2021 Winners and losers: Asus
Asus has always finished issues just a bit differently in the cell house. Hunting back again at the company’s releases for the earlier 12 months reveals a complete of 8 telephones. Even much less really distinctive models, in functional terms, once we group up all of the unique ROG Cellular phone 5 variants and ignore the Snapdragon Insiders demo system. We are really wanting at two “mainstream” flagship telephones and a gaming flagship with a afterwards chipset revision.
If we had to categorize Asus in recent several years, “boutique” company form of springs to intellect. The selection and availability are alternatively limited, and so are the company’s revenue numbers, but what is there is of significant good quality of just about every phone. Asus has efficiently taken care of and upheld a specific standing for its smartphones, which in alone is an admirable accomplishment.
That, on the other hand, will not imply that the company’s 2021 lineup is with out its problems. Let us go in excess of the report card.
Winner: Asus Zenfone 8
We kick things off with an straightforward acquire in our ebook. When it will come to a thoroughly small and pocketable flagship Android cellphone, the Zenfone 8 hardly has any competition out there. With its 148 x 68.5 x 8.9 mm, 169-gram system, it truthfully helps make the vanilla Samsung Galaxy S21 5G search enormous in comparison. And sure, Sony has the Xperia 5 III, but it has a few certain oddities of its personal and an eye-watering selling price tag.
The Zenfone 8 manages to provide big time and live up to 2021 flagship specifications in most departments. Its highlights incorporate an exceptional aluminum and Gorilla Glass develop and IP68 ingress safety. Its 5.9-inch show may possibly be little but packs a hefty punch with contemporary features like 120Hz refresh fee and HDR10+ assist with 1100 nits of peak brightness. You also get a pair of exceptional stereo speakers, and Asus even managed to fit a 3.5mm audio jack and a 32-little bit DAC for a perfectly-rounded and multipurpose multimedia knowledge.
Almost certainly the most remarkable bit in this article, on the other hand, is the inclusion of a flagship Snapdragon 888 5G chipset and even far more so the extraordinary way in which Asus has managed to retain it amazing. When the smaller physique of the Zenfone 8 can get rather toasty in the method, Asus has managed to hold the chip performing considerably below sustained pressure.
The Zenfone 8’s twin-camera setup is likely its weakest aspect, failing to fairly dwell up to recent flagship hardware benchmarks, however nevertheless providing reliable efficiency. Asus failed to even shy away from enabling 8K video seize, which only will come to clearly show how confident the engineers are in their cooling resolution. With all that ability and connectivity, it is also fairly surprising how lengthy the Zenfone 8 lasts on a single charge with its 4,000 mAh battery. A big chunk of that will come down to the pretty thoroughly clean and optimized ROM Asus has been chipping with its telephones.
Loser: Asus Zenfone 8 Flip
Let us just start by expressing that “loser” may be a bit harsh right here, but we have to stick to our structure. The Zenfone 8 Flip is a bit of a flop in conditions of popularity as opposed to its Zenfone 8 sibling and in a natural way on the broader smartphone scene as perfectly. With a a little bit higher launch price tag that pressured it to rub shoulders with some massive-puppy opponents whilst also presenting few upgrades in excess of very last year’s model and no IP68 score, the Zenfone 8 Flip was in a bit of a rough location from the get-go. Its exclusive point – the outstanding rotating key digital camera – was however not sufficient to sway public desire.
That remaining stated, the Zenfone 8 Flip certainly obtained our interest. It is very little quick of a sound, effectively-rounded flagship provide. Granted, Asus arguably didn’t set rather the same total of work into some other areas of the Flip as the vanilla Zenfone 8. It only receives a 90Hz exhibit, skips the ingress protection and the 3.5mm audio jack, to title a handful of omissions. On the other hand, it adds a 3x telephoto camera to the blend and also tosses in a bigger 5,000 mAh battery.
