Asus has given us the very first official glimpse of the upcoming Asus ROG Phone 8. For the uninitiated, this is the Taiwanese company's line of gaming-focused Android handsets. And a new post on Chinese social media site Weibo has indicated exactly what we can expect from the phone's new design.
Asus pitches the Weibo post with a rhetorical question on whether the audience wants smaller bezels. The accompanying video shows a model dancing on the screen of the Asus ROG Phone 7 before the design alters to show both the new device's smaller bezels and a punch-hole front camera.
Asus announced the full reveal of the phone will be coming on January 8 at CES 2024 in Las Vegas on X. The aforementioned Weibo post also indicated that the phone will see its Chinese release on January 16 with the release dates for the rest of the world to be confirmed.
CES 2024 is just around the corner!Join us live on January 8, 3PM PST, as we unveil ROG's exciting new lineup for 2024!Save the date👉https://t.co/CHb4tVS4XS#CES2024ROG #CES2024 #ROGTranscendence pic.twitter.com/z6cztzWGH6December 11, 2023
Our review of the Asus ROG Phone 7 noted the 6.8-inch AMOLED screen was bright and colorful. However, we found that the bezels took away from the experience of using the phone.
The indication that Asus is decreasing the bezels (and including a punch-hole camera) obviously alleviates this issue. The video on the Weibo post shows particular attention has been given to the top and bottom of the display. Naturally, if you're using your phone for on-the-go Call of Duty sessions, you're going to want as much screen real estate as possible.
Asus has recently also hinted on X that the Asus ROG Phone 8 will include a new camera system. It doesn't go into specifics about what this new setup entails (that'll be saved for January 8, no doubt), it does show a picture of the apparent camera layout. It looks like we'll get a new three-camera setup — although how it improves on the ROG Phone 7's primary, ultrawide and macro shooters remains to be seen.
The ROG Phone 8 is dropping soon and it goes #BeyondGaming with a brand new camera system!📸Cast your vote and stand a chance to win a brand new ROG Phone!👉 https://t.co/OEm4TLMe3k#ROGPhone8 pic.twitter.com/avRoDrUK8FDecember 12, 2023
The Asus ROG Phone 7 shipped with a 50MP (megapixel) main camera, a 13MP wide-angle lens, and an 8MP macro lens. While we found the cameras to be serviceable, they were lacking compared to the other smartphones of the time. The oddest omission for a phone of that price was the lack of a telephoto lens, which hopefully the new ROG Phone 8 will rectify.
One aspect that the new phone will need to improve on is the battery life. The Asus ROG Phone 7 managed to push our battery test with a time of over 18 hours. This was a clear improvement over the previous Asus ROG Phone 6. Hopefully, this improvement continues, with both an improved overall battery life and better power consumption at higher refresh rates.
We will know more during the CES event in January, including when we can expect the phone to be available to us for review.
