Asus ROG Phone 2 With 120Hz HDR10 AMOLED Display, Snapdragon 855 Plus SoC Unveiled

Asus ROG Phone 2 has been unveiled, ahead of its China launch on Tuesday. The gaming smartphone, just like it predecessor the Asus ROG Phone, packs some impressive hardware. The Asus ROG Phone 2 is powered by the newly unveiled Snapdragon 855 Plus SoC, which is an upgrade over Qualcomm's flagship mobile SoC - the Snapdragon 855. Another major upgrade comes in the form of a display with a 120Hz refresh rate, which means everything ranging from Web browsing to gaming will be considerably more fluid. The Asus ROG Phone 2 also comes with more powerful camera hardware, larger battery, and more storage capacity to name a few.

Asus ROG Phone 2 price, availability

The Asus ROG Phone 2's pricing and availability details are yet to be revealed by the company. We expect the company to divulge the pricing, pre-order, and the market availability details today at the official launch event in China (set for 2pm CST  or 11:30am IST).

This is where the Tencent Games partnership that has been teased thus far will be further detailed. Asus has told The Verge that the Asus ROG Phone 2 will be priced in the same ballpark as its predecessor, which means we can expect the phone to go for around Rs. 69,990 upon its launch. As for market availability, the phone is expected to hit the global shelves in September.

Asus ROG Phone 2 specifications

The Asus ROG Phone 2 runs ROG UI based on Android Pie, but users will reportedly get the option to switch to stock Android if they want. The phone packs a 6.59-inch full-HD+ (1080 x 2340 pixels) AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate, 1ms response time, and 10-bit HDR support. The panel has a contrast ratio of 100,000:1 and is protected by a layer of Gorilla Glass 6. The company tells The Verge the display has a 240Hz touch sampling rate, giving it an industry-leading touch latency of 49ms.

The phone is powered by the Snapdragon 855 Plus clocked at 2.9GHz, and pairs it up with up to 12GB of LPDDR4X RAM and up to 512GB UFS 3.0 of internal storage. The phone will come in two storage variants – 128GB and 512GB. The ROG Phone 2 comes equipped with dual front-facing stereo speakers with DTS: X Ultra support.

The ROG Phone 2 also brings improvements in the camera department, packing a 48-megapixel primary camera assisted by a 13-megapixel wide-angle camera with a 125-degrees field of view, while selfies will be handled by a 24-megapixel front snapper.

Connectivity options include 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, WiFi-Direct, NFC, 3.5mm headphone jack, and Bluetooth 5.0. Sensors on the phone include accelerometer, compass, proximity sensor, hall sensor, ambient light sensor, in-display fingerprint sensor, gyroscope, and an ultrasonic sensor. Just like its predecessor, the ROG Phone 2 features USB Type-C port at the bottom and a side-mounted proprietary connector for the accessories.

The battery capacity of Asus' next-generation gaming phone has also been increased, with the ROG Phone 2 packing a 6,000mAh battery with Quick Charge 4.0 fast charging support. The dimensions of the phone stand at 170.99x77.6x9.78mm, and it tips the scales at a hefty 240 grams.

In addition to the phone, Asus has also unveiled redesigned versions of the dual-screen TwinView dock and the clip-on AeroActive cooler fan. The company has also launched a new gamepad attachment called ROG Kunai Gamepad that looks like a conventional console remote but can be detached and attached at each end of the phone, just like the Joy-Con controllers for the Nintendo Switch. More details about the phone and partner content will be revealed today.