Smartphone Asus ROG Phone II - advantages and disadvantages

The most powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus processor, impressive battery capacity, high level of cooling system, frame rate and sensor response are part of the top technical specifications that the high-performance gaming flagship Asus ROG Phone II is equipped with. This incredible device will surprise even the most demanding users.

On July 22, a closed presentation of Asus ROG Phone II for the Asian market took place in Taiwan. The flagship will appear on the European market only after the official presentation in September, at the IFA exhibition in Berlin.

top.htgetrid.com/en/ brings to your attention a detailed review of the most powerful gaming smartphone, with a description of all its pros and cons.

The main technical characteristics collected in the table

Asus ROG Phone II review

Equipment

The gaming smartphone comes in a matte black box, which has a very unusual shape. As far as we know, in the box, in addition to the device, there will be an external cooling system AeroActive Cooler II and an Aero Case.The kit will also include a charging block, a charger cable with a fabric winding, instructions, a warranty and a paper clip to open the SIM card slot.

Design

Asus ROG Phone II, like the first generation ROG Phone, has an unusual, brutal, even daring design. The front side attracts attention with the presence of a simply huge display, which is dressed in very immodest indents. Impressive indents are due to the built-in speakers of large sizes, which are located on the “chin” and “bangs”. Near the top speaker, the front camera is almost imperceptibly located, for which there is no separate cutout. The display is covered with 6th generation Corning Gorilla Glass.

Unlocking ROG Phone II is possible using the fingerprint scanner built into the screen. The scanner reacts with lightning speed to touch.

The glass back panel meets with beautiful patterns and notches, it is also protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 6. First of all, a block for the cooling system with a ventilation hole and a glowing logo catches the eye, the colors of which can always be changed in the settings. There is also a rear camera with a dual module on the back, next to it there is a dual LED flash and an LED that illuminates the logo on the smartphone cases.

On the metal faces of the device is:

• Above - a hole for 1 microphone;
• Bottom - openings for 2 and 3 microphones, 3.5 mm jacks for headphones and
  USB-C
• On the left is a SIM card slot and a second USB-C connector along with a dock charging slot;
• On the right is the volume rocker, the power and unlock button, and the 4th microphone. Sensory perforated AirTriggers of the second generation are immediately installed, with double vibration and a fast response of 20 ms.Triggers can be programmed for certain actions in games. Now AirTrigger II is able to understand side swipes and the situation when the user does not want to use the buttons for their intended purpose, but simply put their fingers.

Also, the smartphone boasts the presence of four Wi-Fi antennas, which provide high bandwidth and minimal latency.

Processor and video card

The gamepad is powered by Qualcomm SDM855 Snapdragon 855 Plus. The process was unveiled on July 15th and Asus ROG Phone II became the world's first smartphone with this impressive hardware inside. The single-chip platform has a 7nm process technology and runs on eight Kryo 485 cores, clocked at 1.8GHz, 2.42GHz and a maximum of 2.96GHz. While the maximum clock speed of the Snapdragon 855 cores is 2.84 GHz, which is 4% lower than the improved version of the processor shows. For artificial intelligence calculations and graphics, as in the previous version, Adreno 640 is responsible, but with a 15% increased clock frequency, which reaches 675 MHz.

The improved version of the processor is endowed with the following new features:

• support for virtual, augmented and mixed reality beyond VR and AR, using built-in tools;
• high speed of operations performed per second, reaching more than 7 trillion, which is possible due to the fourth generation of the multi-core processor module;
• support for Vulkan 1.1 graphics standard.

Memory and cost

The top performance of the device also depends on the type of built-in memory. The UFS 3.0 specification is used here. Asus is the third phone in the world to use this flash memory, which has a read speed of up to 1.5 Gb/s. The RAM is in LPDDR4X format.

Previously, it was assumed that the smartphone will have only one configuration, in reality, ROG Phone II will be available in 6 variants:

1. The basic, inexpensive version is equipped with 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of flash memory. This option will cost the buyer about $509.
2. A special edition of Enjoy Peace in Beijing with the same storage capacity as the base variant will cost $537. The difference between the Special Edition and the Basic Edition is currently unknown.
3. The third modification has 12 GB of RAM and 512 internal memory. It will be possible to buy for an average price of $870.
4. Enjoy Peace in Beijing, also with 12 GB + 512 GB, will cost $900.
5. The Extreme Edition will be released for $1,162. The amount of memory is still unknown.
6. The most impressively priced version is the Esports Armor, which will cost $1,900. The high cost is justified by the presence of accessories for games and a 30 W charger that comes with the smartphone and comes in a special case.

Display

The display of the Asus ROG Phone II can easily be called the best screen that is currently in smartphones. In order to make the phone as comfortable as possible for active games, Asus gave users different sizes of blanks in their hands, and after a survey, 95% considered the ratio of 19.5:5, 171 mm high and 77.6 mm wide to be ideal.

A huge 6.59-inch AMOLED display occupies 106.6 cm2 of usable area, or 80.3%. The screen is presented with a resolution of 1080 by 2340 pixels, with an aspect ratio of 19.5 to 9.

But the device received such a high title not because of the above characteristics. The highlight lies in the following points:

• The screen refresh rate reaches 120 Hz, the response time is 1 millisecond. This is the first smartphone in the world with such a high frequency.You can also use 60Hz and 90Hz modes;
• Incredible sensitivity of the touch layer, which is 240 Hz. Lightning response - 49 milliseconds;
• 108% coverage of the DCI-P3 color space. The display transmits sufficient image sharpness and is characterized by an ideal transmission of brightness and color;
• DeltaE color deviation is less than 1. These settings are ideal for professional monitors;
• Corning Gorilla Glass 6 protection.

autonomy

Initially, Asus manufacturers wanted to install an 8,000 or 7,000 mAh battery, but the need for large dimensions and weight forced them to decide on 6,000 mAh. The high capacity battery provides a whopping 7 hours and 10 minutes of non-stop gaming at the highest settings. And with standard use, the smartphone will last about 3 days without a charge.

