ASUS launched their flagship smartphone, the ROG Phone 7 last month in April 2023. As promised, ASUS has brought the new flagship gaming smartphone into Malaysia. They are also available for purchase now as we speak; if you are interested, you can check out their roadshow happening now to the end of this weekend (14th of May 2023) at Pavilion Bukit Jalil.
To recap, the ROG Phone 7 comes in two variants, the regular vanilla ROG Phone 7, and one ROG Phone 7 Ultimate flavour. The vanilla ROG Phone 7 is still a powerful device packing Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 platform. You still get up to opt for up to 16GB in LPDDR5X RAM and up to 512GB in storage space if you do not mind spending a little bit more money.
Whichever ROG Phone 7 series device you pick, it comes with a large 6.78-inch AMOLED display that offers Full HD+ resolution at 165Hz refresh rate and up to 720Hz in sampling rate for a smooth and near instant input feel. The AMOLED display also offers the best-in-class viewing experience with up to 1,500 nits in brightness and ΔE<1 colour accuracy. For the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate, you get an extra matrix display shooting visuals out of the back of the device (ROG Vision).
The ROG Phone 7 Ultimate also has a trick up its sleeve over the regular ROG Phone 7. You not only get the latest AeroActive Cooler active cooling solution and attachment for your ROG Phone 7 Ultimate, but the cooler also activates a flap they call the AeroActive Portal that will increase an airflow channel to allow for better cooling. The result is up to 20% thermal efficiency from the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate. That, alongside the Boron Nitride thermal compound, bigger vapor chamber,a graphite sheets on the CPU means that the CPU can be pushed to its limits for longer periods of time without compromising gaming performance.
Other updates on the series include better audio tuned by Dirac Virtuo, X Sense software, better AirTrigger, and new gesture controls including Gyroscope aiming. Within the new ROG Phone 7 devices are 10 motion controls with an X-axis liner motor for powerful and immersive haptic feedback like the one you get on your console controller. You can even adjust the haptic feedback for better response, or just all-around better feel for your controls.
Price and Availability
As mentioned, the ROG Phone 7 series is now available in Malaysia. You can get your vanilla variant of the ROG Phone 7 in either white or black colour options. The ROG Phone 7 Ultimate will be available 15th of May 2023 onward in Malaysia. There is no colour option for this one, unfortunately, just white. The white does bring the ROG Vision out a little bit more though. The ROG Phone 7 will start at MYR 3,599 (12GB + 256GB) while the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate starts at MYR 4,999 and comes with the AeroActive Cooler 7 out-of-the-box. More information on the ROG Phone 7 series can be found on their website.
If you are looking for a flagship smartphone experience like no other, you are spoiled by choice today. You can choose between offerings from Samsung, OnePlus, OPPO, HONOR, Xiaomi, and even Apple, if you please. The thing is these manufacturers make rather similar smartphones. They always come in the same recipe – metallic frame, glass backing that houses a high-resolution camera, and a glass front that protects a rather large high-resolution display. They also always promised some sort of state-of-the-art cooling solution. If you are looking for something different, the flagship from these manufacturers might not cut it.
For a while now, if you have been looking for a different flavour on your flagship smartphone, you can go the route of gaming smarpthones from the likes of Razer, Blackshark, and most recently, Lenovo. But these manufacturers have sort of phased out too. There are no more Blackshark smartphones for 2023, Razer has not updated their Razer Phone line up, and Lenovo has yet to update their latest handheld gaming creation. The only one we can look to right now is ASUS and their ROG Phone. In that case if you want a unique flagship smartphone for 2023, ASUS’ ROG Phone series is the one for you.
Welcome to the ASUS ROG Phone 7 series, the latest creation from the skunkworks of ASUS. It is the latest and currently the most powerful gaming smartphone you have ever seen. As with any previous ASUS ROG Phone devices, it is one of the most striking looking devices you have laid your eyes on, at least amongst all the flagships you can find in the current market.
