The ASUS ROG Phone III Review: A 144Hz 6000mAh Beast With Caveats
by Andrei Frumusanu on August 28, 2020 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Mobile
- Smartphones
- Snapdragon 865
- ROG Phone III
Battery Life - The Best
The previous generation ROG Phones have impressed us a lot when it comes to their battery life, and that’s easily attributed to the massive 6000mAh battery that’s included in the 240g heavy phone.
The ROG Phone III this year doesn’t increase battery capacity, but does feature a more efficient SoC that should showcase even better results. The minor bump to 144Hz shouldn’t come with a notable power consumption increase.
As expected, the ROG Phone III is topping our battery life charts. At 60Hz refresh rate, the new phone slightly edges out the older ROG Phone II with an astounding 16.51h runtime.
Turning on the 144Hz refresh rate comes with a large 22% hit in battery life, but in absolute terms it still maintains an excellent 12.9h runtime, making this the longest-lasting phone amongst the 120Hz+ crowd.
In PCMark, the improved power efficiency of the new SoC is further exposed, with the newer generation having a bigger leap of the Snapdragon 855 ROG Phone II.
The absolute battery life runtimes here are outstanding.
Overall, there’s very little to say about the ROG Phone III’s battery life other than it being class-leading. There’s no other flagship device out there with such great battery life, as vendors only employ such huge battery capacities in lower-end devices. You have to pay the price in terms of device weight, but you’re also getting a lot in return.
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Medstar1 - Saturday, August 29, 2020 - link
Personally I've never given wireless audio a try. I was first introduced to the Quad DAC on my LG V20 years ago and it made the headphone jack a part of my "must have" list for phones every since. Another reason may be the fact that when I listen to music I am stationary and not engaged in other activities. I don't listen to music when I'm out, say hiking, because it kind of nullifys the point of being out in nature. I don't do it while I'm out and about in the city because I want to be situationally aware of my surroundings at all times. So bottom line I just haven't found the need to go wireless at this stage.habs01 - Saturday, August 29, 2020 - link
Having a 3.5mm jack doesn't prevent you from using bluetooth if that's what you like. It doesn't work the other way around.flyingpants265 - Sunday, August 30, 2020 - link
You've given in to the inconvenience of Bluetooth, you mean.And you've given into the cost.
Red john - Sunday, August 30, 2020 - link
The problem of wireless headset means you are required to charge a new gadget along with your mobile phone. And we can get better audio quality output with half of the price in wired than wireless headsetsflyingpants265 - Sunday, August 30, 2020 - link
Not required. You can use USBC headphones. Just strongly encouraged by marketing.s.yu - Wednesday, September 2, 2020 - link
Required if you use magnetic charging cables, because your sole C port will be stuck with a magnetic adaptor in it.. And those sell pretty well, the market is expanding in fact.s.yu - Wednesday, September 2, 2020 - link
I can tell you that Sony's flagship overear is sorely inadequate and PHA55BT doesn't drive low impedance CIEMs as well as my phone with its integrated DAC through the 3.5mm. No BT earphone/headphone is known to surpass the former and no adaptor is known to surpass the latter. End of discussion.hemedans - Friday, August 28, 2020 - link
it has two usb type C ports, use one for wired type c earphoneLord of the Bored - Saturday, August 29, 2020 - link
But I want to use normal headphones, not my GBA SP toy phones.flyingpants265 - Sunday, August 30, 2020 - link
So buy an adapter to carry around everywhere and degrade your sound quality (noise etc from contacts/soldering/bad shielding)Remember to pay for that too.