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The ROG Phone 8 Pro is the essence of mobile gaming
CES isn’t usually when ASUS announces its latest gaming smartphone, but this year the company did things a little differently by announcing the ROG Phone 8 and ROG Phone 8 Pro at the trade show. Much of what you would expect from the ASUS ROG brand is present in this new iteration. The ever-popular AirTriggers are back and they feel just as good to use. ASUS also packs in a bunch of high-end specs, although the ROG Phone 8 Pro and Pro Edition is where things get really wild.
ASUS has gone above and beyond to make both of these models a refined piece of hardware that more people can get into. All without losing that special and unique set of traits that undeniably make it a phone designed for mobile gaming above all else. The ROG Phone 8 Pro is the essence of mobile gaming in that it gives the user meaningful features to enhance the mobile gaming experience. Not gimmicks and flashy tricks, mind you. But features you will actually use nearly every time you pick up the phone to play something.
Such as the X Sense 2.0. This integrates AI pattern recognition to enhance the gameplay of certain game titles. With Genshin Impact, for example, X Sense 2.0 can enable an auto-pickup feature that will automatically grab dropped items for you. You can also use it to fast-forward dialogue.
A gaming phone refined to be suitable for everyday use
If there’s one thing that could be considered a complaint with gaming phones by some, it’s that they’re not as suitable for everyday use. You certainly can use them every day as a daily driver device. But in the past, they simply didn’t match up to other devices in specific areas. They tend to lean heavily on the “gamer” aesthetic which turns some people off. They also oftentimes come with cameras and other features you find on most smartphones that just don’t match up with other devices in the same price range.
That isn’t really the case with ROG Phone 8 Pro. ASUS has tweaked the design to be way less flashy. And really, the only way you can kind of tell it’s a gaming phone is if the AniMe Vision display is turned on. Even then, the LEDs that make up this display on the back are monochrome. So they do still look pretty normal. On top of that, ASUS finally added in two major changes users had been asking for. First, the cameras have been vastly improved. And second, you can charge the ROG Phone Pro wirelessly (a first for the ROG Phone series).
This isn’t to discount another major improvement. The ROG Phone 8 series is IP68-rated. It’s a device that’s now fully weather-resistant. And that adds so much more peace of mind for the user. These are all reasons why the ROG Phone 8 Pro has earned the Best of CES 2024 award.