ASUS ROG Phone 7 Ultimate review: Unlimited power

At a $2,099 RRP, the ASUS ROG Phone 7 Ultimate has flagship pricing akin to the entry-level-storage options for the iPhone 14 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra smartphones. That’s a steep investment for the competitive mobile gaming niche.

Still, flagship pricing also means high-end innards, including a speedy processor, a gorgeous screen and battery life to spare. The ROG Phone 7 Ultimate can keep up with anything you do, from everyday multitasking to demanding games, and it’s got enough juice to keep you in the game for longer.

The Energizer Bunny of battery life

The ASUS ROG Phone 7 Ultimate has fantastic battery life. If you’re a light user, expect to comfortably get three or more days. Moderate users should comfortably get a couple of days, while heavy users can expect a full day of intense use. And if you’re someone who rarely uses your phone, it took the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate 5.5 days to drain from 100% to 15%.

In my tests, the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate offered just shy of 24 hours with Full HD YouTube video playback over WiFi (with default brightness settings and 50% audio). High-end gaming is obviously more demanding, and you’re looking at around 12% drain per hour, which is still around eight hours of continuous screen time. Expect lower longevity if you’re on 4G and 5G data but don’t let that detract from otherwise impressive endurance.

Recharging ain’t no slouch, either. With a flat battery, I was able to power on the phone after a minute of charging and had 23% after 10 minutes of charge time. Just 48 minutes later, the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate was back to 100%. The disclaimer here is the provided ASUS charger was pulling so much power it stopped any other device from charging on a double adaptor, even when it isn’t plugged into the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate.

With the handset face down, there’s a ‘ROG Vision’ matrix display on the back of the phone that’ll tell you how long you’ve got left to charge as well as other system events like incoming calls. That rear display and the inclusion of an AeroActive Cooler 7 peripheral are the only differences between the $1,799 ROG Phone 7 and its pricier ROG Phone 7 Ultimate sibling.

An overkill everyday mobile phone

If you’re looking at the ASUS ROG Phone 7 Ultimate as an everyday mobile phone, there are better-value options out there. That said, the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate will comfortably tackle any everyday task, from web browsing and social media scrolling to speedy multitasking and photography.

Outside of a case, the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate stays cool during everyday use. The only exception to this was when I had back-to-back larger app downloads that made the handset noticeably warmer (albeit not uncomfortably so).

The main quirk I encountered was WiFi consistently dropped out overnight. Every morning, the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate would tell me either the WiFi was connected without internet (when it was working fine on every other device) or it was disconnected entirely. Swapping between 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks was the workaround, but there was also no firmware update to rectify this by the end of my review period.

ASUS deserves credit for trying to up its photography game with the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate, this time with a 50MP Sony sensor at the heart of the main camera. If you don’t want to tinker, the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate camera is a speedy operator with good focus and decent results. Tinkerers can dig into the settings to find a range of modes, including video (up to 8K at 24fps), and you actually have to dig into the settings to bump the main camera from its 12.5MP default state to 50MP.

Pictures tend to be overly bright and suffer in side-by-side comparisons with smartphones like the Google Pixel 7 Pro. The image detail is mostly comparable across day and night shots, but colour accuracy feels more artificial with the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate’s pictures and the edges of clouds look fuzzier. In fairness, these aren’t the kind of details I really noticed until I compared side-by-shot pictures with the Pixel 7 Pro.

The best smartphone for mobile gaming

ASUS isn’t renowned for making non-gaming devices and, unsurprisingly, the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate is no exception to that rule. Even as a casual mobile gamer, I can appreciate the focus on a top-of-the-line gaming experience on the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate.

Whenever prompted, I ensured every game I tested was using the highest-resolution textures, trying to trip up the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate. But it never skipped a beat. The preinstalled X Sense software does a solid job of automating gaming while also offering tweaks for those who want to personalise. No matter what game I tried, the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate offered speedy performance and what felt like a viable competitive advantage for online games like Call of Duty Mobile and Fortnite.

While the bright high-refresh-rate screen is great for mobile gaming, the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate does heat up during extended gaming sessions. Admittedly, it’s more noticeably warm than uncomfortably hot. And that’s where the AeroActive 7 Cooler is on hand to drop the temperature.

This clever peripheral has a fan and inbuilt subwoofer, the latter of which complements the already beefy speaker audio. Once attached to the back, the fan points at the middle of the chassis to keep things cool. There are also buttons on the back of the cooler for easy-to-reach inputs. That said, the hump the AeroActive 7 Cooler creates never felt particularly natural to hold.

ASUS ROG Phone 7 Ultimate - Final Thoughts

The ASUS ROG Phone 7 Ultimate is less game-changer and more game-improver. By targeting a niche of phone users - competitive mobile gamers - ASUS has seemingly poured everything into making a smartphone that’s gaming first and everything else second.

That’s not without its perks, though: excellent battery life, exceptional recharging speed, a gorgeous screen and performance to spare. But by going all in on mobile gaming, it comes at the cost of some of the everyday practicalities you take for granted on competing smartphones: namely, higher acceptable heat and a less-than-flagship camera stack albeit at flagship prices.

Asus ROG Phone 7 Ultimate camera samples

Nathan Lawrence

Freelance Contributor

Nathan Lawrence is a freelance writer with over 11 years of experience. He has contributed to publications including WhistleOut Australia, Review.org/au, IGN, STACK, Fandom, Red Bull, and AusGamers. Nathan specialises in researching, writing, and editing content around technology, telecommunications, and gaming.

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