The bottom line in this article – we like the Zenfone 8 Flip a ton. We do, nevertheless, take pleasure in how its not adding far too significantly more than its predecessor.
Winner: Asus ROG Telephone 5
Couple of names are really as synonymous with mobile gaming as ROG. And that’s a perfectly-deserved and tough-acquired honor by Asus. There is basically an argument to be made that the Republic of Gamers engineers and their difficult perform is the greatest singular cause for the existence of the modern gaming smartphone as a products niche, and handful of have completed extra to set a benchmark for explained machine all over the yrs. Even with ongoing strain from opposition and regardless of some questionable decisions as of late, we however maintain that no other smartphone delivers very the all round gaming experience that the ROG Cell phone 5 does.
It truly is honestly really hard to briefly protect each facet of the ROG Mobile phone 5 and do it justice. It all will come down to remarkable notice to detail. Asus has managed to once once again get what are common off-the-shelf parts like the Snapdragon 888 and devote adequate time on minimal-degree optimization, cooling, general performance tweaking and advanced software package controls and tuning to squeeze out just about every past ounce of performance from the chip. That same mentality is also used to other spots necessary for a fantastic all round gaming working experience, like enter and output latency optimization on both equally a hardware amount with the exceptional 144Hz 10-little bit HDR AMOLED panel as perfectly as OS optimizations.
That is all wrapped within an promptly recognizeable gaming exterior and a top quality shell, finish with even more hardware for an additional gaming edge, like the sector-foremost AirTrigger 5 and Ultrasonic buttons, as effectively as the proprietary facet connector and the slew of extras up on supply, like the AeroActive Cooler 5.
Loser: Asus ROG Phone 5’s accent ecosystem
While total, the ROG Cellphone 5 stays an amazingly spectacular and feature-abundant device and the best gaming cell phone out there, its ecosystem took a move again.
The ROG Telephone 5 represents a considerably even larger layout improve than the older ROG Telephone 3 was to the ROG Cellular phone II. Very pretty much, given that the ROG Phone 5 has developed its footprint just ample to crack compatibility with a entire slew of pre-present ROG Phone components. Exceptional and unmatched, even if admittedly really market and exuberant gizmos like the TwinView Dock 3 and the Cell Desktop Dock are no extended supported by the ROG Mobile phone 5.
To be reasonable, Asus hardly ever really promised to preserve its add-ons compatibilitble for at any time and if it was to do that it would limit its innovation. Nonetheless, the move takes absent some of the amazing achievements of the ROG accent ecosystem.
Whilst on the subject matter of layout, we also have concerns with the new facet connector. What was the moment a quite protected and sturdy Variety-C derived connector is now a a lot flimsier option on the ROG Cellphone 5. In reality, we even managed to injury a single of our AeroActive Cooler 5 models all through the review.
And talking of the AeroActive Cooler 5, not only is it much more finicky to function with than prior iterations, but it is also no lengthier involved in the box with the foundation ROG Phone 5 and requires to be bought independently.
Loser: ROG Telephone 5 complicated model lineup
Asus has been battling with naming, variants and SKUs for its products as a whole. Some of you could keep in mind that Zenfone designs of outdated pretty much demanded buyers to know a comprehensive design selection, significantly like they would on a laptop just to be sure what model to get. This has been plaguing the ROG Mobile phone line as very well albeit to a lesser extent.
And Asus someway manufactured it even worse with the ROG Telephone 5 loved ones. The unique ROG Telephone 5 lineup has a few designs – the vanilla comes in 8GB/128GB, 12GB/256GB, and 16GB/256GB configurations relying on the region. And the Professional and the Supreme editions include some style adjustments and even far more souped-up storage versions. There is no longer a Strix “lesser” design either.
