Yeah, in 2019... but this year they have gotten worse. Just compare the Zenfone 6 to the Zenfone 7 for starters.
On the ROG 2 vs ROG 3, The new device is slightly larger, heavier, and lost the 3.5mm Jack. And it raised the prices. But comparing the 16GB RAM vs 12GB RAM, isn't that big deal. And the uplift from the QSD 855 to the 865/865+ is hardly impressive. Or the 5900mAh battery compared to the 6,000mAh battery. Even the screen is the same comparing 144Hz to 120Hz, or the 270Hz-Touch to the 240Hz-Touch. By most metrics the new model is the same or worse than the older one.
And again, it's more expensive. I think that second chipset (Qualcomm's external modem) is the culprit for this year's lacklustre phones (larger, hotter, battery thirstier, less internal space, more expensive).
The only point where ASUS has made a notable upgrade is in the camera. And that's on both the ROG 3 and the Zenfone 7. But it's hardly a reason for someone to choose to buy a new ROG3, when they could get the ROG2 on a discount.
I think I could've been fine with the ASUS ROG 3, if they kept the 3.5mm headphone jack, added a microSD slot, and added wireless charging. That would've made the +$200 price hike easier to swallow. If they included JoyCons in the box, it would've been an instant hit.
To be honest, I would've preferred they downsized it slightly to around (166 x 74 x 9mm) which is like the size of the OnePlus 8 Pro, any larger makes it unpocketable for most regular mens jeans/pants. Even if that means downsizing the 6000mAh battery down to 5000mAh battery, it's worth it for the quality of life improvement.
When SD865 prices just got announced people were seeing a price hike of the handsets as inevitable. This phone looks decidedly less "gaming" than the predecessor and that's a big plus for me, and the second C port means the lack of the jack is at least tolerable. How they should cut corners on the optics so much confuses me, I'm wondering if this is a defective unit. There's rumor that Samsung is still contemplating bringing back the jack in flagships next year so I'm taking the wait and see approach, the S-Pen for me is worth it, but if Samsung doesn't follow through then I'll come back and buy one of these second-handed. With far superior battery to the Sony, it's already the closest thing to an all-rounder on the market.
I'm thinking the next year's QSD 875 will be like 8% faster simply because of the 5nm advancement. Plus another 8% speed due to slight architectural improvement in the X1 core, and modem efficiency.
Yes most important, it should have the 4G/5G modem integrated (hopefully)... and that should mean better efficiency, and slightly larger internal space. So we could see the 3.5mm Headphone Jack make a comeback because of that.
But Samsung has killed the Jack for good. They have their own wireless earphones for sale. They got rid of it on the Note10 for no good reason. It's not coming back. Heck, even if they wrongly accuse the internal space restrictions, which is not true, there is no reason that they cannot integrate the 3.5mm Headphone Jack into the underside of the SPen.
I'm hoping this year has negatively affected all OEMs that they re-introduce some wanted features next year like Headphone Jack, microSD... on top of REDUCING the prices down (-30% ?) to regular levels to ensure strong sales/continued sales. I think this year proved that marketing wasn't strong enough to deceive the consumers.
lol I would bet on a comeback of the 3.5mm than a 30% price drop. Anyhow, the market hasn't exactly been exciting this year so I'm truly not in a hurry to upgrade, so I'll wait and see until there's something solid suggesting no jack again.
Joycons are stupid, it should be a whole PSP-like controller case that locks in place, to literally turn your phone into a PSP. Then we can have serious game development and ports for phones.
This should have been available since 2007 or before. 13 years later and we're still using weird flimsy attachable joycon things.
The current Chinese Bluetooth psp-style controllers suck bad.
Yes, this, I think this phone is more compelling outside of its gaming. Esp in comparison to iphones - they dominate the performance but usually ship with tiny batteries. Android phones need to carve out a niche, and this phone does that.
Yeah, the display thing is dumb. Remember when people said over 1080p was a waste for phones? Well.... They were right. And here we go again with the display thing.
Not really, it's pretty clear that last year's ROGP2 with 855+ was a notch above the regular 855. Either Asus made a mistake here or 865 doesn't scale as well.
