ASUS ROG Phone 9 Pro Review | Geek Lifestyle

The ASUS ROG Phone 9 Pro might seem a tad nondescript at first glance, but don’t let its familiar features fool you. Sure, it adopts its predecessors features almost to a T, and remains limited to its matte black colorway, but as always–it’s what’s inside that counts. Previous models did have their own identity, and longtime fans can pick it out of a lineup in a heartbeat, mostly because it absolutely screams “gamer aesthetic.” However, as we pointed out in last year’s review, ROG is making that transition into stealth–and it seems like they’re sticking with it. Intriguing, to say the least.

The ROG Phone 8 Pro was already seemingly overkill with its specs, being able to play any mobile game under the sun, and a few higher end titles if you’re brave enough to emulate. This year’s version kicks things up a notch as it brings that same overkill, but more streamlined for everyday convenience. Imagine the ROG Phone 8 as a sexy M1A2 Abrams main battle tank, but used for your daily commute. Sure, it gets you from point A to point B, and can destroy everything in its path–but its not the best way to get there.

The ROG Phone 9 Pro is more along the lines of a tricked out, and equally sexy Humvee. It’ll get you to your destination, and it can still destroy everything in its path, but it’ll get you there faster, and with more fuel in the tank–if you catch our drift. With a Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, a bigger battery, and AI features up the wazoo, it’s a familiar experience, but with more quality of life.

It’s best we elaborate on this.

Geeksthetic

As we mentioned earlier, we’re getting some familiar features here. From its matte black exterior down to its glass-clad camera setup, you’ll be hard-pressed to find anything too different, save for some red design accents. Make no mistake, though. The 8 Pro’s aesthetic was already great to begin with, as it really set the tone towards ROG’s supposed transition into a more subtle-looking gaming device. It’s virtually identical in size with the 8 Pro at 163.8 x 76.8 x 8.9 mm, but comes in at a slightly heftier 227 grams. It doesn’t become cumbersome, though.

To be more specific, the all-black exterior is a blend between glossy and matte finishes, with the former manufactured with a crystalized nano-texture. Its served us well in terms of toughness with the 8 Pro version, while being a bit prone to hairline scratches. We’re still getting the same number of capable I/O, tactile buttons, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a sweet 6.78 AMOLED display–where things deviate just a bit. More on that later.

It’s also clad in last year’s Gorilla Glass Victus 2 and still sports the reliable IP68 rating. Smartphones this year are popping out IP69 models under more affordable circumstances, so maybe next year we can see that with ROG as well. 

Personally, a few changes would have been nice, as this has been the case for the longest time. However, if ROG wishes to maintain the look they kicked off in 2024, this is the way to go.

Binge-Watching Factor

Now, for that sweet LTPO AMOLED display. At 6.78 inches, with an 88.2% screen-to-body ratio, you’re getting some decent screen real estate. Chin bezels where never really an issue, especially when it comes to competitive gaming. The 1080 x 2400 resolution ensures you’ll enjoy whatever tasteful material you have on-screen. At a maximum 2500 nits of brightness, you won’t essentially be blinded in the dark, and you can always switch that brightness to Adaptive to suit your taste.

You get a 165Hz max refresh rate under normal circumstances, but you can crank it up to 185Hz using the Game Genie–which can only be done while, of course, gaming. Eye protection mode makes its comeback to help out with longer gaming sessions, or simply for those who use their smartphones much later into the night.

If you’re looking to stream your favorite shows, or catch up on your movie backlog, you’ll have absolutely no problem in this department, just like with any ROG Phone that’s come before.

Geek Photoshoot Capabilities

Switching things up a bit, we’ll save the meat and potatoes for later. One thing we truly enjoyed with the 8 Pro was how its cameras were seemingly out of place in a gaming smartphone–by that, we meant they were actually decent. This time, we’re glad that ROG at least kept things consistent, and added a couple of features to keep things spicy.

The Sony Lytia 700: 50 MP main camera makes its comeback, and still shoots decent photos. As it does most of the heavy lifting, it snaps the best photos among the three. Flanking it, we have a 32MP telephoto lens, and a 13MP ultrawide. This is arguably the best combination of lenses, as there’s this ongoing debate on whether a telephoto or ultrawide should be the shooter’s sidepiece. Why not both? Also, we’re really just glad the 2MP macro lens will never make a comeback–EVER.

