ASUS ROG Phone 8 Pro is a super gaming smart phone

The Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro is an excellent gaming phone with some of the quickest speeds on the market, but that is not what makes it unique. This is the first gaming phone that’s enjoyable to use daily, thanks to its sleek design, solid camera, and useful features like wireless charging and an IP68 rating. While we focus on the ultimate 24GB RAM and 1TB Pro Edition version in this review, we also have a stock ROG Phone 8 in the office. We’ll also reference it throughout the review because the two phones differ slightly.

The ROG Phone 8 has a new appearance this year, and it’s clear right away. Indeed, Asus claims that the ROG Phone 8 marks the beginning of a completely new series of ROG Phone products. The first three ROG Phone models (ROG Phone, ROG Phone 2, and ROG Phone 3) represent the first wave of more exploratory and experimental products as Asus tried to figure out what a gaming phone should be like. They were succeeded by the second generation (ROG Phone 5, ROG Phone 6, ROG Phone 7), which was distinguished mostly by refinement and new features.

Today, we are witnessing the third generation, pioneered by the ROG Phone 8. Asus offers a few priority or critical features for the third generation of ROG Phone. The main priority was to address the most common concerns or wishes ROG Phone users had about the device. As a result, it comes as no surprise that the camera section received significant advancements this year.

The ROG Phone 8 now supports Qi wireless charging. The phone is also certified for IP68 ingress protection, making it the first “gaming” phone with this feature. Of course, there are plenty of other parts of the phone and the Asus AeroActive Cooler attachment to discuss.

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ASUS ROG Phone 8 Pro KEY FEATURES

The ROG Phone 8 Pro is not a cheap phone by any means, but as a top-tier gaming phone that also competes with flagship phones, it is a unique prospect. Asus has advanced the ROG Phone design by leaps and bounds. It’s still not subtle, but it’s more practical and less ‘gamey’.Big, bright, responsive, and color-accurate, albeit now interrupted by a punch-hole cutout. The first gaming phone with a genuinely competent (but not top-tier) all-around camera system, including a dedicated telephoto lens. One of the quickest phones on the market right now, with plenty of RAM and powerful cooling. Relatively sturdy and uncluttered, with the possibility to move closer to stock if desired. Only two years of updates are promised, however. A little decrease in capacity and stamina over its predecessor and closest gaming phone opponent, but still a good performer.

ASUS ROG PHONE 8 PRO UNBOXING

First, let’s take a look at the luxurious retail packaging for the ultimate ROG Phone 8 Pro Edition, which includes the AeroActive Cooler X and one of Asus’ iconic over-the-top boxes. The box is huge and hexagonal in design. It opens from the side, with a latch kept down by a powerful magnet. There is a lot of space on the inside, but part of it is used in this generation’s out-of-the-box setup experience, which is a brief game built by Asus to demonstrate some of the phone’s features.

In terms of accessories, the Pro Edition bundle includes the AeroActive Cooler X as well as a carrying pouch. The rest of the accessories are a black plastic hard case or snap-on protective frame, a lovely braided USB Type-C to Type-C cable, and a ROG-branded 65W PPS PD charger.

If you do not go for the top-tier Edition and instead purchase a regular ROG Phone 8 or a ROG Phone 8 Pro without the cooler, you will receive a much plain two-piece cardboard box. It remains incredibly thick and strong, providing excellent protection for the phone. Furthermore, it is significantly less wasteful than the huge hexagonal box.

Even the basic ROG Phone 8 receives a very generous accessory package this year, including a plastic case in the same color as the phone, a USB Type-C to Type-C connector, and the previously mentioned 65W charger. So you don’t have to look for accessories and can start using your bright new smartphone right away.

CAMERA

After essentially carrying over the camera system from the ROG Phone 6 to the ROG Phone 7, Asus chose to make what can only be described as a significant update for the ROG Phone 8 series. The ROG Phone 8 and 8 Pro now have a new triple camera configuration that includes a dedicated telephoto lens instead of the previous macro shooter.

