[Gadgets] Asus ROG Phone 8 review: drops the ball on key gaming features

[Aronus]

The gaming phone market used to be an exciting and competitive niche, with companies innovating with newer and weirder ways to make their handsets great for mobile gaming. My use of the past tense there is intentional, as the Asus ROG Phone 8 is a sign of the times.

With Lenovo giving up its short-lived Legion Duel line in 2021, and my personal favorites, Black Shark, not having released a device since 2022, Asus doesn’t have much competition when it comes to producing the best gaming phone, and as a result, it doesn’t seem to be trying.

On paper, the Asus ROG Phone 8 looks like a decent gaming phone. It has a high refresh rate display, the newest and fastest chipset, and extra gaming features that you don’t find on most Android mobiles. And, to an extent, it is good for playing mobile games.

The ROG had no problem loading up the top graphical settings on any game I tested, and it easily ran higher refresh modes in the few games that offer it. Plus, it gives you lots of customization over the power allotment, so you can focus on latency, graphics, battery management and more – really useful tools for gamers on the go.

Asus’ Android fork is also one of the easiest to use I’ve seen in a gaming phone – it’s nice and clean, but with a few added extra features for gamers like customization modes. There’s no bloatware either, which isn’t something you can say about many Android phones. 

While I'm listing positives, I also want to commend the camera. It's not quite iPhone-level, but it's definitely the best I've seen on a gaming phone, given that manufacturers working in this niche rarely spare a thought for photography. It even has a zoom camera, which is quite the rarity these days!

However, I came out of my time with the Asus ROG Phone 8 not quite sold on its gaming chops beyond all that power. Gaming tech companies don’t seem to want to acknowledge the fact that there’s a lot more to making a good gaming phone than performance; case in point, the ROG Phone 8.

Instead of physical triggers, the ROG Phone 8 has ‘Air Triggers’, or haptic areas that you can tap to pre-mapped functions. These are finickity to use, requiring pronounced motions that take more time and attention than simply pressing on-screen buttons. Plus they’re quite buggy, sometimes not triggering and other times getting stuck.

Asus has also made the mistake of placing the side-mounted speakers right where your hand will be when you’re holding the mobile horizontally to game. I kept blocking sound when playing games, which was infuriating.

I imagine Asus hopes gamers will use the ROG phone alongside one of its peripherals, but expecting consumers to buy extra tech brings into view another issue with the ROG Phone 8 – it’s really expensive! Costing $1,099 / £949 (roughly AU$1,600), it’ll set you back more than many top-end flagships including the OnePlus 12, Google Pixel 8 or Xiaomi 14.

More importantly, the ROG Phone 8 costs a lot more than the Nubia Red Magic 9 Pro, which is its big rival in the gaming space, and I don’t think you’re getting your money’s worth with the price hike.

If the gaming phone space was more competitive, this price tag would get Asus laughed out of the room. As it stands, the high cost of the ROG Phone 8 and the lack of refinement in its gaming chops make it hard to recommend.

 

Asus ROG Phone 8 review: drops the ball on key gaming features | TechRadar