The Asus ROG Phone 7 Ultimate is the most powerful gaming phone on the market today. It is powered by the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, has 16GB of RAM and 512GB of internal storage. It also has a 6.78-inch AMOLED display with a 165Hz refresh rate, making it perfect for mobile gaming.
Table of Contents
Design and Construction
At first glance, one can say the Asus ROG Phone 7 Ultimate has a very unique design that is sure to turn heads, especially in this Storm White colorway. It’s clad in metal and glass, and has a very smooth matte finish at the back.
For I/O, found on the left side is the side-mounted USB Type-C (3.1) port, along with the accented blue dual nano-SIM card tray. On top is a noise-cancelling mic. On the right side are the AirTriggers, volume rocker, noise cancelling mic, and power button that gets some blue accenting too.
At the bottom we have another noise cancelling mic, second USB Type-C Port (2.0), and a 3.5mm audio jack.
Button tactility feels great, and overall for a big hefty phone, ergonomics and build feel superb. It can get a little bit slippery depending on the temperature of your hands but this can always be remedied with a case.
Found in the top bezel of the display are the ambient light sensor, LED notification bulb, and front-facing camera.
The back of the phone is where things get interesting. The panel is designed with the current Asus ROG aesthetic, an industrial cyberpunk design that makes use of different shades of white with contrasting lines and blue accents.
The main sensor in the camera module is accented blue, and the rest of the sensors can be found next to it, concluding with the LED flash.
The ROG Phone 7 Ultimate also features a nifty 2-inch OLED display that users can customize; To show different screens depending on the mode or status of the device, as well as, incoming calls.
Above it is the AeroActive Portal, a mechanical door that opens up when an AeroActive Cooler is attached. It’s purpose is to let cool air in and blow hot air out, for better heat dissipation and performance.
Display, Multimedia, and Biometrics
The front of the phone is dominated by the 6.78-inch 165Hz AMOLED display that supports HDR 10+ and has a peak brightness of 1500 nits for great picture clarity even outdoors (1080 x 2448 @ 395 ppi). The display is also protected by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus.
And yes, the top and bottom bezels of this device don’t really scream immersion when compared to the more “basic” devices we have come to love from the top brands.
But this device isn’t necessarily for this demographic.
Asus purposely keeps the bezels this way to prevent accidental touches when gaming, and it also allows them to point their pair of stereo drivers at the end user, providing even better audio immersion compared to ones that point away from either side, OR the ones that combo pointing at you and to the side when in a landscape orientation.
With that being said, the stereo speakers on the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate, just like Huawei’s P60 Pro, is I got a Bluetooth speaker for a phone levels. (Not a soundbar mind you, a Bluetooth speaker!)
My multimedia consumption experience with these stereo speakers have been great. They get very loud and the resolution is quite good, clarity in its sound stage is great, and sometimes because the speakers are pointed at me, I can get conscious of how loud they are and I rarely max out the volume.
It’s great, and I’m quite impressed.
This translates well to media consumption, paired up with the nice AMOLED display and you can Netflix and chill after grinding ML by yourself for HOURS.
For biometric security, the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate features an optical in-display fingerprint scanner and face unlock.
Facial recognition was snappy but I decided to leave it off in favor of the fingerprint scanner for the most part. Never did I find any issues with both biometric unlocking options.
Cameras
The Asus ROG Phone 7 Ultimate utilizes a triple-camera system at the back.
The system consists of a 50MP Sony IMX766 main sensor [f/1.9], a 13MP ultrawide [f/2.2], and an 5MP macro sensor [f/2.0]. The phone also has a 32-megapixel selfie camera in front [f/2.5].
The cameras on the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate are not the best on the market, but they are good enough for taking photos and videos for personal and social media use.
In adequate lighting conditions, the main sensor takes sharp photos with good detail, and the ultrawide sensor is great for taking photos of landscapes and architecture.
The macro sensor is nothing to write home about, but it can still be used to take close-up photos of small objects but again there are better macro sensors out there in the market.
