If you haven’t heard of gaming phones, you probably don’t need us to explain what they are – they do what it says on the tin. Until the Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro, you could probably spot a gaming phone from a mile off, thanks to their garish looks and preference for colourful lights or logos.

But the ROG Phone 8 Pro changes that, with Asus’s eighth entry into its gaming phone series ditching the dodgy decals and flying under the radar with a sleek black design that hides a clever white light LED screen on the back.

With a gaming look to the software, the phone still gives you the aesthetic side of gamer life if you want it, which we love. But for the price, the camera isn’t great and Asus is only offering two Android updates – and in 2024, you can buy a phone with much better cameras and software promises that will still play all the mobile games you want.

It means the ROG Phone 8 Pro is more of a choice than a necessity if you love mobile gaming.

• Subtler than other gaming phones
• Matt finish with LED screen
• IP68 water and dust resistant

There are a few different models of the ROG Phone 8. There’s the regular ROG Phone 8, which is available in black or grey, or the ROG Phone 8 Pro, which only comes in black and has a hidden white LED display on the back to show things like the battery percentage or just some, you know, cool graphics.

We tested the ROG Phone Pro Edition, so called because it has the highest specs and comes with Asus’s AeroActive Cooler-X fan accessory bundled in the box. You’ll pay for that privilege though, as the Edition comes in at a cool £1,299.99.

It’s things like the AirTriggers, pressure sensitive shoulder buttons for more controls in games, that make the ROG stand out over a regular smartphone where all gaming input is via the display. The dual USB-C ports, which allow you to charge while gaming in either portrait or landscape, and allow you to clip the Cooler-X on and charge through it all while gaming away.

If you get the cooling fan, then you also get extra shoulder buttons for even more control options. People will ask you what on earth you’re doing when you have the fan clipped to the phone, but without it this is a gaming phone that flies under the radar thanks to the all-black design and toned-down camera module. It still sits off at a jaunty angle, but it’s more mainstream Android than Asus has gone before with its ROG line.

• Camera cut-out
• 165Hz refresh rate
• Gorilla Glass Victus 2

None of that gaming prowess comes to much without a great display, but Asus has you covered with one of the best. Notably there’s a camera cut out for the selfie camera, so you don’t have a full, uninterrupted display unlike on older ROG Phone models, but It’s not that noticeable while gaming.

The very large 6.78-inch screen is top quality with a blazing-fast 165Hz refresh rate for compatible games – smoothness of frame rate that outguns the best Apple, Samsung, and Google have to offer. The panel gets plenty bright too so you can game even in direct sunlight with not much issue.

It’s all coated in Gorilla Glass Victus 2, a high-end scratch and drop resistant glass that should hopefully keep accidental damage at bay. The touch sample rate is excellent as you’ll need it to be for quick responses to touch when you’re tapping and swiping while gaming away.

• Not as good as advertised
• 50MP main sensor
• Ultra-wide and 3x telephoto

Asus has promised a much improved camera on the ROG Phone 8 Pro over previous models, but in our testing we found it was subpar for the price. Despite using the Sony IMX890, a proven great sensor in other phones, the 50MP main camera is disappointing, with photos often noisy and grainy when you zoom in a little.

Zooming further reveals an almost oil painting quality to images through a lack of detail, and we also found the shutter speed a little laggy, producing some unwanted ghosting on images such as with the brid in the sky in the above image. That’s a surprise given the main lens is sitting in Asus’s gimbal system designed to stop just that. It works better on the Asus Zenfone 10, so we’re not sure what’s up here.

Viewed on the phone’s screen, all images from the main, ultra-wide, and telephoto are good in a pinch and would not look bad on social media. Asis is claiming this is a big step up to the point it’s not a compromise anymore, but it simply is when compared to phones that cost the same high price like the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, iPhone 15 Pro, and Google Pixel 8 Pro.

The selfie camera is nothing to write home about either. If you value camera quality above all else you probably aren’t thinking of buying a gaming phone, but Asus is still underperforming here.

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
• Pro Edition has 24GB RAM
• 5,500mAh battery

Luckily the ROG Phone 8 Pro doesn’t underperform when it comes to pure power. With the 24GB RAM and 1TB storage model we tested, there were absolutely no hiccups at any stage as we ploughed through rounds of Call of Duty Mobile, Genshin Impact, Asphalt 9, and many more titles that would make lesser phones grind to a halt.

There’s not much else to know – the phone really is that powerful. It can get hot, but that’s why the version we tested comes with a fan. Asus has thought of everything here, and with that much RAM and pure performance under the hood you can expect to get the top tier gaming experience you’d be expecting after dropping over a grand.

Battery life is excellent, even when you’re hammering the phone when gaming. A large 5,500mAh battery ensures you can get well over a day on a single charge, and it tops up quickly with the included fast charger when needed.

• Android 14
• Tons of gaming options
• Only two years of Android updates

You can run the ROG Phone 8 Pro with either Asus’s ROG Android skin or its regular one you’ll find on its other phones. The latter is quite plain, but the former brings you the full gamer aesthetic, with icons and menus that look like the start screens of video games past and present. There are also tons of gaming options to tweak either across the board or per game to give you granular control of your play.

The Android software is also highly customisable, allowing you to make the phone truly yours. It’s also great that the phone comes with the latest Android 14 version out of the box – but Asus is only offering two updates to Android 16 in 2025. That’s not the end of the world, but for a phone this expensive you might be miffed to not be getting the latest version for a few years more. Asus says it’ll keep security updates coming for four years, but that still lags behind Samsung and Google, who now offer seven years of full support for some of their latest handsets.

The Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro Edition reviewed here costs £1,299.99, and can only be purchased directly from Asus. It has 24GB RAM and 1TB storage, and comes with the fan accessory in the box.

The ROG Phone 8 Pro with 512GB/16GB specs costs £1,099.99, while a regular, lower-spec ROG Phone 8 with a different design costs £949.99.

It’s a pricey phone line up, with the Edition costing £50 more than the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, though for that price the ROG has more RAM and storage, and has the same Snapdragon chipset.

The Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro is the best dedicated gaming phone you can buy, though after using it for a few weeks it made us wonder if you really need to buy a gaming phone in 2024. Phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and iPhone 15 Pro are so powerful that you don’t need to get a specialist handset for the best games to perform well on a mobile – and it looks like Asus has realised that by toning down the gaming looks of this latest ROG model.

That said, if you want a few bells and whistles like the cooling fan, two USB-C ports, and the clever hidden LED screen on a plain black phone then this is a fun choice. It’s also got tons of RAM and storage for the price, though we’re disappointed with the short two years of Android updates. If Asus had extended that to four or more, then the ROG Phone 8 Pro would have done enough to justify the high price tag.