Asus ROG Phone 9 and 9 Pro come with SD8 Elite, bigger battery and better cooling

Last year, the Asus ROG Phone 8 took a big step towards becoming more practical for everyday use with an IP68 rating and a telephoto camera. But Asus hasn’t forgotten that this is a gaming phone, so this year the new model boosts performance on all fronts.

asus rog phone 9 series

The Asus ROG Phone 9 and 9 Pro are powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite, paired with up to 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM (9,600Mbps) and 512GB of UFS 4.0 storage on the vanilla model, and up to 24GB and 1TB on the Pro. (There are other differences as well which we’ll get to). According to Asus, the 8 Elite has a 45% gain in CPU performance, 40% faster GPU, and 40% faster NPU compared to the 8 Gen 3 inside the previous ROG Phone.

The improved cooling system now features a 57% larger graphite sheet, which helps keep the new phones cooler by several degrees compared to the 8-series. There’s also a better active cooler, but it’s much more than just a cooler. As always, the Asus ROG series excels when it comes to first-party accessories.

The in-box Aerocase as well as the optional Chill Case feature an “Audio Redirection” feature. These are shaped so that sound from the bottom-firing speaker is redirected forward. Combined with the front-firing top speaker, you get a better stereo experience.

There’s more – the Aeroactive Cooler The cooler also has two hardware shoulder buttons to go along with the airtriggers that are on the phone itself. Cooling performance has been improved with larger fan blades (+12.5%) and more thermal compound, resulting in 29% better cooling.

Like last year, the Asus ROG Phone 9 and 9 Pro feature 6.78” AMOLED displays with FHD+ resolution, 1,600 nits of brightness (2,500 nits peak) in high brightness mode, and 107% DCI-P3 coverage. This year’s upgrade is that you can enable a 185Hz refresh rate from Game Genie (up from 165Hz last year). It will be supported only in select games.

But there is a second display of sorts on board. Both models now have Anime Vision – a grid of mini-LEDs that can be used to customize the look of the phone. The ROG Phone 9 has 85 LEDs (the previous vanilla version had just four RGB LEDs), while the ROG Phone 9 Pro has 648 LEDs – which is almost double the 341 LEDs present in the 8 Pro.

There is some method to Asus’ madness. Anime Vision on the Pro has enough resolution to render text in Chinese and Japanese. And you can upload a GIF to add animation instead. There’s another trick on this anime vision display – games! There are four retro games (based on Breakout, Snake, Invaders, and one other) that you play on the back of the phone using AirTriggers.

Going back to more practical features, Asus ROG Phone 9 Duo is equipped with a 5,800mAh battery, which is 300mAh more than the older model. The battery should last at least 4.5 hours during heavy gaming. Asus says it will retain at least 80% of its original capacity after 1,000 cycles (that’s three years of daily charging). Charging is rated at 65W over USB-C and 15W wirelessly. The extra capacity makes charging a bit slower, with 0-100% going in 46 minutes on a wire (up from 39 minutes on the old one).

Let’s talk about the camera. Both phones use a 50MP main based on a 1/1.56” Sony Lithia 700 sensor. The 6-axis hybrid gimbal stabilization has been improved and is now accurate to +/–5°, up from +/–3°. At the back, the 13MP ultra-wide camera and 32MP selfie camera (with an RGBW sensor and 22mm lens) are the same.

This leaves only the telephoto module – the Pro uses the same 3x 32MP module (1/3” sensor) from last year, while the vanilla model doesn’t have one at all (even though the ROG Phone 8 had one). Instead, there is a 5MP macro camera on the vanilla ROG Phone 9.

A few more things worth mentioning are of course the 3.5mm headphone jack on the ROG Phone 9 and 9 Pro. It was tuned by Dirac and supports high-resolution binaural technology called Dirac Virtuo. Wireless options include aptX lossless and the phone is certified for both Hi-Res Audio and Hi-Res Audio Wireless. We mentioned the Chill Case, which is a passive cooling option with a built-in vapor chamber that helps the phone dissipate heat and reduce temperatures by up to 17%. This case also has audio redirection feature.

Asus will give two OS updates to the ROG Phone 9 and 9 Pro and release security updates for a total of four years.

asus rog phone 9 pro

asus rog phone 9

Asus ROG Phone 9 and 9 Pro can be pre-ordered from today. For Taiwan, Hong Kong, and mainland China, they will start shipping tomorrow. Shipping to Europe (including the UK) will begin in December. US launch is scheduled for January 2025, more details to follow. Other regions will see new models later. Prices are down. Note that the Edition model comes with the AeroActive Cooler X Pro bundle.