I hear this a lot, no 3.5 jack means no buy. I love good music, with quality sound, but when I'm on my phone I have given in to the convenience of Bluetooth. And I've been impressed with the audio fidelity some headphones deliver. I have two sets right now, LG Tones, which are really comfortable, and Beats PowerBeats3, which sound amazing, and even deliver nice bass. So I'm wondering, when was the last time you tried Bluetooth? Not to say wireless headphones are as good as wired, but there are some really good options.
I don't get this idea that bluetooth headphones are somehow more convenient than wired ones. Having another charger to juggle outlets on is the opposite of convenient.
I use my headphones all day work. For fun, I can listen to music, whatever. But I'm standing, walking, bending over and leaning in my CnC mill all day long, and having a cord was a hassle for me. That's pretty much the only place I listen to my phone. For me, it's no hassle having one more plug, especially when my LG Tones last two days at work.
The reason for deleting headphone jack is to sell wireless headphones, it is a multi-billion dollar market on its own. This is a tech website, everyone should know this by now.
Comments about removing the 3.5 jack, have been bought and paid for. Haha. What I mean is, Corporations have successfully used money for advertising and other various influences to ultimately engineer legions of smooth-brained human beings to tell me that plugging in my headphones is bad. Yeah, ok. I'll do anything you want. Why don't you just sodomize me too while you're at it?
The good news here is that there's a cottage industry of USB-C sound cards with 3.5 jack support for phones like this. And the huge battery means that you wouldn't need to charge it at the same time...
You don't. Because there are two C ports. As long as there exists flagships with headphone jacks or two C ports, I will not buy one with one C port no jack.
Tell me does any of those BT sets have a good driver to boot, and then tell me whether any of them support AptX technology to be able to play my FLAC files / 24 Bit files or Can they work without an app always to function.
Dude I have a V30 with me, the ESS DAC in that is not possible to be beaten by any company, I even have a Modi stack with me for monitors, and I can plug in my IEMs, Monitors, HD600s and I don't have to fiddle with some stupid charging box and worry about them, my IEMs are Triple Drivers with Hybrid technology. And you say you want Audio fidelity ? nice joke esp with Power Beats ? Muddy Bass technology is what they have.
I'm sorry there's none of the BT technology which makes any aspect from Sound quality, Fidelity, Convenience & Price to Performance, there are NO BT sets in mainstream that we can buy which have stunning audio performance you need to shell out for MMCX, like Shures.
Let me tell you one more thing, my phone has BT as well, and I can buy any BT set I want and a 3.5mm enabled any of the ChiFi or Japanese or European IEMs/Cans. Also instead of that overpriced Powerbeats Apple set go and buy an RHA T20 wireless, it has AptX, great battery, superior sound, superior build quality and have 3.5mm wire also.
you're just walking into a dumb argument here. people are allowed to like their specific wired headphones and they should be able to use them if they want to. i have both; i use the bluetooth for calls and watching youtube, i use one of my many pairs of wired headphones for music.
Thing is, the two technologies can coexist till the end of time. Point is, there's no excuse to remove the jack from a phone or worse, from a tablet (S7 line). Then ironically, gigantic camera bumps are protruding from phones in futile attempt to keep the rest of the phone "slim". 0.9 or 1cm thicc phones are perfectly fine, that's around my S9 + cover included and that phone feels way more secure in the hand than the stock 0.85cm.
Personally I've never given wireless audio a try. I was first introduced to the Quad DAC on my LG V20 years ago and it made the headphone jack a part of my "must have" list for phones every since. Another reason may be the fact that when I listen to music I am stationary and not engaged in other activities. I don't listen to music when I'm out, say hiking, because it kind of nullifys the point of being out in nature. I don't do it while I'm out and about in the city because I want to be situationally aware of my surroundings at all times. So bottom line I just haven't found the need to go wireless at this stage.
The problem of wireless headset means you are required to charge a new gadget along with your mobile phone. And we can get better audio quality output with half of the price in wired than wireless headsets
Required if you use magnetic charging cables, because your sole C port will be stuck with a magnetic adaptor in it.. And those sell pretty well, the market is expanding in fact.
I can tell you that Sony's flagship overear is sorely inadequate and PHA55BT doesn't drive low impedance CIEMs as well as my phone with its integrated DAC through the 3.5mm. No BT earphone/headphone is known to surpass the former and no adaptor is known to surpass the latter. End of discussion.
