From the front, when the phone is powered off, there isn't much to notice about the new Asus ROG Phone 5. But on the back, when its logo lights up to contrast its black dot-matrix pattern finish with hot pink '80s punk rock highlights, you can't help but take notice. Seriously, you just need to play some Blondie or Talking Heads to complete the effect.

The ROG Phone 5 is a fourth-gen gaming phone. ROG stands for the Republic of Gamers. And this year, Asus knocked it out of the park. This isn't a major redesign but rather a round of significant tweaks that make this phone another step closer to an "ideal" that Asus has been chasing since 2018. Every improvement from the Gorilla Glass Victus on the screen and updated speakers to relocating cooling elements to the middle of the phone are done with the goal of making the ultimate gaming phone.

Perhaps the biggest change this year is that there are three new ROG phones instead of just one. There's the regular ROG Phone 5 with the '80s punk vibe. Then there's the ROG Phone 5 Pro that comes with a detachable fan called the AeroActive Cooler 5. And instead of a logo that lights up, the Pro has the ROG Vision display which is a mini color display strip on the back to show off graphics. It can display alerts and animations for incoming calls, when the battery is charging and more. In fact, you can even make your own custom graphics for the back display. It's an absolute blast to use and my inner 9-year-old approves.

The third model is the ROG Phone 5 Ultimate. It has a matte white back decorated with black hairlines and neon blue accents, all of which stole my heart as soon as I laid eyes on it. Like the Pro, there's a back display strip, but it's black and white. The Ultimate also comes with an AeroActive Cooler 5 but what really makes it the "ultimate phone" is the 18GB of RAM on the inside. My new work laptop only has 16. When you add in a 2.84GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor, Android 11 and a beefy GPU to all that RAM, you get the most powerful Android phone we've ever tested. You can see our performance test results at the bottom of the review.

Asus ROG Phone 5 models

Phone	Price	RAM	Storage	AeroActive Cooler 5	Lighting
Asus ROG Phone 5	799 euros	8GB	128GB	None	RGB logo
Asus ROG Phone 5	899 euros	12GB	256GB	None	RGB logo
Asus ROG Phone 5	999 euros	16GB	256GB	None	RGB logo
Asus ROG Phone 5 Pro	1,099 euros	16GB	512GB	Included	Vision display color
Asus ROG Phone 5 Ultimate	1,299 euros	18GB	512GB	Included	Vision display black and white

What do you do if you have a powerful gaming phone to review? You game. I played driving games, war games, problem-solving games, zombie games, vertical games and a weird silent movie game. Sometimes I played games with the fan attached and other times I used the nifty Kunai 3 Gamepad accessory, which Asus sells separately.

144Hz screen and the longest battery life we tested

During all this gaming a few things stood out. The screen is amazing. You can set its refresh rate up as 144Hz, but I found that the auto refresh rate worked best as it didn't kill the battery as quickly. Also, this review comes out just weeks ahead of the launch of the RedMagic 6 gaming phone with a 165Hz screen.

Battery life on the Asus ROG Phone 5 is incredible. It has a 6,000-mAh capacity and it is made up of two 3,000-mAh batteries. This design means you can fast charge it with a 65-watt charger. After a day of normal use, I usually had about 40% of the battery left.

Battery tests on the ROG Phone 5 for continuous video playback on Airplane mode clocked an average of 20 hours, 15 minutes and that was with the screen locked in at 120Hz. With the screen refresh rate set to auto, it averaged a time of 28 hours, 4 minutes. The longest time for any phone we tested this year and the second longest time for any phone in the past few years (just behind the LG V60).

The ROG Phone 5 brilliantly lets you control the battery and handful of different ways. You can set limits for how much of the battery charges, choose slow charging speeds and even schedule when it charges. One of the cooler features is something we also saw last year on the Sony Xperia 5 II. If you're gaming and plugged into power, the ROG Phone 5 will run on power from the cable instead of charging the battery. This prevents the phone from getting warmer which can affect gaming performance. 

ROG Phone 5 has even more touch game controls

There are so many ways to control and interact with the games you play. AirTriggers, which are touch sensors located on the sides of the phone, are even easier to use this year because they're larger and go edge-to-edge. If you're using the Pro or Ultimate version, there's an extra sensor on the back for input. Add the AeroActive Cooler 5 to the phone, and you get the addition of two mini paddle buttons. That said, I noticed a lot of mobile games have simplistic controls. But I imagine having more options for game control mapping will appeal to people who are into esports.

