What you need to know
- ASUS' ROG Phone II went up for pre-order in China earlier this week.
- The Tencent Games Edition — which costs just $510 — racked up 2 million pre-orders in just 24 hours.
- The standard edition of the phone retails for the equivalent of $875.
ASUS' ROG Phone II is a serious piece of kit. It is the first phone to be powered by the Snapdragon 855+, and the first from the Taiwanese manufacturer to offer a 120Hz display.
The phone made its debut in China at the end of last week, and is set to retail in the market for just 3,499 Yuan ($510). That's for the Tencent Games Edition that comes with a whole lot of Tencent apps and services, however, with the standard bloat-free edition with 12GB of RAM and 128GB of storage setting customers back 6,000 Yuan ($875).
ASUS ROG Phone II preview: Changing the rules of the game
The low price of the base variant combined with the hardware on offer has allowed ASUS to rack up 2 million pre-orders for the Tencent Games Edition on JD.com. ASUS noted that the figure is a new pre-order record for gaming phones on the e-commerce platform, and at that price, it isn't hard to see why.
ASUS will bring the ROG Phone II to global markets in the month of September, which is when we'll know more about pricing and availability outside of China. It'll likely be closer to the $900 figure of the first-gen model.
Luna is Amazon's answer to Google Stadia, and it looks so much better
Amazon just unveiled Luna, its all-new cloud gaming service. It's available on a bunch of devices, gives you access to over 100 games, and costs just $5.99/month. Seriously.
Amazon goes global with all-new spherical Echo speakers
Amazon's new Alexa-powered speakers are here, and they are sporting major upgrades inside and out. On top of a new spherical design that's easier to spot amongst your cluttered shelves, the new Echo series has a new chipset and Sidewalk integration.
This leaked green Pixel 5 is the phone color of my dreams
Green phones are having a moment.
Get a case and keep those Surface Duo screens safe from harm
The options may be slim-pickings at the moment, but what can you really expect from a first-generation device like the Microsoft Surface Duo. This dual-screen wielding monster aims to make you more productive with a unique hinge system that we haven't seen elsewhere. But do yourself a favor, and get a case so that even a little bit of dust won't hinder your experience.