"The Asus ROG Phone 3 is a powerful, focused gaming smartphone that makes you feel like a champion."
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Incredibly powerful
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Breathtaking sound
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Focused, useful game features
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Large, smooth screen
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Great software
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Camera could be better
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Heavy
Asus has shown how serious mobile gaming is with the launch of Republic of Gamers' ROG Phone 2 last year, which is equipped with technologies and features specifically designed to improve gameplay. Now it's back with the ROG Phone 3. Not much has changed externally, and if anything, the design of the space age has become less noticeable – but the story is different inside.
The difference that the internals make is remarkable. It's so powerful that when he plays PUBG Mobile, Thanos would do it on a ROG Phone 3.
design
The ROG Phone 3 has a similar look and almost the same size as the ROG Phone 2, but the sci-fi madness is somewhat weakened. The glass back is glossy rather than matte, and the exposed vents on the back of the ROG Phone 2 have disappeared and have been replaced by a cool, transparent area that shows the new cooling system inside. I have never seen a glass transition between transparent and dark, and it looks great.
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
Despite its exterior, the ROG Phone 3 has not collected any fingerprints, and the ROG logo with RGB looks even brighter and more colorful than the matt glass of the ROG Phone 2. The camera module has been given another lens for a total of three. and it runs horizontally across the device. Asus has reduced the silver angled lines on the body, making the design more mature.
Nevertheless, the gaming focus remains. The USB Type-C connector on the bottom is arranged on the side so that the phone can be held more comfortably in landscape format when plugged in. There is another USB Type-C charging port behind a rubber plug on the opposite side. The phone also has shoulder-mounted "AirTrigger" on the side of the phone (we'll talk more about that later).
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
Although it's comfortable to hold, this is a great smartphone. It is 9.8 mm thick, 171 mm long and 78 mm wide. For comparison: The OnePlus 8 Pro is 8.5 mm thick, 165 mm long and 74.5 mm wide.
At 240 grams, the ROG Phone 3 is also one of the heaviest phones ever. The orientation in landscape is well balanced, but in portrait I noticed that the weight was tilted towards the front of the phone. In combination with the slippery body, it often threatened to fall in the face when I lay it down.
One thing that ROG Phone 2 users may notice is the disappearance of the 3.5mm headphone jack. The integration of 5G antennas in the ROG Phone 3 is one of the reasons why the connection no longer fits into the phone. However, if you really want it, there is a dongle in the box. There is also an additional AeroActive Cooler 3 accessory that attaches to the case to assist cooling. You will also receive these accessories in the packaging.
It is a great accessory. Asus has added two very helpful features: a space to store the rubber connector cover that you remove from the phone to attach the AeroActive Cooler 3, and a stand.
The stand is great and puts the phone in the perfect angle for watching movies or playing with a controller. The AeroActive Cooler 2 developed for the ROG Phone 2 is not compatible with the new phone. However, if you bought other accessories, including the Twin View Dock or the Kunai controller, these will work because the two phones are almost identical in size.
I appreciate the new, more sophisticated design of the ROG Phone 3, but I miss the madness of the ROG Phone and ROG Phone 2. I think gaming phones need craziness. Nothing in their existence makes sense. So why not celebrate a little more?
Play
The ROG Phone 3 is the king of gaming smartphones.
I'm a casual gamer, which means I don't spend hours playing online every day, but the ROG Phone 3 still manages to make the games I play look better and smoother while providing useful tools, that improve the experience. When I feel that way, I have no doubt that people who are more interested in mobile games will see even greater benefits.
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
The shoulder-mounted AirTrigger are a good example of where the ROG Phone 3 is successful. You can easily map, tap, press, swipe, or even split controls on the screen to effectively create four buttons. They made the simple controls of Asphalt 9 Legends faster to use and prevented my fingers from covering the screen.
The function is activated in the game via the Game Genie menu on the slide-in screen. When you position the AirTrigger activation points on the screen, they vibrate when you get the correct placement. In Transformers: Forged to Fight, I used both the tap and swipe functions, and while typing worked well, it can be difficult to activate the swipe function at the right time.
