The Asus ROG Phone 2 is now officially on sale in the US

[Redaktion]

The Asus ROG Phone 2 may be the most impressive mass-production smartphone in the world, hardware-wise, and it has finally made its way to the US, months after it was launched. Oh, and it will set buyers back a whopping US$900.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/The-Asus-ROG-Phone-2-is-now-officially-on-sale-in-the-US.435236.0.html

[eu]

I don't get it why some companies are insisting in "gaming smartphone"... To play what? A caped version of Fortnite or PUBG at best...

The 120hz screen is awsome to slide menus... and thats it... most phone games are caped to 60hz.

[S.Yu]

For some reason the base tier sells for 3000RMB in China...oh yeah it's called the "Tencent special" version and has an ugly Tencent logo on it, probably a lot of Tencent bloat, besides 128GB really isn't enough.

[Will]

For some reason the base tier sells for 3000RMB in China...oh yeah it's called the "Tencent special" version and has an ugly Tencent logo on it, probably a lot of Tencent bloat, besides 128GB really isn't enough.

Depending on what you're doing on your phone, 128GB storage (and 8GB RAM) is plenty... but the main drawbacks of the Tencent version other than the Tencent bloatware and Chinese ROM (as opposed to global, so no OTA updates if you flash it) is the lack of bands; it's missing a lot of bands that are used outside China. Also the wifi antennas are 2x2 MIMO instead of 4x4 MIMO.

[Crescentmage]

According to B&H, the ROG Phone 2 supports all of Verizon's LTE bands (2, 4, 5, 13, 66), which is more than the Jetpack that Verizon currently itself sells. Verizon is decommissioning their CDMA network, so it is no longer necessary to have CDMA support (again, Verizon's Jetpack has no CDMA support). Verizon has been more open to unlocked devices lately, though any buyer should check directly with them first before purchasing.

The only real band issue that I see is a lack of band 71, which is secondary but becoming more important for T-Mobile, particularly in rural areas.

[KK]

HI Crescentmage, I checked B&H website it does not say this phone support Verizon

[S.Yu]

For some reason the base tier sells for 3000RMB in China...oh yeah it's called the "Tencent special" version and has an ugly Tencent logo on it, probably a lot of Tencent bloat, besides 128GB really isn't enough.

Depending on what you're doing on your phone, 128GB storage (and 8GB RAM) is plenty... but the main drawbacks of the Tencent version other than the Tencent bloatware and Chinese ROM (as opposed to global, so no OTA updates if you flash it) is the lack of bands; it's missing a lot of bands that are used outside China. Also the wifi antennas are 2x2 MIMO instead of 4x4 MIMO.

Sorry I just skimmed through, the US only has the 512GB variant, the base variant is also ~$500 in India, but probably without the Tencent bloat.
I seriously doubt if 128GB works for a gaming phone, I easily surpassed the 128GB mark on my 256GB phone with some games, DNG, chat logs that run into the GBs, some videos, some music (mostly FLAC and WAV)...it's easy.
I heard from an industry insider that the performance of MIMO has always been questionable in practice, yet whether or not it works is very hard to test(rather connectivity in general) and is subject to numerous variables. Better just get a number like NBC does and see if there's a big difference, there's no other practical way of knowing anyway.