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You don’t need a gaming phone to play games on a phone. Most modern flagships (and many mid-range models) can handle the vast majority of games designed for Android. And you can even use a budget device to stream games over the internet.

But we’ve seen a growing number of phones aimed at gamers in recent years, with features including high-quality displays, advanced cooling systems, big batteries, plenty of ports, and an ecosystem of accessories designed to boost performance further. And the new Asus ROG Phone 7 and ROG Phone 7 Ultimate do all of those things, and more.

Asus hasn’t announced North American pricing or availability yet, but the ROG Phone 7 is up for pre-order today in Taiwan, China and Europe with prices starting at €999 for the basic model or €1,399 for the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate.

For the most part, the two phones are virtually identical: they’re the same size and shape. They have the same display, processor, ports, cameras, wireless capabilities, speakers, and memory and storage options. But there are two things that set the ROG Phone Ultimate apart.

The first is that it has a ROG Vision display on the back, which is sort of like RGB lighting on steroids: you can customize this little light matrix display to show a variety of animations to indicate charging status, incoming calls, or other information.

The second is that the ROG 7 Ultimate comes with an AeroActive Cooler 7, which is an accessory that clips onto the back of the phone to position a fan and thermoeletric Peltier cooler directly over the CPU. Asus says this improves “the phone’s thermal efficiency” by up to 20 percent.

Asus also crammed a sub-woofer into the AeroActive 7 Cooler, which means that in addition to improved cooling, it offers improved sound while plugged in, effectively turning the phone’s stereo speakers into a 2.1 channel sound system with 77-percent more base than you’d get from the internal speakers alone.

The cooler is also available as a €110 accessory that you can add to the standard model though, so it’s not exactly exclusive to the Ultimate. It’s just included in the price.

Even without any accessories, the Asus ROG Phone 7 has an advanced cooling system thanks to a vapor chamber that the company says helps keep temperatures low for better gaming performance.

Other features include a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, support for up to 16GB of LPDDR5X-8533 memory, up to 512GB of UFS 4.0 storage, a 165 Hz FHD+ AMOLED display, and support for WiFi 7.

Here’s a run-down of some key specs for the latest Asus ROG gaming phones:

ROG Phone 7ROG Phone 7 Ultimate
Display6.78 inches
2448 x 1080 pixels
AMOLED
165 Hz
1ms response time
720 Hz touch-sampling rate
1,000 nits outdoor brightness
1,500 nits peak brightness
111% DCI-P3color gamut
151% sRGB color gamut
107% NTSC color gamut
HDR10
Corning Gorilla Glass Victus
10-point multitouch (with glove test support)
Secondary displayN/AROG Vision rear display
ProcessorQualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
GraphicsAdreno 7400
RAMUp to 16GB
LPDDR5x
StorageUp to 512GB
UFS 4.0
Battery6,000 mAh
Charging65W
Ports1 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C (DisplayPort 1.4)
1 x USB 2.0 Type-C (fast charging)
1 x 3.5mm audio
1 x set of pogo pins for AeroActive Cooler 7
WirelessWiFi 7
Bluetooth 5.3
NFC
GPS/GNSS/Galileo/BeiDou/QZSS/NavIC
SensorsIn-display fingerprint
Face recognition
Accelerometer
E-compass
Gyroscope
Proximity Sensor
Ambient Light Sensor
Ultrasonic sensors for AirTrigger 5 and grip press
Cameras (rear)50MP primary (Sony IMX766)
13MP ultra-wide (120 degrees)
5MP macro
Camera (front)32MP (with pixel binning for 8MP photos)
SpeakersStereo front-facing 5-magnet speakers
Cirrus Logic amplifier
Water resistanceIP54 rating
Dimensions173 x 77 x 10.4mm
Weight239 grams
ColorsPhantom Black
Storm White
Storm White

press release

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  1. I paired my ROG 7 with a TCL RayNeo X2 microLED AR smart glasses and play Fortnite on the Subway commute without distraction.

  2. The ROG device works great for frolf tournaments and my dog enjoys chewing on it too!

    1. What exactly is absurd in that (except the tacky design)? Samsung Dex docking station introduced this concept already some 5 years ago..

      1. That’s not exactly the same thing, but at the same time, the external cooler accessory isn’t new. It’s been with the RoG phones since the first one.