[Update: Full Specs Live] ASUS ROG Phone 2 Passes Through TENAA With 6.59-inch OLED Display and 5800mAh Battery

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Update [July 19, 2019 @ 9:15 AM IST]: TENAA today updated the ROG Phone 2 listing on its website with the complete specifications of the smartphone. The listing reveals the gaming smartphone will have a 6.59-inch OLED display with 1080 x 2340 pixels Full HD+ resolution. Under the hood will be Qualcomm’s mighty Snapdragon 855 Plus chipset, clocked at 2.96 GHz. In the memory department, the ROG Phone 2 will be available in 8GB and 12GB RAM variants with 128GB, 512GB, and 1TB storage options.

In terms of optics, the ASUS flagship smartphone will have a 48MP dual-camera setup at the rear and a 24MP selfie camera on the front. The listing seems to suggest the gaming smartphone will only arrive in a single color: Black. Thanks to its large physical size and gargantuan 5800mAh battery, the ROG Phone 2 will be quite hefty at 240 grams. On the software front, the smartphone will run on the Android 9.0 Pie operating system out of the box.

Update [July 18, 2019 @ 12:01 PM IST]: We have now spotted images of the ASUS ROG Phone 2 on Chinese certification authority TENAA. Images showcase a similar design to that of the ASUS ROG Phone. There appears to be an 18:9 aspect ratio screen at the front with small bezels at the top and the bottom, and front-facing stereo speakers. At the rear, there doesn’t seem to be a fingerprint reader, which most probably means that ASUS is using an in-display fingerprint reader in this year’s ROG Phone.

There are two cameras on the rear and dual-tone, dual-LED flash. There are RGB lighting and ROG logo as well. The power button and volume rocker are on the right side of the phone, while the left side houses an additional USB Type-C port. The phone also has a 6.59-inch AMOLED screen with 120Hz refresh rate, a 5800mAh battery, and capacitive shoulder buttons which can be used while gaming.

Update [July 18, 2019]: ASUS is set to launch the gaming-focused ROG Phone 2 at an event in China on July 23. Ahead of the formal launch next week, the flagship gaming smartphone has been spotted on the TENAA website, shedding light on some of its key specifications. However, the Chinese telecommunications regulatory authority is yet to list the complete specifications of the smartphone on its website.

TENAA has certified two variants of the ROG Phone 2: I001DA and I001DB. The listings for the two variants suggest the upcoming gaming flagship from ASUS will feature a 6.59-inch display and a massive 5800mAh battery. As for physical dimensions, the listing reveals the phone measures 170.99 x 77.6 x 9.78mm. For reference, the ROG Phone launched last year comes with a 6.0-inch display and has a 4000mAh battery. Quite clearly, the second generation gaming flagship from ASUS will be a massive upgrade over its predecessor in terms of hardware. As confirmed by ASUS already, the ROG Phone 2 will be the world’s first smartphone to feature Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 855 Plus processor. With a higher clock speed and 15% faster GPU, the Snapdragon 855 Plus should allow the ROG Phone II to deliver class-leading gaming performance, The phone will also have up to 12GB of RAM, as suggested by its Geekbench listing.

Earlier:

The ASUS ROG Phone 2 will soon be official next week on July 23rd in China. However, prior to that, the next-gen gaming handset is already presumably in the hands of reviewers and it has now appeared on Geekbench today. The handset with model number ASUS_I001DC that we first spotted on the Wi-Fi Alliance, NCC, and CCC (3C) portals is supposedly the ROG Phone 2.

Coming to the listing, it shows a motherboard with the codename “msmnile” which is allotted to the Snapdragon 855. However, the latest official information is that ASUS will equip the gaming handset with Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 855 Plus released two days back. Since this new chip is a derivative of the original Snapdragon 855, it’s likely that it also has the same “msmnile” codename. The model number of both the processors, as a matter of fact, is the same, so the same can be deduced for its codename. Besides that, there’s 12GB of RAM and Android 9.0 Pie onboard the device. Now, it’s worth noting that none of the above certifications has ever explicitly revealed the handset to be the ROG Phone 2. However, with today’s Geekbench listing, it certainly does look extremely likely.

Based on the latest information, the ROG Phone 2 comes with a 120Hz display and a no-notch design similar to its predecessor. The CCC listing revealed a 30W fast charge capability for the device and the latest teaser from ASUS China is that it will be the first phone with the Snapdragon 855 Plus CPU. The new SoC promises higher clock speeds of up to 2.96GHz and 15 percent better GPU performance making it a perfect fit for an upgraded gaming handset.

There’s still a week to go before launch and we still might get a sneak peek of new features before launch. The ROG Phone 2 will be likely priced at a premium compared to its Chinese counterparts like Black Shark and Red Magic.