack. 

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With big specs and features comes big prices: the baseline Asus ROG 5 starts at €799 (around $950 / £680 / AU$1,230) for 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, €899 (around $1,070 / £770 / AU$1,400) for 12GB RAM and 256GB storage, and €999 (around $1,200 / £850 / AU$1,550) for 16GB RAM and 256GB of storage.

The fancier versions are priced even higher, with the Asus ROG 5 Pro costing €1,199 (around $1,430 / £1,030 / AU$1,850) for 16GB RAM and 512GB storage, putting it around the same price as the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra. The Asus ROG 5 Ultimate’s price tag is suitably supreme at €1,299 (around $1,550 / £1,100 / AU$2,000) for 18GB RAM and 512GB storage.

The Asus ROG 5 will be released in March, with the Asus ROG 5 Pro following in April and the Asus ROG 5 Ultimate coming in May – but only in limited quantities. We've yet to hear exact pricing for the US, UK or Australia but we're hoping to hear more soon.

The Asus ROG 5: for gamers and media fans, but not shutterbugs

The Asus ROG 5 is designed with mobile gamers in mind with hardware and software perks, but there’s plenty in the phone that appeal to more mainstream consumers, from the extensive battery life to impressive sound from the pair of forward-facing speakers. 

In many ways, the ROG 5 is a leading Android smartphone that rivals the Samsung Galaxy S21 range.

But not in photography: the ROG 5’s triple rear camera doesn’t include a telephoto lens, putting it at a utility disadvantage compared to the Samsung S21’s 30x ‘Space Zoom’ capability – let alone the generally superior photo processing software in Samsung’s phones. 

Like its predecessors, the ROG 5 focuses on gaming, not cameras, which is a trade-off that may be fine with some consumers, but should be kept in mind for those who are shopping for the best camera phones.

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The Asus ROG Phone 5 will be the first major gaming phone of the year when it launches next week, and new information suggests that it will also be one of the most powerful phones too.

The Asus ROG Phone 5 is being revealed on March 10, and the phone was recently spotted on Geekbench listings. It confirms that the phone will be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset and will run on Android 11 out of the box. 

On the benchmark, it clocked a single-core score of 1,113 and a multi-core score of 3,468. More interestingly, the model has a whopping 18GB of RAM — way higher than most other Android flagships that offer somewhere between 6GB and 12GB of RAM.

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We expect this variant to have 512GB or 1TB of internal storage, as Asus is clearly trying to have a more impressive spec sheet than the competition. Of course, there will be other variants of the ROG Phone 5 too, with “standard” specifications and a lower price.

Historically, the series has always opted for the best-in-class storage and RAM, so it’s a safe assumption that we will see UFS 3.1 storage and LPDDR5 memory across the board. 

The listing doesn’t reveal much more, but we know that the Asus ROG Phone 5 will have some of the best speakers seen on any smartphone as confirmed by DxOMark ahead of the launch. There’s also going to be a secondary display on the back instead of the usual RGB light-up logo, which has become a mainstay on these gaming phones.

Other leaked features include a 144Hz Super AMOLED display, three cameras on the back, a large 6,000mAh battery with support for fast charging, ultrasonic shoulder triggers, dual USB Type-C ports and a comprehensive suite of gaming features.

Asus will hope that these extras help it stand out from the crowd, as there are many other Snapdragon 888-powered flagships launching in the coming days. We're expecting to hear about the OnePlus 9, Nubia Red Magic 6, Oppo Find X3 and more throughout March 2021.

• Asus ROG Phone 5 release date, price, news and leaks

Via MySmartPrice

The Asus ROG Phone 5 could be one of the best gaming phones of the year, and it’s launching very soon, as Asus has confirmed that it’s being unveiled on March 10.

The company has posted a countdown timer on its website saying as much, and the Asus ROG Phone 5 name is mentioned, so there’s no mystery about what’s being announced. This is surprisingly early for it though, as the Asus ROG Phone 3 wasn’t unveiled until July of last year.

If you’re wondering what happened to the ROG Phone 4, you’re not alone. Asus recently confirmed that it was skipping that number, and while it didn’t say why, it’s likely because the number four is considered unlucky in some regions.

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The power to play

So what can you expect from the Asus ROG Phone 5? Well, other than the name and the announcement date we don’t know much for sure, but leaks and rumors suggest it will have a 6.78-inch screen, a 6,000mAh battery with 65W charging, a top-end Snapdragon 888 chipset, 16GB of RAM, and a 64MP main camera.

All in all then it sounds like it could be a true gaming powerhouse, which is exactly what we’d expect, given that we felt the same about the Asus ROG Phone 3 in our four-star review.

We’ll know for sure what the Asus ROG Phone 5 is set to offer soon, and TechRadar will cover the announcement in full, so check back on March 10 for all the details.

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Via GSMArena

The Asus ROG Phone 5 (or ROG Phone 4 as it might be called) could land in the next few months, and being a gaming phone we’d expect it to land with a hefty helping of RAM, but an early benchmark suggested it might just have 8GB of the stuff. Now though, another benchmark has been spotted, this time with double that amount.

A Geekbench listing for an Asus phone with a model number associated with the ROG Phone 5 (and the same model number as the previous 8GB listing) this time lists 16GB of RAM.

That’s more what we’d expect from the handset, especially as the Asus ROG Phone 3 comes with up to 16GB of RAM anyway – though there may well be an 8GB model of the ROG Phone 5 too.

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Both listings also mention Android 11 and a Snapdragon 888 chipset, with the latest benchmark unsurprisingly recording higher scores than the previous one.

The single-core result here is 1,131, while the multi-core result is 3,729. That’s up from 1,081 and 3,584 respectively on the previous benchmark, so not a huge improvement, but one that might still be noticeable in use.

Of course, we’d take both of these early benchmarks with a pinch of salt. It’s possible that they’re fake, or referring to a different Asus phone, or simply won’t be representative of what the Asus ROG Phone 5 is ultimately capable of, since they’re presumably running on non-final hardware.

Still, elsewhere we’ve heard that the Asus ROG Phone 5 will have a 6.78-inch screen, a 6,000mAh battery, 65W fast charging, and a 64MP main camera, so from what we’ve heard so far it’s shaping up to be an impressive handset.

It’s unknown exactly when the Asus ROG Phone 5 will launch, but its predecessor the ROG Phone 3 landed in July 2020, so around July of this year is our best guess for now.

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Via MySmartPrice

There's still some debate over whether the next Asus gaming phone will be called the ROG Phone 4 or the ROG Phone 5, but whatever the moniker, the device has now shown up in a Chinese regulatory filing – complete with pictures showing it off from all sides.