Let’s begin with a quick hardware tour of the new main camera. It is still a 50MP Quad-Bayer device, but the sensor has been replaced by a Sony IMX890 (formerly the Sony IMX766). The sensor is 1/1.56″ with 1µm individual pixels and a 2×2 OCL. It can generate a full 50.3MP resolution at 30fps. This sensor is mounted behind an f/1.9 lens and is outfitted with a new gimbal stabilization technology. The ROG Phone 8 has Asus’s innovative Hybrid Gimble Stabilizer 3.0 technology. We’ll go over it in greater detail later, but its standout feature appears to be the new Super HyperSteady video mode.

Next, we have the spanking new 3x telephoto camera. It makes use of a Samsung JD1SM15 sensor, sometimes known as the JD1, with a fairly large 32MP resolution. It is likewise a Quad Bayer device and takes 8MP photos by default. The sensor measures 1/3.14″ and has 0.7µ individual pixels. However, Asus advertises a binned 1.4µ size. The telephoto features 3x optical zoom and supports up to 30x digital zoom, with Hyper Clarity AI zoom marketed as up to 10x. The telephoto includes OIS and supports Asus’ Super Night Mode.

Finally, on the back, we have a 120-degree ultrawide camera. It appears to be a direct copy of the ROG Phone 7 and its predecessor, the ROG Phone 6. It uses a 13MP OmniVision OV13B sensor. It lacks features such as autofocus, which would have been useful now that the ROG Phone 8 no longer has a dedicated macro photographer. The f/2.2 lens in front of the ultrawide sensor is free-form, which improves edge sharpness and lowers distortion, especially near the frame’s edges.

The selfie camera on the ROG Phone 8/8 Pro isn’t particularly amazing in terms of hardware, but it’s a great advance over the ROG Phone 7 generation, thanks to the increased field of view from 73 degrees to 90 degrees. Aside from that, you get the famous OmniVision OV32C Quad Bayer sensor, which produces 8MP still images. There is no autofocus here, however the focal plane is relatively deep and forgiving.

Let’s have a peek at the 32MP selfie camera and its 8MP binned images. We enjoy how these appear and like the increased field of view. However, you may still use the 73-degree wide field of view or switch to a tighter 90-degree one. There is plenty of detail, and the skin tones appear natural. Other than that, the colors are slightly saturated, but not overly so. Dynamic range should be improved, but we can’t complain about what we’re getting.

Before we go any further, it’s worth mentioning that, while the ROG Phone 8 Pro only comes in one camera model internationally, the ordinary ROG Phone 8 has a variation designed particularly for India and several Southeast Asian nations that lacks the new dedicated telephoto and instead features a macro camera.

The ROG camera app’s user interface is fairly customized. We would describe it as impressively feature-rich without being chaotic.

DESIGN AND SCREEN

Asus appears to have gone back to the drawing board with the ROG Phone 8 Pro design, having realized that most consumers do not want a gaming phone in their pocket. Even among those who do, most would prefer that it did not resemble a prototype based on an 11-year-old sketch. Simply by looking and feeling natural and unobtrusive, the ROG Phone 8 Pro is a revelation. It’s still enormous by anyone’s standards, and at 8.9mm thick and 225g, it’s the same thickness as the Red Magic 9 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, but not much lighter.

However, its softly rounded edges, sober color tones, and the Pro model’s lovely shimmering finish make it appear and feel more like a phone you’d be comfortable whipping out in polite non-gaming company. The cringe-worthy ‘Dare to Win’ decals remain on the back, although they are written in small, dark letters this time. If you choose the Pro model, you will not even get RGB lights. In its stead, Asus has installed a small section on the back cover with 341 faint white LEDs known as AniMe Vision. These are turned off by default, and you wouldn’t even notice they were there. When turned on, they provide real-time information about the phone’s time, charging state, incoming alerts, and a few additional settings that may be configured via the Armoury Crate app.

