Asus ROG Phone 7 Ultimate review

Synthetic benchmarks

Having the latest and greatest chipset around is already expected of ROG Phones as they aim to constantly be at the top of the mobile gaming scene. This year is no exception, with the ROG Phone 7 and 7 Ultimate both rocking the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip.

Asus sources the most tricked-out versions of the current top-tier chipsets. Since its competitors have access to the same hardware, they also enhance the experience in other supplementary ways. Things like advanced cooling solutions, in-depth performance tuning, and user-accessible profiles and parameters to tweak. The ROG Phone 7 Ultimate is no exception.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is an excellent 4nm chip made on TSMCs N4 node. Its CPU configuration includes one Kryo Prime, Cortex-X3 core, clocked at up to 3.2GHz, two Kryo Gold Cortex-A715 cores, working at up to 2.8GHz, two Kryo Gold Cortex-A710 cores at up to 2.8GHz and three Krio Silver Cortex-A510 cores, clocked at up to 2.0 GHz. The CPU is paired with an Adreno 740 GPU, which Asus says is overclocked, though it does not share any particulars.

This year Asus also went for the fastest currently-available LPDDR5X RAM, capable of up to 8533 Mbps of operation speeds, which is up to a 33% increase in performance since last gen.

For storage, all storage tiers of the ROG Phone 7 and 7 Ultimate get blazing-fast UFS 4.0 storage chips. These have a maximum bandwidth of 4324 Mbps and are twice as fast as the UFS 3.x generation.

For the sake of thoroughness, we will note that our ROG Phone 7 Ultimate review unit has 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, which is the only configuration the Ultimate comes in.

Another thing worth noting is that Asus has made its X-Mode performance tuning even smarter this generation. The system can now do advanced thread balancing so that things like a game's main thread always take priority and work on the best available core. Asus is also doing bespoke tuning on a per-game basis, with optimizations coming in as updates within Armory Crate. This tuning is reserved for the most popular titles and ensures performance stability while balancing heat and battery life for the best possible experience.

Asus estimates that the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is about 15% better than the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 in CPU performance, 20% better in GPU and about 15% more efficient overall.

Another potentially interesting detail to note here is that, unlike previous years, Asus did not manage to get their hands on the best possible version of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset available. That would be the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy, which has its prime CPU core clocked higher at 3.36 GHz and its GPU boosted to 719 MHz.

We can only presume that this particular chip, as its name suggests, is exclusive to Samsung Galaxy devices, at least for the time being, which is why Asus did not source it for the ROG Phone 7 family. This being the case, it will be really interesting to see how the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate performs compared to current Galaxy phones like the Galaxy S23 Ultra.

Transitioning into some actual synthetic benchmarks, we ran all of our tests at the default Dynamic mode, X Mode, and X Mode+, which only gets unlocked and substitutes the regular X Mode when you attach the AeroActive Cooler 7 to the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate. We've left all of the other in-depth tuning sliders on default, cooled the phone between runs and had the AeroActive Cooler 5 manually set to max for those tests.

Let's kick things off with some CPU testing and GeekBench. We can see that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy platform is outpacing the vanilla Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 a bit in single-core tests due to its higher prime core clock speed. Not so much with multi-core workloads.

GeekBench 5 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• iPhone 14 Pro Max
  5423
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 8 Pro
  5211
• ROG Phone 7 Ultimate (X Mode)
  5180
• ROG Phone 7 Ultimate (X Mode+)
  5139
• ROG Phone 7 (X Mode+)
  5098
• Xiaomi 13 Pro
  5087
• Galaxy S23+
  5073
• ROG Phone 7
  4935
• Galaxy S23 Ultra
  4927
• OnePlus 11
  4899
• Motorola Edge 40 Pro
  4896
• ROG Phone 7 Ultimate
  4832
• iQOO 11
  4803
• ROG Phone 6D (X Mode+)
  4631
• iPhone 14 Plus
  4582
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate (X Mode+)
  4575
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  4300
• vivo X90 Pro
  4273
• Motorola Edge 30 Ultra
  4265
• ROG Phone 6 Pro (X Mode+)
  3980
• Huawei Mate 50 Pro
  3839
• Black Shark 5 Pro
  3665
• Motorola Edge 30 Pro
  3658
• ROG Phone 6D
  3531
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate
  3505
• Oppo Find X5 Pro
  3433
• Sony Xperia 1 IV
  3403
• Google Pixel 7 Pro
  3187
• ROG Phone 6 Pro
  2659

GeekBench 5 (single-core)

