ASUS has finally announced the launch details for its gaming-centric smartphone, released under the firm’s Republic of Gamers brand.
The PC maker will hope to challenge the critically-acclaimed Razer Phone range when the ASUS ROG Phone arrives in the UK on December 14. Pre-orders for the 6-inch AMOLED handset begin on Friday November 16, with a £100 discount on the regular price of £799 for those reserving the device.
ASUS is claiming the world’s fastest sustained Snapdragon 845 speeds, clocked at 2.96GHz, plus Qualcomm Adreno 630 graphics and GameCool vapour-chamber cooling. The HDR display offers a 2160 x 1080 display with a 90Hz refresh rate (1ms response time), a wide 108.6% CDI-PC colour gamut and 10,000:1 contrast ratio.
There’s 8GB of RAM on board, as well as 128GB of internal storage.The ROG Phone also promises the latest connectivity tech, with Cat 16 LTE and gigabit-class 60GHz 802.11ad Wi-Fi. Gamers can also benefit from a large 4,000mAh battery and charging at up to 20W.
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To boost the gaming experience beyond the touchscreen, ASUS is also bringing a trio of ultrasonic AirTrigger touch sensors to the phone, for a more console-like experience. These buttons can be fully programmable to carry out any action that would normally require a screen tap. The phone also supports hi-res audio via headphones, promising a movie-theatre quality experience.
The company has also rethought the internals of the smartphone in order to enable users to cater for charging the phone while gaming in landscape mode. ASUS has added an additional side-mounted USB-C port that supports HDMI, gigabit LAN and headphones. The expansion port (below) also offer gamers a the opportunity to switch to a Mobile Desktop Dock and TwinView Dock.
The ROG Phone was first announced back in June at Gamescom, so it’s taken almost six months for the company to get it to release in the UK. You can snag one from Friday from the ASUS E-Shop.
In his first impressions of the device, from Gamescom, our own Alastair Stevenson wrote: “The ROG Phone looks like it’ll be a marmite device that’s perfect for gamers but a little ostentatious for everyone else. Even I, as a hardcore gamer, winced at the over the top design and slathering of RGB lighting.”
We’ll have a full review for you once we have the production version of the device.
Will you be rocking the ASUS ROG Phone to supercharge your mobile gaming experiences? Share your thoughts @TrustedReviews on Twitter.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
