ASUS Rog Phone 06 Review – The Peak of Smartphone Gaming" rel="nofollow">

The smartphone industry has remained relatively stagnant over recent years. With the performance, battery and camera capabilities plateauing for flagship smartphones, its affordability has meant that mid-range smartphones have closed the gap in performance and features while still offering great value in terms of cost. In addition to the growing mid-range market, many users are also keeping their smartphones for longer, with averages moving from the conventional 1-2 years to 2-3 years instead. The industry has been desperate to design a smartphone to shake up the market. ASUS takes a crack at this with its ROG Phone 06 release.

RELATED: ASUS ROG Delta S Wireless Headphones Review – Geared For Gamers

The device was considered both too niche for the South African market as well as too pricey in its previous five iterations. At long last, the device has arrived on our shores on its sixth release. A smartphone designed from the ground up as a mobile gaming device, offering a set of features you won’t find on many other smartphones on the market today. However, with such a niche smartphone, it’s important that the ecosystem supports the launch. So, how much value does the Asus Rog Phone 06 give to potential buyers?

Build and Design

Smartphones designs have hit a wall in recent years. However, while most other OEMs have kept its rectangular design to a bare minimum, with only the camera island showcasing any new designs, ASUS has taken a completely different route. Yes, the front of the device still looks like your average smartphone – there’s not much that can be changed with an all-glass panel – the rear looks unique.

There is quite a lot happening on the rear cover. The unit features the same ASUS design aesthetic as witnessed on a majority of its other devices, with strong diagonals and plenty of RBG colour. In this case, the diagonal cuts across the centre of the cover. It doesn’t have the same contrasting patterns as we see on many of the other ASUS designs. Instead, it simply has a diagonal line with the “ROG 06” logo across it.

The diagonal lines continue to the camera island. It’s quite a large housing for the triple-lens camera and flash. Despite it taking up almost the entire top end of the rear, it’s not quite centred. Although this is standard across the industry, with camera housing leaning toward the top left corner, it looks a bit clumsy not being centred when it’s so large. That said, it still pulls off a relatively unique look.

On the bottom end of the diagonal, there’s a very large RGB panel. When the device is turned on, so does the RGB panel, which lights up the ROG logo. On the Pro version of the ROG Phone 06, there’s a 2” OLED screen in its place. This can be customised to your liking using the Armoury Crate app on the phone. However, on the standard version, you’ll have to do with the ROG logo in RGB colours. That said, it looks a lot less over-the-top this way.

What ASUS has also done well with the ROG Phone 06 is its colourways. While it may just have the two standard options in black and white for the device but there are already two notable collaborations to note. This includes the Batman and Diablo Immortal-themed releases. Both of these include different colour schemes, as well as a set of pre-installed wallpapers and icons to match.

The device has a few additions also thrown into the mix as a dedicated gaming tech. For starters, there are two Type-C ports. The first is positioned at the bottom as per normal, with the second featured on the side below the RGB lighting. It also keeps its 3.5mm jack, unlike many other modern smartphones.

However, the standout feature, by far, is its shoulder triggers. There are two triggers on the right-hand side of the device. When turned on its side, they’re positioned on the top left and right sides, similar to the triggers on your console controllers. However, there aren’t any physical buttons. Instead, it uses touch-sensitive buttons with haptic feedback to provide the same type of experience as on a full-sized controller. It works well and feels just as great.

The downside of all the add-ons for the ROG Phone 06 is that it adds quite a bit of size and weight. It measures 173x77x10.3mm in its dimensions and has a bulky 239g weight. This is some 20-25% heavier than other flagship smartphones. A small price to pay in the end.

Overall, ASUS has taken the smartphone design to the next level with the ROG Phone 06. There are a host of added features while also keeping some of the more useful elements from older smartphones. The rear epitomises the typical flair from a gaming device, complete with an RGB-lit logo. It’s still a largely plastic build but looks anything but.

