News, specs, price, and release window

Asus might not give the Samsung Galaxy S24 and the Google Pixel 8 a run for the money. However, the ROG lineup should be your first choice when you’re looking for a gaming phone. The series packs powerful hardware and all the gaming features you might want. Most gaming devices are big and bulky, making them difficult to carry around. Gamers might accept this as a trade-off for owning a powerful phone.

Asus is changing this in 2024 with the ROG Phone 8 series. With a revamped design, the Phone 8 is sleeker than its predecessors, cementing its position as one of the best gaming phones you can buy. Are you interested in knowing more about the Asus ROG Phone 8 and its features? Read below.

Asus ROG Phone 8: Design and specs

Asus has given up on the over-the-top, flashy, and bulky design language that the ROG Phone series was known for with the Phone 8. The company’s latest gaming phone looks sleeker and has an understated design, as leaked renders from December 2023 revealed.

The biggest highlight is the switch to a bezel-less display. Despite the panel size remaining 6.78 inches, the Phone 8 is smaller than its predecessor. This is because Asus gave up on the chunky bezels. While you might appreciate the compact dimensions of the phone, this change led the company to remove the front-facing speakers. The Phone 8 Series now packs stereo speakers.

The Taiwanese company claims the ROG Phone 8 is 15% thinner, 17% smaller, and 9% lighter than previous ROG phones, making the device easier to carry around. You get this without sacrificing performance.

Another design upgrade on the Phone 8 is the IP68 rating. Asus says this is the world’s first IP68 dust and water-resistant gaming phone, ensuring you enjoy your gaming sessions even when you are out and about and it’s raining.

Asus toned down the rear design of the ROG Phone 8. The only flashy bit is the Aura RGB Lighting Logo. On the Phone 8 Pro and Pro Edition, you get a customizable341-element mini-LED display called AniMe Vision. You can set it to show one of the many preset animations or create your own. This display is invisible when not in use, helping the ROG Phone 8 retain its understated and stealthy design. The rear also houses an upgraded triple-camera system with better imaging performance than previous ROG phones.

The ROG Phone 8 has built-in AirTrigger controls, so your gaming experience isn’t compromised. You also get some wacky gaming and cooling accessories, which previous ROG phones were known for. This includes a redesigned AeroActive Cooler X, which is 15% smaller than before. Despite the compact dimensions, the accessory features a built-in subwoofer, physical buttons, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a USB-C port. Asus also sells a ROG Tessen mobile controller, letting you turn the phone into a handheld gaming console.

Asus stuck to a 6.78-inch FHD+ display on the ROG Phone for another year. This is a newer Samsung panel, which hits a peak brightness of 2,500 nits. It also dynamically adjusts the refresh rate between 1Hz and 120Hz, with an option to push it to 165Hz when gaming. The touch sampling rate goes as high as 720Hz.

As for specs, a gaming phone should pack the best hardware possible, and the ROG Phone 8 doesn’t disappoint. It uses Qualcomm’s latest and greatest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC with an upgraded cooling system offering a 22% improvement in thermal efficiency. Asus achieved this using a cooling system with boron nitride and copper to transfer the heat to the phone’s back.

The base ROG Phone 8 variant ships with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage. The Phone 8 Pro packs 16GB RAM and 512GB storage. If you want more RAM and storage, get the ROG Phone 8 Pro Edition with 24GB RAM and 1TB storage.

Previous ROG phones shipped with a beefy 6,000mAh battery. Due to the reduced dimensions, the ROG Phone 8 uses a smaller 5,500mAh cell. That’s still large compared to other Android phones. The phone supports 66W wired charging, and Asus added 15W wireless charging. Topping the gaming phone should be easy when it’s low on juice.

The ROG Phone 8 is covered from a connectivity viewpoint. The phone supports dual-SIM 5G, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.3, USB-C, NFC, and a 3.5mm headphone jack, with the lack of eSIM being the only notable omission.

Asus ROG Phone 8: Camera

Camera performance on most gaming phones is mediocre. Asus promises to change that with the ROG Phone 8. The phone has a revamped camera setup, featuring the Sony IMX890 50MP f/1.9 sensor for the primary camera with six-axis stabilization. This is accompanied by a 13MP f2.2 ultrawide and a 32MP f/2.4 3x telephoto, a first in the ROG lineup. The 32MP shooter uses pixel binning and can only output photos at 8MP.

It’s the same with the 32MP selfie camera. It captures photos at 8MP resolution. On the plus side, the camera has a wide 90-degree field of view, so you can fit more people in your selfies.

To showcase the imaging performance of its gaming phone, Asus hosted a blind camera test ahead of the Phone 8’s release. While the ROG Phone 8’s camera is unlikely to beat the best camera phones, it should capture better photos than its predecessor.

Asus ROG Phone 8: Software

Asus ROG Phones feature the company’s ROG UI skin on top of Android. Like the phone, the skin is optimized to deliver the best gaming performance possible. You also get access to Armoury Crate, which lets you customize and control every aspect of the phone, including the RGB logo on the back.

The ROG Phone 8 runs Android 14 out of the box with additional software features to help it stand out from its predecessor. Asus is capitalizing on the AI buzzword. Its latest gaming phone packs four gaming-centric AI features: Background Mode, X Capture, AI Grabber, and X Sense.

Other AI features on the ROG Phone 8 include Semantic Search in the Gallery app using natural language, AI Wallpaper, and AI-powered noise cancelation in voice and video calls.

Perhaps the only bummer on the software front is Asus’ promise of two major OS updates. This means Android 16 will likely be the last OS for the phone. Security patch support is better, with the company claiming four years of updates.

Asus ROG Phone 8: Price and release date

Asus typically launches a new ROG Phone in April every year. The Taiwanese firm moved the 2024 timeline forward a few months and announced the ROG Phone 8 at CES 2024. The phone was announced alongside other ROG-branded products from the company at the Las Vegas trade show.

Given the top-tier hardware that the ROG Phone 8 packs, it won’t be cheap. The entry-level model with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage costs $1,100. An additional $100 gets you the Phone 8 Pro with 16GB RAM and 512GB storage. If you have the money to spend, the ROG Phone 8 Pro Edition is available for $1,500 and comes with 24GB RAM and 1TB storage. Asus did not provide a release date for the US, but the phone will launch in Europe and the UK in February.

Asus ROG Phone 8 redefines what a gaming phone is

The Asus ROG Phone 8 redefines gaming phones with its sleek design. You no longer have to carry a big and bulky phone if gaming performance is your top priority. It even appears to pack an impressive set of cameras to help you to capture better photos. Given the significant design changes and the focus on usability, Asus’ 2024 ROG phone could again emerge as the best gaming phone of the year.