Asus Announces ROG Phone 7 & ROG Phone 7 Ultimate Gaming Smartphones

There may already be many gaming eccentric smartphones on the market, but Asus wants the throne for itself. The company recently unveiled its latest ROG Phone 7 series of high-end gaming smartphones at its “For These Who Dare” virtual event. The ROG Phone 7 series targets enthusiastic mobile gamers. Asus has announced his two models for this generation, the ROG Phone 7 and his ROG Phone 7 Ultimate. Both devices share the same specs, but the Ultimate variant has some extra features that some gamers might be interested in.

The ROG Phone 7 series joins the Samsung Galaxy S23, OnePlus 11, vivo iQOO 11, and Xiaomi 13 Pro, which utilize Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 (SM8550) SoC. The 4 nm SoC is an octa-core consisting of 1 fairly large prime core (Cortex-X3), 4 performance cores (2 Cortex-A715 and 2 Cortex-A710) and 3 efficiency cores (Cortex-A510) Conforms to the design. Like most of its competitors, Asus will be using his vanilla SM8550 with a Kryo prime core and a clock speed of 3.2 GHz. However, Samsung’s Galaxy S23 lineup uses a special binning variant that reaches 3.36 GHz.

On the graphics side, Qualcomm claims that the SoC will feature the Adreno 740, which offers 25% more performance than the Adreno 730. The Adreno 740 also offers other exciting features like hardware ray tracing support and Vulkan 1.3 support. The base model ROG Phone 7 comes with 12GB of his LPDDR5X-8533 memory, while the higher-spec versions and the Ultimate have an increase of up to 16GB. Similarly, the base model phone comes with 256 GB of UFS 4.0 storage, which increases to up to 512 GB in more premium models. This is a huge upgrade to the ROG Phone 6’s storage, which started at just 128GB. Switching to new UFS 4.0 storage also improves sequential read speeds (technically 4.2 GB/s). However, as always, actual performance will depend on the underlying NAND used.

As for the design, Asus seems to think that if the ROG phone’s design works, it doesn’t need any drastic changes. To that end, the ROG Phone 7 series adopts a similar design to last year’s ROG Phone 6 series, with the ROG Phone 7 series only receiving a minor facelift. x 77 x 10.3 mm) and weight (239 g) are the same, making the ROG Phone 7 series’ dimensions roughly in line with the Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max or Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra ranges. The ROG Phone 7 is available in Storm White and Phantom Black colors, while the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate is only the former option. The smartphone has his IP54 certification, offering only splash resistance, not full waterproof/submersible, so owners should handle the device near water.

The ROG Phone 7 series is designed to have all the feel of a premium smartphone in terms of build quality and materials. It features an aluminum body accentuated by a dual glass design with The Samsung AMOLED HDR10+ screen measures 6.78 inches with a screen-to-body ratio of about 82%. The always-on 10-bit display has a resolution of 2,448 x 1,080 pixels and a pixel density of 395 PPI. The ROG Phone 7 series is a gaming smartphone that boasts a peak refresh rate of 165Hz and supports 10-point multi-touch and glove touch. Additionally, there is a hidden fingerprint reader under the display. The ROG Phone 7’s screen is very similar to the ROG Phone 6’s, but the newer has a higher maximum brightness (1,500 nits vs. 1,200 nits). Meanwhile, the Ultimate version of the smartphone also adds a secondary pOLED display on the back of the device. The small display allows consumers to show different animations to add flair to their smartphones.

The ROG Phone 7 is a gaming smartphone, but the device has some pretty decent camera settings. However, PDAF is the only means of autofocus. The ultra-wide camera, on the other hand, uses a 13-megapixel sensor with an f/2.2 aperture and a 120-degree field of view. The macro camera, on the other hand, is a 5-megapixel snapper with an f/2.0 aperture. Depending on the camera combination, the ROG Phone 7 can shoot 8K at 24 FPS, 4K at 60 FPS, 1080p at 240 FPS, or 480 FPS. It can provide 720p recording. Finally, the selfie camera is a 32-megapixel Quad Bayer sensor with f/2.5 aperture and 30 FPS recording capability at 1080p.

Asus has revamped its branded GameCool 7 cooling system to keep your ROG Phone 7 running cool. Vendors use boron nitride-based thermal compounds in their CPUs. Additionally, the cooler has a vapor chamber with six liquid return channels and graphite sheets for maximum heat dissipation. For longer gaming sessions, Asus recommends using the AeroActive Cooler 7, a powerful thermoelectric Peltier cooler that connects to your smartphone via a USB Type-C port. The dual cooling design can lower the temperature of the back of the smartphone and the touch panel. In addition to cooling, AeroActive Cooler 7 adds a small subwoofer and four ergonomically placed buttons to his ROG Phone 7 series. AeroActive Cooler 7 is bundled with the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate, but regular he ROG Phone 7 users can purchase it separately. Asus hasn’t shared the price of his AeroActive Cooler 7 standalone, but the previous version retailed for $99.

The smartphone has two 12 x 16 mm dual front-facing speakers, and the AeroActive Cooler 7’s integrated subwoofer allows gamers to enjoy a 2.1 audio experience. The smartphone still offers his standard 3.5 mm connector for connecting headphones.

Asus has equipped the ROG Phone 7 with a 6,000 mAh battery. This is the same capacity as his previous ROG Phone 6. The smartphone comes with a large 65 watt HyperCharger USB PD charger. According to Asus, the smartphone takes only about 42 minutes to fully charge. WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity are present thanks to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset. NFC is also supported. The ROG Phone 7 series I/O port candidate list includes one USB 3.1 Gen Type-C port and one USB 2.0 Type-C port.

Finally, running on the ROG Phone 7’s hardware is the latest Android 13 (Tiramisu), topped with Asus’ custom ROG theme. In this generation, Asus promises to give smartphones two major OS updates and up to four years of security updates.

For the first release of the ROG Phone 7 series, Asus is focusing on Europe, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Pre-orders have already started, and while Asus hasn’t announced a shipping date, it’s worth noting that pre-orders are expected to end on his April 30th. Meanwhile, the phone will launch a little later for North America and other markets, with a more loosely defined Q2 launch date.

European prices for the phone start at €999 (~$1,100) for the base model and €1,199 (~$1,325) for the larger 16GB/512GB versions. Meanwhile, the Ultimate variant of the smartphone costs €1,399 (~$1,550). Asus has not shared North American pricing for the phone, so information could be closer to the phone’s North American launch later in the quarter.