Confirmed to launch on January 8th, 2024 is Asus's latest generation of gaming smartphones called the ROG Phone 8 Series. New features such as proper water and dust-resistance, a brighter-than-bright display, enhanced cooling and some sort of gimbal stabilization effect are present this time around which could make the ROG Phone 8 series more convincing for use as a normal flagship smartphone while still retaining its gaming heritage.
Design
Unlike its predecessor, the ROG Phone 8 will sport an ‘edgeless frame' which allows for more screenage and could also result in a reduction of available gripping area when gaming in landscape orientation. While some outlets claim that the design change means that the phone will only have a single front-firing speaker, you can plainly see from the image above shows a speaker grill at the top and bottom of the display.
In general, the phone's display will be flattery than its predecessor with the selfie camera punch-hole being quite small. This time around, Asus has omitted the back display that was present on the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate which is something of a shame but hopefully the RGB ROG logo will perform notification duty.
IP Rating
With previous ROG Phones making do with IP54 ingress protection, there's good news for the ROG Phone 8 which is confirmed by Asus to sport IP68 water and dust-resistance. If you're the type to drop the phone in the toilet, you'll be glad to learn that the ROG Phone 8 is able to be submerged in water. You'll just need to sanitize it after it has been retrieved.
Display
Something else that Asus has confirmed is the presence of a display panel which should be bright enough for any occasion thanks to its peak brightness of 2,500 nits. There should be no complaints about visibility while gaming outdoors thanks to the new screen.
Cameras
According to Asus, at least one ROG Phone 8 model will feature a periscope telephoto lens which is capable of 3x optical zoom. Accompanying this is some sort of built-in gimbal stabilization function which will help to steady video capture when moving about. We've seen a similar feature from Vivo in its X-series of smartphones and it will be interesting to find out more about Asus's take on this.
This time around, the ROG Phone 8 Pro is expected to come with a third rear camera which should improve the image-taking capabilities of the phone.
Keeping It Cool
As with every gaming phone, keeping the processor (probably the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3) at a reasonable temperature during a lengthy session is a challenge and we expect the ROG Phone 8 series to boast a larger cooling vapor chamber than the average phone, and a fan attachment for enhanced chilling. It also seems that the ROG Phone 8 will feature something called “Chill Mode” which will presumably be the more powerful cooling mode.
Other expected specifications include the option of 16/24GB RAM for the ROG Phone 8 Pro, a FHD+ AMOLED display with 165Hz refresh rate, and a 5,500mAh battery.
There's just over a week to wait until Asus unveils the ROG Phone 8 series on January 8, is there anything that hasn't been mentioned that you would like to see? Let us know in the comments below.
