ROG Phone II First Batch Sells Out In 73 Seconds, ASUS Apologizes For Low Stock

ASUS ROG Phone II is the second-gen gaming-centric smartphone from the Taiwan-based company ASUS was available for sale for the first time at 12 a.m on 31 July. The handset was retailed at three variants - 8GB RAM / 128GB of storage (CNY 3,499 - Rs. 35,100) and 12GB RAM / 512GB storage (CNY 5,999 - Rs. 60,200).

From the beginning, the handset was already expected to be successful, thanks to the massive hardware specs with a very competitive price tag. The initial market response also seems to imply that the phone has successfully surpassed expectations, as the whole stock of the phone was almost immediately sold out in the first flash sale. To be more specific, all it took was 73 seconds for 10,000 units of the to be fully booked.

To recall, more than 2.5 million users reserved the phone on Chinese e-commerce site JD.com. However, only a small number of people managed to grab one in the first flash sale. With that, ASUS has published an apology for the stock shortage and claimed that it is working very hard to make sure that it will not happen again in the next sales, which are slated to take place on 4,7, and 12 August.

While 10,000 units might not seem record-breaking to a lot of people, it is quite impressive given the fact that this is a gaming-centric smartphone, so its target market is relatively limited. In addition, the top-end variant with 12GB RAM / 512GB storage is priced at 5,999 CNY (around Rs. 60,200), which is not that affordable, whereas the Tencent variant is significantly more affordable at 3,499 CNY (around Rs. 35,100).

In case you don’t know, the ROG Phone II was announced as the world’s first phone to come with a Snapdragon 855 Plus SoC. It is also equipped with many high-end features that make it one of the most powerful smartphones available in the market. However, Xiaomi also announced its own Snapdragon 855 Plus-powered phone called Black Shark 2 Pro recently. Let's see if the ROG Phone II will still maintain its impressive sale figures in the upcoming flash sales.