I love sdcards, but I'm willing to sacrifice for waterproofing. Also you can expend $ to get like 1tb storage. You can't pay more to get front speakers.. LAME.
BS3 is cool, but also missing other stuff. And Xiaomi's crapware is bad
So the specs are almost the same as Xiaomi Mi 10, but the price is much higher. Asus is not a luxury brand when it comes to phones, so there's no excuse for the huge price premium.
So far on the 3 S865+ phones that I have, they all have increased power for the increased peak perf, with worse sustained performance. So in that regard it does look disappointing.
How is this disappointing? I thought you anticipated this situation of more peak performance and more peak power.
You said this would be the case in your first article about the 865+. You said the 865+ would hit >3.0GHz but the 865+ would be able to consume the same or less power, due to being able to do more work in less time thanks to higher frequencies.
Had higher hopes for the performance of the S865+ and the IMX686.
I'd have been curious to see performance of the phone with and without the AeroActive cooler on Lvl1 and Lvl2 to see how much it actually cools the phone and if that leads to better performance by keeping skin temps within the allowed range.
“ I don’t see the 999€ or 1099€ variants of the ROG Phone III being worth it, however the 799€ base model should make for a quite balanced phone which shines in terms of battery life, and gives you a great high-refresh rate experience. If you can live with the weak cameras, then it should represent a good phone for you.”
Has the dollar disappeared? Why don’t you convert 799€ to USD? And for $950 USD, this phone is way overpriced.
I would not choose this ugly outdated design over the $400 Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro which also has almost the same specs and better design. But hey, there’s still plenty of fools out there who eager to be parted with their money.
The "outdated" will always be justified of you provide frontal stereo speakers. Basically the best of all phones. Most people listen to their media over the phone speakers in my car I would mix the designs.
Motorized camera + reduced top/bottom bezels with the space being used by high quality speakers.
I've been using the Strix model for over a week (SD865, 12GB ram) and I am very happy. I easily get through a 8 - 12 hour work day with over 60% battery remaining. I don't mobile game, and I'm using the phone purely for work purposes.
That cooler through the USB-C plugs seems quite clever. If the implementation is good, that solution should do quite a bit better than blowing air on to the back of the phone (plastic?).
I HOPE ASUS READ THIS...BUT I FEEL LIKE THEY SHOULD MAKE THE PHONES AVAILABLE TO ALL CARRIERS. I WOULD EVEN PAY A PREMIUM PRICE JUST TO HAVE IT WITH MY CARRIER VERIZON AND OTHERS WOULD TOO. COME ON ASUS!!!
No front speakers = no buy. No 3.5mm = no buy, I'm not falling for a scam. I didn't check, but no wireless charging/waterproofing = no buy.
Video/YouTube, music, and gaming necessitate front speakers. Otherwise, don't bother me. This should have been a standard feature even before wireless charging. These should all be standard features.
Same Sentiment here - if it was normal height I would already have it. Love that it even has a real finger reader still.
V60 Same thought - I finally got to hold one this week and its mandatory 2 hands even before the case. Too bad because I love that DAC.
After years of wanting bigger screens MFG have shot well past the sweet spot. For whatever reason budget phones are the only ones with features customer wants... but then you give up the new SOC's.
I have s9+; decided to skip the S10 generation but having watched the market with a lot of anticipation this year I think it's the only option.
In the end the + version are more or less a gimmick while also drawing a lot more power.
In my samsung SD devices I'm happy with the 70% of soc speed in the energy saving options. All games at around 70-80% of max image quality + 30fps cap on intensive 3d content.
Gaming phone with no way to connect a 3.5mm set of headphones. Also that performance is pretty unimpressive for a design meant to cater to people that want to see the best results from their games. Not sure what Asus' folks are smoking, but it must be some good stuff.
Well, one year on with my ROG2, and I still don't have a single game on it. Tried a few initially, and then one-by-one, they all became 'sign in with an account', so I just removed them all.
It has been buggier than the Samsung's I've had to date. Noticably.
I ended up buying a beefier case for it, over the free one that shipped with it.
And some of the Chinese junk characters left behind (I never did get around to changing the ROM - something I normally do do) are annoying to see.
But the speakers are great, and the battery also. My reason for buying it.
