Well...darn. Aside from the "gamer" styling and their unusually short years-of-support policy, I was actually kind of interested in their ROG phones, as they have both a substantial amount of memory and large batteries, and had them on the "possibles" list for my next phone. I don't care much about the gaming aspect, but there weren't a lot of other options with the above characteristics.
this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2026
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I don't understand how "gamer style" is a thing. If you're old enough to remember Winamp skins from the early 2000s, that's what it is plus a slew of RGB.
I don’t understand how “gamer style” is a thing.
Like, in general? Lots of non-functional molded plastic angular stuff with unnecessary holes, crevices, lights, and styling slapped on stuff. Let me do a quick search for "gamer mouse".
searches
Yeah. That's a nice example.
The ROG Phone itself isn't a particularly over-the-top example of that, but I don't really want the styling.
It isn't a deal-breaker, just that I'd rather not have it; for me it was a negative.
If you’re old enough to remember Winamp skins from the early 2000s
I am, and I agree that many of those did have similar over-the-top styling...and I don't want to buy physical hardware that looks like it.
I generally just want understated hardware without a lot of styling on it on all my computer hardware. I'm sure that there are people who do want something that looks more like the above, and that's fine, but it's not an aesthetic that I personally much like.
Their gamer phones are overshadowed by RedMagic now. They have their marketable cooling methods and under display camera. Asus would need to match at least. Also every high end Android device maker deciding to no do microSD express. Got to do something better than RedMagic
Interesting, especially because in my research the latest ROG phone had better than the equivalent RedMagic.
What about the price? I had ROG phone 2 before I changed to red magic due to the massive price difference (1500 ROG 8 vs 800 Red magic 9).
It can have all the 'coolest features ever' but its not worth almost twice as much as the competitor when the processor is the same
The combination of hardware features, software features, and build quality were worth the $1200 for the pro over the $800 red magic or $1000 base rog phone.
To you? Ok, sure. To many others including me? Nope, not worth 50% price increase.
Could be why they're not making it anymore, but that's just a theory.
MSRP on base ROG 8 was 1100
This makes sense, smartphones have become commoditized, even mid-range devices have been good enough since 2020 or so. Even the camera advantage that flagships used to have isn't that big of a deal these days.
To be faaaiirr ROG phones had lots of unique features. Dual USB, shoulder buttons, active cooling, high refresh screens years before competition... but they're also priced higher than mainstream flagships which isn't a great spot to be.
If I had to guess, part of the problem is probably "bigger" hardware moving into their space.
Like, phones have a lot of limitations for playing "heavyweight", PC-style games:
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Small battery.
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Small screen.
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Limited ability to dissipate heat.
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Really limited space and the hardware tradeoffs that come with that.
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Touchscreen controls, even with accelerometer, aren't ideal for a lot of games, especially PC or console ports.
For a lot of those, if you can manage to lug a laptop with you, you're probably better off.
Then you have stuff like the Steam Deck and a bunch of similar larger-than-phone game-oriented platforms show up, and that eats even further into your market. Yeah, okay, a ROG Phone is smaller and lighter than a Steam Deck, but if you're trying to deal with touchscreen controls by lugging along external control stuff, then you're sacrificing some of that mobility:
I mean, I'm sure that there's still a niche for heavyweight-game phone gaming, but it's gonna have other parties eating away at the edges, narrowing it. You gotta want to play heavyweight games, not be willing to use larger-than-phone hardware, but spend a substantial amount of money on your phone (especially given the short EOL on the ROG phone) to have that ability. My guess is that some people who won't use other hardware for gaming is because they have a phone and are price-sensitive enough to not want to get additional hardware platforms to just play games, so "users willing to spend a high premium on phone hardware to be able to game" may be a poor match to that market.
Agreed, PC handhelds have basically eaten the gamer phone market (and they arguably offer a lot more choice).
Not to mention flagships and upper-range phones will continue to get better and eat the lower end of the "gamer phone" market.
I have the ROG 8 pro and love it. One of the only phones left with a 3.5mm audio jack. I'll probably upgrade to the 9 at some point and keep it as long as I can.
Figures. I bought an LG V60 because it still had features no other manufacturer kept, then less than a year later LG killed their phone business. And here I am, typing this reply on my ROG Phone 9.
Asus made phones?