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  • The Asus ROG Phone 2 is probably the most powerful and feature-rich smartphone that

  • money can buy in 2019. It's technically a gaming smartphone ROG stands for Republic

  • of Gamers and Asus has been using the brand to deliver some pretty innovative stuff. Today

  • we're going to find out if it's durable.

  • Let's get started.

  • [Intro]

  • One of my favorite things about gaming smartphones is that they are typically a little less conservative

  • design-wise, and let themselves shine...literally, with built in LED lighting. I'll turn the

  • back LED logo on in just a second. The ROG 2 has a metal and glass back combo design

  • and has the same copper vent that we saw in last year's ROG 1. It looks pretty phenomenal

  • with it's multi-colored subtle holographic reflective accent lines that run throughout

  • the dark silver. Let's start with the scratch test.

  • The ROG 2 has a large 6.6 inch 1080p screen, and it's using the latest version of Gorilla

  • GlassGorilla Glass 6, which means that we shouldn't see any scratches at level 2

  • like we saw no the plastic inner screen of the Galaxy Fold. The ROG 2 scratches at a

  • level 6, with deeper grooves at a level 7.

  • Up here at the top of the phone we find a singular 24 megapixel front facing camera

  • tucked into the black bezel. The bezels are slightly larger on this beast due to the internal

  • front firing stereo speakers. They also double as a place to grip the phone while gaming

  • and in landscape mode. Last year's phone had orange-ish colored plastic stuff covering

  • the grill. And this year they've made it a bit more clean and got rid of the orange...which

  • I'm a fan of. The same thing goes for the secondary front facing stereo speaker grill

  • down at the bottom of the phone. It wouldn't be a durability test without finding out what

  • the phone is made from.

  • The ROG Phone has an anodized aluminum body. There is a SIM card tray down here. It's a

  • dual SIM but no SD card slot. Even though there is a 1 terabyte upgrade option for the

  • internal memory which is impressive, it still doesn't beat the inexpensiveness and easiness

  • of just adding an SD card down the road. There's not a rubber ring around the SD card port

  • which we haven't seen in a long time.

  • Moving up to the side of the phone, it contains a rubber plug. This keeps the accessory ports

  • and secondary charging port clean when it's not being used. The ROG 2 has 2 USB-C charging

  • ports. This side port can also output 4K video to a TV or computer monitor and can connect

  • to the external fan cooling units or other accessories. It's pretty cool to have options,

  • even if there is no advertised water resistance.

  • The top of the phone has more anodized black metal, and the right side of the phone has

  • the capacitive touch pad triggers on either end...just like we would see on a gaming controller.

  • It also has a metal volume rocker and metal power button. Those capacitive corner triggers

  • shouldn't affect durability, but we'll find out with the bend test in just a minute.

  • Finally, here at the bottom of the phone we get the USB-C port and we see our little buddy,

  • the headphone jack. I haven't seen one of these in a while. A lot of flagship and mid-range

  • phone manufacturers have been dropping the headphone jack so they can push their own

  • brand of wireless headphones that usually cost well over $150 or $200. It's important

  • to remember that there are a lot of good wireless headphones out there that cost a whole lot

  • less...which brings us to Raycon. Huge thanks to Raycon for sponsoring this video.

  • Raycon's totally wireless headphones are half the price of other premium wireless earbuds

  • and sound just as good. If anything, these are louder and have more base than any other

  • headphone I've tested recently. And I've tried out quite a few different headphones. I mostly

  • use my headphones at the gym or while running, and these are small enough and light enough

  • that I never feel like they're falling out. They have 6 hours of play time with an additional

  • 24 hours of juice stored in the carrying case. You can get 15% off and check out the additional

  • colors with the link in the description. There's definitely no reason to pay big bucks to buy

  • headphones that are the same brand as your cell phone, especially when there are cheaper

  • and better options like these Raycons. I'll let you decide for yourself though. They have

  • free shipping and free returns. And thanks to Raycon for sponsoring this video.