Higher is better

• iPhone 14 Pro Max
  1890
• iPhone 14 Plus
  1712
• Galaxy S23+
  1551
• Galaxy S23 Ultra
  1537
• Xiaomi 13 Pro
  1490
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 8 Pro
  1486
• Motorola Edge 40 Pro
  1482
• iQOO 11
  1479
• ROG Phone 7 Ultimate (X Mode)
  1473
• ROG Phone 7 (X Mode+)
  1471
• ROG Phone 7 Ultimate (X Mode+)
  1454
• ROG Phone 6D (X Mode+)
  1399
• ROG Phone 7
  1397
• vivo X90 Pro
  1387
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate (X Mode+)
  1360
• ROG Phone 7 Ultimate
  1359
• ROG Phone 6 Pro (X Mode+)
  1329
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  1324
• Huawei Mate 50 Pro
  1277
• Motorola Edge 30 Ultra
  1276
• Motorola Edge 30 Pro
  1196
• Black Shark 5 Pro
  1176
• Sony Xperia 1 IV
  1160
• OnePlus 11
  1150
• ROG Phone 6 Pro
  1110
• Google Pixel 7 Pro
  1056
• ROG Phone 6D
  1015
• Oppo Find X5 Pro
  1002
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate
  1001

AnTuTu is a much more compound benchmark, and things like the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate's LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 storage are definitely showing through in the chart-topping results.

AnTuTu 9

Higher is better

• ROG Phone 7 (X Mode+)
  1333597
• ROG Phone 7 Ultimate (X Mode+)
  1325105
• ROG Phone 7 Ultimate (X Mode)
  1310055
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 8 Pro
  1288866
• Xiaomi 13 Pro
  1281666
• iQOO 11
  1281665
• ROG Phone 7
  1279196
• Motorola Edge 40 Pro
  1273764
• Galaxy S23 Ultra
  1241531
• Galaxy S23+
  1234077
• vivo X90 Pro
  1228735
• ROG Phone 7 Ultimate
  1218533
• OnePlus 11
  1140661
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate (X Mode+)
  1107464
• ROG Phone 6D (X Mode+)
  1104042
• ROG Phone 6 Pro (X Mode+)
  1103188
• Motorola Edge 30 Ultra
  1074722
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  1039412
• Oppo Find X5 Pro
  1012896
• Black Shark 5 Pro
  1007133
• Huawei Mate 50 Pro
  979921
• iPhone 14 Pro Max
  955884
• ROG Phone 6D
  948594
• Motorola Edge 30 Pro
  941895
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate
  931170
• Sony Xperia 1 IV
  838832
• iPhone 14 Plus
  797976
• Google Pixel 7 Pro
  796369
• ROG Phone 6 Pro
  762090

Moving on to graphical tests and GFXBench, we can clearly see that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate are on top of the food chain.

GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Galaxy S23+
  89
• Motorola Edge 40 Pro
  86
• ROG Phone 7 (X Mode+)
  84
• ROG Phone 7 Ultimate
  83
• ROG Phone 7 Ultimate (X Mode)
  83
• ROG Phone 7 Ultimate (X Mode+)
  83
• ROG Phone 7
  81
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 8 Pro
  75
• vivo X90 Pro
  65
• Motorola Edge 30 Ultra
  65
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate (X Mode+)
  63
• ROG Phone 6D (X Mode+)
  62
• ROG Phone 6D
  61
• ROG Phone 6 Pro (X Mode+)
  61
• Black Shark 5 Pro
  61
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate
  59
• Motorola Edge 30 Pro
  59
• ROG Phone 6 Pro
  58
• iQOO 11
  54
• Galaxy S23 Ultra
  54
• Huawei Mate 50 Pro
  52
• Xiaomi 13 Pro
  49
• OnePlus 11
  49
• Sony Xperia 1 IV
  43
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  38
• Oppo Find X5 Pro
  35
• Google Pixel 7 Pro
  26

GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• ROG Phone 7 Ultimate (X Mode)
  62
• ROG Phone 7 Ultimate (X Mode+)
  62
• ROG Phone 7 (X Mode+)
  62
• iQOO 11
  62
• Galaxy S23+
  62
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 8 Pro
  61
• Xiaomi 13 Pro
  61
• OnePlus 11
  61
• Motorola Edge 40 Pro
  60
• Galaxy S23 Ultra
  59
• ROG Phone 7 Ultimate
  56
• vivo X90 Pro
  55
• ROG Phone 7
  52
• ROG Phone 6 Pro (X Mode+)
  46
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  46
• ROG Phone 6D (X Mode+)
  45
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate (X Mode+)
  45
• Huawei Mate 50 Pro
  45
• ROG Phone 6D
  43
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate
  43
• Motorola Edge 30 Ultra
  43
• Black Shark 5 Pro
  41
• Oppo Find X5 Pro
  40
• Motorola Edge 30 Pro
  39
• ROG Phone 6 Pro
  37
• Google Pixel 7 Pro
  29
• Sony Xperia 1 IV
  26