And when replacement time comes, I can always find another phone with a 3.5mm jack, somewhere on the market. I'll vote with my feet.
This phone really is more appealing for normal use. Its rather conservative power management when outside of X Mode are the reason for its incredible battery life most likely. Thermals shouldn't be THAT much of a deal breaker as it is a gaming phone. It ships with a cooler. Why not use it when you're about to game? And as we have seen, it improves the experience. It respects the +10% performance boost claims as well. It is a phone that does what it was advertised for and nothing more. So it's fine to me.
Would be great if we got some sort of review on cell reception quality,cell reception strength, the same for the Wifi and for GPS signal locking strength/accuracy.
We’ve updated our terms. By continuing to use the site and/or by logging into your account, you agree to the Site’s updated Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
71 Comments
Back to Article
Kishoreshack - Friday, August 28, 2020 - link
Just love how far ASUS has come with its phonesKangal - Sunday, August 30, 2020 - link
Yeah, in 2019... but this year they have gotten worse.Just compare the Zenfone 6 to the Zenfone 7 for starters.
On the ROG 2 vs ROG 3,
The new device is slightly larger, heavier, and lost the 3.5mm Jack. And it raised the prices.
But comparing the 16GB RAM vs 12GB RAM, isn't that big deal. And the uplift from the QSD 855 to the 865/865+ is hardly impressive. Or the 5900mAh battery compared to the 6,000mAh battery. Even the screen is the same comparing 144Hz to 120Hz, or the 270Hz-Touch to the 240Hz-Touch. By most metrics the new model is the same or worse than the older one.
And again, it's more expensive. I think that second chipset (Qualcomm's external modem) is the culprit for this year's lacklustre phones (larger, hotter, battery thirstier, less internal space, more expensive).
The only point where ASUS has made a notable upgrade is in the camera. And that's on both the ROG 3 and the Zenfone 7. But it's hardly a reason for someone to choose to buy a new ROG3, when they could get the ROG2 on a discount.
I think I could've been fine with the ASUS ROG 3, if they kept the 3.5mm headphone jack, added a microSD slot, and added wireless charging. That would've made the +$200 price hike easier to swallow. If they included JoyCons in the box, it would've been an instant hit.
To be honest, I would've preferred they downsized it slightly to around (166 x 74 x 9mm) which is like the size of the OnePlus 8 Pro, any larger makes it unpocketable for most regular mens jeans/pants. Even if that means downsizing the 6000mAh battery down to 5000mAh battery, it's worth it for the quality of life improvement.
s.yu - Monday, August 31, 2020 - link
When SD865 prices just got announced people were seeing a price hike of the handsets as inevitable. This phone looks decidedly less "gaming" than the predecessor and that's a big plus for me, and the second C port means the lack of the jack is at least tolerable. How they should cut corners on the optics so much confuses me, I'm wondering if this is a defective unit.There's rumor that Samsung is still contemplating bringing back the jack in flagships next year so I'm taking the wait and see approach, the S-Pen for me is worth it, but if Samsung doesn't follow through then I'll come back and buy one of these second-handed. With far superior battery to the Sony, it's already the closest thing to an all-rounder on the market.
Kangal - Monday, August 31, 2020 - link
I'm thinking the next year's QSD 875 will be like 8% faster simply because of the 5nm advancement. Plus another 8% speed due to slight architectural improvement in the X1 core, and modem efficiency.Yes most important, it should have the 4G/5G modem integrated (hopefully)... and that should mean better efficiency, and slightly larger internal space. So we could see the 3.5mm Headphone Jack make a comeback because of that.
But Samsung has killed the Jack for good. They have their own wireless earphones for sale. They got rid of it on the Note10 for no good reason. It's not coming back. Heck, even if they wrongly accuse the internal space restrictions, which is not true, there is no reason that they cannot integrate the 3.5mm Headphone Jack into the underside of the SPen.
