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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Lolimaster - Sunday, August 30, 2020 - link
SE soc even after thermal throttling it's as fast as an 865 in peak performance. The brute force of iphone lasts just a few seconds.nandnandnand - Friday, August 28, 2020 - link
20 GB RAM when?MrCommunistGen - Friday, August 28, 2020 - link
Had higher hopes for the performance of the S865+ and the IMX686.I'd have been curious to see performance of the phone with and without the AeroActive cooler on Lvl1 and Lvl2 to see how much it actually cools the phone and if that leads to better performance by keeping skin temps within the allowed range.
sonny73n - Friday, August 28, 2020 - link
“ I don’t see the 999€ or 1099€ variants of the ROG Phone III being worth it, however the 799€ base model should make for a quite balanced phone which shines in terms of battery life, and gives you a great high-refresh rate experience. If you can live with the weak cameras, then it should represent a good phone for you.”Has the dollar disappeared? Why don’t you convert 799€ to USD? And for $950 USD, this phone is way overpriced.
I would not choose this ugly outdated design over the $400 Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro which also has almost the same specs and better design. But hey, there’s still plenty of fools out there who eager to be parted with their money.
Andrei Frumusanu - Saturday, August 29, 2020 - link
The phones have not been released in the US yet and do not have official USD prices. You could just 1:1 the figures.Lolimaster - Sunday, August 30, 2020 - link
The "outdated" will always be justified of you provide frontal stereo speakers. Basically the best of all phones. Most people listen to their media over the phone speakers in my car I would mix the designs.Motorized camera + reduced top/bottom bezels with the space being used by high quality speakers.
flyingpants265 - Tuesday, September 1, 2020 - link
No idea what you just said, but I agree 100%. Front speakers are godlike. Once you have them, you don't go back.Thru-screen cameras exist, they're just bad but could possibly be improved.
Manya3084 - Friday, August 28, 2020 - link
I've been using the Strix model for over a week (SD865, 12GB ram) and I am very happy. I easily get through a 8 - 12 hour work day with over 60% battery remaining.I don't mobile game, and I'm using the phone purely for work purposes.
hammer256 - Friday, August 28, 2020 - link
That cooler through the USB-C plugs seems quite clever. If the implementation is good, that solution should do quite a bit better than blowing air on to the back of the phone (plastic?).Great feedback - Saturday, August 29, 2020 - link
I HOPE ASUS READ THIS...BUT I FEEL LIKE THEY SHOULD MAKE THE PHONES AVAILABLE TO ALL CARRIERS. I WOULD EVEN PAY A PREMIUM PRICE JUST TO HAVE IT WITH MY CARRIER VERIZON AND OTHERS WOULD TOO. COME ON ASUS!!!