Asus ROG Phone II Review: Thick and powerful

I've been spending some quality time with the Asus ROG Phone 2, the Taiwanese company'southward latest gaming handset.

While I was initially impartial to the device, I quickly grew to like and respect it. The ROG Phone II looks and feels similar a gaming telephone, just the experience it offers is smooth, quick, and whatever Android user should have no trouble using information technology.

That said, this review comes with a alarm: the ROG Phone Ii isn't widely bachelor in Canada.

You can only buy the phone through Amazon Canada, and the link to buy the handset provided by Asus offers the device for $1,432 CAD. Since it'southward simply bachelor in Canada through Amazon, information technology means there'south no way to finance the ROG Phone Two through a carrier. And while there are more affordable listings on Amazon Canada, they're not officially from Asus Canada.

The ROG Phone Two is a pleasance to use, but very few smartphones — if whatsoever at all — are worth $1,432 outright.

Display

6.59-inch, AMOLED, 1080 ten 2340 pixels

Processor

Snapdragon 855+

Dimensions (in.)

171 x 77.6 x 9.5mm

Rear Facing Camera

48-megapixel (f/1.eight, wide) + xiii-megapixel (f/2.4, ultrawide)

Front Facing Camera

24-megapixel (f/ii.ii)

Network Connectivity

GSM/HSPA/LTE

Sensors

Fingerprint (in-brandish), accelerometor, gyro, proximity, compass`

Launch Date

November ane, 2020

Misc

Colours: Blackness | attachable fan. 120Hz display, 240Hz bear on sample rate

Asus ROG Phone II

half-dozen.59-inch, AMOLED, 1080 x 2340 pixels

Asus ROG Phone 2

Snapdragon 855+

Asus ROG Phone II

12GB of RAM

Asus ROG Telephone II

512GB of storage

Asus ROG Phone Two

171 x 77.6 x ix.5mm

Asus ROG Phone II

48-megapixel (f/1.eight, wide) + 13-megapixel (f/2.4, ultrawide)

Asus ROG Telephone Ii

24-megapixel (f/two.2)

Asus ROG Phone Ii

Android ix Pie

Asus ROG Phone II

half-dozen,000mAh

Asus ROG Phone II

GSM/HSPA/LTE

Asus ROG Phone Ii

Fingerprint (in-display), accelerometor, gyro, proximity, compass`

Asus ROG Phone II

Nano SIM

Asus ROG Phone Two

November ane, 2020

Asus ROG Telephone Ii

Colours: Black | attachable fan. 120Hz display, 240Hz touch sample charge per unit

Beefy monster

The ROG Telephone II feels exactly like what nosotros've come to expect from a gaming phone.

The smartphone is bulky and weighs in at 240g, making it the second heaviest telephone available in Canada next to the Galaxy Fold. The ROG Phone 2 features a Gorilla Glass 3 glass dorsum and a Gorilla Glass 6 forepart. Additionally, the handset sports an aluminum frame and is 'dummy thicc,' measuring at 9.5mm.

The ROG Phone II feels and looks gaudy; it features bezels sporting stereo speakers with bright orange highlights, three USB-C port and the back features a flashy Republic of Gamers logo. Information technology's important to annotation yous can't charge the device with the orangish USB C port.

I too appreciate that Asus is keeping the headphone jack around. While I typically don't utilise it anymore, information technology's a overnice bear upon and I similar that there are still a few smartphones that offer that characteristic.

The ROG Phone 2 lacks a rear-facing fingerprint scanner similar the company's previous phones and instead uses an optical in-display sensor.

But touch it

The ROG Phone II features a six.59-inch 1080 x 2340 pixel resolution AMOLED brandish, with an fourscore.3 percent screen-to-body ratio. To put the screen size into perspective, the iPhone 11 Pro provides a 6.5-inch screen with an 83.7 percentage screen-to-body ratio. The ROG Phone II also sports HDR10 and DCI-P3 108 percent colour gamut. Image and video quality are decent, but color accuracy, brightness and even picture item are superior on other flagships similar the Milky way Note 10+ or the iPhone 11 Pro Max.

What sets the ROG Telephone Ii autonomously is its 120Hz refresh charge per unit screen. Typically handsets upward to this point have featured a 60Hz refresh rate, with some phones similar the OnePlus 7 Pro, 7T and Google Pixel 4 offering a 90Hz brandish.