I'm hoping this year has negatively affected all OEMs that they re-introduce some wanted features next year like Headphone Jack, microSD... on top of REDUCING the prices down (-30% ?) to regular levels to ensure strong sales/continued sales. I think this year proved that marketing wasn't strong enough to deceive the consumers.
s.yu - Wednesday, September 2, 2020 - link
lol I would bet on a comeback of the 3.5mm than a 30% price drop. Anyhow, the market hasn't exactly been exciting this year so I'm truly not in a hurry to upgrade, so I'll wait and see until there's something solid suggesting no jack again.flyingpants265 - Tuesday, September 1, 2020 - link
Joycons are stupid, it should be a whole PSP-like controller case that locks in place, to literally turn your phone into a PSP. Then we can have serious game development and ports for phones.This should have been available since 2007 or before. 13 years later and we're still using weird flimsy attachable joycon things.
The current Chinese Bluetooth psp-style controllers suck bad.
Kishoreshack - Friday, August 28, 2020 - link
The most awaited review is finally hereWanted to see how it fares against other flagships
Kishoreshack - Friday, August 28, 2020 - link
6000 mah battery with 865 plus & 144hz display is an instant sell for menico_mach - Friday, August 28, 2020 - link
Yes, this, I think this phone is more compelling outside of its gaming. Esp in comparison to iphones - they dominate the performance but usually ship with tiny batteries. Android phones need to carve out a niche, and this phone does that.melgross - Monday, August 31, 2020 - link
They still have some if the best battery life. And they’re not “tiny” batteries. iOS doesn’t need very large batteries as Androud phones do.s.yu - Monday, August 31, 2020 - link
iPhone batteries are still small for their screen size, while iPad batteries are not.Great_Scott - Monday, August 31, 2020 - link
Forget using the phone for games. I'd lock the screen to 60Hz and charge it every other day (every 3rd day?).flyingpants265 - Tuesday, September 1, 2020 - link
Yeah, the display thing is dumb. Remember when people said over 1080p was a waste for phones? Well.... They were right. And here we go again with the display thing.Kishoreshack - Friday, August 28, 2020 - link
Always felt Snapdragon Plus versions were a gimmickThis review proves it
The plus versions suck a lot of power
s.yu - Monday, August 31, 2020 - link
Not really, it's pretty clear that last year's ROGP2 with 855+ was a notch above the regular 855. Either Asus made a mistake here or 865 doesn't scale as well.Spunjji - Tuesday, September 1, 2020 - link
Pretty sure it's the fault of the 856+ - they just pushed it further than it really needs to go.Kishoreshack - Friday, August 28, 2020 - link
Want Anandtech to do more phone reviewsMany devices are pending
Quantumz0d - Friday, August 28, 2020 - link
No 3.5mm jack and no SD card slot is a joke on this. Not interested at all, It's just a chastity block with zero freedom.ads295 - Friday, August 28, 2020 - link
Agreed, this is one device where even ASUS agreed that size doesn't matter. Such a dumb decisionTchamber - Friday, August 28, 2020 - link
I hear this a lot, no 3.5 jack means no buy. I love good music, with quality sound, but when I'm on my phone I have given in to the convenience of Bluetooth. And I've been impressed with the audio fidelity some headphones deliver. I have two sets right now, LG Tones, which are really comfortable, and Beats PowerBeats3, which sound amazing, and even deliver nice bass. So I'm wondering, when was the last time you tried Bluetooth? Not to say wireless headphones are as good as wired, but there are some really good options.ArcadeEngineer - Friday, August 28, 2020 - link
I don't get this idea that bluetooth headphones are somehow more convenient than wired ones. Having another charger to juggle outlets on is the opposite of convenient.Tchamber - Friday, August 28, 2020 - link
I use my headphones all day work. For fun, I can listen to music, whatever. But I'm standing, walking, bending over and leaning in my CnC mill all day long, and having a cord was a hassle for me. That's pretty much the only place I listen to my phone. For me, it's no hassle having one more plug, especially when my LG Tones last two days at work.ads295 - Saturday, August 29, 2020 - link
High five from someone who owns two Swiss-types :-)flyingpants265 - Sunday, August 30, 2020 - link
Of course it's not a f****** hassle.The reason for deleting headphone jack is to sell wireless headphones, it is a multi-billion dollar market on its own. This is a tech website, everyone should know this by now.
Comments about removing the 3.5 jack, have been bought and paid for. Haha. What I mean is, Corporations have successfully used money for advertising and other various influences to ultimately engineer legions of smooth-brained human beings to tell me that plugging in my headphones is bad. Yeah, ok. I'll do anything you want. Why don't you just sodomize me too while you're at it?