RELATED: ASUS ROG Strix XG32UQ Review – A Premium Gaming Monitor

Screen and Display

When it comes to the screen, I compared it to the best in the industry – that of the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. It must be said, there’s not a whole lot to choose between the two at the end of the day. This is great for potential buyers of the ROG Phone 06, with ASUS doing quite a bit on peripheral hardware and features to complement your gaming experience.

To start off, they have a similar size panel. The ROG Phone 06 features a 6.78” AMOLED panel, while the S22 Ultra features a 6.8” AMOLED 2X panel. The former has an 82.2% screen-to-body ratio, while the latter has a better 90.2%. It’s the latter that has better contrast and colour balance as well, but the ROG Phone 06 is more than capable of holding its own in direct comparison.

In terms of added features, the ROG Phone 06 includes a 165Hz refresh rate, HDR10+ support and a maximum brightness of 1,200 nits. In comparison, the S22 Ultra features a 120Hz refresh rate, HDR10+ support and a peak brightness of 1,750 nits. While it may be a bit down on overall brightness, it offers a 165Hz screen, which makes all the difference, both when using the phone in general or while immersing in a few games.

Where there is little comparison between the two, the S22 Ultra has a much superior display. It sports a 1,440×3,088px resolution at 500ppi pixel density, whereas the ROG Phone 06 only has a 1,080×2,448px resolution at 395ppi pixel density. However, unless you’re going to be staring at each pixel right up close, you’re not going to notice much of a difference in the clarity of resolution while gaming at a recommended viewing distance.

Lastly, both screens are protected with Corning Gorilla Glass. However, the ROG unit uses Victus protection, whereas the S22 Ultra has the latest Victus+ protection.

Specifications

ASUS has crammed the ROG Phone 06 with some of the best hardware available on the market today. It leads the way with the Qualcomm SM8475 Snapdragon 8+ chipset. This sports an Octa-core (3.19GHz Cortex-X2 + x3 2.75GHz Cortex-A710 + x4 1.80GHz Cortex-A510) CPU. It is paired with the Adreno 730 GPU.

There are four variants for the internal storage and RAM configurations. This includes the 128GB 8GB RAM / 128GB 12GB RAM / 256GB 12GB RAM / 512GB 16GB RAM options. It is then bolted together with a large capacity, a 6,000mAh battery.

The unit supports a triple-lens camera. It works well for the most part, especially in brightly lit conditions. Its main 50MP lens does most of the heavy lifting here. It takes quite detailed photos without oversaturation you’ll find on other camera software in an attempt to bolden the colour reproduction. Its ultrawide lens also does a good job, although not as detailed. It has a 125° angle view, which is wide enough for most landscape photos. Lastly, its macro lens allows you to get fairly close-up images when required. It works well without blowing you away. That’s pretty much the summary of the triple-lens camera configuration – that it doesn’t blow you away but delivers solid results when needed. Its full configuration is as follows:

• 50MP (wide), f/1.9, 1/1.56″, 1.0µm, PDAF
• 13MP (ultrawide), f/2.2
• 5MP (macro)

ASUS utilises a combination of Android 12 OS with the ROG UI & Zen UI firmware. The device switches between these two UIs, balancing the general use and while in gaming mode. It works great, too, meaning you won’t easily deplete your battery when not playing games. But more on that later.

The one negative aspect about the software is that ASUS claims to only be providing two years of software updates for the newly released ROG Phone 06. This boggles the mind a bit. It seems as if there is an attempt to force users to switch to a later smartphone by 2024 regardless of any previous updates or new enhancements to its list of features. This goes in contrast to global findings that users have switched to a two to three-year replacement cycle.

Performance and Battery Life

While it is an impressive lineup of specifications, it wouldn’t surprise you to know that the general use is nearly flawless. You can complete any task and multitasking activity you require in next to no time. It just works great.

With a few benchmark tests for similar smartphones, as well as other flagship units, it performs in the top three. Using the Geekbench tool, it falls behind only to its own ROG Phone 06 Pro and the Red Magic 7S Pro. In a few other tests, it actually outperforms the Pro version as a result of some of the draw and GPU power used on the rear-facing OLED screen.

