Asus ROG Phone 9 Review: Wonderfully Excessive, but Without Quality Sound

If I had to get an Android telephone and had nary qualms astir the wealth I’d spend, I would look archetypal astatine the $1,000 Asus ROG Phone 9, acceptable to motorboat successful January. It’s not conscionable the show oregon the multi-textured solid backmost with embedded LEDs and the touch-sensitive “Air Triggers.” It’s each that combined. It’s excessive but successful each the close ways.

The instrumentality packs truthful galore other gaming features that it seems similar the telephone that could marque immoderate would-be mobile gamer giddy. But having it successful hand, I can’t urge it to anyone, not erstwhile its mediocre audio prime sounds similar a telephone that costs little than fractional the ROG Phone 9’s asking price, but hey, astatine slightest this telephone inactive has a headphone jack for erstwhile you can’t basal its mediocre speakers anymore.

I besides person to notation that the ROG Phone 9 doesn’t travel with the expanded “Anime” LED lights that you get with the $1,200 ROG Phone 9 Pro. This allows you to play a fewer arcade games oregon tally GIFs from the backmost of the phone. While that sounds amusive and pointless successful adjacent measures, the basal ROG Phone 9 is fundamentally the aforesaid device.

I besides request to accidental upfront that I did not get to usage past year’s ROG Phone 8, but Asus itself noted immoderate of the complaints users had about the erstwhile year’s gamer phone. Players complained astir the placement and specs of its speakers and the deficiency of dedicated amps. Fans felt miffed astir the meager promised 2 years of bundle updates.

On that front, perfectly thing has changed. The telephone lone offers 2 years of bundle and 5 of information updates. The Google Pixel 9 offers 7 years of OS and information updates. The dependable connected the ROG telephone can’t clasp a candle to different $1,000+ phones similar the iPhone 16 Pro oregon the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra. The dependable is tinny and thin. Even worse, it’s casual to artifact the speakers with your palm. This is the benignant of telephone that needs headphones. There’s nary mode you tin get astir the information your telephone volition beryllium locked retired of caller bundle updates aft conscionable 2 years.

The phone’s show has been boosted with the caller Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, which Asus puts into nitro-fueled overdrive with on-board overclocking. Yes, this telephone tin get blistery adjacent with its coagulated thermal systems. You haven’t lived the gamer telephone manner until you’ve strapped a monolithic outer cooler portion to the backmost of your device, feeling similar a doc desperately trying to assistance a fever-sick diligent execute homeostasis.

Now that today’s phones diagnostic chips that tin rival immoderate low-end PCs, the request for PC-level cooling feels each the much necessary. The ROG Phone 9 doesn’t gully arsenic overmuch powerfulness arsenic expected. The artillery beingness connected the ROG Phone 9 is inactive up there, and it has the champion phones available. I could usage it for a afloat day, adjacent aft a greeting spent gaming.

Asus ROG Phone 9 Review: Build Quality and Audio

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Asus’ latest gamer telephone isn’t a immense gyration from the ROG Phone 8 Pro. The Non-pro Phone 9 has a shrunken show astatine the phone’s bottommost rear. You tin acceptable this conception to amusement the clip and artillery oregon amusement an alert if somebody’s calling you. I don’t cognize however galore radical acceptable their telephone screen-side down connected their desks, but it could occasionally beryllium handy. It’s arsenic overmuch of a novelty arsenic Nothing’s devices with rear LED lights, but those devices merchantability good capable for the institution to support making them.

At the precise least, this is simply a bully telephone to hold. The sloped sides springiness the ROG Phone 9 a much old-school Android prime than the latest Google Pixel 9 phones. Compared to your usual iPhone, Asus’ solid backmost and its scope of textures each assistance punctual you of the telephone you clasp successful your hand, though inevitably, you’ll request to find a precise circumstantial lawsuit that won’t screen up each the bottommost LEDs.

The redesigned AeroActive Cooler X Pro is simply a standout accessory, though it whitethorn outgo you $120 extra. It slots straight into the mediate of the telephone without covering up immoderate speakers and inactive offers entree to the powerfulness button. You’ll decidedly perceive it going off, but it’s not truthful large it volition distract you from the in-game audio. The cooler adds 2 other triggers that, combined with the AirTriggers (which you manually crook connected successful Asus Armoury Crate), enactment arsenic pseudo-R2 and L2 buttons.

You tin usage the built-in Armoury Crate bundle to download game-specific power profiles. You tin usage the triggers for a crippled similar Diablo Immortal to prime up items oregon bring up the map. This works comparatively well; you get unit feedback and on-screen signals erstwhile utilizing either AirTrigger.

Unfortunately, that audio is obscurity adjacent wherever you whitethorn privation it for specified an costly phone. It’s determination betwixt tinny and shallow, adjacent if it tin get loud. I compared it side-by-side with an iPhone 16 Pro and a Pixel 9 Pro, and Asus’ instrumentality was not thing I would perceive to by itself.

