Rog Phone 2 Review

If you’re looking for the best gaming phone money can buy, the Rog Phone 2 is a great choice. It’s a vast, powerful device with a lot of great features.

It has the world’s first 120Hz refresh rate display, and it’s also the first smartphone to launch with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855+ processor, which boosts CPU performance by 4% and GPU speed by 15%.

Display

The display on the ROG Phone 2 is a 6.59-inch 120Hz AMOLED panel. It’s brighter than most standard 60Hz screens, reaches 626 nits and is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 6.

The screen has an impressive 1ms touch response time after registering an input – more than 6 percent better than other gaming phones we’ve tested. It’s not just about making games look better, though: playing on a 120Hz display makes everything feel smoother and faster.

There are several customization options within the settings for the ROG Phone 2. You can drop the refresh rate to 90Hz or 60Hz, change your system color scheme with a dark mode and toggle an always-on display on or off.

Camera

The ROG Phone 2 may not be the best camera phone, but it takes solid photos you’ll be happy to share. It doesn’t pack optical image stabilization or a telephoto lens, but it does have two cameras – one 48MP wide-angle and one 13MP ultrawide.

The devices rear sports a glass back with an RGB logo and a dual-camera array. It’s an unapologetically brash design, and you can love or hate it.

The camera isn’t entirely up to the Pixel 4 or iPhone 11 Pro standards, but it still offers impressive shots in low-light conditions. Its f/2.4 single-LED flash is accurate, but colors are on the cooler side, and there are visible noise and slight exposure variations between consecutive shots.

Audio

The Rog Phone 2 is a beast of a beast on multiple fronts. While the hardware is top-notch, the software is where the magic happens. Its most notable accomplishment is the foxy FFC which is the foundation for all other software and hardware in this oh so ginormous Asus smartphone. The good news is that this nip and tuck handset has many exciting features. There is no question the smartphone is a worthy addition to our arsenal of go-to devices.

Battery

The ROG Phone 2 gaming monster has the best hardware and battery life. It’s packed with hardware that produces skyrocketing numbers, a design that stands out, and various accessories to enhance your gaming experience.

The Rog Phone 2 is a big, thick and heavy device with a massive 6.59-inch screen that’s 1.3cm taller than the iPhone 11 Pro Max. However, it’s also an excellent in-hand experience and feels like a premium handset you’d want to hold for hours.

It’s powered by the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chipset, overclocked to 2.96GHz, 12GB RAM and 512GB of UFS 3.0 internal memory. It also sports a massive 6000mAh battery and supports fast charging standards, including Quick Charge 4.0 and USB Power Delivery.

Software

The ROG Phone 2 is one of the best gaming phones on the market today. It has RGB lighting at the back, a Snapdragon 855+ chipset that efficiently runs all your everyday tasks, and a 120Hz display that fundamentally alters how you use your device.

It comes with Android Pie out-of-the-box and offers two themes to choose from when setting up the phone for the first time. The default ROG theme adopts a more Stock Android-like look, while the Reactor Core style has a flair of red and adds more game-like elements to the UI.

Asus is rolling out the latest Android 10-based September 2020 security update to ROG Phone 2. The complete firmware package is available in ZIP file format and can be manually installed on any ROG Phone 2. However, it is recommended that you take a complete backup of your data before performing the manual upgrade.