In the last few days everyone was talking about the mighty ROG Phone 2, which seems to be the world’s most powerful phone to date! Why this? Because its specs are top-notch and it pushes the envelope of what’s possible on a phone in 2019. Why is this important? Well, there are two reasons: first, because it manages to fit inside a rather conventional body, tons of hardware and this means that ASUS solved the issues with… let’s call it miniaturization and cooling. The second fact is that the species called “gaming phones” has now a good reference from where to start the build-up. In this article I will explain what all of those mean.
The first ROG Phone was launched last year and it didn’t just went unnoticed. It was nearly impossible. It’s design clearly inspired by “gaming” standards, high-end hardware, a 90Hz screen… all of those made an impression. But let’s just say that it wasn’t what we all saw as the ultimate mobile gaming platform. For example, the Razer Phone 2 just beat it, even in the screen department with a 120Hz display and better sound, as the Razer speakers were clearly better. Otherwise, similar phones with the same CPU and similar specs… even tough in most cases ROG Phone 1 was the better choice. At that time I also tested Xiaomi’s Black Shark and Pocophone F1, phones that were better deals, price-wise, but none really managing to replicate the ROG Phone. The latter had a pretty rich range of gaming accessories that made it stand out from the crowd. And now, let’s open this one and see what we find in the first hexagonal prism, that seems to serve as a reference to the monolith from Space Odyssey 2001. This matrioska system is quite interesting; like a box in a box. And this is The Matrix, next to the Aero Active Cooler 2, a cooling fan which I will talk about later.
Design
From the outside, this one looks like the first ROG Phone, with the unique gamer-ish Republic of Gamers look and feel. The veins and wire-like design looks like it’s trying to create a SCI-FI circuit look with all sorts of patterns, edges and sharp angles and a big illuminated ROG logo on the middle of the back side. The camera is placed inside an edgy shape while the LED flashes are placed oblique to keep up with the looks. On the front side, the phone seems to keep a classic and familiar approach , with no non-sense notches, perforations, pop-up cameras or any other kinky features. Two black bars up and down are bordering the screen and host the front camera and the speaker lines. There are also two lateral black bars but they are narrow enough to not become annoying, especially taking in consideration the phone size. Overall, this design direction of love or hate, is a bit too flashy or rough for some users, but it’s the exact thing others are looking for. That’s why I called it “divisive”. It can’t be unseen and it screams out loud: “Look at me! I am right here!” It is the opposite of discreet, minimalist; and that’s not a bad thing. Not at all. Don’t you think that all this Apple minimalism vibe is too mainstream?
Build Quality
From this perspective, ROG Phone 2 is the crown jewel. Glass and metal on all around, solid, robust and heavy. Nearly a quarter kilo of a phone; manly, exaggerated and opulent as a Ferrari Testarossa from the 80s. Gorilla Glass 6 on the phone for shock and scratch resistance, aluminum frame, glass on the back… This phone feels premium, well made, robust and heck, it’s good as a weapon in case of a fight. With other phones I meant as we don’t encourage violence. It’s not water resistant, but hey, neither the gaming PC or console are. It is a gaming phone with a clear purpose, with a lot of ports to attach various accessories, so the IP standard was not a priority when building it. What can happen to a gamer? Spill some Coke on it probably, but with this quality of construction I am pretty positive that it will get trough it with no problems. As a unique touch, this phone has on the side a proprietary port that looks like two USB-C put one next to another. With this, you can attach all sorts of accessories. We’ll speak about those another time. But there is also another advantage: you can connect a pair of ear-phones while the phone is charging.
Screen
Let’s talk about the screen which is clearly “la piece de la resistance”. Be warned, because this is where the ROG Phone 2 start to really shine: it has a 120Hz AMOLED panel, 6’6” wide with HDR and a 19.5:9 aspect ratio and a resolution of 2340×1080 pixels. This translates into an 80.3% screen-to-body ratio. If the FullHD+ resolution or the screen-to-body ratio are looking kind of small, let’s take a look at what really matters: the 1ms response time and the excellent 120Hz refresh rate alongside the coverage of 108% DCI P3 color range. Oh, almost forgot! 600 nits brightness, making it very usable even in broad day-light. This is a hell of a screen and it even has the fingerprint sensor integrated, a very useful thing that works flawlessly. It is a real pleasure to play on such a screen and I can see anything very nice thanks to its sheer size.
