Asus ROG Phone 3: The Ultimate Gaming Phone?!?!

The gaming phone king is back to reclaim its throne. The “Asus ROG Phone 3” is, appropriately, the third Android gaming phone from Asus, and it’s the best one yet. The ROG Phone 3 is designed to deliver the ultimate gaming experience, with an overclocked processor, the highest refresh rate display you can get on a phone, and other hardware and software tweaks to give you an advantage in online play.

 

The ROG 3 sports 5G:

While gaming is the ROG’s main focus, it is also a 5G phone and will work on US carriers that offer sub-6 5G, which includes AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint. The area where I live doesn’t have 5G coverage, but we are excited to see how the battery handles those demands.

 

Asus ROG Phone 3, Specifications:

 

• Display & Design:

(Image Credit: google.com)

Glass body front and back, Aluminum frame 6.59″ AMOLED display with Full HD+ resolution (1080 x 2340 pixels); HDR10+; 144Hz refresh rate, 270Hz touch sampling rate.

(Image Credit: google.com)

 

• Camera:

Rear Camera: Triple, 64 MP primary lens with f/1.8 aperture & PDAF + 13 MP Ultra-wide-angle lens with f/2.4 aperture + 5MP macro lens with f/2.0 aperture.

(Image Credit: google.com)

Front Camera: 24MP with f/2.0 aperture.

Though the phone has the best camera array on any Asus ROG phone to date, the phone’s triple rear cameras are ultimately just decent. It’s not going to be named the best camera of 2020 or even close.

 

• Processor & GPU:

Octa-core 7 nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 865+, Adreno 650.

 

• RAM & ROM:

1. 8GB, 12GB, 16GB LPDDR5
2. 128GB, 256GB, 512GB (UFS 3.1) non-expandable.

 

• Battery:

6000 mAh, 30W Fast Charging; Quick Charge 4.0; Reverse Charging at 10W.

 

• Gestures & Sensors:

Fingerprint (under display), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass.

 

 

Gaming Accessories:

As with always, the phone comes with a whole lot of side accessories. Which of course will cost you a bit extra. Firstly, there’s a TwinView Dock 3 which adds another display for multitasking. Then there’s a mobile dock 2, ROG Kunai 3 Gamepad, Neon Aero Case, and a Lightning Armor Case. Finally, there’s the ROG Clip that allows you to connect the device to PS4, Xbox, or Stadia controller.

 

Asus ROG 3 is the most powerful Android phone:

The ROG 3 leaves all other Android phones in the dust. Its combination of that 865 Plus processor, 16GB of RAM (though there is also a 12GB version) and UFS 3.1 storage makes this an absolute monster.

When I put the phone into X mode (aka performance mode), it’s not only faster than every Android phone we’ve tested this year, I can use it for long periods for gaming without experiencing any dip in performance.

Asus said that we could test the performance of the preproduction ROG 3. So we did. My review sample’s software build is version number 17.0822.2005.11. Below are the results of our performance tests so you can see how it stacked up against a handful of Snapdragon 865-powered flagship phones.

 

The ROG 3’s other improvements:

Compared to the ROG 2, the ROG 3 makes solid tweaks and improvements to pretty much everything. It runs Android 10 with Asus ZenUI and there’s a dark mode too.

The phone’s detachable fan, which is called the AeroActive Cooler, now has a kickstand. And just like previous ROG phones, there is a second USB-C port/accessory port on the left side for horizontal gameplay. The ROG 3 comes with a 30W charger and you get three months of Google Stadia Pro for free.

I look forward to testing the Asus ROG 3 more especially when its final software comes out.

 

 

Asus ROG Phone 3 Price and Availability:

In the US, it will launch in September. Similarly, as for the European market:

• Asus ROG Phone 3: 12GB RAM, 512GB Storage — €999
• Asus ROG Phone 3: 16GB RAM, 512GB Storage — €1,099
• Asus ROG Phone 3 Strix Edition: 8GB RAM, 256GB Storage — €799