The Asus ROG Phone 7 is the company’s latest ludicrously fast gaming phone
AsusAsus ROG Phone 7 and its beefed-up sibling, the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate have officially been revealed. Here is everything you need to know about them.
Taiwanese brand Asus has launched its flagship gaming phones – ROG Phone 7 and Rog Phone 7 Ultimate.
Successor to the sixth-gen phones, these new Android gaming devices are in a league of their own. Everything from these phones’ design, specifications, and features are aimed at a niche user base. Asus wants to ensure that it offers nothing but the absolute best.
That said, the phone looks similar to its predecessors and is positioned strongly on the gaming side of things, even though it functions like any other phone. You can still find the secondary display at the back of the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate, and an RGB logo can be seen on the base model. While you might not find any practical use for both cosmetic features, the company believes gamers prefer these.
Asus ROG Phone 7 & Phone 7 Ultimate price and availability
- Asus ROG Phone 7 – 12GB + 256GB – £999
- Asus ROG Phone 7 – 16GB + 512GB – £1,199
- Asus ROG Phone 7 Ultimate – 16GB + 512GB – £1,399
The ROG Phone 7 is available in two color options – Stone White and Phantom Black. The ROG Phone 7 Ultimate will retail in a single white color. There is currently no MSRP for the US, nor any availability details.
The phones are available to pre-order on Asus’s official web store in the UK with an estimated delivery date positioned at the end of April. Pre-orders have launched in Taiwan, China, and some parts of Europe.
Asus ROG Phone 7 specifications and features
Asus- CPU: Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
- Display: 6.78-inch AMOLED, 2448 x 1080 and 165Hz
- RAM: Up to 16GB
- Storage: Up to 512GB
- OS: Android 13
- Cameras: 50MP Wide, 13MP Ultra Wide & macro lenses, 12MP front camera
- Battery: 6,000 mAh (2x 3000 mAh)
- Charging: 65W·
- Additional features: Dirac tuned speakers, Hardware supported ray tracing, AptX lossless audio, AirTrigger 7, X Sense and X Capture smart pattern recognition system, 3.5mm headphone jack, IP5X splash resistance
The ROG Phone 7 and ROG Phone 7 Ultimate are iterative updates and build on the excellent work done by their predecessors. The company has added many new features to improve the gaming experience and the best-in-class hardware specifications.
There is a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset coupled with up to 16GB of RAM at the core, a 6.78-inches AMOLED display supplied by Samsung boasting a 2448 x 1080 pixels resolution. The display is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus and supports a 165 Hz refresh rate. It has a speedy 720 Hz touch sampling rate, and up to 1500 nits of peak brightness.
While not much separates the two phones, the ROG Phone Ultimate has a secondary display at the back, customizable to up to six different profiles. It also gets a better thermal management system thanks to the AeroActive portal.
Asus says the phones have an intelligent pattern recognition system dubbed X Sense and X Capture that alerts you about in-game collectibles and captures your perfect kills for social shares. The phones also come with a couple of physical buttons called “AirTriggers”. The company says that these new Ultrasonic buttons now support up to 9 different gestures and can be customized to perform different in-game commands.
The phones also have hardware-supported Ray Tracing capabilities to offer an immersive gaming experience. But, don’t expect anything like Cyberpunk 2077’s overdrive mode. Asus touts that soon, AAA titles will be able to leverage the hardware capabilities of this new chipset and will be able to offer enhanced mobile gaming.
Asus has also announced the new AeroActive Cooler 7 – an external cooling accessory that comes with a built-in subwoofer and physical gaming keys for people who want a console-like gaming experience.
Should I buy the Asus ROG Phone 7?
AsusThe ROG Phone 7 lineup is potent for a smartphone. It does have the latest and the most powerful chipset at its core and is custom designed to offer a better gaming experience than most phones.
However, the phones are available at a starting price of £999 and go up to £1399 for the sole variant of ROG Phone 7 Ultimate. This is an extremely steep price, especially for a smartphone that only offers “better” mobile gaming than the rest.
This high price is justifiable if you are a serious mobile gaming enthusiast who prefers gaming on your phones, however. For most people, an iPhone 14 Pro Max or a Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra might be better options.
You may even want to have a look at some of the handheld gaming consoles in case portability and gaming are your priority.