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Motorola Edge 40 Pro
  98
• Galaxy S23+
  93
• ROG Phone 7 Ultimate (X Mode)
  86
• ROG Phone 7 Ultimate (X Mode+)
  86
• ROG Phone 7 (X Mode+)
  86
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 8 Pro
  79
• ROG Phone 7 Ultimate
  78
• ROG Phone 7
  74
• vivo X90 Pro
  68
• ROG Phone 6 Pro (X Mode+)
  66
• ROG Phone 6D
  64
• ROG Phone 6D (X Mode+)
  64
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate (X Mode+)
  64
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate
  63
• Motorola Edge 30 Ultra
  62
• Black Shark 5 Pro
  61
• Galaxy S23 Ultra
  60
• Motorola Edge 30 Pro
  60
• ROG Phone 6 Pro
  56
• iQOO 11
  55
• Huawei Mate 50 Pro
  55
• iPhone 14 Pro Max
  54
• OnePlus 11
  53
• Xiaomi 13 Pro
  52
• iPhone 14 Plus
  51
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  39
• Oppo Find X5 Pro
  36
• Sony Xperia 1 IV
  31
• Google Pixel 7 Pro
  25

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• ROG Phone 7 Ultimate (X Mode)
  69
• ROG Phone 7 Ultimate (X Mode+)
  69
• ROG Phone 7 (X Mode+)
  69
• iQOO 11
  69
• Galaxy S23 Ultra
  69
• Galaxy S23+
  69
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 8 Pro
  68
• OnePlus 11
  68
• Motorola Edge 40 Pro
  68
• Xiaomi 13 Pro
  67
• ROG Phone 7 Ultimate
  58
• ROG Phone 7
  55
• vivo X90 Pro
  54
• iPhone 14 Pro Max
  52
• ROG Phone 6 Pro (X Mode+)
  51
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  51
• Huawei Mate 50 Pro
  51
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate (X Mode+)
  49
• ROG Phone 6D (X Mode+)
  48
• ROG Phone 6D
  46
• Motorola Edge 30 Pro
  45
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate
  44
• Oppo Find X5 Pro
  44
• Black Shark 5 Pro
  44
• Motorola Edge 30 Ultra
  43
• iPhone 14 Plus
  40
• ROG Phone 6 Pro
  38
• Google Pixel 7 Pro
  30
• Sony Xperia 1 IV
  26

We can clearly see the bump in clock speed on the Adreno 740 GPU inside the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy platform working in its favor. The small but noticeable performance increase shows through both on-screen and off-screen tests. Other than that, however, the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate is leading the performance charts.

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Motorola Edge 40 Pro
  112
• Galaxy S23+
  110
• ROG Phone 7 (X Mode+)
  108
• ROG Phone 7 Ultimate
  107
• ROG Phone 7 Ultimate (X Mode)
  107
• ROG Phone 7 Ultimate (X Mode+)
  107
• ROG Phone 7
  107
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 8 Pro
  97
• Black Shark 5 Pro
  82
• ROG Phone 6 Pro
  79
• ROG Phone 6 Pro (X Mode+)
  79
• Motorola Edge 30 Pro
  78
• ROG Phone 6D (X Mode+)
  76
• vivo X90 Pro
  74
• Sony Xperia 1 IV
  74
• Motorola Edge 30 Ultra
  73
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate
  72
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate (X Mode+)
  72
• ROG Phone 6D
  71
• Huawei Mate 50 Pro
  68
• iQOO 11
  67
• Galaxy S23 Ultra
  67
• Xiaomi 13 Pro
  64
• iPhone 14 Plus
  60
• OnePlus 11
  57
• iPhone 14 Pro Max
  54
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  51
• Oppo Find X5 Pro
  44
• Google Pixel 7 Pro
  34

