Asus announces the ROG Phone 2 with 120 Hz display, Snapdragon 855+ and more

The highly anticipated (at least in the realm of mobile gaming) release of the ROG Phone 2 is finally upon us. The first iteration of this ultra-gaming smartphone was launched last year at Asus' Computex keynote in Taiwan and now the sequel has arrived. While Asus has abstained from giving the device an official pricetag, it is known that the phone will be launched in China first on 23 July followed by the US on 1 September. Here's what is new with the phone.[caption id="attachment_5823401" align="alignnone" width="1280"]

Asus ROG Phone. Image: tech2/Kshitij Pujari[/caption]

Asus ROG Phone 2 Specs

Performance has always been a key aspect for Asus in its ROG Phone (Review) and it is continued over to the ROG Phone 2. It is the first smartphone to come with the Snapdragon 855+ SoC which offers a 15 percent increase in graphics. Added to that is a 12 GB RAM variant along with up to 512 GB of UFS 3.0 storage. The vapour chamber and cooling mechanisms have been retained from the original.In terms of display, the ROG Phone 2 now has an upgraded 120 Hz 6.59-inch FHD+ display with 2,340 x 1,080 pixels and the added ability to render HDR colour. The phone does not have any display cutouts or notches and instead has bezels on the top and bottom which house the dual-speaker unit. Asus has also increased the touchscreen sampling rate to 240Hz, giving the phone a touch latency to just 49ms.Another massive upgrade is the battery on the ROG Phone 2 which has a capacity of 6,000 mAh with support for 25W fast charging. In the camera department, the phone retains the same optics as before but has added an in-display fingerprint scanner as opposed to the capacitive one in the previous version.