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The $1,499 Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro Edition is the top-of-the-line model in the ROG Phone 8 series. Fittingly, it’s packed with features to boost gaming performance, from a stacked processor to a ridiculous amount of RAM. To offset the eyewatering price, Asus includes an external fan accessory that helps keep thermals in check for long gameplay sessions, as well as a 65W fast charger for topping off the battery in under an hour. It’s also just a good phone in general, with better cameras than we typically see on gaming-focused handsets, as well as a dustproof and waterproof build. It’s the phone to get for serious Android gaming if you can afford it, though the $649 RedMagic 9 Pro offers largely similar gaming performance for half the price.Sophisticated LooksThere are three devices in the ROG Phone 8 series and they share many basic features. The biggest differentiator between them is the memory and storage allotments. The entry-level $1,099 ROG Phone 8 comes with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, the midrange $1,199 ROG Phone 8 Pro has 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, and the flagship $1,499 ROG Phone 8 Pro Edition packs 24GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. All three are powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, which can also be found in the RedMagic 9 Pro, the OnePlus 12, and other high-end handsets. The Pro Edition we tested is the only model that comes with the AeroActive Cooler X in the box, which is otherwise available for $99. Each phone also ships with a basic case.
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At 6.45 by 3.02 by 0.35 inches (HWD) and 7.94 ounces, the ROG Phone 8 is smaller and lighter than the ROG Phone 7 (6.80 by 3.03 by 0.40 inches, 8.4 ounces). The RedMagic 9 is in the same ballpark (6.45 by 3.01 by 0.35 inches, 8.08 ounces) as far as size is concerned. There is a camera bump on the rear but the ROG phone is comfortable and balanced when held in landscape orientation, which is critical for gaming. It fits easily in a pocket, but the AeroActive Cooler X accessory adds considerable bulk when attached.
AeroActive Cooler X on Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro (Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)
The AMOLED screen measures 6.78 inches and has a resolution of 2,400 by 1,080 pixels with a maximum brightness of 2,500 nits. You can easily view the screen even under direct sunlight. It has a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate but can be set to 165Hz for even smoother performance. Animations everywhere look fluid. The RedMagic’s screen is comparable in size, resolution, and speed.
Asus opts for an under-display front-facing camera, which lets it reduce the bezels so the front is wholly dominated by the screen. The under-display fingerprint sensor worked well in testing. For durability, the screen is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2. The RedMagic uses much older Gorilla Glass 5.Visual speed isn’t the only notable aspect of the ROG Phone 8’s screen: It also has a 720Hz touch sampling rate, which means it responds to touch input far faster than other phones. This is clutch for games that require quick button presses and high levels of responsiveness.A second display graces the phone’s rear panel. The Pro and Pro Edition feature 341 programmable mini-LEDs that are only visible when lit up. When off, the back panel appears to be solid with no trace of lights underneath. There are more than 20 preprogrammed animations. For example, the mini-LEDs can let you know the status of the battery, act as a visualizer when you listen to music, or show a camera icon so people know you’re taking a picture. Of course, you can keep them off if you wish. The mini-LEDS are more useful than the Nothing Phone (2)’s Glyph system since you don’t have to learn how to read the latter’s custom light patterns. The regular ROG Phone 8 features four customizable RGB lights instead. The RedMagic eschews fancy lights.
(Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)
The right side of the device has a volume rocker and power button flanked by two capacitive buttons (called Air Triggers) for gaming. The bottom features a USB-C port, a SIM tray, a speaker grille, and a 3.5mm headset jack. The left side has another USB-C port for connecting the fan accessory and making it more comfortable to charge while gaming.
(Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)
Asus says this is the first IP68-rated gaming phone. That means the ROG Phone 8 is completely protected from dust and can withstand immersion in water at a depth of one meter for up to 30 minutes. This is a welcome upgrade that makes the phone a more reasonable choice even for non-gamers. It’s also a big leg up over the RedMagic 9 Pro, which doesn’t have an IP rating and is thus not protected.Leveled-Up PerformanceThe Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 inside the Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro Edition is the best mobile processor you can get in an Android phone right now. In addition, the phone supports the quicker UFS 4.0 and LPDDR5x standards for storage and memory, respectively. To keep it cool while you’re gaming, Asus has upgraded its Rapid-Cooling Conductor design, which conducts heat from the processor outward to the back cover. The AeroActive Cooler X is to help further reduce the back cover temperature by as much as 79 degrees Fahrenheit. Keeping everything cool means longer gaming sessions.On Geekbench 6, a suite of tests that quantifies raw computing power, the ROG Phone 8 Pro Edition scored 2,236 on the single-core test and 7,000 on the multi-core test. Launching Geekbench 6 automatically activates Asus’ X Mode, which prioritizes performance over other factors like battery life. For comparison, the RedMagic 9 Pro scored 2,263 and 7,187 on the same tests, meaning the two phones provide similar performance. When I attached the AeroActive Cooler X to the phone, the scores improved marginally to 2,288 and 7,120.