You can expect great shots under brighter lighting conditions, detail in portrait shots, decent bokeh, and not much of a difference between ultrawide and normal zoom. The telephoto captures really nice photos up to its default 3X zoom, and still manages to snap some detailed shots at its maximum 30.

The ROG Phone 9 Pro may have played it safe, camera-wise, but it’s we’d much rather have it that way, and not some situation where the photo capabilities suffer in lieu of some newfangled experimental, marketing malarkey. We couldn’t stress enough just how much we enjoyed the fact that a gaming smartphone could take content-worthy photos, and then some.

In terms of improvements, we now have in-app filters, or “Photo Vibes”–four in total. They’re nice enough to add a bit of flavor to your photos, depending on your mood. The new AI Panning feature takes a bit of practice to really get the hang of, as it requires a steady hand and a moving vehicle to pull off. We’ll get back to y’all once we master it. The 32MP selfie camera is still here, and it still snaps clear photos of thy self. It also keeps its 0.7X wide shot, which is always nice for group shots.

As for video, you can shoot up to 8K 30 fps on the main camera, and 1080p 30fps via selfie. This might be an issue for some content creators who enjoyed the more cinematic 8K 24fps, as you can’t go any lower than 30fps this time. We’re getting a new feature in Portrait Video for the main camera, which essentially gives you that sweet bokeh effect, but for video. It maxes out at Full HD, which is basically 1080p at 30fps. It’s also nice that you can go up to 3X zoom using this feature.

Beyond Gaming Prowess

There’s quite a bit to unpack–even more so than last year. This is definitely where the ROG Phone 9 Pro shines, and not simply because it’s supposed to be a gaming device. See, the components used for said gaming will also be used for daily tasks. So, it’s important that everything works seamlessly so that every use case scenario is covered. Long story short, your day-to-day will be pretty damn fun.

If you want to skip this entire paragraph, here’s the gist of it: You can play anything on the ROG Phone 9 Pro, for as long as you aren’t trying to jury rig it to run Ghost of Tsushima. Enter the Snapdragon 8 Elite Mobile Platform–a beast among beasts when it comes to straight-up gaming and overall performance. Couple that beast with 24GB of RAM and a chonky 1TB of storage, and you can essentially fire and forget. No need to tweak settings, no need to compromise. Set everything to max and run wild. 

Every HoYo, Kuro, or Level Infinite title will run effortlessly on their highest settings, no sweat. So, we think it’s safe to not even mention MOBAs and FPS games. Now, there might have been issues with your device heating up. Not necessarily throttling, but just becoming a bit too warm to the touch (we’re looking at you, Honkai: Star Rail). Now, that won’t be the case, given we’re offered some much better cooling solutions courtesy of  GameCool 9’s 360^° SoC Cooling System Gen 3 design. Basically, some very well set-up graphite sheets, a vapor chamber, and a rapid cooling conductor working in tandem with the SD 8 Elite will guarantee a more ice cold gaming approach–and don’t even get us started on the accessories.

ROG Chill Case

So, you got us started on the accessories. While you can expect a proprietary plastic case (or so we hope), the new ROG Chill Case provides something literally cooler. With an interior lined with what’s basically a Composite Vapor Chamber, you not only get some stylish protection, but you also keep a stylish look. Just take note that it’s a bit thicker than your average, so you’ll either have to utilize a separate controller–if that’s more your speed, or disregard the AeroActive Cooler X Pro.

AeroActive Cooler X Pro

Of course, this one comes next. Being a consistent facet of the ROG Phone series, it’s had its fair share of iterations. Last year’s model was a tad disappointing as it lacked the “subwoofer” that improved overall audio quality, but this version has it, thankfully. It still comes with its powerful settings, being able to go full-on Frosty when charging. Again, you’d have to choose between this or the ROG Chill Case for cooling solutions. Not because it would be redundant, but simply because it wouldn’t fit.

ROG Tessen

The Republic’s proprietary mobile controller was a bit underwhelming last year, but due to no fault of its own. There just weren’t enough popular games to optimize, so we were limited to more retro titles that didn’t need more detailed key-mapping. That’s not the case today, with games like Zenless Zone Zero and Wuthering Waves join the lineup of mainstream mobile games that can utilize this special piece of kit.

ZZZ and WuWa already come packed with controller support right out of the box, so you don’t even need to tweak anything. This is an absolute win, as both games feature intense action which make great use of the Tessen’s tactile buttons. Genshin Impact still needs that keymapping, as Android controller support has yet to be rolled in. Still, it’s playable.

