Asus ROG Phone 7 review

Familiar triple camera setup

The ROG Phone 7 carries forward most of the camera setup from its ROG Phone 6 predecessor. The main camera is based on the 50MP Sony IMX766 sensor. It is a fairly-popular Quad Bayer sensor used by a number of BBK devices like Oppo, vivo and OnePlus models. It has a 1/1.56" size with 1.0µm individual pixels. It sits behind an f/1.9 lens. There is nothing fancy about this camera either. No OIS or Laser autofocus just plain PDAF.

Even so, the sensor itself is solid. Plus, Asus also has a nifty habit of making the most out of the hardware at its disposal. In this case, the excellent Spectra triple 18-bit CV-ISP has allowed an impressive feature set out of an otherwise modest camera. Especially in the video capture department, where the ROG Phone 7/7 Ultimate has impressive 3-axis EIS, all the way up to 8K@24fps resolution, 120fps slow-motion at 4K, as well as HDR video capture and even a full-featured Pro video capture mode. Mind you, this is not exactly new coming from the ROG Phone 5 and even the ROG Phone 3. Still, even though the feature set is more or less carried forward, Asus has continuously improved quality behind the scenes.

The ultrawide camera is also borrowed from the ROG Phone 6. It is based on the rather unimpressive 13MP OmniVision OV13B sensor and has a 120-degree field of view and an f/2.2 aperture lens. No autofocus or anything fancy of the sort.

Finally, there is the macro camera. It is being marketed as a 5MP unit, and indeed one of the sensors supported on the ROG Phone 7 is the 5MP Samsung S5K5E9YX04. Then again, as per our hardware snooping efforts, the dedicated macro might actually be based on an OmniVision OV8856 sensor, which has a native resolution of 8MP. We can't say for sure. The ultrawide and macro cameras are actually carried over from the ROG Phone 5/5s and are not too dissimilar from those on the ROG Phone 3 either. Not that we have anything against such a practice.

The only truly new camera on the ROG Phone 7 is the selfie, which is now based on a 32MP OmniVision sensor (OV32C) with Quad-Bayer binning, resulting in 8MP photos. It sits behind an f/2.45 lens. There is no autofocus here, but the focal plane is pretty deep and forgiving.

The ROG camera app UI is a fairly custom affair. We would say it is surprisingly feature-rich without being chaotic.

Main camera UI

The options on the main camera UI are all self-explanatory, perhaps, except for achieving separate spots metering for exposure and autofocus. This is done by long-pressing on a spot to fix both and then sliding the AF circle to a different location.

There is just a single beauty slider to the right, with no additional options. If you want more control over that, you must switch to the dedicated Portrait mode. Besides a slider for the intensity of the blur effect, it also features in-depth controls to thin cheeks, enhance eyes, brighten skin, soften skin and change its tone.

The camera app does a fair bit of automatic scene detection. This is indicated by a small scene icon in the top left corner and a Night Mode UI, which automatically pops up in the bottom right corner when the camera decides it is dark enough. Clicking on the Night mode icon itself presents two options for exposure duration. The numbers themselves are dynamic and also dependent on ambient light conditions. One denotes a shorter exposure, while the other - a longer one.

Automatic Night mode detection

If, for instance, the light is almost enough to pull off a good shot without night mode, but the ROG Phone 7/7 Ultimate still automatically decides to turn it on, you usually get an exposure time of around 3 seconds. If you then enter the quick selection menu, the 3-second mode should be set as the "long exposure" value, with the lower one simply turning Night Mode off.

Alternatively, if it's really dark, you might find that the lower exposure time is in the 5 to 8-second range, with the longer option potentially going all the way up to 25 seconds. This dynamically populated selector is definitely a custom Asus control and one that is surprisingly convenient.

On top of that, the camera app also has a dedicated Night mode, which always applies at least some minimal value to the shorter exposure option.

Pro mode is surprisingly versatile. You get a level meter in the middle of the frame and a histogram in the bottom left corner. WB adjustment goes from 4500K to 7500K. Exposure compensation can be set between -2 and +2. ISO goes from 25 to 3200. You can do shutter speeds between 1/60 and 32 seconds, and the is a manual focus slider.

Pro camera mode

Pro mode can save up to two distinct sets of settings. These are denoted as C1 and C2 and can be flipped on the fly. Neat! Auto Exposure Bracketing is also quite convenient. In Pro mode, you can set up a range of up to plus and minus two stops for exposure. The camera will then capture successive shots with different shutter speeds/ISO values and combine those into a single one with a greater dynamic range. Perfect for scenes with lots of backlight.

There is a Pro video capture mode, as well. It offers the same set of controls on the right-hand side as Pro photo mode and a nifty smooth zoom feature. You can just click on an area in the frame and have the phone gradually zoom in. The ROG camera app also allows smooth switching between the main and ultrawide cameras while filming.