The documents published by TENAA give us our best look yet at what we're going to call the ROG Phone 5 for now (partly because you can actually see a number 5 written on the back of the handset).

It also looks as though we're getting a dot matrix display on the back of the Asus ROG Phone 5, similar to the one on the Lightning Armor case for the ROG Phone 3. These newly leaked images show the Asus ROG logo, but we're assuming that can be customized.

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Apart from that embellishment on the back, not much seems to have changed in terms of the appearance of the ROG Phone compared to the 2020 edition. The SIM card slot looks to have a red cover, but that might be an exclusive for this particular edition of the phone, which seems to have been produced in partnership with Tencent Games.

The pictures line up neatly with some live shots we recently saw of the upcoming handset. It looks as though there could well be a customizable LED lighting strip to go along with the dot matrix array, all ready to give the phone a truly eye-catching aesthetic.

We've also seen a set of benchmarks appear online that we think are linked to the Asus ROG Phone 5, showing off its credentials in terms of power and performance. The phone should come carrying the Snapdragon 888 chip, the flagship chip of choice for top-end Android handsets this year.

Other bits of information we can glean from this regulatory filing include a 6.78-inch AMOLED display, Android 11 on board, and a hefty 6,000 mAh battery – that should be enough to provide plenty of juice for gaming sessions, and matches the capacity that was offered on the Asus ROG Phone 3.

As for that leap over the 4 straight to the 5, which is looking more and more likely, it's all because the number 4 is considered unlucky in China and Taiwan – and that's not something that Asus would want to get in the way of any potential sales.

• Everything we know about the next Asus ROG Phone so far

Via XDA Developers

Asus continues to be one of the only major companies to make gaming smartphones that are available globally, and a new leak suggests that the upcoming Asus ROG Phone 5 will opt for an even crazier design.

The Asus ROG Phone 3 launched in July 2020, in a time when most other companies toned down their offerings in the gaming smartphone space. A previous rumor suggested the company will be skipping the Asus ROG Phone 4 - that number is considered unlucky in China - and jumping to the ROG Phone 5 for its next release.

With the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 platform now available it looks like Asus might be getting ready for an early launch of its successor, with the teasers already live in China.

The latest leak comes courtesy of Mukul Sharma (originally spotted on Chinese social networking site Weibo), which shows the Asus ROG Phone 5’s front and back in real life. 

While the overall design language doesn’t seem to have changed, there is one significant addition — the RGB logo on the back looks to be on its way out, in favor of an LED display strip. The image has arrows on the display, but we expect it could be customizable in some capacity. 

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The “05” etching on the back is likely to be an indication of the phone’s name, as 5 doesn’t seem to represent anything else that is meaningful. Strangely, the iconic accented cooling vent is also not seen in the leaked images, which used to be a standard on Asus ROG phones. If that is the case, the ROG Phone 5 might finally be water-resistant to some degree – a feat none of its predecessors could boast of. 

The front of the phone doesn’t reveal much except a new page that reads “ROG Vision”. It could be a new application or element of the interface, or just an incorrect translation on an early device.

Asus ROG Phone 5 launch date is expected to be announced soon as the company has already posted a teased on Weibo. Looking at the number of upcoming phones, it seems that February is going to be a busy month.

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Two-minute review

The Asus ROG 3 is one of the most advanced gaming phones ever released, if not the most advanced. Its blend of gaming-focused hardware and software features justify its existence in a crowded field, and gamers willing to spend more can actually get an edge with the ROG 3.

The same could be said about its predecessor, the Asus ROG II – you’re certainly going to have an advantage when it comes to performance thanks to top-tier specs and tighter control via the ROG-branded game controllers. The Asus ROG 3 is the Asus ROG II, but better.

The differences between the two phones are worth pointing out. This is the first smartphone with the Snapdragon 865 Plus chipset, and it outperformed nearly every other phone we’ve tested on Geekbench. And the ROG 3’s looks are the most mainstream yet: rather than the original ROG Phone’s Decepticon-like lines and angles, the new handset has a sleek flat back with only a clear plastic window giving a peek at the internals hinting at the phone series’ gamer chic origins.

Asus execs claim that supercars inspired this design shift, but it’s hard not to see the transition as a concession to a more mainstream smartphone look, to draw in consumers who don’t go for aggressive lines and RGB adornments. Showing it off won’t garner you much cred in gamer circles, but normies will be able to take it out in public without raising too many eyebrows.

Instead, all the progress is on the inside: in addition to the aforementioned Snapdragon 865 Plus, the ROG 3 ups the RAM to 16GB (and opts for DDR5) while the display has been improved to 144Hz refresh rate and 270Hz touch sampling. Asus claims this results in a halving of the touch latency to 25ms compared to the ROG II – and while such distinctions won’t be perceivable to most users, Asus knows that such marginal improvements will appeal to its performance-obsessed core base.

While those power users might be sore over the visual redesign, in most other respects the ROG 3 is a love letter to them. Asus’ signature Armoury Crate software has even more settings for owners to tinker with, from CPU and GPU refresh rates to internal temperature control and network preferences. The AirTriggers, which operate like touch shoulder buttons when the phone is held in landscape orientation, have been refined to track fingers making gestures that previous ROG phones couldn’t track for more finite control.

Asus wanted to do all of this while retaining the ROG II’s general shape and weight, to keep it compatible with earlier peripherals, but fitting in the external 5G modem meant something had to go, and the ROG 3 ditches the beloved 3.5mm jack; however there’s one of those on the AeroActive Cooler 3 clip-on fan (which is included in the box), so it’s not the end of the world.

The AeroActive Cooler 3 fan has been upgraded, as have the newest versions of the ROG 3’s signature peripherals. The refined Kunai 3 Gamepads, for instance, lose their angular look, bringing them even closer in appearance to Switch Joy-Cons than the ROG II’s controllers.

Outside of gaming, the phone ticks most boxes, with a triple rear camera array comprising 64MP main, ultra-wide, and macro shooters – which are fine, although the lack of a serious zoom capability is noticeable. And some of the phone’s gaming-centric features are also a boon for the casual user, with the 144Hz display making web browsing and interface navigating a smooth experience, while the 6,000mAh battery is handy to keep your phone lasting longer than a day.

Overall, the Asus ROG 3 is a strong phone that offers fantastic performance, a smooth display, a colossal battery, and a more mainstream-friendly design – and on paper, all the gaming features make the phone seem like a serious contender against the current crop of flagship phones, gaming-focused or otherwise. But the software-focused gaming perks require some dedicated finagling, and won’t benefit casual users, while its camera suite isn’t as strong as other phones at its price point. The Asus ROG 3 is a great gaming phone, but it’s not quite for everyone yet.

