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The ASUS ROG Phone II is available in Singapore now (Updated!)

By Aaron Yip - on 18 Oct 2019, 3:26pm

ASUS announces ROG Phone II: Comes with 120Hz AMOLED display and 6000mAh battery

Note: This article was first published on 4 August 2019 and is republished now with updated launch details and pricing.

Cementing the gaming smartphone market

The global games market was predicted to be worth US$134.9 billion last year, according to a Newzoo research, and the largest sector of this was (no surprise here!) mobile gaming with a 47% market share. That’s US$63.2 billion!

No wonder the world of gaming smartphones is such a competitive one, with the likes of Razer, Huawei and ASUS ROG all vying for gamers to use their respective Android smartphones to play PUBG Mobile, Fortnite, or Mobile Legends. And now ASUS has announced the ROG Phone II, only their second gaming smartphone in less than a year, upping the ante with what is quite possibly the most powerful smartphone on the planet – gaming be damn. There's a lot that goes into why it's the next hero gamer's phone, so we challenged ASUS to sum it up in 30 seconds:-

What's under the hood of the new ROG Phone II?

The ROG Phone II has an incredibly powerful chipset, a fast and beautiful looking OLED display, and one of the biggest batteries in a smartphone. As mentioned a while back, the handset will be the first to be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855 Plus chipset. It’s based on the Snapdragon 855, which is already available on quite a few modern smartphones, but its increased processor and graphics speeds will ensure that the ROG Phone II gives you a performance advantage in any PvP sessions. ASUS has claimed that its cooling system, just like the original ROG Phone which includes a vapor chamber and vents, will prevent throttling of the 855 Plus processor’s peak speeds. To complement the speedy processor, it also has 12GB of RAM and up to 512GB of storage.

The glossy surface of the phone meant that smudges build up easily and can be a sight for sore eyes.

The devil is in the details

The ROG Phone II’s display also received a major upgrade over its predecessor. It now sports a 6.59-inch Full HD 1080p resolution AMOLED panel with a fast 120Hz refresh rate (compared to the original ROG phone that had a 6-inch 1080p display with a 90Hz refresh rate). The screen also comes with an integrated fingerprint sensor and support for 10-bit HDR. Competitive mobile gamers will also be pleased to know that the touch sampling rate has been improved, at 240Hz, and ASUS has claimed its touch latency of 49ms is the lowest of any phone in the market today.

Another impressive feature in the ROG Phone II is its massive 6,000mAh battery, which is among the biggest I’ve seen in a smartphone. According to an ASUS executive, who has been using an engineering sample version of the phone for the past month, he only needed to charge the phone once every two days. This includes normal usage (emails, Facebook, YouTube, etc) as well as having his winner winner chicken dinner moments in PUBG Mobile.

The rest of the phone looks almost identical to the original ROG Phone, except with a 6.59-inch screen instead of 6-inches, an impressive 48MP camera (like many other leading phones) instead of 12MP, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and two USB-C ports.

How about new accessories?

The original ROG Phone’s most jaw-dropping feature was its suite of gaming accessories that came in a not-so-subtle trolley suitcase, and ASUS will be updating the range for the new phone. This includes tweaked versions of the dual-screen TwinView dock, and the Nintendo Switch-like Kunai gamepad attachment that comes with two split controllers attached to both ends of the ROG Phone II (as pictured above).
 

Price and availability?

If you're keen on getting your hands on the ROG Phone II, you can either get it directly from ASUS at their webstore (https://sg.store.asus.com/game-changer) or purchase it off the shelves at the following outlets or websites:

  • Best Denki
  • Gain City
  • Challenger
  • Courts
  • Atrix
  • Gamepro
  • ASUS Online Store (link above)
  • LAZADA
  • Qoo10
  • Shopee
  • Hachi.tech

Unfortunately, ASUS has informed us that the phone will not be available for purchase at subsidised pricing from any local telcos.

Anyway, here's the information you've been waiting for: The ROG Phone II will cost S$1,598, which is pretty much the same price as last year's device - we had wrongly predicted that ASUS will price it higher given the rather vastly superior specifications over its predecessor.

But it's the accessories that truly maketh the ROG Phone II's gaming ecosystem, and while you can still purchase the entirety of the available accessories and devices in one absurdly exaggerated trolley luggage, you also have the option of purchasing each one separately. Check out the pricing and accessory options in the posters above. A great mobile gaming experience doesn't come cheap.

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