Pro video mode

Video options on the left side of the frame are the same for regular Video recording mode and Pro mode. Interesting among these is the stabilization toggle. It enables and disables HyperSteady, which goes one step beyond the regular EIS video stabilization, controlled via a central toggle in the Video setting screen. HyperSteady is only limited to FullHD resolution but does work on both the main and ultrawide cameras.

There are plenty of settings to play around with in the camera app, both for stills and video capture.

Camera app settings

Daylight image quality

Let's start with the 50MP main camera on the ROG Phone 7. Since it is a Quad-Bayer unit, it captures 12.5MP stills by default. These look great, with plenty of detail and nice, true-to-life colors. Dynamic range is nice and wide.

Asus ROG Phone 7: 12.5MP main camera samples

We just have a couple of minor criticisms for these shots, namely that certain areas are a bit excessively sharpened. Some finer detail, like grass, can also look slightly artificial. Neither complaint is serious, though.

Though the main camera is not meant to shoot at its full resolution, it can still be forced to capture in 50MP mode. You do have to know where to look for it, though, since it is not listed in the image aspect and size selector in the camera UI. It is a bit buried in the settings menu of the camera.

The 50MP stills don't offer any noticeable improvement in detail over the regular 12.5MP shots. They do look a bit more natural and soft, mostly due to less sharpening being applied by the camera algorithm.

Asus ROG Phone 7: 50MP main camera samples

50MP shots also feature less HDR stacking, which can negatively affect the dynamic range. Add the hassle of dealing with large file sizes to the mix, and we really aren't sure 50MP mode is worth it.

The ROG Phone 7 lacks a dedicated telephoto camera, but it can still do up to 8x zoom on the main camera. There is even a quick toggle for 2x zoom in the camera UI next to the 0.6x ultrawide selector. 2x zoom might be digital, but it is more or less lossless due to the camera's high resolution.

Asus ROG Phone 7: 12.5MP main camera 2x zoom samples

These photos look nearly indistinguishable from the regular 1x ones. We have no additional complaints besides the slightly excessive sharpening we mentioned.

The ROG Phone 7 can capture really nice portraits. Subject detection and separation, while not perfect, are definitely good enough. And we particularly like the quality of the background blur.

Asus ROG Phone 7: 12.5MP main camera portrait samples

You can also capture portraits at 2x zoom; these look just as great.

Asus ROG Phone 7: 12.5MP main camera portrait samples

Non-human subjects work just as well too.

Asus ROG Phone 7: 12.5MP main camera portrait samples

And here's how the ROG Phone 7 stacks up against competitors in our extensive photo compare database.

Asus ROG Phone 7 against the ZTE nubia Red Magic 8 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra in our Photo compare tool

50MP: Asus ROG Phone 7 against the ZTE nubia Red Magic 8 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra in our Photo compare tool

The ultrawide camera does quite alright for this sort of hardware and captures really decent-looking photos. Detail is plenty, and the dynamic range is nice and wide. Colors rendition is also pretty decent, though far from a good match to the main camera.

Asus ROG Phone 7: 13MP ultrawide camera samples

Naturally, like pretty much every ultrawide camera, this one also has some corner softness. A bit of noise and grain is visible, primarily on uniform surfaces too. Nothing too severe, though. Sharpening is still on the aggressive side at times.

While we never expected much out of the macro camera, it surprisingly delivered very clean and usable shots. Detail is plenty, and the colors look great. While a bummer, the lack of autofocus is not a huge deal since the focal plane on this camera is nice and wide and very forgiving. Just don't expect to get too close to your subject.

Asus ROG Phone 7: 5MP macro camera samples

Selfies

The new 32MP selfie camera on the ROG Phone 7 is a Quad-Bayer unit, hence capturing 8MP stills by default. These look great with plenty of detail, nice natural skin tones, and well-preserved skin texture.

Asus ROG Phone 7: 8MP selfie camera samples

The focal plane here is also nice and wide, which doesn't exactly make up for the lack of autofocus on the selfie, but at least softens the blow. Plus, the camera does a great job of detecting faces and marking them while they are in focus. The dynamic range could be a bit wider, but that's nitpicking.

The selfie camera also does quite alright with portraits. The overall quality is the same as far as the subject is concerned. Detection and separation are great, even if not perfect, and the bokeh quality is really high and convincing.

Asus ROG Phone 7: 8MP selfie camera portrait samples

Video quality

Like the ROG Phone 6 before it, the ROG Phone 7 can capture up to 8K video, but it is limited to 24fps. That continues to be a perplexing limitation since both the IMX776 and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset can individually capture 8K@30fps.

