Asus has today unveiled the ROG Gaming Phone in India – the first device under the company’s Republic of Gamers lineup that was introduced earlier this year at Computex 2018 in Taiwan. The device comes with a custom-clocked Snapdragon 845 Chipset with a super-smooth 90Hz display and dedicated gaming accessories and will be available for an asking price of Rs 69,999 as a Flipkart exclusive.
The ROG Phone as the device is referred to comes with a 6-inch FHD+ AMOLED HDR panel that has a high Refresh Rate of 90Hz and a response time of 1ms. Asus claims that the device covers 108.6 percent of the DCI-P3 colour gamut with a dedicated HDR mode for gaming.
Internally, the gaming phone comes with a custom version of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC, clocking in at 2.96Hz instead of the regular specced 2.8GHz clock speed. It’s coupled with 8GB of RAM and up to 512GB of onboard storage’s as to be sufficient for the high-end games that it’s designed to run. Additional features on the inside include a GameCool system that ensures the thermals on the inside doesn’t heat up using the copper heat spreader and 3D Vapor chamber embedded next to the chipset.
The ROG Phone has three ultrasonic pressure sensitive zones one of which works like the squeezing function on the HTC U11 and the Google Pixel 2 but however, activates a special X Mode. The X Mode is ASUS’ way to optimise the ROG phone by disabling background processes and services, activating the inbuilt cooling technology and turning the theme inside the phone to red indicating that extreme gaming smartphone can then be performed. The other two pressure sensitive zones are located at the two corners while using the device in landscape mode and can be re-mapped to a user’s choosing.
The ASUS ROG gaming phone pulls no stop at being a flagship smartphone of 2018 as it packs in a dual 12MP + 8MP camera at the back which is set up horizontally adjacent to each, not so far away from the rhombic-designed fingerprint scanner at the back. All of this is powered by a massive 4,000mAh battery which supports ASUS HyperCharge technology for faster-charging cycles.
| ASUS ROG Gaming Phone | |
| Processor | Snapdragon 845, clocked at 2.9GHz |
| Display | 6-inch FHD+ AMOLED, 1080 x 2160 pixels, 90Hz refresh rate |
| Memory | 128/512 GB, 8 GB RAM |
| Camera | Rear: 12MP (f/1.8, 1.4µm, 4-axis OIS, dual pixel PDAF) + 8MP; Front: 8 MP, f/2.0 |
| Battery | 4,000mAh |
| OS | Android 8.1 (Oreo) |
| Price | starts Rs 69,999 |
Along with 4G VoLTE, WiFi, GPS, NFC and Bluetooth v5.0, the ROG Phone also equips three USB-C ports – one on the bottom and two on the sides. The ports on the sides will allow users to play games in landscape mode without having to deal with an irritating cable that is sticking out from the bottom.
Not only does ASUS pack a whole plethora of accessories to sell its first gaming dedicated smartphone, but the Taiwanese giant has also gone on to create a whole ecosystem that works differently for different accessories and possibly future ROG phones. Below are a few add-ons to name a few.
Accessories:
TwinView Pedestal – If you wish to use a second screen for an immersive gaming experience instead of tactile buttons, the TwinView Pedestal gives you an additional 6-inch screen. Not only does the accessory allow you to use your ROG Phone as a Nintendo 3DS, but it also provides an extra 6,000mAh battery to the already 4,000mAh powered unit.
AeroActive Cooler – While ASUS sells all of its accessories for an additional price, the clip-on AeroActive Cooler is essentially a cooling fan for the device, the parameters to which can be controlled via ASUS’ dedicated app.
WiGig Dock – The 60GHz 802.11ad WiFi based dock transforms smartphones gaming into console gaming by letting you stream content and games on a TV.
Gamevice Gamepad – As the name reads, the add-on offers a gamepad-like dock which allows you to game using a bunch of mechanical keys on the Gamepad.
Mobile Desktop Dock – Probably the best thing to happen to a smartphone is the Mobile Desktop dock which takes some inspiration from Samsung DeX and allows the ROG Phone to be used as a Desktop PC. Not only can the dock be connected to an external display, it allows users to add a keyboard, mouse and other peripherals and also is backwards compatible.
TheASUS ROG Gaming Phone will be available for an asking price of Rs 69,999 as a Flipkart exclusive product in India. Additionally, the phone will be available through a no-cost EMI optionavailable at Rs 5,833 for 12 months.