On April 13, 2023, Asus announced its latest additions to its gaming phone lineup, the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate and ROG Phone 7. Both Android phones come with upgrades over the previous ROG Phone 6 models, most notably, the use of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC. Additionally, the handsets will include up to 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM running at 8533Hz and up to 512GB of UFS 4.0 storage.
The latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is 15% more powerful while using 15% less power. It also supports hardware-accelerated ray tracing in real-time for realistic reflections. Of course, the best way to unlock all of the power of the Snapdragon chip is by keeping it cool for the best performance.
That’s why the ROG Phone 7 and ROG Phone 7 Ultimate make use of three innovative ways to keep everything cool. During light gaming sessions, the Boron Nitride thermal compound is said to reduce throttling. While more intense gaming will take advantage of the larger vapor chamber with graphite sheets. Finally, for most extreme cases, the AeroActive Cooler 7 can be used which places a fan directly over the CPU module.
One way the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate outshines the standard version is with a special air inlet which is automatically activated when the AeroActive Cooler 7 is attached. This provides even greater cooling for the best performance possible, as shown in Asus lab testing.
The AeroActive Cooler 7 does more than keep your mobile from frying your fingers. It also includes a powerful subwoofer for true 2.1 sound when combined with the ROG Phone 7’s updated speakers with 50% more volume. Not to be outshined by the new sound system, the upgraded 165Hz 6.8-inch 2448 x 1080 Samsung AMOLED panel now reaches a peak brightness of 1,500 nits for gaming outside along with a 720Hz touch-sampling rate.
The camera system remains unchanged on the ROG Phone 7 and ROG Phone 7 Ultimate with a 50MP main camera, 13MP ultra-wide shooter, and 5MP macro lens. For selfies, there’s a 32 MP (8MP binned) front-facing camera.
The selection of ports also goes unchanged, with a side-mounted USB Type C port and a USB Type C port on the bottom alongside the 3.5mm audio jack. Gamers will also be happy to know the shoulder triggers haven’t gone anywhere, and there’s still a large 6,000mAh battery on the inside featuring 65W charging.
The Asus ROG Phone 7 comes in Phantom Black or Storm White and has a starting price of €999, while the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate only comes in Storm White with a price of €1,399. It’s worth noting that the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate also includes the AeroActive Cooler—a €110 value—and the ROG Vision display on the back which equates for some of the price increase over the vanilla ROG Phone 7. Both phones are available now for pre-order in Europe and Taiwan.
