Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro review

Asus has a very limited presence in the mobile space as a whole. So when a new model comes out once or twice a year, it’s an occasion – especially when it is a Republic of Gamers phone. It’s that time of year again, and now the new ROG Phone 6 is a reality.

Asus and Qualcomm managed to coordinate a bit better

Despite its extremely limited lineup as a whole, Asus tends to overcomplicate the different variants of the ROG Phone. Last year the ROG Phone 5 was quickly succeeded by the ROG Phone 5s mostly due to timing around Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888+ chipset. The situation was complicated further by introducing Pro and Ultimate skews to the mix and some regional market differences in specs.

This time around, it appears Asus and Qualcomm managed to coordinate a bit better. The ROG Phone 6 is coming out slightly past its due date but has the latest and greatest Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 under the hood. Hopefully, this means no “s” variants in a couple of months, and as an added bonus, this makes the ROG Phone 6 more interesting for us since it is one of the first production devices with the chip to come by the office.

What we have for review at the office is actually the ROG Phone 6 Pro. As far as we can understand, the current lineup consists of a Pro and a vanilla ROG Phone 6, which share almost all of their internal specs, except maximum RAM. The vanilla tops out at 16GB of RAM while the Pro gets 18GB. Both use the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 and are otherwise nearly identical in terms of features. Well, sans the slightly different back design with the ROG Vision secondary display, which is reserved for the Pro.

Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro specs at a glance:

Body: 173.0 x 77.0 x10.3 mm, 239g; Glass front (Gorilla Glass Victus), glass back (Gorilla Glass 3), aluminum frame; IPX4 water resistant, PMOLED display (on the back), Pressure sensitive zones (Gaming triggers).
Display: 6.78″ AMOLED, 1B colors, 165Hz, HDR10+, 800 nits (typ), 1200 nits (peak), 1080x2448px resolution, 20.4:9 aspect ratio, 395ppi.
Chipset: Qualcomm SM8450 Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 (4 nm): Octa-core (1×3.19 GHz Cortex-X2 & 3×2.75 GHz Cortex-A710 & 4×1.80 GHz Cortex-A510); Adreno 730.
Memory: Up to 512GB 18GB RAM; UFS 3.1, NTFS support for external storage.
OS/Software: Android 12.
Rear camera: Wide (main): 50 MP, f/1.9, PDAF; Ultra wide angle: 13 MP, f/2.2; Macro: 5 MP, f/2.0.
Front camera: 12 MP (wide).
Video capture: Rear camera: 8K@24fps, 4K@30/60/120fps, 1080p@30/60/120/240fps, 720p@480fps; gyro-EIS; Front camera: 1080p@30fps.
Battery: 6000mAh; Fast charging 65W, Reverse charging 10W, Power Delivery 3.0, Quick Charge 5.
Misc: Fingerprint reader (under display, optical); NFC; 3.5mm jack; stereo speakers (2 amplifiers).

ROG Phone 6 will be available in either Phantom Black or the frosted Storm White

As far as we currently know, the ROG Phone 6 will be available in either Phantom Black or the frosted Storm White finish. Whereas the Pro will only be available in white, like the one, we have.

Asus previously had white reserved for its Ultimate skew but decided to make it widely available this year due to fan interest in the color. Last but not least, concerning models and configurations, we believe both the vanilla and Pro models are going global this year.

Circling back to the ROG Phone 6 as a whole, just like last year, it represents an iterative rather than a major upgrade over the previous generation. Asus has successfully homed in on the gaming formula, or at least its take on it, and has been tweaking it and keeping it fresh and current for some time now. No fault in that approach since there are few devices out there quite as “tricked out” as the ROG Phone in almost every aspect.