Filipino mobile gamers have a new beast to covet — the ASUS ROG Phone 8 and its monstrous ROG Phone 8 Pro variant.
(Update, March 11: Our ASUS ROG Phone 8 Pro review is up!)
Price-wise, expect to pay a premium for these gaming-focused models. The standard ROG Phone 8 with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage kicks things off at P50,995, or roughly $914 converted. Storm Gray and Phantom Black are your only color options here.
Want the bragging rights? The base ASUS ROG Phone 8 Pro with 16GB RAM and 512GB storage demands a cool P60,995 ($1,093) and arrives decked out in a Phantom Black colorway. Stepping up to the 24GB/1TB top-of-the-line version will set you back P75,995 ($1,344), bundled with the AeroActive Cooler X cooler attachment.
Offline availability is immediate, but ROG’s Shopee store is the exclusive online source. Early adopters snag bonuses — an AeroActive Cooler X or the ROG Cetra True Wireless on select variants. Retail sales in the Philippines start this month.
Both gaming phones share the crown jewel of mobile silicon: Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 5G chipset, the same silicon featured on flagships like the Xiaomi 14 series and Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra. But what sets the new ROG Phones apart is their unabashed celebration of gaming supremacy. This isn’t just about raw horsepower; it’s about custom cooling, gamer-centric accessories, and the bold, “gamery” design the series is known for.
Well, sort of. This year, ASUS has dialed back on aggressive styling and even removed the RGB lighting on the back of the ROG Phone 8 Pro. Instead of a dedicated rear display, the ROG Phone 8 Pro boasts a 341 Mini-LED programmable matrix with a 254 x 128-pixel resolution that supports black-and-white GIF animations that seamlessly disappear when turned off.
ASUS reveals the revamped ROG Phone 8 series’ pricing, freebies, and availability in the Philippines. Our review of the Pro model should be up as early as tomorrow, March 8
Also notably, the ROG Phone 8 series marks a major departure from its predecessors. Its gaming-phone aesthetic has all but vanished, replaced by a minimalist slab design that hints at its potent capabilities rather than shouting them.
Another big upgrade is the camera system. The Taiwanese company historically treats the camera on the ROG Phone as an afterthought. Thankfully, that isn’t the case this time around. The ASUS ROG Phone 8 Pro marks a significant departure and packs the series’ best-performing camera yet. No longer relying on recycled sensors, the brand has finally invested in a competent triple-camera setup.
ASUS has opted to upgrade the camera block of the ROG Phone 8 family, with the Pro variant, in particular, sporting a dedicated telephoto shooter and the company’s new — and very effective — Hybrid Gimbal Stabilizer 3.0 system. This is an improved version of the Zenfone 10’s Hybrid Gimbal Stabilizer 2.0, allowing you to shoot stable handheld video without the help of an external gimbal or third-party software.
Sporting a fresh, more mainstream look and, finally, a well-rounded camera system — at least, on paper — the ROG Phone 8 series hints that ASUS has acknowledged that dedicated gaming phones have a niche ceiling. Time will tell if the pivot to a more traditional flagship turns out to be a winning strategy. We’ll publish our full review of the ROG Phone 8 Pro tomorrow, so do watch for that.
ASUS ROG Phone 8 Pro
- 6.78-inch FHD+ LTPO E6 AMOLED display, 165Hz refresh rate, 2,500 nits peak brightness, Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2
- 4nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 5G chipset
- Adreno 750 GPU
- 16GB/24GB LPDDR5X RAM
- 512GB/1TB UFS 4.0 storage
- Triple 50-megapixel main, 32-megapixel telephoto, and 13-megapixel ultrawide cameras
- 32-megapixel RGBW front camera
- Under-display fingerprint reader
- 5,500mAh battery
- 65-watt wired charging, 15-watt wireless charging
- 3.5mm audio port
- Dot matrix display
- Built-in gaming triggers
- Stereo speakers
- IP68 dust and water resistance
- Android 14 with ROG Armoury Crate
- Color: Phantom Black
ASUS ROG Phone 8
- 6.78-inch FHD+ LTPO E6 AMOLED display, 165Hz refresh rate, 2,500 nits peak brightness, Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2
- 4nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 5G chipset
- Adreno 750 GPU
- 12GB/16GB LPDDR5X RAM
- 256GB UFS 4.0 storage
- Triple 50-megapixel main, 32-megapixel telephoto, and 13-megapixel ultrawide cameras
- 32-megapixel RGBW front camera
- Under-display fingerprint reader
- 5,500mAh battery
- 65-watt wired charging, 15-watt wireless charging
- 3.5mm audio port
- Backlit RGB logo
- Built-in gaming triggers
- Stereo speakers
- IP68 dust and water resistance
- Android 14 with ROG Armoury Crate
- Colors: Phantom Black, Rebel Grey
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