Monday at the Snapdragon Summit in Maui, Qualcomm unveiled its new flagship mobile SoC – the Snapdragon 8 Elite – which is powered by the corporate’s 2nd-gen Oryon CPU cores. Qualcomm flew TechRadar to Maui to take a look at the most recent chips, and I managed to trace down some surprises that may quickly delight cell avid gamers.
Through the keynote, Xiaomi introduced that its 15 series flagship could be the primary telephone to ship with the Snapdragon 8 Elite later this month. Honor then revealed that its Magic7 collection handsets would additionally function Qualcomm’s new cell chip and launch Oct 30.
ASUS adopted swimsuit with the ROG Phone 9, a gaming flagship coming Nov 19 that additionally packs Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite. However not like the competitors, ASUS reps had been readily available with its new handset and I bought to test it out on the occasion. Whereas the corporate wasn’t prepared to share any specs or pricing, I used to be in a position to deal with the brand new ROG Cellphone 9 for a couple of minutes. So listed below are my temporary first impressions.
The ROG Cellphone 9 appears lots just like the ROG Cellphone 8
The ROG Cellphone 9 shares the identical industrial design because the ROG Phone 8 Pro ($1,199) that our personal Jon Mundy reviewed again in January – right down to the digicam pod form and port/button placement. Dimensions are comparable, too, however this new telephone feels lighter than its predecessor. You’ll discover a few pink accents within the again, alongside a redesigned dot-matrix LED show – which is now positioned horizontally when holding the handset in portrait orientation.
Clearly, below the hood, the massive information is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite. ASUS instructed me that the remainder of the ROG Cellphone 9’s specs must be barely improved over its predecessor, so I don’t anticipate too many surprises right here. To jog your reminiscence, the ROG Cellphone 8 collection boasts a 6.78-inch 1080p 165Hz AMOLED display with 2,500 nits peak brightness and an under-display fingerprint sensor. It’s rated IP68 for water and dirt resistance.
The ROG Cellphone 9 also needs to inherit the ROG Cellphone 8 collection’ shooters, which embody a 50MP f/1.9 predominant sensor with PDAF and gimbal OIS, and 32MP f/2.4 3x telephoto with PDAF and OIS, and a 13MP f/2.2 120-degree ultrawide. A 32MP f/2.5 selfie digicam rounds issues up in entrance. By way of battery energy, the ROG Cellphone 8 collection comes with a 5,500mAh dual-cell battery and 65W wired charging plus 15W wi-fi charging.
You additionally get stereo audio system, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and twin USB Sort-C ports (one alongside the underside edge and one other on the left aspect). This lets you cost the telephone whereas holding it in panorama orientation with out the cable getting in the way in which. On the reminiscence entrance, the ROG Cellphone 8 collection provides 12GB, 16GB, or 24GB of LPDDR5x RAM, and 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB of UFS 4.0 storage. There’s no expandable storage.
My ROG Cellphone 9 specs prediction: a little bit bit extra
I determine that the ROG Cellphone 8 Professional specs above will carry over to the ROG Cellphone 9 largely unchanged – particularly the cameras, which look similar. A greater ultrawide shooter (with AF) could be good, however that’s an extended shot contemplating this can be a gaming handset. If something, the AMOLED show may get upgraded to a brighter panel, and the dual-cell battery may get a bump as much as 6000mAh, however that’s mainly it.
Total, I actually favored what I noticed throughout my temporary time with the ASUS ROG Cellphone 9. This gaming telephone feels nice in hand, is evenly balanced, and is effectively made – similar to its predecessor. But it surely additionally appears extra refined than the ASUS ROG Cellphone 8 Professional. And whereas I didn’t get an opportunity to play any video games, navigating the UI was clean as butter, and the AMOLED display was tremendous clear, even below the extreme Hawaiian daylight.
Qualcomm claims that the Snapdragon 8 Elite improves gaming efficiency by as much as 40% whereas delivering higher thermals and battery life. So, with a speedy new chip below the hood, equal or higher specs than its predecessor, and an analogous design, the ROG Cellphone 9 is shaping as much as be fairly the gaming powerhouse when it arrives on Nov 19. Keep tuned for remaining specs and pricing, and anticipate a full evaluate as quickly as we have had an opportunity to check this telephone and run it by means of Future Labs.
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