  • Getting back to the back of the ROG 2. The main portion of the phone is covered with

  • that gray glass. The vibrant accent lines and hard camera angles help make this phone

  • look pretty unique. It's got a 48 megapixel main camera with a 13 megapixel ultra-wide

  • camera on the side. And there are also 2 different colored LEDs for the flash. When both colors

  • of the LEDs flash at the same time, it helps not to wash out the image as much. But the

  • thing that makes this phone physically stand out the most is the metal growth. Asus says

  • the upper copper portion has a vent that lets the heat escape out from inside the phone,

  • which is kind of true. We found out last year that the metal shell was mostly for aesthetics

  • and the copper coloring was also mostly just for looks. Nothing was really wicking heat

  • away from the processor. There were passive vents underneath the metal of course, but

  • no internal fans. And the actual heat pipe, the part that does keep the phone cooled most,

  • is on the screen side, not the back panel. So we'll see if that's the case when we tear

  • down this guy as well.

  • They did include a clear case in the normal retail box which is nice. It still leaves

  • a little gap for the copper cooling to show through. Let's get these LEDs turned on. Now

  • it might look like this RGB ROG logo isn't very luminous here on my desk, but that's

  • only because my desk lights are super bright. We can see the changing colors when they are

  • shadowed, but in a normal room this would be pretty easy to see. I'm definitely not

  • opposed to making it even brighter though. ROG is probably still using that little side-lit

  • deflection thing we saw in last year's phone. We'll have to check it out from the inside

  • of course, but the point is the 6,000 milliamp hour battery can probably handle a few extra

  • LEDs inside. And it would be pretty cool to see some more major lights, just like we would

  • see in a gaming PC. Either way this thing looks pretty cool.

  • The 6,000 milliamp hour battery is probably one of the best things about this phone, alongside

  • the 120 hertz 1080p OLED panel. For reference, most phones and monitors these days refresh

  • at 60 Hertz, so having a phone that can display these movies, games, scrolling, and images

  • twice as fast as usual is pretty interesting. It does last about 30 seconds under the flame

  • from my lighter which is also cool, or hot, depending on how you look at it. The screen

  • definitely did not recover though, so don't do this at home.

  • I almost forgot about the under screen fingerprint scanner. It's easy to tell that the ROG 2

  • is using an optical scanner. One, because the whole display brightens to max when it's

  • trying to sense my finger. And more importantly it has the green circle of light where my

  • finger is touching. The sensor underneath the display uses that green light to illuminate

  • the ridges on my fingerprint and then reads my fingerprint through those LEDs. It's pretty

  • cool. The under screen fingerprint technology wouldn't be possible on an LCD due to all

  • those layers we saw on my last videojust OLEDs. The good news is is that even with

  • these level 7 deeper grooves marring up the surface of the glass, the fingerprint reader

  • can still sense my finger and unlocks the phone every time.

  • Finally, the bend test. This thing is massively thick and heavy, which by default helps the

  • rigidity of the phone. But even with that thickness and weight, we still get a flex

  • near the side charging port. I guess having a hole in the frame weakens it a bit and allows

  • it to flex. But there are no permanent kinks or cracks in the metal, even when bent from

  • the front side. The ROG 2 is still a solid beast of a phone and quite possibly one of

  • the most feature-rich smartphones money can buy in 2019. It passes my durability test.

  • I'll toss a link for the current pricing of the ROG 2 down in the description below, next

  • to the Raycon headphones link. Remember you can get 15% off. To be honest, I got this

  • phone mostly so I could check out the insides. Hit that subscribe button if you're into that

  • kind of thing. And come hang out with me on Instagram and Twitter. Would you ever buy

  • a gaming phone? Or maybe a better question: do you game very much on your current phone?

  • Let me know down in the comments. Thanks a ton for watching. I'll see you around.

The Asus ROG Phone 2 is probably the most powerful and feature-rich smartphone that

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