Great_Scott - Monday, August 31, 2020 - link
The good news here is that there's a cottage industry of USB-C sound cards with 3.5 jack support for phones like this. And the huge battery means that you wouldn't need to charge it at the same time...s.yu - Wednesday, September 2, 2020 - link
You don't. Because there are two C ports. As long as there exists flagships with headphone jacks or two C ports, I will not buy one with one C port no jack.Quantumz0d - Friday, August 28, 2020 - link
Tell me does any of those BT sets have a good driver to boot, and then tell me whether any of them support AptX technology to be able to play my FLAC files / 24 Bit files or Can they work without an app always to function.Dude I have a V30 with me, the ESS DAC in that is not possible to be beaten by any company, I even have a Modi stack with me for monitors, and I can plug in my IEMs, Monitors, HD600s and I don't have to fiddle with some stupid charging box and worry about them, my IEMs are Triple Drivers with Hybrid technology. And you say you want Audio fidelity ? nice joke esp with Power Beats ? Muddy Bass technology is what they have.
I'm sorry there's none of the BT technology which makes any aspect from Sound quality, Fidelity, Convenience & Price to Performance, there are NO BT sets in mainstream that we can buy which have stunning audio performance you need to shell out for MMCX, like Shures.
Let me tell you one more thing, my phone has BT as well, and I can buy any BT set I want and a 3.5mm enabled any of the ChiFi or Japanese or European IEMs/Cans. Also instead of that overpriced Powerbeats Apple set go and buy an RHA T20 wireless, it has AptX, great battery, superior sound, superior build quality and have 3.5mm wire also.
vol.2 - Friday, August 28, 2020 - link
you're just walking into a dumb argument here. people are allowed to like their specific wired headphones and they should be able to use them if they want to. i have both; i use the bluetooth for calls and watching youtube, i use one of my many pairs of wired headphones for music.Tchamber - Friday, August 28, 2020 - link
Sure, I didn't think I was arguing though. I get it, wired headphones sound better.Lolimaster - Sunday, August 30, 2020 - link
Thing is, the two technologies can coexist till the end of time. Point is, there's no excuse to remove the jack from a phone or worse, from a tablet (S7 line). Then ironically, gigantic camera bumps are protruding from phones in futile attempt to keep the rest of the phone "slim". 0.9 or 1cm thicc phones are perfectly fine, that's around my S9 + cover included and that phone feels way more secure in the hand than the stock 0.85cm.Medstar1 - Saturday, August 29, 2020 - link
Personally I've never given wireless audio a try. I was first introduced to the Quad DAC on my LG V20 years ago and it made the headphone jack a part of my "must have" list for phones every since. Another reason may be the fact that when I listen to music I am stationary and not engaged in other activities. I don't listen to music when I'm out, say hiking, because it kind of nullifys the point of being out in nature. I don't do it while I'm out and about in the city because I want to be situationally aware of my surroundings at all times. So bottom line I just haven't found the need to go wireless at this stage.habs01 - Saturday, August 29, 2020 - link
Having a 3.5mm jack doesn't prevent you from using bluetooth if that's what you like. It doesn't work the other way around.flyingpants265 - Sunday, August 30, 2020 - link
You've given in to the inconvenience of Bluetooth, you mean.And you've given into the cost.
Red john - Sunday, August 30, 2020 - link
The problem of wireless headset means you are required to charge a new gadget along with your mobile phone. And we can get better audio quality output with half of the price in wired than wireless headsetsflyingpants265 - Sunday, August 30, 2020 - link
Not required. You can use USBC headphones. Just strongly encouraged by marketing.s.yu - Wednesday, September 2, 2020 - link
Required if you use magnetic charging cables, because your sole C port will be stuck with a magnetic adaptor in it.. And those sell pretty well, the market is expanding in fact.s.yu - Wednesday, September 2, 2020 - link
I can tell you that Sony's flagship overear is sorely inadequate and PHA55BT doesn't drive low impedance CIEMs as well as my phone with its integrated DAC through the 3.5mm. No BT earphone/headphone is known to surpass the former and no adaptor is known to surpass the latter. End of discussion.hemedans - Friday, August 28, 2020 - link
it has two usb type C ports, use one for wired type c earphoneLord of the Bored - Saturday, August 29, 2020 - link
But I want to use normal headphones, not my GBA SP toy phones.flyingpants265 - Sunday, August 30, 2020 - link
So buy an adapter to carry around everywhere and degrade your sound quality (noise etc from contacts/soldering/bad shielding)Remember to pay for that too.
