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Performance
- First phone with the Snapdragon 865 Plus
- LPDDR5 RAM, UFS 3.1 storage
- 5G capable
Android flagships are known to go overboard with specifications and numbers. The Asus ROG Phone 3 takes the crown in this regard. It is the first smartphone to be powered by the new Snapdragon 865 Plus chipset, crossing the 3GHz threshold for the first time on a smartphone. That is paired with up to 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 512GB of UFS 3.1 storage. While that is already overkill, it also adds a fancy cooling stack that comprises a vapour chamber, a copper heat sink and a vent to let the heat out.
To nobody’s surprise, performance on the ROG Phone 3 is not something that you’ll have to worry about. Be it day to day tasks or heavy gaming or multitasking, it doesn’t break a sweat. Synthetic benchmarks corroborate this. X Mode, which can be enabled by squeezing the phone, takes the performance even further.
What was unusual was the fact that the phone would randomly heat up during tasks that it shouldn’t, such as using the camera for a few shots, sending messages or even charging. Updates have made it better, but it persists.
Call quality and network reception were great. It is also 5G capable in markets that support it.
Gaming
- Shoulder buttons for additional input
- Game Genie suite
The primary reason why anyone should consider the Asus ROG Phone 3 is how it enables a better gaming experience than almost anything else in the market, on both hardware and software fronts. Even with these additions, it doesn’t seem too overwhelming and you can ignore most of these if you don’t want to tinker with everything.
On the hardware front, we have the new shoulder button implementation. While most mobile gamers have to rely on just two thumbs for input, Air Triggers 3 allow for six additional inputs that can be used to trigger certain specific points on the display. The ultrasonic buttons, which are now longer, can be split into two to act as L1, L2 and R1, R2. You can even customise how big each part should be. A swipe in either direction can also act as additional touches. If these weren’t enough, the phone can also be shaken for another click. These might seem overwhelming but is one of those additions that can actually help with improving your gaming performance once adapted.
It doesn’t support every game, but when it does, it opens up new possibilities and strategies. For example, in PUBG Mobile, we set the left trigger to aim down the sights and the right one to fire. In situations of combat, instead of having my fingers covering the screen, I could use my thumbs to quickly aim while my index fingers took care of the firing. There is a learning curve for sure, but it is worth the time investment.
Game Genie is where you will spend most of your time. It can be summoned by a swipe inward front the top-right edge of the screen. It shows the phone’s current stats of framerate, clock speed and thermals, allows selecting DND profiles, toggles screen recording, switches the refresh rate, configures the Air Triggers and even starts live streaming on YouTube or Twitch. It’s rather easy to use and set up, and its overlay nature helps in checking the tweaks in real-time. You can also add floating window shortcuts for certain apps like WhatsApp to quickly send a message without leaving the game.
Enhanced X Mode brings one-touch improvements to the performance, touch latency, resource allocation and network reception. HyperFusion allows for seamless switching between data and WiFi for gaming to enjoy a lag-free experience. It can also use both of them simultaneously if the throughput falls below a certain threshold.
While the speakers bring a good stereo audio experience, my teammates always complained about the mic quality when I was not using earphones.
When gaming with the X Mode on, the RGB logo on the back lights up. In case you’re playing with your team who also happen to use ROG Phones, you can sync up your lighting patterns and colours if you’re into such jazz.
PCMR is infamous for questioning the utility of bells and whistles if they don’t make you a better gamer. We’re glad to report that using the ROG Phone 3 can indeed do so. Long story short, you’re sure to enjoy gaming on this phone, regardless of how many things you tinker with. The consistent performance and smooth visuals are a joy to behold.
Software
- Close to stock Android
- No bloatware
Gaming phones have a knack to focus all their might on improving their performance while forgetting to create a better experience. Asus’s story is quite the opposite. With each generation of the ROG Phone, the software skin is refined and made lighter to work well as a phone when needed and level up to a console while gaming. For the most part, the ROG Phone 3 runs on stock Android with barely any preloaded apps or bloat.
The only major addition is the Armoury Crate. Originally introduced on its gaming PCs, it is a one-stop-shop to check all your installed titles, check device performance and diagnostics, and even set custom profiles for each game.
It brings an insane level of granularity for gaming. You can set performance parameters, set temperature control, CPU and GPU performance, fan speed, touch sensitivity and precision, add macros, and save these settings for each game individually. Most computers or consoles don’t offer this degree of control on the hardware.
Apart from that, we have the usual stock Android fare that includes an app drawer, a customizable quick toggle menu, and an easy to use settings screen.