And things just got that more baffling with the introduction of the ROG Cell phone 5s and 5s Pro. Both of those gadgets swap the Snapdragon 888 for an 888+ and present upgraded, sector-major 360Hz touch sampling fees on their shows. The vanilla ROG Phone 5s is based mostly on the vanilla ROG Cellular phone 5, so it has an RGB emblem on the back and skips on the PMOLED ROG vision screen and the excess rear touch inputs that the Professional and Greatest editions applied to have.
This vanilla ROG Cellular phone 5s also comes in the identical RAM and storage configurations as its predecessor, up to 16GB/256GB. Curiously, it can only be experienced in a Storm White shade, which was earlier a ROG Cellular phone 5 Best unique.
You can obviously see how this can get complicated rapid. Luckily or maybe not, relying on how you see it, Asus type of phased out its authentic ROG Cell phone 5 models in favor of the 5s types as supplies have been exhausted.
On the fence: Asus ROG Cellular phone 5s
Finding a ROG Cell phone 5s with a shiny new Snapdragon 888+ instead of the authentic product with its Snapdragon 888 for the exact retail rate may well seem like a excellent deal on paper, but in fact, that wasn’t genuinely the situation. You can look at our ROG Cell phone 5s Pro in-depth review for a further assessment on accurately what the concern is, but it in essence boils down to the point that the Snapdragon 888+ operates really hot, even additional so than the common Snapdragon 888 and even the marketplace-leading cooling method on the ROG Phone 5 is not fairly able to continue to keep up with it.
At the end of the day, you end up with a telephone that operates hotter and, owing to the thermal transfer layout, feels hotter to the contact, devoid of significantly true profit in terms of general performance. We unquestionably get why Asus felt the have to have and tension to do a chipset swap on the ROG Telephone 5s to the sizzling-ticket Snapdragon 888+. Not carrying out so would have seemed terrible in terms of PR. You are not able to assert to be leading-pet dog without the need of the hottest and greatest components.
Even now, all factors deemed, even if we are unable to blame Asus much too considerably for the ROG Mobile phone 5s, the reality stays that the item in the long run arrived out even worse off.
Asus has always finished issues just a bit differently in the cell house. Hunting back again at the company’s releases for the earlier 12 months reveals a complete of 8 telephones. Even much less really distinctive models, in functional terms, once we group up all of the unique ROG Cellular phone 5 variants and ignore the Snapdragon Insiders demo system. We are really wanting at two “mainstream” flagship telephones and a gaming flagship with a afterwards chipset revision.
If we had to categorize Asus in recent several years, “boutique” company form of springs to intellect. The selection and availability are alternatively limited, and so are the company’s revenue numbers, but what is there is of significant good quality of just about every phone. Asus has efficiently taken care of and upheld a specific standing for its smartphones, which in alone is an admirable accomplishment.
That, on the other hand, will not imply that the company’s 2021 lineup is with out its problems. Let us go in excess of the report card.
Winner: Asus Zenfone 8
We kick things off with an straightforward acquire in our ebook. When it will come to a thoroughly small and pocketable flagship Android cellphone, the Zenfone 8 hardly has any competition out there. With its 148 x 68.5 x 8.9 mm, 169-gram system, it truthfully helps make the vanilla Samsung Galaxy S21 5G search enormous in comparison. And sure, Sony has the Xperia 5 III, but it has a few certain oddities of its personal and an eye-watering selling price tag.
The Zenfone 8 manages to provide big time and live up to 2021 flagship specifications in most departments. Its highlights incorporate an exceptional aluminum and Gorilla Glass develop and IP68 ingress safety. Its 5.9-inch show may possibly be little but packs a hefty punch with contemporary features like 120Hz refresh fee and HDR10+ assist with 1100 nits of peak brightness. You also get a pair of exceptional stereo speakers, and Asus even managed to fit a 3.5mm audio jack and a 32-little bit DAC for a perfectly-rounded and multipurpose multimedia knowledge.
