Asus continues to be making an attempt to make gaming telephones a factor with the discharge of the Asus ROG (Republic of Players) Cellphone II. Identical to final yr, it is a high-end smartphone with a hyper-aggressive “gamer” design and a light-up again brand, however there are additionally genuinely spectacular specs right here that you simply will not discover on every other smartphone proper now.

The Asus Republic of Players Cellphone II is the primary machine to launch with Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 855 Plus SoC. This 855 “Plus” is a mid-cycle improve for the Snapdragon 855 with increased clock speeds for the CPU and GPU. The SoC’s single “Prime” CPU core will get bumped from 2.84GHz to 2.96GHz, whereas the GPU will get a 15% enhance from 585MHz to 672MHz.

You are going to want that additional horsepower because the ROG Cellphone II has a 6.59-inch, 2340×1080 OLED show with a 120Hz refresh price, which is up from 90Hz final yr. This is likely one of the quickest shows you may get on a smartphone, alongside the 120Hz show on the Razer Cellphone 2, although that’s an LCD. The 90Hz show on the OnePlus 7 Professional turned out to be one of many telephone’s greatest options even if you weren’t gaming, because of the sooner, smoother UI animations it enabled. I anticipate sooner shows to indicate up in a ton extra smartphones telephones subsequent yr.

The third headline function to level out is the 6000mAh battery, which is totally large in comparison with most flagship telephones in the marketplace. The Galaxy S10+ has a mere 4100mAh battery. The OnePlus 7 Professional is barely 4000mAh. Hopefully we’re an extended runtime.

Different specs embrace an enormous 12GB of RAM, choices for 128GB of 512GB of storage, two USB-C ports, a three.5mm headphone jack, twin front-facing audio system, a 24MP entrance digital camera, and twin rear cameras that includes a 48MP most important digital camera and a 13MP large angle. There’s an in-screen fingerprint reader, however no wi-fi charging, SD slot, or water resistance.

In addition to the same old show and SoC enhancements, there are some precise gaming-centric options on the ROG Cellphone II that you simply will not get on different smartphones. The second USB port lives on the facet of the telephone, which is nice for charging the machine throughout a panorama gaming session with out the twine getting in the way in which of your fingers. We have seen a number of telephones with pressure-sensitive sensors in them now, and Asus makes use of them for shoulder buttons that exist on the left and proper facet of the telephone in panorama.

Subsequent to the facet USB port is what Asus solely calls a “proprietary connector,” and the 2 ports crew as much as energy a variety of equipment from Asus. The clip-on cooling fan returns and comes bundled with the telephone. A brand new “ROG Kunai Gamepad” appears to be like like an edgy model of a Nintendo Swap controller, with two controller halves that may be held individually, slid right into a controller mount, or related to the perimeters of the telephone with a particular case.

Additionally returning is a brand new model of the TwinView Dock II, which mounts a second, an identical show panel to your telephone together with an additional 5000mAh battery. It appears to be like like a ROG Cellphone II with a second ROG Cellphone II hooked up to it. You possibly can Voltron the entire Asus accent bundle collectively by placing your telephone within the TwinView Dock after which connecting the controller halves to both facet of the dock. You now have a 1.four pound handheld gaming system.

The design is a minor evolution of final yr’s ROG Cellphone, and until you see them side-by-side, they’re exhausting to inform aside. The entrance of the telephone is surprisingly generic-looking in comparison with the laser rave occasion on the again.  You get an old-school high and backside bezel design that skips the notches, gap punches, pop-up cameras, and different 2018-2019 design motifs in favor of straightforward straight strains. Entrance stereo audio system sit on the high and backside edges of the telephone, and copper accents slightly below the audio system are the one factor that give the entrance some persona.

The all-glass again of the telephone appears to be like like it should rework right into a robotic any second now, and it encompasses a light-up RGB LED ROG brand, an “aerodynamic system” vent, and the dual-camera system with crazy-angled lenses for the cameras and LED flash.

The ROG Cellphone 1 was designed to provide the phantasm of a complicated cooling system, with two giant copper vents on the again of the telephone and an optionally available clip on fan. However these simply appeared to only be “for appears to be like” and did not truly assist a lot with the cooling. Teardowns present a painted copper plate behind the vents, and the plate lacked any sort of thermal connection to the telephone parts (like say, thermal paste or thermal pads over the SoC). The telephone nonetheless shipped with an precise vapor chamber cooling system, however that was deep on the within of the telephone, behind the display screen. The skin was all for present.

The optionally available clip-on cooling fan for the ROG Cellphone 1 additionally did not do something. Just like the vents, it had no thermal connection to the new elements of the telephone. The fan simply blew air over the glass again, which is a poor conductor of warmth. Reviewers reported that the ROG Cellphone 1 fan did not considerably decrease the telephone’s working temperature, and in some instances, it truly made the telephone run hotter.

I convey up these ROG Cellphone 1 cooling points to say “Do not consider the design!” Final yr, Asus had no points including fully deceptive design components and equipment to the telephone, so this yr the corporate has earned some skepticism. The ROG Cellphone II has a brand new clip-on cooler fan that, once more, appears to be like prefer it simply blows air on the again of the telephone and does not have a thermal connection to the new elements. There may be as soon as once more a vent on the again, nevertheless it’s even smaller this yr, and we’ll have to attend for teardowns to see whether it is truly associated to the cooling system.

Asus hasn’t posted official availability or pricing, however a report from Engadget says the telephone will launch in Taiwan on August 1 for NT$26,990 ($870 USD). The Twinview Dock is NT$6,990 ($230 USD) and the Nintendo Swap-like gamepad is NT3,990 ($130 USD).

Itemizing picture by Asus