s.yu - Wednesday, September 2, 2020 - link
I have more faith in the sound quality of a C port powered active adapter than a wireless adapter powered by a tiny battery.flyingpants265 - Sunday, August 30, 2020 - link
I love sdcards, but I'm willing to sacrifice for waterproofing. Also you can expend $ to get like 1tb storage. You can't pay more to get front speakers.. LAME.BS3 is cool, but also missing other stuff. And Xiaomi's crapware is bad
Lolimaster - Sunday, August 30, 2020 - link
Any flagship phone had "waterproof" +sd/sim slot. In fact, if a phone has a sim slot, there's no excuse for no sd support.benedict - Friday, August 28, 2020 - link
So the specs are almost the same as Xiaomi Mi 10, but the price is much higher. Asus is not a luxury brand when it comes to phones, so there's no excuse for the huge price premium.hemedans - Friday, August 28, 2020 - link
they always sell cheaper version with 8gb/128gb configuration, around $500.GC2:CS - Friday, August 28, 2020 - link
Does that mean S865+ is basically S865 with higher voltages allowed ?And a fan is needed to bring it back to regular temperatures.
Why ask a premium for it then ?
Also it is strange that the iP SE competes on GPU without people complaining that it burns their hands down.
Andrei Frumusanu - Friday, August 28, 2020 - link
So far on the 3 S865+ phones that I have, they all have increased power for the increased peak perf, with worse sustained performance. So in that regard it does look disappointing.Luminar - Friday, August 28, 2020 - link
How is this disappointing? I thought you anticipated this situation of more peak performance and more peak power.You said this would be the case in your first article about the 865+. You said the 865+ would hit >3.0GHz but the 865+ would be able to consume the same or less power, due to being able to do more work in less time thanks to higher frequencies.
Luminar - Friday, August 28, 2020 - link
Correction: *the same or less energy.Lolimaster - Sunday, August 30, 2020 - link
Increasing voltages, throwing aside efficiency. Phones can't simply comply with energy requirements using passive cooling, even if it's "liquid"Lolimaster - Sunday, August 30, 2020 - link
SE soc even after thermal throttling it's as fast as an 865 in peak performance. The brute force of iphone lasts just a few seconds.nandnandnand - Friday, August 28, 2020 - link
20 GB RAM when?MrCommunistGen - Friday, August 28, 2020 - link
Had higher hopes for the performance of the S865+ and the IMX686.I'd have been curious to see performance of the phone with and without the AeroActive cooler on Lvl1 and Lvl2 to see how much it actually cools the phone and if that leads to better performance by keeping skin temps within the allowed range.
sonny73n - Friday, August 28, 2020 - link
“ I don’t see the 999€ or 1099€ variants of the ROG Phone III being worth it, however the 799€ base model should make for a quite balanced phone which shines in terms of battery life, and gives you a great high-refresh rate experience. If you can live with the weak cameras, then it should represent a good phone for you.”Has the dollar disappeared? Why don’t you convert 799€ to USD? And for $950 USD, this phone is way overpriced.
I would not choose this ugly outdated design over the $400 Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro which also has almost the same specs and better design. But hey, there’s still plenty of fools out there who eager to be parted with their money.
Andrei Frumusanu - Saturday, August 29, 2020 - link
The phones have not been released in the US yet and do not have official USD prices. You could just 1:1 the figures.Lolimaster - Sunday, August 30, 2020 - link
The "outdated" will always be justified of you provide frontal stereo speakers. Basically the best of all phones. Most people listen to their media over the phone speakers in my car I would mix the designs.Motorized camera + reduced top/bottom bezels with the space being used by high quality speakers.
flyingpants265 - Tuesday, September 1, 2020 - link
No idea what you just said, but I agree 100%. Front speakers are godlike. Once you have them, you don't go back.Thru-screen cameras exist, they're just bad but could possibly be improved.