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
Pressing the sides of the phone activates X mode, which increases phone performance and minimizes distractions while gaming. Use the "Advanced X mode" setting, where everything is set to maximum and the processor is not throttled at all. I haven't noticed any slowdown, dropouts, or other performance issues while playing on the ROG Phone 3.
The 6.59-inch AMOLED screen has a refresh rate of 144 Hz, 270 Hz touch sampling, 10-bit HDR, HDR 10 Plus support and a touch latency of 25 ms. It reacts incredibly quickly. Dariusburst is played in a small window in the center of the screen and requires skillful, careful controls to switch between the landscape and the onslaught of bullets. The ROG Phone 3 made this much easier thanks to its large, very responsive touchscreen.
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
Then there is the sound. Asus worked with an audio company called Dirac and skipped major brands like Dolby. The result is often exceptional. There is a level of detail, clarity and definition that you won't always find on phones, as well as a wide sound stage and really full sound through the two stereo speakers. The ROG Phone 3 sounds like no other smartphone.
Within a few hours I played Asphalt 9 Legends, 1945, Real Racing 3 and Dariusburst as well as a few other casual titles and it went perfectly. You can feel some heat coming from the phone, but it's in the landscape format at the middle bottom of the device, so you'll have to look around for it. My hands didn't get sweaty and I never felt the need to move my grip because the body of the phone was warm.
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
The ROG Phone 3 is also compatible with Google Stadia and offers three months of free Stadia Pro access, so it's not just about Google Play games. It is easy to pretend gaming phones as meaningless, but if done properly and thoughtfully, the benefits are obvious. The Asus ROG Phone 3 demonstrates this perfectly.
camera
Asus has worked hard to make the ROG Phone 3 a usable smartphone for everyday use whether you are dedicated to gaming or not. The camera is an integral part of it.
The rear-view camera with three lenses has a 64-megapixel IMX686 main sensor with an aperture of 1: 1.8, together with a 13-megapixel ultra-wide sensor and a 5-megapixel macro sensor. There is a 24 megapixel selfie camera in the bezel above the screen. The rear view camera has several modes, including a night mode, a portrait mode, a motion tracking video mode and a pro video mode. It records videos in 4K and in HDR with electronic stabilization.
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
It's decent and more than powerful enough, provided it's your second priority on a smartphone. There is no zoom mode, but both wide-angle and macro modes offer creative fun, so it is not necessarily overlooked. It can be inconsistent, especially under cloudy conditions where it is quite underexposed, which leads to loss of detail. HDR shots on sunny days can look great, and the macro camera definitely surprises with its ability.
The selfie camera has a cumbersome beauty mode as standard, a portrait mode with only average edge detection, which can also wash out skin tones.
I found the ROG Phone 3's camera to be okay for general use. While there are more versatile camera phones, it's solid. For a gaming phone where the camera is always a secondary concern, it's much better than many expect.
Power and battery
Asus wants to "take the industry to the next level" with the ROG Phone 3. It has pioneered 120 Hz screens and high touch sampling rates and explains how best to use a high-end processor ROG Phone 2. For the ROG Phone 3, the 144 Hz screen wins 270 Hz touch sampling rate and the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Plus processor with up to 16 GB RAM easily handle the current wars of smartphone data sheets.
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
The Snapdragon 865 Plus is a monster and the first mobile processor to exceed 3 GHz clock speed. In combination with 16 GB LPDDR5-RAM and 512 GB UFS 3.1 memory in my test phone, it is hard to imagine ever needing more power or capacity.
This is how it went in some benchmark tests:
3DMark Sling Shot Extreme: 6,601 volcano (Without X mode. App crashes with active X mode)
Geekbench 5: 970 single core / 3340 multi core
These values exceed the ROG Phone 2, but are only slightly higher than the OnePlus 8 Pro. They are very similar to the Red Magic 5G, where the 3DMark test on the ROG Phone 3 was actually lower. However, this can be related to app problems as X mode is not active on the Asus phone.
