The ASUS ROG Phone II is once again available for purchase in the country after it was hit with supply issues due to the coronavirus pandemic. Rated as one of the best gaming smartphones, and our ‘Gaming Smartphone of the Year’ for 2019, the ROG Phone II has been unavailable since February 2020. The company has just confirmed that it is finally going to resume sales of the smartphone on Flipkart starting today.
Notably, the smartphone was launched in India at Rs 37,999 for the base 8GB RAM + 128GB storage variant. It will however sell for Rs 39,999. The reason for that is the increased GST rates on smartphones that were introduced by the government in April. Additionally, the company points out the depreciated value of the Indian rupee as an impact on the cost of the smartphone.
ASUS has been pretty clear about the costs and has also given a fairly simple calculation as to how and why the smartphone will be priced higher than before. The actual cost of the handset after the revision of GST and India-Dollar depreciation, the cost comes down to Rs 42,554. ASUS says that it will be absorbing some of the extra cost and keep the final price of the ROG Phone II as Rs 39,999. One can however, avail a 10 percent discount if they purchase the phone during Flipkart’s “Big Saving Days” starting from June 23 to June 27 using HDFC bank cards and EMI transactions.
Dinesh Sharma, Business Head, Mobiles, ASUS India said, “We have been overwhelmed with the love that the community has shown towards the brand ROG and especially towards ROG Phone II. The device is globally acclaimed and has won several prestigious awards for Best Gaming Smartphone of 2019. Owing to the success that we have witnessed and in-spite of the current adverse changes in the business environment, we have decided to absorb Rs 2,555 cost increase on ROG Phone II and not pass the additional cost to our Fans.”
The ROG Phone II was launched in India back in September 2019 featuring a 6.59-inch AMOLED display with a 2340x1080 pixel resolution. It offers a 120Hz refresh rate with 1ms latency while users can also step down to 60Hz or 90Hz modes. It also supports 10-bit HDR and is rated to offer 108-percent DCI-P3 color space and perfect color accuracy of deltaE < 1.
The handset comes with a glass and metal build with a distinguished gamer-oriented design along with an RGB-lit ROG logo at the back as well. It is powered by the Snapdragon 855 Plus chipset, which comes with an overclocked Adreno 640 GPU at 675MHz as well as a minor bump to the CPU speeds. There is a massive 6,000mAh battery which means that it can last for about 7 hours of non-stop PUBG action. It can also be charged quickly as the phone supports 30W ‘ROG HyperCharge’ using a standard 3A cable along with Quick Charge 4.0. At the back, you get a 48-megapixel camera sensor paired with a 13-megapixel sensor with a 125-degree ultra wide-angle lens. At the front there is a 24-megapixel selfie camera.
Asus is offering an option to switch between a near-stock Android experience and a gaming-focused ROG UI. There are dual speakers on the front with DTS:X Ultra support, and have larger chambers to make them 2.5-times louder than the first-gen ROG Phone. You also get improved AirTriggers which allow you to rest your fingers on them and will be able to recognise when you press down or swipe over them. Asus has also put two vibration motors, one on the left and one on the right for improved directional haptic feedback.
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