ASUS Republic of Gamers is going hard at Computex 2018, announcing not only the new ROG Phone, but also two new laptops in its Strix gaming line. Those new laptops are the Hero II and the SCAR II, and though they're both fairly similar in terms of hardware, each one is targeting a specific subset of PC gamers.
We've seen manufacturers announce a number of Android gaming phones recently, and now ASUS Republic of Gamers has decided to throw its hat into the ring. Today the company officially unveiled the ASUS ROG Phone at Computex 2018, and it seems like a pretty beastly device. In fact, it might even be a bit overkill given the current state of Android gaming.
The ASUS Chromebox 3 has been available for pre-order for a little over a month at this point, and today, we're getting a better idea of when the new lineup will launch. ASUS has announced that the first devices in the Chromebox 3 line will be available later this month, with specific availability for each model seemingly different depending on configuration.
ASUS is taking an interesting angle with its latest high-end motherboard. While we'd expect many motherboards coming from ASUS to be aimed at gamers or mainstream PC builders, this new one is all about cryptocurrency mining. Say hello to the ASUS H370 Mining Master motherboard.
ASUS has sometimes blazed the trail in terms of innovative design, like the now common 2-in-1 detachable form factor or the sadly retired PadFone "phone in a tablet" device line. At other times, it seems to play catch up, like with the Lenovo Yoga-like "Flip" laptops. It seems that ASUS might have something in the works that's a combination of the two. Called the "ScreenPad" this mysterious device or peripheral seems to be designed to provide the same extended control that the new MacBook Touch Bars do, but on a laptop's touchpad instead.
ASUS Republic of Gamers has announced ROG Swift PG27UQ, a gaming monitor featuring NVIDIA G-SYNC HDR, a 144Hz refresh rate, and more. The new monitor is targeted specifically at gamers, bringing with it a typical "gaming" design complete with customizable lighting features. The company plans to launch the model next month, but has detailed all the features ahead of time.
ASUS has quietly launched a new performance laptop, the ASUS ZenBook Pro 15, squeezing a six-core Core i9 processor into a super-slim chassis. Latest of the 15.6-inch notebooks to bear the ZenBook Pro 15 name, the new laptop also finds space - and battery power - for a discrete NVIDIA GPU.
If there's one thing ASUS might be known for in the smartphone market is its confusing branding strategy. Each new ZenFone generation has countless variants and it's difficult to know offhand which is which. The ZenFone 5, for example, may be the standard-bearer for this year's ASUS lineup but it is actually the "premium mid-range" model. It also happens to be the first ASUS smartphone to be reviewed under DxOMark's revamped tests. And fortunately for ASUS, the odds seem to be in its favor.
In early January, ASUS introduced multiple products including the Chromebox 3, a miniature desktop that runs Google's Chrome OS. Chromebox 3 is the latest model in ASUS's Chromebox lineup; this one features an 8th-generation Intel Core processor, among other things. Now, four months later and only a couple weeks after Acer launched its own alternative, ASUS has officially started taking preorders.
There is very little these days that differentiate homes and small offices in terms of network needs. Multiple devices, increased Internet usage, and nontrivial room layouts leave simple home routers ineffective. Sometimes you even need more than just one router to cover all your bases. For those instances, you'd want a WiFi mesh instead and ASUS is positioning its Lyra Trio, first revealed at CES 2018, as the perfect mix of power, ease of use, and peace of mind.
Today, ASUS revealed the next phone in its ZenFone Max lineup. This new device is called the ZenFone Max Pro M1, and like the Max Plus, it's almost entirely focused on long battery life. In fact, it even seems like its mid-range hardware has been selected specifically to make the Max Pro last as long as possible on a single charge.
The gaming team at ASUS revealed the ASUS AREZ line of graphics cards this week, complete with AMD inside. The first line of AREZ branded GPUs from ASUS were announced with AMD RX Vega 64 and AMR RX Vega 56 hardware at their base. They'll be launching their own versions of the AMD RX 580 and AMD RX 570 graphics cards, as well as other 500-series hardware.