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
Video Recording
Video recording on the ROG Phone III is interesting because it’s one of the newer phones which promise 8K recording capabilities. As the phone lacks OIS, it’ll be also interesting to see how the EIS is able to stabilise the video recording and how it holds up against the competition.
Starting off with 4K30 recording, the stabilisation employed by the phone is actually significantly better than I had expected and is able to produce an excellent result even without OIS.
4K30 on the ultra-wide gives a much better field of view and giving the EIS a better frame to be able to stabilise the video in, however the quality of the video isn’t too great as it’s lacking dynamic range – with the processing flattening highlights quite a lot.
4K60 is reserved just for the main camera, and the footage is very good, although again it’s visible how the HDR isn’t the best as we’re seeing highlights clip in and out. Overall, however, it offers excellent amounts of detail and smoothness.
8K30 is also limited to the main camera. Again, dynamic range is a weakness, however it’s one of the modes that allows for almost no quality loss when digitally zooming in. Notice the video noise when zoomed in in the video sample. The biggest issue I have with this mode is that it’s still pretty much a gimmick and not viable for every-day usage as bitrates come in at 105Mb/s and result in about 800MB of storage consumption per minute, and the phone does not have expandable storage.
Audio Evaluation
I’ve moved offices so I don’t have the same audio measurement setup to be able to showcase apples to apples measurement data, so I’ll keep my evaluation of the speakers on the ROG3 brief.
The stereo speakers of the phone are augmented by a speaker calibration by Dirac, allowing the phone to achieve actually quite impressive sound quality. The phone has quite deep bass, and the stereo balance of the two speakers is perfect given that we’re seen two identical driver setups.
Virtualisation of sound isn’t quite as good as some other devices out there, however the ROG Phone III makes up with a flatter sounding frequency response curve. It has better audio playback than Apple and Samsung devices, and edges out the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro as well as the device with the phone with the best audio playback on the market right now.
It’s just a pity the company had dropped the 3.5mm headphone jack – it would have otherwise been a complete winner in the audio department.
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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!!!