Asus ROG Phone 9/9 Pro review

Triple camera setup with a telephoto and gimbal stabilization

After essentially carrying forward the camera setup from the ROG Phone 6 to the ROG Phone 7, Asus finally decided to do what we can only describe as a major upgrade for the ROG Phone 8 family. The ROG Phone 8 and 8 Pro got a new triple camera setup with a dedicated telephoto instead of the old macro shooter.

The ROG Phone 9 switches things up a bit. The 50MP main camera has been upgraded and now uses a Sony Lytia 700 sensor, plus an upgraded six-axis Hybrid Gimbal Stabilizer 4.0 with five degrees of vibration compensation. The ultrawide shooter is carried forward from the ROG Phone 8 generation. The 32MP 3x telephoto camera with up to 30x zoom and HyperClarity technology uses a different sensor but is kind of the same.

The important detail for this generation of ROG Phone is that the regular ROG Phone 9 doesn't have a telephoto camera. It has a 5MP macro cam instead but everything else is the same.

• Wide (main): 50MP Sony Lytia LYT-700 (1/1.56", 1.0µm), f/1.9, 24mm, PDAF, 6-axis gimbal OIS (5-degree vibration compensation); 4K@60/8K30
• Telephoto 3x: 32MP OmniVision OV32C (1/3.2", 0.7µm), f/2.4, PDAF, OIS; 1080p@60fps
• Ultrawide: 13MP OmniVision OV13B (1/3", 1.12µm), f/2.2, 13mm; 4K@30fps
• Front camera: 32MP OmniVision OV8856 (1/4", 1.12µm), f/2.5, 22mm, fixed focus; 1080p@30fps

The 9 Pro's telephoto camera is based on a 32MP OmniVision OV32C sensor. It has PDAF and OIS. Interestingly enough, despite having plenty of resolution, this camera's video capture is limited to 1080p@60fps. No 4K.

The ultrawide camera is based on a familiar 13MP OmniVision OV13B. Unlike the telephoto, it can take 4K video captures, but unfortunately, it lacks autofocus, so it can't double as a selfie shooter. In case you were wondering, the telephoto can't either because it can't focus from up close.

The ROG camera app UI is a fairly custom affair. We would say it is surprisingly feature-rich without being chaotic. The right AirTrigger can now be used as a simple camera shutter key.

Pro mode is surprisingly versatile. You get a level meter in the middle of the frame and a histogram in the bottom left corner. You get white balance, exposure compensation, ISO, shutter speed and a manual focus slider with focus peaking.

There is also a Pro video capture mode. 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.

Daylight photo quality

Main camera

The main camera on the ROG Phone 9/9 Pro captures binned photos in around 12.5MP resolution. The overall quality is good, but there are some things that could be improved. The detail is good, and so are the colors. Dynamic range is alright, but not overly impressive.

Unfortunately, the exposure metering on all of the ROG Phone 9 Pro cameras had a tendency to overexpose, which often meant the highlights were clipped at least to an extent.

ROG Phone 9 Pro: 12.5MP main camera samples

You can force the main camera to capture in its full 50MP resolution. The difference in quality isn't major. You get slightly more detail and less processing overall. There is less sharpening but also a bit more noise in the frame.

ROG Phone 9 Pro: 50MP main camera samples

Portrait mode isn't overly impressive. Subject detection and separation are far from perfect. On a more positive note, the quality of the background blur is good and convincing. You can also take portraits with a 2x zoom and 3x telephoto camera. The latter photos actually look pretty good.

ROG Phone 9 Pro: portrait samples

Before we get to the actual telephoto, here are some 2x zoom shots from the main camera. The quality is pretty similar to that of 1x shots, but with only slightly softer rendition of the fine details. Exposure seems to be metered better in this mode.

ROG Phone 9 Pro: 12.5MP main camera 2x zoom samples

Telephoto camera

The 32MP 3x telephoto camera produces 8MP photos. In daylight, its photos look good, but they are nothing spectacular, often coming out with soft detail rendering and somewhat limited dynamic range. At least the colors are likable and are well-matched to the main camera.

ROG Phone 9 Pro: 8MP telephoto camera samples

Ultrawide camera

The ultrawide camera captures pretty decent shots, but ones that fail to properly impress. Detail is good, though there is some noticeable softness, especially on surfaces. Dynamic range is fine, even if it is a bit narrow.

ROG Phone 9 Pro: 13MP ultrawide camera samples

Colors look good and are well-matched with the main and the telephoto cameras. There is a bit of corner softness, but practically no distortion, which is kind of impressive.

Macro camera (ROG Phone 9)

Before moving on, we did also made sure to test the macro camera on the regular ROG Phone 9. The macro shots are pretty good, but nothing really special.

ROG Phone 9: 5MP macro camera samples

Selfie camera

The 8MP selfie shots are pretty good. There is a decent amount of detail, and skin texture mostly comes through. Skin tones look good, and colors, in general, are well-matched to the other cameras. Dynamic range is alright.

ROG Phone 9 Pro: 8MP selfie camera samples

Low-light camera quality

The main camera on the ROG Phone 9 Pro captures decent low-light photos. Colors are nice, and noise is quite low. However, the dynamic range leaves more to be desired. The details in the shadows are soft and mushy, and the highlights are often clipped.

ROG Phone 9 Pro: 12.5MP main camera low-light samples

The ROG Phone 9 has an automatic night mode, which triggers whenever needed. Beyond that, however, there is also a manual night mode. The benefit of using it is that you can choose between a shorter and longer capture and stacking time for your photos. For our testing, we selected the longest possible capture time.

With the forced Night Mode, the level of detail becomes very good, even in darker areas, which are now well-developed. Highlights and light sources are well-contained, too.

ROG Phone 9 Pro: 12.5MP main camera night mode samples

2x zoom shots from the main camera look very similar to 1x ones, but there is quite a bit more noise in the frame.

ROG Phone 9 Pro: 12.5MP main camera low-light 2x zoom samples

The 3x telephoto captures surprisingly great low-light photos. They have plenty of detail and are very clean, with practically no noise. Dynamic range is good, and so are colors.

ROG Phone 9 Pro: 8MP telephoto camera low-light samples

Here are some forced night mode samples from the telephoto.

ROG Phone 9 Pro: 8MP telephoto camera night mode samples

The ultrawide camera isn't particularly great in low light, but it gets the job done. Dynamic range is surprisingly good, and so are colors. There is quite a bit of noise, though.

ROG Phone 9 Pro: 13MP ultrawide camera low-light samples

Here are some forced night mode samples from the ultrawide as well.

ROG Phone 9 Pro: 13MP ultrawide camera night mode samples

Finally, here are some low-light selfies. These aren't half bad, but again, nothing to phone home about.

ROG Phone 9 Pro: 8MP selfie camera low-light samples

Video capture quality

The main camera on the ROG Phone 9/9 Pro can capture up to 8K@30fps video. It can also do 4K@60fps. The ultrawide camera can do 4K@30fps videos, while the telephoto can surprisingly only do 1080p@60fps, no 4K. By default, the phone captures videos using an AVC/h.264 video stream at around 63 Mbps at 4K resolution, plus stereo AAC audio, packaged inside an MP4 container. You can also choose to save videos in HEVC/h.265 format to save some space.

You can check out the playlist below, which includes multiple video samples.

The ROG Phone 9/9 Pro has two levels of stabilization. One is called adaptive stabilization and it works on every camera, including the selfie. Then there is HyperSteady mode, which only works at 1080p@60fps and on the main camera. Both stabilizations work pretty well in practice.