The addition of Pro and Ultimate SKUs to the mix and other specifications that varied by geographic market further exacerbated the situation. It seems like Asus and Qualcomm were able to work together a little better this time. The ROG Phone 6 releases a little after its scheduled release date but is powered by the most cutting-edge Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1. In addition, as the ROG Phone 6 is one of the first manufacturing devices with the processor to arrive at the office, this hopefully means that there won’t be any “s” variants in the upcoming few months.
Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro review: Design
The cluttered style of the phone will either make you hate it or adore it. The phone is available with a glossy, non-scratch coating in either black or white. The phone’s rear panel is characterised by visuals and design cues from science fiction; the lines, logos, and eye-catching cutouts might be from Wall-phone. E’s When you lay the phone facedown, the little screen on the back can be useful for notifying you of incoming calls or notifications. Even though the design is busy and stands out in a sea of identical alternatives, I enjoy it. Be ready for inquiries regarding it from others. Perhaps even more impressive is the 6.78-inch AMOLED screen on the ROG Phone 6 Pro. It has a maximum refresh rate of 165Hz, which is the best in its class, and a resolution of 2,448 by 1,080 pixels. Even when you navigate through a webpage or your favorite’s social media feed, the smoothness of the action on the screen is noticeable even though not many mobile games now offer such a quick refresh rate. For regulating battery life, the screen can be changed to one of a number of refresh rates, including 60, 90, 120, and 144Hz. You can buy this smartphone from its official website.
Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro review: Display
A man’s garish is another man’s exquisite, so not everyone will find the Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro to be aesthetically pleasing. It goes large and aggressive, using an icy metallic blue to highlight the power button, dual SIM card slot, primary rear camera, and different lines on the back. The phone’s back features a little emblem that reads “DARE TO PLAY” and can light up red, giving it a techy appearance. The Pro model of the phone I tested also features a tiny colour display that is approximately half an inch tall and two inches broad and may show small notification icons, interesting little effects, or information about battery charging. The ROG Phone 6 has a massive 6.78-inch AMOLED display on the front that is surrounded on the top and bottom by bezels that are thicker than I’m used to seeing on $1,000+ smartphones. These bezels allow for a selfie camera that doesn’t interfere with the display in any way and two speakers that match. As with many current Android flagships, the fingerprint scanner is located beneath the display and works pretty quickly to unlock the phone.
Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro review: Software
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 888+ in the Asus ROG Phone 5s is replaced by the more recent Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor in the Asus ROG Phone 6. Even though the SoC is still relatively new, the ROG Phone 6’s delayed arrival in India may cause some customers to put off their purchase until the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC begins to appear on high-priced smartphones, some of which are anticipated to appear as soon as this year’s end. The ROG Phone 6 delivers the best RAM and storage options available on a premium device, LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 3.1 storage. Support for numerous 5G bands, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC, and two USB-Type C connectors are among the communication technologies included. Although there isn’t a separate microSD card slot, the device’s built-in 256GB of storage should be adequate.
Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro review: Hardware and Performance
The ROG UI and Zen UI of the manufacturer are overlaid on top of Android 12 on the Asus ROG Phone 6. The Armoury Crate app, where all the gaming-specific hardware tweaks can be performed, uses ROG UI components, which make the interface look more like other Asus products. The fact that you can alter everything from the touch sensitivity of the display to the battery performance settings will appeal to tinkerers. The Game Genie slide-out dashboard has seen several changes, but the Armoury Crate app still looks the same. You may reach this dashboard while playing a game by swiping down from the top-left corner of the screen. Here, you can toggle between performance modes instantly and even turn on some options that are unique to that particular game. Although the layout now jumps up from the bottom and is considerably bigger, there are still some features or toggles that I was unaware of until I unintentionally swiped over them in some scrollable menus.
Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro review: Camera
The Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro’s biggest feature is that it isn’t a gaming phone with a distinctly gaming design. I’ve seen worse, and I appreciate that Asus isn’t scared to try new things. On the power button and the SIM tray, Asus added some accenting. Where the ultrasonic AirTriggers are located on the aluminium frame, there is also ROG branding. Although the back of the device has a lot of writing, the camera module and lighted “dare to play” emblem are attractive. Of course, one of the most distinctive features of this phone’s design is the display on the back. There are several pre-made animations that may be enabled in various settings, as well as a variety of animations that you can add yourself.
Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro review: Battery life
With the battery, Asus adopted a unique strategy. It divided the 6,000mAh battery into two 3,000mAh halves and placed the SoC in the centre, as opposed to using a single, huge power cell. The business claims that by doing this, it was able to better control the phone’s balance and heat-dissipation abilities. After turning the brightness to its highest setting and plugging in a pair of wired headphones, we used the ROG Phone 6 Pro’s enormous battery to test its endurance. Outstandingly, the phone lasted for 15 hours and 30 minutes. Comparatively, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra shut down after 12 hours, 14 minutes. By no means is that a poor result, but the Asus phone will last longer than most rivals.
Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro review: Price and availability
It should come as no surprise that the ROG Phone 6 Pro is expensive given everything you receive. There is only one configuration available, which costs £1,099/€1,299 and comes with 18GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. The phone is already up for pre-order in the US and the UK, but an exact release date is yet unknown. Even yet, this pricing places it squarely in the category of flagship phones, and it is by far the most expensive gaming phone. It turns out that the normal model, which starts at £899/€999, is the least expensive option, with the Black Shark 5 Pro and Red Magic 7s Pro being considerably less expensive. It’s also important to ask yourself if you actually need a gaming phone. At this price, you could purchase either the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra or the iPhone 13 Pro max, both of which provide flagship-level performance and a 120Hz refresh rate in a more complete device with far longer software support.
Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro review: Verdict
The Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro is incredibly powerful and expensive to match. It performs poorly compared to other flagships from Samsung, Google, and especially Apple, which is probably still more powerful, given there aren’t many scenarios to test all that performance in. The finest gaming phones can’t get by with just gaming well since the best smartphones in the world have to do everything well. Although you can find third-party accessories for the majority of popular Android phones, devoted gamers may want to jump on this for the responsive performance and suite of accessories. However, you’ll be sacrificing camera performance, durability, and long-term software support, as well as running the risk of subpar network support in the US.
