Asus ROG Telephone 9 Professional overview: energy overwhelming
ROG Telephone 9 and ROG Telephone 9 Professional Intro
The ROG Telephone 9 duo repeat of the “third era design”, which implies they do not have the chin and brow with front-firing audio system that older ROG Telephones did. Asus is attempting to stroll the road of constructing them extra mainstream-looking and extra manageable, whereas nonetheless retaining the DNA of that heavy gamer telephone that the ROG model is thought for.
However for one more bit of excellent information — the subwoofer within the AeroActive Cooler is again! There’s now a brand new AeroActive Cooler X Professional accent, which is offered individually or included with the ROG Telephone 9 Professional Version, which we’ve got. The excellent news is that it is also suitable with the older ROG Telephone 8 sequence, in case you simply need to improve to having a subwoofer.
As one may count on, it is a heavily-specced telephone, which you may get in a configuration of as much as 1 TB UFS 4.0 storage and as much as 24 GB of LPDDR5X RAM. It is launching internationally this December, coming to the US as early as January 2025. We ran it by all our assessments, and it handed them with flying colours, after all. Effectively, the digicam nonetheless wants some love, however it’s a gamer’s telephone firstly!
Desk of Contents:
Additionally learn:
ROG Telephone 9 and 9 Professional Specs
Sooner than a dashing bullet
After all, Asus went excessive with the {hardware}, to a degree we surprise the way it all suits in these telephones. However subtlety has by no means been part of the ROG Telephone vocabulary!
| Specs | ROG Telephone 9 | ROG Telephone 9 Professional |
|---|---|---|
| Dimension and Weight | 163.8 x 76.8 x 8.9mm 227g |
163.8 x 76.8 x 8.9mm 227g |
| Show | 6.78”, 2400×1080, AMOLED 185 Hz, 2,500 nits peak |
6.78”, 2400×1080, AMOLED 185 Hz, 2,500 nits peak |
| Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite 4.3 GHz, 3 nm |
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite 4.3 GHz, 3 nm |
| RAM, storage, value | 12 GB / 256 GB – $999 | 16 GB / 512 GB – $1,199 24 GB / 1 TB (cooler included) – $1,499 |
| Software program | Android 15 | Android 15 |
| Cameras | 50 MP major 13 MP ultrawide 5 MP macro 32 MP entrance |
50 MP major 13 MP ultrawide 32 MP 3x telephoto 32 MP entrance |
| Battery Dimension | 5,800 mAh | 5,800 mAh |
| Charging Speeds | 65 W wired cost 15 W wi-fi charging |
65 W wired cost 15 W wi-fi charging |
| Value from | $999 | $1,199 |
The ROG Telephone 9 and ROG Telephone 9 Professional have very related spec sheets. They primarily differ within the digicam setup, because the Professional has a devoted zoom lens, and the LED lights that adorn the telephones’ backs — we’ll get to that within the subsequent part. In any other case, should you select to avoid wasting cash and never get the Professional — the common mannequin performs simply the identical, no corners reduce!
ROG Telephone 9 and ROG Telephone 9 Professional Design and Show
The refined gamer
The ROG Telephone 9 fashions include a reasonably matte glass on the again, a metallic body, and a fullscreen entrance, like final yr’s fashions. The display is kind of huge, at 6.78 inches, however because of the super-thin bezels, it feels manageable. Effectively, so long as you might be used to telephones of the caliber of a Galaxy Notice, Galaxy S Extremely, iPhone Professional Max, and different such big-screened handsets.
After all, it has distinctive buttons, as at all times. The ROG Telephones rock two shoulder triggers, which may be mapped for gaming. They’re pressure-sensitive areas on the body with ultrasonic tech beneath them, as an alternative of precise mechanical buttons. You possibly can edit and fine-tune the strain they reply to, and the telephone does offer you a pleasant, clicky suggestions by its vibration motor at any time when a press is detected.
Your alternative in colours is proscribed, although. The common ROG Telephone 9 is available in Phantom Black and Storm White. The Professional fashions solely are available in Phantom Black.
The place the ROG Telephone’s taste comes from is the lighting on the again. This time round, not one of the fashions has an RGB-lit brand. As a substitute, each the Professional and the non-Professional have an space of dotted LED lights that may present various pre-made ROG animations, notifications, clock, and climate circumstances. Or, you may add your customized picture, however there is a ruleset for picture decision and colours, which it’s a must to observe.
