Asus wanted to build not just the best gaming phone, but also an overall flagship – the Asus ROG Phone 8 series has been redesigned to be more pleasant to use as a daily driver. There are three versions of the phone (four, actually), though the differences are mostly cosmetic. The new ROG phone is thinner and lighter – it measures 8.9mm and weighs 225g, compared to 10.3mm and 239g for the ROG Phone 7. This comes with a drop in battery capacity to 5,500mAh (500mAh down), but optimized hardware offers nearly the same battery life as last year’s model.
The display measures 6.78” like last year,
but the new panel has slimmer bezels, though this comes at the cost of moving
to a punch hole camera (previously, the selfie cam was embedded in the top
bezel). On the plus side, the new model is a lot smaller at 163.8mm tall and
76.8mm wide, compared to 173.0 x 77.0 for the old model. The new display has a
165Hz refresh rate like before, however, it uses an LTPO panel so it can also
switch to a variable refresh rate between 1Hz and 120Hz. Peak brightness has
been increased to 2,500 nits.
Asus advertises the ROG Phone 8 as the
first water resistant phone – it is rated IP68 (up from just IP54 on its
predecessor). Gaming phones prioritize cooling, which means little to none
waterproofing. The ROG Phone 7 Pro had an AeroActive Portal that enabled
convective cooling, the 8-series uses conduction cooling instead.
This is done with a copper block that goes
through the motherboard and touches the back panel. Here, heat is transferred
to the air or better yet, to the new AeroActive Cooler X. It’s 29% smaller (by
volume) and 10% lighter, so it’s easier to carry. As a cooler, it has a larger
contact area (2.6x), runs the fan faster (1.1x) and has a higher thermal
efficiency (1.2x), which adds up to much better cooling. The chipset being
cooled is the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, of course. It can be configured with up to
24GB of LPDDR5X RAM and up to 1TB UFS 4.0. The base configuration is 12/256GB,
the middle one is 16/512GB.
In its quest to make the ROG Phone 8 nicer
to use throughout the day, Asus added 15W Qi charging, so you can top up at
airports and bars without plugging in. If you do go with wired charging, the
phone supports 65W HyperCharge and a 0-100% charge is done in 39 minutes. The
50MP main camera (1/1.56” Sony IMX890 sensor) now features a 6-axis Hybrid
Gimbal Stabilizer 3.0. Combined with new software it enables Super HyperSteady
Video mode. There is also a 13MP 120° ultra wide camera.
New this generation is the 3x telephoto
lens with a 32MP camera. It has OIS and 4-in-1 pixel binning (1.4µm pixels).
Going beyond 3x, there is 10x Hyper Clarity AI zooming and up to 30x digital
zoom. Super Night Mode is available for snapping photos in the dark. Note that
in some regions the ROG Phone 8 will have a macro camera instead of tele. The
ROG Phone 8 Pro and 8 Pro Edition models will have tele cameras in all markets.
The new front-facing camera has a 32MP sensor that is binned down to 8MP by
default (1.4µm binning). It has a wider 90° lens (up from 73°), making it
better at group shots.
Asus roped in AI to help you out in games.
For example, in Genshin Impact and HK – Star Rail you can enable Auto Pick Up,
Fast Forward, Running Lock and Auto press-to-escape. If you get stuck on a
puzzle, you can use the AI Grabber to automatically scan text on the display
and pull up the relevant part of a walkthrough. AI can also be used to generate
new wallpapers for the phone.
The 8-series has full support for
Microsoft Phone Link. This includes app streaming and screen mirroring, you can
also drag & drop files and copy & paste between the phone and your PC.
The Asus ROG Phone 8 is available in Phantom Black and Rebel Grey. It has an
RGB backlit ROG logo on the back. The ROG Phone 8 Pro and Pro Edition are
available only in Phantom Black and have a small OLED display on their backs.
The ROG Phone 8 will be starting from US$ 1,099 in the US with sales starting in Q1, but the exact date will be
confirmed later on. In Europe pre-orders open today - pricing starts at € 1,099
for the ROG Phone 8, the Pro is € 1,199 (16GB/512), while the Pro Edition costs
€ 1,499 (24GB/1TB). Deliveries are expected toward end of January.
