The Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro continues to dominate the world of mobile gaming, bringing premium hardware, unique design elements, and robust cooling solutions to the table. Building on last year’s design language, this flagship takes things up a notch with enhanced features, a better display, and improved gaming capabilities. Featuring the Snapdragon 8
Elite chipset, the ROG Phone 9 Pro is a powerhouse for gamers who demand the best. From its impressive LED-backlit rear display to its robust thermal management system, this phone is built to endure long gaming sessions without losing performance. But does it remain the king of gaming smartphones, or are other devices catching up?
Let’s dive into the design, camera improvements, gaming performance, and more to see if the ROG Phone 9 Pro truly lives up to its title.
Design and Build
The Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro is designed to make a statement. Asus continues to refine its gamer-centric aesthetic, with this iteration incorporating a sleek, clean look while retaining the iconic RGB-lit rear panel. The back of the device is equipped with 648 programmable mini LED dots, offering more detailed animations and notifications.
The Anime Matrix display, powered by the LEDs, provides real-time updates such as music playback or incoming calls. These animations also extend to the camera app, displaying countdown timers or even reminding you to smile when taking a photo.
The phone weighs in at 227g, making it one of the heavier flagships, but its ergonomics are well-designed for comfortable gaming, especially in landscape mode. The back panel is made from etched glass with Gorilla Glass protection and is complemented by a metal frame.
The aluminum frame is sturdy and durable, while the phone maintains IP68 water resistance for dust and water protection up to 1.5 meters for 30 minutes. The USB Type-C port on the right side allows for ergonomic gaming control, while the stereo speakers ensure clear audio during gaming or media consumption.
The Rog Phone 9 Pro also includes two air triggers, which are capacitive, gesture-mappable buttons for enhanced gaming control. The volume rocker and power button with side-mounted fingerprint sensor are located on the right side, allowing for easy access during gameplay. Despite its size, the phone maintains excellent balance and feels sturdy, offering superior control over similar-sized gaming phones.
See also:
- Nubia V70 Max Review: Budget-Friendly Smartphone with Surprising Features
- Xiaomi 15 vs Oppo Find X8: A Flagship Showdown + “Pros & Cons”
Accessories:
ROG Chill Case
- The ROG Chill Case is another essential accessory for the ROG Phone 9 Pro, providing extra cooling thanks to its liquid cooling system. The case also redirects the bottom-firing stereo speakers, improving audio quality and delivering dual front-facing stereo sound. Get it HERE>>.
AeroActive Cooler X Pro
- The AeroActive Cooler X Pro is a game-changer accessory for the ROG Phone 9 Pro. It not only improves the thermal performance by actively cooling the device but also adds extra mappable trigger buttons, allowing for a more immersive gaming experience. The built-in subwoofer enhances audio immersion, offering a 2.1 channel audio system. This accessory is designed to maximize the performance during extended gaming sessions. Get it HERE>>.
ROG Tessen
- The ROG Tessen is a gamepad controller that transforms the ROG Phone 9 Pro into a handheld gaming console. Featuring dual joysticks, D-pad, and mappable buttons, this accessory enhances your mobile gaming experience by offering more precise controls and comfort for long gaming sessions. Get it HERE>>.
Display Specs, and Biometrics
The ROG Phone 9 Pro boasts an impressive 6.78-inch Full HD+ LTPO AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, making it one of the most fluid screens for mobile gaming. The LTPO technology helps adjust the refresh rate from 60Hz to 120Hz dynamically, preserving battery life without compromising performance during intense gaming sessions.
The display’s color accuracy and wide color gamut make it perfect for content consumption, whether you’re watching videos or playing games. Moreover, the screen offers HDR10+ support, ensuring that media content looks vibrant and detailed.
With a peak brightness of 2,500 nits, the ROG Phone 9 Pro delivers exceptional outdoor visibility, ensuring that you can enjoy your screen even under bright sunlight. This brightness is complemented by an anti-glare coating, which minimizes reflections, making the screen more readable in direct sunlight. The display quality is further enhanced with Cinematic Display Mode, delivering a richer, more immersive visual experience when consuming media.
In terms of audio, the stereo speakers on the ROG Phone 9 Pro are impressively loud with clear highs and mids, providing a full sound profile. Dolby Atmos support enhances the audio for a more immersive experience, especially during gaming. If the built-in speakers aren’t enough, you can connect your headphones to the 3.5mm audio jack or via wireless connections, taking advantage of the high-res wireless audio certification.
For biometrics, the ROG Phone 9 Pro offers a side-mounted optical fingerprint scanner, which works quickly and accurately. The phone also supports Face Unlock via the front-facing camera, though the fingerprint scanner remains the preferred biometric for ease and security. Together, these unlock options offer users both speed and reliability.
Software Updates And Apps
The ROG Phone 9 Pro runs on the latest Android 15 with Asus’s ROG UI. As with previous models, users can choose between a stock Android experience or a customized gaming-focused interface. Asus has made the customization options quite flexible, allowing users to select between native and Asus versions for various system features like volume control, clock appearance, and quick settings panel.