Asus ROG Phone 3 price and release date

• Launched: July 22, 2020; Release date: September 2020
• Regional availability: US
• Price: $999 (around £752 / AU$1,500)

The Asus ROG 3 was announced on July 22, 2020, although pricing seriously lagged behind its proper September release date in many regions. It's available in the US at least, starting at $999 (around £752 / AU$1,500), though it's unclear when it'll be sold in the UK, Australia, and elsewhere.

The ROG 3 isn't sold by US carriers, which hurts its availability. You'll have to buy it directly from Amazon, B&H, or Mobile Advance.

Given that the Asus ROG II cost $899 / £829.99 (roughly AU$1,500) for its only configuration, the ROG 3’s pricing (at least for the 12GB RAM model, with the 16GB RAM version likely higher-priced) isn't too surprising given the added 5G connectivity. Many phones having increased their pricing by $100 / £100 to cover the cost of adding 5G-supporting chipsets and connectivity.

We do know one thing: the Asus ROG 3 will only come in a black finish.

Design

• Same size & weight as the ROG II to ensure compatibility with accessories
• Less 'gamer chic' angles & lines for a cleaner, mainstream look
• Upgraded AirTrigger touch shoulder buttons

The Asus ROG 3 edges closer towards the look of mainstream phones with a mostly seamless back marked with more subtle accents than its predecessor, bringing the phone closer to the sleek (though not necessarily black) rectangle look the industry has settled on. The sharp-angled cutouts of its predecessors have been reduced to a spare few lines running across the ROG 3’s back.

Of course, mainstream phones don’t have a window cutout on the back, revealing the heat sink that runs nearly half the length of the phone, which is six times larger than the window on the ROG 2 – this is the ‘supercar’ look, as Asus executives explained to media, and while there’s an RGB ROG logo in the center of the phone’s rear, aside from the small rear camera strip it’s as smooth as any other flagship.

If you want that sweet angular ‘gamer chic’ look, the official ROG 3 Lighting Armor cases provide it, with cutouts for the AirTriggers and ports, along with a neat RGB lighting effect that spans nearly the whole rear cover. 

That’s ports, plural. Along with a standard USB-C connection on the bottom, the ROG 3 has a large double port on the left side of the phone that faces down when you rotate the phone sideways for gaming, letting you recharge while you play; this is also where you’ll plug in any of the many ROG 3 accessories (described below). You’ll only need the left half of the port to plug in your USB-C charger – the right side is just for said accessories to transfer data, per this Asus FAQ.

A word of advice though: if you plan to make use of the big port while you’re on the go, you should take some tweezers with you, as the protective plug is tough to pry out with fingernails alone.

On the right side are the power button and volume button rocker, located halfway down to avoid getting in the way of the phone’s other signature feature: the AirTriggers. These have been improved over the AirTriggers on the Asus ROG II, with motion sensors that recognize more gestures, adding a back-and-forth slide to the existing taps and swipes. Better still, they’re sensitive enough to enable each AirTrigger to be split into two distinct buttons, enabling an L1/L2/R1/R2 experience if you’re dextrous enough.

Like the ROG II and original ROG Phone, the ROG 3 is designed such that no parts get in the way of gaming. Asus has even expanded the number of microphones – there are four now, including one on the back near the flash – to ensure that, no matter how many accessories you clip onto the phone, you can still trash-talk your opponents.

The speaker array also includes the dual forward-facing speakers, tucked in the bezels at the top and bottom. In our ‘testing’ (read: heavy PUBG and Call of Duty: Mobile sessions), we didn’t inadvertently cover them with our fingers while in-game – and that’s a good thing, as Asus has partnered with Swedish music company Dirac to tool-up the sound on the ROG 3, resulting in a rounder, fuller-bodied sound than you’ll get from most other phones on the market. 

Yes, we even like the audio experience better than that on our longtime favorite phone speakers-wise, the Google Pixel 4, mostly because the ROG 3’s speakers project sound much more evenly: we twirled the phone around to listen from many different angles, and the sound profile barely changed. It’s not louder, but you will hear a nearly-full range of sound no matter where the ROG 3 sits in relation to you.

If you’re a fan of wired headphones you’ll be disappointed to learn that, as mentioned earlier, the 3.5mm jack is no more – if you want to use your regular headphones, but want to avoid dongles, the included-in-the-box fan has a traditional headphone jack.

ROG 3 accessories

• Mostly gaming-focused, from controllers to docks
• AeroActive Cooler 3 clip-on fan, included with phone
• Kunai 3 controllers look less angular

The Asus ROG 3 isn’t just a phone – like the previous ROG models, it’s the core device of a gaming platform, with several optional accessories that are mostly geared toward augmenting mobile gaming. 

The most widely-useful of these is the clip-on fan, the AeroActive Cooler 3, which, as we’d hope with a gaming phone, is included in the box. This plugs into the side-mounted dual port to help keep the ROG 3 cooler during intense gaming sessions; we never found the phone got so hot that it required the fan, but it’s nice to have – and best of all, it has the aforementioned a pass-through 3.5mm jack for plugging in your headphones. It’s also got a little kickstand that, while a bit flimsy, is a nice inclusion.

The other accessories aid gaming more directly: the TwinView Dock 3 adds a second screen, which is much like the LG V60 Dual Screen in the sense that it’s identical to the main phone’s display, with the same resolution and 144Hz refresh rate. Sure, it can help you multitask, but it’s really about playing with multiple screens, so you can watch one and press buttons on the other. 

The ROG Kunai 3 Gamepad is the most straightforward accessory, with a smoother look than the Kunai controllers launched with previous ROG phones. This works much like the Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons: it consists of two controller halves which can be used as separate right and left controllers locked to the sides of the ROG 3 when it’s fitted into a special ‘bumper’ case, or slid onto a frame to handle like a proper gamepad. 

There’s also the ROG clip, which secures the phone to a PS4, Xbox One, or Google Stadia controller (sorry, it won’t fit a PS5 or Xbox Series X controller, if you were wondering). There’s a pair of docks, too, with a slew of ports to hook the ROG 3 up to keyboards and mice: the more portable Professional Dock and the Mobile Desktop Dock, which adds a 3.5mm audio jack and more input/output ports. 

Display

• Same 6.59-inch Full HD Plus OLED display as ROG II
• Refresh rate has been upgraded from 120Hz to 144Hz
• HDR10+ support, but has trouble rendering the darkest blacks

The Asus ROG 3 packs virtually the same 19.5:9 ratio, 6.59-inch AMOLED display as its predecessor, with one big change: the upgrade from a 120Hz maximum refresh rate to 144Hz.

