Asus ROG Phone 8 Launched With Telephoto Zoom and Waterproofing For The First Time

Asus is expanding its ROG Phone lineup beyond its gaming reputation and wants it to be a daily driver for fans. This is why the ROG Phone 8 has been redesigned to look more like a regular handset rather than a flashy gaming phone adorned with RGB LEDs and more.

Design and Display

The new ROG Phone 8 is ever so slightly thinner and lighter than the ROG Phone 7, mostly due to the reduced battery capacity. The 6.78″ LTPO AMOLED display has slimmer bezels than before and the maximum refresh rate is 165Hz which can drop to 1Hz to save battery. Peak brightness is now 2500 nits and the selfie camera is now in a punch-hole cutout.

It is the first ROG Phone to boast IP68 water resistance since it switches from convective cooling to conduction cooling.

Internals and Software

On the inside, there is the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 flagship chipset with up to 24 GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 1 TB of UFS 4.0 memory. Users can also choose 12 to 16 GB RAM or 256 GB/512 GB storage options. There is no memory card slot for storage expansion.

It boots Android 14 OS out of the box.

Cameras

The star of the camera setup is the 50MP main shooter, boasting a massive 1/1.56″ Sony IMX890 sensor. It is equipped with a 6-axis Hybrid Gimbal Stabilizer 3.0, coupled with ingenious software wizardry that unlocks the Super HyperSteady Video mode. And let’s not forget the 13MP 120° ultra-wide camera, which offers a wider perspective for capturing group shots.

Asus also introduces a 3x telephoto lens with a 32MP camera. Equipped with OIS and 4-in-1 pixel binning. Software features enable 10x Hyper Clarity AI zoom and an astonishing 30x digital zoom. Super Night Mode ensures low-light photos are still reliable.

It’s worth noting that some regions will feature a macro camera instead of the telephoto lens on the ROG Phone 8, while the ROG Phone 8 Pro and 8 Pro Edition models will flaunt telephoto cameras in all markets.

The new front-facing camera is no slouch either, boasting a 32MP sensor that takes 8MP photos by default, thanks to 1.4µm binning. It has a wider 90° lens for group shots.

Battery and Pricing

The 5,500 mAh battery from last year has been slimmed down to 5,000 mAh, but Asus claims that battery life is unchanged thanks to improved hardware. It has support for 65W wired charging for quick top-ups.

The regular ROG Phone 8 is available in Phantom Black and Rebel Grey with an RGB backlit logo on the back. The ROG Phone 8 Pro and Pro Edition are only available in black and have a small OLED display on the back.

Unfortunately, the price is the biggest downside of the ROG Phone 8, which starts at $1,099 in the US for the 12GB RAM 256GB storage option.

Asus ROG Phone 8 Specifications

• Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
• CPU: Octa-core (1×3.3 GHz Cortex-X4 & 5×3.2 GHz Cortex-A720 & 2×2.3 GHz Cortex-A520)
• GPU: Adreno 750
• OS: Android 14
• Supported Networks: 2G, 3G, 4G LTE, 5G
• Display:
  • 6.78″ LTPO AMOLED with 1080 x 2448 pixels resolution, 165Hz, 1B colors
• Memory:
  • RAM: 12 GB, 16 GB, 24 GB
  • Internal: 256 GB, 512 GB, 1 TB
  • Card slot: No
• Camera:
  • Rear (Triple): 50 MP, f/1.9, 24mm (wide), 1/1.56″, 1.0µm, PDAF, gimbal OIS
    32 MP, f/2.4, (telephoto), PDAF, OIS, 3x optical zoom
    13 MP, f/2.2, 13mm, 120˚ (ultrawide)
  • Front: 32 MP, f/2.5, 29mm (wide), 1/3.2″, 0.7µm
• Colors: Phantom Black, Rebel Grey
• Fingerprint sensor: Under-display
• Battery: 5,000 mAh, 65W wired charging
• Price: N/A