The Armory Crate app remains central to the ROG Phone 9 Pro’s experience, allowing users to access game optimizations, monitor system performance, and customize settings for Air Triggers, screen refresh rates, and RGB lighting. The app also offers access to X Mode, Dynamic Mode, and Ultra Durable Mode, giving users full control over the phone’s performance based on usage.
New to the ROG Phone 9 Pro is a collection of AI features such as AI Wallpaper, AI Call Translator, and AI Transcription. The AI Wallpaper adapts to the apps you use, and AI Call Translator helps with real-time language translation during calls, though the feature is still in beta. AI Transcription automatically adds subtitles to conversations in apps playing dialogue, which can be especially useful for accessibility.
In addition to game optimization, the Game Genie feature gives users a gaming HUD, providing quick access to real-time hardware info, settings, and performance tweaks. It also includes quick access tools like screen recording, notifications control, and background app management, all of which are geared toward enhancing the mobile gaming experience.
While Asus promises two major Android updates for the ROG Phone 9 Pro, the relatively limited software support could be a concern for long-term usability. However, given the customization options and gaming features, the phone remains highly functional even without extended software longevity.
Performance and Benchmarks
Under the hood, the ROG Phone 9 Pro is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite, an ultra-performance chipset designed to handle the most demanding games and multitasking applications. With 24GB of LPDDR5X RAM and up to 1TB of UFS 4.0 storage, the ROG Phone 9 Pro is among the most powerful smartphones of 2025, making it an absolute powerhouse in gaming and productivity.
In benchmark tests, the Snapdragon 8 Elite scores impressively high, outpacing competitors in both single-core and multi-core tasks. The iPhone 9 Pro Edition achieved a score of 2.2 million on Antutu, surpassing the iPhone 10 and other top-tier Android devices. In Geekbench 6 CPU tests, the ROG Phone 9 Pro scored significantly higher than its competitors, proving that it is a top performer when it comes to raw processing power.
Gaming benchmarks reveal that the phone excels in GPU-intensive applications, offering smooth gameplay at high settings. On 3DMark Wildlife Extreme, the ROG Phone 9 Pro delivered consistent frame rates even under extreme stress, thanks to its liquid cooling system.
What sets this phone apart from other gaming phones is the availability of X Mode, which pushes the device to its absolute limits, delivering peak performance for high-end games like Genshin Impact and PUBG Mobile. The Game Genie feature provides users with the option to tweak game settings and monitor real-time performance data for a more immersive experience.
Even with 24GB of RAM, the ROG Phone 9 Pro doesn’t overheat, thanks to its advanced cooling solutions, including a vapor chamber and the AeroActive Cooler. Users can expect to run multiple apps, including games, streaming apps, and social media, without experiencing lag or thermal throttling.
With 1TB storage, users have plenty of space for high-resolution media and large game files, eliminating the need for constant storage management.
Connectivity
Connectivity options include Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, and NFC. The ROG Phone 9 Pro also supports eSIM and dual SIM functionality, making it easy for users to stay connected globally. With fast 5G connectivity, the phone provides seamless online gaming and video streaming.
Cameras
The camera system on the ROG Phone 9 Pro has undergone substantial upgrades compared to previous generations, featuring a 50MP main sensor paired with a 32MP telephoto lens and a 13MP ultra-wide lens. The 50MP main sensor boasts f/1.9 aperture, OIS (Optical Image Stabilization), and PDAF (Phase Detection Autofocus), allowing for high-quality photos in varying lighting conditions. The 3x optical zoom on the 32MP telephoto sensor offers clear, sharp shots without significant loss of detail. The 13MP ultra-wide lens ensures expansive shots, though, as with most ultra-wide lenses, it sacrifices some sharpness, particularly at the edges.
One of the standout features is the improved Night Mode, which captures clearer, more detailed low-light shots. The AI processing in low-light situations helps reduce noise and boosts image clarity. Even in dim settings, the ROG Phone 9 Pro delivers better shots than many competitors, making it a strong contender for low-light photography.
When it comes to video, the iPhone 9 Pro can record at an impressive 8K at 30 fps using the main camera, offering superior resolution for video enthusiasts. For 4K recording, you have options for 30fps, 60fps, and even 120fps slow-motion for extreme detail. The phone offers Hyper Steady stabilization in 1080p for smooth video, and adaptive stabilization in 4K and 8K recording formats. One limitation is that in 4K or 8K, you lose access to the ultra-wide lens, but this is understandable given the high resolution.
In terms of selfies, the 32MP front-facing camera does a great job of capturing clear, detailed images with accurate skin tones. Whether you’re using it for game streaming or simply snapping a photo, the selfie camera delivers impressive results, with enough detail to rival dedicated camera phones in this price bracket.
The ROG Phone 9 Pro also offers some clever features like Air Triggers as shutter buttons for capturing photos or starting video recording. These triggers can be mapped to your preferences, giving you additional flexibility when shooting videos or taking pictures.
Read also
- iPad 11 vs iPad 10: Which Budget iPad Offers the Best Value?
