We previously got the chance to unbox ASUS’ latest ROG Phone 7 Ultimate, and while it certainly looks sleek and futuristic, does it back up its looks with performance as a gaming phone?

Specs

Design

We touched upon the overall looks of the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate from our unboxing article; and to reiterate, it’s definitely a step up from its predecessor in terms of overall design. Going into more details for its I/O ports, there’s a USB Type-C and 3.5mm at the bottom of the phone; as well as a USB Type-C and pogo pin at the left side of the phone.

The pogo pin makes a returns in this model, where it was previously used to power the AeroActive Cooler 5 from the ROG Phone 5, but was not present in the ROG Phone 6. The pogo pin is now used to send audio signals so that the subwoofer of the AeroActive Cooler 7 has something to play.

The button positions are similar to its previous iteration, the volume rocker and power button locared on the right, while the AirTrigger buttons are at different ends of the phone.

Display

The ROG Phone 7 Ultimate features a 6.78″ 2448x1080p, 1ms AMOLED HSR10+ certified display panel. With a touch sampling rate at 720Hz and has a 23ms touch latency which is considerably fast. It supports 111.23% DCI-P3, 150.89% sRGB, Delta E < 1, 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, all the works that make up for impeccable colour accuracy, vivid colours, and high contrast between darker and lighter colours.

From a first glance, the display on the ROG 7 Phone Ultimate is similar as compared to its predecessor. However, the main difference is its peak brightness of 1,500 nits, which is relatively bright for a phone, meaning that you won’t need to worry about using your hands to block the sun to look at your phone during a sunny day outdoors.

Audio

The ROG Phone 7 Ultimate has a dual speaker setup for surround sound, which is hidden between the frame of the phone and its display. The dual speaker setup is also front facing, meaning that you won’t need to worry about covering it while playing games.

Battery

Packing a dual-cell battery configuration with 3,000mAh per cell, the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate has a total of 6,000mAh battery. With max brightness, 50% volume, X mode, with no AeroActive Cooler 7 attached, you can go for almost 5 whole hours from watching videos, and the battery only drops from full to 53%.

After attaching the cooler and playing some games for half an hour, it goes from 53% to 31%. Needless to say, the battery life can last very long, and it’s definitely enough for a long gaming session.

In terms of charging, with 67W of fast charge, it goes from 4% and 100% in about an hour, which is considerably fast if you ask me. And that’s always a plus in my books.

Camera

The ROG Phone 7 Ultimate has a rear camera module consisting of 50MP Sony IMX766 sensor, 13MP ultra-wide and 8MP macro camera. While the front camera is a 32MP MP OV32 Quad Bayer Front Camera sensor.

And while it’s certainly not the best camera in the market, it honestly does the job well with taking pretty decent pictures for a gaming phone.

Armoury Crate

For those who might not be familiar, the Armoury Crate is an app that comes with the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate, which can be used to monitor your phone’s hardware and make various adjustments as to how you’d want your phone to operate. You’re able to change between the updated X Mode, Dynamic or Ultra Durable mode, much like with the ROG Phone 6.

Aside from the phone operating mode, you’re also able to customise a handful of fancy features such as the ROG Vision, AeroActive Cooler 7’s RGB effect, etc.

There’s also the Game Genie, which is an overlay that you can open up by swiping down. Opening up the overlay let’s you access a plethora of functions such as recording and the sorts, including the settings for AirTriggers, Motion Control, Cooler Button mapping, and Vibration Mapping.

ROG Flavour

The ROG Phone 7 Ultimate comes packing with a plethora of neat new features and returning ones such as the ROG Vision, which lets you set different effects with text and pictures; the AirTriggers and Motion Control also makes a come back in this new phone.

One of the new features that they added which I think is a really good addition would be the Vibration Mapping. One of the main turnoff for people who don’t enjoy mobile gaming is mainly due to the lack of feedback when they do anything. But with the Vibration Mapping, it solves that issue.

You’re able to map vibration to different parts of the screen however you want. When I tested out League of Legends: Wild Rift, and it made the game feel a more lot interactive in a way that I can’t seem to place on finger on; it just felt much better to play with.

You could also customise the size of the vibration button too, so that it can fit well with the button on screen. And while you can change the intensity of the vibration as well, the difference between Gentle and Medium is more noticeable than Medium and Heavy.The vibration is also based on where you map the button to, which makes the experience overall a lot more enjoyable.

Benchmark

Benchmarking the phone using AnTuTu, we got an insanely high 1,320,302 score. Given that the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate packs a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and 16GB LPDDR5X RAM, it’s not too surprising to see it go past a million with ease, but getting 1.3 million is nothing to scoff at.

Game Test

The games that I tested out were Honor of King China, LoL: Wild Rift, Apex Legends Mobile, Project Sekai, and Genshin Impact. Pretty much all of the titles played smoothly and didn’t have any frame drop issues.

Genshin Impact kept at a consistent 60 FPS even with highest graphic while in a fight, while I was recording footage, which is pretty impressive. As with Project Sekai, even with the 3D MV playing in the background during a stage, there were no frame drops whatsoever. Needless to say, the gaming experience with the phone just felt remarkable.

With the newer AeroActive Cooler 7 enabled, the phone temperature when gaming were kept at around 40 degree Celsius, which is considerably low and comfortable when holding the phone. And with the Vibration Mapping at hand, it really gives off the illusion of playing a game with a real controller.

Accessory

There’s only one accessory that releases with the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate, that being the AeroActive Cooler 7. Design wise, it’s completely different than with the AeroActive 6. With the 7, the kickstand plays a bigger role than it would have with its previous version.

The top part of the clip now has a hole which is said to be able to direct air and blow it on the screen. Considering that the phone can now operate in a much lower and comfortable temperature, as compared to without the cooler, I’d say it does the job well.

Functionality wise, it’s essentially the same where there’s a fan at the back blowing out air, and there’s four mappable button for you to customise. With the addition of the AeroActive Portal at the back, the cooling effect is even more efficient. While the previous version of the cooler can still be used on the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate, it’s just that the cooling effect might not be as effective as the new one.

The AeroActive Cooler 7 also has one extra feature where it has a subwoofer in it to produce better bass, and the difference with and without the cooler is pretty noticeable.

Overall

ROG Phone 7 Ultimate certainly has some improvement to come with it. Previously mentioned in the unboxing article, they toned down the overall design a lot, but it now looks a lot more clean and futuristic.

The performance improvement mainly comes from the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and AeroActive Cooler 7, which are the two main selling points for the phone. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is hands down the best in terms of Android SoC, and pairing it up with the AeroActive Cooler 7 enables the SoC to work harder than usual, which in turn produces some stunning results.

The ROG Phone 7 Ultimate will be available in Malaysia on 15th May 2023 at the price of MYR 4,999.