ネタ | machii-little道場 | コンピュータ | まにあ道

I have a habit—whether it’s good or bad, I can’t say—whereby every time I get my hands on a device marketed as a "gaming phone," the first thing I do is launch *Game for Peace* (the Chinese version of *PUBG Mobile*) with settings at "Smooth" graphics and 90fps. I land, find a vehicle, drive along mountain roads for ten minutes, and keep a close eye on the frame rate graph the whole time. There is no scientific basis for this testing method; it’s simply an obsession born from a bad experience with a different phone years ago. After putting the ROG Phone 3 through this routine, my first thought wasn't "The Snapdragon 865 Plus is a beast," but rather—"The back panel is really getting hot."

There’s really nothing to fault regarding the specs.

Launched in July 2020, the ROG Phone 3 features a 6.59-inch AMOLED display with 1080×2430 resolution, a 144Hz refresh rate, and a 270Hz touch sampling rate. It is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Plus (clocked up to 3.1GHz) and comes with either 12GB or 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM, 512GB of UFS 3.1 storage, and a 6000mAh battery supporting 30W fast charging. In Taiwan, the 12GB+512GB model retailed for NT$29,990, while the 16GB+512GB model went for NT$33,990.

It scored 655,306 on AnTuTu, which was the highest score on the leaderboard at the time. Compared to the standard Snapdragon 865, the 865 Plus offered a core frequency boost of over 10%. The 144Hz screen was top-tier for the era, and with 25ms touch latency and a 1ms response time, the specifications certainly looked impressive on paper.

If you look strictly at the numbers, the ROG Phone 3 had almost no obvious weaknesses among the gaming phones of 2020. However, I later discovered that the gap between "winning" on a spec sheet and the actual day-to-day user experience was wider than I had imagined.

Heat: An unavoidable issue

The ROG Phone 3 actually packs a lot of high-end hardware into its thermal management system. It features the Matrix Liquid Cooling 3.0 system and a 3D vapor chamber; the heat dissipation fin area has increased sixfold, and the back-cover heat sink is significantly larger than the previous generation's. ASUS also bundles the third-generation AeroActive Cooler with the device; its fan speed is 40% higher than its predecessor's, and the company claims it can lower the device's temperature by 4°C.

It sounds comprehensive, doesn't it? The problem, however, is that there is often a gap between the marketing claims and the actual performance in real-world usage. A thread on Tieba (a popular Chinese forum) compiled common issues with the ROG Phone 3; one user reported testing *Game for Peace* (the Chinese version of *PUBG Mobile*) at 90fps with "Smooth" graphics settings. After landing and driving along mountain roads for ten minutes, the core temperature spiked to 61°C, and combat in urban areas hovered around 57°C; the back panel felt very hot to the touch, and the device was scalding while charging. Users on the official ASUS forum also reported CPU temperatures hitting 61°C and system temperatures reaching 53°C during charging, causing discomfort. Others noted that "even when just sitting there with the fan attached, the temperature would spike to 53°C."

My own experience largely aligns with this feedback. The bundled AeroActive Cooler is indeed effective, but its very existence highlights a reality: without the fan attached, the phone faces genuine thermal management challenges. Furthermore, attaching the fan alters the phone's ergonomics; if you are accustomed to resting your index finger on the top edge of the device, the fan's protrusion can feel uncomfortable or dig into your hand. I eventually ended up using the fan simply as a kickstand—it’s quite stable when watching videos in landscape mode—which counts as an unexpected bonus.

System: Leading Hardware, Lagging Software

This is the aspect of the ROG Phone 3 that I find most frustrating. While the Snapdragon 865 Plus chipset and the 144Hz display are top-tier, the level of system-level optimization is—to put it politely—barely passable.

Users have reported issues with inaccurate fingerprint recognition and frequent touchscreen errors; specifically, when playing *Honor of Kings*, the "touch responsiveness is poor, and it often fails to register the correct input location." Some users also reported issues with accidental touches along the edges; because the "Game Genie" feature allows for swipe gestures from all four sides of the screen, swiping near the edge during intense gameplay—like in *PUBG Mobile*—could cause the touch input to cut out. Even more bizarrely, some users encountered situations where the refresh rate got locked at 120Hz and couldn't be changed back, or noticed the screen edges looking washed out (turning whitish) when displaying dark gray or black content.

I recall a very apt summary on a forum: "Leading hardware, lagging software." That’s a polite way of putting it; in plain terms, it means you paid flagship prices for a top-tier chip and display, yet the actual user experience felt "off"—like a sports car equipped with a clunky, unreliable transmission.

There is one more thing worth mentioning. The ROG Phone 3 is the only model in the ROG series that lacks a 3.5mm headphone jack—the previous ROG Phone 2 had one, and the subsequent 5, 6, and 7 models brought it back. Want to use wired headphones? You have to plug them into the USB-C port on the AeroActive Cooler accessory or use the included adapter. I don't quite understand ASUS's reasoning at the time; removing the headphone jack from a phone designed specifically for gaming is like giving a basketball player a pair of laceless sneakers.

The Tencent Edition: You Get What You Pay For

If you browse the second-hand market for an ROG Phone 3, you’ll likely come across the "Tencent Edition." It’s significantly cheaper than the international version, but that lower price comes with trade-offs. A long-time user on the official ASUS forum put it bluntly: "Avoid the Tencent Gaming Edition; it was designed for the Chinese market. Some resellers flash the international ROM onto it, but you’ll still run into various issues." The Tencent Edition often lacks support for certain frequency bands used internationally, and system updates follow the domestic release schedule. If you need Google services or specific frequency bands from overseas carriers, the Tencent Edition could give you a headache.

Wrapping Up

When the ROG Phone 3 launched in 2020, it was truly a device with impressive specifications. With the Snapdragon 865 Plus, a 144Hz AMOLED display, a 6,000mAh battery, and an accessory ecosystem featuring AirTrigger 3 ultrasonic controls and the AeroActive Cooler, the ROG Phone 3 commands a genuine presence in the gaming smartphone segment.

However, the "gaming phone" category itself faces an awkward dilemma: it requires trade-offs between thermal management, weight, and everyday portability. The ROG Phone 3 opted to max out performance while relying on accessories to handle cooling. This strategy works brilliantly during gaming sessions, but you can't play games forever. When you take it out as an everyday phone, its 240g weight, 9.85mm thickness, and the fact that you need the fan attached to fully unlock its performance make you rethink what the term "gaming phone" actually implies.

I’m still using the ROG Phone 3, though I’ve lost track of where I put the AeroActive Cooler. For daily tasks like browsing forums and watching videos, it remains a solid device. Yet, before launching *Game for Peace* (PUBG Mobile), I still instinctively touch the back panel to check the temperature—a habit I likely won't shake anytime soon.

Cell phone battery C11P1903 For ASUS ROG3