The ROG Phone is an Android

gaming Gaming may refer to: Games and sports The act of playing games, as in: * Legalized gambling, playing games of chance for money, often referred to in law as "gaming" * Playing a role-playing game, in which players assume fictional roles * Playin ...

smartphone made by Asus and the first generation of the ROG smartphone series. It was announced on June 8, 2018 at the

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computer expo, being the first Asus smartphone to be targeted mainly to gamers. It competes with the

Razer Phone The Razer Phone (code name: cheryl, stylized as RΛZΞR PHONE) is an Android (operating system), Android-based phablet designed and developed by Razer Inc., released on November 15, 2017. While the device was designed mainly for Mobile game, mob ...

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Black Shark, and

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Nubia Red Magic.

Specifications

Hardware

The ROG Phone has a metal chassis with a glass backplate. The back of the device features an RGB-illuminated logo (In X-Mode or Gaming Mode and also adjusted manually), which can be user-customised to show different colours, similar to the notification lights found in the mainstream smartphone market. The phone is equipped with a

Qualcomm Snapdragon Snapdragon is a suite of system on a chip (SoC) semiconductor products for mobile devices designed and marketed by Qualcomm Technologies Inc. The Snapdragon's central processing unit (CPU) uses the ARM architecture. A single SoC may include mu ...

845 SoC with a 2.96 GHz + 1.7 GHz octa-core (4+4)

Kryo Qualcomm Kryo is a series of custom or semi-custom ARM-based CPUs included in the Snapdragon line of SoCs. These CPUs implement the ARM 64-bit instruction set and serve as the successor to the previous 32-bit Krait CPUs. It was first introduced i ...

385 CPU and an

Adreno Adreno is a series of graphics processing unit (GPU) semiconductor intellectual property cores developed by Qualcomm and used in many of their SoCs. History Adreno (an anagram of AMD's graphic card brand '' Radeon''), was originally developed ...

630 GPU. The memory is 8 GB in size (

LPDDR4 Low-Power Double Data Rate (LPDDR), also known as LPDDR SDRAM, is a type of synchronous dynamic random-access memory that consumes less power and is targeted for mobile computers and devices such as mobile phones. Older variants are also known as ...

), the internal storage can be chosen to be either 128 GB or 512 GB UFS 2.1. The display is a 6.0-inch

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, supported by a

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6 panel, with a 1080x2160 (402 ppi) resolution, a 1ms response time and a refresh rate of 90Hz. The

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port and 3.5mm

audio jack A phone connector, also known as phone jack, audio jack, headphone jack or jack plug, is a family of electrical connectors typically used for analog audio signals. A plug, the male connector, is inserted into the jack, the female connect ...

have been installed to the side of the device to allow a more comfortable gaming experience when using the device in landscape mode. It also features a 'vapor-chamber' cooling technology named GameCool which dissipates heat to keep the motherboard cool. The ROG Phone has IPX4 splash resistance and a custom double USB-C port which is used to connect the phone to its accessories.

Software

The phone OS is Android 8.1 Oreo with a modified Asus skin on top. The built-in sensors are a fingerprint scanner, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, and a barometer. Some areas of the edge are touch-sensitive and can be configured to mimic the additional keys found on traditional game controllers. The device also features a Nano SIM slot. The ROG phone features a so-called "X Mode", which optimizes gaming performance and restricts background apps.

Accessories

A line of unique gaming accessories were unveiled alongside the phone itself. The "AeroActive Cooler", which is attached to the back of the device, helps keeping the device cool by acting as an external cooling fan. The "TwinView Dock" is a handheld dock which provides a secondary screen for the device and the dock has a memory card slot that support SD cards up to 512GB, though mini or micro SD cards require a full-size SD adapter to fit into the slot. Other accessories include a mobile desktop dock, the Gamevice controller that gives the phone physical controls and a WiGig dock for wireless screen casting to TVs without built-in screen casting.

Reception

The Asus ROG Phone received positive reviews from critics. According to ''

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'', the phone was a great success due to high-end specifications causing gamers to use it for playing ''

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'' without lagging. It has gained some publicity for being the first smartphone with an external cooling fan.

References

{{Asus, computers=yes, tablets=yes, phones=yes, other1=yes, other2=yes, below=yes Asus mobile phones Android (operating system) devices Mobile phones introduced in 2018 Mobile phones with multiple rear cameras Smartphones Mobile phones with 4K video recording Dual screen phone