If you’re familiar with Asus’s stint with smartphones, you’d probably know that the Taiwanese brand’s ROG Phone line-up caters almost exclusively to serious mobile gamers. That segment may be niche but within that realm, Asus is the undisputed champion. In India, it has virtually no competition.
Over the years, the brand has slowly and meticulously mastered the art of launching devices with clear-cut focus on delivering the best-in-class performance for gamers through a mix of powerful hardware and smart software. It’s also probably the only brand that invests as much time and effort in building an accessory ecosystem that acts as catalyst in enabling an even more immersive gaming experience.
The only problem is, the delivery of these devices to market has been a bit slow, often plagued by delays. Take the new ROG Phone 6 and ROG Phone 6 Pro for instance.
Both phones were launched in India in July around the same time as global markets. They were among the first few phones to come with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 processor. But by the time Asus is ready with sales, which has taken almost five months, Qualcomm is out with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.
Not that there is anything wrong with that, but this surely takes away some of the edge, as phones with the brand-new chipset have started to pile up already.
Having said that, while having the latest and greatest hardware does help— can’t say no to that— it’s not an absolute necessity. Not in the case of a phone like the ROG Phone 6/6 Pro, anyway. You see there are not many applications/games on Android that can really push these high-end chips to their limits and Asus is known to eke out every ounce of performance from the available hardware, which is why an ROG Phone 6/ROG Phone 6 Pro with Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 would probably be able to play games at higher frame rates more consistently for longer duration than say a Vivo X90 Pro Plus with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.
Maybe an iQOO 11 will be able to better it, we’ll see, but that’s beside the point. When you take into account everything else including the screen refresh rate and touch response, speaker setup and haptics, ultimately, there is no option better than the ROG Phone 6/6 Pro for gamers in India. The only potential threat could be a certain ROG Phone 6s/ROG Phone 7 but it’s best to leave that for another day. While we work on our full review of the ROG Phone 6/6 Pro, here’s a quick first look and impressions to get you started with Asus’s latest.
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The ROG Phone 6 and ROG Phone 6 Pro are more of the same with the major differences being limited to the aesthetics and RAM capacity. The ROG Phone 6 Pro has a programmable colour AMOLED display on the back and ships with 18GB of RAM by default. The ROG Phone 6 has more regular RGB lighting and 16GB RAM. (We’ll talk specifically about the ROG Phone 6, from now, but know that, the same core specs apply to the pro model as well.)
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As we mentioned before, the ROG Phone 6 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chip. Since the last ROG Phone, ROG Phone 5s, was based on the older Snapdragon 888 Plus SoC, we’re expecting a “significant” bump in performance, both in gaming and otherwise.
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These new high-end Qualcomm chips tend to run hot, generally, which is where thermals become very critical. The ROG Phone 6 comes with an improved thermal system, Asus claims. This includes a bigger vapour chamber (up by 30%) and graphite sheet (up by 85%) over the last generation ROG Phone. The setup is rated to lower the CPU temperature by up to 10-degree Celsius.
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Asus is giving the display a potentially huge update in the ROG Phone 6. The new phone comes with a 165Hz AMOLED screen. The touch sampling rate is now 720Hz. That’s overkill, if you ask us. This was 360Hz in the ROG Phone 5s. The size and resolution remain the same, 6.78-inch 1080p. Rounding off the package is Corning Gorilla Glass Victus protection.
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Under the hood, you get a 6,000mAh battery split into two 3,000mAh cells just like the last models and you get dual USB C ports for charging. The ROG Phone 6 supports 65W fast wired charging but in India, Asus is bundling a 30W charger in the box, which is kind of a bummer.
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For photography, you get an updated 50MP Sony IMX766 main sensor paired with a 13MP ultrawide, and another 5MP macro. On the front, there is a 12MP selfie shooter.
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Rounding off the package are dual front-firing speakers, triple microphones, headphone jack, and IPX4 splash resistance.
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The design is familiar. No surprises there. The new phone looks virtually identical to the previous model which is to say that it offers a striking gamer-y look and feel (you can get the 6 in matte white/glossy black while the pro comes in white alone) from every perceivable angle and it can still be quite a handful.
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ROG Phone 6 price in India is set at Rs 71,999 for a version with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. ROG Phone 6 Pro will set buyers back by Rs 89,999 for a model with 18GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. It’s not an update that really screams “update” but it’s nice to see Asus finding a good thing and sticking with it, for so long, adding subtle yet useful tweaks to make these devices better while staying ahead of the curve and convention, gen over gen. For that, the brand deserves all the credit. Stay tuned for our full review of the Asus ROG Phone 6 coming soon.
(Photos credit: Saurabh Singh/Financial Express)