“Uncompromising flagship”. What do they write about ASUS ROG Phone 7 Ultimate?
Last week, ASUS introduced gaming smartphones of the ROG Phone 7 series. Foreign media have already met with the top model of the line. The gadget received advanced hardware, improved cooling and gaming accessories. Here are the opinions of journalists about the novelty.
CNET
As noted in the review , externally, the phone retained the recognizable aesthetics of the ROG Phone family, having undergone minimal changes compared to its predecessor. The Ultimate version is only available in one color: Storm White. One of its chips is the ROG Vision mini-display on the rear panel, which displays notification icons and a customizable splash screen. The case is protected from dust and splashes according to the IP54 standard.
The main attention here was paid to the technical stuffing. The device is equipped with a 6.7-inch AMOLED display with a refresh rate of 165 Hz and a resolution of 2448×1080. Due to the FHD panel, ASUS engineers managed to maximize the frame rate in games without actually sacrificing picture clarity. The matrix is covered with Gorilla Glass Victus, the peak brightness reaches 1500 nits. Below the screen is an optical fingerprint scanner. The CNET reviewer appreciated the good location of the front camera on the top frame – so it does not distract from the gameplay. Stereo speakers are also installed on the screen frames.
A whole pair of USB-C ports are provided. The second is located on the left side, due to which it is more convenient to play in a horizontal orientation during charging. It also includes accessories. Also available is a 3.5mm jack. ROG Phone 7 Ultimate does not support wireless charging. But it makes up for it with fast wired charging with a 65-watt adapter included. In addition, there is a mode that allows the device to work from the network without charging in the process. As a result, heat is reduced and battery life is extended.
XDA Developers
The hardware basis of the novelty is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, along with 16 GB of RAM (LPDDR5X) and a 512 GB drive (UFS 4.0). According to the authors of the review , both on paper and in life, ASUS ROG Phone 7 Ultimate is one of the fastest Android flagships on the market. In games like Genshin Impact, performance is at its best, and even the demanding emulators AetherSX2 and Dolphin Emulator have no complaints.
The cooling system of the gadget is built on graphite sheets with a total area of 16,000 mm², which dissipate heat 10% more efficiently than the previous model. The included AeroActive Cooler 7 external cooler helps keep the case cool. The depth of sound, according to journalists XDA Developers, reaches the level of the MacBook Pro on the M1.
We decided to check how all this affects long-term performance using the CPU Throttle Test benchmark. Without a fan, the phone noticeably heats up, but at the same time it loses no more than 9% of its maximum performance in a 30-minute test. With the cooler connected, the indicator improved by 5%, while the maximum output power also increased (from 383 to 386 thousand GIPS). In Geekbench 6, the smartphone scores 1459 and 5143 points. In the 3DMark Wild Life Extreme graphics benchmark, the best result was 3738, which after ten runs of the test dropped to only 3729 points.
The speed of the UFS 4.0 internal memory also turned out to be one of the best on the market. As for other chips for gamers, the flagship has AirTrigger ultrasonic touch zones on the back panel. You can assign additional actions to them in games, and even use them as gestures in the system. XDA journalists also liked the vibration motor, which gives a pleasant response not only during gaming, but also when typing.
GSM Arena
ASUS ROG Phone 7 Ultimate software offers many tools and options to optimize your gaming experience. X Mode improves performance by limiting background processes, enabling dual-band Wi-Fi, and more. At the same time, the design style of ROG UI is changing. The latter can be customized with various themes, among which there are discreet options that are close to the pure OS. There is a Game Genie utility that opens on top of the game with a swipe on the left. And in the Armory Create corporate portal, a library of games is presented on the device, where it is convenient to manage graphics, macros, AirTrigger panels and other functions.
Triple camera: based on a Sony IMX766 sensor (50 MP), ultra-wide (13 MP) and macro (5 MP). The main sensor is deprived of optical stabilization. But it can shoot video with a maximum resolution of 8K and a frequency of 24 fps. In daylight, photos are pleasing with natural colors and detail, although sometimes the algorithms overdo it with sharpness. There are two presets: standard (12.5 MP) and maximum (50 MP). 8x digital zoom is supported. The 32MP front camera produces acceptable results, but lacks autofocus. Examples of pictures and videos in various modes are presented on the GSMArena website .
As for autonomy, the smartphone has a capacious 6000 mAh battery, consisting of two 3000 mAh cells. This design reduces heat during charging. In the GSMArena test, the gadget lasted 131 hours, of which 36 hours were 3G calls, 18 hours web browsing and 29 hours video playback.
ASUS ROG Phone 7 Ultimate comes with Android 13. 2 major OS updates and four years of security patches announced. The cost of the flagship is 1399 euros.