For video the device allows shooting at 8K @24p, 4K @30/60p, and FHD @30 to 240p slow motion. The front facing sensor can shoot up FHD @30p.
Obviously, you are not buying this phone for the camera but, yes, it is way, way better than a potato — and images and videos taken from this device feel as good as an iPhone X, with not as good image processing algorithms.
Software
The Asus ROG Phone 7 Ultimate runs Android 13 with the ROG/Zen UI skinned on top. The ROG UI is a gaming-centric interface that comes with a number of features that make it perfect for gaming.
Some notable features are:
- Game Genie app: allows you to customize settings and performance while gaming.
- AirTrigger ultrasonic touch sensors: allow you to map gestures to the capacitive bumper buttons of the phone.
- We also have the Asus Armory Crate here where you can control all gaming related functions like the display in the back, RGB, and performance modes.
Overall, ROG or Zen UI is relatively light on Android 13. To the point that it kind of bores me a bit, although I do believe this is from a feeling of being too overwhelmed by everything else this phone has got going on.
Either way, it’s a good and functional operating system that never feels to crowded or anything. And if you wanted a less gamery-look you can easily change to an even more stock Android look in the settings menu.
Performance and Benchmarks
The Asus ROG Phone 7 Ultimate is powered by the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset which has an octa-core processor, peaking at 3.2GHz and paired with an Adreno 740 GPU. The processor is paired with 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and a 512GB of UFS 4.0 storage for superfast read and write speeds.
| Device: | Asus ROG Phone 7 Ultimate |
|---|---|
| Chipset: | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 |
| RAM | 16GB |
| Antutu v9.5.4 | 1,311,054 |
| Geekbench Single-Core | 1,893 |
| Geekbench Multi-Core | 5,596 |
| Geekbench OpenCL | 8,943 |
| Geekbench Vulkan | 3,527 |
| 3D Mark Wild Life | Maxxed Out! (38-105 Avg fps) |
| 3D Mark Wild Life Extreme | 3,618 (21.7 Avg fps) |
| PCMark Work 3.0 | 19,923 |
| PCMark Storage 2.0 | 51,877 |
It can handle any game you throw at it, and it will not slow down even when you are playing the most demanding games. Whether that be Genshin Impact, Mobile Legends, Diablo Immortal, or even Stumble Guys. There’s no mobile game or application this device can’t run, like buttery smooth.
And, like I mentioned earlier, the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate is the most powerful and recognized gaming phone on the market in 2023 (well, across any smartphone for that matter).
| Smartphone | Antutu Benchmark | Antutu Storage | GeekBench 5/6 | PCMark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ASUS ROG Phone 7 Ultimate | 1,311,054 | 3,495 MB/s (read) 2,973 MB/s (write) | 1,395 / 5,186 (v5) 1,893 / 5,596 (v6) | 19,923 |
| Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra | 1,241,531 | - | 1,318 / 4,561 (v5) | 15,424 |
| Xiaomi 13 Pro | 1,238,250 | 3,394 MB/s (read) 2,562 MB/s (write) | 1,390 / 4,963 (v6) | 14,281 |
| OnePlus 11 | 1,105,027 | 3,317 MB/s (read) 2,650 MB/s (write) | 1,516 / 4,648 (v6) | 10,869 |
| ASUS ROG 6 Pro | 1,012,102 | - | 1,318 / 4,110 (v5) | 16,555 |
| ASUS ROG 6D Ultimate | 1,089,086 | - | 1,396 / 4,428 (v5) | 18,357 |
When we compared these scores to other flagship smartphones we’ve tested and reviewed this year, the numbers give a much better picture.
Battery and Connectivity
Powering the Asus ROG Phone 7 Ultimate is a 6,000mAh battery, split between two cells. It features 65W Qualcomm Quick Charge 5, power delivery, and 10W reverse wired charging.
Charging the device up from 0 – 100% with the included brick took a little less than an hour (ASUS claims under 42 minutes so this is on point).
