I wrote something!

Are mobile gamers actually gamers?

Yes. Yes, they are.

Like how whale sharks are categorically sharks; basketballs being balls, and catfishes being fishes. But, this isn’t a debate on semantics over compound words. In fact, it isn’t a compound word at all. When people strip it to the fundamental description, it’s gamers who play on their mobile phones.

Knowing that the gaming community has long debated the legitimacy of each hardware you played games on, it’s clear the answer you see above isn’t brain science or rocket surgery. That was a joke by the way in case that flew by you.

Why we can’t have nice things

Let me put it simply: you don’t evaluate software or the legitimacy of a community around the software, with hardware. It’s like calling shit, food because it’s on a plate. That just isn’t it, chief.

Video games have always been delegitimized as an industry. From game development to esports, it’s always been the unwanted child of entertainment or that’s what they’ve long been portrayed as. So, I understand.

When you get a fat paycheck from taking it seriously or how seriously people are now taking it, you don’t want to be clumped up with people who play Candy Crush. But you need to see it in a technical and rational sense, not by how hurt your ego is.

No tea. No shade. Just facts

Alright. Enough of the condescension. Let’s talk about ROG Phone 3. Did I just write paragraphs explaining the legitimacy of mobile gamers to talk about a gaming phone? Yes. Yes, I did. Let me explain.

The ROG Phone 3 gets called the best gaming phone and the most powerful phone to date. And, we needed to get to the bottom of whether a phone this fast and powerful is even necessary. The answer is yes. Why? Because if it won’t necessarily instantly make you good at games, it does open the floodgates of opportunities for mobile games and consequently, mobile gamers.

Gaming with reckless abandon

The phone is decked out with all the good-good gaming specs you’d want on a phone. But before we get into that, let’s talk aesthetic build. ASUS ROG stuck to the same size and shape for the ROG Phone 3 to its predecessors to make sure all those accessories stay compatible. They did tone down on the flashy designs, making the phone mostly black with a small window showing off its aerodynamic cooling system.

It’s got a stunning 6.6-inch OLED 4K display with a 144Hz refresh rate. On top of that, it joins the top-notch phones with a Snapdragon SD865+ processor with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of internal storage. If you’re poorly mistaken worrying about the phone lasting a day out, the 6000mAh battery can take more than just a beating.

Too hot to handle

No, really. I mean that in the most literal sense. The ROG Phone 3 got too hot for me to hold or use when testing daily mobile use. I hadn’t even played on it at this point. This brings me to a cool snap-on accessory the phone comes with, the AeroActive Cooler 3. This is a dedicated cooling fan to make sure the system doesn’t overheat. Now, as much as the phone didn’t seem performance-wise bothered by the heat it was emanating, it would stunt the phone’s longevity. And, no one wants to be holding a freshly heated hot pocket as a phone.

Here’s a nitpicky crutch: with the AeroActive Cooler 3, the phone is invasively bulky. No one is putting this in their pockets. It’ll look like a mangled wallet. It won’t do you any favors, boys. I think, all things considered, the bulk and the heat is a downside but strangely expected from a gaming phone. Ultimately, if it hadn’t been marketed as a gaming phone, ASUS ROG would have been quickly roasted for it.

Where it puts other gaming phones to shame

Most “gaming phones” barely get to show off other features besides gaming spec-heavy features. The ROG Phone 3 cannot just take a beating on the mobile gaming end but, it delivers on capturing good photos. It’s decked out with a triple camera set-up with a 64MP wide, 13MP ultrawide, and a 5MP macro.

The ROG Phone 3 boasts perfect features for gamers, but it delivers on more than just that. The phone’s OLED 4k display is perfect for watching movies, shorts, and TV shows. With the phone’s extensive battery life, it had no problem tearing through hours of binge-watching on Netflix.

Is this your Gaming Phone?

The ROG Phone 3 won’t save you from feeding or being bad at a game but, it does make it all the more fun! Nothing screams fun like seeing your character fail in full detail. Joking aside, gaming on the ROG Phone 3 may not make you good but, it could (with tons of practice) help you get good. If you’re a gamer who dabbles into accessing multi-platform games on your phone while you’re away or a mobile gamer, this is the phone for you.

Save the salt

Mobile games are not just convenient, portable, and efficient, it’s also mostly for free — and that’s why despite the memes and childish slap fights, its popularity has grown incrementally. Games are no longer a sensible debate between hardware, and it shouldn’t have been, to begin with.

Games like Wild Rift, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Among Us, Genshin Impact, and Identity V have proven that games that go multi-platform and dive into iOS and Android grow a huge following and community. So, next time you feel like judging a game by what people play it on, consider the context of usage, availability, and accessibility.