The display’s Full HD+ resolution (2340 x 1080) isn’t the sharpest on a phone – the Samsung Galaxy S20 line’s 3200 x 1440 QHD Plus screens take that honor. But you won’t notice when watching most media or playing most games, especially when these feature colorful and well-lit scenes, thanks to the inclusion of HDR10+ support.

It’s the dark corners, or dimly-lit scenes, that trouble the ROG 3’s display, which has a tendency to lose clarity when showing deep blacks. Take a show like The Witcher, for instance, in which the extreme darkness in the occasional torch-lit scenes is rendered as great patches with pixelated edges.

The display’s strength lies in its fast refresh rate, although only a handful of games currently support the absolute extreme of 144Hz. When testing one of these, Dead Cells, we found the game to be smooth, but not perceptibly smoother than when playing on a Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus, which maxes out at 120Hz. 

The ROG 3 has no notch or punch-hole – instead, its selfie camera is set in a black bar, a rare design feature in flagship phones these days, and while not desirable in mainstream handsets, this makes it simpler to enjoy media. The display also houses an in-screen fingerprint sensor, which is fast-acting and accurate.

Cameras

• Triple rear cameras: 64MP main, 13MP ultra-wide, and 5MP macro
• Respectably sharp photos, though light nuance isn't as good as top camera phones
• 24MP front-facing camera is fine

The Asus ROG 3 has expanded its photographic suite to three rear cameras, one more than on the ROG 2. The new addition, a macro camera, has been popping up on lower-end phones as a novelty option, and while it’s nice to see here, we’d have preferred a telephoto camera, although we can imagine the stacked lenses might have taken up too much space.

The 64MP main shooter takes good photos – it’s not quite at the level of the cameras on the iPhone 11 or the Google Pixel 4, but it’s close enough for a gaming phone.

You’d need to look at shots side-by-side to pick out where the ROG 3 is lacking. For instance, the ROG 3’s main camera doesn’t quite reach the sharpness of the Samsung Galaxy S20’s, either with close-up details (like leaf edges) or distant detail in street shots.

Additionally, area around light sources can appear washed out compared to identical scenes shot with the iPhone 11 Pro Max, and nor does the camera capture the nuance between differently-lit adjacent subjects as well as the Google Pixel 4 does, in the clouds of a sunset, for example. 

It’s nice to see that  the 13MP ultra-wide camera takes photos that look similar in quality to those from the main camera, which isn’t always the case: some phones’ ultra-wide lenses have noticeably poorer low-light capabilities.

Don’t expect the ROG 3 to take good low-light shots, however, as its Night Mode only somewhat brightens dark scenes, and far less so than leading iPhone and Google Pixel handsets. 

The ROG 3 does, however, shoot video in up to 8K at 30fps through its main rear camera.

The 5MP macro camera works fine, taking reasonably well-detailed photos of close-up subjects. The 24MP front-facing camera also works just fine, adding respectable background blurring effects to portrait shots. 

Camera samples

Performance

• Snapdragon 865 Plus chipset and up to 16GB LPDDR5 RAM make it a powerhouse
• Geekbench scores outpace all but a couple phones
• No slowdown, no lag, no stopping this gaming beast

The Asus ROG 3 is the most powerful gaming smartphone out there at the time of its release. Between a Snapdragon 865 Plus chipset – one of the first phones to feature that processor – and either 12GB or 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM, the phone has better specs in this department than nearly any other handset on the market.

The result is smooth on-screen action and no hint of slowdown or lag, no matter how intense the gaming session or long the media binge session. 

The ROG 3 outpaced most other phones with its Geekbench 5 benchmarks, averaging a 3340 multi-core CPU score. But with the phone's performance-enhancing X Mode enabled, the results shot up to 3404 – outpacing everything but the OnePlus 8, which had comparable scores, and the current leader, the iPhone 11 Pro Max with a score of 3424.

The Asus ROG 3 features a mobile version of the Armoury Crate software found in its PC offerings, which allows for similarly granular control of gaming-related features. The options here are mostly for tinkering with gameplay enhancements for each game, though there are minute settings that let you tinker with general/overall performance and heat thresholds.  

The Asus ROG 3 comes with Android 10 out of the box, and it will be getting Android 11 when it comes out later in 2020, though it’s unclear if the phone will be upgraded after. It will get two years of guaranteed security updates, though.

Gaming

• Gaming features are neat but either have limited compatibility or have imperceptible effects
• AirTriggers and 144Hz are only compatible with a handful of games
• Even without tweaking, high specs mean no slowdown while gaming

So what’s it like to game on the ROG 3? We didn’t get a chance to play with the new Kunai 3 gamepads, nor with any of the docks or other fancy accessories, so we’re really just reporting on the out-of-the-box gaming experience – and it’s undeniably good.

The pixelated dark patches that pop up when your binge-watching media don’t crop up when you’re gaming – possibly because most games have brighter visuals anyway, but it’s worth noting.

Even before you start messing with the Armoury Crate settings, playing mobile games casually is enjoyable, with no slowdown. The complex cooling system – consisting of a graphite film layer, 3D vapor chamber, and a huge vapor chamber – keeps the rear of the phone from getting too warm, even over the duration of a 15-minute PUBG battle royale match – a session of similar length would turn the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus’ rear cover hot enough to be uncomfortable to rest your fingers on.

The AirTriggers can be helpful, but the process for setting them up is tucked away in the FAQ: in the middle of a game, you need to swipe in from the left to bring up Game Genie features menu, and tap AirTriggers to set the location corresponding to each shoulder button, along with which gesture (tap, swipe, slide, etc) you’d like to trigger.

Unfortunately, few games are compatible at the moment, meaning that we only got to enjoy the feature while playing PUBG. It was nice to be able to map an AirTrigger to fire our guns, but we still daydreamed about how much some slide-to-dash AirTrigger functionality could help us while playing Dead Cells.

The Armoury Crate features themselves are customizable, but the results of tweaking settings weren’t necessarily noticeable: we fired up Call of Duty: Mobile and boosted the performance all the way up, but couldn’t tell a difference, even after a battle royale. Either the phone’s specs were indeed that good, or we just don’t know how to push this phone to its breaking point. 

In other words, we had plenty of tinkering options at our fingertips, but often we just dived into games with default settings and they played just fine. No doubt there are players out there who could push the system to its limits, but I doubt there are many, if any, games available that could really test this phone. 

But that’s just the performance areas we noticed, and there are other advantages Asus claims gamers get with the ROG 3 that are nigh-imperceptible. The display’s 270Hz touch sampling rate and 25ms touch latency should, in theory, allow you to out-tap any other phone – including the Samsung S20 line and the OnePlus 8 line, both of which have 240Hz touch sampling rates. However, it’s hard to find comparable touch latency figures for those phones, so we can’t definitively say that you’ll game better on the ROG 3, but we didn’t perceive any latency. 