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• Galaxy S23+
  130
• ROG Phone 7 (X Mode+)
  129
• ROG Phone 7 Ultimate (X Mode)
  128
• ROG Phone 7 Ultimate (X Mode+)
  128
• iQOO 11
  128
• ROG Phone 7 Ultimate
  127
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 8 Pro
  127
• Xiaomi 13 Pro
  127
• Motorola Edge 40 Pro
  127
• Galaxy S23 Ultra
  126
• OnePlus 11
  126
• ROG Phone 7
  125
• iPhone 14 Pro Max
  118
• vivo X90 Pro
  105
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  104
• ROG Phone 6 Pro
  102
• ROG Phone 6 Pro (X Mode+)
  102
• Huawei Mate 50 Pro
  101
• iPhone 14 Plus
  99
• Black Shark 5 Pro
  96
• Motorola Edge 30 Pro
  95
• Oppo Find X5 Pro
  94
• Motorola Edge 30 Ultra
  93
• ROG Phone 6D (X Mode+)
  90
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate (X Mode+)
  89
• ROG Phone 6D
  84
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate
  82
• Sony Xperia 1 IV
  79
• Google Pixel 7 Pro
  63

The Manhattan OpenGL ES 3.1 and 3.0 tests really take advantage of the extra headroom the 165Hz maximum refresh rate of the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate affords. We can even see the latter test bumping up against the display's refresh rate cap, which is kind of ludicrous to think about. Mobile performance has come so far.

GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Motorola Edge 40 Pro
  164
• ROG Phone 7 Ultimate (X Mode+)
  163
• ROG Phone 7 (X Mode+)
  163
• ROG Phone 7 Ultimate
  162
• ROG Phone 7 Ultimate (X Mode)
  162
• ROG Phone 7
  157
• ROG Phone 6 Pro (X Mode+)
  140
• ROG Phone 6 Pro
  126
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate (X Mode+)
  124
• ROG Phone 6D (X Mode+)
  123
• ROG Phone 6D
  122
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate
  122
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 8 Pro
  121
• Galaxy S23+
  120
• Black Shark 5 Pro
  120
• vivo X90 Pro
  118
• Huawei Mate 50 Pro
  113
• iQOO 11
  112
• Galaxy S23 Ultra
  112
• Motorola Edge 30 Pro
  111
• Xiaomi 13 Pro
  103
• Motorola Edge 30 Ultra
  97
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  91
• Sony Xperia 1 IV
  72
• OnePlus 11
  60
• iPhone 14 Pro Max
  60
• iPhone 14 Plus
  60
• Google Pixel 7 Pro
  57

GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• Galaxy S23+
  224
• ROG Phone 7 (X Mode+)
  223
• ROG Phone 7 Ultimate (X Mode+)
  222
• Xiaomi 13 Pro
  222
• iQOO 11
  222
• ROG Phone 7 Ultimate (X Mode)
  221
• OnePlus 11
  220
• Motorola Edge 40 Pro
  220
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 8 Pro
  219
• ROG Phone 7 Ultimate
  214
• Galaxy S23 Ultra
  212
• vivo X90 Pro
  200
• ROG Phone 7
  194
• iPhone 14 Pro Max
  192
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  182
• ROG Phone 6 Pro (X Mode+)
  180
• Huawei Mate 50 Pro
  178
• iPhone 14 Plus
  176
• ROG Phone 6D (X Mode+)
  172
• Black Shark 5 Pro
  167
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate (X Mode+)
  164
• Oppo Find X5 Pro
  162
• Motorola Edge 30 Pro
  160
• ROG Phone 6D
  152
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate
  137
• ROG Phone 6 Pro
  134
• Sony Xperia 1 IV
  126
• Motorola Edge 30 Ultra
  121
• Google Pixel 7 Pro
  108

GFX Manhattan ES 3.0 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• ROG Phone 7 Ultimate
  166
• ROG Phone 7 Ultimate (X Mode)
  166
• ROG Phone 7 Ultimate (X Mode+)
  166
• ROG Phone 7 (X Mode+)
  166
• Motorola Edge 40 Pro
  166
• ROG Phone 7
  165
• ROG Phone 6 Pro (X Mode+)
  161
• ROG Phone 6 Pro
  149
• Motorola Edge 30 Pro
  142
• ROG Phone 6D
  131
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate (X Mode+)
  131
• ROG Phone 6D (X Mode+)
  130
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate
  129
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 8 Pro
  121
• Xiaomi 13 Pro
  121
• iQOO 11
  120
• Galaxy S23+
  120
• vivo X90 Pro
  120
• Black Shark 5 Pro
  120
• Huawei Mate 50 Pro
  120
• Galaxy S23 Ultra
  119
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  118
• Google Pixel 7 Pro
  103
• Sony Xperia 1 IV
  100
• OnePlus 11
  60
• iPhone 14 Pro Max
  60
• iPhone 14 Plus
  60