The 6,000 mAh battery lasts two days, which seems somewhat disappointing given the total capacity. However, don't forget that it powers a lot of high-end hardware. According to Asus' own tests, 9.6 hours of Asphalt 9 Legends are played with a full charge compared to 5.7 hours with a OnePlus 8 Pro.
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
Asus has added a new PowerMaster app to extend the battery life. Interestingly, it has a slow charge mode, definable limits to make sure the battery doesn't stay 100% fit all night (not good for a long life, Asus says), and a choice of battery modes. Wired charging delivers 30 W of power, but there is no wireless charging.
If you take the phone apart, you'll find carefully placed WiFi antennas elsewhere to ensure the best possible portrait or landscape signal, four microphones positioned so that they won't be covered while playing in landscape mode, and 5G support. The cellular and WiFi reception was consistently excellent, and the call quality is also excellent. I don't have 5G reception in my region, so I couldn't test this aspect.
software
There are two main theme options on the ROG Phone 3: eye-catching, stylized themes and a classic theme so that the phone looks more like Android on a pixel. This is the same approach the company followed with the ROG Phone 2 and Asus Zenfone 6, and a very sensible decision. Both work identically, but the Classic theme undoubtedly makes the phone look more mature and may be a little faster for everyday use.
Apps are hidden in a drawer in both subject areas, while the notification shadow provides interactive notifications and there is a standard dark mode. Asus installs its own game app called Armory Crate, which stores all of your games together. You can define for each individual parameter, e.g. These include automatic activation of X mode, increasing the screen refresh rate and assigning macros. You can also change the system lighting here.
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
I used swipe gesture controls that worked fine. Although there is an option that always appears on the screen, the notification options are limited, which reduces its usefulness.
Asus' software on the ROG Phone 3 was reliable and fast, and it's great to see the company continue the good work it started on the Zenfone 6. The built-in fingerprint sensor is fast and reliable and has a face unlock to secure it. I also had no problems with it.
Price, guarantee and availability
Asus did not announce the final price in US dollars for the ROG Phone 3 at the time of writing, but only the price in euros. The 16 GB / 512 GB version tested here costs 1,099 euros and a 12 GB / 512 GB version costs 999 euros. The phone will be available in Europe from the end of July, but will start with the basic version "Strix", which offers a Snapdragon 865, 8 GB RAM and 256 GB storage for 799 euros.
The ROG Phone 3 will be available in North America before September. We expect the euro prices to be converted directly to US dollars, which means that the 16 GB / 512 GB model should cost around $ 1,099. Asus will officially confirm prices when the U.S. launch date is announced. The cheapest Strix model is not sold in the United States.
Our opinion
The ROG Phone 3 is unrivaled among gaming phones. This should tell you everything you need to know if it's for you. It's a special monster that offers all the power everyone needs for just about any task they want to do on a phone. If a game doesn't run well on the ROG Phone 3, it won't run well on a phone.
What if you are not a big mobile player? The ROG Phone 3 is one of the best multimedia phones available. The video is outstanding due to the excellent screen and speakers of the phone. However, you won't be able to take advantage of the many game-centered features and may miss a better camera.
Is there a better alternative?
If you want a direct gaming smartphone, no. If you're looking for an all-round phone, the OnePlus 8 Pro for $ 900 offers good credentials and a lot of performance, while the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus for $ 1,100 and the Oppo Find X2 Pro for $ 1,300 are flagship products that focus on the camera. Perhaps the best alternative to the ROG Phone 3 is the Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max, not only because of the performance of the phone, but also because of the games available on the App Store.
How long it will take?
Asus promises that Android 11 will be available for the ROG Phone 3 and will receive security updates for at least two years. However, no timeframe for the arrival of Android 11 has been set. The ROG Phone 3 is not waterproof. It is made of glass and is quite heavy, so it is advisable to buy one of the cool cases from Asus.
Aside from that, the massive specs keep the phone fresh to the touch in a few years, and Asus' efforts to help the battery perform better for longer should help add to the usefulness of the phone in recent years increase two years. If you want to hold onto your new phone, the ROG Phone 3 is a very safe purchase.
Should you buy one?
Yes. It is the mobile game champion who has the courage and the ability to make you a mobile game champion too.
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