What we can say definitively is that this is the best time we’ve had gaming on mobile: aside from the seamless play, it’s nice to be able to charge the phone while you’re in the middle of matches, and not to have to worry about your fingers covering the speakers. And if you really want to get serious, the Kunai series of controllers, as well as the mobile docks, can elevate your gaming experience even higher.

Battery

• 6,000mAh battery unchanged since ROG II, but still colossal
• 30W charger in box refills 50% capacity in an hour
• New 'slow charge' mode to maximize battery health longevity

The Asus ROG 3 has a 6,000mAh battery, which is the same size as the one in its predecessor. However, that capacity is still larger by far than that of the power packs in most other phones, including the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra’s 5,000mAh battery.

As such, it takes a while to recharge the phone completely, even using the 30W charger included in the box. For instance, it took us an hour to juice the phone from 9% to 68%, so don’t expect to get back to full capacity quickly – not that you should expect to do so with so much capacity to fill, but plan accordingly.

Thankfully, that side-mounted port makes it easy to recharge while playing games – and no, you won’t accidentally shove the lead into the wrong half of the wide slot, as only one section accepts USB-C. 

Don’t get too excited, though: the ROG 3 doesn’t have wireless charging. Not only would this take up too much of the precious interior space needed for the large battery and components, it would have created extra heat that could have accelerated degrading of the battery, Asus claims.

The ROG 3 does have one interesting new battery feature: slow charging. Yes, you can deliberately drop the charging rate of the phone, and Asus claims this was actually a popular request from owners of prior ROG phones who didn’t want their batteries to decline as rapidly as they would if using fast charging (say, with the included 30W charger). You can also set a maximum level of charge – up to 70%, 80%, or 90% – which could similarly help to extend battery health.

Whether these are real enough issues to concern most users, Asus wouldn’t say, but they do provide the options for users who want them. 

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

First reviewed: July 2020

Two-minute review

 The Asus Zenfone 7 Pro is an improvement on its predecessor in every way, from better specs and battery charging to adding a crucial third lens to its flippable camera. But beyond the same shooters for both taking regular photos and selfies, the phone is a pretty standard Android flagship.

That’s not a knock on the Zenfone 7 Pro, but it does indicate how central the flippable camera is to its appeal and feature set. You’ll take better selfies in certain situations, especially when using the ultra-wide camera to capture more of your surroundings. While using the main cameras to take front-facing shots doesn’t automatically result in higher-quality pictures than in other phones, it does mean the Zenfone 7 Pro can take Night Mode selfies – and the difference is staggering.

Otherise, the Zenfone 7 Pro’s specs are competitive with other flagships: a 6.67-inch Full HD Plus AMOLED front display (no notch, no punch-hole), a large 5,000mAh battery, a Snapdragon 865 Plus chipset, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. 

If the 7 Pro has a secret edge on the competition, it’s in the perks inherited from the Asus ROG 3 phone released earlier in 2020, like advanced LPDDR5 RAM, a faster 30W charger included in the box, and the latest version of Asus’ gaming software. On the other hand, the phone distinctly lacks such modern features as wireless charging and in-screen fingerprint scanners (the 7 Pro’s biometric sensor is located in the lock button). 

These omissions don’t sink our opinion of the phone, though they may rankle some fans who have come to expect such features if they’re paying top dollar for their smartphones – and rest assured, the Zenfone 7 Pro does cost top dollar. 

What’s most disappointing may not be how the Zenfone 7 Pro stacks up to phones from other brands, but how it compares to the standard Zenfone 7 – which has the same cameras and only slightly worse specs for a notably lower price. While we couldn’t compare the phones side-by-side, on paper, they’re nearly indistinguishable, leading us to wonder what could justify the 7 Pro’s higher price.

Regardless, the 7 Pro competes ably with the Samsung Galaxy S20 and iPhone 11 Pro, though its appeal likely rests on whether the flip camera is worth avoiding some of the modern conveniences in those more recognizable phones.

Zenfone 7 Pro price and release date

The ZenFone 7 Pro was released in Taiwan on August 26 and Europe on September 1, although it's unclear if and when it will be available elsewhere.  The phone costs NT$27,990 (New Taiwan dollars), which converts to around $950 / £730 / AU$1,330. It comes in a single configuration with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. 

This pricing puts it well above the cost of the standard ZenFone 7, which starts at NT$21,999 (around $750 / £570 / AU$1,040) for the 6GB RAM and 128GB storage configuration. Given the minor differences in features between the two, it's a pretty big price gap.

The ZenFone 7 Pro comes in two colors: Aurora Black and Pastel Whit

Design

The Zenfone 7 Pro looks a lot like its predecessor, the Zenfone 6, just in a slightly bigger size. The display is larger, the flip-up camera has an additional lens, and there’s even less bezel on the top and bottom chin. 

The 7 Pro improves on its predecessor with some modernizing tweaks: the fingerprint sensor has been shifted from the back of the phone and integrated within the oversized lock button, which is mounted on the right side. Similar to other phones that have gone with button-based biometrics, like the Samsung Galaxy S10e, the Zenfone 7 Pro’s large button has some give, but is nevertheless accurate and fast in reading fingerprints. It takes some getting used to, though, and is easy to accidentally press.

The Zenfone 7 Pro is thick, though the back tapers down to a thinner edge to make it a bit easier to handle. But the sides are so thin they’re a bit tough to pick up when laying flat and it doesn’t feel totally secure to hold, as your fingers may curve around the matte metal sides to slip on the back’s glossy finish. 

The flip-up camera takes up an even bigger chunk of the top section of the back, but doesn’t feel large or weighty – when you pop it open by switching to front-facing camera mode, you can feel gears and mechanisms spinning in the phone. It won’t jostle your grip, though. It’s much quieter than the grinding buzz on the Zenfone 6, too, with a whirring beep that’s audible but not alarming.

The Zenfone 7 Pro is, however, weighty: at 230g, it’s heavier than the iPhone 11 Pro Max (225g) and most other flagship smartphones. We’re guessing the camera flip motors are partially to blame, though the sizable 5,000mAh battery likely makes up some of the bulk. You’ll feel the heft when you pick up the phone, but at least the slender edges keep the phone from feeling chunky.

Small shout-out to the Zenfone 7 Pro’s sound, which feels just as tuned as that in the Asus ROG 3: while the phone only has a single bottom-firing speaker, it produces remarkably nuanced audio. Heck, the default sound when locking the phone is a lovely ‘click’ with a slight echo that’s a pleasure to hear. Yes, I’m complimenting a lock sound.

