Asus’ annual gaming flagship is always big news, but it can’t get any bigger or, as the case may be, smaller. The Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro is here and it’s more of a conventional smartphone than any of its predecessors. Even if a gaming beast still lives inside, that’s for sure.
The ROG Phone 8 packs a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset with a passive cooling system that features a fast-cooling conductor board with a layer of boron nitride. It dissipates heat from the SoC and can be further aided by Asus’ AeroActive Cooler.
Check out the ROG Phone 8 Pro next to its predecessor, the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate. It’s almost 10mm shorter while having the same 6.78-inch display (with matching aspect ratio). Asus pulled it off by removing the chunky bezels on the top and bottom and embedding the 32MP selfie camera into the display. The bezels are 71% thinner on the top and 14% thinner on the sides. This also means you won’t get a notification LED, but Asus thought about it and put an always-on notification where the LED used to be.
The ROG Phone 8 is also thinner and lighter than its predecessor, thanks in part to the reduction in battery size: the new battery is 5,500 mAh, up from 6,000 mAh. The good thing is that Asus promises similar endurance: 22.7 hours of Netflix streaming, 17 hours of Instagram browsing and 14.4 hours of TikTok streaming. We’ll tell you how the two compare in our full review, don’t worry. Finally, the 65W wired charging is supported by wireless charging support, for a total of 15W Qi 1.3. The Asus ROG Phone 8 is also the first in the long series to be completely waterproof (IP68).
The Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro next to the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate
The Asus ROG Phone 8 is available in two versions: the 8 Pro, available only in Phantom Black, and the ROG Phone 8, available in Rebel Gray and Phantom Black. The main difference between the two is RAM and storage: 24GB and 1TB on the Pro, up to 16GB and 512GB on the Vanilla. The other difference is the lighting on the back: the ROG Phone 8 has an ROG logo that lights up in different colors, while the Pro has an AniMe Matrix, which you can customize to display different messages.
ROG Phone 8 Pro on the left, ROG Phone 8 on the right
A third and final difference is the retail packaging. The ROG Phone 8 Pro comes with the new AeroActive Cooler 1.1x faster fan and offers 1.2x cooling area. increase in thermal efficiency.
The ROG Phone 8 Pro comes with an AeroActive Cooler
Finally, a word about displays and cameras. At the front there is a 6.79-inch AMOLED FHD+ E6 with a variable refresh rate from 1 to 120 Hz and a maximum refresh rate of 165 Hz for gaming. Meanwhile, the camera system is finally complete with the inclusion of a 3x telephoto lens: it’s a 32MP f/2.4 camera with optical stabilization that outputs 8MP. The main camera has a 50MP 1/1.56-inch imager, Hybrid Gimbal Stabilizer 3.0, and an f/1.9 lens. Finally, there’s a 13MP f/2.2 ultrawide to make this camera setup well-balanced.
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