Asus’ gaming telephones are often gaudy units that scream “I’m a GAMER.” However the brand new ROG Cellphone 8 appears fairly … regular. I’ve been utilizing the ROG Cellphone 8 Professional variant for a few week and whereas I can’t touch upon the expertise but, it decidedly doesn’t really feel just like the ROG handsets of outdated. This Android cellphone is subtler and slimmer, but it nonetheless packs all of the bells and whistles you’d count on from a 2024 handset, together with the most recent Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor, a 6.78-inch 165 Hz AMOLED display that may get tremendous brilliant (2,400 nits!), wi-fi charging, and the basic shoulder haptic triggers on the corners of the cellphone that work as button inputs in video video games. The side-mounted second USB-C charging port remains to be current.
As is at all times the case on these ROG telephones, there’s a brand new AeroActive Cooler X fan accent you may connect to the again of the system to maintain it operating cool throughout intense gaming periods, although it’s bought individually. There’s extra of an emphasis on the digicam system now, as that is the primary ROG smartphone to incorporate a 3X telephoto digicam alongside the 13-megapixel ultrawide and 50-megapixel major sensor.
It wouldn’t be CES if AI wasn’t thrown in, and Asus says this new handset has some AI-powered gaming options. There’s X Sense 2.0, which works in choose video games like Genshin Affect and may basically carry out some recreation duties for you—if there are gadgets close to your character to choose up, the software program will detect it and can management the character to seize ‘em. (Is not that dishonest?) In case your character will get hit by a freezing spell, you gained’t must repeatedly faucet the display to interrupt it as X Sense will do the exhausting be just right for you, eradicating the grind from the sport. There’s additionally AI Grabber, which scans textual content on the sport display and allows you to rapidly paste it into an online browser, in case it’s essential to discover a walkthrough for a troublesome mission.
The usual ROG Cellphone 8 prices $1,100 whereas the Professional variant prices $1,200 and comes with double the storage. The Professional mannequin additionally has a cool Mini-LED show built-in into the again of the system that reveals off enjoyable logos and results, and may even gentle as much as notifications. (The usual mannequin sticks with an RGB model of this.) Preorders launch in February, with availability coming within the first quarter of the 12 months.