Unfortunately, the 3.5mm headphone jack has been removed, so you’ll have to make do with audio solutions that plug into the USB-C port. Tidbit: there’s a small light on the left of the port that indicates battery life, blinking green when fully charged, yellow when it’s plugged in and charging, and red when the capacity dips below 10%. Neat, and out of the way enough not to be distracting.

Display

 The Zenfone 7 Pro’s notchless 6.67-inch AMOLED display looks sleek, especially given the rarity of smartphones with truly seamless screens. It’s slightly bigger than the 6.4-inch display on the Zenfone 6, but the reduced bezels make it look even more streamlined. True, there’s no in-screen fingerprint sensor, but that might be more of a personal disappointment (we like the biometric in the lock button) than a flaw.

And the 7 Pro’s screen is remarkably bright and crisp. Even if its Full HD Plus (2400 x 1080) resolution doesn’t quite reach the WQHD+ sharpness of the Samsung Galaxy S20 line, most of the content you’ll watch on Netflix and YouTube will be 1080p anyway. 

What is notable is the 7 Pro’s display’s 90Hz refresh rate, which has a pleasantly smooth scrolling experience, whether you're browsing your social media feeds or just sifting through apps on the home screen. It’s not quite the 144Hz maximum of the Asus ROG 3 or the 120Hz caps of the Galaxy S20 series, but 90Hz is a serious step up from the industry standard 60Hz, and it's especially welcome for playing games like PUBG Mobile and others that support higher refresh rates.

Cameras

 The Zenfone 7 Pro is more or less built around its flippable three-camera array, and while it’s novel to use the same cameras to shoot rear and front photos, this isn’t as much an advantage as we expected. The 7 Pro doesn’t always shoot better selfies than all other phones, suggesting that even when other handsets have inferior lenses and sensors, their photography benefits from better software tricks than Asus’ phone. 

Instead, the 7 Pro’s advantages are situational: using the rear cameras for selfies results in some great depth effects in portrait mode, and the ultra-wide lens is legitimately handy for capturing more surroundings. This includes night mode, which is as good as some of the similar modes in phones like the Google Pixel 4 and Samsung Galaxy S20 line – but since it’s using the rear cameras, the 7 Pro shoots far better-lit night mode selfie photos. 

The main camera is a 64MP f/1.8 shooter with OIS, while the ultrawide is a 12MP camera that includes a respectable but not industry-leading 113-degree field of view, and the 3x optical telephoto lens maxes out at 12x digital zoom. The zoom lens is the weak link, especially compared to the admirable 30x max digital zoom in the Galaxy S20; and unless you’re taking sneaky shots of something behind you, it’s questionable whether you’ll ever find a use for a front-facing telephoto lens. 

The main lens can record video up to 8K at 30fps, while the ultrawide can capture video up to 4K at 60fps. The photo modes that take advantage of the flip camera, like the subject-following motion tracking mode and auto-panning panorama, return as well. We didn’t find these terribly useful, to be honest, though the auto-pano does produce more evenly-edged widescreen photos than other phones.

Camera samples

Here's a few shots showing off the general capabilities of the Zenfone 7 Pro's cameras doing what cameras mostly do: taking basic photos in rear-facing mode.

Moving on, here's where the camera stands out: selfies!

And finally, night mode. Note the second photo – a selfie that outperformed every other phone's night mode selfie (Google Pixel 4 XL, iPhone 11 Pro Max, Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus).

Performance

 The Zenfone 7 Pro packs a Snapdragon 865 Plus 5G chipset, an Adreno 650 GPU, 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM, and 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage (expandable up to 2TB via microSD). It’s fast, it’s sleek, and it has run whatever we’ve thrown at it, from games to media to browsing shows.

The Zenfone 7 Pro runs Android 10 out of the box, and promises a year of upgrades. That’s noticeably less than the three year commitments that Samsung and other Android phonemakers are starting to promise.

The ZenUI 7 is one of the cleaner Android overlays we’ve seen, though there are plenty of additional settings to tinker with that Asus has added, especially with the battery. But since it’s Asus, the Game Genie center and gaming settings overlay is the most robust addition. From here, you can easily tinker with brightness, refresh rate, call silencing, and other helpful settings.

Battery

 The Zenfone 7 Pro’s battery may have the same 5,000mAh capacity as the Zenfone 6, but it’s still larger than the battery on almost every other phone on the market. In our testing, it easily lasted into a second day, which pairs well with the new faster charging.

As previously mentioned, the Zenfone 7 Pro comes with a 30W charger in the box, an improvement on the 18W charger that accompanied the Zenfone 6. Despite the massive capacity, we saw our 7 Pro recharge around 50% battery in just over half an hour, and go from 10% to 89% in 60 minutes flat.

Yes, the phone was a bit warm after fast charging with the 30W charger. You can avoid this heat, and prolong the lifespan of your battery, by enabling a software feature inherited from the Asus ROG 3: slow charging. Yes, you can set limits on how fast your Zenfone 7 Pro charges, as well as put a ceiling cap on how high it will charge to (80%, 90%, or 100%) – by Asus’ estimation, limiting to 80% over a two-year period only depletes the battery’s full capacity by 7%, while fully charging results in a 15% loss.

The Zenfone 7 Pro does make some concessions – notably, it doesn’t have wireless charging, likely to save more space for battery capacity, as has been the case for past Asus handsets. It’s not something that we missed given the much faster 

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

The Asus ZenFone 7 Pro and its slightly less powerful sibling, the Asus ZenFone 7, have been revealed – and they’re flagship-specced phones at mid-range value. 

Both phones improve on the ZenFone 6 in nearly every category: they both pack a 6.67-inch AMOLED display and a Snapdragon 865 chipset (Snapdragon 865 Plus in the ZenFone 7 Pro), LPDDR5 RAM, and UFS 3.1 storage – all a step above most other phones. The signature flip camera has been expanded, adding a 3x optical telephoto lens to the main and ultrawide cameras.

Just like with its predecessor, the ZenFone 7 line’s camera block flips up 180 degrees, allowing the rear-facing cameras to be used for front-facing shots, too. That means the new telephoto lens can be used for selfies, if one finds such a use for them. The 64MP main shooter can capture 8K video at 30fps, while the 12MP ultrawide (with 113-degree field of view) can shoot 4k video at 60 fps. 

• Best camera phones: will the Asus ZenFone 7 Pro end up here?
• Can the best foldable phones get better photo angles than the 7 Pro's flip camera?
• Check out the Samsung Galaxy A80 for a different take on flipping cameras

The differences between the models are slight: aside from the ZenFone 7 Pro getting the more advanced Snapdragon 865 Plus 5G chipset, it gets 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage (expandable to 2TB via microSD), while the ZenFone 7 has either 6GB or 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The less advanced sibling also lacks OIS in its main and telephoto cameras. 

