The new ASUS ROG Phone III is the update to the impressive ROG Phone II, which had a super large screen, great battery life and crazy top-end specs. The ROG Phone III brings about new subtle design updates and improved performance for the best possible gaming experience. ROG Phone III retails for S$1,598.
Unboxing
In the box, you’ll get the following items:
- ROG Phone III
- AeroActive Cooler III
- Aero Case
- USB Type-C to C Cable
- USB-C to 3.5mm adapter
- SIM Ejector Pin
- USB Power Adapter (30W)
- USB rubber plugs
- ROG stickers
- User guide
The Aero case sports a new design, with ROG wordings splattered across the back. The case has holes in order to help with the cooling of the phone. I found that putting on the case helps with the grip of the phone while gaming.
Tech specs
Screen
The screen is amazing – it’s big, it’s bright, it’s fast. The screen is a super large 6.6-inch 1080 x 2340 AMOLED HDR screen. Equipped with a maximum 144Hz refresh rate and a response time of 1ms, everything feels very responsive and buttery smooth. You can definitely tell the difference when using this phone. I don’t usually choose big screen phones as I lose portability, but watching content and playing games on such a large screen is really enjoyable.
There is still the in-display fingerprint sensor, so if you’re into that, it’s one more option to have.
Speaker
They still feature front facing stereo speakers, which are great when gaming or consuming video content. They sound pretty good – had good amounts of bass to generate a full sound, especially when compared to my iPhone 11. Stereo imaging is also quite good, which will be useful for gaming if you solely use speakers. The volume can also get quite loud, but I found that the volume doesn’t exactly increase linearly.
But with the new ROG Phone III, you lose the 3.5mm audio jack. Surprising omission in my opinion to take out the headphone jack, but if you use the AeroActive Cooler 3 attachment, then you’ll get the 3.5mm headphone jack back. For wireless Bluetooth transmission, the ROG Phone III comes with the latest Bluetooth 5.1 and supports all major high-quality transmission standards such as aptX HD, aptX adaptive, LDAC, and AAC.
Performance
Here some of the ROG Phone III headline specs:
- Snapdragon 865+ 5G
- 16GB RAM (LPDDR5)
- 512GB storage (UFS 3.0)
The key improvement of the. ROG Phone III vs its predecessor is the Snapdragon 865+ 5G CPU, which clocks up to 3.1GHz. GPU is also given a boost in performance with the updated Adreno 650. The 144Hz screen certainly helps to make gaming super enjoyable and accurate as things such as moving, changing direction or aiming down sights feels fluid and precise. It is just something that you have you to try it out yourself.
Be it PUBG or Call of Duty Mobile, even at the highest settings the ROG Phone III will handle it without a flinch. The phone does get warm quite fast on intensive gaming loads or large resolution video recording, but it does not affect performance unlike other phones where you may experience stuttering. This stable performance is largely attributed to the cooling done in the phone so that it does not thermal throttle.
ASUS has improved the cooling system in ROG Phone II with the updated GameCool III cooling system. To improve the cooling of the phone even more, you can attach the AeroActive Cooler 3 which is now updated to include a kickstand. So if you’re not using it for gaming it doubles as a phone stand for consuming media content. It is also worth noting that the USB-C port at the bottom of the phone is off-center so that it will not hinder with your hand placement while gaming.
Armoury Crate
If you’ve used an ROG laptop before, it’s the same concept – giving you much more customised controls over your game settings. Let’s talk about some of the notable features below:
AirTriggers
AirTriggers are two touch sensitive areas on the top left and right of the phone, simulating triggers on a controller. This feature is switched on through ASUS’ Game Genie app. And in the app, you can even access more features to level up your gaming experience.
How AirTriggers work is that you set a location on the phone that will be tapped when you press on either the left or right trigger. In the case of PUBG, I mapped the left trigger to scope and right trigger to shoot. Because those two actions are mapped to AirTriggers not on my screen, I can strafe, scope, aim and shoot even greater precision and accuracy. It takes while to get used to tapping on the AirTriggers and tapping shoot with your thumbs.
AirTriggers also provide haptic feedback so that you know that you are registering a press. On the ROG Phone III, the AirTriggers is also improved to reduce any possible latency. I did not experience any latency from the taping of the AirTriggers to action on the screen. I believed if used well, the AirTriggers can be an advantage on most FPS games.
Scenario Profiles
You can set specific settings for each game on your phone. The amount of fine tuning you can do can range from display, audio, CPU & GPU performance, network and more. Performance tuning is even more granular when you enter the “Hardcore Tuning” mode where you can every adjustable parameter for peak performance.
Game Genie
Game Genie is basically like a gaming assistant. You can prevent alerts and calls so you won’t be disrupted during your gaming sessions. You can even lock brightness and display real-time info when gaming so you can see your frame rates, battery, etc – if you’re into that.
There are also features such as AirTriggers (mentioned above), game recording, live streaming and the even the ability to set Macros. What macros do is you record a set of actions (ie. your taps). So if you have repetitive actions on a game like claiming loots or farming, then you can set a Macro and play it. The macro will keep replaying until you put a stop to it.
Battery
The ROG Phone III still comes with a 6000mAh battery which is huge and really long lasting. It’s going to be hard to kill the phone in a single day with just regular social media use. So, this will last you comfortably for gaming sessions before you need the next recharge. For me, I went about 2 days of use before needing to charge it again.
There is still the Hypercharge feature that allows you to get from 0% to 75% in about 45 minutes, using the 30W charger provided in the box. The ROG Phone II supports PD charging and Quick Charge 4.0. The ROG Phone III also has a battery care feature such as custom charging limit and slow charging to reduce battery wear and temperature.
Do note that wireless charging is not available on the ROG Phone III.
Camera
The ROG Phone III now comes with three camera lens on the back, and one on the front:
- 64MP main wide
- 13MP ultra-wide
- 5MP macro
- 24MP front facing camera
Regular photos will get by and look good and reliable as any point-and-shoot camera. The photos on the ROG Phone III are tuned to look more saturated and have an emphasis on shadows to bring out contrast. So in shots where there are high dynamic range, brighter parts of the photos may be overexposed. Some people may prefer the colour on the ROG Phone III than on the iPhone 11 as it looks more punchy and dynamic. The ultra-wide lens also have the same colour tuning and similarities as the main lens. Photos on the ultra-wide and macros lens do not look as sharp as the main camera.
When it comes to low light, the ROG Phone III’s Night Mode performs fairy well as long as there is enough light source. Take a look at two examples below where I compare it with the iPhone 11 – there is an easy test (at night but with decent lighting around), and a hard test at 6 seconds (almost fully dark):
Conclusion
If you’re someone who largely games on your phone then the ROG Phone III, you’ll get the best gaming experience due to the large screen, AirTriggers, fast refresh rate and response time. You also have gaming specific tuning like X-Mode and Game Genie that will also improve your overall gaming experience. The S$1,598 price tag could be justified, the same way folks buy an iPhone for iOS, security and camera.
Where to buy
You can buy the ROG Phone III online here, or head down to ASUS Experience store in Bugis Junction @ 200 Victoria St, Bugis Junction Zone IT 3, Singapore 188021.