Almost certainly the most remarkable bit in this article, on the other hand, is the inclusion of a flagship Snapdragon 888 5G chipset and even far more so the extraordinary way in which Asus has managed to retain it amazing. When the smaller physique of the Zenfone 8 can get rather toasty in the method, Asus has managed to hold the chip performing considerably below sustained pressure.
The Zenfone 8’s twin-camera setup is likely its weakest aspect, failing to fairly dwell up to recent flagship hardware benchmarks, however nevertheless providing reliable efficiency. Asus failed to even shy away from enabling 8K video seize, which only will come to clearly show how confident the engineers are in their cooling resolution. With all that ability and connectivity, it is also fairly surprising how lengthy the Zenfone 8 lasts on a single charge with its 4,000 mAh battery. A big chunk of that will come down to the pretty thoroughly clean and optimized ROM Asus has been chipping with its telephones.
Loser: Asus Zenfone 8 Flip
Let us just start by expressing that “loser” may be a bit harsh right here, but we have to stick to our structure. The Zenfone 8 Flip is a bit of a flop in conditions of popularity as opposed to its Zenfone 8 sibling and in a natural way on the broader smartphone scene as perfectly. With a a little bit higher launch price tag that pressured it to rub shoulders with some massive-puppy opponents whilst also presenting few upgrades in excess of very last year’s model and no IP68 score, the Zenfone 8 Flip was in a bit of a rough location from the get-go. Its exclusive point – the outstanding rotating key digital camera – was however not sufficient to sway public desire.
That remaining stated, the Zenfone 8 Flip certainly obtained our interest. It is very little quick of a sound, effectively-rounded flagship provide. Granted, Asus arguably didn’t set rather the same total of work into some other areas of the Flip as the vanilla Zenfone 8. It only receives a 90Hz exhibit, skips the ingress protection and the 3.5mm audio jack, to title a handful of omissions. On the other hand, it adds a 3x telephoto camera to the blend and also tosses in a bigger 5,000 mAh battery.
The bottom line in this article – we like the Zenfone 8 Flip a ton. We do, nevertheless, take pleasure in how its not adding far too significantly more than its predecessor.
Winner: Asus ROG Telephone 5
Couple of names are really as synonymous with mobile gaming as ROG. And that’s a perfectly-deserved and tough-acquired honor by Asus. There is basically an argument to be made that the Republic of Gamers engineers and their difficult perform is the greatest singular cause for the existence of the modern gaming smartphone as a products niche, and handful of have completed extra to set a benchmark for explained machine all over the yrs. Even with ongoing strain from opposition and regardless of some questionable decisions as of late, we however maintain that no other smartphone delivers very the all round gaming experience that the ROG Cell phone 5 does.
It truly is honestly really hard to briefly protect each facet of the ROG Mobile phone 5 and do it justice. It all will come down to remarkable notice to detail. Asus has managed to once once again get what are common off-the-shelf parts like the Snapdragon 888 and devote adequate time on minimal-degree optimization, cooling, general performance tweaking and advanced software package controls and tuning to squeeze out just about every past ounce of performance from the chip. That same mentality is also used to other spots necessary for a fantastic all round gaming working experience, like enter and output latency optimization on both equally a hardware amount with the exceptional 144Hz 10-little bit HDR AMOLED panel as perfectly as OS optimizations.
That is all wrapped within an promptly recognizeable gaming exterior and a top quality shell, finish with even more hardware for an additional gaming edge, like the sector-foremost AirTrigger 5 and Ultrasonic buttons, as effectively as the proprietary facet connector and the slew of extras up on supply, like the AeroActive Cooler 5.
Loser: Asus ROG Phone 5’s accent ecosystem
While total, the ROG Cellphone 5 stays an amazingly spectacular and feature-abundant device and the best gaming cell phone out there, its ecosystem took a move again.
