The ASUS ROG Phone 2 Is The Best Gaming Phone Out There And Here's Our Full Review

The ASUS ROG Phone 2 Is Truly A Beast The ASUS ROG Phone 2 Is Truly A Beast

ASUS ROG Phone 2

Super-smooth 120Hz Display Incredible Performance Stellar Battery Life Offer A Great Value For Money RGB Lights!
Very Heavy Accessories Are Expensive Cameras Could Have Been Better

ASUS was one of the first manufacturers to establish a foothold in the gaming phone market with the first generation ROG Phone. In our review, the ROG Phone managed to get a good rating, but it did have a fair share of flaws and it was damn expensive, making it very difficult to recommend.

But now we have the new ASUS ROG Phone 2, which is a much better version of the original ROG Phone. But that's not really a surprise considering the fact that it is its successor. What really is special about the ROG Phone 2 though is the fact that it's not just a successor but one of the fastest phones you can buy right now. It doesn't cost half as much as many other flagships do.

The ASUS ROG Phone 2 Is Truly A Beast© MensXP/ Karthik Iyer

Thanks to its lucrative price, the ROG Phone 2 has suddenly become the most relevant phone in the market. But is it really worth buying over other flagship phones? Well, let's find out.

1. Design: Screams 'Gaming'

The ASUS ROG Phone 2 is a gaming phone and you don't need anyone to tell you that. It speaks for itself. Just like its predecessor, the ROG Phone 2 has a striking appearance with sharp angles and RGB lights. The design is undoubtedly the most polarizing thing about the phone. A lot of people like for what it is, but others may simply hate the way it looks.

I, for one, absolutely love how it looks. It has a unique look, making it instantly recognizable even from a distance. It's made out of metal and glass, and it legit screams 'gaming' from literally every angle you look at it from. However, I do have to point out that it feels very heavy. Seriously, it feels like you're holding a brick. That, however, speaks for its build quality.


The ASUS ROG Phone 2 has nice and tactile buttons on the sides, and you get not one, but two USB Type-C ports on the phone along with a 3.5mm headphone jack. The phone technically has three USB Type-C port, but you can't really plug-in anything on the third port separately. It's meant to be used for the dock, which is an additional accessory that you can buy.

I'd also like to point out that the phone has "Air Trigger" on the left-hand side of the phone. They'll act as your shoulder buttons when you play games in the landscape orientation. The original ROG Phone also had Air Trigger, however, I think they're actually usable. They work fantastically well and now it's just going to be hard for me to go back to any other phone without it.


Overall, I'd say the ROG Phone 2 is definitely one of the most well-built phones I've used this year. If you don't mind using a heavy phone, then I think you'll simply love it. There's just something satisfying about using a phone with sharp angles, coloured accents, and RGB lighting. It's the kind of busy design that I've been craving to use, especially since most manufacturers are now going for a minimal design approach. I just wish the phone had an Ingress Protection, but that's not really a deal-breaker for me.

2. Display: Nailed It!

This is hands down the best smartphone display I've used to date. There, I said it! Yes, I've used a lot of phones in my life, but this one is just a joy to use. The 120Hz panel is so good that just feel like picking it up and scrolling Twitter or Instagram for no reason. It's just fun.

It's a 6.59-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display with support for refresh rates up to 120Hz. Yes, I just wrote all of my words about a display in one sentence, and I am all for it. Not only is it an AMOLED display with deep blacks and high contrast, but it's also fast and fluid. I mean, what else can you possibly ask for?


It doesn't have a notch or a pop-up camera module. It has a good old look with a sizeable chin and forehead. It also houses the fingerprint scanner, which I'd say is decent. I honestly don't have any complaints with the display whatsoever. I did notice that it doesn't get dim enough, but then I got used to it over time while using the phone.

Honestly, even if I have any issues with it, I am willing to look past it just for that 120Hz panel. Yes, the display is going to slaughter your battery life,  but that's not really a concern here with the ROG Phone 2. Look, I like what Samsung and Apple are doing with their displays on their flagship phones, but I think it's high time we get 120Hz panel on every flagship phone. There's no going back.

3. Performance: Simply A Beast!

If I have to say in one word, I can say it without a hint of doubt that the ASUS ROG Phone 2 is the fastest smartphone out there right now. Even if it's not the fastest phone out there on benchmarks, the super-smooth 120Hz display just makes it that much better.

The ASUS ROG Phone 2 is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 855 Plus processor and it's coupled with up to 12GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 512GB UFS 3.0 storage. For graphics, it has the Adreno 640 GPU inside, which is as good as it gets for Android phones right now. With specs like that, I think there's literally no need to tell you how powerful this phone is. Top it all off with a 120Hz display and boy do you have a powerhouse in your hands?


I am not a huge nerd when it comes to specs and numbers. But this phone just made me appreciate the raw power that you get with high-end internals. It literally just annihilates anything and everything that you throw at it. Apps, games, benchmarks, web pages, etc., throw anything at it and it'll just glide through it and give you an enjoyable experience at the same time.

