The Asus ROG Phone 8 took a step closer to being user-friendly last year with the introduction of an IP68 rating and the telephoto camera. But as for its gaming heritage, Asus sticks to it by turning performance up several notches with this year’s Asus ROG Phone 9 and 9 Pro.
Asus has now revealed their new flagship gaming smartphones; Asus ROG Phone 9 and 9 Pro, featuring a new processor: Snapdragon 8 Elite. The basic variant features up to 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM (9,600Mbps) and 512GB of UFS 4.0 storage and stands in direct competition with the Pro version, which at least breaks through its limits in capacities – up to 24GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. According to Asus, the Snapdragon 8 Elite is capable of delivering a 45% improvement in CPU performance, a 40% faster GPU, and a 40% faster NPU than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in the preceding ROG Phone.
Cooling has been upgraded in these phones with a 57% larger graphite sheet, meaning that the phones will run several degrees cooler than the 8 series. Then, of course, there is the still enhanced active cooling that does more than just keep temperatures low. Once again, high-quality first-party accessories make the ROG series stand out as one of the top gaming phones around.
It also comes with an AeroCase which can be optionally used with the Chill Case featuring “Audio Redirection” to redirect sound from bottom-firing speaker to the front. With the top-front speaker, the sound heard is an improved stereo sound.
The AeroActive Cooler X Pro takes it further with a built-in subwoofer, offering 2.1-channel audio. It’s a feature that has been seen on the AeroActive Cooler 7 but was indeed missing from last year’s Cooler X. The Cooler also boasts two physical shoulder buttons alongside the AirTriggers on the phone. Its cooling capabilities have been remarkably improved through larger fan blades (12.5% bigger) and greater thermal compound for 29% better cooling performance.
The 6.78″ AMOLED displays on the Asus ROG Phone 9 and 9 Pro carry over from last year, with FHD+ resolution, up to 1,600 nits of brightness in high-brightness mode (2,500 nits at peak), and 107% DCI-P3 color coverage. A new 185Hz refresh rate is also an option this year using Game Genie (165Hz was the option last year), supported on select titles.
There’s also a second sort of display on both models. Both the ROG Phone 9 and 9 Pro boast AniMe Vision, a grid of mini-LEDs that lets you customize the phone’s appearance. The ROG Phone 9 now includes 85 LEDs (a huge leap from four RGB LEDs on its predecessor), and the ROG Phone 9 Pro boasts 648 LEDs, nearly double the 341 LEDs of the 8 Pro.
The AniMe Vision on the Pro model has more than enough resolution to display Chinese and Japanese text. You can also upload GIFs for custom animations. But coolest of all? You can play games on the AniMe Vision display! It’s preloaded with four retro-style games-that work based on Breakout, Snake, Invaders, and one more-that you control with the AirTriggers.
On the practical side, the Asus ROG Phone 9 and 9 Pro pack 5,800mAh batteries, 300mAh more than the previous model. This upgrade ensures at least 4. 5 hours of heavy gaming on a single charge. Asus claims the battery will maintain at least 80% of its original capacity even after 1,000 charge cycles—roughly equating to three years of daily use.
Of course, there’s also fast charging via USB-C at up to 65W; wireless charging even reaches 15W. Again, though, the improved battery capacity slows charging speeds a few ticks – taking 46 minutes to go from 0 to 100% with a wired connection, compared to 39 minutes for its predecessor.
Both phones still pack a 50MP main camera using the 1/1.56″ Sony Lytia 700 sensor. Upgraded the 6-axis hybrid gimbal stabilization to correction of +/-5°, up from +/-3°. The back ultra-wide camera stays with its 13MP resolution, and the selfie shooter is still 32MP (with an RGBW sensor and a 22mm lens).
The big differences here are on the telephoto module. The Pro model retains from last year the 3x 32MP telephoto camera, which took down the 1/3″ sensor, while in the standard ROG Phone 9, it is completely absent and replaced with a 5MP macro camera. That’s even a step back from the ROG Phone 8, which had included a telephoto lens.
Both the models still retain the 3.5mm headphone jack that Dirac has tweaked for great sound quality. Dirac Virtuo binaural audio appears on both the handsets along with support for aptX Lossless, and is Hi-Res Audio and Hi-Res Audio Wireless certified.
Asus has also improved its software support policy, promising two OS updates and five years of security updates—one year more than the ROG Phone 8 received.
Pre-orders for Asus ROG Phone 9 and 9 Pro are open starting today while shipping begins the next day in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and mainland China. Shipments in Europe, including the UK, will start in December, while in the US launch will happen in January 2025 with further details.
As for the pricing, The Asus ROG Phone 9 starts at $999 while the Pro version will set you back at $1200.
Source: ASUS
