Last year, Asus took a big step towards the practicality of gaming smartphones by providing the ROG Phone 8 with IP68 water resistance and a telephoto camera. However, the manufacturer has not forgotten that ROG Phone is primarily a gaming smartphone. That’s why the ROG Phone 9 and ROG Phone 9 Pro launched today offer significant improvements in performance across the board.
Image source: ASUS
The ROG Phone 9 and 9 Pro smartphones are powered by the flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite processor. The ROG Phone 9 is supplemented with up to 16 GB of LPDDR5X-9600 RAM and up to 512 GB of UFS 4.0 permanent memory. The ROG Phone 9 Pro version offers up to 24 GB of RAM and up to 1 TB of permanent memory of the same standards. According to Asus, the Snapdragon 8 Elite delivers up to 45% faster computing performance, up to 40% faster graphics performance, and a 40% faster NPU compared to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 found in previous ROG Phone models.
The company has improved the cooling system in new devices. In addition to the evaporation chamber, a graphene plate with an increased area of 57% is used. Thanks to this, new smartphones run several degrees cooler under load than their predecessors. Additional cooling systems have been released for new models. The package includes an external AeroCase cooler, and as an option, a passive Chill Case cooling system with a built-in vapor chamber is offered, which effectively reduces the operating temperature of smartphones by 17%. A special feature of these accessories is the ability to redirect sound: their shape directs sound from the bottom speaker forward, which, in combination with the top front speaker, provides a more balanced stereo sound.
Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro
The company also introduced a new external cooler, AeroActive Cooler X Pro, with a built-in subwoofer that creates a unique 2.1 sound system. This option was first implemented in AeroActive Cooler 7, but was absent in last year’s Cooler X. The accessory is equipped with two physical buttons that complement the side triggers of the smartphone. Cooling efficiency is increased by 29% due to larger fan blades (size increased by 12.5%) and an improved thermal interface.
Like the ROG Phone 8, the new ROG Phone 9 and 9 Pro feature a 6.78-inch FHD+ AMOLED display with 1600 cd/m² high brightness (2500 cd/m² peak) and 107% color gamut coverage DCI-P3. The new screens support refresh rates up to 185Hz (though only in some games), while the ROG Phone 8 supported 165Hz.
On the back of the devices is the AniMe Vision matrix display, consisting of LED indicators that can be customized to your liking. ROG Phone 9 uses 95 LED indicators (versus 4 for ROG Phone 8), and ROG Phone 9 Pro has 648 LED indicators (almost twice as many as ROG Phone 8 Pro). The display can display text in Chinese and Japanese, as well as animated images. In addition, four retro games (Breakout, Snake, Invaders and others) can be played on this screen using the side triggers of the smartphone.
The new smartphones received 5800 mAh batteries, which is 300 mAh more than the ROG Phone 8. In gaming mode, the battery will last at least 4.5 hours. According to Asus, the battery will retain at least 80% capacity after 1,000 charging cycles (roughly three years of daily use). Smartphones support wired charging with a power of 65 W and wireless charging with a power of 15 W. Full charge time has increased to 46 minutes (for ROG Phone 8 – 39 minutes).
Both smartphones are equipped with 50-megapixel main cameras based on Sony Lytia 700 1/1.56” sensors. The sensors are equipped with improved 6-axis hybrid stabilization with adjustment angles up to ±5° (predecessors have ±3°). The secondary 13-megapixel camera for wide-angle shooting and the 32-megapixel selfie camera with an RGBW sensor and optics with a focal length of 22 mm remain unchanged. Unlike the ROG Phone 8, the ROG Phone 9 does not have a telephoto camera. The ROG Phone 9 Pro retains it: a 32 MP sensor with optical stabilization, 4 in 1 pixel binning (1.4 micron pixel size), 3x optical zoom, 10x Hyper Clarity AI zoom and 30x digital zoom.
Asus ROG Phone 9
ROG Phone 9 and ROG Phone 9 Pro smartphones are equipped with 3.5 mm audio outputs. The devices support high-resolution binaural audio technology called Dirac Virtuo. For wireless audio, support for the aptX Lossless format is declared, and both smartphones have Hi-Res Audio and Hi-Res Audio Wireless certifications.
Asus ROG Phone 9
Pre-orders for Asus ROG Phone 9 and ROG Phone 9 Pro are open from today. Deliveries of devices in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China will begin tomorrow. In Europe, deliveries are expected to begin in December. Smartphones will appear in the United States in January 2025, and in other regions of the world even later.
The cost of the Asus ROG Phone 9 model starts at $1000 for the version with 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage. ROG Phone 9 Pro is priced from $1200. Other prices can be found in the table above. The ROG Phone 9 Pro Edition comes with the bundled AeroActive Cooler X Pro.