Manya3084 - Friday, August 28, 2020 - link
I've been using the Strix model for over a week (SD865, 12GB ram) and I am very happy. I easily get through a 8 - 12 hour work day with over 60% battery remaining.I don't mobile game, and I'm using the phone purely for work purposes.
hammer256 - Friday, August 28, 2020 - link
That cooler through the USB-C plugs seems quite clever. If the implementation is good, that solution should do quite a bit better than blowing air on to the back of the phone (plastic?).Great feedback - Saturday, August 29, 2020 - link
I HOPE ASUS READ THIS...BUT I FEEL LIKE THEY SHOULD MAKE THE PHONES AVAILABLE TO ALL CARRIERS. I WOULD EVEN PAY A PREMIUM PRICE JUST TO HAVE IT WITH MY CARRIER VERIZON AND OTHERS WOULD TOO. COME ON ASUS!!!hansmuff - Saturday, August 29, 2020 - link
No Qi charging, yet again from a new ASUS phone. My LORD that shit has to be in any new phone that's over $200.juhatus - Sunday, August 30, 2020 - link
"It’s a pity that this is the only way to get audio out of the phone"Umm, doesn't it support Bluetooth-audio?
flyingpants265 - Sunday, August 30, 2020 - link
No front speakers = no buy.No 3.5mm = no buy, I'm not falling for a scam.
I didn't check, but no wireless charging/waterproofing = no buy.
Video/YouTube, music, and gaming necessitate front speakers. Otherwise, don't bother me. This should have been a standard feature even before wireless charging. These should all be standard features.
Lolimaster - Sunday, August 30, 2020 - link
Basically you're looking at the Xperia 1 MKII. Sadly Sony insist with that annoying extra wide design.19:9-19.5:9 is the limit for me.
Revv233 - Tuesday, September 1, 2020 - link
Same Sentiment here - if it was normal height I would already have it. Love that it even has a real finger reader still.V60 Same thought - I finally got to hold one this week and its mandatory 2 hands even before the case. Too bad because I love that DAC.
After years of wanting bigger screens MFG have shot well past the sweet spot. For whatever reason budget phones are the only ones with features customer wants... but then you give up the new SOC's.
I have s9+; decided to skip the S10 generation but having watched the market with a lot of anticipation this year I think it's the only option.
flyingpants265 - Tuesday, September 1, 2020 - link
I prefer 17:9. Too tall and I cannot reach the top. If I can't reach notifications it's unusable.Lolimaster - Sunday, August 30, 2020 - link
In the end the + version are more or less a gimmick while also drawing a lot more power.In my samsung SD devices I'm happy with the 70% of soc speed in the energy saving options. All games at around 70-80% of max image quality + 30fps cap on intensive 3d content.
PeachNCream - Monday, August 31, 2020 - link
Gaming phone with no way to connect a 3.5mm set of headphones. Also that performance is pretty unimpressive for a design meant to cater to people that want to see the best results from their games. Not sure what Asus' folks are smoking, but it must be some good stuff.Notmyusualid - Monday, August 31, 2020 - link
No 3.5mm jack. Wow.Well, one year on with my ROG2, and I still don't have a single game on it. Tried a few initially, and then one-by-one, they all became 'sign in with an account', so I just removed them all.
It has been buggier than the Samsung's I've had to date. Noticably.
I ended up buying a beefier case for it, over the free one that shipped with it.
And some of the Chinese junk characters left behind (I never did get around to changing the ROM - something I normally do do) are annoying to see.
But the speakers are great, and the battery also. My reason for buying it.
And when replacement time comes, I can always find another phone with a 3.5mm jack, somewhere on the market. I'll vote with my feet.
NightShot - Friday, September 4, 2020 - link
This phone really is more appealing for normal use. Its rather conservative power management when outside of X Mode are the reason for its incredible battery life most likely. Thermals shouldn't be THAT much of a deal breaker as it is a gaming phone. It ships with a cooler. Why not use it when you're about to game? And as we have seen, it improves the experience. It respects the +10% performance boost claims as well. It is a phone that does what it was advertised for and nothing more. So it's fine to me.techgadgetgeek - Friday, September 18, 2020 - link
Would be great if we got some sort of review on cell reception quality,cell reception strength, the same for the Wifi and for GPS signal locking strength/accuracy.