ASUS ROG Phone 2 is the best gaming smartphone ever made available so far, making it the top gaming smartphone manufacturer for the past two years. This smartphone is targeted for those who are crazily into mobile gaming and theoretically looking forward to join tournaments to win huge amount of money. We all know where there future is heading and the prize money for gaming is way more than rest of sports played out there, right? This is my take on the ASUS ROG Phone 2 after about 2 weeks of usage as my daily driver.
Design
When it comes to the design language, the ROG Phone 2 looks absolutely unique on its own. It can look bulky to those who are not into bulky and heavy phones. But for most out there, it is one of a kind and therefore something gamers would cherish to have. There is no notch as well as full-screen view. Overall a very attractive smartphone by ASUS.
The stereo speaker’s grill is better designed compared to before and in fact looks neater. It somehow seems to reduce the size of bezels with the screen being larger than the previous version. It is now 6.59-inch with Gorilla Glass 6. Not to forget the front facing selfie camera which is set at 24MP.
On the top, there’s the secondary mic while the bottom are the USB Type-C charging port. It supports ASUS’s very own HyperCharge. You are also getting the 3.5mm audio port as well as two more additional microphones.
Heading towards the left, there’s the additional USB Type C port for the accessories while on the bottom is the nano-SIM card tray which supports dual standby SIMs. On the right, there are the volume rockers as well as power button. For me the button placings are perfect as I have a big palm. Also not to forget- there’s the microphone as well as the AirTrigger V2 which supports sliding gestures.
Flipping the phone at the back, you’ll be amazed with the improved design that ASUS came up this time. The ROG Cooler which is built-in visibly looks well blended and suits the way how the smartphone is actually designed.
The rear camera now comes with a dual camera setup (48MP+13MP) as well as dual LED flash. The trademark RGB ROG logo is nicely placed as usual on the ROG phone lineups. Also, you’ll notice there is no fingerprint scanner on the back or front since the ROG Phone 2 comes with in-display fingerprint scanner.
Specification
The ROG Phone 2 comes with the latest Snapdragon 855+ processor,DDR4X RAM as well as UFS 3.0 internal storage. The smartphone that I have comes with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. There’s also a higher specification available which comes with 1TB of storage. There’s dual band WiFi(ac), NFC, FM Radio, Bluetooth v5 as well as USB OTG. The ROG Phone 2 supports high-res audio via the 3.5MM audio jack.
Out of the box, you get Android Pie (v9) and custom ROG Skin. You can also opt to choose a stock based theme instead of the ROG version. In terms of bloatware, ASUS have decided to not have those unnessary ones. Only visible to me will be the ASUS Data Transfer and Armoury Crate application which both is definitely useful. Since the higher refresh rate is one of the best part of the ROG Phone 2, you can opt to switch from 120Hz,90Hz or even 60Hz which comes as default for most smartphones. Always-on display comes bundled and pretty much very useful since I don’t have that on my OnePlus 7 Pro.
If you opt to navigate to the Advanced settings, you can find Mobile Manager which allows you to clear the clutter on the used RAM, Data Saver, Virus Scanner as well as Game Genie. AirTrigger can be customized with this application and you also have the option to do live streaming on social network.
Performance & Battery Life
The ROG Phone 2 which excel very well in terms of performance. No doubt the best spec-ed smartphone at the moment. The Snapdragon 855+ processor excels any other smartphone out there. 12GB of RAM is indeed an overkill, however it just helps the phone to perform better than those with lesser RAM. The UFS 3.0 storage also ensures there’s no space for any tiny hiccups. Playing COD most of the time and the load time, smoothness were way better than my OnePlus 7 Pro. This is proven because I did the comparison side by side and the ROG Phone 2 also beats the loading time on the iPhone X which my friend has. Lastly, the amount of storage you have on the ROG Phone 2 can also tempt you to actually use it as a harddisk.
In terms of battery capacity, the ROG Phone 2 comes with 6000mAh non-removable type battery. You can also play games while it is charging and with very minimal heating that you can feel, thanks to the cooling hardware made available. The 30W charger which supports Quick Charge 4.0 ensures there’s also no wasting time specifically for charging. Good job ASUS as this is surely the best gaming smartphone ever made! I even managed to get up to 12 hours of screen on time with mixed usage and all the way on 120Hz refresh rate.
Camera
The dual cameras on the ROG Phone 2 is no the best camera available and certainly not the selling point of this phone. However, the primary+ wide angle secondary camera setup is indeed a wise choise. Thank god they did not go with 2x or 3x optical zoom which probably would have killed the camera. The photos are okay especially during the day and with proper lighting. Low-light shots with the night mode are okay but it just tends to get too noisy at times. Plus point is you can shoot 4K videos and can fully utilize the hefty storage given to you. There’s no OIS But comes with EIS as standard.
The front selfie camera is decent and in fact way better than most smartphones out there. Not as good as the one I have on my OnePlus 7 Pro but certainly not too far.
Conclusion
If you are a true gamer, please do not hesitate to spend your bucks for the ROG Phone 2. This is definitely the best purchase for any gamers out there. It has plenty of crazy accessories that you can fully utilize such as the Kunai Gamepad.
The ASUS ROG Phone 2 is priced at RM 3499 and RM4499 respectively for 512GB and 1TB versions. Both comes bundled with free AeroActive Cooler 2 as well as Aero Case which costs RM249 and RM149 respectively.