Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro: $1,300 Phone Maxes Out Everything but the Camera #GeekLeap

The Asus ROG Cellphone 6 Professional is a $1,300 gaming telephone behemoth. Launched final summer time, the telephone justifies its excessive worth with extra premium specs that provide extra energy and elegance than the common telephone. This contains the telephone’s 6.78-inch OLED show with a 165Hz refresh fee, a 6,000mAh battery and a colourful second LED show on the again that provides a dynamic look to the rear of the telephone.

I have been utilizing the Cellphone 6 Professional for the previous couple of months — testing it each as a gaming machine and as an on a regular basis telephone. Whereas I largely get pleasure from utilizing the Cellphone 6 Professional, a number of the decisions Asus made for avid gamers don’t essentially profit a mainstream telephone person. There are some design quirks, and the digicam is not as spectacular correctly for such an costly machine. It is also lacking wi-fi charging, which might not be a necessity however is taken into account widespread on most telephones. 

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Asus ROG Cellphone 6 Professional: A Gaming Cellphone With A number of Fashion

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However if you happen to can solid apart these shortcomings, the Cellphone 6 Professional has numerous options that would find yourself on a future iPhone or Galaxy machine. Asus additionally succeeds at catering to those that wish to get probably the most out of their telephone as a gaming machine. 

A futuristic design highlighted by a rear LED show

The Asus ROG Cellphone 6 Professional’s design makes an announcement. My evaluation unit is a satellite-like white shade that is adorned with blue accents and a black line that diagonally traces round its LED show. 

That rear show jogs my memory of the notification LED that I used to see on BlackBerry telephones, however advanced into one thing extra like the duvet display screen on a Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4. The show exhibits icons for notifications, a Recreation Begin animation (for once you begin a sport in fact), a battery indicator and different animations that you simply customise inside the telephone’s settings. 

A static LED that outlines the phrases “Able to Play” can be on the again of the machine to essentially emphasize that this can be a gaming telephone. The colour of that textual content could be custom-made from inside the menus.

I might like to see different telephones experiment with extra creative colours and designs like Asus. The midrange Nothing Cellphone 1 is already doing one thing comparable with its Glyph LED design. For now, the closest most mainstream telephones get to customization is once you throw on a pores and skin or case.

Yet one more design alternative to put the telephone’s front-facing digicam in a bezel above the telephone’s show is sensible as a way to present an uninterrupted display screen, however that alternative is a slightly dated thought for a telephone this costly. This makes the telephone a little bit bit taller than the show, which harks again to older designs like 2018’s Samsung Galaxy S9. Gaming telephone rival RedMagic now makes use of an under-display front-facing digicam, beginning with its 7S Professional, however picture high quality remains to be a piece in progress on telephones giving {that a} attempt. 

Asus ROG Cellphone 6 Professional’s display screen animates and reacts quick

As one would anticipate with an costly telephone, the Asus ROG Cellphone 6 Professional’s 6.78-inch OLED appeared nice it doesn’t matter what sort of content material I used to be viewing. By default, it makes use of an computerized refresh fee that adjustments relying on what you are utilizing. After turning on the setting that retains it at 165Hz always, I used to be in a position to get pleasure from extraordinarily easy scrolling, gaming animations and studying. Whereas Marvel Snap maxes at 60 frames per second, the cardboard sport appeared to animate particularly properly with all of its graphics settings turned on. The identical goes for shortly leaping out and in of Gameloft’s Trendy Fight 5 and Warner Bros.’ Mortal Kombat — the latter of which natively helps the 165Hz refresh fee.

The display screen additionally has a 720Hz contact sampling fee, or how shortly the display screen reacts to faucets and scrolls for video games. In my expertise, that is notably helpful for first-person shooters and preventing video games.

This is not the primary time I’ve seen a 165Hz refresh fee or a 720Hz contact sampling fee; final yr’s $629 RedMagic 7 telephone additionally contains these options. However options like these are beginning to make their manner into extra mainstream gadgets at decrease costs. Motorola’s $500 Edge telephone from final summer time, as an illustration, has a show with a 144Hz refresh fee. I am anticipating these greater body charges to proceed reaching mainstream telephones and maybe pushing even greater on gaming telephones, a development that we’re additionally seeing on some televisions and pc screens.

The 720Hz fee remains to be largely discovered on gaming telephones, however the Samsung Galaxy S23 does have a 240Hz contact sampling fee that’s greater than ample exterior the aggressive gaming house.

Two front-facing audio system are positioned across the show, which is particularly helpful because it’s much less probably that your arms will cowl them whereas taking part in video games. Plus, the telephone has a wired headphone jack, making it one of many only a few telephones to nonetheless embody the port. Having the choice makes a number of sense, because it permits for hardwiring into the telephone for audio whereas utilizing the USB-C port for charging. A second USB-C port on the telephone can be out there for equipment.

Asus ROG Cellphone 6 Professional has one of many greatest batteries I’ve seen

The Asus ROG Cellphone 6 Professional packs one of many largest batteries I’ve seen on a telephone, with a 6,000mAh capability. The closest we have in any other case seen in available telephones just like the Galaxy S23 Extremely is 5,000mAh. Even once I cranked up the refresh fee to 165Hz and turned on the telephone’s always-on show, I made it via a whole day or two with a single cost pretty simply. I didn’t run all of CNET’s battery benchmarks on the Cellphone 6 Professional, however between the massive capability and help for 65W quick charging, getting the telephone via a day is not a problem.