Asus calls these LED areas the AniMe Imaginative and prescient. As earlier than, you may unlock particular AniMe logos should you meet one other ROG Telephone consumer within the wild and faucet your telephones collectively. The ROG Telephone 9 Professional has 648 LED dots and now you can play small video games on it, too, when you should shortly move the time. Suppose video games like Snake and Aero Invaders (sort of like Area Invaders however not fairly), the place you merely use the shoulder triggers to maneuver left and proper. Enjoyable little contact.
The non-Professional ROG Telephone has 85 dots, so its animations are a lot smaller and no video games right here.
However, with each telephones, if you’d like them to be extra refined, merely disable AniMe from the Armoury Crate app (the gaming hub app that each ROG Telephone has). The LEDs disappear underneath the matte glass again.
The show is a superb AMOLED panel, made by Samsung. It now goes as much as 185 Hz refresh price, sure you learn that proper. Small caveat, you may solely allow 185 Hz when in-game, from the Asus gaming console. We will barely complain right here — the ROG Telephones have been already overkill at 165 Hz, however hey, extra bragging rights!
The colours are fairly amped out of the field, however the excellent news is that Asus offers you 5 totally different coloration calibrations to choose from, plus further sliders for heat and saturation should you actually need to get in there. We discovered it simple to get a hotter, extra pure tone with the “Customary” and “Cinematic” choices.
Peak brightness is rated at 2,500 nits for HDR, however the ROG Telephone 9 fashions additionally comfortably hit 1,600 nits of fullscreen brightness, so they’re completely seen outside.
PhoneArena Show Measurements:
As earlier than, there is a fingerprint scanner underneath the glass. It is fast and correct, however not ultrasonic tech, so it may be a bit choosy in case your palms are dry or if there’s some smudging.
ROG Telephone 9 Professional Digicam
Look… it is a gaming telephone. Not unhealthy, although
Final yr, we famous that the ROG Telephone 8 made strides to provide you a extra… acceptable digicam efficiency. That is normally the weak spot of gaming smartphones — numerous R&D and cash go into the efficiency, and the digicam is an afterthought.
Effectively, we do not see an enormous enchancment within the ROG Telephone 9 and 9 Professional cameras. The images are high quality, do not get us flawed. They’ve some sharpening points, the dynamics are usually not super-wide, and the colours may use some further pop. They cannot actually examine to photographs from a Galaxy S24 Extremely or an iPhone 16 Professional Max. That mentioned, they will do completely high quality if you’re attempting to seize some memorabilia inbetween your gaming classes. I, personally, held on to the ROG Telephone 8 professional for just a few months final yr, and did not discover myself minding the digicam.
Essential Digicam
The oversharpening is on show right here, seen within the leaves and bricks within the cityscape pictures. Additionally, the pictures have a pale look to them, as a result of digicam not being comfy with broad dynamics, and the marginally washed-out colours.
Evening pictures look a bit higher when it comes to colours, with extra saturation and life into them. Nevertheless, the oversharpening turns into much more seen. And highlights can simply get burned out. However we did notice that there is barely higher evening digicam efficiency this yr, so Asus has been engaged on it!
Zoom High quality
The zoom digicam holds it collectively fairly properly. Even at 10x zoom, we get a variety of good element. Although noise is beginning to creep in. We might say as much as 10x can nonetheless get you a “share-able” photograph. The ROG Telephone 9 Professional caps out at 30x, the place it is nonetheless usable, however extra in a “assist me see what’s on the far-away data board” sort of method.
Selfies
The selfie digicam has fairly good colours, although a slight wrestle with dynamics, like its back-facing counterpart. Generally, the selfies come out detailed and trustworthy. They get a bit washed out in evening time, however the entrance digicam nonetheless holds it collectively — possibly up the saturation a bit after you’ve got taken that evening selfie.
Video High quality
The ROG Telephone 9 Professional is able to recording 8K footage at 30 FPS, should you even have the place to view that. At 4K, the picture seems to be fairly good. We will see that hybrid gimbal stabilizer placing up further work to easy out our steps! The dynamics listed below are OK, and the colours are vibrant. Put side-to-side with an iPhone, the latter nonetheless data a extra pristine-looking clip, however by itself the ROG Telephone 9 digicam is a high quality recorder.
ROG Telephone 9 and 9 Professional Efficiency & Benchmarks
Welcome to the Elite!
Efficiency Benchmarks:
Yep, we’ve got a contender to beat Apple’s A18 Professional. Standing toe-to-toe in Single-Core scores, hitting a better end in Multi-Core within the GeekBench check. And, within the 3DMark stress check, the ROG Telephone 9 Professional completely ate the competitors for breakfast. Not solely that, it did not even throttle. Admittedly, the ROG Telephone 9 Professional routinely goes into X Mode when such demanding apps are detected, however it did not warmth up, and it did not eat away on the battery greater than different telephones would.
