ROG 8 Pro A Detailed Performance Review Of Snapdragon Flagship

Following the release of annual flagship models by various manufacturers, the well-known esports brand ROG has launched its gaming phone product: the ROG 8 Pro. As a device focused on gaming experiences, the ROG gaming phone may not have widespread attention, but this does not detract from its impressive product capabilities. Let’s take a quick hands-on look at it.

Firstly, the ROG 8 Pro, as a gaming phone, balances a low-profile appearance with personalized needs. Its back cover features AG matte glass combined with an obsidian black color scheme, giving it a subdued look. The phone’s frame is designed with right angles, and the back and front of the body are slightly curved where they meet the frame, reducing the perceived thickness and improving the grip.

In terms of weight reduction, the ROG 8 Pro benefits from a new body design and screen technology upgrades, resulting in a thinner body and improved hand feel. Additionally, the ROG 8 Pro supports IP68 dust and water resistance, a rare feature in gaming phones.

A major design highlight of the ROG 8 Pro is the AniMe Vision light display matrix screen on the back of the body, previously used in the ROG notebook Phantom series. This screen comprises 341 programmable LED beads, offering dozens of preset animations and customizability, and can be completely invisible when not in use.

The ROG 8 Pro’s screen is a 165Hz high-refresh-rate Samsung E6 AMOLED flexible screen, with a screen-to-body ratio of 94%, supporting LTPO adaptive refresh rate adjustment to dynamically save power. The screen’s global brightness can reach up to 1600 nits, with a peak brightness of 2500 nits, ensuring visibility even in bright outdoor environments.

Like its predecessor, the ROG 8 Pro is equipped with touch shoulder buttons, known as AirTrigger shoulder keys, which can be set in the Game Genie for more control options in games. It also features an X-haptic vibration system composed of high-end X-axis linear vibration motors for clearer feedback.

In terms of performance, the ROG 8 Pro is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen3, with a storage combination of LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 storage. Its cooling system is a matrix liquid cooling architecture 8.0. The tested version was 24GB+1TB.

Directly to the performance tests, under standard room temperature and in X mode (high-performance mode), the ROG 8 Pro scored 2,173,636 in AnTuTu V10, aligning with top-tier performance standards. In GeekBench 6.2, it scored 2024 in single-core and 6990 in multi-core tests. In 3DMark Wild Life EXTREME tests, the ROG 8 Pro scored 8654 in the Solar bay ray tracing project and 5205 in the Wild Life EXTREME project.

The ROG 8 Pro also features an advanced performance mode on top of the X performance mode, allowing users to customize performance options for applications. In this mode, with level 3 advanced performance mode, bypass power supply, and cooling back clip, the AnTuTu score reached 2,224,700. In GeekBench 6.2, it scored 2304 in single-core and 7271 in multi-core; in the 3DMark Solar bay ray tracing project, it scored 8979, surpassing other Snapdragon 8 Gen3 production models on the market.

In gaming tests, the ROG 8 Pro easily handled games like “Genshin Impact.” In the Liyue Harbor running map test with extremely high-quality settings at 60 frames, the ROG 8 Pro averaged 60.9 frames over 15 minutes, providing a stable full-frame gaming experience.

After 15 minutes of running, the ROG 8 Pro’s back cover temperature was measured at 45.3 degrees Celsius, which is normal. In terms of imaging, the ROG 8 Pro, although a performance-focused gaming phone, has a solid camera setup. The main rear camera is a 50-megapixel Sony IMX890 sensor with gimbal stabilization; the telephoto lens is a 32-megapixel sensor supporting 3X optical zoom and 5X lossless zoom; the ultra-wide-angle lens uses a 13-megapixel freeform lens.

For battery life, the ROG 8 Pro is equipped with a 5500mAh battery supporting 65W HyperCharge wired charging and 15W wireless charging, meeting players’ needs in various scenarios.

In summary, the ROG 8 Pro is a powerful gaming phone that offers more playability than typical performance phones. It also comes closer to a flagship phone that can be used daily, striking a balance between gaming and everyday applications.