5 reasons I love the ROG Phone 9

The Asus ROG Phone 9 is unlike any smartphone I’ve used before. It’s built from the ground up with one goal: to be the best gaming experience on a smartphone yet. In that aspect alone, it certainly exceeds. With its crystallized nano-texture design, angular camera cutout, and AniMe vision back display, the ROG Phone 9 sure knows how to stand out in a crowd.

From the moment I turned on the phone for the first time, its beautiful AMOLED display entranced me. After setting it up, I was greeted by an intro cinematic introducing me to the phone’s gaming features in an interactive on-rail shooter in a spaceship. I was mind-blown.

It felt like I was using a gaming handheld like the Steam Deck, not a smartphone. However, despite its gaming focus, the ROG Phone 9 is still a great phone, thanks to Android 15 and its powerful hardware. Here are five reasons I love the ROG Phone 9.

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5 A stunning high refresh rate display

This phone has a higher refresh rate than my gaming monitor

The ROG Phone 9’s 6.78-inch AMOLED display is breathtaking, and it has the highest refresh rate I’ve ever used on a phone, 165Hz. In some supported games, the refresh rate can get as high as 185Hz when using Asus’ Game Genie feature. It’s crazy that the phone in my pocket has a higher refresh rate than the 144Hz monitor I use with my gaming PC.

It was hard to take my eyes away from the screen most of the time, even for non-gaming-related tasks, like sending a text message, replying to an email, or watching a YouTube video. The screen has a peak brightness of 2,500 nits, and the colors and contrast remained vivid even when I was outdoors with it.

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4 The design rocks

The ROG Phone 9 is like no other smartphone

Just on looks alone, the ROG Phone 9 stands out compared to any other smartphone on the market. Next to my Pixel 8a and iPhone 14 Pro, it pops thanks to its AniME Vision mini-LED display on the back of the phone and its crystalized nano-texture glass back cover. Though, I’ll admit this phone is an acquired taste, and if you aren’t into Asus’ ROG design philosophy, you may have a hard time liking its look.

The AniMe Vision display on the back of the phone steals the show for me. The phone has 85 LEDS on the back, and the Asus Armoury Crate app lets you customize how it appears. You can have it display the time, your battery life, or even have it react to specific actions on your phone like taking a picture. This feature is purely a gimmick, but as far as phone gimmicks go, this one has got me sold.

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3 Asus’ Game Genie is a game changer

Quick access to all the features you need to enhance your gaming experience

Since the ROG Phone 9 is a gaming phone, it has some nifty features that make gaming way more enjoyable than it would be on a regular smartphone — namely, the AirTrigger system on the side of the phone. The AirTriggers essentially act as L and R buttons that you would use on an Xbox or PlayStation controller. Using Game Genie, you can map the AirTriggers to specific areas of the screen so it virtually touches the designated area for you when you press the AirTrigger. I tested it on Call of Duty: Mobile, and it was the best experience I’ve ever had playing an FPS game on a phone. The AirTriggers took seconds to set up and responded instantly when pressed.

Another cool feature is the AI Grabber. This AI tool is supported in all games on the ROG Phone 9 and lets you highlight text in games and search for it on Google without leaving the app using Game Genie. It’s like Google’s Circle to Search, but in-game. I tested this in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, the classic Bioware RPG from 2003, and I could select my quest journal and search for it on Google to find out what to do next.

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2 Out-of-this world performance

The Snapdragon 8 Elite process means business

The ROG Phone 9 has a Snapdragon 8 Elite processor and can be configured with up to 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, which is the version I had the opportunity to test. Let me tell you firsthand that this phone runs exceptionally well. Whether jumping between apps, playing games, or browsing the web, the phone always felt responsive and never missed a beat. The screen animations are fluid, and using the phone for non-gaming purposes was still a joy.

Gaming-wise, its Snapdragon 8 Elite processor dominates. I tested Call of Duty: Mobile and Star Wars: Hunters. Both ran great with no frame rate hiccups whatsoever. The phone also has a respectable 5,800mAh battery, larger than the 5,500mAh battery in the ROG Phone 8 Pro, giving you lots of juice to game for hours without plugging it in. Steve Vegvari’s Pocket-lint review found the phone lasted 21 hours with intermittent daily use.

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1 It has a headphone jack

Asus hasn’t forgotten about the 3.5mm port

Finally, the last thing I love about the ROG Phone 9 is that it features a headphone jack, which has been extinct for many years on flagship phones by other companies like Apple and Google. At first, I thought: what use is this to me? I only really have wireless earbuds for my phone now. Then I realized something: my SteelSeries gaming headset came with a 3.5mm audio jack cable, meaning I could plug it into the phone for better gaming audio.

I understand why headphone jacks have gone extinct on smartphones, but having one on a phone explicitly tailored for gaming just makes sense. It allows users with console or PC gaming headsets to use them on the ROG Phone. It’s a win-win.

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