Asus’ ROG Phone 9 review: a gaming standout

One of the major boons in the smartphone space in recent years is gaming — and not the bloatware kind. Instead, it’s the slow adoption of higher-performance games and cloud gaming. I’ve wanted to be an avid supporter of mobile gaming for years at this point, but there have been hurdles preventing this from becoming a platform I use more often. When I had the chance to go hands-on with Asus’ ROG Phone 9, I felt as though this could be a new lease on life as a mobile gaming player.

Asus’ ROG Phone 9 is developed to be a cutting-edge gaming-first smartphone. With all the trappings of the ROG design philosophy, Asus packs in a suite of great features to supplement and power the gaming experience. The ROG Phone 9 series is complemented with a Pro lineup. However, even the base model has a noticeably solid battery and a display that begs for games to be played on it. Unfortunately, the ROG Phone 9 underwhelms when it comes to day-to-day use, especially regarding its camera.

Recommended

Asus ROG Phone 9

Asus’ ROG Phone 9 is a robust gaming-first smartphone with innovating hardware and software perks made to play mobile games, including AirTriggers and AI-driven features.

Pros

• Stunning AMOLED Display
• AirTriggers are a sleek addition
• Up to 21 hours of battery

Cons

• Gamer-first design and UI is ugly
• Camera quality is subpar

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Price, availability, and specs

The Asus ROG Phone 9 launches on Tuesday, November 19th. The base model of the series is available for $1,000. The device comes with a stunningly crisp 6.78-inch AMOLED E6 display. This screen features LTPO technology, with a dynamic refresh rate between 1 and 120Hz. However, ROG Phone 9 does offer up to 185Hz when using its Game Genie for an even smoother gameplay experience. The display also supports a peak brightness of 2,500 nits, helping colors and contrast stay vivid even when outdoors in the daytime.

Looking at the interior specs, the base ROG Phone 9 supports up to 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. The camera array supports a 50-megapixel Sony Lytia f/1.9 main lens and a 32MP f/2.4 telephoto lens with a 13-megapixel ultra-wide Free-form lens. The front-facing camera is a 32-megapixel ultra-wide lens. Powering the phone is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, leveraging a 5,800mAh battery.

Recommended

Asus ROG Phone 9

Brand

Asus

Display

6.78-inch AMOLED

RAM

Up to 16GB LPDDR 5

Storage

512GB

Battery

5800mAh

Ports

USB-C

Operating System

Android

Front camera

32-megapixel f/2.5 (ultrawide)

Rear camera

50-megapixel f/1.9, 1/1.56”(main), 32MP f/2.4 (telephoto) , 13-megapixel f/2.2 (ultrawide)

Dimensions

6.4 x 3 x .35-inches (163.8 x 76.8 x 8.9mm)

Colors

Storm White and Phantom Black

Release

November 19

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Asus also offers a few AI-powered features across the ROG Phone 9 series. Many of these, unsurprisingly, are designed to be used while playing games. Those that are available for standard day-to-day use aren’t all that unique or exciting. It’s also odd that after spending the year testing various Android phones, the ROG Phone 9 doesn’t support Circle to Search at launch (though it is being added during Q4 2024).