GFX Manhattan ES 3.0 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• ROG Phone 7 Ultimate (X Mode+)
  329
• ROG Phone 7 (X Mode+)
  329
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 8 Pro
  328
• ROG Phone 7 Ultimate (X Mode)
  327
• OnePlus 11
  327
• Xiaomi 13 Pro
  326
• Motorola Edge 40 Pro
  322
• iQOO 11
  321
• Galaxy S23+
  319
• Galaxy S23 Ultra
  311
• ROG Phone 7 Ultimate
  290
• vivo X90 Pro
  287
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  268
• Huawei Mate 50 Pro
  264
• ROG Phone 6 Pro (X Mode+)
  263
• iPhone 14 Pro Max
  262
• ROG Phone 7
  261
• Motorola Edge 30 Pro
  251
• ROG Phone 6D (X Mode+)
  244
• Oppo Find X5 Pro
  244
• Black Shark 5 Pro
  241
• iPhone 14 Plus
  234
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate (X Mode+)
  230
• ROG Phone 6D
  210
• ROG Phone 6 Pro
  204
• Sony Xperia 1 IV
  186
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate
  178
• Motorola Edge 30 Ultra
  178
• Google Pixel 7 Pro
  170

Finally, we have 3DMark. Again, we can see the small advantage of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy mobile platform, but other than that, the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate is again leading the pack with top-notch graphical performance.

3DMark Wild Life Extreme (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Galaxy S23+
  3830
• Galaxy S23 Ultra
  3790
• ROG Phone 7 (X Mode+)
  3770
• ROG Phone 7 Ultimate (X Mode+)
  3757
• ROG Phone 7 Ultimate (X Mode)
  3751
• ROG Phone 7
  3745
• vivo X90 Pro
  3698
• Motorola Edge 40 Pro
  3660
• ROG Phone 7 Ultimate
  3656
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 8 Pro
  3643
• OnePlus 11
  3594
• iQOO 11
  3514
• iPhone 14 Pro Max
  3341
• Xiaomi 13 Pro
  2939
• ROG Phone 6 Pro (X Mode+)
  2815
• Huawei Mate 50 Pro
  2753
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate (X Mode+)
  2668
• ROG Phone 6D (X Mode+)
  2622
• ROG Phone 6 Pro
  2611
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate
  2599
• ROG Phone 6D
  2555
• iPhone 14 Plus
  2480
• Google Pixel 7 Pro
  1835

Thermal-throttling behavior

The closest we can get to lengthy load testing on a mobile device is running "torture" burnout tests and monitoring thermal-throttling and performance over time. Naturally, we couldn't skip doing that for the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate in all three of its performance profiles.

Let's start with the basic Dynamic mode (X Mode off). Here we can see the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate takes on heat and gradually reacts to its buildup. That's generally what you want to see in terms of thermal behavior - a gradual, steady decline with no sudden and jarring drops that could cause stuttering in game.

Thermal-throttling in Dynamic mode

The drop-down in performance by the end of the test is definitely not insignificant. But even in this cut-down state, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 has plenty of power to throw around and can easily handle even heavy gaming loads.

You are meant to game in X Mode, which Asus makes clear as day by even automatically enabling X Mode once you start practically any game and even most benchmarks. In this mode, performance loss over time is much less. The phone's surface gets very toasty and even unpleasant to touch after around 20 minutes of sustained load. Particularly the middle metal frame. But that's the price that needs to be paid for passively keeping the internals as cool as possible.

Thermal-throttling in X Mode

Of course, there is the massive "party trick" the ROG Phone 7/7 Ultimate has in the form of the optional AeroActive Cooler accessory. While the cooler has always been a staple of the ROG Phone family, this year's model has an active peltier cooling element inside, just like last year's. The difference is immediately noticeable, particularly on the surface of the phone.

We ran this final throttling test with the AeroActive Cooler 7 set to the maximum "Frozen" setting, which blasts the peltier and the fan as hard as possible and even requires external power.

Thermal-throttling in X Mode+ with AeroActive cooler set to Frozen

The results were a phone that remained perfectly comfortable to hold even after an hour of torture and reasonable performance loss. Both are impressive achievements.

