ASUS ROG Phone 9 Pro, UK Official, Phantom Black, 16GB RAM 512GB Storage, Snapdragon 8 Elite, 6.78" 185Hz AMOLED, Sony Lytia 700: 50 MP Camera

Good phone, but price not adequate

Excellent phone not just for gaming

Honestly I do really like this phone but I can only give it 3 stars because one of it's selling points (anime vision / LEDs on the back of the phone) has most of the default animations locked behind a "feature" in which you can only unlock them by meeting up in person and sending a text to someone that not only has a ROG phone 9 but a ROG phone 9 that supports anime vision. what? Who at ASUS decided to rail a line before coming up with that idea? Considering that most people don't even know ASUS makes phones and even less people will buy a gaming phone that's a pretty ballsy move... It's also completely asinine and making me hate the phone every time I look at it.

didnt buy from Amazon, bought direct from Asus on launch day. i have had many top end phones in the past, this Rog 9 Pro replaces my xperia pro, that has been faultless and reliable since new. I have to admit, i am a fan of Asus and ROG, mostly laptops. this was my first Asus phone purchase, and had read a number of previous reviews on the WWW regarding several models. To be honest, the reviews were hit and miss. Either you have a good experience or you dont, and reviews reflect more on the bad experiences, i find. So far, in almost 2 months of daily use, i amhappy to report no issues whatsoever. To be fair, i do not hammer the phone with games, i dont have that kind of spare time, i do like to run occasional games, and do watch netflix, crunchyroll and youtube etc. Films and video is faultless. Music is crisp and dynamic. Taking photos is pretty good (though comparing any phone to my xperia Pro is always going to be a sad outcome, that xperia is in a league of its own. Perhaps too good for a phone. Anyway, Rog 9, feels great in the hand, solid and well balanced. i didnt see any bloatware as such, so i didnt need to spend aeons cleaning up the storage of unwanted apps and stuff. Migrating in with USB C was a doddle, really straightforward, though wallpaper and some trivial stuff did not copy acros, but that really doesnt bother me. The phone will last me in most cases, 2 days before needing a charge, and i dont keep it on charge through the day either. it works well with Android Auto, as one would expect. Web, Video and music are all good, photos are reasonable, likewise video is reasonable (I use a Lumix s5 for most video so hard and unfair to qualify the phone when such a fantastic camera is almost always used) but for on the spot ad-hoc stuff, the Rog 9 pro is more than adequate. I would say, the built in gyro stabilisation is awesome, it is almost as good as my action cam (DJI Action 3). Perhaps the only drawback is the fingerprint sensor on rare occasions doesnt read 1st time, though i am sure this is more my misaligning my finger, than anything wrong with the device or implementation. Would i recomend, yes, but this is not a cheap phone! Cost was just over £1k with 512GB and Aero cooler from Asus UK.

Well worth it.