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00:00I've always thought gaming phones like this were a little bit pointless
00:03They're too big, the cameras are a bit rubbish and they just miss out on some everyday features like wireless charging and water resistance
00:10Well, this is the new ROG Phone 8 Pro
00:13And it actually goes a long way to fix a lot of these problems while still being the ultimate gaming phone
00:19And I've got the new ROG Phone 8 Pro with me here
00:22There's also a regular Phone 8 and with this as soon as I try to pack in all the usual gaming extras into something smaller
00:27Sleeker and just a lot better as an everyday phone
00:31Question is though, has it worked out? Is this actually worth buying?
00:34Well, here's what I think and if you do enjoy this video, a like and subscribe would be lovely
00:39Well, versus the previous top dog ROG, the Phone 7 Ultimate which I've got here
00:44The Phone 8 feels all grown up and kind of serious
00:47It's 9% lighter, 15% thinner with shrunk down bezels and it makes a heck of a difference
00:53This thing feels like a premium flagship phone
00:56It's much easier to hold and the build quality is fantastic
00:59The 6.78-inch screen is brighter than ever, now at 2500 nits with the same super smooth 165Hz refresh rate
01:07And a 720Hz sampling rate for lower response times, all wrapped up in Gorilla Glass Victus 2
01:13The only issue really is most games are still 60 or maybe 120Hz at max frame rate
01:18Although actually you can use the 165Hz for the home screen and apps
01:21But to be honest, you're probably best off on auto mode
01:23Which can dynamically adjust the refresh between 1 and 120Hz to save you some battery
01:28The triple camera setup has had a huge upgrade including bigger sensors
01:32And borrowed from their Zen phones, the fantastic 6-axis stabilizer for the 50MP main lens
01:39We finally get full IP68 water resistance and wireless charging
01:43Plus the 8 Pro gets this snazzy anime vision display
01:46And it actually uses 341 mini-LEDs with 20 pre-loaded context-sensitive animations
01:52Like the time, the battery percentage, photo countdown, music equalizer or to show notifications
01:57And I also kind of love that when it's off, the mini-LEDs disappear completely
02:02The only downside really is we've lost that colour LCD from the previous phone
02:05And also the cooling vent from the 7 Ultimate, although the flip side is we do now get that water resistance
02:10But at its core, this is still an ROG gaming phone
02:13So as you would expect, we are getting proper flagship specs
02:16Including the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor, Wi-Fi 7
02:19We have their famous Air Trigger haptic shoulder buttons
02:22The speakers are fantastic, they're clear, they're bassy
02:25Among the best I've heard on any phone
02:27Although because they've shrunk the bezel, the top speaker is actually now up-firing rather than front-firing
02:31But they have tuned it so you can't really tell
02:40And as usual, it supports Snapdragon sounds
02:42So we get low latency, aptX lossless and high-res audio support
02:45And of course you've got that 3.5mm audio jack for your wired headphones or mics
02:49And you get AI noise cancellation for your mics
02:51So your call or your stream quality is nice and clear
02:54And if you fire up the ROG Armoury Crate app, then you can put it in X mode for the best performance
02:59But for the absolute best sustained performance
03:01Then you'll definitely want to plug in this Aeroactive Cooler X
03:04Which comes bundled with the Pro, although you have to buy it as an option with the regular Phone 8
03:07And simply plug it into the extra USB-C port
03:10To keep your frame rates high and the phone cool
03:12But we'll come back to this in a second
03:14But for me, there's really three things that separate this as a gaming phone from regular smartphones
03:19You've got the accessories like the Aeroactive Cooler
03:21You've got the Air Triggers
03:22And you've got the software with the Armoury Crate and also the Game Genie Overlay
03:26So Armoury Crate lets you change performance modes
03:29Although for max performance, you'll want to use the X mode
03:31But this will make it quite hot and also drain your battery much faster
03:34You can also control the Aura Lighting, the Anime Vision and also set the display and performance profiles
03:39And with the Game Genie, you've got access to different settings and shortcuts
03:43And you can also map the pressure-sensitive Air Triggers to tap on the virtual icons on your screen
03:47Which can make games a lot easier to play
03:49Although frustratingly, because we have this offset Type-C port
03:53It means that controllers like the Backbone don't line up properly
03:56It works, but it looks kind of weird
03:58But in terms of playing games on the phone
04:00Which you're probably going to do because that's why you're buying a gaming phone
04:03How fast is this thing?
