While we wait for the official announcement to happen tomorrow where we get to know more details about its pricing, we had an opportunity to play around with the device a few days back. Based on that brief hands-on, here are 15 cool things about the all-new Asus ROG Phone 2.
The Asus ROG Phone 2, for the most part, features an almost similar design as the previous model. Except for the inclusion of all-metal frame design, compared to the plastic one on the original ROG Phone. The added metal frame adds a premium touch to the smartphone, which is what Asus has been aiming for — a premium flagship smartphone, with a hardcore gaming experience.
The ROG Phone 2 comes with an all-new Snapdragon 855+ processor with Adreno 640 GPU under the hood, making it the first smartphone to ship with a Snapdragon 855+ processor. Although its competitors (Nubia Red Magic 3 and Black Shark 2) and a few other flagship smartphones that launched recently include the Snapdragon 855 at their core, the Snapdragon 855+ improves the performance marginally and gives it a slight advantage over the 855. As part of the improvement, the clock speed of the Prime core on the Snapdragon 855+ processor has been raised from 2.84GHz to 2.96GHz to improve the single-threaded performance of the ROG Phone 2. And, a few changes in the GPU, claim to offer around 15 percent faster performance than the Snapdragon 855 counterpart.
Although the 7nm Snapdragon 855+ processor would dissipate less heat than the Snapdragon 845 on the original ROG Phone, the ROG Phone 2 still comes equipped with adequate heatsinks and air vents to keep it cool and prevent throttling during gaming. Asus claims to be using multiple heat sinks along with air vents on the back to keep the phone cool on those extended PUBG sessions.
The ROG Phone 2 comes with a 6.59-inch AMOLED display with Corning Gorilla 6 on top. Which, when compared to the older model, offers a larger display-estate area for an immersive gaming experience.
When compared to the previous model, the ROG Phone 2 features a bigger display with a comparatively sharper screen resolution — (2340 x 1080 vs 2160 x 1080) and a larger aspect ratio (19.5:9 vs 18:9).
Unlike the two other popular gaming smartphones, the Nubia Red Magic 3 and the Black Shark 2, the ROG Phone 2 gets the upper hand with its 120Hz refresh rate, which offers a better gaming experience compared to the 60Hz on Black Shark 2 and 90Hz on Nubia Red Magic 2. Besides, the display on the ROG Phone 2 also comes with a 240Hz response time, a 100,000:1 contrast ratio, 10bit HDR, and SDR2HDR support.
Keeping the gaming experience in mind, Asus has added a mammoth 6000mAh battery on the ROG Phone 2, which makes it one of the first few mainstream smartphones to come with a 6000mAh battery. The increased battery capacity is ideal for ROG Phone 2, which can offer fairly long hours of gaming experience, without having to worry about the charging.
Despite the humongous 6000mAh battery, Asus has done a good job of keeping the size and weight of the smartphone under a manageable-limit. And, thanks to its ergonomic design, despite weighing 240 grams, at no point in our usage did the smartphone feel too big or heavy for a gamers liking.
In addition to including a 6000mAh battery on the smartphone, Asus also ships the ROG HyperCharge adapter in the box, which manages to pump 30W of power over USB-C. The 30W fast-charger can take around 2 hours to fully charge the battery and around 58 minutes to charge it up to a 4000mAh of charge.
In terms of ports, the smartphone comes with a customizable connector on its side, which can be used for USB 3.1 Gen 2/DP 1.4[4K]/fast charging [QC 3.0 + QC 4.0/PD 3.0]/direct charge. Asus has also added dual vibration motors and 4 Wi-Fi antennas.
Unlike its previous model that included a physical rear-mounted fingerprint scanner, the ROG Phone 2 features an optical under-display fingerprint scanner, which is also one of the differentiating design changes.
The ROG Phone 2 sports a dual (48MP f/1.79 Sony IMX586 + 13MP secondary with 125° FOV) camera setup on the rear, and a single 24MP camera on the front. This is quite similar to the Asus 6Z smartphone which we loved earlier this year.
Along with a bunch of add-ons and improvements, the ROG Phone 2 also gets a few changes in the audio department. And, while it manages to retain the 3.5mm audio jack, dual front-facing stereo speakers with DTS:X Ultra, and Voice wakeup, from the previous model, it does get an upgrade, in the form of an extra mic, resulting in Quad mics with noise-cancellation.
Similar to improvements in audio, the ROG Phone 2 also comes with improvements in the vibration feedback, and instead of offering the ‘Advanced haptics’ from the previous model, it includes dual high-end vibrating motors XYZ axis, to deliver surround feel and better feedback.
The ROG Phone 2 also comes with support for a bunch of cool accessories like the ROG Lighting Armor Case, Pro Dock, ROG Kunai Gamepad, Aero Case, AeroActive Cooler II, and a few more. These accessories can be purchased separately and can be used to improve the overall gaming experience on the smartphone.
Availability
The Asus ROG Phone 2 is all set to launch in Beijing, China tomorrow. It is also expected to hit the Indian market soon. However, as of now, there is no definite timeline for the same. Stay tuned to TechPP for further updates.
