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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 7 | ROG Phone 7 Ultimate | |
| Display | 6.78 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 display | N/A | ROG Vision rear display |
| Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 | |
| Graphics | Adreno 7400 | |
| RAM | Up to 16GB LPDDR5x | |
| Storage | Up to 512GB UFS 4.0 | |
| Battery | 6,000 mAh | |
| Charging | 65W | |
| Ports | 1 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 | |
| Wireless | WiFi 7 Bluetooth 5.3 NFC GPS/GNSS/Galileo/BeiDou/QZSS/NavIC | |
| Sensors | In-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) | |
| Speakers | Stereo front-facing 5-magnet speakers Cirrus Logic amplifier | |
| Water resistance | IP54 rating | |
| Dimensions | 173 x 77 x 10.4mm | |
| Weight | 239 grams | |
| Colors | Phantom Black Storm White | Storm White |
I paired my ROG 7 with a TCL RayNeo X2 microLED AR smart glasses and play Fortnite on the Subway commute without distraction.
The ROG device works great for frolf tournaments and my dog enjoys chewing on it too!
Support for 156GB of memory?! Definitely a typo.
A cooler for a phone. I’ve never seen anything more absurd…
What will be next? A backpack to supply liquid cooling to your phone?
What exactly is absurd in that (except the tacky design)? Samsung Dex docking station introduced this concept already some 5 years ago..
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.