As I said, there are times when I just pull out the phone from my pocket, open, say, a web browser and just scroll through a bunch of web pages to experience the 120Hz display. Before I talk about gaming performance, here's a quick look at the ROG Phone 2's Geekbench 5 and Antutu benchmark results.

The ASUS ROG Phone 2 Is Truly A Beast© MensXP

I can confirm that this is one of the top scorers with that Snapdragon 855 Plus chipset. So if you're a specs nerd, then you have absolutely nothing to complain about. Now that's out of the way, let's talk gaming!

The ASUS ROG Phone 2 is a gaming phone with a 120Hz display, so I pulled out a list of games that support 120Hz and started downloading them. I am not really a huge gamer, but I'd be lying if I say I don't play games on my phone. The list of games that support 120Hz is surprisingly long, so I had no issues finding a game that I like. I'd say I spent most of time playing Shadow Fighter 3 and Injustice 2 while testing this phone.

Gaming on this phone reminded me of playing games on a high-end PC for some reason. Obviously, I am not trying to draw any comparison between the two, because that'd be weird. I am just saying that playing games on this phone vs playing the same game on some other phone without a 120Hz display feels like playing on a high-end gaming PC vs a low-end rig. I hope that makes sense because you really have to get a feel of the sheer power and fluidity this phone has to offer.


As for heating, well I do have to say that the phone gets warm to touch. However, that's mainly because there's a cooling vent at the back of the phone right next to glowing RGB logo, from where the phone blows out hot air. If you monitor the phone temperature using the built-in Armoury Crate software or a third-party app, then you'll realize that it stays mostly around 45 - 50 degrees, which is not that bad. Remember, we're pushing a lot of frames at a really high speed, so just keep that in mind.

As for the software, ASUS gives you an option to either go for their flashy gaming skin or a stock Android-ish version. I chose to go with the latter because there was no way I was going to use a phone with 'gaming' theme on it that is making sounds every time I touch something.

4. Battery Life: A Champ!

In case you didn't know, the ASUS ROG Phone 2 has a 6,000 mAh battery. This is honestly the first phone that I've used with such a huge battery, and it was awesome. You really have to try hard to kill this phone in a day. Even after playing lots of games and using it for my day-to-day stuff like texting, social media, web browsing, etc., I was struggling to kill this thing by the end of the day.


The ASUS ROG Phone 2 is probably the first phone with which I've got a 'screen-on-time' (SoT) of close to 8 hours. Yes, 8 freaking hours! I sadly don't have a screenshot of that, but here's one in which you see over 6 hours of SoT with 25-percent battery remaining. And I am talking about heavy usage here with display set to 120Hz display and ROG lighting on at all times. The phone is also bundled with a fast-charger, so it doesn't really take that long to charge the battery.

5. Camera: Better By Gaming Phone Standards

The ASUS ROG Phone 2 sports a dual-camera setup which includes a 48MP sensor and a 13MP sensor. Since this is a gaming phone, I honestly didn't expect to click good-looking pictures for me. But to my surprise, the ROG Phone 2 managed to take some really good shots. Both the wide and the ultra-wide-angle cameras make up for a great combo and they take some crisp and clear shots.


In day time when there's a lot of light, I did manage to take some great pictures. Good dynamic range and lots of detail. But the phone did struggle to perform in low-light conditions. It can take some really good portraits though. As for the selfies, the ROG Phone 2 has a 24MP shooter and I'd say it's decent at best. Here are all the camera samples that I managed to capture during my testing -

6. Audio: Stereo Speakers That You Can Game on

The ASUS ROG Phone 2 sports two front-firing stereo speakers that gets nice and loud. They actually sound great for a smartphone speaker. In fact, they sound better than the speakers on the laptop which I am currently testing. if you don't want loud audio, then you can disable the 'Outdoor' mode from the settings to get bass-heavy audio. It's not going to blow your mind, but still impressive for a smartphone.

The ROG Phone 2 also has a 3.5mm headphone jack, so you can always connect your favorite pair of headphones to game. Good job, ASUS!

7. The Final Say

The ASUS ROG Phone 2 has been launched in India at a starting price of Rs 37,999. You can spend up to Rs 59,999 to get the variant with 12GB RAM and 512GB, but even that's less expensive than most other flagships out there on the market. And at this price, the ASUS ROG Phone 2 is not only one of the best gaming phones out there in India, but it's also a serious contender to become your next flagship phone.

Honestly, I am not even surprised to see a lot of people considering buying the ASUS ROG Phone 2 instead of other flagships phones. This phone offers a phenomenal value for money. For the price, you're getting the fastest phone on the market, that looks unique and lasts longer than any other phone you've used before. 

The fastest phone that let's game all day with full RGB lights and a super-smooth 120Hz display? Sounds like a kickass phone to me for Rs 37,999!

Photo: © MensXP/ Karthik Iyer (Main Image)

MensXP Videos

It's Over | Getting Caught By The Maid

You May Also Like

Mensxp Shop Arriving Soon