- Moto G Power (2025) Review: Budget Power with Impressive Features
Battery Life
The ROG Phone 9 Pro is equipped with a 5,800mAh dual-cell battery, which provides excellent endurance for both gaming and regular use. The battery performance is top-notch, and the phone easily lasts a full day on a single charge, even with heavy gaming or multitasking. During our testing, the phone managed to last over 10 hours of active gaming, a true testament to its battery optimization.
The 65W fast charging ensures that the device charges quickly, taking only about 50 minutes to fully charge. Additionally, the 15W wireless charging and 10W reverse wireless charging options make the phone extremely versatile when it comes to charging, especially for users who prefer to charge wirelessly.
Price And Availability
The ROG Phone 9 Pro Edition is priced at ~$1,344 for the 24GB RAM + 1TB storage variant, making it one of the most premium gaming smartphones available. If you’re looking for a more affordable option, the ROG Phone 9 Pro starts at ~$1,100 for the 16GB RAM + 512GB storage configuration, which still offers excellent performance and gaming capabilities. For those on a tighter budget, the ROG Phone 9 FE comes at ~$785 for the 12GB RAM + 256GB storage model, making it a more budget-friendly choice without sacrificing too much in terms of performance.
One of the perks of purchasing the ROG Phone 9 Pro or the ROG Phone 9 Pro Edition is that early buyers will receive the ROG Chill Case and a screen protector valued at ~$70. This promotional offer is quite attractive, as it adds extra protection and even better audio experience with the Chill Case.
While the ROG Phone 9 series remains on the expensive side, the performance, cooling solutions, and gaming enhancements justify the cost, especially for those who prioritize gaming. Compared to other flagship phones in the market, the ROG Phone 9 Pro still offers an edge for mobile gamers looking for top-tier performance.
For those who may be hesitant about the price, considering the accessories and the added AI features could be worth the investment in the long run, as they enhance the overall user experience.
Pros:
- Impressive Performance: Powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, offering smooth gaming and multitasking performance with up to 24GB RAM.
- Superior Display: 6.78-inch AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate, HDR10+, and 2,500 nits peak brightness for a seamless visual experience.
- Excellent Cooling: The AeroActive Cooler X Pro and liquid cooling system keep the device cool during long gaming sessions.
- Camera Improvements: Upgraded 50MP main sensor with OIS, 32MP telephoto, and 13MP ultrawide for high-quality photography and 8K video recording.
- Long Battery Life: 5,800mAh battery with 65W wired charging and 15W wireless charging to keep you going through long gaming sessions.
- AI Features: AI-powered features like AI Call Translator, AI Transcription, and customizable settings in the Armory Crate for a more personalized experience.
Cons:
- Heavy Build: At 227g, the ROG Phone 9 Pro is on the heavier side, which may not be comfortable for all users.
- Camera Still Behind Flagships: Despite improvements, the camera performance lags behind top-tier dedicated camera phones.
- Expensive: With a starting price of around PHP 62,995 (~$1,100), it may not be affordable for everyone, especially considering its focus on gaming.
Conclusion
The ROG Phone 9 Pro is an undeniable powerhouse in mobile gaming, providing superior performance, cooling, and battery life. With a stunning AMOLED display, advanced gaming controls, and AI-enhanced features, it offers one of the most immersive mobile gaming experiences available today.
The camera system has seen improvements but is still secondary to its gaming strengths. The phone’s design is sleek and functional, making it a solid all-around device for gamers and power users.
If you are a serious gamer looking for premium performance, the ROG Phone 9 Pro is a clear choice. However, if you’re looking for a more well-rounded smartphone, you might want to explore other flagships that offer more versatility.
BUY Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro Amazon
BUY Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro Giztop
(FAQ) Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro:
Is the Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro the best gaming phone of 2025?
- Yes, with its Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, 120Hz AMOLED display, and advanced cooling, the ROG Phone 9 Pro stands out as one of the top gaming smartphones for 2025.
How is the camera on the Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro?
- The ROG Phone 9 Pro features a 50MP main camera, 32MP telephoto, and 13MP ultrawide. While it’s a significant improvement over previous models, it still doesn’t match dedicated flagship camera phones in all aspects.
Does the Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro have a good battery life?
- Yes, with a 5,800mAh battery and 65W fast charging, the phone offers excellent endurance for gaming and regular use, easily lasting a full day.
Can the Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro handle intense gaming?
- Absolutely! The ROG Phone 9 Pro is built for gaming with the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset and up to 24GB of RAM, ensuring smooth gameplay on demanding titles.
What accessories are included with the ROG Phone 9 Pro?
- The phone comes with the AeroActive Cooler X Pro, a ROG Chill Case, and a screen protector as part of the package, adding extra functionality and protection.
Is the Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro suitable for everyday use?
- While the ROG Phone 9 Pro excels at gaming, its heavy build and focus on performance might not make it the best choice for everyday tasks compared to other flagship smartphones.
BUY Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro Amazon
BUY Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro Giztop