04:04Well, in Geekbench 6, the ROG Phone 8 in its default dynamic mode
04:07Was about as fast as my other Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 phones
04:10I've got the iQOO 12 here
04:12It does pull ahead in X mode, although not by a lot
04:15In either mode though, the ROG Phone 8 absolutely steamrolls last year's ROG Phone 7
04:19Beating it by 30% in multi-core and a massive 74% in the Vulkan GPU test
04:25I mean, sure, it's pulling more watts and that will of course affect the battery
04:28Which is also smaller this year, but it's a great way to have that extra power as an option
04:32In AnTuTu, the Phone 8 was 31% faster than the Phone 7
04:35And also slightly faster than the iQOO 12
04:38In 3DMark Solar Bay, which has some ray tracing elements
04:41The ROG Phone 8 was 61% faster than last year
04:43And a decent 18% faster than the iQOO
04:46Which shows the difference X mode can make
04:48Although things weren't quite so great in Wildlife Extreme
04:51Which is pretty much a 20 minute torture test
04:53But in X mode, the extra wattage meant the ROG Phone 8 got really hot
04:57Meaning lots of dropped frames
04:59Now to be fair, it didn't get this hot actually playing games in X mode
05:02But I would probably say Dynamic Mode is your best bet for longer gaming sessions
05:06In War Thunder, the ROG Phone 8 comfortably maxed out the 120fps frame cap
05:11Whereas the 7 couldn't quite get there
05:12And also was about 15-20fps ahead with ray tracing turned on
05:16Although RT isn't that impressive in this game, so I don't normally have it turned on
05:20I also tested the very demanding Honkai Star Rail
05:23Which is a kind of follow-up to Genshin Impact
05:24Which looks fantastic, although it is limited to 60fps on Android
05:28My iPhone has a 120fps option
05:31So while this may be the gaming phone
05:33There are certain advantages and game optimizations for playing on iPhone
05:36But still, I'm maxing out all the settings across the board and getting that 60fps
05:40And with all these gaming extras
05:42The great screen, the great sound, Wi-Fi 7
05:44This is also kind of the best phone for streaming games
05:47From the likes of GeForce Now or Xbox Cloud Gaming
05:49But what about cooling and does it throttle?
05:52Well, after half an hour of playing demanding games in X mode
05:55The temperatures never went over 39 degrees Celsius
05:57And it was still comfortable to hold
05:59Although it does idle around 8 Celsius hotter than last year's Phone 7
06:02However, if you grab the AeroActive Cooler X
06:04Which is also a $99 accessory for the regular Phone 8
06:07This one is smaller and lighter
06:09And you get more efficient cooling and a quieter fan
06:11With the idea being this keeps the phone cool
06:13So clock speeds can stay high
06:15Meaning fewer frame drops and less, well, jankiness
06:17Plus it has two physical air triggers
06:19A headphone jack, a Type-C port, RGB and a kickstand
06:23And the good news is it works, especially when you're in X mode
06:26In 3DMark, the frame rate was much more stable
06:29With minimum frames up 84% overall
06:31And the lowest loop score up 18%
06:34I even got a 3.5% boost in AnTuTu
06:36And so you'll probably want to play with this for longer gaming sessions
06:39And if you plan to run it in X mode
06:41For shorter gaming sessions, it didn't really make a massive difference
06:44Although it did get a couple of extra FPS in War Thunder with RT
06:46And the phone did feel cooler overall
06:49So far, so good then
06:50But I think the main drawback with this year's new Phone 8
06:53Is that we are getting an 8% smaller battery versus last year
06:56Although Asus reckon their optimizations
06:58Mean it should only drop by around 2%
07:01And in my YouTube test, the ROG Phone 8 Pro
07:03Lasted a pretty impressive 13.5 hours
07:06Although last year's ROG 7 Ultimate
07:09And also my other Snapdragon 8th Gen 3 phone, the iQOO 12
07:12Lasted a good 25-30% longer
07:15And that's despite the latter having a smaller battery
07:18So battery life is a little bit more compromised this year
07:21I got about 3.5 hours of Genshin Impact using the dynamic mode
07:24Although this was more like 2 hours 45 in X mode
07:26But in less demanding games, I reckon you get over 4 hours
07:29And also the 65W hypercharger means you can go from 0 to 100 in about 39 minutes