Otherwise, both versions are pretty identical, which makes the price difference all the more glaring: the standard ZenFone 7 starts at 21999 TWD (around $749 / £570 / AU$1,040), while the ZenFone 7 Pro costs 27990 TWD (around $953 / £725 / AU$1,325). 

Both will be available in Taiwan on August 26 and Europe on September 1, with further availability yet to be determined.

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Just a few weeks after the launch of the ROG Phone 3, Asus is teasing the launch of its flagship ZenFone 7 series. The company's Taiwan YouTube channel shared a scheduled event video indicating that the launch will be on Wednesday August 26.

We've also seen Asus teasing the phone on Twitter, with the Asus Twitter account in Germany adding a "flip your world" ("flip deine welt") hashtag that makes us think the ZenFone 7 will adopt the same swivelling camera design as the ZenFone 6 that preceded it

Our final nugget of ZenFone 7-related news comes from respected leaker Roland Quandt on Twitter, who says that one model of phone will sell for 549 euros (about $655 / £495 / AU$900) – that's with 8GB RAM and 256GB of storage.

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Quandt also backs up some of the rumors we've heard already – that the ZenFone 7 will come running the Snapdragon 865 and with a 5,000mAh battery. He also hints at a model with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage costing 499 euros (about $595 / £450 / AU$820)

From what we can tell from Asus' short hype campaign so far, it looks as though the ZenFone 7 will largely be keeping to last year's design: so the flip-up camera that gets out of the way when you're not using it, and a no-notch design. 

Based on recently spotted regulatory filings, the ZenFone 7 is going to arrive boasting a 6.7-inch display, which is even bigger than the 6.4-inch ZenFone 6 – though if Asus has managed to shrink the bezels then the device might not be that much larger overall.

There's also been speculation about more powerful versions of the device – we could see as much as 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage offered on some of the ZenFone 7 models.

All will become clear at the official launch event on August 26. It appears that Taiwan will be the first market to get the flagship series, but we're expecting other Asian regions and Europe to follow soon after.

• Realme 7 series to be unveiled on September 1

The Asus ROG Phone 3 is the latest in a series of phones that pack the most cutting-edge specs to deliver a premium experience at high prices. This is against the trend of a gaming phone market swelling with more affordable mid-range smartphones, as well as flagship phones getting more and more advanced. 

How does Asus believe the ROG Phone 3 stand out? By offering the best experience and listening to fans. That's according to Asus executives, who sat down to chat with TechRadar about the ROG 3’s place in the 2020 phones market – and how the company tweaked its design to appeal to more than just hardcore gamers.

The first thing to notice about the ROG 3 is that it’s literally the same size and weight as its predecessor, but the look has slightly changed. The back cover, which had been criss-crossed by aggressive angles in the ‘gamer chic’ style, is now a clean back with far fewer lines and jagged edges. 

Indeed, its biggest single distinguishing feature is a modest window to the heat sink – a hint at the gaming power inside, rather than a visible declaration of it being a gaming device.

“If you look at it now, this generation is a little bit more subdued compared to the [ROG II], and some people feel that is a negative, and some people feel it’s a nice thing,” explained Chih-Hao Kung, global technical PR director for Asus’ mobile business unit. 

“How do we balance these two wheels, because they are so opposite to each other? Do we lean very heavily on stereotypically gaming aesthetics or do we try to make it more appealing to a wider audience?”

The subdued design Asus settled on was modeled after souped-up ‘supercars,’ Kung explained. The inspiration is obvious, with the heat sink window resembling the transparent cowls covering high-octane engines on the world’s fastest automobiles.

It certainly feels like a design shift for more mainstream appeal, yet it still suggests serious gaming capability under the hood – and the ROG 3 has more phone-equivalent horsepower than nearly any other handset out there. 

It’s one of the first to sport the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Plus chipset (achieving 10% better performance than the standard Snapdragon 865, according to Asus), packs an industry-leading 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM, and its OLED display’s refresh rate has been increased to 144Hz compared to the ROG II’s 120Hz screen.

In our experience, those specs make for some of the smoothest gaming we’ve ever had on a phone without a moment of slowdown. But appealing to both the hardcore gamers that make up Asus’ traditional market and the more casual phone fans introduces new challenges.

A more mainstream gaming phone

There are things hardcore gamers understand that casual players, who may be new to performance hardware, do not. For instance, heat buildup on the back of the phone can seem like the phone is working improperly.

“So internally, we had a lot of debate: should we make more isolated material to keep the heat inside, or should we let the heat dissipate outside?” said Shawn Chang, global sales and marketing director of Asus’ mobile business unit. 

“We still believed in the end that the user would like to have performance… the whole concept is that we wanted to make a supercar that looks like a supercar and performs like a supercar, but you can turn it off.”

Thus, the Asus ROG 3 hides some of its more intense heat and performance until users activate X Mode, the signature Asus ROG phone mode that enables particular tinkering of CPU, GPU, heat, and network settings. While Asus simplified some of those aspects to make it easier for newcomers to customize their gaming experience, it’s still a complex list.

This is the line in the sand that Asus is drawing: accommodating casual gamers, but preserving complexity to provide a premium experience for gamers who want to push limits. And it packs the biggest and best components to do so – often to a redundant degree, considering the phone has four Wi-Fi antennas and four microphones.

Selling top-tier phones in a mid-range gaming market

The extensive range of top-tier specs puts the ROG 3 somewhat at odds with other, cheaper gaming smartphones. In a market where mid-range handsets are half the cost of the ROG 3, there are clear differences.  

“What is their build quality? Are they really using glass on the front and back? Do you put a 30W charger in the box? How many frequency bands do they support worldwide? Do they support 5G across continents?”, Kung asks. “If you go for a lower price, you sacrifice these things. Which is fine – there’s [just] different ways to approach it.”

There’s no denying the clash of value as cheaper phones flood the market, and Asus was coy about outright stating how they could be sold at such low prices – about, perhaps, the disparity in production scale between the Taiwan-based Asus and other massive manufacturers.

Faced with that competition, the ROG 2 seems a success story that paved the way for the ROG 3. It’s not the only pricey gaming phone out there – the Lenovo Legion Phone Duel launched the same day as Asus’ new phone, and one configuration of the Xiaomi Black Shark 3 has arrived – but the company believes the extensive features and tooled software keep it surviving and thriving where the Razer Phone line failed.

“Why did the Razer fail when the ROG phone didn’t? Well, maybe that’s not up to us to know,” Kung said. “I would say the ROG phone is not a ZenFone or a standard flagship phone painted black with a light on it.”

