The ASUS ROG Phone II Review: Mobile Gaming First, Phone Second
by Dr. Ian Cutress on September 30, 2019 11:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Mobile
- Asus
- Qualcomm
- Smartphones
- ROG
- RGB
- Snapdragon 855 Plus
- ROG Phone II
Battery Life
With a 6000 mAh battery, the ROG Phone II already promised out of the gate to have some substantial staying power. The big battery is meant to compensate for having additional features like the 120 Hz display and X Mode which might consume more battery during gaming. Nonetheless, in our standard Wi-Fi battery test, it smashes new records.
Setting the display to 200 nits, our web battery test simulates accessing webpages with a variety of features with scrolling – standard operation for any smartphone.
In the default 60Hz mode that the phone ships in, it results in over 16 hours of runtime, that caters for any ‘all-day’ battery claim, and is certainly above any other smartphone on the market. Moving to a perminent 120 Hz mode loses about 20% of the battery life.
Similarly, the PCMark battery test also dropped 20%, however the average score in the PCMark battery test on 120 Hz mode did increase by 17% (10746 vs 9152) , indicating the tradeoff that a higher refresh screen might bring.
Not being the standard smartphone reviewer, unfortunately I do not have access to all the tools that Andrei does for his testing. As a result, our display testing is fairly basic. At 100% APL, the peak brightness was measured at ~450 nits, which is below ASUS’ claim of 600 nits. It is likely that ASUS’ number is peak brightness (1% APL), not full screen. We also measured the white point at ~8450K.
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asfletch - Tuesday, October 1, 2019 - link
IKR? Those things were great on the Mega Drive - remember waiting for codes to be published in gaming magazines...gawd I feel old.Flunk - Monday, September 30, 2019 - link
No hard controls, same hardware as everyone else. This is a cynical marketing exercise, like "gaming" chairs.asfletch - Tuesday, October 1, 2019 - link
Umm...what about the L and R buttons on the side and the snap-on joypads?s.yu - Tuesday, October 1, 2019 - link
GSMA's review is more comprehensive.It became clear that they really put a lot of work into this small volume device, if this is a "cynical marketing exercise" then what isn't?
iranterres - Monday, September 30, 2019 - link
If you want a true gaming phone, an Android won't be for sure, an iPhone 8 runs circles around it and it's almost half the price.Wardrive86 - Monday, September 30, 2019 - link
😂 You do notice the Iphone 8 is more towards the bottom of the benchmark charts?Sharma_Ji - Monday, September 30, 2019 - link
I heard somewhere iPhone doesn't have headphone jack and it takes ages to charge that 3hr. Gaming battery with that 5W charger.hemedans - Thursday, October 3, 2019 - link
And can it run dolphin, Citra, ps2 emulator, psp emulator etc?Notmyusualid - Sunday, October 6, 2019 - link
@ iranterres - are you high, or something?mrochester - Tuesday, October 1, 2019 - link
1) hideous 2) android.The two reasons no one should but this phone.