The ROG Phone 5 is heavy and cameras are mediocre

But it isn't all fun and games with the Asus ROG Phone 5. There are some drawbacks. The ROG phone 5 is heavy. It weighs more than the iPhone 12 Pro Max, Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra and last year's ROG Phone 3. The ROG Phone 5 is the heaviest phone I've ever tested. And after a long bout of gaming, you feel that weight. Even more so when you add a case or a fan or the gamepad accessory.

I know this is a gaming phone but I do wish the cameras were better. On the back, there's a main 64-megapixel camera that uses pixel binning to improve image brightness and reduce noise. There's a 13-megapixel ultrawide camera and a 5-megapixel macro camera. The main camera takes some decent photos in bright light. But when you get into dimmer situations like indoors the image quality suffers. If it's dark, the phone automatically goes into a night mode that produces mediocre results. Below are three of the better photos I took with the ROG Phone 5.

The ROG is capable of shooting up to 8K resolution at 30 frames per second, but the story was the same as photos. Take a look at the video below of video I shot with the ROG Phone 5. I wish Asus took advantage of all the power it has from the processor, RAM and GPU to help the ROG phones take better photos.

There isn't a US price for the ROG Phone 5 yet

Another downside is there isn't any water- or dust-resistance. For the price, it seems like there should be. And if you're wondering about that price, that makes two of us. At this time, US pricing hasn't been announced. If we go by European pricing and convert to US dollars, a baseline ROG Phone 5 would be $950 and the ROG Phone Ultimate would cost $1,540. (See the chart below for the full breakdown of international conversions.) 

Be careful with those conversions, though. They probably aren't the actual US prices -- European prices include tax -- so it's hard to put a value on these phones. If the baseline ROG Phone 5 was $700 or even $800, it would be an excellent value. And if the Ultimate was $1,200, I'd have no problem recommending it to someone looking for a gaming phone. But until those prices are announced, who knows. For that reason, I'm holding off on scoring this review until US prices are announced.

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Asus ROG Phone 5 Ultimate

Apple iPhone 12 Pro

GEEKBENCH V.5.0 SINGLE-CORE

Asus ROG Phone 5 Ultimate

GEEKBENCH V.5.0 MULTICORE

Asus ROG Phone 5 Ultimate

Asus ROG Phone 5 specs vs. Asus ROG Phone 5 Pro, Asus ROG Phone 5 Ultimate, Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra

