Asus’ gaming division Republic of Gamers continues its gaming phone line with the 9^th generation of the ROG Phone, featuring various models under the ROG Phone 9 line.

We got our hands on the ROG Phone 9 FE that just released this year. Let’s see how it fares on different games and how it performs in everyday use outside of mobile gaming.

Here’s the info on what’s inside the ROG Phone 9 FE

• Color variant: Phantom Black
• Dimensions: 6.45 x 3.02 x 0.35 in
• Weight: 225 g
• OS: Android 15 with ROG UI
• Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, SM8650, Qcta-core CPUs, 3.3GHz
• GPU: Qualcomm Adreno 750
• Memory: 16 GB LPDDR5X RAM
• Storage: UFS4.0 256 GB
• Display:
  • 78 inch FHD+ 2400 x1080 20:9 ratio
  • LTPO 1~120Hz, Max to 165Hz in system setting / 185Hz in Game Genie
  • Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2
• Rear Camera:
  • Sony IMX890 50 MP f/1.9, 24mm – 1/1.56” gimbal OIS
  • 13 MP 120° ultrawide-angle camera
  • 5MP macro camera
• Front Camera: 32 MP, f/2.5, 22mm (wide), 1/3.2″, 0.7µm
• Audio: Speaker, multi-magnet dual stereo speakers
• SIM Cards: Dual-SIM
• Ports: USB Type-C (side), DisplayPort 1.4, OTG and USB Type-C (bottom)
• Battery: 5500 mAh (65W Wired and 15W Wireless Qi)

The ROG Phone 9 FE, known as Fan Edition, looks like the youngest brother from the 9 series of gaming phones. It’s hard to say what Asus is aiming at with 3 different versions of the gaming phone, but judging by the processor and GPU, it’s lower than the based 9 series (SM8750-AB Snapdragon 8 Elite and Adreno 830 on both the regular 9 and 9 Pro) and only has 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage (where the 9 and 9 Pro can go up to 16GB RAM/512GB and 24Gb RAM/1TB storage). It may hardly see any difference when running your typical apps like for social media and video streaming, but things can be noticeable when playing performance-demanding games and when multi-tasking.

Looking at the design, Asus is pushing more on the aesthetics for the latest version of the ROG Phone, and after seeing each generation of the gaming phone, the overall look of the 9 series is leaning towards being simplistic yet still sleek and stylish. The back part is a bit identical to the 9 Pro version with a metallic finish diagonal slash in the middle, but the FE mode features a ‘09’ design on the right side that makes it stand out from the other variants. In terms of size, all ROG Phone 9 phones stand at 6 and a half inches and weigh almost 230 grams with the FE version being lighter at just 2 grams. Both USB Type-C ports are placed on the side and bottom which makes mobile gaming less cumbersome when charging while playing.

Now for the performance of the phone. When running benchmarks, the 9 FE’s scores were exceptional on Geekbench, though when running in Dynamic mode, it gets outperformed by the Samsung S23 series of phones with its scores but once you bump up its clock speed when switching to X mode, it can perform better the Samsung S24 phones. Booting up the phone just takes a few seconds, which is a big factor considering some of the other flagship phones took almost a minute to fully boot up the phone from the start-up logo to the main menu. Even when using the fingerprint sensor on the screen, it loads fast compared to the ROG Phone 8 version which took longer for the phone to respond to a fingerprint scan on the screen.

And now for games, it’s no surprise to know that the ROG Phone 9 FE can run basically any mobile game available on the market, even with mobile-ported MMO games from the likes of Genshin Impact, Ragnarok Online and Granado Espada M. We tested a couple of mobile games that are available on Google Play and all the games tested run well with rare encounters of crashes which is more on the game client’s issue than the phone’s hardware. The new addition to the ROG Phone line is the AI-powered game assistance. It allows for auto-translation of foreign languages on the game interface when playing, or game enhancements like auto upgrades in MOBA games. As of now, the game assistance isn’t 100% efficient, as some translations weren’t that accurate depending on the language or some assistance won’t work in certain games. It’ll take some time as more players use the feature to train the AI to recognize the gameplay of different genres. This is one AI tool that I’d support as it pushes more on making your game experience more enjoyable and not replacing you as a player.

Despite not having the phone cooler attachment included in the package, the ROG Phone 9 FE can handle the heat after prolonged sessions of gaming. Even when set to its high-performance mode, it doesn’t overheat and despite the phone getting warm quite fast, the heat is still bearable to hold when playing.

Now when using the phone in everyday use outside of gaming, it’s no doubt the 9 FE has no issues in running and handling any number of apps running simultaneously. The 6.78-inch screen has a high refresh rate of up to 185 Hz which makes any videos and games run smoothly. Introduced on the ROG Phone 8, the AniMe Vision allows users to customize the back of the phone with a unique dot matrix-like display that can react to what app you are using or telling you the battery life. Interestingly, the based 9 version only has 85 dots while the 9 FE has 341 dots, unfortunately, this version does not support the AniMe Play which lets you play minigames using the display and utilizes the air triggers as your controller. The 9 FE was just 200 mAh short of the other 9 variants with its 5500 mAh capacity, but it can last the entire day with several hours of gaming and video streaming and still has 15% of juice left.

The camera has more improvements from the previous 8 series, the 9 series has more AI-enhancement options when taking photos that automatically adjusts its brightness, contrasts and even adjusts its angle to make your shots look better. We tried testing the phone indoors with low lighting and so far, the quality of the shots is better now.

When comparing all the 9 series phones, the 9 FE feels like it almost has all the functionality of a standard ROG Phone, even with the appearance and size, just a few notches lower in terms of performance. It’s barely noticeable to see the performance difference, so anyone having a hard time deciding which version to choose may opt to pick the 9 FE if they after more value on their money. There may be some limitations with the 9 FE, such as the AniMe Play and eSIM support and the lack of a bundled phone cooler, but when it comes to having a great-performing gaming phone that plays almost all of the available mobile games, the ROG Phone 9 FE may be a great choice.

The Asus ROG Phone FE is now available at a special introductory price of PHP 39,995 and comes with a free phone case.