After seven generations, the ROG Phone series has hit its stride, making a name for itself as the best option for gaming on mobile. This year the ROG Phone 7 offers an updated new model with the same gamer focus with some new hardware and tweaks under the hood.
At $2,099 the ASUS ROG Phone 7 Ultimate isn’t going to be for everyone, so there’s also the option of the ROG Phone 7 priced from $1,799. ASUS have sent over the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate for review, but it’s probably good to look at the two phones.
Basic specs are the same on the two devices, with the same 6.78-inch 165Hz AMOLED display and powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, 16GB RAM and 512GB of on-board storage and a massive 6000 mAh battery with 65W HyperCharge support.
The ROG Phone 7 phones also include a triple rear camera with a 50MP Sony IMX766 sensor and both handsets run the new ROG UI based on Google’s Android 13.
There are some differences though, with the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate only available in Storm White, while the base ROG Phone 7 comes in Storm White and Phantom Black.
The ROG Phone 7 Ultimate also includes the ROG Vision PMOLED display on the rear, which can show graphics, or system events including incoming calls, charging and more.
Another big difference is the GameCool 7 system which both phones use however the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate includes the new AeroActive Portal, an inlet on the rear of the phone which lines up with the AeroActive Cooler accessory included in the box to cool the phone even further giving both gaming performance boosts and improving battery endurance.
So after all that, I’ve been using the ROG Phone 7 for two weeks and here’s how it went.
Hardware and Design
Since reviewing my first ROG Phone only a couple of years ago, not much has changed in terms of focus for ASUS. The ROG phone division still includes as many top-end specs as they possibly can in the phone, and it’s paired with a distinctive ROG style look chassis making for a gaming phone that won’t look out of place next to a high-end gaming PC.
It’s a tall, yet thin phone making it easy to hold, with the 6.78” AMOLED display set in a 20.4:9 wide aspect ratio. Though it’s tall there are some nice one-handed software tweaks included in the ROG UI & Zen UI built on top of the Android 13 system.
The ROG Phone 7 includes dual front-firing speakers built-in to either end of the display. It consists of two symmetrical 5-magnet 12×16 Super Linear Speakers, with tuning by Dirac and sounds amazing.
The audio experience is heightened when you connect the AeroActive Cooler 7, which this year includes a 5-magnet super linear subwoofer, to improve your audio experience as well as keep your phone cool. It’s one of the coolest accessories (Hah, pun unintended) for phones. I’ve seen friends playing Bleach or Genshin Impact have issues with phones overheating while playing, but the AeroActive Cooler really offsets this. The AeroActive Cooler also has a sub-woofer built-in to enhance the already fantastic sound quality on the phone, offering a 2.1 Channel Sound Portable Theater.
The ROG Phone 7 Ultimate feels solidly built in the hand with little flex in the body and weighs in at 239 grams, about the same as an iPhone 14 Pro Max and slightly more than a Galaxy S23 Ultra. Despite the well-built feel the phone does only have an IP54 dust/water resistance rating which is disappointing at this end of the range.
While you can’t see them, the phone also includes ‘Air Triggers’. Pressure sensitive parts of the phone you can use to key in macros for gaming, giving you a chance to elevate your gaming. While my occasional Candy Crush game isn’t going to push the limits with these additional controls, if you’re into higher end games like Genshin Impact you might find these to be quite beneficial.
In terms of looks, the Storm White colourway on the rear looks the part with the angled camera island, ROG Vision rear display with 07 stamp and inlaid lines across the rear, as well as the matte lower half.
It’s also easy to get that ‘gamer’ feel to the phone with the ASUS ROG boot sound and animation flashing up when you power on the phone.
The ROG Phone 7 has their power and volume rocker on the right hand side, with the power button matching the SIM tray on the left hand side of the phone with a flash of metallic blue.
There’s a USB-C port and pogo pins also on the right set mid phone so you can plug in and charge while playing in landscape without the cable sticking out the side. There is also a USB-C port on the base of the phone with a 3.5mm headphone jack – both offset from the centre. The offset USB-C port may cause some issues for people wanting to use things like the Razr Kishi, so just something to keep in mind.
To protect the phone there’s a plastic shell for some protection included in the box which fits well with the buttons, charging ports (yep, there’s two USB-C ports again!), AeroActive Portal and the rear display are all easily accessible, while offering some basic bumper protection.
Performance
There’s a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 with an Adreno 740 GPU, 16GB of RAM and 512GB storage on board and there was nothing the phone couldn’t do.
As you’d expect with this much raw power loading apps and games was fast, as was multitasking. Combined with that super-smooth 165Hz display and the whole thing feels lifelike in terms of responsiveness with very little latency from touch response.
There’s very little to complain about when it comes to the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate. The Qualcomm processor, high-end RAM and loads of storage with a minimalistic Android build that’s been optimised for the hardware offer a great platform – and it’s not uncommon to see earlier ROG Phone users still using their phones quite happily many generations later.
Of course we want to see how it goes, so I ran the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate through 3DMark and Geekbench and here’s how it went.
Camera
The ROG Phone 7 series doesn’t step things up from last years model, though there is a step up for both the macro and front-facing camera. On board this year is a 50MP SONY IMX766 main sensor, with a 13MP ultra-wide and 8MP macro camera on the rear, with a 32MP MP OV32 Quad Bayer Front Camera sensor.
