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Asus ROG Phone – hit or miss?
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Announced at Computex 2018, the game-changing Asus ROG Phone, specifically designed for high-performance gaming, appealing to the niche market of hard-core gaming enthusiasts
AN EPIC GAMING MACHINE
Featuring the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor, 8GB RAM, and 512GB storage. A unique GameCool 3D vapor-chamber cooling system, ultrasonic AirTrigger touch sensors, a vivid 6-inch 1080p AMOLED HDR display with an ultrafast 90Hz refresh, 1ms response for smooth, blur-free gaming and 108% DCI-P3 gamut for vivid realism, as well as side-mounted ports optimised for landscape-mode, entirely created for an authentic gaming experience.
As far as specs go, the ROG Phone is without a doubt, one of the most powerful smartphones on the market, created with serious PC gamers in mind. A first glance at the specs, it might look like any standard high-end Android, but there are a few features that differentiate the ROG Phone from its competition.
- Processor
- RAM
- Display
- Cooling
- Battery
- Design
PROCESSOR
Equipped with the Snapdragon 845, a typical smartphone processor, but the one in this phone has been overclocked to 2.96GHz, just a touch faster than the stock clock speed of 2.8GHz. It may seem like a minor detail, but the extra 160MHz of processing power provides a bump in the overall game performance.
RAM
The ROG Phone also has 8GB of RAM, whereas standard high-end Android phones usually come with 4GB. Extra RAM allows for a smoother experience, which undeniably helps with game performance. There is also the option of switching your phone into X MODE, which frees up all the RAM to use for gaming, which further allows the processor to reach its optimum gaming performance.
DISPLAY
Rather than the standard 60Hz display that is seen on most smartphones, the ROG Phone feature a 90Hz display, meaning that the image can refresh itself 90 times per second (fps). Proving that this phone is made for gaming. The Razer Phone actually has a 120HZ refresh rate, which technically beats the ROG Phone. However, the ROG Phone has a superior AMOLED display compared to the regular LCD display on the Razer Phone. AMOLED displays can produce deeper colours and better contrast than LCD displays.
COOLING
The ROG Phone uses an exclusive 3D vapor-chamber cooling system: a copper heat radiator with carbon cooling pads attached to the circuit board. ASUS claims that this cooling technology is 16x better at heat dissipation over standard smartphone cooling, which should come in handy for sessions on both PUBG and Fortnite. And if that still isn’t enough, ASUS also offers an external AeroActive Cooler for an extra boost of cooling when the gaming gets extreme, which efficiency is maximised in X MODE.
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BATTERY
Let’s be honest, the game performance this phone advertises is incredible, to say the least, but what good is it without an extreme battery life? Thankfully, this phone is built to withstand power-intensive gaming demands and is equipped with a 4,000mAh battery, same as the Razer Phone. The ROG PHONE which supports Quick Charge 4.0, and ASUS HyperCharge technology. ASUS states that you should get seven hours of gameplay (over Wi-Fi) and that the device will charge from 0 to 60 percent in 35 minutes.
GAMER-CENTRIC DESIGN
In true accordance with gaming aesthetics, the ROG phone unsurprisingly becomes the first phone in the world to feature RGB lighting. The illuminated ASUS ROG logo on the back of the phone doesn’t just display all the colours of the rainbow, but can do so in different effects, like static, breathing, strobing or colour cycling. All these can be set to trigger with incoming calls, notifications and so on, which allows the user to give their phone a personalised touch.
ACCESSORIES
Designed around an accessory ecosystem, the ROG Phone can be placed into a mobile desktop dock, for those who want to connect to a full-size monitor, keyboard, and mouse for superior controls. This bridges the gap of using your smartphone as a gaming PC and gives you an extra advantage over opponents playing on their phones – phonopponents. The ROG Phone in the dock supports ultra-high resolution 4K monitors and smart TVs, which lets you stream games from the phone to the TV; pretty impressive for a mobile device. Another highlight of these accessories is the TwinView dock, which adds another beefy battery as well as a second screen, and gives the ROG Phone a unique console feel, not entirely unlike the look of the Nintendo DS.
MOBILE GAMING
This phone demonstrates ASUS’s big investment in the somewhat undefined market of gaming phones. Statistics from 2017 prove that it was a good year for mobile gaming., where mobile games - in the UK alone, achieved revenues over £1 billion and reports from Ukie showed that 47% of UK smartphone owners use their phones to play games. Even mobile eSports, something that might have sounded like a joke a few years ago, is becoming a trend in 2018. Tournaments around games like Clash Royale and Mobile Legends are drawing in thousands of viewers. We would be very surprised if there wasn’t a mobile Fortnite or PUBG championship based on mobile phones before the end of this year.
PRICE AND RELEASE
The price and release date of the ROG Phone and its suite of accessories is yet to be announced, but Asus has dropped some hints regarding a release for the third quarter of this year. Given these mad specs, one should probably prepare themselves for a rather steep price to go along with the uncompromising performance. That said, with the competing Razer and Xiaomi gaming phones on the market, the price might be more relatable than what we might think.
WORTH IT?
Of course, it is still too early to predict the success of this beastly specced phone, but we can only imagine that this gaming device will be a total game changer and Asus deserves a big round of applause for creating a phone which fully commits to its purpose.
Asus hasn’t just made a phone that appeals to dedicated gamers, but one that is almost necessary for anyone wanting to keep up with the gaming market, and the direction it’s taking. This might prove to be a very lucrative investment for Asus, indeed.
Whether it’s worth it or not, ask yourselves how portable does a gaming laptop feel in comparison now?
