The days of having to choose between low-quality photographs and a strong gaming gadget are over.
For years, ROG Phone owners were forced to settle with mediocre camera quality to enjoy mobile gaming, and ASUS placed the blame on budgetary constraints. Simply said, it was a Zenfone for taking pictures or a ROG Phone for gaming. The massive Taiwanese IT company has finally had a change of heart as we approach 2024. The ASUS ROG Phone 8 and 8 Pro, which were unveiled at CES 2024, combine the greatest features from both worlds. They have the usual plethora of gaming aids in a completely new design, along with several noteworthy camera improvements that come from the Zenfone line.
More specifically, the OnePlus 11’s main camera and the 3x periscope camera on Oppo’s Find X6 Pro, TCL, and Realme’s GT5 Pro are powered by the same more efficient Sony IMX890 sensor as the new 50-megapixel f/1.9 main camera. Furthermore, ASUS also introduced the 6-axis hybrid gimbal stabilizer from the Zenfone line, which enhances low-light photography even further and provides a “Super HyperSteady” video mode.
A free-form lens helps the new 13-megapixel f/2.2 ultra-wide camera reduce distortion. A more useful 32-megapixel 3x telephoto camera with optical picture stabilization and pixel-binning (8-megapixel output) for increased sensitivity has taken the position of the previous 5-megapixel macro camera as the third camera. The 32-megapixel selfie camera, which is now a punch hole in the screen, is located on the other side of the phone and has a broader field of view, increasing from 73 degrees to 90 degrees.
The ROG Phone has seen a notable alteration in its appearance. The ASUS ROG Phone 8 has opted for compactness through decreased bezels (particularly top and bottom), body thickness (from 10.49mm to just 8.9mm), and weight (from 239g to 225g), in what ASUS refers to as the “Gen#3” design. This re-engineering allowed the company to add IP68 dust and water resistance, which is reportedly a first for gaming phones. This feature further enhances the phone’s suitability for daily usage.
ASUS ROG Phone 8
There are two styles for the ASUS ROG Phone 8 range. The standard model is available in “Rebel Grey” or “Phantom Black,” and it has an updated Aura RGB logo on the back. The primary distinction of the more expensive Pro flavor, which is exclusively available in “Phantom Black,” is its “AniMe Vision,” which is fueled by 341 white tiny LEDs. With over 20 preloaded animations, this dot matrix display can react to various events such as entering X Mode, receiving incoming calls, turning on, and more. Additionally, you may make your unique animations. If you happen to run into another ASUS ROG Phone 8 Pro owner, touching both phones together will reveal fresh hidden animations. (In case you were wondering, ASUS has officially stated that this time there won’t be an “Ultimate” edition.)
The ASUS ROG Phone 8 series has the best processor, thermal design, and display options available, which is not surprising. The “GameCool 8” innovative thermal solution, which includes a tiny rapid-cooling conductor to reportedly enhance thermal efficiency by up to 20 percent, comes combined with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 CPU. (You can go one step further and use the new AeroActive Cooler X attachment, which sacrifices two physical buttons in favor of a larger cooling chip.) Underneath both is a Samsung E6 flexible AMOLED screen, which has a peak brightness of 2,500 nits (up from 1,500 nits) and the same 2,448 x 1,080 resolution, 165 Hz refresh rate, and 720 Hz touch-sampling rate as before.
However, there are a few minor trade-offs. One change is that the battery is now 5,500mAh instead of 6,000mAh, however, it can still be charged to 65W for 39 minutes. The enhanced efficiency of the new processor and display, along with ASUS’s observation that the weight of the previous ROG Phones was a significant drawback, serve as its reason. Additionally, it had to make room for the larger, better camera modules. Nevertheless, this phone manages to incorporate Qi 1.3-compliant wireless charging functionality.
The audio section has also seen a minor decline. The top and bottom bezels have been reduced, so what was once two loud front-facing speakers are now one front-facing speaker and one downward-facing speaker. However, ASUS believes that Dirac’s tweaking can make up for this alteration. Speaking of, all headphones—wired or wireless—come with Dirac Virtuo spatial audio—3.5mm or USB-C included. Regarding phone calls, the ROG Phone 8 provides computational noise cancellation for voice input in a variety of situations, including traditional phone calls, instant messaging, and in-game chats.
For obvious reasons, ASUS’s iconic AirTrigger pressure-sensitive buttons are here to stay. Additionally, X Sense 2.0 is an AI pattern recognition technology that can automatically identify important screen events so that prompts can be sent out at the appropriate times. This function, for example, will know when to activate features in Genshin Impact such as auto pick up, fast forward, running lock, and auto press to escape. A future firmware upgrade is expected to include wallpaper generating, which is another AI feature, albeit one unrelated to games. Creating images offline will make use of quick stable diffusion.
Shortly, the ASUS ROG Phone 8 series will be made available for pre-order. The base model, which has 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, will cost $1,000 (an additional $100 will be charged at retail). Next in line are the $1,200 ROG Phone 8 Pro (16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage), and the more expensive $1,500 ROG Phone 8 Pro Edition (24GB of RAM with 1TB of storage, along with an AeroActive Cooler X that normally costs $100). Along with four years of security updates, all models will include at least two major operating system updates (starting with Android 14).
