ROG Phone 9 FE Review — the value ROG Phone?
ROG Phone 9 FE
RM2,999 is a reasonable sum for the features, battery life and performance you're getting with the ROG Phone 9 FE.
What's Good?
- AI Gaming helps in certain scenarios
- A screen worthy of a gaming flagship
- A restrained gaming aesthetic
- AirTriggers are a game changer
- More ports than some laptops
- Great, impactful speakers
What's Not?
- Barely passable camera performance
The ROG Phone 9 series was launched in December 2024, being among the first to officially introduce the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset. Today, we’re looking at the ROG Phone 9 FE, the first ROG Phone to bear the “FE” moniker. While it shares the ROG Phone 9 name, the similarities pretty much end there. With that, let’s take a closer look at what ROG is offering with this new addition to the lineup.
ROG Phone 9 FE — What’s Good?
AI Gaming helps in certain scenarios
Well, aside from its name, the ROG Phone 9 FE shares the latest AI gaming features which ROG dubbed X Sense 3.0 with the ROG Phone 9 series. It now supports more games and can even work in MOBAs like Mobile Legends: Bang Bang to automatically level up your skills. Other games supported include Genshin Impact, where you can quickly breeze through conversations or automatically pick up item drops. These AI-based features won’t really give you a competitive edge over your peers without an ROG Phone, but it does make everything a touch easier.
A screen worthy of a gaming flagship
And yes, the display of the ROG Phone 9 FE is also shared with the ROG Phone 9 series. The 6.78-inch screen here touts a FHD+ resolution, which is not the sharpest you can find on the market right now. But ROG knows their target audience, and instead of an overinflated resolution that you won’t ever get to take advantage of in games, it comes with a super-fast 185Hz refresh rate. Oddly enough, this refresh rate is only accessible in games via Game Genie. Outside of games, the refresh rate is capped to 165Hz, while the LTPO dynamic refresh rate ranges from 1 to 120Hz. In a way, this feels like ROG overclocked the display here, but I’m not complaining. Now, for Hoyoverse to update their games to support higher frame rates on Android…
A restrained gaming aesthetic
You might note that the design of the ROG Phone 9 FE is very similar to the ROG Phone 8 Pro. Well, that’s because it is basically a reskinned ROG Phone 8 Pro. You get the same AniMe Vision display on the back, the same raised camera bump and also the same minimalist design with narrow bezels and a punch hole camera. I must say, ROG must be trying to invoke memories of the more overt gaming aesthetic of the ROG Phone 7 with the bold “09” etched into the matte glass back. It’s a minor change, but does reinforce the gaming intentions of this device, versus the cleaner and sleeker ROG Phone 8 Pro and Phone 9 Pro designs.
AirTriggers are a game changer
Ever since the first ROG Phone, the inclusion of AirTriggers has set it apart from the other “gaming phones” in the market. It’s contribution to my rank in Call of Duty: Mobile cannot be understated, as having shoulder buttons on a smartphone to aim and fire has truly changed my appreciation for mobile shooters. I have always felt that shooters on phones were too clunky to play, but with AirTriggers, the experience was vastly better. Of course, you can always assign it to tap anything else in other games, but I still feel that their best roles are when assigned to be ADS and Fire triggers. While not new in any way, it’s still something worthy of mentioning.
More ports than some laptops
The ROG Phone 9 FE is designed towards a very specific target demographic, and it shows here with its ports. The bottom USB-C port is offset to allow for more comfortable gaming even when a charger is connected. There’s also still a headphone jack, even as ROG has worked to really slim down the ROG Phone 9 FE. One concession that ROG made to minimize the bezels was to move the speaker to the bottom edge. This was met with some serious flak, but ROG took the feedback to heart and threw in an Audio Redirection Case into the box, to help reflect some of the sound towards you. It somewhat simulates stereo front facing speakers, but more on that later.
The second USB-C port on the long edge of the ROG Phone is designed to accommodate the ROG AeroActive Coolers, and has been a staple since the very first ROG Phone as well. Aside from supporting coolers, it also handles data transfers, at speeds of up to 10Gbps with USB 3.2 Gen 2 support. That’s double what other flagships like even the latest Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra can manage. It is also capable of display output, which makes the ROG Phone 9 FE a really good option for mobile game streamers. The centralized location means that it won’t get in the way of your hands when you’re gaming too, and really underscores the gaming-focused design of this smartphone.