Formidable Power
Source: ASUS
Source: ASUS
Source: ASUS
It packs an immensely powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 platform. Alongside the powerful system on a chip (SoC) is a 16GB LPDDR5X RAM (up to) and up to 512GB of UFS 4.0 storage. All these are designed so that the top-of-the-line ASUS ROG Phone works through games as fast as the current technology allows. It is made to be the ultimate expression of a gaming handheld that is also a smartphone.
Wrapped around the powerful uniquely tuned internals is something ASUS calls the GameCool 7 thermal control system. That means you get even an even better gaming performance out of the ROG Phone 7 smartphone than any other flagship you can find in the current market. At the same time, the new cooling system keeps the smartphone running at a lower temperature over regular flagship smartphones while keeping power consumption lower than even regular smartphones. They say the new GameCool 7 system offers a new rapid-cycle vapor chamber design that offers 168% heat dissipation efficiency that the ROG Phone that came before.
Better Audio, Better Cooling, Better Controls
Source: ASUS
Source: ASUS
The result is a quite a beefy shell with a few tricks up its sleeves. Within the beefy device is a new stereo speaker that is said to be 50% more powerful than before. The new speaker system is also tuned by Dirac, an audio specialist. You can also turn it into a 2.1 channel system when you attach the new AeroActive Cooler 7 accessory to the device. If you prefer a more personal experience in a crowd, the Dirac tuned Dirac Virtuo 3.5mm headphone jack offers an unparalleled theatre-like spatial sound experience. If you prefer a more wireless approach, the Snapdragon Sound technology offers super-low-latency high-fidelity Bluetooth audio experience.
The new AeroActive Cooler 7 attachment is one of the things that makes the ROG Phone 7 series even more unique than ever before. It offers a cooling solution that does not just cool the glass surface of the device’s back, the new fan design allows for more effective basic active cooling, but a unique AeroActive Portal air inlet system allows the fan to cycle even more air throughout the device’s internals for even more efficient cooling.
ASUS also kept certain things that kept the ROG Phone unique since its inception. One of them is the Air Trigger ultrasonic buttons at the side of the device that offers even more control avenues and options of the ROG Phone device. It is also what gives users of the ROG Phone even more advantage in an already overpowered gaming device in games. It is not the basic haptic feedback touch buttons that they used to be in the first ASUS ROG Phone though. The latest AirTrigger offers a slew of gesture controls including Dual Action, Press and Lift, and even Gyroscope gaming, just like the Nintendo Switch and even the Steam Deck for fine tuning your aim. Within the ROG Phone 7 series devices are 10 motion controls and X-axis liner motors that offers powerful haptic feedback like no other smartphone can.
The Best Display Ever
All these things great hardware goes into creating the most immersive gaming experience you can have on a smartphone with a large Samsung AMOLED display that offers up to 165Hz in refresh rate. The panel also offers up to 720Hz in sampling rate for the lowest-in-class input latency, useful in gaming. The Pixelworks tuned AMOLED panel also offers ΔE<1 and a maximum of 1,500 nits in brightness for not only stunning, colour accurate visuals indoors, but also outdoors.
For the ASUS ROG Phone 7 Ultimate there is an additional matrix colour display that sits at the back of the device they call the ROG Vision. The feature, first presented in the ROG Phone 6 Ultimate offers users extra information like charging status, incoming calls, X Mode activation, personalized animations, and even more.
Price and Availability
ASUS Malaysia has confirmed that the ASUS ROG Phone 7 series will make its way to Malaysia by the 10th of May 2023. There is no official pricing just yet for Malaysia. In Europe though, prices start at EUR€ 999, which is about MYR 4,849*. It will be available in Phantom Black and Storm White colour options. For more information on the ROG Phone 7 series, you can always visit ASUS’ website.
*Approximately based on the exchange rate of EUR€ 1 = MYR 4.85 on xe.com as of 18/04/2023
