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Asus’ latest gaming phone is thinner, lighter, and sprinkled with AI

January 08, 2024

Asus’ ROG phones have always been targeted squarely at gamers, but with the ROG Phone 8, the company could broaden the lineup’s appeal. The ROG Phone 8, ROG Phone 8 Pro, and ROG Phone 8 Pro Edition are thinner (8.9mm versus 10.49mm for the ROG Phone 7), lighter (225g compared to 239g), have better dust and water resistance (IP68 versus IP54), and also now include wireless charging at up to 15W — desirable features regardless of whether you’re a smartphone gamer.

The ROG Phone 8 lineup consists of the standard ROG Phone 8, the ROG Phone 8 Pro, and the ROG Phone 8 Pro Edition, which each differ slightly in design and specs. The $1,099.99 (€1,099.99 / £949.99) ROG Phone 8 has an RGB logo on its back and comes with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. Meanwhile, the $1,199.99 (€1,199.99 / £1,099.99) Phone 8 Pro has 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, and the $1,499.99 (€1,499.99 / £1,299.99) Phone 8 Pro Edition has 24GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. Both higher-end models come with LED dot-matrix displays on their backs. 

The ROG Phone 8 Pro in black flanked by two non-Pro devices in black and gray.Image: Asus

Of course, the main attraction here is still gaming performance. The phones have a conduction cooling system that uses boron nitride and copper to extract heat directly from the phone’s Snapdragon processor and dissipate it via the phone’s back cover. Asus claims its approach is 20 percent more thermally efficient this time around, but if you’re after yet more cooling, the company also has a new version of its AeroActive Cooler that you can strap onto the back of the phone to reduce its back cover temperature by up to a claimed 26 degrees Celsius (79 degrees Fahrenheit).

Since this is 2024, there are naturally some AI-powered inclusions. “AI Grabber” is a feature that’s designed to make it easier to search online for gaming walkthroughs by recognizing and copying in-game text. A screenshot from Asus shows how you might copy a mission objective from Genshin Impact to find a walkthrough for a particular mission, for example. Asus also says it’s using AI for better search results in the phone’s launcher, Gallery, and Settings apps, and there’s an in-development “AI Wallpaper” feature that’ll generate custom wallpapers using Stable Diffusion. 

The new AeroActive Cooler X, which is designed to reduce the phone’s temps.Image: Asus

All three ROG Phone 8 models are powered by Qualcomm’s latest flagship Snapdragon processor, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, with a 5,500mAh battery that can be fast-charged at up to 65W. Around front, there’s a 6.78-inch OLED display with a refresh rate of up to 165Hz, a peak brightness of 2,500 nits, and a hole-punch notch containing a 32-megapixel front-facing camera. Meanwhile, on the back, there’s a triple-camera array consisting of a 50-megapixel main sensor, a 13-megapixel ultrawide, and a 32-megapixel telephoto with a 3x optical zoom. 

Asus’ ROG phones are never going to be a top choice for non-gamers, but with the ROG Phone 8, they might feel like less of a compromise for a gamer torn between a gaming-focused smartphone and a more traditional flagship handset. It releases in February in the UK and Europe, with US availability to be announced at a later date.