Specs and Performance
Please, take a seat as this will be a hell of a ride. We have the Snapdragon 855+, on one of the first ever phone sporting this 855 on steroids with a 2966Mhz clock and an Adreno 640 graphics chip clocked at 675Mhz. It’s still an 855, but overclocked and like 4% faster compared to the standard and in this particular case, cooled with a vapor chamber cooler and cooling holes, that we’ve spoken about water resistance. In addition to this, we can find inside the box this Aero Active Cooler 2, a cooling fan with blades redesigned for more efficiency. This one gets its power directly from the phone for those moments when you really want to game the heck out of it. Guys, we also have 12GB of RAM, twelve! Also there are two capacity options, 256GB or 512GB of ultra-fast storage. Some impressive specs and that’s why I said that the ROG Phone 2 is a behemoth which maximizes everything possible at this moment when it comes to hardware. How good is the gaming performance on this one? Incredible! I installed Asphalt 9 and PUBG Mobile and it’s working like a dream. Look! Despite the fact that we’re not yet allowed to perform benchmarks on this phone, because it’s not a commercial edition, we risked and did it. We still can’t tell you the exact numbers, that’s why we haven’t delivered a rating for it, but we can tell you that this is the world’s fastest Android phone. It’s the number one. Period!
Camera and Photo Quality
When it comes to the cameras, the phone is a good one. The main camera on the back is the same one from the ZenPhone 6, a 48Mpx with a Sony IMX 586 1/2 inch, 26mm, f1.8 sensor. Also on the back we have an ultrawide camera, with 13Mpx, with f2.4, 11mm and a 125 degrees angle and a 24Mpx front camera with f2.2. So, enough specs for this phone on the camera side, even tough it never pretended to be a phone oriented on this direction. The photos are ok and I don’t think I would wish more from this phone.
Sound
More than the camera, a gaming phone needs sound. Sure, you can play, and you will probably do, with a pair of headphones but this phone has stereo speakers, up and down which are loud and clear enough. I would say that it’s a fair fight between this and the Razer Phone 2, a phone that I declared the absolute winner of this segment. The fact that this is a big phone also helps because when you’re using it in landscape mode there’s enough space in order for the sound to be clear. The separation is very good, it distorts very little to notice and I consider it very cool for when you’re gaming or watching videos. I tried it. I loved the fact that I found a 3.5mm jack on it because this is a must on a gaming phone and I am sure you agree. Of course, you can always connect bluetooth or USB Type-C earphones, but gaming headphones use the classic jack.
Battery, Charging and Autonomy
I’m sure you’re thinking that such a screen with 120Hz refresh rate and this size, a powerful CPU and 12GB RAM are sucking up electricity like crazy… and you’re right. This is why this phone has a 6000MAh battery! It’s crazy! How the hell they managed to cram this next to the rest of the hardware and the cooling solution in a case that still looks like a phone?! God, I would really like to open it up! 6000MAh to game on this beast! Left me speechless.
Software: UI, Operating System and AI
We are running Android 9 Pie with ROG UI and of course, it runs buttery smooth but the thing I loved the most is the Game Genie software because it’s designed for gaming only. Inside of this you’ll find a full list of installed games, with an interface that reminds me more of a console with lots of controls that let you, well, control everything, from manual overclock to fan speeds. Gaming shit, in the best meaning of this expression. This can barely call itself a phone and ASUS haven’t backed down from anything in order to satisfy its fans.
Innovation and WOW Factor
You can’t say that this phone is an innovation from scratch as it look like the previous model. It’s not unique on the market from this perspective, but I will give it a 10 out of 10 when the moment comes just for the fact that ASUS managed to cram all this hardware and the huge battery inside it. And they even managed to cool it properly. While for the WOW Factor, 10 is not enough. It’s screaming cool, but this is exactly what this phone needs. Also, bonus points for the plethora of accessories it is compatible with.
Price-to-Performance
Easy but sure, we made it to the price point which I sincerely expected to be much bigger. The vehiculated price is around 900 euros, and at this price tag it wipes the floor with almost every phone that stands in front of it. I said almost, not any. Anyhow, it’s well spent money for a phone that pushes everything to the max.
Conclusion
And now, you’re probably expecting me to give it a rating. With the risk of disappointing you, I can’t do it and you’ll have to wait for the consumer model to be on the shelves. This will happen probably in September and I believe it’s gonna be even better than the one I’ve tested. How I got my hands on it? My business. You can only guess. I will end this with a subjective opinion. I think the selling point of this phone is exactly the Achilles Knee. The fact that it’s so exotic and out of ordinary will make a lot of folks to love it, but will also make some run away from it. This is not for the ones who want a powerful phone, but in the same time, something discreet, less flashy and opulent. In the end, everything comes down to the personal preference and that’s, you know, personal.
