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ASUS ROG Phone 5 Review (1 month later)

  • Apr 15, 2021
  • 4 min read

For the last few years, gaming phones have been on the rise, with many different companies trying to capture the attention of mobile gamers with their line-up. Gaming phones have always been targeted at a specific audience, with many extra features. The new Asus ROG Phone 5 represents the ideal way forward for a premium gaming phone, and we were able to get our hands on one for a review, and here are my thoughts.


What's new?


On the front, the ROG Phone 5 looks a lot like its older brother, the ROG Phone 3. The back has a dot-matrix style ROG logo which lights up and is highly customisable. The new ROG Phone 5 also houses a large 6.8-inch AMOLED display that can go up to a refresh rate of 144Hz. The bezels are minimized, and the headphone jack is back. The phone feels solid, though it is a heavy phone.


On the left, there is a special port for gaming accessories, such as the AeroActive Cooler 5 which is a cooling fan for the ROG Phone 5. Another feature that makes the ROG Phone 5 a gaming phone, is the AirTriggers. The AirTriggers are touch-sensitive buttons that are similar to the trigger buttons on a game controller. On the bottom is the USB-C port and the good old 3.5mm headphone jack. There are no microSD card slot in the ROG Phone 5, so if you plan to get the phone, choose your storage capacity wisely.


What’s good?


The ROG Phone 5 is housing a 6.78 inches AMOLED screen (2448 x 1080p) which can go up to 144Hz refresh rate. I would say 144Hz refresh rate is a bit overkill and drains the battery faster. You can set the refresh rate to be 120Hz or 60Hz in the settings. Personally, I do not see much difference between 144Hz and 120Hz, hence I kept the screen at 120Hz. The display is sharp, and colours literally pop up. If the colours do not appeal to you, you can change it in the settings.


The phone also features a fingerprint scanner in the display. It feels more responsive than the scanner found in the ROG Phone 3, however, it still feels slower compared to other flagships on the market.

I’m amazed by the speakers on the ROG Phone 5. They are loud and have good bass. They sound like a good portable speaker instead of a smartphone speakers, and I really enjoyed blasting music off the ROG Phone 5. Besides the speakers, the device includes a DAC that supports Hi-Res audio, as well as a built-in equalizer that can tune the sound coming out of your headsets.


The ROG Phone 5 is rocking the Snapdragon 888 processor. Asus gave us the 256GB storage and 16GB RAM model. The base model has 128GB storage and 8GB RAM, and another model with 256GB and 12GB RAM. The phone definitely feels fast. I had no issues opening multiple apps, and switching between apps feels smooth.

As the ROG Phone 5 is a gaming phone, there are gaming software built into the device like the Game Genie and X Mode, which boosts gaming performance on the device. The graphene sheets and cooling system also helps the device remain cool after a long gaming session. The ROG Phone 5 comes with Android 11 out of the box with ZenUI on top. There are a lot of customization available, which offers users the chance to make it their style.

The ROG Phone 5 has a total battery capacity of 6000mAh, which is actually two 3000mAh cells. They charge at 65W with the included charger. The ROG Phone 5 offers what they called HyperCharge, and I can get a full charge within an hour. The battery is impressive, though I don’t game as much as others might do. I played Genshin Impact, watched some YouTube videos, streamed Spotify, took some photos and videos, did some casual browsing, and I was still able to get about a day’s worth of power.


What’s not good?


The camera on the ROG Phone 5 is not bad, but its not great either. On the back, there are three cameras, a 64MP which allows to shoot 8K video, a 13MP ultra-wide and a 5MP macro. Image quality is not really sharp, colours looked washed out, and photos take extra time to be processed. However, for a gaming phone, the camera is definitely one of the better ones compared to the others. In good lighting conditions, I did get some good shots. The camera fared well in low light, and night mode is decent. On the front, the 24MP selfie camera, is impressive. However, the portrait mode is not so great.







Night mode

Although I did get a few OTA updates to fix some bugs or performance improvement, whether the ROG Phone 5 will receive future Android updates still concerns me.


Should you get it?


The ROG Phone 5 is definitely one of the best gaming phones right now. If your goal is to have the best possible mobile gaming experience, this is a solid choice. However, the phone too comes with many flaws. There is no water resistance rating and wireless charging. The phone is also large and heavy. I still think the ROG Phone 5 is a high mark in the gaming phone market now, and looking forward to see how gaming phones further improve from here.


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