As with last year, the 50MP main sensor offers some excellent images in good light, though the background details tend to get a little soft as you zoom in.
There are some limitations on low-light images though, with a slight greenish hue in very low-light conditions when engaging Night Mode. The camera AI is also not quite as impressive performance in low light as the Pixel or Galaxy S Ultra phones.
The ultrawide camera offers a good way to snap some wide field-of-view shots, though you do get similar softness in details on the lower resolution 13MP sensor.
There’s a dedicated macro camera on-board the ROG Phone 7 series. I’ve never been a proponent of these lenses, preferring a telephoto option. That said, if you need to snap a really up close shot, the macro camera on the ROG Phone 7 is quite good.
The front facing 32MP camera sensor is a big bump from the 12MP on last years ROG Phone 6 Pro and the quality has also taken a step up if you’re into selfies.
The ROG Phone camera UI is fairly decent, with the ability to customise which camera modes are in your carousel by dragging and dropping from the ‘More’ section. One of the newest modes included is Light Trail mode. It’s a fun feature we’ve seen on a lot of phones previously.
Display
The AMOLED display is just brilliant. With 2448×1080 resolution images are sharp, it provides 111% DCI-P3 gamut coverage and it’s HDR10+ certified so it offers fantastic colour reproduction with the deep blacks you’ve come to know and love from AMOLED displays.
By default the colours are set to ‘Optimal’ under the inexplicably named ‘Splendid’ section of the Display settings. There’s a few presets to choose from or you can tune the colour temperature yourself.
The phone supports up to 165Hz refresh rate, so you can guarantee any games you get will be smooth. By default the ROG Phone 7 uses the Auto option which gives a balance between smoothness and battery life, but you can force it onto 165Hz, 144Hz, 120Hz, 90Hz, or 60Hz.
It’s an easy to read display no matter what lighting conditions thanks to the 1000 nits display that can ramp up to 1500 nits peak brightness, so you can go outside even in bright sunlight and still read the screen easily.
There’s a fingerprint sensor built-in to the screen about which is fast and accurate with ASUS advising that it uses machine learning to improve its performance over time – hard to believe when it’s already super fast, but I’d welcome it.
Battery and Charging
The ROG Phone 7 series comes with a 6,000mAh battery included with a 65 Watt “HyperCharge” adapter included in the box.
As with last year, ASUS have split the 6,000mAh battery into two 3,000mAh units for faster charging. This also means lower charge and discharge temperatures. In real world terms this means the charger can get you from 0-100% full in just over 40 minutes.
Whille charging is super fast, there are a couple of notes. Firstly the 65 Watt charger included in the box is pretty chunky, making it a bit unfriendly to other plugs in a socker, but it is what it is. Secondly there’s no wireless charging which is a deal breaker for a number of people, so it’s worth knowing it’s not there.
That 6,000mAh battery also allows you to easily get through up to two days of pretty heavy use, with an option to stretch to three days with some careful management.
Software
The ROG Phone 7 Ultimate runs Android 13 with ROG UI or ZenUI presented as options when you setup the phone. Both ROG UI and Zen UI are based on minimal Android loads, with ROG UI offering a more gamer focused aesthetic, while the ZenUI interface has a more minimalistic stock look.
The phone is running Android 13 with the January security patch and when checking for updates there’s no Over-The-Air updates available. In terms of software support though, ASUS ROG have advised the phone comes with 2 OS updates and 4 yrs of security updates.
The selection of ZenUI or ROG UI is presented at bootup with ROG with options to use an Optimised ASUS UI with a load of options to customise the notifications, lock screen, volume controls and more.
The ROG UI is simply a gaming inspired UI theme, while ZenUI is a more minimalistic stock Android look. It’s a personal preference and I like both options – with both having very minimal additional apps installed. Both ROG UI and ZenUI have their pros and cons and it just comes down to preference. The option to customise your UI with the ‘ASUS’ options, picking and choosing what suits you really defines what Android is about and ASUS ROG have embraced this in a very user friendly way.
Of course the one ‘BIG’ inclusion for ASUS ROG fans is their Armoury Crate application. For ROG laptop owners, the Armoury Crate software is the hub for all things performance related on your laptop, and on the phone it’s no different. In the Armoury Crate application you can configure different performance profiles, configure the AeroActive Cooler and ROG Vision Display. It’s a well made app that just does what it says.
Should you buy it?
If having the most powerful specs and features for gaming on the is what you’re after in your phone, then the ASUS ROG Phone 7 Ultimate is the best choice for you.
There’s very little not to like about the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate. From the extremely powerful internals that make the performance absolutely amazing, to the additional features like the AeroActive Cooler that will keep your performance up and temperatures down while you’re gaming.
There’s still some improvements to be made on the camera and the IP54 rating for dust/water resistance feels like it could be better and software support does seem to be a little laggy – but in the grand scheme of things, the phone is an absolute beast.
At $2,099 it’s a big investment, but with the amount of hardware you’re carrying in your pocket it’s going to be a worthwhile one.
You can check the ASUS ROG Phone 7 Ultimate out on the ASUS website, or head in-store to JB Hifi.
