The Asus ROG Phone 6 in a Nutshell
The Asus ROG Phone 6 series, the company’s newest gaming phone for the high-performance market, is back. The smartphones have plenty of specs to catch the eye of the discriminating gamer, including a 165Hz display, Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 processor, and 65W charging, as well as a design aesthetic to match.
This year, there are only two models: the ROG Phone 6 and ROG Phone 6 Pro. In place of the Ultimate edition, Asus has opted for a Pro model with its best features and a variety of memory configurations and price points to accommodate different geographic markets. Will this simpler strategy be sufficient to win first place? Learn more in the Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro review by Android Authority.
With the Pro model serving as the flagship model for 2022, the Asus ROG Phone 6 series is the most recent in a long line of gaming smartphones from the Taiwanese company Asus. The phone has the most recent Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 processor, which improves efficiency and performance by 10% over smartphones released earlier in the year. This handset has advanced cooling, controller add-ons, and a futuristic design and was created with a very specific target market in mind.
The phone also has a better 165Hz OLED display, though it comes with a default setting of 120Hz dynamic mode. To ensure fluid input performance while gaming, there is also a faster 720Hz touch sample rate and latency as low as 23ms in 165Hz mode. Other enhancements made by Asus include the addition of Gorilla Glass Victus protection on the front and the first-ever IPX4 rating. Although not a revolutionary improvement over the ROG Phone 5 family, these minor adjustments help to push the envelope just a little bit further.
It goes without saying, Asus includes a ton of gaming-specific features that are absent from more standard smartphones. The series’ standard “AirTrigger” system is still in use and now supports ten different motion control gestures in addition to nine mappable gestures and new press and lift settings. When supported, Asus’ Armoury Crate software now offers toggles for anti-aliasing, textures, and variable rate shading in addition to rendering quality settings for each game in Performance, Balanced, or Quality modes. More ways than ever before exist for you to game the system.
The Phantom Black and Storm White versions of the Asus ROG Phone 6 are both available, but the Pro model is only offered in the latter color. The phones will first launch in Europe; the US launch date will be announced later in the year.
How Does the Battery Hold Up
You can look forward to all-day use and more from a 6,000mAh battery (dual 3,000mAh cells on board), and the ROG Phone 6 meets that expectation. Most of the time, you can anticipate two days of service for web browsing, social media, and texting.
But this is a gaming phone, so how does it hold up in the hands of a gamer?
The phone can last anywhere from three to six hours of gaming time, depending on how graphically demanding the game is. Genshin, for example, will run for much longer than three hours if you stick to 30fps mode and some lower graphics settings. Disabling X-Mode will also deliver longer gaming time if required.
The Asus ROG Phone 6 Camera
The ROG Phone 6 Pro’s larger 1/1.56-inch Sony IMX766 main sensor is impressive, but you’re not getting it for the camera. It’s functional but nothing special, and it’ll do for some straightforward pictures. In terms of photography skills, that’s enough to put it in front of the other gaming phones, but it won’t compete with the best. Brightly lit outdoor photos taken with the 50MP main and 13MP ultrawide cameras are colorful and well exposed, but none of the lenses capture much detail, and there are obvious signs of oversharpening. There is a 5MP macro camera, but it is merely a gimmick to increase the number of lenses.
The Asus ROG Phone 6 Software
The ROG Phone 6 Pro comes pre-installed with Android 12 and combines Google’s Material You dynamic theming with custom ROG UI or Zen UI Classic icons. Aside from a few unnecessary pre-installed apps, like Facebook and Netflix, which can be removed, Asus offers a very lightweight skin. The updated Game Genie overlay offers a variety of configuration options while gaming, and Asus’ gaming-focused Armory Crate software for managing games, controller setup, and other related settings is pretty great if a little challenging to navigate.
Final Verdict
The redesigned cooling system on the ROG Phone 6 Pro does an excellent job of controlling thermals, making it the fastest phone currently on the market. The side-mounted USB-C port is still functional, as is the 3.5mm jack, and the large 165Hz AMOLED display is a joy to use. The customizable AirTriggers also significantly improve gaming. The battery lasts well over a day even with heavy use, and the back camera is respectable. Android 12 has a clean interface free of bloatware.
In a nutshell, this is by far the best gaming phone of 2022.
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