Asus has revealed the ROG Phone 6 and 6 Pro, boasting premium performance and features brand-new to the gaming phone market. With a fast Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor, it looks to smoke the competition.
Today, ASUS announced its brand new flagship gaming phones, which boast incredible performance in mobile titles. As the sixth-generation of gaming phone that ASUS has produced, the ROG Phone 6 looks to shake up the competition with extremely high-end tech that really, no phone can match. Alongside this is their new active cooling solution, which straps onto the back of the phone to help keep temperatures cool.
Visually, the ROG Phone 6 and 6 Pro are not too visually distinct from the ROG Phone 5, boasting rounded edges in addition to having an angular sci-fi-looking camera cutout, with faux panel lines running through the back of the phone to make it appear futuristic. The loud and proud visual design is just something that you will have to live with, should you choose to rock the phone. However, the real story is in the wider bump in specifications across the board, which makes for an incredibly exciting device.
ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro specifications
- OS: Android 12
- Display: 6.8-inch AMOLED
- Screen resolution: 2488 x 1080
- Refresh rate: 165Hz
- CPU: Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1
- RAM: Up to 18GB
- Storage: Up to 512GB
- Cameras: 50MP Wide, 13MP Ultrawide & macro lenses, 12MP front camera
- Battery: 6,000 mAh (2x 3000 mAh)
- Charging: 65W
- Additional features: Active cooling, Airtrigger 6, GameFX Audio, 3.5mm headphone jack, IP4X splash resistance, HDR10+ certification
On paper, it looks like the ASUS ROG Phone 6 and 6 Pro will be incredibly powerful phones, with the standard model of the ROG Phone 6 only sacrificing on a couple of key areas such as RAM and storage, with several options to choose from. There are a couple of other extras under the hood such as a boosted touch sampling rate of 725 Mhz, which will help the phone feel much more responsive than its rivals.
ASUS touts that the phone will be able to perform much more stable in titles like Genshin Impact than even the iPhone 13 Pro Max. This is through the configurable modes available on the phone that allow you to tweak the CPU’s boost clock to gain optimal performance.
However, if you are looking for maximum performance out of the phone, then you might have to look at getting yourself the Aeroactive Cooler 6, which attaches itself to the phone to help keep it cool. This comes with a thermal plate and fan that allows it to draw heat from the phone, and keep those all-important framerates high.
ASUS claims that you will be able to get up to 3.2GHz in the CPU’s boost clock, and that is unbelievably high for a phone that you’re going to carry around in your pocket with you. This is aided through the use of improvements to the phone’s internal cooling technology, which has also been upgraded.
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It also brings new haptics to the table, with up to nine different gestures for its Airtriggers, which allow you to hold the phone on its side and map buttons to the frame of the phone itself, which sounds a little bit like magic to us.
ASUS ROG Phone 6 price
The ROG Phone 6 begins at £899/ €999 / around $999 for the base model with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The 16GB/512GB variant will cost you £999 / €1,149 / around $1199. The ROG Phone 6 Pro is priced at £1099 / €1,299 / around $1349.
They are very expensive phones. However, you will also have to take into account the fact that there’s so much power included in this package, that you’ll likely not see this potent mixture of features in many phones coming soon. ASUS has currently only announced EUR pricing for the phones, so we have estimated what you might expect to pay for the device over in the states.
Is the ROG Phone 6 good?
On paper, the ROG Phone 6 is one of the most powerful smartphones ever made, with the 165Hz screen combined with the speedy touch sampling rate, you will be able to get one of the best mobile gaming experiences out there. However, you might want to look for something a little bit less overkill if you are not planning on gaming using your phone for extended periods of time.
Should you buy the ROG Phone 6?
The ASUS ROG Phone 6 looks great, but the steep price is sure to turn off many people looking to get their game on using their phone. The features all look fantastic, but you might have to make a judgment yourself to see if all of them are actually worth the premium price.
You also lose features like water resistance which is commonly seen in most phones, since the ROG Phone 6 only manages to achieve an IP4X rating, which rates it against splashes of liquid, and not full water resistance like you so often see in many other phones.