ROG Phone II supports 30W Quick Charge 4.0 and ROG HyperCharg. There is also compatibility with a three-amp cable. It takes 58 minutes to charge 4,000 mAh, and 1 hour 40 minutes to charge 100%.

A large battery is not only a high level of autonomy, but also a long service life. Manufacturers claim that the battery will only lose about 8% capacity in 2 years, using a 30W charger.

Cooling system

For the ideal interaction of the declared top smartphone parameters, sufficient cooling is extremely important. ROG Phone II has a three-stage cooling system:

1. 3D evaporation chamber inside the device;
2. Heat dissipation, with ventilation holes;
3. External cooling system with the optional AeroActive Cooler II accessory.The nozzle is able to cool the back of the smartphone by 5 degrees, while working 4 times quieter than the first generation AeroActive Cooler. The noise level is only 24 dB.

cameras

The ROG Phone II has the exact same camera as the Zenfone 6.

The front camera with aperture f/2.2 has a resolution of 24 megapixels. The camera supports HDR format, portrait shooting is available in 6 MP mode.

The rear camera consists of 2 modules:

1. The first, the wide-angle Sony IMX586, has an aperture of f/1.8 and a resolution of 48 megapixels. The sensor size is 1⁄2, the pixel is 0.8 microns.
2. The second, ultra-wide-angle (angle 125 degrees) with f / 2.4 aperture is characterized by 13 megapixels.

Camera features

Main features and settings:

• support for HD, HDR +, Full HD, Slow-mo (high-speed), 4K (Ultra HD) formats;
• optical stabilization and dual LED flash;
• automatic panorama and night mode (multi-frame scheme);
• laser and phase autofocus.

Photo quality

In a smartphone designed for gamers, it is not necessary to have good cameras, because the main thing is high performance and autonomy. But the manufacturers of Asus ROG Phone II were able to surprise here too - the device shows a decent level of photo capabilities. Overall, images and videos are sharp, with a high level of detail, and good color reproduction. Focusing takes just 0.03 seconds.

The HDR+ mode performs well in sufficient light, otherwise the image will be a bit washed out. As for how the smartphone takes pictures at night, the night mode helps to achieve good quality here. But photos taken using 48 megapixels have a lot of noise.

Manual mode offers a wide range of different settings to help you get high quality shots. So, for example, after manually adjusting the focus point and depth of the scene, the user will receive an excellent, high-quality frame in portrait mode.

Interface

The device runs on Android 9.0 Pie with ROG UI skin. If desired, you can install a pure Android theme.

The characteristics of the smartphone already speak of incredibly high gaming capabilities, but the manufacturers did not stop there: ROG UI has additional optimization of the gameplay, providing a huge number of settings and functions. Here are some of them:

• game launcher Armory Crate;
• Game Genie mode, which blocks notifications and calls;
• custom management;
• phone tracking.

Sound

Asus ROG Phone II is not only incredible autonomy and performance, but also the best sound among all smartphones. Two huge stereo speakers and DTS:X Ultra provide perfectly clear and loud sound.

Accessories

Due to its size, the Asus ROG Phone II is not compatible with many first-generation ROG Phone accessories. Currently 5 accessories are known:

1. Cover with the possibility of duplicating the backlight - ROG Lighting Armor Case;
2. TwinView Dock II - an accessory with an additional second screen, its own cooling system and a 5,000 mAh battery;
3. Joysticks ROG Kunai Gamepad, which can be used by connecting to a smartphone, TwinView Dock II or as a full-fledged gamepad;
4. Mobile Desktop Dock - a docking station for using a smartphone as a full-fledged computer;
5. WiGig Display Dock Plus allows you to seamlessly display information from the display directly to the TV screen. And by connecting with the ROG Kunai Gamepad, you can get a full-fledged console.

Test results

Since Asus ROG Phone II has not yet been officially presented, the smartphone is not allowed to be tested on well-known benchmarks. But Asus conducted its own testing, where the following results are known:

• Throttling test shows 0% throttling;
• In the performance test with active games, fps reaches 98%;
• The response latency test result is 49ms.

Advantages and disadvantages of new items

• Unusual, brutal design with beautiful notches, patterns and back panel shining in the sun;
• In-screen fingerprint sensor;
• Back and front surface protection Corning Gorilla Glass 6;
• Luminous logo and LED for highlighting the logo on the covers;
• Large speaker grilles and four microphones;
• Touch perforated triggers, with fast response, vibration and new features;
• Incredibly high performance;
• Nimble flash memory and four Wi-Fi antennas;
• A variety of smartphone configurations with a large amount of memory;
• Huge display with amazing parameters;
• Large battery capacity with support for fast charging;
• Three-stage cooling system;
• Decent quality of photos and videos;
• High-quality sound and the presence of NFC.

• Lack of infrared port and wireless charging;
• There are fingerprint marks on the back panel.

Conclusion

Asus ROG Phone II is a device that impresses:

• high performance and advanced cooling system;
• high-quality sound and excellent photo capabilities;
• large battery capacity and lightning-fast response;
• an incredibly fast refresh rate, as well as many other incredible features that you learned about in our detailed review.