AeroActive Cooler 7

Asus' signature active cooling fan accessory for the ROG phone line has already gone through so many design iterations that it probably deserves an article of its own. Last year's AeroActive Cooler 6 saw what was arguably the biggest and most radical change to date with the introduction of an active peltier cooling element inside the gadget. Well, that's been carried forward to the AeroActive Cooler 7, along with most of the other elements of the cooler.

This year, however, the new addition to the mix is a rather beefy 5-magnet, 13*38mm subwoofer nestled inside the AeroActive Cooler 7. Added to the two front-firing speakers, it makes for an impressive 2.1 audio system. It also definitely contributes towards the overall beefy nature of the cooler.

Left: AeroActive Cooler 7 * Right: AeroActive Cooler 6

The design is quite similar to last year's and is still very aggressive and "gamery" with bold, strong lines and geometric shapes. Unlike last year's model, the AeroActive Cooler 7 does not rely solely on a USB Type-C port. It still has one that plugs into the phone and passes through all of its features transparently (charging, HDMI out, etc.), but now there are also two POGO pins that connect to the phone. Perhaps those are solely to handle the subwoofer. We can't say for sure.

Unlike las year's model, this year, the AeroActive Cooler 7 has a 3.5mm audio jack, which is great to see.

Attachment of the AeroActive Cooler 7 is achieved via a spring-loaded latch mechanism that now has a button to release and a ratchet mechanism to close back up. The fit is very snug, and putting the cooler on and taking it off is very easy.

New this year is a secondary air duct built into the top latch of the AeroActive Cooler 7. That way, air can be directed to blow on the surface of the display, not just the back of the phone. Asus claims that this can reduce display surface temperature by up to 8 degrees while simultaneously lowering the backside surface temperature by a whopping 25 degrees.

In case you were wondering what happens to the power button once the AeroActive Cooler 7 goes on, Asus thought of that and have added a piece of flexible rubber to "extend" the button outward, making it still usable. A bumper case for the phone comes with the AeroActive Cooler 6 in the same box and is naturally compatible with it.

Continuing with other functional bits on the device, it has four physical, programmable AirTrigger buttons, just like the AeroActive Cooler 6. These feel great and are actually omnidirectional, which is great in practice. It means you can essentially press them in any spot you want and in any "direction," so to say.

The AeroActive Cooler 7 has its own RGB lighting, which illuminates and shines through the middle transparent plastic bit. Once the accessory is on, this lighting will use the System lighting settings you already have dialed in for the RGB lights on the back of the phone. Or in the case of the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate, the Vision Display settings will replace the System lighting menu.

By the way, while this transparent plastic bit looks great while illuminated, we really don't like the plastic itself. It scratches really easily and just looks ugly once that inevitably happens. But that's nitpicking.

The last functional bit is an extendable kickstand. This time, it comes up from the bottom of the AeroActive Cooler and generally does a great job supporting the phone. Its angle is not adjustable or anything fancy like that. You just get one setting.

On to functionality, then. The basic principle of operation for the AeroActive Cooler 7 is easy to understand - the cooler sits on the back of the phone, covering its "hot spot" in the middle, where the centrally-mounted PCB resides. There is a thermally conductive pad on the outside part, a copper plate, some radiators, and a fan inside. Technically, the design is not meant to pull heat away from the back of the phone but rather actively cool it.

The "special sauce", just like last year, is the peltier element, sometimes called a TEC. It is a thermoelectric piece that takes a current and then uses that to make one of its sides cold and the other hot. So what is actually happening is that the AeroActive Cooler 7 is actively cooling down the back of the phone while the radiator and fan are actively cooling off and pulling heat off of the TEC's hot side.

AeroActive Cooler 7 settings

The AeroActive Cooler 7 actually has its own settings menu within Armoury Crate, which, among other things, lets the user choose between four modes of operation. Smart is a sort of auto that monitors thermals and decides how much to power the fan and the peltier. Cool mode just uses the fan to dissipate heat without turning on the peltier. Frosty and Frozen modes have both the fan and the peltier working. Frosty has the peltier working with a lower current. Basically, as much as the phone can provide via its Side port. The AeroActive Cooler 7 needs external power hooked up in its top Frozen mode.

Finally, on the subject of noise, the AeroActive Cooler 7 is not particularly quiet. It is very much audible at any setting and can get particularly distracting in Frozen mode. Despite its big size, its fan is still relatively small, and there is simply no way around generating at least some noise. At least it can easily be drowned out by the excellent front-facing speakers and subwoofer combo. Still, don't expect anything akin to a stealthy and quiet gaming experience with the AeroActive Cooler 7 attached.