For now, admit it or not, gaming phones are synonymous with ASUS ROG Phone. ASUS' consistency by continuing to roll out the ROG Phone Series to the market has made its existence in the gaming segment even stronger.
As a result, when the ROG Phone 6 review unit landed on the editorial desk, we were very excited to test the next generation of ROG Phone 5 which we also reviewed.
We believe that the image of a gaming phone that is so attached to the ROG Phone is a heavy burden for the ASUS team in designing this new series. This also aroused our curiosity when testing it.
Has ASUS succeeded in presenting a capable gaming smartphone? Is the presence as expected? Come on, see our review below.
Review of ASUS ROG Phone 6
Technically even down to the design, the ROG Phone 6 review unit is designed with specifications and features for gamers. But before testing further, let's take a peek at the sales package.
The sales box looks quite premium in black with the ROG logo. So what's inside the ROG Phone 6 box?
When we disassembled it, we found a unit of the ASUS ROG Phone 6 smartphone. Then there was a warranty card, manual and ROG card. Then there is a 65W HyperCharge, a USB Type-C data cable and a headset.
And, most interestingly, there is a carbon-style protective case with a fairly sturdy material. The design is attractive, reinforcing the smartphone design style which is already very 'gaming'.
That's what it contains in the sales package, now we will go deeper into every important aspect of this device.
Body Design
ASUS ROG Phone 6 is designed with a premium design. As soon as you see the exterior, the aura of a gaming smartphone immediately radiates. Designed with a futuristic look with cool matrix and RGB patterns.
The front panel of the body is covered with scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass Victus. While the rear panel is covered with a Gorilla Glass 3 glass panel. This series is also splash-resistant thanks to IPX4 certification.
To make it more qualified, the frame is designed from aluminum material. Incidentally, we have the Phantom Black color, but for those who like other colors, there is also the Storm White option.
The unit that we hold has a glossy back view. There is a touch of pink in the sim tray area on the lower left and the power button on the right.
We can set this RGB lighting color, activate and deactivate the lighting color according to taste in the X Mode settings.
There are also two USB Type-C ports – one at the bottom and one on the left side of the smartphone. The 3.5mm audio port is also visible at the bottom.
As a complement, ROG Phone 5 is equipped with several gaming accessories, including AeroActive Cooler and Kunai. This series is also supported by the latest generation of NFC, Bluetooth and Wifi.
Displays
ROG Phone 6 offers a screen area to pamper gamers. First, the wide display with a span of 6.78 inches is enhanced with HDR 10+.
Using high-quality AMOLED technology made by Samsung tuned by ROG, the color composition, details and visuals look realistic, clear and sharp.
Even more impressive, the ROG Phone 6 review unit also adopts a screen with a refresh rate of 165Hz. Also a touch sampling rate of up to 720Hz and a touch latency of 23 ms.
For hardcore gamers, the above aspects are very crucial and highly revered. This high refresh rate and fast response really spoiled it when we tested it.
There is almost no lagging and response delay when playing, especially in first person shooter (FPS) games that require fast response.
For watching videos or streaming, the visuals and animations look even smoother. It's different from low frame rate screens where the animation on the screen looks like it's broken.
Performance
ROG Phone 6's performance has been improved from its predecessor using Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1. The most powerful chipset at the moment is also inserted by the Adreno 730 GPU.
Technically, this chipset provides 10% faster CPU and GPU performance and 30% better efficiency compared to its predecessor.
In fact, in order to keep performance stable, vendors have immersed the GameCool 6 cooling system. This fifth generation of the GameCool system features state-of-the-art cooling technology.
The internal structure has been further improved for efficient heat dissipation. The new, redesigned, 360-degree CPU cooling system is focused on a centrally placed dual-PCB layout.
Utilizes a proprietary method to fill the air gap between two PCBs with a special thermal compound. The performance is further enhanced up to 10° C.
Furthermore, the ROG Phone 6 review unit that we tested buried 256GB of internal memory, as well as 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM. Unfortunately there is no microSD slot.
We admit that the combination of high-performance components makes all games from casual to high-graphics games run with the best quality and performance.
