Asus ROG Phone 3 with Snapdragon 865+, 6,000 mAh battery, and 144 Hz HDR10+ screen to start from ₹49,999; No 512 GB variant for India, complete accessory list and pricing available

After having been leaked in almost its entirety over the past few weeks, the Asus ROG Phone 3 finally gets an official launch. The ROG Phone 3 boasts of an impressive spec sheet that will ensure its place among the top-performing Android phones for a long time. We have already detailed a lot of the specs earlier (you can also refer the spec sheet below), so we will be looking at what's new along with the pricing information for the phone as well as its accessories.

As leaked earlier, the ROG Phone 3 comes in three variants with the base model being called the ROG Phone 3 Strix Edition. The Strix Edition is still a flagship device but is powered by the Snapdragon 865 instead of the Snapdragon 865 Plus found in the other two. The Strix Edition also tops out at just 8 GB LPDDR5 RAM and 256 GB UFS 3.1 storage.

Asus has given much thought to the ROG Phone 3's cooling to ensure it dissipates heat effectively and does not throttle even under extended gaming sessions. The device sports a vapor chamber, a graphite film on the back of the display, a large heatsink, and vents on the back cover. All these, combined with the 6,000 mAh battery, make the phone weigh nearly a quarter of a kilogram. Gamers can also add an optional AeroActive Cooler 3 clip-on accessory for increased airflow. The AeroActive Cooler 3 also adds a 3.5 mm jack and USB-C charging abilities.

The ROG Phone 3's display sports excellent specs — we get a 6.59-inch 19.5:9 10-bit FHD+ AMOLED HDR10+ panel with 650 nits brightness, a 1000-nit peak brightness, and DCI-P3 support. Being a gamer-focused phone, the display features a 144 Hz / 1 ms refresh rate with a 270 Hz sampling rate and a 25 ms touch latency. Asus says that the display's delta E is less than 1 (we will test this ourselves), which makes for an accurate color reproduction.

Also being upgraded this year is the AirTrigger technology that allows for easy gaming in landscape mode. The new AirTrigger 3 allows for added swipe gestures, a new motion sensor, and a dual-partition button emulation mimicking a console controller.

Most of the ROG Phone 3's features can be accessed via Asus's ROG Armoury Crate app that now offers a community experience via ROG Connect for sharing gameplay footage or screenshots. It is also now possible to multitask while playing a game. As usual, Armoury Crate allows for fine tuning CPU, GPU, RGB, and other hardware aspects of the device.

The ROG Phone 3 now offers Dirac-tuned front stereo speakers and also comes with a USB-C to 3.5 mm adapter that can be plugged into either of the phone's two USB-C ports.

On the imaging side, we get a 64 MP IMX586 f/1.8 quad-Bayer sensor, a 13 MP ultra-wide lens, and a 5 MP macro lens. The main camera is capable of 8K and 4K HDR 60 fps recording along with a Pro mode for video that allows free zooming and selection of mic sources. The front camera is a 24 MP shooter.

Accessories

Asus offers a number of optional accessories including the ROG Kunai 3 Gamepad, ROG Lighting Armor case, TwinView Dock 3, Mobile Desktop Dock, Gaming Clip, ROG Cetra (USB-C) and Cetra Core (3.5 mm) gaming earphones, and more. Game developers using Unity can get access to the ROG SDK to enable their games make the best use of the ROG Phone 3's features.

Gamers in applicable countries also get access to three months of Google Stadia Pro that allows streaming of popular AAA games such as PUBG, Borderlands 3, Metro: Exodus, Red Dead Redemption 2, The Elder Scrolls: Online, Assassins Creed: Odyssey, and more directly to the phone.

Availability and Pricing

In Europe, the ROG Phone 3 will be available from the end of July at the following prices:

• ROG Phone 3 Strix Edition (8 GB + 256 GB) - €799
• ROG Phone 3 (12 GB + 512 GB) - €999
• ROG Phone 3 (16 GB + 512 GB) - €1,099

In India, the ROG Phone 3 will go on sale on Flipkart from August 6 onwards. Asus does not yet offer the 16 GB variant in India. Additionally, the Indian variants will come with a 3.5 mm headphone jack adapter and a ROG Aero case in the box. Pricing for Indian variants and accessories is as follows:

• ROG Phone 3 (8 GB + 128 GB) - ₹49,999
• ROG Phone 3 (12 GB + 256 GB) - ₹57,999
• ROG Phone 3 Glass Screen Protector - ₹699
• ROG Clip - ₹1,999
• ROG Phone 3 Neon Aero Case - 1,999
• ROG Phone 3 Lighting Armor Case - 2,999
• AeroActive Cooler 3 - ₹2,999
• ROG Cetra Core - ₹3,999
• ROG Cetra Headset - ₹7,699
• ROG Kunai 3 Gamepad - ₹9,999
• Mobile Desktop Dock - ₹12,999
• TwinView Dock 3 - ₹19,999