ASUS sent me the ASUS ROG Phone 5 for review and while I was expecting a gamer-focused only phone I found out it’s actually a well-rounded phone for all kinds of use. You will appreciate its impressive features even if you don’t play games.
The ASUS ROG Phone 5 comes with an incredible set of features. It is built around the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888, which incorporates 5G mobile technologies so all around you have a fast processor capable of dealing with large volumes of data.
Once on your device, all this data needs to go somewhere, and for that ASUS configured the phone with 16 GB RAM and 256 GB storage. Together with the Snapdragon processor, you get a very fast platform based on Android 11.
So fast that I can tap to open an email and the content will jump in front of me, while my other phone is still trying to decide if I had really touched the screen. Yes, I know it sounds like hyperbole but the reality is the emails, websites and other content open very fast.
On top of this speed combo, the ASUS ROG Phone 5 comes with a beautiful 6.78” AMOLED HD screen with permanent HDR. It also sports a user-selectable (or automatic) 144 Hz refresh rate (the other options are 60 Hz and 120 Hz). This means the content is incredibly bright, easy to read and screen action is smooth unlike anything else I’ve seen on mobile devices. An interesting thing here is how well this screen size works when in landscape mode. And this screen is seriously good for watching content like movies and TV series - even better if these are HDR-ready.
The screen size also means you get more content in front of you, compared to other devices. And there’s a special setting to delay the screen turning off in case the phone detects you are still looking at it. Very handy.
The screen is also edge-to-edge, with very small padding on top for a minuscule front-facing camera – no notch!
On the right side, you will find the usual power and volume up/down buttons. In addition to that, you will also find the ASUS AirTriggers. These are areas on the side of the body that you touch with your index fingers to either execute an action (if in-game) or start an app or assistant (when not in-game). They work extremely well and when not in-game you see small colour feedback on the screen to let you know you pressed the right location.
Since I’ve mentioned gaming, let’s have a look at this. The experience starts when getting the phone out of the box. It comes with a hard-shell box that has some illustrations that look like manga. When you set up your phone it will ask you to point the camera and focus on those illustrations to demo an augmented-reality (AR) story with visuals and sound on your phone. Really well done and a great showcase. It will also ask you to take a selfie with one of a series of AR filters to use as your avatar later on when (if) you join their gaming community.
For gamers, it will be an exciting mix of hardware, software and accessories. In terms of software, you will find the Armory Crate, which incorporates your games library, community and gaming optimisation. For each game, you can configure a performance mode (System, Gaming and Hardcore), restrict CPU utilisation by background apps and clean memory before the game starts. You can also change the touch sensibility display refresh rate, the AirTriggers functionality and even lock in the preferred network to avoid dropouts during a gaming session.
You will also have access to the Game Genie, a floating window that slides from the side that allows you to check current stats such as temperature, CPU speed and FPS or even display an overlay with this information on the bottom of the game screen. Game Genie also allows quick access to no calls, brightness, screen recording and more.
In terms of accessories – whoa. First, you will notice two USB-C ports on this phone. You actually use the one on the side of the phone to charge it giving you the freedom to keep your game session going with the phone in landscape, even if you need to recharge the phone and without the cable being on the way.
The second USB-C port (which is on the bottom where you would expect the charging to be) is actually used to power a special case that will allow you to attach the ASUS Kunai GamePad. These are sold separately (I received those with the review unit) and can either be attached via the case or used wirelessly, in which case you can attach them to a controller-like grip. They seem small but they have all the buttons, triggers and pads you need for gaming.
You will also notice another connector near the USB-C charging port – this one is used by the (also optional) clip-on external cooling fan ASUS ROG AeroActive Cooler 5, promising to lower surface temperatures on your phone by up to 15 degrees celsius. The cool thing is that it also works as a stand so you can prop your phone up for gaming, using the GamePad in wireless mode for example. If all this wasn't enough, the cooler also ads two extra trigger buttons to the back of the phone for more game control.
The ASUS ROG Phone 5 has two front-facing speakers that can provide you with Hi-Res audio. These must be the best phone speakers I've ever had the pleasure of listening to. They are seriously good. Also on the sound front, ASUS has implemented the Qualcomm aptX codec for use with Bluetooth devices and if all else fails you can use the 3.5 mm headphone jack, a rarity these days.
Another cool thing ASUS has done is incorporating RGB LEDs to the back of the phone, in the shape of the ROG logo. This can be used as notification and charging lights but can you can configure it to work with games or just have it lit all the time, following a pattern of cycles, intensity and colours.
In terms of connectivity, the ASUS ROG Phone 5 supports the new WiFi 6 standard and also provides a dual-band WiFi connection – something I’ve only seen on a couple of other devices.
It does work with 5G networks in New Zealand and it’s as fast as expected for downloads but it is not yet certified for VoLTE services. This means you will have problems making or receiving phone calls in areas that only have 4G or 5G coverage as no VoLTE means the phone must have 3G service to be able to connect voice calls. This is the case in some rural and suburban areas where our telcos are deploying 4G/5G only instead of going with the older 3G technology.
To power all this you would have to agree ASUS couldn’t just put any battery there so you get what you pay for – a whopping 6,000 mAh battery set (two 3,000 mAh batteries) that will see you going through the day – and more!
The result is a phone that while not exceedingly heavy is not too light either, at 239 g, which is just about the same as other large devices, with this one measuring 173.00 x 77.00 x 9.90 mm.
The ASUS ROG Phone 5 is a gaming phone for sure, but even non-gamers would appreciate the raw power behind it.
PS. Just hours after this post went live the phone received an update. The update included security patch upto June 2021 plus a list of fixes. The VoLTE toggle in the SIM card manager settings (which was greyed out) has now disappeared since this update.