The ROG Telephone 5 represents a considerably even larger layout improve than the older ROG Telephone 3 was to the ROG Cellular phone II. Very pretty much, given that the ROG Phone 5 has developed its footprint just ample to crack compatibility with a entire slew of pre-present ROG Phone components. Exceptional and unmatched, even if admittedly really market and exuberant gizmos like the TwinView Dock 3 and the Cell Desktop Dock are no extended supported by the ROG Mobile phone 5.
To be reasonable, Asus hardly ever really promised to preserve its add-ons compatibilitble for at any time and if it was to do that it would limit its innovation. Nonetheless, the move takes absent some of the amazing achievements of the ROG accent ecosystem.
Whilst on the subject matter of layout, we also have concerns with the new facet connector. What was the moment a quite protected and sturdy Variety-C derived connector is now a a lot flimsier option on the ROG Cellphone 5. In reality, we even managed to injury a single of our AeroActive Cooler 5 models all through the review.
And talking of the AeroActive Cooler 5, not only is it much more finicky to function with than prior iterations, but it is also no lengthier involved in the box with the foundation ROG Phone 5 and requires to be bought independently.
Loser: ROG Telephone 5 complicated model lineup
Asus has been battling with naming, variants and SKUs for its products as a whole. Some of you could keep in mind that Zenfone designs of outdated pretty much demanded buyers to know a comprehensive design selection, significantly like they would on a laptop just to be sure what model to get. This has been plaguing the ROG Mobile phone line as very well albeit to a lesser extent.
And Asus someway manufactured it even worse with the ROG Telephone 5 loved ones. The unique ROG Telephone 5 lineup has a few designs – the vanilla comes in 8GB/128GB, 12GB/256GB, and 16GB/256GB configurations relying on the region. And the Professional and the Supreme editions include some style adjustments and even far more souped-up storage versions. There is no longer a Strix “lesser” design either.
And things just got that more baffling with the introduction of the ROG Cell phone 5s and 5s Pro. Both of those gadgets swap the Snapdragon 888 for an 888+ and present upgraded, sector-major 360Hz touch sampling fees on their shows. The vanilla ROG Phone 5s is based mostly on the vanilla ROG Cellular phone 5, so it has an RGB emblem on the back and skips on the PMOLED ROG vision screen and the excess rear touch inputs that the Professional and Greatest editions applied to have.
This vanilla ROG Cellular phone 5s also comes in the identical RAM and storage configurations as its predecessor, up to 16GB/256GB. Curiously, it can only be experienced in a Storm White shade, which was earlier a ROG Cellular phone 5 Best unique.
You can obviously see how this can get complicated rapid. Luckily or maybe not, relying on how you see it, Asus type of phased out its authentic ROG Cell phone 5 models in favor of the 5s types as supplies have been exhausted.
On the fence: Asus ROG Cellular phone 5s
Finding a ROG Cell phone 5s with a shiny new Snapdragon 888+ instead of the authentic product with its Snapdragon 888 for the exact retail rate may well seem like a excellent deal on paper, but in fact, that wasn’t genuinely the situation. You can look at our ROG Cell phone 5s Pro in-depth review for a further assessment on accurately what the concern is, but it in essence boils down to the point that the Snapdragon 888+ operates really hot, even additional so than the common Snapdragon 888 and even the marketplace-leading cooling method on the ROG Phone 5 is not fairly able to continue to keep up with it.
At the end of the day, you end up with a telephone that operates hotter and, owing to the thermal transfer layout, feels hotter to the contact, devoid of significantly true profit in terms of general performance. We unquestionably get why Asus felt the have to have and tension to do a chipset swap on the ROG Telephone 5s to the sizzling-ticket Snapdragon 888+. Not carrying out so would have seemed terrible in terms of PR. You are not able to assert to be leading-pet dog without the need of the hottest and greatest components.
Even now, all factors deemed, even if we are unable to blame Asus much too considerably for the ROG Mobile phone 5s, the reality stays that the item in the long run arrived out even worse off.