	Asus ROG Phone 5	Asus ROG Phone 5 Pro	Asus ROG Phone 5 Ultimate	Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra
Display size, resolution	6.78-inch AMOLED, 2,448x1,080, 144Hz refresh rate, HDR10 Plus, 300Hz touch rate	6.78-inch AMOLED, 2,448x1,080, 144Hz refresh rate, HDR10 Plus, 300Hz touch rate	6.78-inch AMOLED, 2,448x1,080, 144Hz refresh rate, HDR10 Plus, 300Hz touch rate	6.8-inch AMOLED 2x, 3,200x1,440 pixels
Pixel density	395 ppi	395 ppi	395 ppi	515 ppi
Dimensions (Inches)	6.09x2.72x0.36 in	6.09x2.72x0.36 in	6.09x2.72x0.36 in	2.97x6.5x0.35 in
Dimensions (Millimeters)	172.8x77.2x10.29 mm	172.8x77.2x10.29 mm	172.8x77.2x10.29 mm	75.6x165.1x8.9mm
Weight (Ounces, Grams)	8.57 oz; 243g	8.57 oz; 243g	8.57 oz; 243g	8.07 oz; 229g
Mobile software	Android 11	Android 11	Android 11	Android 11
Camera	64-megapixel (wide), 13-megapixel (ultra-wide), 5-megapixel (macro)	64-megapixel (wide), 13-megapixel (ultra-wide), 5-megapixel (macro)	64-megapixel (wide), 13-megapixel (ultra-wide), 5-megapixel (macro)	108-megapixel (wide), 12-megapixel (ultra-wide), 10-megapixel (3x telephoto), 10-megapixel (10x telephoto)
Front-facing camera	24-megapixel	24-megapixel	24-megapixel	40-megapixel
Video capture	8K	8K	8K	8K
Processor	2.84GHz Snapdragon 888 5G	2.84GHz Snapdragon 888 5G	2.84GHz Snapdragon 888 5G	2.84GHz Snapdragon 888 5G
Storage	128GB, 256GB UFS3.1	512GB UFS3.1	512GB UFS3.1	128GB/256GB, 512GB
RAM	8GB, 12GB, 16GB	16GB	18GB	12GB, 16GB
Expandable storage	None	None	None	None
Battery	6,000 mAh (2x 3,000 mAh)	6,000 mAh (2x 3,000 mAh)	6,000 mAh (2x 3,000 mAh)	5,000 mAh
Fingerprint sensor	In-screen	In-screen	In-screen	In-screen
Connector	USB-C	USB-C	USB-C	USB-C
Headphone jack	Yes	Yes	Yes	None
Special features	5G-enabled, 65W quick charging, ROG logo, Wi-Fi 6E, Dual-SIM, Comes with case	5G-enabled, 65W quick charging, ROG Color Vision display, Wi-Fi 6E, Dual-SIM, Comes with case and AeroActive Cooler 5	5G-enabled, 65W quick charging, ROG Black and White Vision display, Wi-Fi 6E, Dual-SIM, Comes with case and AeroActive Cooler 5	IP68 rating, 5G-enabled, 100x Space Zoom, 10W wireless charging, 10x optical zoom
Price off-contract (USD)	TBA, but European prices convert to $950 (8GB RAM, 128GB storage), $1,065 (12GB RAM, 256GB storage), $1,185 (16GB RAM, 256GB storage)	TBA, but European price converts to $1,420 (16GB RAM, 512GB storage)	TBA, but European price converts to $1,540 (18GB RAM, 512GB storage)	$1,200 (128GB)
Price (GBP)	TBA, but European prices convert to £685 (8GB RAM, 128GB storage), £770 (12GB RAM, 256GB storage), £855 (16GB RAM, 256GB storage)	TBA, but European price converts to £1,025 (16GB RAM, 512GB storage)	TBA, but European price converts to £1,110 (18GB RAM, 512GB storage)	£1,329
Price (AUD)	TBA, but European prices convert to AU$1,235 (8GB RAM, 128GB storage), AU$1,390 (12GB RAM, 256GB storage), AU$1,540 (16GB RAM, 256GB storage)	TBA, but European price converts to AU$1,850 (16GB RAM, 512GB storage)	TBA, but European price converts to AU$2,000 (18GB RAM, 512GB storage)	AU$1,849

Looking for ways to get more out of WhatsApp on your Android phone or iPhone? We have your back. For example, rolling out right now is a new setting that will automatically clear out your messages after a week. It's a Snapchat-like feature, sure, but who says that's not welcome in other apps? You can even format the text you send in a message, adding some flair to an otherwise boring conversation. 

Or how about using WhatsApp on your computer -- yes, it's possible. It's also easy to set up and use. Below, you'll find tips on all sorts of hidden features and tricks in WhatsApp.

1. Format the text to add some verve to your messages

WhatsApp lets you bold, italicize or add strikethrough to text on the fly. To do so, you'll need to add a couple of special characters before and after the text you want to format.

To bold text in WhatsApp, use an asterisk (*bold*); italicize text with an underscore (_italics_); create strikethrough text with tildes (~strikethrough~).

2. Make your messages disappear

WhatsApp is currently rolling out a new feature that allows you to turn on disappearing messages for specific conversations. When it's enabled, all of your messages will disappear from a chat after seven days. 

Turn on Disappearing Messages by tapping on the contact or chat's name at the top of your screen. Select Disappearing Messages from the list of options and then tap On. 

Keep in mind that any images you send or receive are automatically saved to your or the recipient's phone, so while the message with the photo will disappear, the actual image may still be saved.

3. Star a message so it's easy to find later

Starring a message creates a convenient way to go back to a meaningful message, phone number, address or article link a friend sent you. Long-press on the message, then tap on the Star icon. A small star icon will be placed next to the message so you can easily identify it when scrolling through your conversation. 

You can also view your starred messages on an iPhone ($500 at Best Buy), by going to the Settings tab and selecting Starred Messages. Android users need to tap on the Menu button, then Starred Messages.

4. Clear out storage, and see who you talk to the most

Curious about who your BFF is on WhatsApp? It's easy to find out. 

On your iPhone or Android phone, go to Settings > Storage and Data > Manage Storage. A list of contacts will populate, in order of who is using the most storage on your phone. Tap on each contact to view more detailed stats, such as the number of messages exchanged, images and GIFs.

The new-look storage section of WhatsApp makes it easier to get rid of large files taking up space on your phone, as well as giving you a way to see who you chat with the most. 

