3 things we love about the Asus ROG Phone 7 Ultimate (and 1 we don’t)

When the Razer Phone created the “gaming phone” market in 2017, it rolled out with distinctive options not often—if ever—seen in smartphones: a excessive refresh fee display, binned processors, copper vapor chambers, and in-your-face “gamer” aesthetics. But in the years since, lots of these “gaming” options have trickled all the way down to mainstream telephones from corporations like Samsung, OnePlus, and lots of extra. Don’t be fooled: Despite the mainstream adoption of a few of their options, fire-breathing fanatic gadgets like the new Asus ROG Phone 7 Ultimate proceed to innovate and supply distinctive experiences.

Here are three key options that helps the Asus ROG Phone 7 Ultimate stand out from the mainstream plenty, and one function that falls far behind.

The Asus ROG Phone 7 Ultimate’s audio rocks

As an audio engineer by commerce, I’ve all the time put nice sound at the forefront of my buying choices. Unfortunately, most main smartphones sacrifice on audio. Phones not often have nice audio system, digital to analog converters, or perhaps a headphone jack. On prime of that, many individuals have moved to Bluetooth headphones and like slim bezels to massive, booming built-in audio system anyway.

Adam Patrick Murray/Foundry

Then there’s the Asus ROG Phone 7 Ultimate. It sacrifices the thinnest bezels for front-facing stereo audio system that may make your ears quiver. The sound that comes out of this cellphone blows my thoughts in comparison with regular smartphone audio system. And regardless that I’ve loads of headphones, typically I don’t all the time need to put one thing in or on my ears.

The rich-sounding audio system and genius tuning of the ROG Phone is ideal for us audio nerds irrespective of whether or not you’re gaming or watching movies. Even higher, the ROG Phone stubbornly clings to the timeless 3.5mm headphone jack, and with the hooked up AeroActive Cooler 7 you get one other headphone jack out there to be used in panorama mode.

Control it your manner

For critical gaming classes I don’t all the time need to use the contact display, pair a Bluetooth controller, or strap on a tool like the Razer Kishi. Good information! The Asus ROG Phone 7 Ultimate affords so many further management choices that it makes my head spin.

The cellphone options 14 particular management inputs through touch-sensitive buttons in addition to 10 completely different movement management choices. Strap on the AeroActive Cooler 7 and also you really get 4 bodily buttons alongside the again facet.

Adam Patrick Murray/Foundry

Having these further inputs could make all the distinction whenever you’re taking part in video games like Call of Duty: Mobile or Fortnite. Some video games don’t help controllers by any means, or restrict them to particular makes use of, so gaming telephones present a particular benefit versus counting on touchscreen-only strategies.

For instance, in a typical recreation of COD: Mobile I map reloading, crouching, aiming down the sights, and firing to 4 completely different button presses. This frees up my thumbs to deal with transferring my character and aiming on the display. Without these further inputs I must pause motion with both thumb to press a button to do one thing like hearth, making me a a lot simpler goal. So whereas I don’t really use all of the choices out there to me it’s superior to have them in the first place and may enable for tremendous personalized setups.

The Asus ROG Phone 7 Ultimate is cool as a polar bear’s toenails

Most flagship telephones are greater than able to taking part in the newest video games, in fact, however they simply aren’t optimized for it from a cooling standpoint. Keeping that beastly Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip working cool is important to get most efficiency throughout gaming.

Adam Patrick Murray/Foundry

Asus prioritizes efficiency by persevering with to innovate its cooling system in the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate and doing things like putting the hottest elements in the middle of the gadget. This spreads warmth throughout the entire cellphone for extra even cooling, whereas additionally maximizing the cooling potential (and thus efficiency) when attaching the AeroActive Cooler 7 to the again of the gadget.

That upgraded cooler now includes a Peltier cooler in addition to an AeroActive Portal that additional helps the warmth dissipation. The improve to a Peltier cooler really makes the AeroActive Cooler 7 a viable accent in comparison with previous iterations, and makes use of lively cooling to wick away warmth from the again of the cellphone. The AeroActive Portal (solely out there on the Ultimate model) opens up when the Cooler is hooked up and permits for extra direct airflow to the hottest elements. (It’s additionally tremendous enjoyable to observe open.)

The cooling options inside the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate itself have additionally been upgraded, particularly with new designs round its vapor chamber and graphite sheets. Improvements with snazzy names like Liquid Return channels and Wick Column Structures actually transcend my degree of comprehension, however at the finish of the day I do discover that this cellphone stays cool even after lengthy gaming classes. I do know I can push this cellphone onerous and have it not lose any efficiency regardless of how lengthy I play. I additionally know that I don’t have to fret about my fingers getting scorching and sweaty from holding a scorching slab for an hour. The identical actually can’t be mentioned for each flagship smartphone on the market.

The digital camera isn’t nice although

With a lot to love about the beastly Asus ROG Phone 7 Ultimate, may it actually have an Achilles’ heel? Unfortunately, it does possess one main draw back that may preserve me from utilizing this cellphone day by day: the digital camera.

As knowledgeable photographer and video producer I simply can’t depend on this digital camera system to take images and video the manner I would really like. While the digital camera {hardware} is greater than succesful, it’s the processing that lags behind and simply can’t sustain with my wants. The images popping out of the ROG Phone 7 simply don’t really feel pure to life, affected by things like poor white steadiness readings, over processed HDR, and liberal quantities of sharpening.

Adam Patrick Murray/Foundry

To be honest, the photograph high quality of the ROG Phone line has improved over the years. It’s not a horrible digital camera—it simply doesn’t come shut sufficient to the different flagship smartphones in its value vary and stands proud as a obtrusive weak point amidst a complete heap of awesomeness. And in fact, it actually is determined by how a lot you personally care about digital camera efficiency in your cellphone, however it bums me out and I actually hope Asus can proceed to enhance on it.

Regardless of the weak digital camera efficiency, the remainder of this cellphone is a beast. The Asus ROG Phone 7 Ultimate stands out from the crowd with innovative options. That’s the key, actually. Fully loaded, enthusiast-class gaming telephones like this assist push the total cellular ecosystem ahead, and I’m thrilled that producers like Asus proceed to innovate in the area. Mainstream telephones won’t have adopted options like vapor chambers and excessive refresh fee screens as shortly if gaming telephones didn’t blaze the path first.

Now if solely we may get not less than one headphone jack again on different telephones…