Asus has revealed its new smartphone, the ROG Phone 9. Like the previous models, this is a gaming-centric Android smartphone that packs an impressive amount of technology inside its frame, and Asus says it’ll be released on November 19.
The new model will be powered by the SnapDragon 8 Elite chipset, and it’s one of the first smartphones to utilize this new hardware. This mobile platform also includes a second-generation Qualcomm Oryon CPU and the enhanced Adreno GPU, which theoretically, will make for smooth gaming experiences on the ROG Phone 9. Asus has also confirmed that the phone will continue to have a gamer-centric design, as it showed off a device with sharp angles that match the general aesthetic of other Republic of Gamers devices.
There’s also a dot-matrix display on the rear with this model, which isn’t unusual to see on Asus hardware. Several of its ROG laptops sport a customizable panel and Asus also makes a controller that includes a tiny OLED panel that can be used to convey useful information when you’re playing games.
Meanwhile, Apple has just released its new line of iPhone 16 smartphones. It has a five-core GPU and a new A18 GPU, and both the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus support hardware-accelerated ray tracing.
While there are only a handful of games that can really push the iPhone hardware to its limits–like iOS versions of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, Death Stranding, and Assassin’s Creed Mirage–it’s still a fascinating time to see how Apple is putting a greater emphasis on using its smartphones and tablets for gaming.