Further battery life may be very prone to make its manner into extra mainstream telephones finally, however at the moment sooner charging already is obtainable in telephones just like the OnePlus 11 5G. That telephone gives 100W charging within the UK and 80W charging within the US.

Asus ROG Cellphone 6 Professional’s 18GB of RAM is overkill

The telephone additionally contains 512GB of house alongside a ridiculous 18GB of LPDDR5 RAM. Multitasking is a breeze, because it’s in a position to deal with a number of apps on the identical time with out lagging in any respect if I swapped shortly between them. 

Video games themselves load shortly too, thanks partially to the now previous-gen Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 processor. Hopping right into a sport, texting, after which launching a web site earlier than returning to the sport is straightforward and quick. At any time when I exploit a gaming telephone just like the Cellphone 6 Professional, having this a lot RAM alongside a quick processor permits me to enter a sport’s settings menu and crank up each graphics setting doable, with little fear that it may damage the efficiency of the title. 

It is value noting that 2023 mainstream telephones just like the Galaxy S23 and gaming telephones just like the RedMagic 8 Professional are together with the brand new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, each of which arrived after the ROG Cellphone 6 Professional.

The big quantity of RAM can be one of many areas the place the telephone’s excessive worth is kind of apparent. It’s common for telephones just like the iPhone 14 Professional or the Galaxy S23 Plus to incorporate a 512GB storage tier on the $1,300 worth vary, however incorporating 18GB of RAM may be very uncommon. By comparability, that is extra RAM than most computer systems at the same worth vary embody.

That stated, the sheer quantity of RAM included within the telephone does present that whereas the Cellphone 6 Professional spares no expense on specs that assist it run quick. It as an alternative cuts corners on pictures, which runs fairly counter to what we usually see on the mainstream facet of the telephone business.

Gaming focus comes on the expense of the cameras

On the subject of the telephone’s cameras, photographs are typically a weak level regardless of the inclusion of a 50-megapixel principal digicam, a 13-megapixel ultrawide digicam and a 5-megapixel macro digicam. 

I took photographs in a number of indoor settings, together with throughout a tour of Samsung’s not too long ago reopened 837 retailer in New York and through a nighttime ice skating session. 

The photographs are good, however they don’t seem to be $1,300 telephone good.

I do know this can be a “gaming telephone” and never a “digicam telephone,” however I nonetheless anticipated extra from such a dear machine. Most telephones on this worth vary help extra colours and element, utilizing a mix of a high-quality digicam and software program to deliver out probably the most of a photograph in quite a lot of conditions. But the dearth of focus on this space is comprehensible when contemplating how a rear digicam hardly ever ever turns into part of most cell phone video games. If digicam high quality is your concern, contemplate a Galaxy S23 Extremely, Pixel 7 Professional or iPhone 14 Professional Max.

Asus customizations do not overwhelm Android

The Cellphone 6 Professional, which acquired the replace to Android 13 throughout my time with it, has the correct amount of software program customization choices. The tweaks made by Asus had been noticeable, however did not get in my manner when utilizing the machine.  

The telephone defaults to darkish mode, which higher compliments a number of the Asus settings discovered within the firm’s Armoury Crate app. This app permits you to make changes to the LED show and sport efficiency. 

I recognize the separation, as generally a telephone’s settings menu can grow to be overwhelming with choices from each Android 13 and the machine maker’s particular choices. I might, nonetheless, recognize some shortcuts from the machine settings menu that deliver you to the Asus app. There have been some events once I wasn’t certain how one can make sure adjustments. It wasn’t clear, as an illustration, how one can modify the rear LED.

So far as precise gaming goes, Asus features a Recreation Genie hub that you would be able to entry whereas taking part in a sport by tracing diagonally from the corners of the display screen. This brings up a space-themed dashboard with settings for adjusting the machine’s refresh fee, permitting or blocking telephone calls, display screen recording or adjusting the AirTriggers. These are the shoulder button-like sensors on the telephone that may be custom-made for various instructions. Gaming mode choices like these are nice for gaming telephones or different high-end telephones, however I do not anticipate wider adoption: After I reviewed the $228 OnePlus N300, seeing the same gaming mode on that cheaper telephone appeared to offer away that it did not have as a lot energy to run video games at greater graphics settings.

Asus gives so much, however for a selected gamer viewers 

The Asus ROG Cellphone 6 Professional brings a number of persona to an in any other case area of interest and costly machine. I recognize its thrives — particularly the rear LED — and the way the telephone prioritizes gaming and media consumption over all else. Options just like the high-quality show, the rear LED, quick charging, the front-facing audio system and a headphone jack would probably be appreciated by a number of common telephone customers, too.  

However Asus makes compromises in different areas, notably with regards to the cameras and the dearth of wi-fi charging. Whereas the excessive contact sampling fee is beneficial for avid gamers, it is not important sufficient to make me need it in a typical, non-gaming telephone. That is finally nonetheless a really costly telephone — even for a distinct segment viewers. It is also value remembering that most of the specs could be present in cheaper choices just like the RedMagic, even when it is on the expense of the person expertise. However if you happen to actually wish to have 18GB of RAM and a flowery second display screen in your smartphone, be ready to pay the $1,300.