And it seems a brace of headphones is precisely wherever Asus wants you to go. The institution promoted the usage of Dirac Virtuo for spatial dependable successful headphones. The institution claims its AeroCase and ChillCase redirect dependable from the bottommost talker to the front, but I don’t person either. The AeroActive Cooler X Pro is expected to integrate a loudspeaker, which Asus says is equivalent to a subwoofer, to heighten bass performance. I didn’t consciousness the audio was amended with the cooler attached.

Asus ROG Phone 9 Review: Display

© Photo: Kyle Barr / Gizmodo

If you’re paying this overmuch for a phone, you’d privation a show that tin deed the precocious framerates promised by its caller CPU. The ROG Phone 9 includes the aforesaid 6.78-inch AMOLED show arsenic the Phone 8 Pro with a dynamic refresh complaint betwixt 1 and 120 Hz. The lone mode to get the fabled 185 Hz is by enabling it portion successful a crippled done the Game Genie UI. If the crippled adjacent supports specified precocious framework rates, that matters.

The ROG Phone supports a precise agleam screen, truthful overmuch so that I could play Genshin Impact nether nonstop sunlight with practically nary issue. I was wide satisfied with the colors connected the screen, though I besides person to constituent retired that this isn’t packing the highest solution screen. It’s an FHD, 2400 by 1080 solution display. The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is packing a 1440 by 3120 display. A Pixel 9 Pro XL is 1344 by 2992.

Asus ROG Phone 9 Review: Performance

© Photo: Kyle Barr / Gizmodo

If the ROG Phone 9 is doing anything, it’s spelling retired bully tidings for 2025’s premiere Android devices from the likes of Samsung and more. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite results successful immoderate of the champion mobile show we’ve seen. It’s been large successful benchmarking, and in-game show is arsenic impressive, managing to bushed Apple’s latest. It’s bully capable that we whitethorn yet recognize wherefore Qualcomm abandoned its mobile chips’ “Gen 3” monikers and called it “Elite.”

Along with the caller chip, my mentation of the Phone 9 included 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage, but if you opt for the “Pro Edition” version, you’ll get 32 GB of LPDDR5x memory. They some enactment an overclocked “X Mode” that boosts CPU and GPU show (one of the reasons Asus suggests you usage the outer cooler).’

Benchmarks were the astir awesome portion of the ROG Phone 9, particularly moving connected the overclocking X Mode. In Geekbench 6, I saw CPU scores of much than 200 points much successful single-core settings and 1,200 points much successful multi-core settings than the iPhone 16 Pro. If you privation thing much apples to apples, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 spot scored 800 points worse successful single-core and 2,700 points amended successful multi-core nether the overclocked mode.

In 3D Mark tests similar Steel Nomade Lite, the ROG Phone 9 outperformed an iPhone 16 Pro by 488 points. It’s 661 points amended nether the aforesaid test. This is each without thermal throttling, acknowledgment to the outer cooling unit. If I crook disconnected X Mode and tally it nether “Dynamic” CPU settings with a stated 1.02 GHz timepiece speed, the telephone hits beneath Apple’s A18 Pro chip. You’ll privation to enactment it into X-Mode whenever you get into a crippled and beryllium rewarded with immoderate beardown performance.

The telephone tin easy deed the 60 FPS headdress successful a crippled similar Diablo Immortal. Playing Call of Duty Warzone: Mobile with each settings acceptable to high, I got conscionable nether 60 FPS regularly without hitting immoderate thermal throttling and beneath 40 degrees Celsius without utilizing the outer cooler.

The caller 185 Hz refresh rates won’t travel into play unless you find a crippled without immoderate framerate caps and graphics that volition fto the ROG Phone 9 deed those peaks. Games similar Dead Cells tin get up to the fabled 160 FPS and consciousness overmuch smoother than you mightiness consciousness connected phones typically, but it doesn’t truly alteration the acquisition than if you were utilizing it astatine 60 FPS. The existent crushed you privation precocious refresh rates is for competitory games.

Even erstwhile I little graphical settings successful a crippled similar Warzone to maximize FPS, I tin get anyplace adjacent precocious capable for supra 120 Hz refresh rates to matter. That being said, it’s inactive a unsocial diagnostic for the telephone that could marque a quality to those delicate to buttery creaseless gameplay.

Asus ROG Phone 9 Review: Software

© Photo: Kyle Barr / Gizmodo

I request to instrumentality a infinitesimal to sermon each the small other bundle touches circumstantial to the ROG Phone, immoderate of which enactment well, portion others don’t. Armoury Crate is amazingly useful, not conscionable for mounting your show settings but besides for modifying the AirTriggers presets. It’s casual to usage and reminds you of the remaining artillery life.

I besides recovered Game Genie, which you entree by swiping disconnected the apical near country of the screen, to beryllium accelerated and responsive. It’s the lone mode to activate the AirTriggers in-game oregon amusement real-time FPS oregon somesthesia data, truthful it’s bully that it works truthful good close retired of the box.

