Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsA very worthwhile purchase.
Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2018
Theres so much good in this review that I feel I should start with the bad and work my way up from there.
Disclaimer:
Using it on AT&T network
The Bad:
While there's certainly very little bad about this it's missing a couple of features that to me personally aren't very worthwhile but are worth mentioning for people looking to buy the phone.
There is no IR blaster which is something that I use from time to time but that's perfectly fine.
There is no wireless charging in this phone. I personally never use this anyway especially because its bad on the battery so I couldn't care less.
There is a low water resistance rating. I don't know what the recent trend for swimming with phones is but I've used a phone with absolutely no water resistance for the last 5 years in both the rain and sun and had absolutely zero issues. If you have a knack of dropping your phone in the toilet this may affect your purchase.
The only feature I will miss is expandable storage. This phone does start at 128gb so that really helped. While i probably won't fill it up because I am conservative with my storage, it was nice knowing I could always add a few hundred gigs at any moment. It instead has dual sim slots.
No WI-FI calling, more on this at the end.
Now since that's out of the way lets get to the good.
The Good:
Good god the battery life is amazing. I don't know how some people are crying that it doesn't last a full day. Im assuming if your constantly gaming at 90hz overclocked it might not but there hasn't been a day where I ended with less then 40%. I'm coming off of a note 4 in which i changed the battery 3 times. That phone constantly drained between 5-10% battery each night. This phone, drains less then 1% per night. Its wonderful.
Obviously if you're even looking at this phone you know about the binned cpu's so it comes to no ones surprise that the performace is SMOOTH.
The screen is bright and looks great. It does indeed have HDR support. 90hz as well so thats a bonus.
The speakers. They are incredible. Dual front facing INCREDIBLY loud speakers. Its something you need to hear in person. The sound is not distorted so long as you don't turn on "outside mode"
Thank you ASUS for making a phone that doesn't look exactly like every other phone. Its aesthetics are beautiful and it feels extremely well built in your hand. I could do without the glass on the back which is a massive fingerprint magnet but I do understand it from a design perspective.
IT HAS A HEADPHONE JACK!!!
Unique Features:
You've probably heard about the air triggers. I don't normally play phone games (mostly got this because I love overkill and ASUS mobo's. Also I look for phones that will last for a long long time) but I did give them a shot and I feel anyone that does game could make good use of it. It's definitely not something you can rapid fire though.
The 2 extra ports. The fan is a cool feature but is certainly a gimmick. Its biggest upside is that it moves a headphone jack to the wide side of the phone. It also extends the usb-c charging port. You can use the charging port without the fan however just make sure you're plugging it into the correct one.
The software. This is a slightly controversial area for some people. While undeniable its performance is great, some people feel it looks too gamer-y and while I agree I still love the look. Thats a very subjective thing of course and you can always change the launcher.
Everything Else:
The camera. You're probably not buying this phone for its camera capabilities. While I personally think even the best phone cameras are pretty bad due to the fact that I generally shoot on dslr's, if I were to compare this to something like the pixel series I'd say it falls a little bit short but is still rather capable. Decent low light performance and honestly this shouldn't affect your purchase too much. With good lighting you get good photos its that simple.
Since i have my desktop set up in my basement, I always had to turn WI-FI calling on in my old phone (note 4) since I had practically no service (1 bar or less). Knowing that this phone didn't have WI-FI calling I decided to take a gamble and see if it was my service provider or if it was indeed my phone. Turns out it was definitely my old phone because this holds 4 bars EASY thus eliminating my need for WI-FI calling.
In Conclusion:
Great phone, very few downsides, I'm surprised it costs <$1k
