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In Short: The ASUS ROG Phone has just appeared on the website of one of Chinese retailers, GearBest. The phone is still not available for purchase, but that listing reveals something interesting regarding the device’s availability, presuming it’s true, of course. According to GearBest, the phone will ship in late October, that listing states that it will ship between October 22 and 24. Now, that means that it will ship from the website, and it doesn’t have to mean that ASUS will ship devices that are purchased on its website at the same time, in fact, the company will probably ship them sooner. The device is priced at $1,319.63 over at GearBest, in case you were wondering.
Background. ASUS had introduced the ROG Phone way back in June, but the phone is still not available for purchase. For those of you who are not in the loop, the ASUS ROG Phone is actually the company’s gaming handset. We do know that the phone will become available in the US, as it is listed on ASUS’ US website, but we still do not know how much will the device cost. The ASUS ROG Phone sports a 6-inch fullHD+ (2160 x 1080) AMOLED display, 8GB of RAM and 128GB or 512GB of non-expandable storage. The phone is fueled by the Snapdragon 845 64-bit octa-core processor, while it comes with a 4,000mAh battery on the inside, and that battery is not removable. 12 and 8-megapixel cameras are located on the back of the ASUS ROG Phone, while a single 8-megapixel camera is located on the phone’s front side. Android 8.1 Oreo will come pre-installed on the device, with ASUS’ ROG Gaming UI.
Impact: Now, considering that late October is listed on GearBest, chances are ASUS will start shipping units a bit sooner than that, maybe in mid-October, though we’re only guessing at this point. The ASUS ROG Phone will join the likes of Razer, Xiaomi, and Nubia, all of which had introduced their gaming smartphones already.