Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. A system with a really sweet OLED screen, cutting edge processor, ridiculous quantity of RAM, costs thousands of dollars that has an ASUS Republic Of Gamers Logo on it. That description might make you think of any of a number of ASUS gaming laptops, but instead it also fits the ASUS ROG Phone 8, the company’s latest pitch at the premium Android gaming crowd.
Well, actually, the ROG Phone 8 isn’t just the one phone; it’s three, comprising the ROG Phone 8, ROG Phone 8 Pro and ROG Phone 8 Pro Edition. Yes, those are quite ridiculous names, especially when the core differences between all three aren’t – as you might find with other manufacturer’s ranges – around screen sizes or camera capabilities, but instead the internal storage and RAM differences, as well as whether the rear of the phone houses simpler RGB lighting or a monochrome Mini-LED display. ASUS has played around with fun “AniMe Vision” screens on prior phones and laptops, but what’s different on the Pro and Pro Edition models at least is that they’re very subtle this time around.
RGB lighting is rarely subtle, but the use of a configurable monochrome Mini LED on the rear, off by default means that you genuinely could pick up the ROG Phone 8 Pro or ROG Phone 8 Pro Edition (which is what ASUS sent me for review) and not realise that it was there at all. Which is my not-so-subtle way of saying that I did just that for a while until I went hunting around th.
