AH Awards: Best Gaming Phone 2024 – ASUS ROG Phone 9 Pro Edition

ASUS refined the best-ever gaming phone and made it even better with the ROG Phone 9 Pro Edition

ASUS really knocked it out of the park with the ROG Phone 8 Pro Edition so we weren’t sure how or if it would be able to top itself with the next iteration, but the company has outdone itself with the ROG Phone 9 Pro Edition by refining was already great. Keeping the sleek and minimalist design while packing the phone with tons of performance power, ASUS’s latest gaming phone brings its A-game and doesn’t let up.

From best-in-class cooling and tons of features to making mobile gaming a surreal and enjoyable experience, the ROG Phone 9 Pro Edition redefines what a gaming phone can do. Of course, it’s not all about gaming. The ROG Phone 9 Pro Edition is still a smartphone to be used for everyday tasks. And it does those well thanks to a wide range of convenient features. Gaming is the main reason for buying this phone, however. And there’s a lot on offer that pushes this device to the top of the heap.

The newly added AI gaming features, for example, take gaming to the next level. Features like auto-upgrade in League of Legends: Wild Rift automatically level up your chosen skills. All you have to do is set the parameters for which skill you want to upgrade when you level up. Normally you would tap the skill upgrade button yourself. But with this auto feature, you can focus on your movements, map awareness, and attacks during engagements. It’s a lot more useful than one might think. And it’s something you’ll only find on the ROG Phone 9 series phones.

Sound redirection channels in official ASUS cases give the effect of two front-facing stereo speakers

One of the things I wasn’t fond of with the ROG Phone series was ASUS’s decision to move the bottom front-facing speaker to the actual bottom of the phone with the ROG Phone 8. The speaker on the ROG Phone 9 series is in the same spot. However, ASUS has come up with cases that have integrated sound redirection channels. What this does is redirect the sound from the bottom speaker towards the front. This one small design feature of the case makes the sound from the bottom speaker appear as if it’s from a front-facing speaker.

Essentially making it feel like you have two front-facing stereo speakers for your games. It truly makes the gaming experience better because the audio sounds more immersive. Speaking of audio, the all-new AeroActive Cooler X Pro brings back the subwoofer from the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate series. Further amplifying the sound for games, while also keeping the phone extra cool so it can perform better for longer. It also has 1TB of internal storage, 24GB of RAM, and a bigger and longer-lasting battery.

All of these reasons, plus the AirTriggers, the Snapdragon 8 Elite mobile platform, and several other small touches are why the ASUS ROG Phone 9 Pro Edition won our Best Gaming Phone of 2024 award.