07:34So performance is a decent step up
07:35The battery is a little bit of a downgrade
07:37But I actually reckon the most significant improvement this year
07:40Is in the camera department
07:41Now the 50MP main lens gets a bigger sensor
07:44And also the very impressive 6-axis stabilisation
07:47Alongside a 13MP ultrawide which also gets better image quality
07:51And for the first time on an ROG phone, we have a telephoto lens
07:55Giving us a 32MP 3x optical zoom and up to a 30x AI zoom
07:59And also up front, the 32MP selfie gets better low-light performance
08:05The standouts are this 50MP main camera
08:07Which gets you detailed and nicely exposed shots
08:10Although it can occasionally look a little bit over-processed
08:13Just not quite as natural as other flagships
08:16As for portraits, it is detailed
08:18Although perhaps a little flat-looking sometimes
08:20I did find skin tones were a bit too warm
08:22And again, we had that more processed look
08:24Even versus last year's phone
08:26It's okay, just not great
08:28But I think my favourite lens is the new kid on the block
08:31The 3x telephoto with OIS
08:34Which actually pulled out the most detail
08:35As you can see on this suit of armour
08:37It is pretty impressive
08:42However, the ultrawide does struggle with detail and noise
08:45Especially in lower light
08:46Although in good lighting, it does a good job
08:50Low-light shots were great using the 3x lens
08:52But the main lens can look a bit smudgy
08:54Although it is nicely exposed
08:56And the apparently lossless 2x mode
08:59Which is cropped from the 1x and then enhanced
09:01Doesn't exactly look lossless to me most of the time
09:04And unless it's improved with future updates
09:06I would stick with the main 1x or the telephoto 3x
09:11But the best bit has to be video
09:13It is much improved this time around
09:15Versus the ROG 7 Ultimate
09:17The 8 is so much smoother
09:18Thanks to the new 6-axis stabilisation
09:20Which they've borrowed from their Zen phones
09:22We also get far less annoying exposure changes
09:25With more detail, better colours and less noise
09:28It's still not as crisp as top-end flagship smartphones
09:31But it is a big improvement
09:37My biggest criticism though of this phone
09:40Is that ASUS are only promising 2 OS updates for this
09:42Although 4 years of security
09:44Most phone companies are now offering 3, 4
09:46I mean Samsung's even up to 7 years of full OS updates
09:49And so just 2 years is disappointing for a flagship phone
09:52As for the competition
09:54Well I think the Red Magic 9 Pro is probably its closest rival
09:57It gets a bigger battery, faster charging
10:00And a beefier cooling system
10:01Although it does max out at 120Hz
10:03And a less bright 1600 nits
10:05We don't have that water resistance
10:06And I don't think the cameras are as good
10:08Otherwise you'd still do very well with any other
10:10Flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 phone
10:12From OnePlus, Xiaomi, iQOO
10:14Of course the new Samsung Galaxy S24
10:16But while the performance may be similar
10:18You are missing out on some of those specific gaming features
10:21So there you have it
10:22The ROG Phone 8 is a terrific gaming phone
10:25That's also much easier to live with this time around
10:27Thanks to water resistance, wireless charging
10:29And much improved cameras
10:30The truth is though
10:31There aren't really that many Android games
10:33That need this kind of power
10:35But really it's those extra gaming features
10:36That make the difference here
10:38But I would love to see more demanding
10:39Console level games come to Android
10:41Like we're seeing on the iPhone
10:43It is also quite expensive
10:44The base ROG Phone 8 starts at $1100
10:47Although for just $100 more
10:48So $1200 you can get the Pro
10:50Which offers double the storage
10:51We have the anime vision display
10:53And also this very nice matte sparkly
10:55Phantom black finish
10:56But then the one I have here
10:58With 1TB of storage
10:59And a massive 24GB of RAM
11:01The Pro edition it's $1500
11:04Ouch
11:05But what do you think?
11:06Would you be tempted to buy the ROG Phone 8?
11:08And also if you did pick up one of these
11:09What's the first game you would play?
11:11Let me know in the comments below