AniMe Play

A cute addition to the updated AniMe Vision, now featuring red mini LEDs! It’s a small, fun collection of retro pixel games that are completely offline and function solely via Air Triggers (which function just as well as before). Given its offline nature, it’s a nice timekiller if you aren’t on the grind with your main games. It kind of becomes an afterthought if you’re rocking the chill case, though. So, just keep that in mind.

The ROG Phone series keeps upping their game while changing the game altogether. The powerful internals and compatibility with a nice set of tailor-made accessories really give the competition a run for their money.

Everyday Reliability

Of course, life isn’t all fun and games. Sadly, some of us have to work. That being the reality of things, the ROG Phone 9 Pro is more than capable of keeping up with you, and being a worthy workhorse when outside of game time.

First off, we’re getting a beefier 5800 mAh compared to last year’s 5500. This may seem like a very small upgrade, but hear us out. In practice, this is a very good improvement, coupled with 65W fast charging. How so? Well, it all lies in the aforementioned Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset. Last year’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 was no slouch, by any stretch of the imagination. It was just a bit too powerful, and not optimized enough. The SD Elite SoC works gloriously, and doesn’t drink too much juice while doing so. We got more than 8 hours of gaming with about 10% battery to spare. We got triple that with everyday use. Just imagine how long it could go if it was mostly on standby. Mobile data will be a forever issue, but it’s somewhat mitigated by this optimization. This is one of the device’s major improvements, and arguably, one of its most important.

We also get a slew of new AI features, and they’ll get their own feature, in case you were wondering. We get 8 in total, comprised of an improved X Sense for gaming, AI Grabber 2.o, the aforementioned AI Panning and Portrait Video for cameras, an improved comprehensive search, AI Wallpaper, an AI Call Translator, and AI Transcript. The latter is the most interesting, as it can really help with interviews via the phone’s recorder. It’s still in its beta stages, so we curbed our expectations. But it worked pretty well for the most part. Steiner Math is hard enough to understand as a person, and we don’t expect a machine to understand Big Poppa Pump right off the bat.

Of course, you’ll be running on Android 15–which finally dropped for the 8 Pro just recently. You’ll experience no problems when it comes to your usual day-to-day, but we do wish it came with some of the features other Android devices possessed–like being able to cut out people from photos and create stickers. Last we checked, this wasn’t an exclusive feature for branded devices, so it would be pretty cool if the ROG Phone series had it as well. We’ll make sure to redact this if it actually DOES have it, and we simply skill issue-d ourselves.

All-in-all, you’re good to go when it comes to choosing this as a daily driver.

Final Geek Lifestyle Verdict

Upon its first few teasers, we figured the ROG Phone 9 Pro wouldn’t be as worthy an upgrade to its older sibling–especially given the appearance. Most of the listed features seemed like lateral improvements and didn’t offer much. On paper, that is.

After experiencing a good few weeks with this devices, we’ve been proven wrong. If you haven’t gotten a taste of ROG Phone series goodness, then this is definitely the time to shell out and do so. From its gaming capabilities, to its AI features, down to its superb battery optimization, you can’t go wrong. If you must game on a phone, this is a must buy.

If you already have the ROG Phone 8 Pro, this is still worth considering as an upgrade. You’ll have a better battery, more content creation capabilities, and if you go for the ROG Phone 9 Pro Edition bundle–a better AeroActive Cooler X Pro. It won’t come cheap, for sure. But if you do have the coin, it won’t be a bad investment.

As of writing, you can purchase the ASUS ROG Phone 9 Pro at any official retailer, both online or offline. For more details, make sure to check out the official website or Facebook page.

ROG Phone 8 Pro Specs

• Qualcomm SM8750-AB Snapdragon 8 Elite (3 nm)
•  Adreno 830
• 16/24 GB RAM
• 6.78 inch AMOLED display
• 512 GB/1 TB ROM
• 50 MP, f/1.9, 24mm (wide)
• 32 MP, f/2.4, (telephoto)
• 13 MP, f/2.2, 13mm, 120˚ (ultrawide)
• 32 MP, f/2.5, 22mm selfie camera
• 3G, LTE, 5G, Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)
• WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, fingerprint scanner (display), USB Type-C
• 5800mAh Large Battery, 65W HyperCharging
• Android 15
• Phantom Black
• Price: PHP 62,995