(Credit: PCMark/Geekbench/GFXBench)
The phone reached 20,833 on the PCMark Work 3.0 test, which evaluates general mobile tasks. The RedMagic 9 Pro scored 20,782, which further demonstrates how evenly matched the two handsets are. Adding the external fan to the ROG Phone 8 pushed the score to 22,112. On the Basemark Web 3.0 browser test, the ROG Phone scored 850, which is higher than the RedMagic 9 Pro’s score of 730—but both are surprisingly lower than the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra’s score of 925.To evaluate graphics performance, I ran the High Tier Aztec Ruins test in GFXBench. The phone completed the test at 108fps, nearly double the 60fps rate of the RedMagic 9 Pro. I ran the same benchmark with the AeroActive Cooler X and saw a slight improvement; the fans revved up and the phone hit 112fps.What these numbers all mean is that the phone generates top marks when it comes to the heavy lifting required by many games.Playing resource-intensive games like Genshin Impact on the highest settings at 60fps poses no problems for the Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro Edition. I didn’t notice any skipped frames or slowdowns. Unsurprisingly, less intensive games like Mario Kart Tour and Alto’s Oddysey ran without any hiccups. In addition, the screen is super responsive to input, as are the Air Triggers and shoulder buttons of the AeroActive Cooler X (though the Cooler’s buttons are a tad mushy). For power, the phone features a 5,500mAh battery (using two 2,750mAh cells), which charges at up to 65W wired or 15W wirelessly. The battery is smaller than the 6,000mAh cell in the ROG 7, but Asus says the two devices are close in battery life. The Pro Edition comes with a fast charger in the box.In our battery rundown test, in which we stream HD video from YouTube with the screen at full brightness, the ROG Phone 8 lasted 12 hours and 55 minutes. The RedMagic 9 Pro lasted over 12 hours and still had 37% of its charge remaining. The ROG Phone measures up with standard Android flagships like the S23 Ultra, which tapped out at 12 hours and 10 minutes.In testing, it took approximately 50 minutes to charge the battery from 0% to 100% with the included 65W charger. Charging for 15 minutes got the phone up to 34%, while 30 minutes brought it to 69%. The RedMagic 9 Pro managed a full recharge in 45 minutes and the OnePlus 11 5G charges faster still in just 27 minutes.Taking Games SeriouslyThe ROG Phone 8 runs on Android 14 with Asus’ ROG UI on top. If you’re used to the stock Android layout there is an option for it in the Settings, which is perhaps helpful when first switching from an older phone to this one. For our tests, we stuck to Asus’ software layer. The ROG Phone 8 will get two years of major updates and four years of security updates. That’s well behind the seven-year promise Google makes for its Pixel phones, but ahead of RedMagic’s plans for the 9 Pro: The company wouldn’t confirm that the 9 Pro will receive a single system update.Since this is a gaming phone, Asus has customized plenty. On the top of the screen is a readout of your refresh rate regardless of whether you’re playing a game or not. You’ll find the game center in the Armoury Crate app, which is where you interact with Asus’ software the most. Here, you can map the Air Triggers and the buttons on the AeroActive Cooler X. You can also find customization options mid-game by dragging from the top left or right corner to the center. This launches the Game Genie.
(Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)
Asus says its X Sense 2.0 software can help you with in-game actions within supported games. It will learn AI patterns in the game and warn you about upcoming actions. In Genshin Impact, you can rely on X Sense 2.0 to automate tasks like picking up items (weapons, etc.), fast-forwarding through dialogue, setting your character to always run, and having your character dodge trouble. These features range in utility depending on the in-game scenario, but generally work well and are helpful. There are also macros accessible through the ROG Instant Master section. For Genshin, for example, you can download a macro that lets you unleash your ultimate skills with one tap.
(Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)
Not every game has macros or can take advantage of X Sense 2.0, so that is something to be aware of. To help, Asus has a Featured section in the Armoury Crate with a subsection for ROG Select games. There is also a section that highlights the games that can take advantage of the 165Hz refresh rate. The Armoury Crate software is also where you can adjust how much of the display is used for gaming on a per-game basis. The Filled preset uses the entire screen with the under-display camera visible. The Shifted mode puts the entire game to the right of the camera, while the Centered setting puts black bars on the left and right of the game. There’s also a Console section within the Armoury Crate that gives you information on the system temperature, the CPU and GPU speeds, how much storage and RAM are being used, and your remaining battery life. All of these features make it easier for novice players to get into mobile gaming while giving powerful tools to more experienced gamers.
(Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)
There are software improvements beyond just gaming. The ROG Phone 8 brings Semantic Search to places like System Settings and the App Drawer. This lets you use natural language search to find the right thing. For example, typing “Share WiFi” in the Settings panel will bring you to the mobile hotspot setting. This works offline, so you won’t need a connection to use it. The feature is helpful, as finding individual settings in the Android Settings app can be a chore. It’s also useful in finding apps you can’t quite remember the name of. For example, typing in “browser” will bring up Chrome, Brave, and other browser apps even if the word doesn’t appear in the app name. AeroActive Cooler X External FanAs mentioned, the AeroActive Cooler X comes in the box with the Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro Edition. We cannot attest to how much of a real-world temperature difference the external fan makes, but when gaming with it attached, the phone remained cool to the touch and performance was excellent. The AeroActive Cooler X is pretty plasticky and doesn’t match the phone’s high-end build exactly, but I appreciate how light it is.
(Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)
You attach the fan to the side USB-C port (so it can draw power) and then clamp the top bracket around the other side of the phone. When pressed firmly, the top bracket clicks into place and has a button to duplicate the power button since the bracket covers it. The bottom of the AeroActive Cooler X includes its own USB-C port and a 3.5mm headphone jack. There’s also a flip-out kickstand; it can be set to just one angle, but it’s a nice feature to include. To remove the cooler, you press a button on the top bracket that releases its grip. Quick Connections, Clear SpeakersFor connectivity, the phone supports 5G (sub-6GHz, but no mmWave), Wi-Fi 7, NFC, and Bluetooth 5.3. There are two physical nano SIM card slots.
(Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)
On T-Mobile’s 5G UC network in New York City, the ROG Phone 8 Pro Edition topped out at 571Mbps down and 83.2Mbps up; for comparison, the RedMagic 9 Pro reached speeds of 427Mbps down and 115Mbps up. When I connected the ROG Phone 8 Pro Edition to a Wi-Fi 6 access point, it reached peak speeds of 475Mbps down and 14.8Mbps up (the upload speed is more a function of the ISP than the phone). For comparison, the RedMagic 9 Pro hit speeds of 488Mbps down and 16.7Mbps up. When I took the ROG Phone 8 Pro Edition as far away as possible from the access point in my apartment, speeds dropped to 93.8Mbps down and 8.41Mbps up. In the same scenario, the RedMagic 9 Pro reached speeds of just 14.1Mbps down and 2.51Mbps up. It’s good that you can get some decent Wi-Fi speed out of the ROG Phone 8 Pro Edition even when the signal is weak. Moreover, this is an important improvement over the ROG Phone 7, which had trouble with Wi-Fi in our tests.Call quality is quite good. The earpiece speaker reached 77.2dB and the speakerphone hit 70.2dB, so hearing the other party is easy. Asus has a setting that allows you to turn on AI noise cancellation. When playing loud music in the background, a recording of my call had almost no trace of the music while my voice remained clear. Noisy environments should be no problem for the phone. As for the audio quality of the stereo speakers, the low bass frequencies in The Knife’s “Silent Shout” aren’t particularly audible. The speakers reach a maximum volume of 93.4dB and don’t distort at top volume levels. Music sounds nice and crisp, but for better quality sound I recommend Bluetooth or wired headphones to accurately hear all the details of your music. Notably, the speakers are a cut above those of the RedMagic.Better Cameras Than You’d ExpectCameras have never been a selling point for gaming phones. The Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro Edition changes that. It has a 50MP main shooter that uses Asus’ 6-Axis Hybrid Stabilizer 3.0 for sharper images at zoom. By default, the main camera takes 12.5MP images using pixel binning. The phone also has a 13MP ultra-wide camera with a 120-degree field of view and a 32MP telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom and optical image stabilization (OIS), which produces 8MP final images. Camera quality is quite good—and not just for a gaming phone. Images are a bit oversaturated like you get from Google and Samsung, but fine details like tree branches and individual bricks are clean and easily visible.
Main camera (Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)
Ultra-wide camera (Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)
3x telephoto camera (Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)
Images taken by the 3x telephoto lens aren’t quite as clean when it comes to faraway subjects like text on a store awning or road sign, but nearer items retain good detail. The 32MP front-facing camera has a broader field of view than its predecessor (90 degrees vs. 73 degrees) and can take pictures at 1x or 0.7x zoom. It produces realistic color and details. You cannot adjust the bokeh on portraits captured by the selfie camera after the fact in the Gallery app, but you can on those taken by the rear camera. Images are a step ahead of the RedMagic without a doubt.
Front-facing camera (Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)
For video, the ROG Phone 8 tops out at 8K30. Video clarity is excellent, but the mic picked up a lot of wind noise in testing and bounce was visible in videos I recorded while walking around. It isn’t hugely jarring, but it could be more stable. Video shot in 1080p is more stable than 4K.Does the ROG Phone 8 Vanquish the Competition?The Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro Edition is a sleek phone with excellent gaming performance. It can handle the most demanding tasks thanks to its advanced cooling tech and included fan. While it’s a gaming phone first, it’s also a great all-rounder thanks to its mainstream design, solid cameras, good wireless performance, loudspeakers, and high-quality build. It’s easy to recommend to Android gamers who want the best phone money can buy, but it’s quite expensive at $1,499. If you’re looking to spend less, the RedMagic Pro 9 isn’t as durable, has weaker speakers, a lesser software commitment, and falls short on camera quality, but it offers similar gaming performance to the ROG Phone 8 for half the price.
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