Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro 1TB

As mentioned, the ASUS ROG Phone 8 Pro draws power from Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC. The unit I am reviewing offers 24GB of RAM and 1TB of USF 4.0 storage, priced at Rs 1,19,999, which might seem like an overkill, both in terms of price and memory. You may consider the base variant priced at Rs 94,999, which offers 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. The latter will be sufficient for even the most hardcore gamers.Based on numbers, the ASUS ROG Phone 8 Pro comfortably surpasses all competitors in Geekbench and AnTuTu. Even in the dedicated memory benchmark via CPDT, the ROG Phone 8 Pro stands tall. The closest to ROG Phone 8 Pro based on numbers is the iQOO 12, which is half the price. However, the latter misses key gaming features, including AirTriggers and dedicated accessory support.Needless to say, the ROG Phone 8 Pro aced our gaming tests. I tested by playing demanding titles, including Real Racing 3, BGMI, Call of Duty, and Genshin Impact. Not only did the ROG Phone 8 trump in terms of graphics and consistent frame rate, but the AirTriggers took the experience to another level. During my testing (BGMI), the sensors worked smoothly, and the haptic feedback was tactile.While I wish the AirTriggers had more functionalities similar to the iPhone 15 Pro's Action button, they are pure bliss for gaming. The Armoury Crate offers several options to adjust modes (X Mode for the best experience), vibrations, and the viewing area. It is also accessible by swiping inwards diagonally from the right side during games.Attaching the AeroActive Cooler also significantly aids performance, though it is not the most ergonomic accessory. Even after playing BGMI on smooth graphics and at 90fps for nearly 20 minutes, and X mode enabled, the AeroActive Cooler maintained the phone's temperature at 33 degrees Celsius. Mind you, this is when most parts of Delhi were touching 45 degrees and ACs weren't most effective. The accessory has physical buttons in case using AirTriggers becomes tiresome. It's a matter of convenience, though I prefer AirTriggers more.Beyond gaming, there's not much to nitpick about the ASUS ROG Phone 8 Pro's performance. The phone offers a clean Android build, and you can expect a lag-free experience. However, it has limited native AI and gen-AI features for productivity. There are AI features deployed for gaming (AI Grabber for extracting text directly from games) and to improve photography. However, native AI features to remove objects from photos or live transcription remain missing, which would appeal to many productivity-focused users.  In that case, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and Pixel 8 Pro remain champions in terms of software experience.

The ASUS ROG Phone 8 Pro has a special focus on cameras, which wasn't the biggest priority of older ROG Phones. The rear camera system houses a 50MP OIS-enabled camera, a 32MP telephoto camera with OIS and 3X optical zoom, and a 13MP ultra-wide camera. The front gets a 32MP camera.There's no doubt the rear cameras see a bump in specification and performance. Most photos with the ASUS ROG Phone 8 Pro feature natural colours and a neutral white balance. The phone manages shadows and contrasts quite flawlessly, making photos look highly dramatic and social media-ready. I was also happy to see colour consistency in photos taken with the wide, ultra-wide, front, and telephoto cameras.If you look closely at the photos, you will also notice that the ROG Phone 8 Pro tends to minimise noise. However, details can sometimes appear soft and even facial features in portrait mode can be difficult to spot. To be fair, the photos look good, but they lack rich details.I noticed similar performance in low light. The ROG Phone 8 Pro balanced light and colours well in dim conditions, and kept noise minimal. As a result, details can get compromised as you zoom in.The video performance is decent at best. The ROG 8 Pro offered good stability during full-HD recording, though that may take a hit in 4K. The front camera supports only 1080p recording at 30fps. ASUS could've considered adding recording at 60fps at least.

One of the reasons why the ROG Phone 8 Pro got slimmer and lighter this year is because of a relatively smaller battery unit. It carries a 5,500mAh battery instead of a 6,000mAh unit. Mind you, even a 5,500mAh battery is a highly respectable size for smartphones.In the PCMark battery test, the ROG Phone 8 Pro lasted for nearly 10 hours (flight mode enabled and 50 percent brightness and audio), which is a decent score at best. However, in real life, the phone managed to run for a full day with the highest settings enabled, including AniMe Vision lights. With moderate usage, you can easily prolong the backup.With a bundled 30W charger in the box, the ROG Phone 8 Pro took nearly 50 minutes to fully charge from 20 percent. The phone gets 65W charging support.