We have never had such a fast mobile in our hands, but such a large display and so many unique extras are rarely seen. If you are serious about mobile gaming, look no further, here is your new mobile.
A large display, a few buttons on the side, a Type-C at the bottom – almost all phones are exactly the same today. Only the camera island remains for the designers, where they can enjoy themselves, but today it is not easy either, increasingly complex systems require more and more space.
Well, this is true as long as the manufacturer wants to launch a general phone that is ideal for everyone. However, if this does not tie the hands of the engineers, a series of eccentricities, dizzying hardware solutions, incredible accessories and highly exaggerated configurations can begin. ROG Phone 6 is such a phone in every detail, and that’s why it’s so easy to get used to.
The best of everything
The ROG Phone 6 Pro does not want to be a pocket-friendly, modest and solid phone: it is large (10.3 mm thick), heavy (239 grams) and very striking. Of course, this is not an outright surprise, since his predecessors were also striking and so on the leakers worked too in recent months. This year’s 2022 model has a 6.78″ Samsung AMOLED HDR10+ display with a resolution of 2448×1080, and it also tries to outbid everyone in the update, as it is also capable of 165 Hz. This includes 720 Hz touch sampling, which also an important feature for a gamer phone.You can count on 800 nits of brightness under the fingerprint reader screen, the color fidelity is amazing, and Corning Gorilla Glass Victus has been deployed for protection.
Of course, this has to be driven, because what else is gaming on mobile about than speed? The ROG Phone 6 Pro boasts the latest Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC with Adreno 730. This Pro edition, which was also tested, has 18 GB of LPDDR5 memory and 512 GB of UFS 3.1 storage. Even with the “plain” ROG Phone 6, there is no need to be afraid of too many compromises: it has 12-16 GB of RAM, while the SoC and the storage space are the same.
On the side of the full-bodied and decidedly massive, heavy phone, we can also welcome our old good friend, the jack connector, as well as two Type-C ports: one on the lower, shorter edge, but not in the middle, and one on the longitudinal side, exactly in the middle. Of course, there is 5G, Wi-Fi 6E (plus 2×2), dual SIM, and the selfie camera has a separate bar at the top, not a hole in the display.
The sound system cannot be left out of the list. Because you don’t get a simple beep, but 5-speaker stereo sound supported by a quality DAC (Cirrus Logic CS35L45). When you hold the phone in your hand, it’s amazing how much the ROG Phone 6 Pro can sound, even without distorting or mixing the sounds even at maximum volume. Of course, it doesn’t have as much power as a mid-range BT speaker, but it easily beats the smaller BT speakers.
Battery life is not something you should worry about in the case of the phone either. The 2×3000 mAh battery can be recharged in no time with QC5.0/PD3.0 fast charging, the corresponding 65 watt charging head and cable are of course included in the box.
That’s not his forte
On two points, the ROG Phone 6 Pro is “just” a good phone, not outstanding. One is the camera system and the other is the IP rating. The large and heavy device is not completely dust and waterproof, but it has improved compared to its predecessors and now reaches IPX4. Translated, this means that while the device is not protected against solid materials (such as dust), it is protected against splashing water from all directions (including the direction of the ports).
The camera system is relatively modest: the island only protrudes by approximately 1 mm and three sensors await deployment. The main module is a 50 MP Sony IMX766, complemented by a 13 MP ultra-wide-angle (125-degree) camera and a 5 MP macro camera. On the front, you will also find a Sony sensor, an IMX663, which takes 12 MP selfies. The software is sufficiently equipped: there is 8K@24 fps, 4K@60 fps, and electronic image stabilization – no optical. The main camera takes 12.5 MP images, and you can use it for a lossless 2× zoom.
That certain gamer extra
Although we hoped for it, unfortunately the ROG Phone 6 Pro was not prepared for Qi charging either, but we will tell you why. The back of the ROG Phone 6 is decorated with a ROG RGB logo, and if you choose the Pro model, you also get a complete, programmable PMOLED display. Animations, useful information, logos and other things that simply look good can be displayed. The corresponding software is part of the Armory Crate program package.
