ROG Phone 9 Pro vs ROG Phone 8 Pro: wait, which is which?

Intro

But then again, the ROG Phone 8 was already so powerful that it surely has the headroom to keep going now, in late 2024, right? Yeah, actually.

But hey, the ROG Phone 9 and ROG Phone 9 Pro now come with the brand-new, 3 nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite. That is, indeed, a big deal, as it ushers in a next wave of powerful and energy-efficient chips for Android.

Design and Size

Tech powerhouses, all dressed up

You will very quickly notice that these phones look quite the same, down to the matte glass back and LED matrix underneath it. Well, after a couple of moments, you will see that said matrix has grown a bit, so it can now display larger images (and even mini games). The accents and tiny text all around the phones are also slightly different, but given that these were supposed to be stealthy in the first place — you can only notice them on close inspection.

So, an all-screen front, with a uniform bezel all around. Yes, there’s a camera cutout in the display, and yes — we have the shoulder buttons on the frame of the device for some serious gaming.

Trying to find a difference in how these handle or feel is futile — they are the same excellent glass sandwiches.

Both of these phones have side USB C ports in addition to the bottom one. It’s there for two reasons — you can use it for pass-through power when gaming horizontally for a long time, or you can attach an AeroActive Cooler X fan accessory to keep the phone cool while gaming (or both, as the cooler itself has a pass-through port).

With the ROG Phone 9 series, we get a new AeroActive Cooler X Pro accessory, which now comes with an integrated subwoofer. The good news is that it’s backwards compatible with the ROG Phone 8, and the old Cooler X is also compatible with the new ROG Phones. So, whether you want to upgrade or use your old fan — you have options.

Display Differences

On the front, we have AMOLED panels ordered from Samsung. And, as always, Asus includes a few color calibration options to pick from, whether you want punchy OLED colors, or tame and realistic ones.

The ROG Phone 9 Pro has a slight upgrade here — it goes up to a 185 Hz refresh rate, while the ROG Phone 8 “only” has 165 Hz. There is a caveat — you can only toggle 185 Hz on through the Game Genie, meaning you have to be in-game. That aside… wasn’t 165 Hz overkill enough? We suppose bragging rights are always nice, but wow that’s a lot of refresh cycles per second, and we are pretty sure we don’t spot the difference.

Unlocking the phones is done via an under-screen fingerprint scanner. It’s an optical model and doesn’t feel it has changed between those two phones. It’s generally fast and accurate, but can be a bit picky sometimes.

Performance and Software

The upgrade we are here for

Well, here’s the Snapdragon 8 Elite — Qualcomm’s first 3 nm SoC, and we get to test it on a ROG Phone again! So, the same thermals and optimizations going head to head, here are the results:

Well, yeah… that’s a definite upgrade. Both in terms of GPU and CPU, the new Elite just goes above and beyond.

What does that mean in real life? Well, we wouldn’t write the ROG Phone 8 Pro off just yet. We did dust it off and boot it up for this review comparison, and it’s still a shockingly fast phone. It gets in, out, and through apps in a snappy and responsive manner, and it runs all the heavy Play Store games without missing a beat.

But, since these are enthusiast devices, we know you want that Snapdragon 8 Elite. And yes, it delivers the goods!

As for software, the new ROG Phone 9 comes with a few more AI tricks, which may trickle down to the ROG 8, we are not sure. We have live in-call translation between a few languages, which is cool if a bit clunky. Voice recorder transcription and summary is here, too. And semantic search has now expended to the photos Album (it was only in Settings before) — you can search for specific settings or pictures by description, not exact terms.

Other AI tricks include in-game helpers for tracking spawn rates, auto running, auto item pickup, or quest walktrhough lookup. These phones are light on AI tricks.

