Asus ROG Phone 7 Ultimate hands-on review

The design of the Phone 7 Ultimate is identical to the 6D Ultimate. You’ll need to don Sherlock’s hat to tell them apart. However, under the hood, things are bigger, better and water sealed. Let’s start with the big. There’s a bigger Graphite sheet and a slightly tweaked 3D Vapor Chamber. The 3D Vapor Chamber has lines inside it to direct the cooler liquid to the processor. Think of it as directing traffic efficiently only here it's with cool liquids and warm vapours and kindergarten physics.

There’s also the updated and latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and Adreno 740 GPU for faster performance over the previous gen. Wi-Fi 7 also makes its way to the Asus ROG Phone 7 which is overkill but this is a ROG device and if it isn’t overkilled then what’s the point, right?

You also get LPDDR 5X (8533Hz) and UFS 4.0 storage. Essentially better and faster RAM and storage than the 6, and possibly any other smartphone as well. Asus has also added IP54 splash resistance and yes it’s for that mechanical flap (AeroActive Portal) on the back as well.

But enough of spec sheet vomit. If we sit and list down everything that the Asus ROG Phone 7 has, it will take us two working days along with lunch breaks. So let us tell you about the 3 hours of gaming we did on this device.

We played Call of Duty: Mobile and the AirTriggers, the vibration motor and the audio was as responsive and crisp as we expected. In fact, if you blindfold us and ask us to tell the ROG Phones 6 and 7 apart, we will not be able to. Visually, though the 7 is brighter than the 6 which is good for HDR content.

The ROG Phone 7 Ultimate also has a AeroActive Portal (that flap at the back) and comes with the AeroActive Cooler 7 in the box. The base model doesn’t get this cooler. The AeroActive Cooler 7 is more than just a cooler with a fan for the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate. It actually doubles down as a speaker for increasing the range and depth of the bass and overall sonics. Assault rifles in Call of Duty go off with a satisfying thwack and the shotguns sound meaty and menacing. It works in tandem with the phone’s dual stereo speakers which also happens to be one of the best too. We didn’t get to test the audio quality in our office so I still have my reservations about whether Asus ROG Phone 7 sounds better than the ROG Phone 3 which had gargantuan speaker grills on either side.

The AeroActive Cooler 7 also has four buttons that can be remapped for gaming. After playing for some time, we have realised that it’s not in the most ideal position. The buttons are cramped towards the centre of the smartphone and using your middle and ring fingers will require finger athleticism. There’s a bit of a learning curve but my digits were aching by the end. Maybe if the AeroActive Cooler 7 extended the clipping towards the sides like Razer Kishi, it would’ve been more comfortable.

If you haven’t guessed by now, this is a hardcore gaming smartphone. In our limited time, it was difficult to test the battery, performance and camera but rest assured, this is a fantastic piece of tech. One glance at the spec sheet and it will be clear that the folks still running Asus ROG Phone 5 or lower are the audience for this and if Asus can price this well, gaming bonanza for everyone.