5. View message details

Ever wonder what time a message was delivered or read? Swipe to the left on a message you sent to view those stats on your iPhone. Android users can long-press on a message, then tap on the menu button followed by Info.

6. Mute a conversation

When heading into a movie or meeting, use WhatsApp's mute feature to silence a chatty group conversation or a friend who doesn't get the hint that you're busy.

Android users can long-press on a chat, then tap on the crossed-out speaker icon at the top of the screen. iPhone users can swipe to the left across a conversation, then tap the three-dot button followed by Mute. 

You can choose to mute for 8 hours, one week or always. 

7. Hide your last seen status

Sometimes it's too much pressure knowing that people can see when you were last online and it makes you feel like you have to reply to pending messages. 

Don't want friends or random contacts to know your "Last Seen" time? Open Settings > Account > Privacy > Last Seen.

Then pick from Everyone, My Contacts or Nobody. 

8. Disable read receipts

Going one step further, you can disable read receipts in WhatsApp. This will prevent fellow users from knowing you have read a message. 

Open Settings > Account > Privacy and uncheck the box or slide the switch next to Read Receipts to the Off position. 

Note: Turning this feature off will also prevent you from seeing when a friend has read your message. Group Chats will still use read receipts, however.

9. Don't save photos, videos by default

If you'd rather not have WhatsApp saving every photo and video you receive to your camera roll, taking up space and cluttering up your own photos, disable autosave.

On an iPhone, open Settings > Chats and turn off Save to Camera Roll. On Android, go to open Settings> Chats and turn off Media Visibility. 

10. Use WhatsApp on a computer

Sitting down at your computer and using a full keyboard and mouse is a much better experience when you're juggling many different conversations or in a long talk with an old friend. And thanks to WhatsApp's web version, PC or Mac apps, you can do just that with very little effort. 

We walk you through the entire process, which takes 3 minutes at most. 

11. Receive custom notifications

Instead of having the same alert sound for every incoming message, you can set custom alerts for individual contacts. Doing so will make it easier to know who messaged you without looking at your phone.

Android users should tap on the Menu icon when viewing a chat thread, followed by View Contact > Custom Notifications, check the box and then finish setting it up. 

For those using WhatsApp on an iPhone, tap on the contact's name when viewing a chat thread, then Custom Tone.

12. Export a conversation

You can export a conversation should you need to save it. When viewing a conversation, Android users need to tap on the Menu button followed by More > Export Chat.

On an iPhone, the process involves viewing a chat thread, tapping on the contact name at the top of the screen, then scrolling to the bottom of the Contact Info page and selecting Export Chat.

Both devices give you the option to export with or without media attached. 

WhatsApp is a popular chat app, but if you're looking for something else to use, we have a few options for you. iPhone owners can always take advantage of iMessage, which has many of the same features as WhatsApp. Android owners have seen the Messages app receive some meaningful updates over the years, as well. 

Honda gave us what's likely a thinly disguised look at its first electric vehicle for China ahead of the 2020 Beijing Motor Show this past Saturday. Called the SUV E Concept, the vehicle directly points to a future mass-production model specifically for China, according to Honda. It's a handsome thing and appears to pull from Honda's current production cars.

The headlight and overall fascia look like a direct evolution from the current Honda Accord, Civic and even the Clarity with thin, angled headlights and angled face. It's easy to see where a traditional grille would sit, if this wasn't a battery-powered concept car. We don't have any other information on the SUV E Concept's electric powertrain, so we'll need to wait and see what the automaker plans to share in the future.

The company says this future model will underscore that electric cars remain fun to drive, and that we should expect the latest technology from Honda. The SUV E Concept packs a next-generation Honda Sensing suite of active safety gear and driver-assist functions, though the automaker didn't detail what exactly those are. Even if the SUV E Concept doesn't directly influence future Honda EVs for the US, a next-gen Sensing system will almost certainly come to America. For now, all Honda said is the tech boasts improved recognition, predication and decision-making performance.

Also onboard is Honda's next-gen Connect infotainment system, which includes an artificial intelligence assistant and over-the-air update capability. Honda's current infotainment system is pretty darn old, so we can't wait to see what upcoming cars pack. If I had to take a guess, the next Sensing and Connect systems may debut with the next-generation Honda Civic, due to be revealed next year. The Accord is also in for a refresh later this year, so perhaps we'll see updated tech come there, too.

In the grander scheme, Honda announced a wide-ranging North American alliance with General Motors at the start of this month. The two automakers plan to work together on electric vehicles quite closely. It could be that any future Honda EVs for North America share a vast quantity of running gear with GM.

