Today ASUS officially announced the ROG Phone 9 and ROG Phone 9 Pro, its latest gaming smartphones that house the most powerful tech any gaming phone has ever seen. At the heart of this power is the Snapdragon 8 Elite from Qualcomm. This mobile platform was announced earlier this year and it boasts incredible performance gains over the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. It’s also going to pump out more heat because of those boosts.
Thankfully, ASUS has thought of that. The new ROG Phone 9 and ROG Phone 9 Pro also boast some new cooling technology to keep the phones at optimal temperatures. So you can game longer and not have to worry about uncomfortably warm hands or slowed-down performance in your games.
Like past years, the ROG Phone 9 and ROG Phone 9 Pro have been announced alongside a slew of new accessories. Most notable is the new AeroActive Cooler attachment. You slap this onto the back of your new ROG Phone and it decreases the internal temps even further. While these have remained very similar from year to year, ASUS has added some new details with each release. With the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate a couple of years ago, this cooling fan attachment housed a tiny subwoofer function to boost the bass and audio of your mobile games.
ASUS removed it with the AeroActive Cooler X last year, but that feature has returned with the new attachment, which ASUS is calling the AeroActive Cooler X Pro. So if you enjoyed that, you can rejoice in the fact that ASUS has brought it back. ASUS didn’t change much with the design or the majority of specs. The new phones this year use the same display as last year’s model, although the refresh rate has been increased to a 185Hz maximum.
The newly announced ROG Phone 9 series is all about keeping it cool
ASUS has taken several measures to improve the cooling with its ROG Phone series each year. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that the company didn’t stray from this mindset. The ROG Phone 9 and ROG Phone 9 Pro both come with updated cooling technology and a new internal restructuring to promote lower phone temperatures. In terms of the restructuring, ASUS has divided the battery into two cells and placed the chipset in the middle.
The reason for this, ASUS says, is that it helps the heat become more evenly distributed. So when you’re two hours into your game, you can worry less about that heat making the phone uncomfortable to hold. Though, realistically this hasn’t really been an issue since the ROG Phone 5 Ultimate.
To keep things even cooler you can slap on the AeroActive Cooler X Pro. ASUS enlarged the fans by 12.5% to stimulate more airflow and the peltier cooling chip is still here to give that little bit of extra cooling when needed. As before, users can manually adjust the AeroActive Cooler X Pro through the Armoury Crate app. There are a few different fan options, but the maximum performance option will require you to plug the phone in through the USB-C port on the cooler.
Alternatively, you can let the AI cooling system manage the fan speeds for you. This will allow them to ramp up when needed but scale back during less demanding games.
There are once again three different models
This was expected and probably not a surprise to anyone who follows the ROG Phone series. ASUS is once again launching three models of the ROG Phone 9 this year. Although, one model is really only different in a few minor ways. That being said, all three models are exactly the same where it counts. Which is with the chipset, display tech, audio, and cameras. And of course, the performance power.
There’s the ROG Phone 9 which is your base model phone. It has the least amount of RAM and storage at 12GB and 256GB. The ROG Phone 9 Pro bumps things to 16GB and 512GB, and then the ROG Phone 9 Pro Edition comes with 24GB and 1TB. So, just like last year’s ROG Phone 8 trio.
The ROG Phone 9 series also looks nearly identical to last year’s phone. ASUS did change a few things. However, the ROG Phone 9 uses the same crystalized nano-texture on the back as the ROG Phone 8. The overall design and even the shape are the same as well. Even the camera bump on the back is the same shape. Albeit with a minor change to the inset ring surrounding the main sensor, which is now flat and flush with camera bump glass.
Updated mini-LED displays
ASUS also swapped out the AniMe Vision mini-LED display on the back and added more LEDs to the Pro model. The base model phone also now has an AniMe Vision display of its own with fewer mini-LEDs as opposed to the RGB ROG logo like the base model ROG Phone 8.
With the ROG Phone 9 Pro, there are now 648 mini-LEDs compared to last year’s 341. The display also now uses a dual color combination of white and red as opposed to just white. Plus, ASUS integrated some simple mini-games you can play with the AniMe Vision display.
For the most part, everything else is the same. You get a three-camera setup on the back with a 50MP main sensor, but ASUS has gone with the Sony Lytia 700 sensor instead of the IMX890. The phones also have a 32MP telephoto lens and a 13MP Ultrawide lens. Interestingly, the base model ROG Phone 9 will uniquely have a 5MP macro sensor.
This much performance doesn’t come cheap
Although ASUS hasn’t announced US availability dates for the ROG Phone 9 series yet, it has announced the pricing. As one would expect these will all come with different price points. You’re looking at $1,000 for the ROG Phone 9, $1,200 for the ROG Phone 9 Pro, and then a whopping $1,500 for the ROG Phone 9 Pro Edition. The ROG Phone 9 Pro Edition also comes with the AeroActive Cooler X Pro in the box along with two shell cases, and a nice soft travel pouch for the cooler.
