Rog Phone 8 Is a RIP Off, do not buy ! 🗑️

[waxy78611]

If you're wondering whether the speakers are better or even the SAME as previous Rog phones, the answer is no. The speakers on the 8, 1 on front and one on the bottom bezel, different to all other Rog phones. No dedicated amplifiers with the Rog 8, all other Rog phones had dedicated amplifiers. Speakers are a huge downgrade with Rog 8, no more rich or bassy sound. That ended with the Rog 7.

So the question is, how is the ridiculous €1300 or €1600 justified? It's not. You aren't getting any flagship features at all. Still a FHD screen, speakers are massively downgraded, only 2 years worth of software updates, obsolete hardware (we all know what happened to Rog 2 phones suddenly dieing, Rog 3 had the black crush screen issues, Rog 5 had the dead WiFi and hotspot issue which ruined the motherboard , Rog 6 had a front camera hardware fault which caused the Rog 6 to die. Rog 7 has been ruined with software updates. Oh and the previous Rog phones were also ruined with software updates. Cameras are improved but average, nothing flagship about them.  Battery is downgraded to 5500mah (oh yeah, there's a Chinese youtube channel that compared Rog 8 battery life to Rog 7, Rog 7 battery life is significantly better. Rog 8 has worse battery than all previous Rog phones).

Just buy a red magic for half the price Or, go for the Samsung s24 ultra, you'll get a WQHD+ screen, better warranty, more reliable hardware, longer software updates, better resale value, better design, much much better cameras all for a lower price than the ridiculous Rog phone 8. 

There's nothing about the Rog phone 8 that can justify it's price tag. Asus have ruined the Rog series. Ask yourself this, are you getting better features with a s24 ultra, Vivo x100 pro, oppo find x7 ultra, the latest Sony phone or a Rog phone 8? Factor in the price too. 

Last but not least, no more bootloader unlocking supported by ASUS. firmware downgrades not possible too 😅 so if you receive a bad software update (which Asus loves giving, updates that ruin phones) you are stuck on that update. Also, Asus have removed all updates from their website except the latest one (which will ruin your phone). 

The s24 ultra is announced tomorrow so if you're looking for a new phone, go for the s24 ultra. I've listed the reason above as to why you should get the s24 ultra. 

Time to say bye to Asus.

[luizarthurbrito]

completely agree with you. I'm just very sad there's no other phone for me on the market, now. I'm glad I upgraded from the rog phone 5 to the 7. At least I'll have a good couple of years left with it. The downgrade in speaker quality is just incomprehensible. A punch hole camera? c'mon man... Smaller battery? deal breaker (I'd also like to mention the death of the led notification light, rip my friend, I'll always love you). 

Reallly saddens me to see the direction asus took with the rog phone 8. The good things about it:

-brighter display, it was needed.

-sensible back design (I'm not a gamer, I've always hated that hideous obnoxious teen gamery look).

-better camera hardware. Still, not top notch, but an improvement. 

all in all, goodbye asus, It was ok being your customer for a few years. 

[waxy78611]

Unfortunately there isn't a phone like the Rog 7 or Rog 6 or Rog 5 or even Rog 3 on the market. The amazing front firing speakers are a thing of the past. There's nothing about the Rog 8 worth spending so much money for. Although I'll point out that you can pickup the Rog 8 for under £600 from china. Which realistically should be the price of it worldwide because there's nothing flagship about it. 

I too will hold onto my Rog 7, I might buy the vivo x100 pro instead of the Samsung s24 ultra as the vivo camera is better 

[Tanaka-TNK]

Using Rog 6 for a year and even upgrade from android 12 to the latest android 13, didn't having any issues or camera issues like you say

[mr_arindam_bagc]

I really wonder what is Asus' strategy even. I'm fooled thrice with Asus products. They are always pushing experimental things on their mobos, phones, and routers and updates often bricking said devices(or light mobos on fire). Do they care about customer retention or do they only care how to fleece first time unaware customers.

My rog5 would run almost 3days on 80% battery in the beginning, then one day woke up to a randomly ultraheated phone and the battery has never lasted a day on 100% charge since. Just last month I finally got the notorious WIFI brick(although sim cards are still working). All the asus "exclusive" service centres near me services all brands; faux-first party centres. They don't know how to fix, only replace and charge money. When I bought the phone I was surprised it had no meta bloat. I hoped there would be wide range of accessories like rog2/3. I hoped I could install custom firmwares one day. Nah Asus stopped doing all that with ROG3.

Similar story with router I bought, updates locked up features and overheating the board frequently. I got the ROG Ally as it was the only handheld with "official" support in my region and ofc the microSD reader fried with my SD card, bricked BIOS and Asus won't reimburse or fix it in my region.

[Fearstim]

I agree. I have owned every Rog Phone since they were first introduced but the new Rog 8 speakers and lower battery capacity have killed the brand for me. Will not be purchasing this year. I wonder what the speaker quality of the S24 Ultra will be?