Stardew Valley developer Eric Barone has officially announced a brand-new game called Haunted Chocolatier, complete with a gameplay trailer and blog post.

Seemingly echoing the aesthetic and vibes of Stardew, the upcoming game is not a spiritual successor but does retain similarities. Both games are sims, but where Stardew focused primarily on farming and town relationships, Haunted Chocolatier looks to be a shop sim, featuring -- as the name suggests -- a haunted chocolate shop and many, many ghosts.

In a blog post for the announcement, Barone (known online as ConcernedApe) said, "In Stardew Valley, the focus was more humble: living off the land, growing food, and connecting to the people and nature around you. However, with my next game, I wanted to explore more fantastical possibilities... experiences that take you beyond the ordinary. That's where magical haunted ghost chocolate comes in."

The announcement was definitely a surprise, with Barone having spent the last decade working on -- and then providing free updates for -- Stardew Valley and remaining secretive about his next movements. The game is also yet to see a release date, though judging from Barone's comments it likely won't be anytime soon.

"While the video I put together may look like the game is at an advanced stage of development, there is still a ton of stuff to do," he said. "And the way I work, things often don't come together until the final moments."

Haunted Chocolatier is confirmed for a PC release when the time comes, with a view to eventually being ported to other major platforms.

I'm strapped into the shotgun seat of a Porsche Panamera, parked in a lot just outside FC Barcelona's Camp Nou stadium. My chauffeur for the afternoon: Huawei'sMate 10 Pro smartphone.

You read that right. A phone will be driving this car.

No, Huawei isn't getting into the autonomous car business. The Chinese telecom giant set up this experiment to show off the processing prowess of the flagship phone's Kirin 970 chip, which features an artificial intelligence engine.

"This is purely a showcase of what the phone today is capable of," said Arne Herkelmann, European head of handset portfolio and planning for Huawei.

Alongside buzzwords like 5G and augmented reality, AI stands as one of the key themes for the Mobile World Congress trade show here. The mobile industry has taken its cue from the success of digital assistants like Amazon's Alexa and is touting smarter networks and devices.

For instance, LG unveiled a revamped flagship called the LG V30S, which added extra memory and AI capabilities. Nokia talked about the role of AI in all the traffic flowing through faster 5G networks. Verizon Chief Technology Officer Hans Vestberg said in an interview that he sees AI -- the power behind computer programs that can learn and adapt on their own -- being useful for detecting and automatically repairing problems with the network.

In November, Huawei unveiled the Mate 10 Pro and the vaunted AI engine in the Kirin 970. The company began selling the phone in the US in February, although without a carrier partner. 

Herkelmann said that since the launch, he'd been inundated with questions about how exactly its AI works. MWC 2018 presented a chance to show off those capabilities. 

Enter the road reader challenge. The company wanted to see if the phone was smart enough to recognize objects like a dog, a soccer ball or a person on a bicycle and tell the car to maneuver away. (Don't worry. The company used cardboard stand-ins.) The engine was fed more than 1 million images and can recognize 1,000 objects.

Autonomous driving, DIY style

Huawei spent five weeks putting this project together -- and you could kind of tell.

There was no polished self-driving car that you would find from Alphabet's Waymo unit or Uber's autonomous fleet. Missing were any sophisticated radars and depth sensors.

Huawei chose the Panamera because it wasn't already a self-driving car. The company's engineers mounted a high-speed camera on the roof, which provided a constant video feed to the phone of everything in front of the car. They also rigged up simple robots to help control the gas, brake and steering wheel.

A developer called Kerve created an app with a simple user interface, allowing you to tap a button on the phone to get the car going.

I had come into this thinking that the car would go along a curvy track. But instead it was set to accelerate down a simple straight path for roughly 100 feet. Considering how slowly we were going, it almost felt like a waste of a good Porsche.

Herkelmann said Huawei could have taught the phone to drive the car around corners or on different roads, but it would have take more time and space than the company had.

What was it like?

I had a chance to ride through the course twice. The first time was a practice run, in which the car moved at 5 miles per hour. Employees at the other end rushed to the road with cardboard obstacles at random times and locations, and you could see through the app on the Mate 10 Pro that it was able to determine whether the object was a soccer ball or a dog.

Once the car got a few feet away from a dog, it abruptly stopped.

Before beginning the next run, you choose how you'd like to avoid specific objects (swerve to the right, turn to the left or brake).