Another design characteristic that makes the Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro more appealing to mainstream consumers is its IP68 certification. Finally, we have a gaming phone that will not stop working if dropped into water. To achieve that rating, Asus removed the large AeroActive Portal from the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate, which exposed the phone’s internals when the AeroActive Cooler was connected. The top variant of the ROG Phone 8 Pro includes an AeroActive Cooler X fan accessory, although it just draws heat away from the rear surface. To compensate, the cooling area has been increased 2.6 times, and the fan speed has been increased somewhat.

What may be more frustrating for some gamers is the loss of two mappable physical trigger buttons with the AeroActive Cooler X. You now only get two, instead of four. Another thing to note is that the Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro’s bezels have been significantly reduced, making it nearly 10mm shorter than its predecessor. This is wonderful for portability, but it means the display is now interrupted by a punch-hole selfie camera.

I’d rather have it than the Red Magic 9 Pro’s subpar in-display selfie cam option. However, if you’re designing a gaming phone, there’s an even greater case for keeping a slight forehead and chin in place. This would also make it easier to install good front-firing speakers, which are now missing. There is one in the earpiece, while the other is on the phone’s bottom edge, which can be obscured when held in landscape. These speakers still sound great and clear and can reach rather loud, but they’re augmented for separation and clarity by a teeny-tiny iPhone 15 Pro.

However, two key gaming design aspects have been kept. One is a set of Air Triggers, which are dedicated capacitive buttons located on the phone’s top edge. These may be mapped to controls in a variety of games, making them especially useful in competitive shooters and MOBAs. They can even be split in two, resulting in a total of four physical controllers.

Another gamer-friendly feature that has been kept is a secondary USB-C connector on the phone’s longer edge, opposite the Air Triggers. This makes it much more convenient to plug and play while playing landscape games. Yes, there is still a 3.5mm headphone connector for essential low-latency personal audio. Asus has upgraded the ROG Phone 8 Pro with a 6.78-inch E6 OLED display. It’s not particularly sharp at 1080 x 2400 (FHD+), especially when compared to comparable $1,199 / £1,099 Android phones, but I honestly don’t mind. It becomes incredibly bright, with a reported peak of 2,500 nits in HDR circumstances and 1,600 nits in high brightness mode, which activates when you go outside on a sunny day with auto-brightness turned on.

With auto-brightness turned off, I measured a maximum brightness of approximately 775 nits, which is good. The Red Magic 9 Pro, by comparison, could only reach 445 nits. I also found the ROG Phone 8 Pro’s display to be highly color-accurate and natural-looking, at least after switching from the default Optimal setting to Normal mode. This is an LTPO panel, thus it can scale from 1 to 120Hz in regular use depending on the use case, making it convenient and energy-economical while switching between non-gaming duties. However, in gaming mode, it may reach 165Hz. There aren’t many games that will go above 120Hz, but the ROG Phone 8 Pro is prepared for those that do.

HOW’S THE PERFORMANCE?

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 inside the Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro Edition is the best mobile chipset available in an Android phone right now. Furthermore, the phone supports the faster UFS 4.0 and LPDDR5x standards for storage and memory, respectively. To keep it cool during gaming, Asus improved its Rapid-Cooling Conductor design, which transfers heat from the processor to the rear cover. The AeroActive Cooler X is designed to help reduce the back cover temperature by up to 79 degrees Fahrenheit. Keeping everything cool leads to longer gaming sessions.

On Geekbench 6, a set of tests that measures raw computational capability, the ROG Phone 8 Pro Edition scored 2,236 on the single-core test and 7,000 on the multi-core test. Launching Geekbench 6 enables Asus’ X Mode, which prioritizes performance over other considerations like as battery life. For comparison, the RedMagic 9 Pro scored 2,263 and 7,187 on the same tests, indicating that the two phones offer comparable performance. When I connected the AeroActive Cooler X to the phone, the scores increased somewhat to 2,288 and 7,120.

