GBM Insights

• Earlier last week ASUS announced its new flagship phone- the ASUS ROG 7 Ultimate.
• ASUS continues to target its niche market of mobile gamers with this latest addition to the product line.
• The $1400 phone pushes boundaries and offers world class specs, competing with even some entry level laptops.

More than a flagship phone.

Gamers throughout the years have constantly been trying to find the next best solution, something that can encompass comfort, portability and something that can be more than just a gaming machine. With consoles changing the trends and doubling as multi-media centres, it was only a  matter of time before the trend shifted from pcs, to consoles and now to mobile phones. Phones have always been a great source of entertainment, housing multiple games even in the most basic of handsets but as improvements in technology kept pushing the boundaries of what is possible, so too did mobile phones.

With the introduction of smartphones, it opened a new realm of possibilities for manufacturers and game developers alike. Companies were now able to develop beautifully rendered textures on smartphones, and thus, serving as a great segway into the gaming industry. ASUS over the last few years has been taking advantage of this and has been developing gaming phones, with the name carrying over from their gaming laptop subdivision- ROG which is rightfully dubbed as Republic of Gamers.

The newest addition to their product line is the ASUS ROG 7 Ultimate. This phone is everything that a gamer could possibly need, with top-of-the-line specs, enough to overpower a relatively a mid-level laptop. For a steep $1400 price tag, it should at least be able to do that.

Nothing but the best

For now, the phone comes in only one colour, the Storm White, which seems to be a mix of white and little bit of grey, but the end result delivers a phone that is beautiful to look at. The ASUS ROG 7 Ultimate, like the previous generation, also comes with a small display that can be customised to show different graphics. It can also serve as a notification bar and show the charging status of your phone when kept face down.

Pic courtesy- ASUS

The phone houses a powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip which clocks at 3.2 Gigahertz, making it the most powerful chipset in any smartphone right now. But this chip is not only all power, it also makes RAM management easier, which means that it can load in and out of apps very quickly, and also store the data on apps that were previously open too. This means that if you were to switch in and out of apps, you can continue from where you left off without the app needing to reboot, thus saving time. The ROG 7 Ultimate also has an Adreno 740 GPU, so for all those demanding games, you don’t need to worry about frames dropping or textures loading incorrectly. With this powerhouse, you get a gaming experience like no other, so even more demanding video game titles will run smoothly.

To top this all, ASUS provides 16GB LPDDR5X RAM, which again, entry and mid-level laptops do not have. This phone can literally outperform certain laptops in every way. From load times to multi-media entertainment, ASUS has beautifully packaged this phone.

In case you ever had to worry about storage in this day and age, ASUS has that covered too by offering 512GB UFS 4.0 in-built storage. Not only that, but the phone is also gorgeous to look at, supporting a 6.78” screen with a native resolution of 2448×1080 running at a 165Hz and maxes out at 1200 nits, so even on the sunniest of days, you won’t have any trouble looking at your phone screen.

While all of this is very impressive, one of the most impressive features of this phone is that it has two 3000mAh batteries, giving you a total of 6000mAh, and also a 65W fast charger which can fully charge your phone in 45 minutes. Another design choice that ASUS refuses to get rid of are the two USB C ports and a headphone jack. One of the USB C ports is on the bottom of the phone, while the other is on the side, which improves ergonomics as this allows you to charge your phone and game, without being interrupted by the charging cable. It is also worth mentioning that one of the USB C ports supports faster data transfer speeds due to it being a USB 3.1, while the other is a USB 3.0.

You’ve never seen anything quite like it

A new addition to the ROG 7 Ultimate is a small black bar on the back of the phone. This bar serves as a slot holder for an additional attachment. By sliding down, it makes space for a cooler to be installed in the phone, which according to ASUS can reduce internal temperatures by almost 20 degrees Celsius. This design improvement is also done keeping the battery placement in mind. Instead of offering a single 6000mAh battery, ASUS provides two batteries on either side of the phone, while keeping the motherboard in the middle. ASUS also introduced a Vapor Chamber below the motherboard and batteries to reduce thermal throttling and keep temperatures to a minimum.

Picture courtesy- GSM Arena

Apart from reducing thermals, the AeroActive Cooler 7 has a heat sink, RGB lights and also doubles as a subwoofer. Once the cooler is plugged in via the second USB slot, the black tab on the phone activates and opens up, to allow additional air flow to pass into the phone. This is the pinnacle of design and ASUS has been revolutionising the gaming industry with every release, whether its their phones or laptops. A design choice like this has never been done before, but it makes so much sense to put in a phone that is specifically meant for gaming. This allows the cooler to run at maximum capacity and prevents the phone from overheating, thus, making sure every frame is delivered to the consumer and performance is not compromised. Furthermore, the cooler also has four trigger buttons that can be used while gaming to give it the feel of a controller, thus also improving ergonomics and game performances.

The Not So Great

While the ROG phone is great for gaming, the camera however isn’t the best. For a $1400 price tag, ASUS makes it clear with what they offer, and one of the things they don’t offer is the camera. By no means are the main cameras bad. They use HDR technology perfectly well and can render some decent looking photos with optimal lighting, however, when it comes to low-light imaging, or super detailed photos with the Macro lens, the camera starts to show its true colours. Under low lighting, the phone starts to produce poorly rendered photos, and the macro lens has some issues with the zoom, thus, providing grainy pictures.

Overall, the ROG 7 Ultimate has three cameras, a 50 MP main camera, a 13MP ultrawide and  5 MP macro lens while the selfie camera boasts a 32 MP lens. While most photos rendered by the ROG 7 Ultimate are generally good, it cannot compete with phones in a similar price range, but that doesn’t mean that photos are bad.

Picture credit- GSM Arena. Photo taken from the 50 MP main camera.

Final Verdict

Overall, ASUS’ ROG 7 Ultimate is a powerhouse that leaves all the other phones in the market behind in terms of its performance and battery life. However, with the steep price tag, and niche target audience, the phone isn’t meant for everybody, but if you are a gamer on the go, and are looking to get an edge over the rest of the competition, look no further. With powerful features and top of the line specifications, the ROG 7 Ultimate delivers on the one thing it set out to do, i.e., uncompromised gaming performance.

Final GBM Rating- 8.5/10