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
Display Measurement
The display on the ROG Phone III is an OLED panel that features a 1080p resolution and a very high refresh-rate of up to 144Hz. Although it was something quite extraordinary back in 2019, in 2020 it’s doesn’t showcase the same kind of spec-list advantage versus the 1440p 120Hz panels by some other competitors in the market.
The phone gives you the options to operate at 60, 90, 120 or 144Hz which is quite wide array of selections. Unfortunately, much like other super-high refresh-rate panels on the market, going beyond 90Hz comes at a quite larger power consumption cost.
Colour settings on the ROG Phone III are very varied and customisable, giving you four different predefined display gamut selections. The “standard” profile is the calibrated sRGB target with a default colour temperature near 6500K, so that’s what we measured and what I would recommend users to choose when looking for accurate display colours.
We move on to the display calibration and fundamental display measurements of the ROG Phone III screen. As always, we thank X-Rite and SpecraCal, as our measurements are performed with an X-Rite i1Pro 2 spectrophotometer, with the exception of black levels which are measured with an i1Display Pro colorimeter. Data is collected and examined using Portrait Display's CalMAN software.
In terms of brightness, the ROG Phone III fares well, with manual brightness reaching up to around 423cd/m², whilst when in adaptive brightness mode this boosts up to 652cd/m² full-screen white (100% APL) when under bright ambient light conditions.
In the standard display profile, colour temperature is quite good at the high levels, tracking whites at 6453K. At the mid-levels there’s a bit too much greens.
Although greyscale colour accuracy is quite excellent with a dEITP of only 1.76, the overall error rate when including luminosity is quite bad in our results here, and the reason for that is that the phone is targeting a much higher gamma of around 2.4. Unfortunately this aspect is valid for all colour profiles of the phone and there’s no way to fine-tune or change this.
What this means is that mid- and low-levels will appear darker than they are meant to.
Saturation accuracy against the sRGB target is excellent, with only minor deviations which are exaggerated by the higher gamma target of the display profile.
The Gretag MacBeth chart of common colour tones and skin tones is also quite accurate in terms of colour saturations and hues, however the off-target luminosity because of the higher gamma is the main reason the total dEITP error rate is quite high at 8.57.
Overall, the screen of the ROG Phone III is excellent, although not class-leading. It’s not quite as high resolution or as bright as some competitors, but it still fares very well, and it’s currently amongst a very small number of phones which can claim a 144Hz refresh-rate, although the actual benefits of that over 120Hz devices is rather minor.
Colour accuracy is good, although you’d have to get used to that higher gamma target which produces darker colour tones.
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hansmuff - Saturday, August 29, 2020 - link
No Qi charging, yet again from a new ASUS phone. My LORD that shit has to be in any new phone that's over $200.juhatus - Sunday, August 30, 2020 - link
"It’s a pity that this is the only way to get audio out of the phone"Umm, doesn't it support Bluetooth-audio?
flyingpants265 - Sunday, August 30, 2020 - link
No front speakers = no buy.No 3.5mm = no buy, I'm not falling for a scam.
I didn't check, but no wireless charging/waterproofing = no buy.
Video/YouTube, music, and gaming necessitate front speakers. Otherwise, don't bother me. This should have been a standard feature even before wireless charging. These should all be standard features.
Lolimaster - Sunday, August 30, 2020 - link
Basically you're looking at the Xperia 1 MKII. Sadly Sony insist with that annoying extra wide design.19:9-19.5:9 is the limit for me.
Revv233 - Tuesday, September 1, 2020 - link
Same Sentiment here - if it was normal height I would already have it. Love that it even has a real finger reader still.V60 Same thought - I finally got to hold one this week and its mandatory 2 hands even before the case. Too bad because I love that DAC.
After years of wanting bigger screens MFG have shot well past the sweet spot. For whatever reason budget phones are the only ones with features customer wants... but then you give up the new SOC's.
I have s9+; decided to skip the S10 generation but having watched the market with a lot of anticipation this year I think it's the only option.
flyingpants265 - Tuesday, September 1, 2020 - link
I prefer 17:9. Too tall and I cannot reach the top. If I can't reach notifications it's unusable.Lolimaster - Sunday, August 30, 2020 - link
In the end the + version are more or less a gimmick while also drawing a lot more power.In my samsung SD devices I'm happy with the 70% of soc speed in the energy saving options. All games at around 70-80% of max image quality + 30fps cap on intensive 3d content.
PeachNCream - Monday, August 31, 2020 - link
Gaming phone with no way to connect a 3.5mm set of headphones. Also that performance is pretty unimpressive for a design meant to cater to people that want to see the best results from their games. Not sure what Asus' folks are smoking, but it must be some good stuff.Notmyusualid - Monday, August 31, 2020 - link
No 3.5mm jack. Wow.Well, one year on with my ROG2, and I still don't have a single game on it. Tried a few initially, and then one-by-one, they all became 'sign in with an account', so I just removed them all.
It has been buggier than the Samsung's I've had to date. Noticably.
I ended up buying a beefier case for it, over the free one that shipped with it.
And some of the Chinese junk characters left behind (I never did get around to changing the ROM - something I normally do do) are annoying to see.
But the speakers are great, and the battery also. My reason for buying it.
And when replacement time comes, I can always find another phone with a 3.5mm jack, somewhere on the market. I'll vote with my feet.
NightShot - Friday, September 4, 2020 - link
This phone really is more appealing for normal use. Its rather conservative power management when outside of X Mode are the reason for its incredible battery life most likely. Thermals shouldn't be THAT much of a deal breaker as it is a gaming phone. It ships with a cooler. Why not use it when you're about to game? And as we have seen, it improves the experience. It respects the +10% performance boost claims as well. It is a phone that does what it was advertised for and nothing more. So it's fine to me.