Verdict on the Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro: A competitor to the Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max

The Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro replaces the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate and inherited its gaming genes. Boasting 24 GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 1 TB of UFS 4.0 storage, the 6.78-inch Android 14 smartphone also comes with an attachable active fan. This ensures that the ROG Phone 8 Pro stays cool during long gaming sessions.

At the same time, Asus has given its high-end smartphone additional gaming extras. Like its predecessor, this includes several performance modes, a special gaming overlay, a second mini display on the back cover and the AirTrigger. These are ultrasonic sensors located on the corners of the long right side of the smartphone, which can function as additional L and R controller buttons.

Auto-loot function and integrated tips search

New to the ROG Phone 8 Pro are AI-powered features such as X Sense 2.0 and AI Grabber. The former can automatically pick up items in supported games such as Genshin Impact, while the AI Grabber recognizes keywords in dialogue and can use these to prompt a Google search if desired. For example, you can search for solutions to a quest directly in the game or get other game-relevant tips.

Powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, the Asus smartphone demonstrated very high performance capabilities in our tests, making it one of the fastest smartphones currently available. The ROG Phone 8 Pro also deserves praise for its up to 2500 cd/m² bright OLED panel, which can adjust its refresh rate from 1 Hz to 165 Hz via LTPO.

New telephoto camera and gimbal

Along with WiFi 7, the 6.78-inch device is future-proof, having reached a solid runtime of almost 15.5 hours in our simulated web surfing test. The ROG Phone 8 Pro only falls behind high-end competitors such as the Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max when it comes to cameras. Nevertheless, they have improved. Firstly, by switching to the Sony IMX890 as the image sensor and new telephoto camera. Secondly, videos are stabilized very effectively by the integrated gimbal in the main camera.

Read the full review of the Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro here.