The ROG Phone 6 was created for gaming, for which it is fast enough, its display is one of the best, and we can’t complain about the sound. The SoC alone is not a guarantee of top speed, more and more depends on the cooling, but luckily the designers have experience. The SoC placed in the middle is accompanied by a vapor chamber and a large graphite cooling plate on both sides, which, by the way, also makes the phone more robust.
And that’s not all, because the phone can still overheat during long hours of gaming, which we also experienced, but that’s when the AeroActive Cooler 6 comes in handy, which is an active cooler that can be attached to the back panel and attaches to the lower Type-C port. This cools the phone on the one hand, and your hands on the other hand, and even gives you four extra buttons, and of course RGB LEDs are also included. The novelty here is that not only a fan blows the air, but active Peltier cooling has also been added to the device, which can help a lot in lowering the temperature in case of extra power supply. The cooling, especially with this accessory, is convincingly effective, but the strange thing is that Asus omitted liquid metal as a heat transfer medium. Instead, it used a special BN Boron-Nitride heat-conducting material, which conducts heat 200 times better than air and, according to the engineers, is better suited for mobile use.
You can also count on extras for control, which is none other than the AirTrigger 6 button hidden in the two side corners, where you can set various commands for touch and release, and you also get gyroscopic targeting.
The software is with you
But what’s the point of heavy-duty iron if the software can’t do anything with it? ROG Phone 6 runs Android 12 with ROG or Zen UI – you can choose between the latter two. The gaming themes are of course a given, but Asus went even further and a quick AR game invites you to create your own avatar when you first turn it on. It comes with lots of effects, spectacular graphics and music. The manufacturer promises 2 complete OS changes for the ROG Phone 6, and at least 2 years of security updates.
It is worth controlling the phone’s settings mostly from Armory Crate, which is no wonder, since you can control all the gamer extras here. Here you can choose the operating mode, here you can see how your phone is currently performing, and you can even activate settings profiles for games. Also here, you can choose between games that support the hardware extras of the ROG Phone 6 – for example, the 165 Hz refresh display. There aren’t many of them yet, but 144 Hz is already supported by quite a few developers.
You can also call up the Game Genie while playing, from where you can immediately access the most important options, be it video recording, hardware monitoring, or even macro recording. You can also select the current operating mode here, so it can be X-mode, balanced or even energy-saving.
Muscle the market
The recipe for the ROG Phone 6 and 6 Pro has not changed compared to its predecessors: powerful interior, respectable exterior and enough accessories to make it clear:
it’s all about the game!
The ROG Phone 6 Pro is therefore not for everyone. Of course, those who want the best performance available today will not find a more powerful mobile phone on the market today: the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 is fully powered by the phone, thanks to the professional cooling, which you can also support with additional cooling. When it comes to port placement, many people complain about the side-shifted lower Type-C, but this did not cause any problems for me during use, and the secondary Type-C is still useful. The display is great, the brightness, the colors, the update – everything is top-notch, they didn’t forget about protection and they don’t even have a selfie camera (in fact, there’s a notification LED!).
The special extras, such as the AirTrigger buttons, the back panel display, the extra accessories and the really convincing sound all help to raise the gaming experience to a higher level, with such a large battery the game is guaranteed for hours, but in return the phone is heavy and large – especially with a case it will not be easy to carry in your pocket.
Unfortunately, it does not bring the level of the top league when it comes to cameras. The main camera takes nice, sharp pictures in good lighting conditions, with the wide-angle camera the colors don’t always match and the line sharpness isn’t perfect. The optical image stabilizer is missing, unfortunately the image quality is not the best in low light conditions and you won’t work miracles with the 5 MP macro either.
The ROG Phone 6 Pro is a very cool phone, and it is also very powerful: its design is absolutely gamer and the many software extras also offer cool functions. At the same time, the camera part still does not reach the level of the top league, in addition, there is no Qi charging and it is also heavy. If someone is serious about mobile gaming, we have good news for them: the ROG Phone 6, or rather the 6 Pro, offers the best experience available today with many, many extras, but you should also be prepared for the fact that it will be quite expensive fun: especially together with the accessories, a better gamer laptop or desktop gamer PC comes out of that amount.
Oh, and we didn’t even mention that you can make phone calls with it!
–