The phone scored 20,833 on the PCMark Work 3.0 test, which measures common mobile workloads. The RedMagic 9 Pro got 20,782, demonstrating how evenly matched the two cell phones are. Adding the external fan to the ROG Phone 8 increased the score to 22,112. On the Basemark Web 3.0 browser test, the ROG Phone scored 850, which is higher than the RedMagic 9 Pro’s score of 730—but both are significantly lower than the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra’s score of 925.

To assess graphics performance, I conducted the High Tier Aztec Ruins test in GFXBench. The phone performed the test at 108fps, roughly doubling the RedMagic 9 Pro’s 60fps pace. I repeated the same benchmark with the AeroActive Cooler X and noticed a modest improvement: the fans increased and the phone reached 112fps.

All of these numbers indicate that the phone does exceptionally well when it comes to the heavy lifting required by many games.

The Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro Edition can handle resource-intensive games like Genshin Impact at maximum settings and 60 frames per second. I did not detect any frame skips or slowdowns. Unsurprisingly, less taxing titles such as Mario Kart Tour and Alto’s Oddysey performed smoothly. Furthermore, the screen, as well as the AeroActive Cooler X’s Air Triggers and shoulder buttons, respond quickly to input.

The phone is powered by a 5,500mAh battery (two 2,750mAh cells) that can charge at up to 65W cable or 15W wirelessly. The battery is less than the 6,000mAh cell in the ROG 7, but Asus claims the two devices have comparable battery life. The Pro Edition includes a fast charger in the box.

The ROG Phone 8 lasted 12 hours and 55 minutes in our battery depletion test, which included streaming HD video from YouTube with the screen set to full brightness. The RedMagic 9 Pro lasted over 12 hours and had 37% of its charge left. The ROG Phone performs similarly to regular Android flagships such as the S23 Ultra, which lasted 12 hours and 10 minutes.

It took about 50 minutes to charge the battery from 0% to 100% with the provided 65W charger. After 15 minutes of charging, the phone reached 34%, while 30 minutes pushed it to 69%. The RedMagic 9 Pro recharged fully in 45 minutes, while the OnePlus 11 5G charged even faster in 27 minutes.

Buy it if...

• The most toned-down ROG design to date, with broad appeal. Slimmer bezels and a significantly more compact body for the same display-diagonal.
• Proper IP68 ingress protection rating. A first for a gamer-specific phone. Both sides include Gorilla Glass protection.
• There are no more POGO pins on the side port, making it simpler and more reliable.
• Gorgeous 10-bit, HDR10+ AMOLED panel with 165Hz refresh rate and an enhanced peak brightness of 2500 nits. Now with LTPO technology and an adaptable refresh rate of 1Hz to 120Hz.
• Great battery life. There are numerous ways to extend the life of your battery. Very quick charging (65W charger included), and now with 15W wireless Qi charging.
• The flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset offers extensive performance tuning options.
• Excellent Android implementation, control mapping, and performance capabilities. Now equipped with AI noise suppression and semantic search capabilities.
• The main camera now has a telephoto lens and a gimbal stabilizer, greatly increasing its versatility. Solid daytime photos as well as low-light shots. Excellent selfie quality. A feature-rich camera app.
• Excellent video quality, amazing EIS, and the new Super HyperSteady stabilization.

Don't buy it if…

• The AirTrigger buttons are still present but have been degraded slightly.
• The display is no longer uninterrupted and now features a punch-hole selfie.
• In comparison to prior ROG versions, the speaker configuration is slightly degraded.
• AeroActive Cooler X is necessary to maximize the available hardware because the CPU is quick to throttle with it.
• The selfie and telephoto video captures were capped at 1080p.
• AeroActive Cooler X is also somewhat degraded, with only two mappable buttons and no built-in subwoofer. However, it is smaller and cools more efficiently.

FULL SPECIFICATION