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
Camera - Low Light Evaluation
Low-light photography of the ROG Phone III is a wildcard. On one hand, the phone lacks OIS which is a big detriment to low-light photography, but on the other hand, the device has a potent sensor, wide aperture, and now also features a night mode that might be able to still produce good images.
[ ROG Phone III ]
[iPhone 11 Pro ] - [Galaxy S20+(E) ]
[ Pixel 4 ] - [ X-T30 ]
As expected, the non-night mode shots of the phone are quite disappointing and are considerably worse than the competition.
The ultra-wide here is also night unusable and in the same bottom-tier as the iPhone 11’s unit.
When turning on night mode however, which by the way is triggered to come on by default when under low-light conditions, there’s a dramatic improvement in quality and it becomes usable, although it still can’t compete with other phones which have OIS.
[ ROG Phone III ]
[ iPhone 11 Pro ] - [ Galaxy S20+(E) ]
[ Pixel 4 ] - [ X-T30 ]
I did like the ROG3’s exposure here as it was the most realistic of the bunch, however it lacked the higher dynamic range in the shadows of other phones.
[ ROG Phone III ]
[ iPhone 11 Pro ] - [ Galaxy S20+(E) ]
[ Pixel 4 ] - [ X-T30 ]
In brighter scenes, the ROG3 does ok, but the lack of OIS shows in the lack of detail, and the shot just has worse dynamic range than the competition, although it remains quite usable.
[ ROG Phone III ]
[ iPhone 11 Pro ] - [ Galaxy S20+(E) ]
[ Pixel 4 ] - [ X-T30 ]
Surprisingly enough this scene was to the liking of the ASUS as it produced an excellent result that although it a bit bright, has tone of good retention of textures and detail and is quite ahead of all other mobile phones.
[ ROG Phone III ]
[ iPhone 11 Pro ] - [ Galaxy S20+(E) ]
[ Pixel 4 ] - [ X-T30 ]
The darker the scene, the worse the ROG3 fares as its shutter speed can’t go as low as other phones. The S20 is able to get double the amount of light at 1/8th a second over 1/20th of the ASUS, and the iPhone ½ second exposure really shines.
[ ROG Phone III ]
[ iPhone 11 Pro ] - [ Galaxy S20+(E) ]
[ Pixel 4 ] - [ X-T30 ]
And in the last shot again, the much slower shutter speeds of the ROG3 mean that it captures a lot less light than the competition.
Overall Low-Light Evaluation: Meh
Generally, the ROG Phone III just suffers greatly from the lack of OIS. Although its night mode seems to perform quite adequately and be competitive in terms of computational photography, the fact that its shutter speeds are always around four times faster than the competition means that it’s only able to capture about a quarter of the light. It’s very clearly a tier below other flagship devices, and generally not competitive.
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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!!!