There’s something different about the Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro. The Asus ROG gaming phone line always surprises me with its distinctive style traditionally appealing to gamers. Yet, this year’s ROG Phone 8 series shocks me by how mainstream it looks. Gone are the spaceship-like white hues of the ROG Phone 6 and ROG Phone 7 and in comes a restrained matte black look — an understated appearance for a mature gaming phone.
The Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro now includes an animating mini-LED display.
The ROG Phone 8 Pro’s appearance might not stand out as much in a lineup of other premium Android phones, but once I actually used it, I could quickly tell it’s still a gaming phone. Unlike mainstream phones in this price range, the Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro includes a headphone jack. It also continues to offer two USB-C ports, one on the bottom and another on the left side, for two different attachments or to charge your device easier while holding it horizontally. This was particularly nice to have when plugging in my Xbox controller while charging.
That side USB-C port also connects the AeroActive Cooler X fan accessory, which no longer opens a door into the phone to chill the phone’s internal components. Instead, the ROG Phone 8 Pro has a sealed exterior to achieve IP68 certification to keep out water and dust, and the Cooler just chills the outside of the phone. Clipping the accessory to the phone does still feel like attaching a spider to help keep it cool. If you have the $1,200 model, that accessory costs $100, and it’s included with the $1,500 model.
The Phone 8 Pro does a nice job capturing photos and videos, with processing that’s assisted by artificial intelligence powered by its Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip. It’s early days for flagship phones equipped with the new AI-focused chip, and I find the other ways that the Phone 8 Pro takes advantage of AI to be more subtle. They include being able to perform contextual searches on the device, AI noise canceling on calls and text recognition inside of games.
To the right of the phone’s camera is an “Est. 2006” printing.
Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro design, software, gameplay
While at first the Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro looks like any other large black phone, the company includes a number of stylish flourishes including a new animated mini-LED screen on its back. Asus prints its Republic of Gamers logo, its “Dare to Win” mantra and an “Est. 2006” message like it’s a pair of Levi’s jeans. A fairly large camera hump houses a trio of cameras.
But the star of the phone is its animating AniMe vision mini-LED display on the back. While I’m sad to see the full color secondary display retire, the new display includes plenty of details that I’d love to see on more phones. For instance, by default the screen rotates between showing the time, your battery level and the ROG logo. The mini-LED screen can display a camera icon when you are taking a photo, a music visualizer when listening to music or custom animations that you can set up in settings. It reminds me of the LEDs on the back of the Nothing Phone 2, except this small screen allows for text and numbers that are easier to delineate than Nothing’s abstract light patterns. This screen can also be turned off if you don’t want all this blinking.
The AeroActive Cooler X attaches to the back of the phone to assist with cooling.
Using 3DMark’s 20-minute stress test when paired up with the fan attachment running at its highest cooling setting, the phone’s dashboard reported a temperature starting at 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) and ending at 44 degrees Celsius (111 degrees Fahrenheit). By comparison when I ran the test without the attachment, the phone started at 33 degrees Celsius (91 degrees Fahrenheit) and ended at a noticeably hotter 53 degrees Celsius (127 degrees Fahrenheit). It’s worth noting that 3DMark’s test is particularly demanding for any phone but could be a comparison for a gamer that’s particularly adept at pushing the limits.
Asus carried over other gaming-focused features from prior years, including a Background mode that can keep an app active even if you turn off the screen, an in-game dashboard to quickly access settings, the ability to customize settings for particular games and the new AI-grabber to scan text within a game. Asus suggests that the feature could be useful for quickly copying and pasting terms inside of a game and then searching the web for related guides.
Another of the Phone 8 Pro’s AI features is its noise cancellation feature for voice and video calls, which works across any service that makes these. This includes services like WhatsApp and within game chat services like Discord.
While these gaming modes are the main draw for the ROG Phone 8 Pro, the new redesign comes with a lot of perks toward how the phone looks and feels. It’s noticeably lighter than last year’s phone, coming in at 225g versus the Phone 7 Ultimate’s 246g. And by eliminating the top bezel of the phone, the Phone 8 Pro’s now 163.8mm (6.4-inches) tall, shorter than the Phone 7 Ultimate’s 173mm (6.7-inches). While Asus was able to keep the display size between the two phones the same, it’s worth noting that the front-facing camera now occupies a punch-hole space within the display much like other Android phones, which might not be great for gamers that prefer an uninterrupted view across their entire screen.
This version of the phone includes a minigame that interacts with its box.
The ROG Phone 8 Pro runs Android 14, and Asus plans to provide two years of major software updates and four years of security updates. While this is the same timeline as last year, Google’s Pixel 8 series is now including seven years of software and security update support, making the Phone 8 Pro’s timeline quite short for the price range. While the gaming phone audience might still upgrade their phones more often to have the latest chips, this is still a very expensive device that some customers may want to use for as long as possible.
Shrimp and avocado salad photo taken by Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro.
The grass wall in CNET’s office taken on the Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro.
Astor Place photo taken on Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro.
Arcade1Up cabinets in CNET’s office, snapped on the Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro at default zoom.
3x zoom photo taken on the Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro.
CNET’s TV lab — which is a lowlight environment with the blackout curtains — as taken on the Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro.
The Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro’s Night mode in a corner with practically no light.
When playing a game, the mini-LED display shows a “Game Start” animation.
Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro bottom line
The Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro is an expensive phone at $1,200 with only the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and iPhone 15 Pro Max coming close to that price, but if you are looking for a high-spec gaming monster that still feels like a sleek phone, it is comparably priced against what we’d expect from other high-end phones with 512GB of storage. Doubly so if you are looking for a media-focused powerhouse, thanks to its high refresh display, connectivity options, fast charging and headphone jack.
However most people who aren’t looking for a gaming-focused phone should wait and see what Samsung is planning to reveal with its rumored Galaxy S24 line and OnePlus with the OnePlus 12. Even though neither company specifically focuses on gaming, both make phones that readily play most mobile games, provide broader photography support and longer software update timelines.
That said, existing ROG fans and others who are drawn toward gaming phones will find a lot of ways to customize how they play games with the Phone 8 Pro. And its lighter redesign that helps it act more like a standard phone will make it all the more usable.
Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro Unboxed: A Unique Package for a Sleek Gaming Phone
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Article source: https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/asus-rog-phone-8-pro-review-a-gaming-smartphone-that-remembers-its-a-phone/#ftag=CADe34d7bf