Anyway, fps issues aside, 8K footage from the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate looks stunning. Detail is great, and so are the colors. By default, video gets captured and encoded in h.264 with an AVC video stream at around 105 Mbps and stereo 48kHz AAC audio inside an MP4 container. You can also choose to save some space at the expense of quality and go for h.265 (HEVC) encoding.

If we have to be honest, though, 8K on a smartphone is still a bit of a gimmick. Most users won't and frankly shouldn't go all the way to 8K for numerous reasons, not the least of which is convenient playback on other devices. That being said, we are happy to report that 4K video looks just as good.

Dynamic range is also great in 4K. Colors look vibrant without going overboard. They are not dull and have a little "pop" to them, but they are not oversaturated either. We think Asus struck a good balance here.

Here's how the ROG Phone 7 stacks up against the competition in our extensive video compare database.

Asus ROG Phone 7 against the ZTE nubia Red Magic 8 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra in our Video compare tool

8K: Asus ROG Phone 7 against the ZTE nubia Red Magic 8 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra in our Video compare tool

You get a choice of two different stabilization levels on the ROG Phone 7. First, there is the 3-axis EIS that is available across both rear cameras and the selfie and generally does an almost perfect job of smoothing out the footage. Plus, it can work at any resolution, even up to the full 8K for the main camera. Beyond that, there is HyperSteady. This year HyperSteady works on both the main and the ultrawide cameras. We don't think we would ever resort to it in general use, but you can judge for yourself.

The ultrawide camera can capture video at up to 4K@30fps, which is not something you see every day. It does a very decent job of it as well. There is plenty of detail, and the colors look great and are surprisingly well-matched to the main camera. There is a bit of edge softness, but that's mostly normal for an ultrawide.

The new 32MP selfie camera on the ROG Phone 7 can only capture 1080p video, which is a downgrade compared to the 4K on the ROG Phone 6. Other than that, detail is good, and so are colors. Contrast is a bit too boosted for our taste, and dynamic range could be wider.

Stabilization, including HyperSteady works on the selfie camera as well and does an excellent job of smoothing out shakes and bumps. Just make sure to hold the phone at a good arm's length while using it since it does crop out a fair bit of the frame.

Low-light camera quality

The 50MP main camera does pretty well in low-light conditions. The shots are quite unremarkable but do hold up. There is plenty of detail, and noise is well subdued. Colors look good, though a bit on the warmer side with a yellow tint.

ROG Phone 7: 12.5MP main camera low-light samples

Dynamic range is reasonably good. There is some detail in the shadows, and light sources are handled well. Overall, not a bad showing at all.

The ROG Phone 7 has automatic Night mode. It pretty much kicks in as needed quite consistently. There is also a dedicated Night mode. It has a subtle but noticeable effect on the main camera, cleaning up some of the noise and adding additional sharpening. Light sources are contained better too.

ROG Phone 7: 12.5MP main camera night mode samples

The difference isn't stark, but it's there, and given that Night mode shots on the main camera usually only take around a couple of seconds to capture, we can see how using the mode would be worth it in most cases.

It's hardly a surprise that the ultrawide camera struggles noticeably in low light. It tends to capture pretty dark shots with limited dynamic range and crushed shadows. Light sources are often blow out as well. Some of the surfaces are noisy and grainy.

ROG Phone 7: 13MP ultrawide camera low-light samples

Night mode has a dramatically positive effect on ultrawide shots. It brightens up the entire frame and particularly boosts shadows. Noise also gets noticeably reduced, and light sources are contained much better.

ROG Phone 7: 13MP ultrawide camera night mode samples

However, you need to be very patient for night mode on the ultrawide. We observed an average of four to five-second capture times, which is pretty long to stand still and wait around.

The selfie camera is also decent but unremarkable in low-light conditions. It captures skin tones well enough and even preserves some of the skin texture.

ROG Phone 7: 8MP selfie camera low-light samples

However, these photos have very limited dynamic range and are generally quite dark.

Night mode has a subtle effect on selfies. On occasion, it can clean up some of the noise and brighten up faces a bit. Other times, however, the mode results in entirely blurry photos due to the long exposure and stacking process taking place, so it's a bit of a tossup.

ROG Phone 7: 8MP selfie camera night mode samples

Video from the main camera is very clean, with plenty of detail and great colors and light sources. Noise is very well contained, with practically none on the frame to speak of.

The only major issue with these videos is that they are a bit too dark for our taste, with entirely crushed shadows.

There is no real tangible benefit in terms of quality from shooting in 8K. We would probably stick to 4K ourselves.

Last and probably least, the ultrawide holds up in low-light video capture but is largely unimpressive. The detail is there, colors look nice, and noise is quite low.

However, these videos are way too dark, with entirely crushed shadows. Light sources are blown out as well.