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The first Android-powered gaming smartphone that’s part of the ASUS ROG brand will be officially announced at this year’s Computex, a Taipei, Taiwan-based computer expo, industry sources claim. The existence of the gadget that’s been rumored about for months now has been confirmed by ASUS itself in mid-April, though the company remained vague on the details of its upcoming product so far. Computex 2018 is running from June 5 through June 9.
The Taiwanese tech giant is hence preparing to jump on the gaming smartphone bandwagon some eight months after Razer attempted reviving that product category on a global scale with its first handset ever. In the meantime, Xiaomi-backed Black Shark and Nubia both announced smartphones catering to gamers, with more manufacturers possibly being interested in following suit and the Razer Phone 2 already being in development, as per recent reports. Between the original Razer Phone last year and the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play from 2011, gaming handsets were mostly being released by obscure companies with suspect product support practices and extremely limited availability. Even the current resurgence of such gadgets is varied in terms of product designs, with the Razer Phone being a more conventional-looking offering with performance improvements and software optimizations catering to gamers, whereas its Chinese rivals are interested in offering an experience more akin to the Nintendo Switch, i.e. support detachable physical controllers.
Should the ASUS ROG Android handset end up launching at Computex, it’s likely to become available for purchase by August, though the Taiwanese company has yet to clarify whether it intends to sell it globally. Besides ASUS, HTC may also end up making some mobile or virtual reality announcements at the Taipei-based trade show that’s taking place in its home city. While it remains to be seen whether the resurgence of gaming phones is the start of a long-term trend or just a fad, the original Razer Phone is understood to have sold well enough to warrant a sequel that may be arriving even before November, which is when the original launched last year, as per recent reports.