Every day use efficiency is simply lightning quick. Truthfully, it might take you some time to get used to simply how fast and responsive this telephone is. After all, any recreation on the Play Retailer runs on the highest settings.
And should you connect the AeroActive Cooler X accent, you get two further {hardware} buttons on the again of it, and extended cooling for lengthy gaming classes at peak efficiency.
The common ROG Telephone 9 comes with 12 GB RAM and 256 GB of storage for $999. Then, the ROG Telephone 9 Professional may have 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage for $1,199. The all-out ROG Telephone 9 Professional Version comes with 24 GB of RAM, 1 TB storage, and the AeroActive Cooler X Professional included within the field, all for $1,499.
ROG Telephone 9 and 9 Professional Software program
A lot of the particular ROG options are held in an app referred to as Armoury Crate. It is the sport launcher hub, but additionally the place you customise the AniMe Imaginative and prescient LED lights on the again, the way in which the shoulder triggers reply, and the lights of the AeroActive Cooler.
- AI translation throughout calls — first seen on Galaxy AI, that is now out there on ROG Telephones, too
- AI transcript — transcribe audio recordings into textual content with bulletpoints
- AI wallpaper — generate a brand new wallpaper to take pleasure in
- Semantic search — makes it simpler to search out issues in Settings. Simply describe what you want, you do not have to recollect the precise title. Additionally, the Gallery app acknowledges and tags objects and areas in photographs, so you may simply seek for particular footage
- Circle to go looking — carry out a Google Picture seek for something in your display
- Gaming AI options — when particular video games are acknowledged, AI may help you with auto-running, auto object pickup, performing escape maneuvers, looking for guides for you, or automated talent upgrades in MOBA titles
Right here comes the unhealthy information, although. Asus nonetheless guarantees 2 years of Android updates, and 4 years of safety patches publish launch. That is in stark distinction to Samsung and Google now committing to 7 years of total updates. In a time when these flagship telephones comfortably push past the $1,000 boundary, that is an essential level to think about.
ROG Telephone 9 Professional Battery
Marathon runner
The ROG Telephones have at all times been endurance beasts, and the ROG Telephone 9 sequence is not any exclusion. The battery capability has now been upgraded to five,800 mAh and it simply seems like it could go on endlessly. Try these benchmark outcomes:
PhoneArena Battery Take a look at Outcomes:
Yeah, that is 18 and a half hours of screen-on time for normal utilization, greater than 12 hours of gaming. Secure to say, we felt zero “battery share phobia” when utilizing that telephone within the day-to-day. We even took it out to take digicam samples when it was at 24% and our solely thought was “Yeah, it’s going to final”.
Even when you find yourself emptying that tank, you may nonetheless cost it shortly with the included 65 W charger:
PhoneArena Charging Take a look at Outcomes:
You stand up to 49% in solely quarter-hour of charging. Lower than an hour for the complete 100%. Holding in thoughts that this 49% can final you thru the day comfortably, you may at all times get out of a pinch with minimal time on the charger.
The ROG Telephone 9 sequence do help wi-fi charging, however it’s not Qi2 — Asus lists it as Qi 1.3. The specs sheet says 15 W, however it feels slower.
ROG Telephone 9 and 9 Professional Audio High quality and Haptics
Sadly, since Asus moved the audio system to a bottom-firing woofer and a robust earpiece, as an alternative of the front-firing stereo audio system of earlier than, the audio high quality dropped. Our favourite from the sequence was the ROG Telephone 7, with its robust, detailed, and meaty sound, plus the subwoofer within the AeroActive Cooler that got here out with it.
Here is the excellent news — the audio system within the ROG Telephone 9 are barely higher than the ROG Telephone 8. There’s much less of an higher midrange hump, and so they really feel extra balanced. They’re nonetheless sort of muffled within the low mids.
Much more excellent news — the ROG Telephones nonetheless have headphone jacks!
The haptics really feel nice, appropriately on a gaming telephone. They’re exact, quick, and pronounced, so you already know precisely once you’ve tapped on the display or pressed a shoulder pad.
Do you have to purchase it?
That mentioned, there is a good motive why the ROG Telephones have a robust following within the gaming area of interest. Asus maintain nothing again and they’re at all times the highest performers to check others to. They’re actually an fanatic’s smartphone. If you’re in that area of interest, you will have most likely already selected shopping for it. And we’re right here to say — it will not disappoint you!