There’s truthful overmuch other packed into the telephone that you’ll yet find thing little than useful. The ROG Phone 9 doesn’t spell to slumber by default. It enters a “Lock touch” mode to darken the surface and support the crippled moving successful the background. You exit the mode by swiping 2 fingers, but the telephone ne'er seems to admit the gesture.

While each different instrumentality shaper is promoting AI arsenic the future, adjacent if it’s 1 we don’t want, Asus has alternatively utilized AI to automate tedious in-game tasks. Unfortunately, arsenic it presently stands, astir of these features lone enactment with Genshin Impact oregon Honkai: Star Rail. Some of these features fto you automatically prime up objects connected the crushed oregon “speed up conversations.” To accidental that they’re useless would beryllium missing the mark. Asus knows what assortment of gamers person an borderline toward the ROG Phone, but it’s inactive missing retired connected radical similar me, who person perfectly nary involvement successful a crippled wherever a standout diagnostic is blowing past fractional the content.

Asus ROG Phone 9 Review: Battery Life

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ROG phones usually boast immoderate of the largest batteries connected immoderate mobile device. The latest from Asus contains a 5800mAh artillery capableness (more than the 5500mAh from the ROG Phone 8 Pro), but a batch of bundle works connected the backmost extremity to support things going adjacent in-game.

Even with the cooler portion installed and moving continuously for hours, past dipping successful and retired of respective games implicit a afloat workday, I lone reached 50% artillery aft 4 hours. That’s beauteous spectacular, though, portion moving connected the Dynamic settings to support up artillery beingness successful disconnected periods.

Running the telephone connected X Mode saps the artillery overmuch faster, adjacent much truthful if you’re utilizing the outer cooler. Still, aft astir an hr of changeless gaming 1 morning, I was lone down to 70%. The artillery is already big, but the inheritance bundle is doing the enactment to instrumentality you retired of X Mode erstwhile not in-game. If there’s immoderate different crushed to get the ROG Phone 9 beyond different devices connected the market, it’s battery, possibly it’s it.

Asus ROG Phone 9 Review: Camera

© Photo: Kyle Barr / Gizmodo

Asus opted for Sony’s Lytia 700 main camera compared to past year’s IMX890. The ROG Phone 9 packs a 50 MP, 1/1.56-inch main lens alongside a .7x 13 MP ultra-wide and a 5 MP Macro lens. Only the Pro mentation gets the 32 MP 3x telephoto, but the large innovation this twelvemonth is the 6-axis gimbal strategy that is expected to marque photos and videos connected the spell look that overmuch better.

Left: ROG Phone 9; Right: iPhone 16 Pro

I wasn’t capable to trial that stabilization outside, conscionable walking astir with video, truthful I didn’t spot thing genuinely unsocial compared to different high-end phones connected the market. The 2 different standout camera features are the “Portrait Video”, which keeps a taxable framed for a cinematic look, and “AI Panning” which tin make a velocity effect portion keeping a moving taxable successful frame.

Left: iPhone 16 Pro; Right: ROG Phone 9

Those are bully distractions, but the existent photos it tin instrumentality are bully but not exceptional. I compared it straight with an iPhone 16 Pro (which tends to sprout warm), and portion they were bully and elaborate capable for casual shooting, I recovered the ROG Phone 9’s camera tin effect successful immoderate haloing successful nonstop airy and nighttime shots tin look particularly bad.

Asus ROG Phone 9 Review: Verdict

© Photo: Kyle Barr / Gizmodo

Asus is inactive confusing customers with the ROG Phone 9 Pro and ROG Phone 9 Pro Edition, the second having amended RAM and comes with the cooling portion successful the box. However, arsenic it stands, the Pro variation genuinely takes gamer phones implicit the top. It includes a caller “Anime” lighting setup with 648 LEDs compared to the ROG 8 Pro’s 341 and ROG Phone 9’s 85. This should let you to upload customized GIFs and adjacent play 4 arcade-style games. Yes, the Pro is simply a gamer telephone with games you tin play connected the beforehand and backmost of it.

Compared to that, the regular ROG Phone 9 whitethorn initially look similar a forgotten stepchild. However, if you truly don’t attraction for fancy LEDs, this is the amended telephone to bargain for its price. It’s missing retired connected 1 TB of storage, but 512 GB is bully capable for astir mobile games unless you privation to crook yours into an emulation presumption (in which case, you whitethorn beryllium amended disconnected with a mini PC oregon a coagulated gaming handheld).

The show is truthful coagulated that I privation to springiness it a amended score, but the lingering issues clasp it back. This telephone has nary close to dependable arsenic atrocious arsenic it does astatine this price. The camera is lone so-so, and the deficiency of semipermanent promised bundle updates makes it a hard merchantability for anybody who cares astir keeping devices retired of the junk heap.

It’s a coagulated performer, and I’m excited to spot the aboriginal of Android with Qualcomm chips. If you simply privation the best-performing Android phone, this is the champion connected the market. Just cognize you’ll request to usage headphones to get the champion audio and besides chopped retired the whirring instrumentality jutting from your device’s backmost end.