New gaming smartphone uses Samsung's 165Hz OLED screen

ASUS ROG Phone 7 uses a Samsung OLED screen with a 165Hz refresh rate and 1,500 nits peak brightness

The ASUS ROG Phone 7 (and its Ultimate version) is the latest gaming smartphone to launch globally. It is designed specifically for gamers, featuring a big screen, powerful hardware internals, a massive battery, loud speakers, and two (TWO!) USB Type-C ports. It features a 6.78-inch OLED screen made by Samsung Display. The screen has a Full HD+ resolution, a 165Hz refresh rate, a 720Hz touch sampling rate, HDR10+, up to 1,500 nits peak brightness, DC Dimming, and great color accuracy (Delta-E < 1).

It is not the first phone with a 165Hz refresh rate, but it is the first that can achieve a peak brightness of 1,500 nits in HDR mode and close to 1,100 nits (tested by GSMArena) in SDR mode. It is also among the most color-accurate screens used in gaming smartphones. Plus, features like SDR to HDR conversion, DC Dimming, and an under-display optical fingerprint reader complete the overall experience.

ASUS ROG Phone 7 specifications

The ASUS ROG Phone 7 is equipped with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor (The Ultimate version features a door that can open for active cooling), up to 16GB LPDDR5X RAM, up to 512GB UFS 4.0 storage, and a huge cooling system (with Vapor Chamber and graphite sheet). It also features symmetrical stereo speakers, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a powerful haptic motor, and pressure-sensitive shoulder buttons. It also has Wi-Fi 7, an IP54 rating, and a 6,000mAh battery with 65W fast charging.

Since it is a gaming-focused smartphone, ASUS hasn't used top-of-the-line cameras. However, the ROG Phone 7 still features a decent 50MP (Sony IMX766) camera, a 13MP ultrawide camera, an 8MP macro camera, and a 32MP selfie camera. It is capable of recording 8K 24fps videos using the main rear camera. It has a centered SoC placement, dual batteries, and bypass charging so that the phone feels comfortable even during ultra-long gaming sessions. It is priced at EUR 999 (EUR 1,400 for ROG Phone 7 Ultimate) in Europe.