Asus ROG Phone 5 review, one month later: Still the high-quality gaming phone

There's no doubt that the Asus ROG Phone 5 is a beast — as a gaming phone, it packs all of the modern and biggest hardware, and that makes it a virtually chunky boy. Asus has a laser focal point on gaming-centric aspects that will satisfaction its core demographic, however the ROG 5 isn’t a entire nightmare to use outdoor of gaming either. The ROG Phone 5 gives secure every day use with the brought advantage of killer specs that can be tweaked and adjusted like a gaming PC. This is certainly a telephone for gamers, however that ability it lacks some famous features, and the software program has some tough edges. It may be the proper cellphone for the proper person, however it’ll be a difficult promote for most with an asking charge in extra of $1,000. 

CPU	Snapdragon 888
RAM	12GB, or 16GB
Storage	256 UFS 3.1
Display	6.78-inch 1080p OLED, up to 144Hz
Battery	6,000 mAh (two 3,000 mAh packs)
Cameras	64MP f/1.8 primary, 13MP f/2.4 ultrawide, 5MP f/2.0 macro, 24MP f/2.45 selfie
Dimensions	6.09 x 2.72 x 0.36" / 172.8 x 77.2 x 10.29 mm
Weight	8.39 oz / 238 g
Software	Android 11
Headphone jack	Yes
Biometrics	In-screen optical fingerprint reader
Price	$1,188 (converted from the EURO pricing)
Performance	If you want to max games at 144fps, this is the phone to do it.
Sound	Dual front speakers, new sound-shaping tech, and a quality DAC is built in.
Battery	6,000 mAh and a 65W charger, you'll never worry about your charge level again.
Accessories	Coolers, controllers, and fancy LED cases. There's no shortage of peripherals.
Size and weight	It will weigh down your pants, it's also unwieldy to hold one-handed and a pain to pull out of your pocket.
Missing convenience features	No wireless charging and no waterproofing.
Middling cameras	Even Asus has admitted this is an area it skimps on.
Lacking updates	Asus' software support is historically haphazard, missing security and OS version updates is common.
Price	The European pricing works out to more than $1,000.

 Asus will provide a complete household of ROG Phones this year: Standard, Pro, and Ultimate. The Pro most in all likelihood might not be coming to the US, and the Ultimate is a confined version throughout the globe, so I would not maintain out hope of snagging one. This leaves us with the Standard, which comes in two variants, one with 12 GB of RAM and one with sixteen GB, each packing 256 GB of storage. We have the sixteen GB model for review.

The ROG 5 presents a pretty smooth seem with a mild gaming aesthetic thanks to its optionally available RGB brand lighting. Both the electricity button and the sim slot provide a sharp blue tone that contrasts with the white returned and black the front for a pop of color. The sketch is a whole lot much less aggressively “gamer” than the preceding ROG Phones — it is simply fascinating sufficient to stand out barring being too flashy.

The ROG 5 is a giant smartphone with a 6.78-inch display. This 1080p OLED show appears sharp enough, and the colorings are even at all brightness levels. That’s an enchancment over ultimate year's model, which had a grain trouble at low brightnesses. This show presents a refresh price of up to 144Hz, and you can lock the machine at this price for smoother animations. That capacity fast-paced video games can be simpler to play — your opponents may solely see 60 frames per second, however you get greater than twice that in some games. A excessive refresh additionally makes the cellphone UI sense a whole lot greater responsive.

Much like ultimate year's ROG three (yes, Asus skipped a number), the ROG 5 provides two USB C ports, two touch-based triggers, an unobstructed display screen (no in-display cameras here, however there may be lots of bezel), twin front-facing speakers, a notification LED, and an in-screen fingerprint reader. You additionally get a 6,000 mAh battery it's simply two 3,000 mAh packs at every quit of the phone. They cost at 65W with the protected charger, plus you can use passthrough to electricity the gadget when gaming in order to reduce down on heat.

Sound is a principal spotlight of the ROG Phone 5. Not solely do we get twin front-facing speakers, the gadget consists of a DAC that helps hi-res audio, and there is some fancy software program built-in that can tune the sound of the front-facing audio system to make certain they supply the quality output possible. The ROG 5 sounds exceptional no count how you’re listening.

Asus is nonetheless pushing peripherals with the ROG 5, such as the Kunai three Gamepad case (see below). There's additionally the AeroActive Cooler 5 fan attachment, a controller clip that helps Xbox and PS controllers, a Lightning Armor case that presents its personal rear lighting, a few one-of-a-kind fashions of Cetra headphones, and a dock.

Once again, Asus is supplying two UI selections when putting up your device. There's a Classic theme that is akin to inventory Android, and then there is the Default theme, which gives a gaming aesthetic. I selected Classic, and it features simply like stock Android, Google Discover, and all. I desire extra manufactures would provide a comparable choice.

The phone's software program is packed with many gaming-centric options. The majority of these settings can be tweaked in the Armory Crate app, which you can easily pull up thru a Game Genie menu at any time when in a game. The selections inside are numerous. You can alter your temp control, CPU/GPU performance, RAM performance, fan speeds, and exceptional of all you can combine your networks for a twin mode that ought to enhance community steadiness and speed. Asus virtually spent a lot of assets on the gaming features, however the function set is alternatively barebones outdoor of that.

Of course, what's the use of all of these choices except you can genuinely see the effects of your changes? This is why I in reality love that Asus has blanketed a real-time records widget that can be displayed at all instances in-game. This way, you can modify settings in the Game Genie slide out whilst maintaining a watch on your framerate, heat, and CPU/GPU percentages. This severe customization will make game enthusiasts happy, however it’s no longer beneficial for your common smartphone user.

The ROG 5 will ship with Android eleven Asus has verified the ROG Phone 5 line will see at least two years of software program support, although preceding units have neglected out on pretty a few updates, so I would not preserve out an awful lot hope for Android 12 or rapid protection updates.

As a ways as common overall performance goes, the ROG 5 flies, specially if you lock the screen's refresh price to 144Hz. Smooth as butter is a phrase thrown round a lot, however the show is precisely that. Apps load quickly, and all of the video games I examined carried out past my expectations.

Nothing slowed this smartphone down, no longer even Genshin Impact, which held a moderately strong 60fps at its absolute best photographs putting (though there was once some stutter when loading assets). Testing Dead Cells, I was once in a position to play at max photos at 144Hz the complete time. Of course, many video games cap your frames at 60 or 30, so you cannot constantly take benefit of a excessive framerate, however the overall performance is distinctly shocking when you can.

Playing cell video games at the easiest settings feasible comes at a value to the battery, which is why you get 6,000 mAh. Pushing 144fps for a few hours in any annoying sport is going to chunk via your battery life, however possibly no longer as plenty as you'll think. I can not say I used to be ever nervous of going for walks out of juice, and even if this ends up being an issue, the device's fast-charging will make rapid work of low battery. Using the gadget as a everyday telephone afforded me extra than two days besides a charge, and even with heavy recreation testing, making it thru the whole day wasn't an trouble either.