ASUS ROG Phone 7 Review – A gamer’s step up phone that one might love!

ASUS has always been in the tradition of introducing 2 series of phone, the ROG series and the Zenfone series. Both of which came with almost similar internal specification except for the purpose of usage, size and certain specific features meant for the series.

So it is no surprise again that the ROG Phone 7 is Asus part of their initiative of putting in gamer first design and aesthetics with several important features that is meant for gaming above everything else, and we did see some of the improvement compared to the previous version. In this review lets dive in and find out on the ASUS ROG Phone 7.

Design

From the design aspect of it, ASUS still retain most of what it has that has been inherited from the previous ROG 6 series lineup. Starting from the back of the phone, the ASUS ROG Phone 7 is still properly protected with Gorilla Glass 3 and the RGB illumination at the back there is much visible now, incorporating almost a full size logo on the slight middle compared to the ROG 6 placement which is confined and limited in showing off the logo. Another zone of RGB light strip is also located on the left, the best part of it is all of this is customizable via ASUS Armory Crate which we will talk more about it. You will spot the camera row on the top position and it is almost similar to the previous ones, and I think that is all the way fine. Another minor change that can be spotted is the 2 texture design, with one slightly gloss on the top part while the bottom is matte surfaced combining an overall good grip while holding it, or otherwise there is an included hard case which you can use it to protect the device.

Despite all of these, all button placement is still the same with an included 3.5mm headphone jack, two pressure sensitive air triggers and side located USB C port for accessories expansion and charging, which is compatible with most of the ASUS ROG 7 companion.

Another worthy feature to mention is the GameCool 7 thermal technology. or starters, the Boron Nitride (BN) thermal compound on one side of the CPU decreases throttling during short sessions. Second, the larger vapor chamber and graphite sheets on the other side of the CPU handle mid-length sessions. Finally, for marathon sessions, the AeroActive Cooler 7 comes into action for AI-powered active cooling, with its fan positioned directly over the CPU module, and having a Peltier element for further cooling performance.

For accessories, there is AeroActive Cooler 7 with built in subwoofer that can be paired to cool down the phone while gaming and pump the bass further, while Kunai controllers for the ROG Phone 6 is still compatible, so basically some of the previous generation accessories can still be used on the ROG Phone 7.

Display & Audio

As always, ASUS always focus seriously on both visual and sound, lets just start with the display, which is an AMOLED powered screen with a maximum dynamic refresh rate up to 165Hz, 1B colors and peak brightness that can go up to 1000 nits that makes it highly viewable even under sunlight, while at the same time its 6.78 inch screen size is well protected by the infamous Corning Gorilla Glass Victus along with good color gamut delivery. All these specifications indicate that it is well all round not just for gaming, even color reproduction and contrast is good for any general purpose use. With the high end display the ROG 7 is also Widewine L1 certified for major streaming platforms and further accompanied by touch sensitive 720Hz sampling rate ensuring every tap is sensitive, yet accurate.

Towards the audio department, the ROG 7 incorporate two amplified frontal speakers which produces fuller all rounded audio experience with DIRAC audio tuning with pre-set or self customised equalizer tuning, giving it vast of option to tune to the user liking. And you could even further amp things up with plugging in your own 3.5mm jack headphones, TWS or USB C audio headphone for even better audio listening experience.

Camera

This is not the strength of the ASUS ROG 7, and still, if judging from the camera hardware, it is still standing quite formidable if compared to the super mid rangers lens found today. As a start, the rear camera consists of a set of three, a 50MP main camera lens with PDAF, a 13MP ultrawide lens and a 5MP macro lens. The front camera is a 32MP wide angle lens.

I will just start with the front camera first, it does a good job as any flagship level selfie cams can do, even for the ROG 7 it seems that it does offers portrait and wide angle capture, towards simple video conferencing this is bright and able to give a good bokeh shot over your selfies any day or night. Over towards the rear camera, it is still the same IMX766 module that is still there, but ASUS has made some several minor AI camera software improvements to it, and it does show some of the good images quality, although there is no laser autofocus or OIS. All of the pictures produce came out vibrant on most situation with good colors portrait but sometimes, dynamic range and contrast can go off a little bit, night time wise, as long there is still some lighting surrounding it, the pictures are usable with good shadow representation.

Now to the video shooting portion, which the ROG 7 is among a few that is able to record in 8K 24FPS maximum, but with such config set to 8K, you do lose some of the stabilization with that, but using it with 4K 60FPS seems to be the best as its still has lesser stress and smoother in recording

Performance, Benchmarks, Experience

The strongest in the ROG Phone 7 is still the internals, housing the latest gaming optimised Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SOC with up to 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and up to 512GB of internal storage, though no external SD card storage is offered, but it is still plenty enough for your pictures, games, and daily use applications that jive along with a dual cell 6000MaH battery that in most typical use cases, it can last you over a day combined if you are just on a few intensive game matches and exploration, whether it is Genshin Impact, Mobile Legends or even CoDM to name a few. Streaming, emails, calling, social media and messaging on the ROG Phone 7 is snappy and fast, with close to no stutters so far over 14 hours of a day use before needing to recharge back with the 65W charger.

ROG UI is still here and bringing in minor tweaks and enhancements to the table. Starting from interface that is polished to follow the gamer asthethics over the interface, and then there is Armory Crate which give tons of RGB customization and notification alerts according to the user likings and give recommendations on top games that has high framerate graphics support, side trigger configurations, pre-sets and can be use as a guide over the popular mobile games being played. Android 13 brings in more fixes and enhancements over security and safety back obviously some of the AOSP material design is replaced with ASUS ones, but most of the specifications is still retained there. The ROG UI is still geared towards optimizing’s game first followed by others and there is no doubt that the UI is still needs to be polished further to bring more features that could cater even normal users to attract that segment over, or otherwise I am happy with the user experience.

Again, here comes there benchmarks where ASUS ROG Phone 7 shines above many of the nearby competitions, since Qualcomm and ASUS teamed up to crank this phone up to its maximum potential.

Technical Specifications

Verdict & Conclusion

The ASUS ROG Phone 7 is a phone that still carry the screaming for the ultimate gamer’s dream if having this device in the pocket that absolutely drives the optimal premium gaming experience, but its more than that inside and out as a phone itself, it still shines above the competition just by it’s productivity, daily use combined with a better tweaking that ASUS has done, although minor, but ASUS is still standing strong improving their software that shows this phone is a good upgrade path if you are planning to change from an older phone or from the ROG 5 series, or if you want the ultimate taste of a flagship that delivers outmost raw power, this is the one you might consider, as long you dont mind too much of the super mid range camera in it, otherwise this is a phone that roars.

The ASUS ROG Phone 7 is now selling at RM3599 and it is widely available across all ASUS Authorised dealers and Online Stores. For more information, CLICK HERE to find out more.