ASUS ROG’s 1st Gaming Phone Comes With 90Hz screen, 512GB & World’s Fastest Snapdragon 845
Taiwanese tech company ASUS has just revealed its first high-end gaming smartphone, the ROG (Republic of Gamers) Phone at Computex 2018 in Taipei.
Designed for mobile gaming, the ROG Phone features a 6-inch full HD+ (1080 x 2160 pixels) and comes with an 18:9 aspect ratio. Its AMOLED display blends a 90Hz refresh rate and 1ms response time. The display on the ROG Phone is also certified for HDR and has the DCI-P3 color gamut. ASUS has added the world’s fastest 2.96GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC coupled with a Qualcomm Adreno 630 GPU to the device. Besides this, the ROG Phone comes with 8GB of RAM, and 512GB of onboard storage (with two other options of 128GB and 256GB of storage).
The smartphone also comes with some unique features, such as the GameCool vapor-chamber cooling system along with detachable “AeroActive Cooler” for an extra cooling boost. It also claims to withstand blur-free high frame rates. The design of ROG Phone includes unique side-mounted ports and controls. It includes two programmable ultrasonic “AirTriggers” and advanced force-feedback haptics. The AirTriggers are highly sensitive buttons on the side of the phone that allows the user to play games without having to touch the screen itself.
The TwinView dock turns the phone into a veritable handheld gaming device with a second screen and more buttons. ASUS’ WiGig Dock is a console gamepad controller that fits on the ROG Phone, and it has gaming buttons and joysticks that console gamer are familiar with. It uses 60Hz Wi-Fi to connect to a larger display, and it can stream games from the ROG Phone to the TV. The handset can be switched to “X Mode” by pressing the two sides of the device, after which the screen will turn red and shut down background applications to optimize RAM when playing games. The company has also released a Mobile Desktop Dock (ROG accessory), which allows users to connect the ROG phone to an external 4K UHD monitor, keyboard or mouse.
The ROG phone is powered by a 4,000mAh battery, which the company claims to offer up to 7 hours of Wi-Fi gameplay and 11.5 hours of video playback over Wi-Fi. Further, the handset has two USB Type-C ports, of which USB 2.0 is on the bottom and supports 20W fast charging, while USB 3.1 Gen 1 is on the side that only supports 15W fast charging. ASUS says that the 20W fast charging using the HyperCharge tech will provide 60% of the 4,000mAh battery capacity in 33 minutes, or to 85% in just over an hour. In addition to HyperCharge, the ROG Phone is compatible with Quick Charge 4.0, Quick Charge 3.0, and USB-C PD.
The device runs on Android 8.1 Oreo with ROG Gaming UI. It packs dual front-facing stereo speakers, a dual rear-facings cameras with 12MP and 8MP sensors. For selfies, it is equipped with an 8MP camera. On the connectivity front, the smartphone offers Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ad, GPS, 2×2 MIMO, NFC, LTE with VoLTE, Wi-Fi Certified WiGig 802.11ad wireless display support, AGPS, Glonass, USB Type-C port, NFC, and 3.5mm jack. Sensors onboard include an accelerometer, ambient light sensor, compass, gyroscope, and proximity sensor.
ASUS said that the ROG Phone is coming this summer; however, they did not provide the exact release date or any pricing information.