Camera

The G in ROG stands for Gimbal

The ROG Phone 9 Pro comes with an upgraded main camera sensor — still 50 MP,  but now a Sony Lytia 700, up from the Sony IMX890 last year. Both phones have an integrated gimbal for stabilization, the ROG 9 goes up to 5-degree wobble compensation, the ROG phone 8, which introduced the gimbal, does 3 degrees. Other than that, there’s a 32 MP 3x telephoto camera, 13 MP ultra-wide, and a 32 MP selfie camera on both.

So, not much has changed, it seems? Well, some slight variations on how the chip and software treat the photos can be detected:

Eventhough the 3x cameras look the same on the specs sheet, their output is quite different. Even at native 3x, we can see that the ROG Phone 9 Pro is doing a better job at keeping finer details intact, and has a slightly wider dynamic range. Going up to 10x shows that the new ROG Phone 9 definitely puts that zoom camera to work better than its predecessor did. The ROG Phone 8 Pro 10x picture here is already blurry, fuzzy, and not really share-worthy. The 9 keeps it together!

Another case where the specs are the same, but the processing is vastly different. The ROG Phone 8 Pro‘s ultrawide camera definitely struggles with wide dynamics, while the ROG 9 feels like an upgrade here — a very strong, visible upgrade.

The ROG Phone 9 pro has an improved gimbal stabilizer, and that’s visible when recording walking videos. Also, the dynamic range, contrast, colors, and details that the new main camera improves upon are also visible in the ROG Phone 9 footage, which looks clearer and generally better than last years’ model.

Audio Quality and Haptics

Since the ROG Phone 8 changed in design, we lost the front-firing speakers that were attached to the previous models’ chins and foreheads. Now, we have a bottom driver and an earpiece driver. And the sound from the ROG Phone 8 Pro was a disappointment last year — yes, it’s still loud and meaty. But too boomy and also with a nasally quality to it in the mids.

The ROG Phone 9 Pro does improve a bit in that area — the nasally sound is gone and there’s some more air in the highs. But it’s still on the boomy side. We did tweak the sound with the system EQ, but you can’t really fix it fully. 

Still, these are among the better-sounding phone speakers out there. We are just nitpicking because we still remember how good the ROG Phone 7 was.

For haptics, these have a very pleasing, strong, instant clicky feel, which works great when tapping the shoulder triggers.

Battery Life and Charging

These just outlasted the Duracell bunny

The ROG Phone 9 Pro comes with an upgraded 5,800 mAh battery. That’s an upgrade, but the ROG Phone 8 Pro was no slouch, with a 5,500 mAh cell in its tank. Thanks to Asus’ optimizations, these phones can squeeze the maximum amount of juice out of these batteries. But, the new 3 nm tech of the Snapdragon 8 Elite is also supposed to be more energy efficient. Well, is it?

And indeed, for regular tasks like web browsing, both perform equally — about 18 and a half hours from each. But when we get into more demanding stuff, like 3D gaming, the ROG Phone 9 Pro pulls ahead in the endurance contest. Worth saying, though, 11 hours of gaming from the ROG Phone 8 Pro is certainly not a disappointment!

Both of these ship with their own 65 W chargers for fast top-ups. In the first 15 to 30 minutes of charging, you will get the same percentages on both of these phones. But, as you try to push a 100% charge, the ROG Phone 9 Pro will take a bit longer due to its battery being a bit bigger.

Specs Comparison

And there you have it — the numbers look impressive. But really, the performance meets the expectations!

Summary

So, is the ROG Phone 9 Pro an upgrade? Most certainly. However, we do find the ROG Phone 8 Pro to still be excellent in terms of display, performance, and battery life. Yes, the new ROG Phone 9 will give you the Snapdragon 8 Elite and a 185 Hz refresh rate to brag about. But its most meaningful updates, we feel, are the slight but much appreciated camera improvements and its attempt to clean up the sound from the speakers.

Is it worth upgrading from a ROG 8 to a 9 series right now? We don’t feel like there’s any hurry yet. But if you are jumping in right now, attracted by that Snapdragon 8 Elite — the ROG Phone 9 is a good point to start.