Great, impactful speakers
As mentioned above, ROG compromised on the audio experience starting with the ROG Phone 8 series. As an olive branch, the ROG Phone 9 FE gets this cool case in the box that helps to redirect the audio forward towards you. The difference is really quite minimal, and I personally didn’t mind the bottom-firing speaker at all with my ROG Phone 8 Pro. It’s still one of the loudest and clearest speakers in a smartphone thus far, with or without the nifty audio redirection trick. Games and movies sound great, with proper reproduction of the bass frequencies that is often missing from other smartphones.
ROG Phone 9 FE — What’s Not?
Barely passable camera performance
If we go off the specs sheet alone, the ROG Phone 9 FE has a decent camera setup. It touts excellent gimbal image stabilization and a flagship-class 50MP Sony IMX890 main sensor paired with a 13MP ultra-wide shooter and 5MP macro camera. Unfortunately, it is let down by rather shoddy processing. The ROG Phone 9 FE has a tendency to be a touch too aggressive with the sharpening pass as well as vibrancy, making for rather unnatural looking shots. I am sure that these issues can be fixed via software updates, but looking at how we’ve been looking at this sort of processing since the ROG Phone 8, I kinda think that this is ROG’s preferred “look“. Judge the images for yourself.
It is also missing the ROG Phone 9’s Trigger Shutter feature, which is quite a letdown to me. However, looking at the overall results of the ROG Phone 9 FE’s camera, I would say that it isn’t such a great loss. I do hope ROG looks into improving the processing though, as the overall camera app experience is very good, with a solid manual mode and a very impressive gimbal image stabilization, but the shots produced leaves much to be desired.
ROG Phone 9 FE Specifications
| Processor | Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (SM8650) 4nm (TSMC N4P) CPU 1x Kryo (ARM Cortex X4-based) Prime core @ 3.3GHz 3x Kryo (ARM Cortex A720-based) Performance cores @ 3.2GHz 2x Kryo (ARM Cortex A720-based) Performance cores @ 3.0GHz 2x Kryo (ARM Cortex A520-based) Efficiency cores @ 2.3GHz GPU Adreno 730 @ 903MHz |
| Memory / Storage | 16GB LPDDR5X-4800 / 256GB UFS 4.0 |
| Display | 6.78-inch FHD+ (2400×1080) Samsung Flexible LTPO AMOLED 1~120Hz LTPO, up to 185Hz refesh rate in Game Genie Amazon HDR/YouTube HDR support, 107.37% DCI-P3 gamut 1600 nits max, 2500 nits peak brightness |
| Audio | Dual-speaker 384kHz/32-bit Hi-res Audio via 3.5mm jack Dirac Virtuo support AudioWizard Multi-microphones with ASUS Noise Cancellation |
| Cameras | Main camera (23.8mm eqv.) 50MP f/1.9, 1/1.56″ Sony IMX890 sensor, 2µm 4-in-1 Super Pixel, 6-axis Hybird Gimbal Stabilization, PDAF Ultra-wide (12.7mm eqv.) 13MP f/2.2, free-form lens, FF Macro camera 5MP, macro FF Selfie camera (22mm eqv.) 32MP f/2.05, 1.4µm pixels, FF Auto HDR, Auto Night, Light Trail, Portrait Video, up to 8K24 video, up to 4K120/720p480 slow-mo, HDR10+ video recording |
| Connectivity | WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be, WiFi 6E (WiFi 7 ready) Bluetooth 5.4 5G NSA + SA Dual SIM NFC Dual-band GPS 2 x USB-C (bottom port: USB 2.0, 480Mbps; side port: USB 3.2 Gen 2) |
| Software | Android 15 with ROG UI |
| Battery | 5500mAh eqv. (dual-battery) Quick Charge 5.0, USB-PD Qi 1.3 wireless charging |
| Dimensions | 163.8 x 76.8 x 8.9 mm |
| Weight | 225g |
| Ingress Protection | IP68 Max 1.5m for 30 minutes |
ROG Phone 9 FE — should you get this?
The ROG Phone 9 FE is quite a peculiar offering from ROG. It’s essentially a chimera of the ROG Phone 8 Pro’s design, ROG Phone 8’s camera and the ROG Phone 9 series’ software. With all that said, RM2,999 is a reasonable sum for the features, battery life and performance you’re getting with the ROG Phone 9 FE. Sure, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is not exactly cutting-edge by now, but it is still a very capable chip and still delivers a smooth experience in all the latest games. The ROG Phone 9 FE essentially opens up a cheaper entry point into the ROG Phone series, and I am all for it. However, if you don’t need the mildly updated AI gaming features or the cool AniMe Vision on the back of the ROG Phone 9 FE, the venerable ROG Phone 8 might be a better buy, if you can find them on the market for less money.
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