Asus ROG tweets image suggesting a gaming phone to compete against Razer Phone, Xiaomi Black Shark, and ZTE Nubia Red Magic

The Asus ROG twitter account has posted a dark shadowy image of what appears to be a portable game controller with an unidentified smartphone attached to it, adding weight to a previous leak about an ROG gaming phone. Considering that Asus already makes phones and that ROG is their gaming-specific brand, it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to imagine this will be a gaming orientated device.

Assessing the original image and one with the brightness boosted, we can see that the phone uses a black and red/orange color combination. We are having trouble telling if the accents are red or orange since Asus has used both on ROG laptops in the past. The boosted images show a front-facing camera to the right of the earpiece and a top bezel that has a straight edge with no notch.

Earlier rumors had claimed a choice between 60 Hz or 120 Hz screen with a Snapdragon 845 and 8 GB RAM. At that time we expressed doubt over a screen configuration choice, but if Asus goes with a 16:9 panel then it may well be a 120 Hz one, otherwise 60 Hz is more likely. Using a Snapdragon 845 and 8 GB of RAM would be on par with the Xiaomi Black Shark (the ZTE Nubia Red Magic and Razer Phone both use the older Snapdragon 835). We would expect a higher storage capacity of 128 GB, but there may also be a smaller 64 GB version as a cheaper option.

Asus has scheduled their Computex 2018 press event for the 4th June, and we will make sure to report on any key releases.