This battery is large enough to last for a full day and a half with my mixed use. This doesn’t mean I can’t drain it within a day through very heavy use such as non-stop gaming and media consumption.
In PC Mark’s Work 3.0 Battery test, our ROG Phone 7 Ultimate lasted 24 hours and 24 minutes. In our video loop test, the phone lasted a whopping 26 hours and 40 minutes playing a full HD movie at 50% brightness, zero volume and in airplane mode.
What’s a little disappointing though is that when we played Mobile Legends, the phone only lasted 6 hours and 15 minutes at 50% brightness, 50% volume and on WiFi. I guess, when that high-performance cores are involved, it really drains the battery that fast.
The ROG Phone 7 Ultimate also supports 4G/LTE and 5G. We also liked the dual-WiFi feature. It basically allows you to connect to 2 different WiFi access points at the same time so if one connection drops, the phone automatically switches to the other AP with almost negligible impact to the game you’re playing.
This is great if you’re playing games like Mobile Legends where milliseconds in lag time really matter.
Or, if you are playing Genshin Impact at the best settings and highest frame rates. So far, the gameplay experience is smooth and lag-free.
Accessories
What also came with our review unit was the AeroActive Cooler 7. This cooler actively cools the device’s internals when in use. Once attached the AeroActive Portal opens up allowing the cooler to blow in air and pull the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate’s core temperatures down.
The new AeroActive Cooler 7 is also improved with four additional physical buttons for game input, a kickstand, a fan and a thermal electric cooling chip that draws its power directly from the phone. This time, they also include a 5-magnet super linear subwoofer, improving gaming and listening experience.
Something novel here is that if you own the older coolers, like the AeroActive Cooler 6, or even gamepad accessories like the Kunai controller; they’re backwards compatible with this device which is definitely a welcomed addition.
Conclusion
While there’s not a huge difference between the new ROG Phone 7 series now compared to its predecessor — the upgrades are typical and expected. Nothing mind-blowing really, but what else can you expect from a smartphone that has everything you’d wish for when it comes to mobile gaming?
In hindsight, it’s really hard to top yourself. This could be a blessing and a curse — a blessing because you’re always the top choice in your category and you hold the trophy; on the other hand, it is also a curse because it will be very hard to exceed expectations coming from previous generations and fans might find it more wise to pick up the older unit instead of this new one if the performance and feature difference does not significantly favor the 7 Ultimate.
Nonetheless, the Asus ROG Phone 7 Ultimate is the best gaming phone in the 2023 market. It’s powerful, stylish, and has a number of features that make it perfect for mobile gaming.
If you are looking for a phone that can handle any mobile game or application you throw at it, then the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate is the phone for you.
The ROG Phone 7 Ultimate retails in our local shores for:
- ROG Phone 7 Ultimate with 16GB RAM + 512GB storage (w/ included AeroActive Cooler 7) – Php 69,995
- ROG Phone 7 with 16GB RAM + 512GB storage – Php 54,995
- ROG Phone 7 with 12GB RAM + 256GB storage – Php 50,995
What we liked:
- A performance beast!
- Superb audio listening experience.
- Very solid battery life.
- Quick read and write speeds.
What we didn’t like:
- Hefty form-factor (tall and thicc).
ROG Phone 7 Ultimate specs:
6.78-inch AMOLED @ 2448 x 1080 pixels
165Hz refresh rate
Corning Gorilla Glass Victus
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
Qualcomm Adreno 740 GPU
16GB LPDDR5X RAM
512GB UFS 4.0
50MP Sony IMX766 f/1.9
13MP ultrawide f/2.2
5MP macro f/2.0
32MP front camera
8K UHD@24FPS / 4K UHD@60FPS
5G, Dual-SIM
WiFi-7
Bluetooth 5.3
NFC supported
GPS, Glonass, Galileo, BeiDou, QZSS, NavIC
Android 13
6000mAh, 65W charger
3.5mm earphone jack
173mm x 77mm x 10.3mm (dimensions)
239 grams (weight)
Storm White