Surviving in the gaming smartphone niche requires savvy choices, too. If you just listen to fans arguing on forums, you’d think the only things they care about are cameras and who gets to 200-watt fast charging first, Kung says. But that’s not what everybody wants, even if it sometimes feels like that.

Asus isn’t gunning to convince folks to replace their Samsung Galaxy S20 with a new ROG Phone 3. Reading between the lines, they’ve ceded photography to the biggest flagship phones. 

When 1.23 billion smartphones were sold last year, Asus’ team believes there’s a niche for high-end gaming handsets, and positive sales prove it.

“We have a ROG 3 because the first and second one did well. That’s the simple answer,” Kung said. “We can make it sustainable so far, and we do see demand increasing for every model. If anything, we were surprised by how fast inventories were depleting.”

• These are the best gaming phones right now

The Asus ROG 3 has officially launched, and it’s the top gaming phone to beat in 2020. But it’s also the first smartphone to pack the Snapdragon 865 Plus chipset, and its benchmarks prove it’s the fastest phone on the market.

The Asus ROG 3 is the latest in a line of top-performing gaming phones, though it’s also transitioned into a more mainstream look, with a seamless back and a few lines instead of the original ROG Phone’s multi-material rear. Don’t worry gamer chic fans, the ROG 3 still has its signature RGB-lit ROG logo in the center.

Snapdragon 865 Plus aside, the phone’s powerhouse specs include an Adreno 650 GPU, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, and a 6,000mAh battery. Sadly, the 3.5mm jack is gone – the designers had to make room for the 5G modem, so something had to go. If you want that headphone jack, though, you can always slot in the AeroActive 3 clip-on fan (included in the box). 

The phone’s improvements on the Asus ROG 2 are incremental but plentiful: the 120Hz display has had its refresh rate upped to 144Hz, while the AirTriggers – the touchpads on the side of the device that operate like shoulder buttons when the phone is rotated sideways – have been refined to recognize more gestures and even split the buttons into two sections for an L1/L2/R1/R2 experience.

The camera suite has been improved with a 64MP main shooter, 13MP ultra-wide, and 5MP macro rear camera, while it inherits its predecessor’s 24MP front-facing camera. The ROG 3 also retains the side-mounted USB-C-and-data port where all the peripherals clip in, but it’s also a convenient way to charge the phone while it’s turned sideways to play games.

• Best phone list: will the Asus ROG 3 unseat the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus?
• Best gaming phone: okay, it's probably a given the ROG 3 will end up here
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra: possibly the only phone with the specs to compete with the ROG 3

Asus ROG 3: a flagship among mid-range gaming phones

It’s no secret that the niche market of gaming phones is mostly made of budget and mid-range devices, mostly from Chinese phonemakers. The Asus ROG 3 is more of an anomaly these days, especially now that Razer has dropped out of the gaming phone race.

But in an interview with TechRadar, Asus explained how the ROG 3 differs: it’s a complete package. Instead of driving price down through economy of scale, Asus’ newest phone offers maximum performance, stated Asus technical PR lead Chih-Hao Kung. 

“Our goal is to provide a complete experience, as much as is possible for us, not just in terms of gaming but also on the more day-to-day side of smartphones,” Kung said. 

Take a hard look at other gaming phones, Kung suggests, and ask: what is their build quality? Are they really using glass on the front and back? Do you put a 30W charger in the box? How many frequency bands do they support worldwide? Do they support 5G across continents?

“If you go for a lower price, you sacrifice these things,” Kung said. “Which is fine – there’s [just] different ways to approach it.”

Look for our full interview feature tomorrow as we dive into Asus’ gaming phone strategy for the ROG 3 and beyond.

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Asus is expected to unveil the ROG Phone 3 later this month, which is set to be the latest in the company's line of gaming phones and a possible blunder might have just confirmed that it will be powered by an unannounced Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset.

The Asus ROG Phone 3 will launch on July 22, and it's expected to sport all the latest high-end specifications.

A tweet, which was quickly deleted but you can see a screenshot below, suggested that it will be powered by the rumored Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Plus that hasn’t been announced yet.

• Our review of Asus ROG Phone 2
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This is particularly interesting as the SoC was previously rumored to not even exist, but is now being talked about in the rumors for many upcoming devices. 

As the name suggests, it's said to be a faster variant of the Snapdragon 865 with the prime performance core clocked at a slightly higher frequency. 

ROG Global’s deleted tweet might be a case of sharing the information a little too early. It may also be that the information was incorrect, but it would be strange of Asus not to issue a statement if that was the case.

The tweet clearly stated “the latest Snapdragon 865” and the reference image also shows the Plus symbol. This spec doesn’t come as a surprise as Asus has always shipped the best possible chipsets on its ROG phones - sometimes in the form of a Plus model or by overclocking.

If the leaked Snapdragon 865 Plus benchmarks are to be believed, we’re looking at a peak frequency of 3.09GHz, followed by three Gold cores at 2.42GHz and four Silver efficiency cores at 1.8GHz. The GPU and modem capabilities might not change by much.

Asus might be looking to claim the bragging rights of being the first to the market with the Snapdragon 865 Plus chipset, but is soon rumored to be followed by the Lenovo Legion gaming phone and the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 series. 

With the ROG Phone 3 unveiling just about two weeks away, we expect more details of the phone to surface, officially or otherwise. It might also be joined by the Asus Zenfone 7, which will be the next member in its mainstream flagship lineup.

• The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 is set for August 5

Asus ROG phones are build for mobile gaming and unlike the first edition, the ROG Phone 2 had a lot of nifty tricks up its sleeve to make it a powerful all-round device that was well received. Now, the company is rumored to be introducing the Asus ROG Phone 3 in the next few months.

That new device may have just been spotted on Geekbench, and we believe the specs below to be for the Asus ROG Phone 3.

This Asus device bears a model number Asus_I003D, has Android 10 software, runs an octa-core chipset and has a mammoth 12GB of RAM.

• Our Asus ROG Phone 2 review
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A device with a similar model number was previously spotted on the same database with 8GB of RAM. This suggests that this new smartphone will at least be offered in two different variants, which was the same for the Asus ROG Phone 2.

Is this the Asus ROG Phone 3?

The listing also mentions the word “Kona” as the motherboard, which is the codename for the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865. That's the chipset we've seen in a variety of top-end phones this year.

Apart from this, not much can be made out of the listings. The sheer presence of these benchmark scores hint at an imminent launch though. That may mean we're set to hear more from Asus soon. 

Recently, Asus announced a partnership with Unity where it will be creating a custom plugin to offer next-level gaming experiences on its current gaming flagship ROG Phone 2. It also announced that it will be offering the same features on its next phone, but when we'll see that launch is currently unclear.

• These are some of the world's best gaming phones