We've had the chance to look at the Asus ROG Phone 3, and based on the design and previous spec rumors, this is a phone that might be a dark horse rival for the Samsung Galaxy Note 20.
The render you see here was revealed on Evan Blass's Patreon page (via 9to5Google). It shows us the front and the back of the ROG Phone 3, which for a phone that's aiming for a dramatic "gamer" look, actually looks pretty handsome.
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Aside from a slightly rounder-looking chassis, these renders make the ROG Phone 3 look a lot like the previous model, the Asus ROG Phone 2. It sports a healthy dose of RGB lighting, a horizontal rear camera array, and a triangular cutout on the back, which indicates a return for the vapor chamber cooling system that Asus uses to keep the gaming phone's temperature in check.
There are more cameras this time, however. The ROG Phone 2 used a 48-megapixel main camera and a 13MP ultrawide camera on its back, with a 24MP sensor on the front in the top bezel. Here we can see there are three rear cameras, and we know two sensors will be 64MP (likely replacing the 48MP sensor), and a 13MP camera will be the third one.
Asus ROG Phone 3 specs
A recent leak from China's TENAA regulatory listings has filled in some other interesting ROG Phone 3 details. We know that it will use a 6.6-inch FHD display, a 6,000 mAh battery with 30W fast charging, and will be available with a choice of 8GB, 12GB or 16GB RAM accompanied by 128GB, 256GB or 512GB of storage.
The ROG Phone 3 should also be among the first handsets to feature Qualcomm's faster new Snapdragon 865 Plus chip. This processor promises speeds in excess of 3 GHz along with beefier graphics performance.
Although gaming phones have a different audience than premium flagships, the overlap in features and specs means it's worth comparing the ROG Phone 3 to the Galaxy Note 20.
The Note 20 should offer the same CPU as the ROG Phone 3 and a similar amount or RAM and storage. However, the Note 20 and particularly the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra will excel in screen size, screen resolution and camera technology, plus it has its signature S Pen stylus included for additional functionality.
However, the ROG Phone 3 has an advantage in battery capacity, charging speed and likely price based on what we know already. The ROG Phone 2 had a 120Hz refresh rate, so we expect the same for its successor; what we don't know is whether it will be dynamic.
The ROG Phone 3 is rumored to launch July 22 with an expected price of $900 if the ROG Phone 2 is anything to go by. We won't see the Galaxy Note 20 until August 5 at Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked event, although that's still less than a month away.