Fortunately, the second time offered a little more pop. The Panamera jumped to about 30 mph, and when it got close to a man and a bicycle, swerved to the right.

While the experience lacked in thrills, Huawei had made its point. The drive to build autonomous vehicles has chipmakers like Qualcomm and Nvidia offering dedicated processors for the auto industry. Huawei jury-rigged this in a few weeks with an off-the-shelf phone.

That alone is impressive, even if I'll stick to reading emails and posting to Instagram on my phone, and keeping my hands on the steering wheel when I'm in my car. 

Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus : Hands-on with Samsung's iPhone X fighters.

MWC 2018 : All of CNET's coverage from the biggest phone show of the year.

Nubia's new RedMagic 7S Pro could be one of the first US phones to get the most benefit out of an under-display camera. The international model of the gaming phone was revealed Tuesday, with a price tag of $729 (£669, roughly AU$1,160). It has a 16-megapixel front-facing camera hidden underneath its display and it runs on the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chip. The phone is similar to a version released earlier in July in China. Putting the selfie camera under the display means you get more screen real estate for games.

We've seen under-display cameras before, but they either produce grainy photos, like the one on the Galaxy Z Fold 3, or they don't make it to the US, like the 32-megapixel one on the ZTE Axon 20. To be clear, the 4-megapixel under-display camera on the Galaxy Z Fold 3 is intended for video calls only. The phone has a dedicated selfie camera built-into the external display.

Given how unusual it is to see a US phone with an under-display camera, I immediately fired it up. I took a few selfies and called a friend on Google Duo to see how it holds up. For better or worse, it's hard to see where the front-facing camera is exactly. When using the default camera app, the dark borders on the display make it nearly impossible to see the under-display camera's position.

These aren't the best front-facing photos I've ever taken, but just the fact that they look OK and are able to pick up facial details from behind a screen is impressive.

The RedMagic 7S Pro's under-display implementation hints at what mainstream phones may do in their quest to eliminate the notch. It also reveals some of the advantages of holding on to it -- when I launched a Google Duo video call with my best friend Gary, the app added a visual "notch" around the camera to show me where to look. Google's virtual notch is likely an indication of just how rare under-display cameras are on phones.

Taking into account that I was using an under-display camera, Gary said the image quality for the video call was on nearly par with other phones I tested with him. I'm grading on a curve because I made the video call with a camera behind a screen.

I haven't yet tested the phone's rear cameras, which include a 64-megapixel main camera, an 8-megapixel ultrawide and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. It's a similar setup to the $629 RedMagic 7. Photos from that phone were fine, but not likely the reason someone would pick up a gaming phone like this.

Many of the RedMagic 7S Pro's other features prioritize speed, graphical power or keeping the phone from overheating. Nubia says the new Qualcomm chip can reach a peak speed of 3.2GHz. The phone also has a dedicated gaming chip called the Red Core 1 and a built-in cooling fan that increases airflow by 16% over the RedMagic 7. The 7S Pro has a 5,000-mAh, dual-cell battery and comes with a 65-watt adapter. While I haven't tested battery charging on the 7S Pro, the RedMagic 7's 4,500-mAh battery fully charged up in 30 minutes using the same adapter.

The phone's 6.8-inch AMOLED screen supports a full HD resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate -- which means silky smooth animations. Keep in mind that the RedMagic 7's display can crank up to 165Hz. Nubia notes that the 7S Pro's screen has a touch sampling rate between 480Hz and 960Hz, which minimizes the lag between pressing an on-screen button and seeing that you did. I played a few rounds of the mobile version of Mortal Kombat and cranked up the graphics settings in Apex Legends Mobile, finding that both games ran smoothly and responsively.

As with previous RedMagic phones, you can flip an external switch on the side of the phone to boot up the Game Space launcher. The app minimizes menus to help you focus on gameplay and adds shortcuts for the phone's refresh rate, processor speeds and the cooling fan.

We're currently testing this phone alongside the RedMagic 7 Pro phone, which the 7S appears to be displacing, and will update with comparisons in later coverage.

The RedMagic 7S Pro's $729 model has 12GB of RAM, 256GB of storage and a design called Obsidian. The step-up version is $899 and includes 18GB of RAM, 512GB of storage and RGB lighting for its cooling fan. It's available in supernova or a silver transparent mercury design. The RedMagic 7S Pro will be available to preorder on Aug. 2 and goes on sale at Amazon and RedMagic's website on Aug. 9.