As listed previously, the ROG Phone 06 uses a 6,000mAh battery. This is actually split into a pair of 3,000mAh batteries used in conjunction. And it works well. Users can expect to breeze through a full day’s worth of usage, even with the 165Hz screen turned on. In fact, you could push it to a full second day with a few adjustments. This speaks a lot about the device’s efficiencies in both hardware and software usage.

Under load, the device does heat up a bit, which means that when gaming, the battery will be depleted much faster. However, you can still expect a battery life in the region of 12+ hours of continuous gaming. That’s quite a massive haul, considering most other smartphones usually only provide three to five hours of gaming before it needs a recharge.

When it comes time to recharge, simply plug in the included 65W Type-C charger. Either port will work, as they both support fast-charging capabilities. As a result of this, charging is extremely fast. I’m not sure of the inner workings of charging its dual 3,000mAh batteries, but it must provide some advantages. In terms of thresholds, I regularly charged up to 30% in less than 15 minutes. You can achieve 80% in around 30 minutes and a full charge in under 45 minutes. Those numbers are impressive compared to my current daily driver, which requires around 80 minutes to fully charge – almost double the time.

RELATED: ASUS ROG XG Mobile Radeon RX 6850M XT Review – Powerful Mobile Gaming

It’s All About Gaming with the ASUS ROG Phone 06

As per the Performance section, the Asus Rog Phone 06 achieves pretty good results when it comes to benchmark testing. In addition to this, it also breezes through daily tasks. However, the smartphone was designed and built for gaming at its core. And that’s where the true test lies.

Thankfully, you’ll observe pretty much the same in the way of the leaderboard when it comes to GPU benchmarks. On most of the GFX testing, it averages around the 50-70FPS mark across the majority of the graphics-heavy games available. This, again, places it in the top three across most of the tests, beating out the likes of the Pro version on quite a few.

When under heavy load while gaming, the unit does tend to run on the warmer side. It’s not uncomfortable for the most part, as you can easily manage. However, there were times when I decided to give the unit a rest just in case. It still wasn’t as hot a device I’ve tested before and could still hold it in my hands – I just did not want to risk damaging a review unit.

ASUS does include an optional fan that connects neatly to the rear of the unit to keep it cooled for hours at a time. I wasn’t able to test this add-on but from what I’ve read, it works very well.

Furthermore, only a few games could natively utilise the built-in haptic triggers. It can be customised using the Armoury Crate. However, it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution in this regard. On some games, you’re unable to fully utilise the triggers to their full potential, while on others, it wouldn’t work at all. This is one of the only major gripes I had when testing the ROG Phone 06. The lack of games that natively support the use of the triggers leaves me circumspect as to its usefulness. However, when it works, it works great and is highly immersive.

Thanks to its dual Type-C configuration, you can also add a few peripherals to the device while gaming. I managed to add my mouse and keyboard using one port for the Type-C cable and Bluetooth for the other. This then left the other port available to keep the unit charged while gaming to provide uninterrupted gameplay.

RELATED: ASUS ROG Flow Z13 Review – Powerful But Not Practical

Is the ASUS ROG Phone 06 Worth It?

As with many novel devices, the answer is complicated. The issue with being novel, at times when it requires third-party content, is that it can oftentimes be ahead of its time. As much as I loved the features and how it was geared towards gaming, to fully utilise the ASUS ROG Phone 06 a lot more games and other content needs to be developed. ASUS’ introduction experience is an indicator of how much fun can be had with this gaming smartphone. However, it isn’t able to carry the excitement from start to finish as a result of the content.

The ASUS ROG Phone has been available in many markets across its first five iterations. Now, in its sixth iteration, it has landed on South African shores, carrying a bit of a premium. At a retail price of R22,999, it’s not going to be an easy sell for a saturated market or an attempt to gain market share against the incumbents. That said, the price isn’t unwarranted. With a few additional games or interactive experiences at your disposal, I would’ve argued it was a great price.

ASUS ROG Phone 06 Review – The Peak of Smartphone Gaming Written by Evan Saunders for Fortress of Solitude