Animations, from the subtle ones in games to scrolling through apps, all look incredibly smooth. Some people say that they don't discover the difference between a 120Hz and a 60Hz display, simply I'm not in that campo. To me, the phone's display seems then buttery smoothen and quick that it's challenging to go dorsum to using a telephone with a 60Hz screen. The above video was taken in 120fps boring motion so that you can tell how shine the ROG Phone Two's framerate remains, compared to the LG G8X ThinQ which gets stuttery.

And not only does the ROG Phone II feature a 120Hz refresh rate, but it as well offers a 240Hz touch sample rate, or 'touch on sensing.'

Touch on-sensing refers to the frequency at which a phone tracks the movement of your finger. Typical smartphones have a 60Hz touch sample rate, which tracks the screen every sixteen.6ms, while the latest iPhones have a 120Hz touch sample charge per unit that cuts the fourth dimension by half.

The 240Hz reduces it to four.15ms, making information technology seem similar the handset reacts instantly to each touch on. The touch sensing combined with a 120Hz refresh rate makes the ROG Phone 2 feel incredibly quick and ever smoothen.

G4m3r

I typically don't play mobile games; some can be fun, but for the most part, they aren't for me.

However, I recently started investing a lot of time into Magic Spellslingers, a mobile title based on the Magic the Gathering card game.

With the ROG Phone II, the game runs smoothly, and I haven't had whatever major issues. In that location are some crashes, merely the game is still in 'Early on Access', and these crashes occur even more on the Pixel four XL, so I'm not blaming the ROG Telephone 2 for them. But after 30-40 minutes of gameplay, the ROG Phone II gets very hot. Thankfully the ROG Telephone 2 comes with a free AeroActive Libation II attachable fan. This helped keep the temperature down as well.

I too played Gears Pop! and Mob Psycho 100: Psychic Boxing. Both games ran smoothly and once again, information technology took near twenty to 25 minutes before the ROG Phone Ii began to estrus upward.

The ROG Phone likewise has an outdoor mode to increase the volume of the device, though when doing this the phone sounds a bit tinnier. Information technology'due south great though to help make the game experience more than immersive. Additionally, I found it useful when playing alternative rock songs that don't require bass.

Great user experience

Using the ROG Phone Ii every twenty-four hour period wasn't difficult. While it's a hefty boy, I didn't mind information technology in my pocket. Some days I'd besides acquit it in my fanny pack and wouldn't notice the weight.

The ROG II also offers a clean user interface, if you use Asus' stock launcher. The Taiwanese company packed two launchers into the phone, allowing users to select either the Commonwealth of Gamers 1 or the standard Asus option. The Asus launcher offers a clean, unobtrusive interface, while the ROG option is a lot more in your face. I didn't utilize the ROG launcher as its user interface is not in the to the lowest degree scrap appealing.

Like I said almost ZenUI half-dozen in my ZenFone 6 review, the interface is pretty slim and compared to some of the other manufacturers out in that location and information technology doesn't include a lot of bloatware out-of-the-box. Farther, you can hide or delete the few apps Asus does include. There'south also an pick to lock apps with biometrics or a passcode.

The ROG Phone II is primarily a gaming phone, just surprisingly information technology's able to snap decent photos. With its 48-megapixel main shooter, I thought images turned out to be a tad common cold; sometimes the HDR+ helped with photos of the sky, making it very blue, yet keeping the colour accuracy with the remainder of the picture. In other situations, the heaven became overexposed and vivid white. The phone'south 2d 13-megapixel wide-bending camera fit more into the frame, only there was a noticeable dip in quality, fewer details and it seemed to overexpose the photo no matter what I did.

Selfie camera-wise, pictures looked good, maintained detail and my peel wasn't over-exposed. When using portrait mode, the foreground was a picayune too soft, and at that place seemed to be a lot of processing related to the bokeh effect, which could be unappealing to some people. Honestly, the 24-megapixel shooter did the job, and I preferred its selfies over phones like the LG G8X ThinQ.

Animal

Spec-wise the ROG Telephone Two is a fauna. This thick phone features a Snapdragon 855+ chipset, 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage.

With it's 12GB of RAM, I was able to keep at least 25 apps opened simultaneously.

But what's fifty-fifty more impressive is its vi,000mAh battery. I kept the phone at 120Hz throughout the review considering that was my preference. But even at 120Hz with an average effulgence of 85 percent, the phone tin hands survive more than a mean solar day and a half, or in some cases well-nigh two days. This includes at least 30 to 45 minutes of gameplay, using it casually during the workday, watching a 43-minute Netflix video at the gym and listening to music.