ASUS ROG Phone 8 launched: A bigger Zenfone?

The ASUS ROG Phone series was one of the first modern gaming phone lines, bringing a ton of power, improved cooling, and gaming-specific features. Now, the company has revealed the ROG Phone 8, and it’s a departure of sorts from previous devices.

The ROG Phone 8 attempts to offer a more mainstream flagship experience. You’ve still got capacitive shoulder triggers, but the company has ditched the cooling vent and stereotypical gaming phone aesthetic seen on previous devices.

Instead, ASUS has opted for a slightly slimmer design that’s more in line with a conventional smartphone. The company is also bringing an IP68 design to the series for the first time (hence no cooling vent), so your phone should survive a drop in the pool. Toss in wireless charging support and it’s clear that ASUS seems to be targeting the general flagship audience rather than die-hard mobile gamers.

That’s not to say that the handset doesn’t bring some gaming-adjacent features, though. Aside from the capacitive triggers, you’ve got an improved cooling system, an RGB logo on the back, and support for the optional AeroActive Cooler X fan.

ROG Phones have long lagged behind the best flagship phones when it comes to the camera experience, but the ROG Phone 8 represents the Taiwanese brand’s most ambitious effort yet. The biggest addition this time is a 32MP 3x telephoto camera, marking the first time we see a tele lens on a ROG Phone handset. ASUS is also promising 10x “Hyper Clarity Zoom” and up to 30x digital zoom.

The ROG Phone 8 also brings a 50MP IMX890 main camera with the Zenfone line’s gimbal stabilization tech, as well as a 13MP ultrawide camera with a free-form lens for reduced distortion. A 32MP camera is available up-front for selfies, bringing a wider, 90-degree field-of-view.

ASUS ROG Phone 8: The core specs

The basic specs are suitably high-end in 2024. Expect a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset with an improved cooling system, a 5,500mAh battery (down from 6,000mAh last year), and a 6.78-inch FHD+ 165Hz OLED screen (2,500 nits peak brightness, 1,600 nits HBM).

ASUS is also offering loads of software features, such as full-fledged Microsoft Phone Link support (e.g. cross-device copy/paste, app streaming), Snapdragon Seamless support with future X Elite laptops, and Dirac Virtuo spatial audio support.

ASUS is no stranger to branding everything as “AI,” and the company is upping the ante with the ROG Phone 8. Expect features like AI noise cancelation, AI Semantic Search for more flexible system search capabilities, AI-generated wallpapers (via an update, working locally), and several AI-based gaming features. One of the latter features includes the ability to identify and copy text from a game’s screenshot (e.g. quest details) so you can quickly search for relevant tips.

Other features worth knowing include a 3.5mm port, Bluetooth 5.3 support, Wi-Fi 7-ready support, and a second, side-mounted USB-C port. Unfortunately, ASUS confirmed that the handset lacks eSIM support. That’s a real shame as eSIM has been a fixture on rival devices for a few years now.

The Taiwanese brand confirmed that the ROG Phone 8 has a recommended price of $1,099.99 for the base 12GB/256GB model. However, the phone has a pre-order price of $999.99.

Want more storage and/or RAM? Then the ROG Phone 8 Pro is a 16GB/512GB model for $1,199.99. Finally, the ROG Phone 8 Pro Edition brings 24GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, and an included AeroActive Cooler X fan.