Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro first impressions: old tricks, new design!

Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro Intro

Asus has, yet again, refreshed its line of cutting edge gaming smartphones — the new duo is the ROG Phone 8 and ROG Phone 8 Pro. And for the first time since inception, we have a major design change — a bit of a sacrifice, if you will, to bring the phone down in size.

The ROG Phone of today looks nothing like the ROG Phone of yesteryear — we have this thin, uniform bezel around the device now, and the edgy gamer aesthetics are toned down quite a lot. The regular ROG Phone 8 still has an RGB logo on its back, but the ROG Phone 8 Pro has a stealthy, low-res LED matrix back there that can either show simplistic logo icons or nothing at all.

The ROG Phone 8 will sell in the US from $1,099 for the 12 GB / 256 GB variant, and the 8 Pro, which we have here, will start at $1,199 for 16 GB / 256 GB, and $1,499 for 24 GB / 1 TB.

What’s new about ROG Phone 8 series

Table of Contents:

ROG Phone 8 Pro Specs

Fastest racer on the block

Asus ROG Phones have always had the crazy over-the-top specs and cutting edge hardware. And this hasn’t changed, even with the new facelift. The “base” tier ROG Phone 8 still has 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of UFS 4.0 storage. It’s all uphill from there — up to 24 GB of RAM for the most expensive ROG Phone 8 Pro!

Since inception, the ROG Phones have had a bit of a chin and forehead — housing the front-firing stereo speakers. Now, Asus has went for a more modernistic, compact look, with a super-thin uniform bezel all around. That would mean that the speakers moved to the commonly-seen setup with a bottom-firing driver and an amped earpiece at the top. 

The Pro version of the ROG Phone 8 comes in black and that’s it. It has a matte glass back with some very subtle accents, and a hidden LED matrix to display some basic information or the ROG logo when the phone is face down.

We have IP68 rating for dust- and water-resistance, which is a first on the ROG phones and — Asus says — a first on any gaming phone. And the ROG Phone 8 family now supports wireless charging, again — for the first time.

Charger and cable guaranteed (Image credit – PhoneArena)

The ROG Phone 8 Pro unboxing process is — as always — accompanied by a mini-game for new owners. The 1 TB / 24 GB variant we got had the AeroActive Cooler X fan inside the box. It’s definitely a smaller accessory than before — it now adds two hardware buttons instead of four, and the subwoofer that was on the AeroActive Cooler 7 is also gone. We’ll be seeing how it affects the overall gaming experience, though.

ROG Phone 8 Pro Camera

Asus steps up

The ROG Phone 8 Pro comes with a brand-new camera module on the back — a 50 MP main camera with a 6-axis gimbal stabilizer, a 13 MP ultra-wide camera, and a 32 MP 3x telephoto camera. We were already pleased with the ROG Phone 7’s above-average camera performance, so we are eager to see if the new telephoto lens and new stabilizer in the ROG Phone 8 push it even further.

ROG Phone 8 Pro OS / Android version

Tune up, game on (Image credit – PhoneArena)

There’s the new Enlarge Folder option for the home screen, which lets you store a bunch of icons in even less space, yet tap on them without opening the folder. And there are a bunch of Asus-made widgets with the gamer aesthetic to place around.

The ROG Phone 8 Pro will get 2 years of major Android updates, but 4 years of security patches. 

ROG Phone 8 Pro Battery

Still packs a powerbank

5,500 mAh dual cell battery, charged either from the bottom or side port (Image credit – PhoneArena)

The ROG Phone 8 Pro is a bit thinner and a bit lighter than before, but has a 5,500 mAh battery. That’s only 500 mAh smaller than the cell in the large ROG Phone 7. If software optimizations and the efficiency of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 play their parts, we shouldn’t see much deviation from last year’s stellar results. But we have to run the tests first!

The ROG Phone 8 Pro comes with its own 65 W charger inside the box. It utilizes dual cells inside the body, which will charge in parallel for optimized speed and battery health. Specs-wise, it sounds like it should be as fast at charging as the ROG Phone 7 and ROG Phone 6 before it. They were pretty quick and dependable, topping up in just shy of an hour.

ROG Phone 8 Pro Competitors

Not many Gaming Phones out there (Image credit – PhoneArena)

The ROG Phone 8 Pro starts at a price point, which feels… dare we say… normal for flagship phones these days. At $1,200 it finds itself in the range of the Galaxy S24 Ultra (assuming it keeps last year’s pricing model). And it does feel like it will be the main rival here — the Samsung flagship will supposedly come with its own Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 inside, and a camera that benefits from years of evolution and experience.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max will also be a big rival here. Sure, the iPhone doesn’t have gaming triggers or an external fan, but it does have games. Games like Resident Evil 4 Remake and Assassin’s Creed: Mirage are making their way to the iPhone 15 Pro series, and no other phone (at least not currently). Blinking lights and shoulder triggers can’t really beat a robust gaming catalogue.

Two swallows do not a summer make, but Apple has indicated that it intends to push into gaming with all of its devices. In the mean time, Android manufacturers haven’t revealed any similar partnerships with AAA game studios.

That said, we’d feel much more comfortable gaming on a ROG Phone for prolonged periods, specifically because of the availability of an active cooler and software tune-ups that have been designed for system torture. To this day, we still have the iPhone 15 Pro‘s early overheating issues on the back of our minds. 

*Pending testing and final review

ROG Phone 8 Summary and expectations

Game on… I mean, it’s time to review it! (Image credit – PhoneArena)