Tech
Asus’s ROG Phone 6 goes off the rails with gaming features
Asus’s latest offering comes ridiculously close to qualifying as a full-on handheld gaming console.
Mobile gaming has sure come a long way since the humble days of playing snake on Nokia bricks. Asus revealed its ROG Phone 6 and 6 Pro, its latest smartphones designed specifically for mobile gaming. The specs alone are impressive, but when you kit out the gaming phone with all the optional accessories, it does bring into question the “mobile” nature of this beast of a device.
Asus is clearly going for serious gamer vibes with its Phone 6 and 6 Pro, decking the whole phone out in RGB lighting and decals. The latest smartphones do have a similar look to the Asus ROG Phone 5 Ultimate, but Asus amped up the functionality with better specs and a a new external cooler accessory that’s sold separately.
When you add on the AeroActive Cooler 6 and Asus’ ROG Kunai 3 gamepad, it basically transforms the ROG Phone 6 into a portable console. At that point, it’s more comparable to a Nintendo Switch or Steam Deck than any gaming smartphone.
God tier specs — Going through the specs of the ROG Phone 6, it reads more like a spec sheet for a decent gaming laptop than a smartphone. Asus will use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 with its integrated Adreno 730 GPU. You can build the Phone 6 up to 16GB of LPDDR5 memory, and the Phone 6 Pro goes up to 18GB. Both models will offer up to 512GB of internal storage.
Asus opted for a Samsung AMOLED display for the ROG Phone 6, which stretches 6.78 inches and has a 165Hz refresh rate. The backside also features a mini display with RGB lighting that you can customize — an upgrade from the monochrome mini display we saw with the ROG Phone 5 Ultimate.
Asus improved its AirTrigger 6 system, which allow for gesture controls, and to enhance the gaming experience, the ROG Phone 6 also has gyroscopic capabilities and provides haptic feedback.
It’s still a smartphone, so the ROG Phone 6 has a 50-megapixel main camera, a 13-megapixel wide-angle lens, a five-megapixel macro cam, and a 12-megapixel front-facing camera. The device holds an impressive 6,000 mAH battery, has dual SIM card slots, and a fingerprint sensor.
Extra cooling power — Of course you can just game on the ROG Phone 6 by itself, but Asus teased this beastly smartphone along with the new external cooling accessory, the AeroActive Cooler 6 that adds four extra buttons on the back.
Asus said the Phone 6 will start at €999, or roughly $1,050, and the Phone 6 Pro will start at €1,299, or around $1,300. The Phone 6 will come in black and white colorways, but the Pro edition will only be offered in white. The upcoming Asus gaming smartphones will be released in the European market first before making it to the U.S., India and other markets.
