If you've ever looked at your smartphone and thought: "damn, I wish it had 18 GB of RAM, a second screen on the back, active cooling, and two USB-C ports," you're probably not entirely normal. But don't worry – think about how abnormal ASUS must be to have actually made such a marvel.
ASUS's ROG Phone gaming smartphones remind me every year that reviewing phones can actually be quite fun. And this is despite the fact that mobile games themselves, like matching diamonds or long-distance butt jumps (an authentic hit from a few months ago), usually don't provide me with much entertainment.
Does a gaming smartphone make sense?
Smartphones generally are hard to consider a good gaming platform – they overheat, quickly lose performance, have short battery life, and touch-screen controls lack precision. However, ASUS has managed to overcome all these limitations, and I'd gladly see many of the ROG Phone's solutions in models for... well, ordinary people.
But even if the RGB lighting or sharp, gaming aesthetics aren't entirely my cup of tea, I can't help but appreciate the manufacturer's creativity. What other smartphone do you get not in a regular box, but in a sliding capsule resembling some hibernation tool from science fiction movies? In which setup process, that famous agreeing to sell a kidney 🙈, is interrupted multiple times by a session in a built-in, dynamic game?
And these are just the first impressions! When you hold the ROG Phone, you'll also quickly notice, for example:
- The presence of two USB-C ports – including one on the side of the casing, so you don't have to interrupt a 30-hour portable Call of Duty stream even while charging. The Guinness World Record was never so close! On the other hand, death from exhaustion also 💀, so maybe you should let it go.
- Additional touch buttons for control – also on the side. You can set their function separately for each game – in shooters, the left one could correspond to reloading, for example, and the right one to shooting. Such a solution gives a huge advantage – you'll become the idol of all ten-year-olds on the server.
- A screen with an absurd refresh rate – the ROG Phone's huge AMOLED has a staggering 165 Hz. I guarantee you that no one and nothing before, and no one and nothing after, will react to your commands faster and more efficiently.
- A second screen on the back – why? I have no idea, but they had some space left, so they added it. It's supposedly used to display notification icons, but in reality, it's completely unnecessary. Well, unless you desperately want to place your smartphone face down everywhere, so everyone sees what a beast you have.
Not enough? Then what do you say to the fact that the ROG Phone 6 Pro has 18 GB of RAM on board. 18! 😲 More than all my computers combined until recently. Plus, the loudest stereo speakers on the market, audible from here all the way to Scandinavia. Or a 6000 mAh battery with fast charging, which is easily enough for a day and a half of normal use, or long sessions with your favorite productions.
Impressive specifications of the ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro
Okay, admittedly the ROG weighs as much as a small wild boar 🐗, but I think no gamer will consider this a disadvantage – after all, a larger screen means a more detailed view of the situation, and a higher weight means a firmer grip.
The issue of cooling still remains, which the manufacturer solved similarly to how I did when I last replaced my home appliances – by opting for a separate freezer. The ROG Aeroactive Cooler is an attachment that plugs into the side USB-C port, featuring a powerful fan, four additional physical buttons, and RGB lighting that doesn't actually do anything, but without it, you won't get the certificate of a true gamer.
The phone with such a parasite attached might look a bit silly, but it really doesn't overheat and doesn't lose performance over time. Beautiful!
Drawbacks of the ASUS ROG Phone
The drawbacks of the ROG Phone 6 Pro? Well, firstly the cameras, although they don't bring shame, they are rather on par with those found in smartphones costing 2000-3000 PLN. On the other hand, in such phones, cameras are only used for photographing the corpses of vanquished opponents, and the detail of the photos is sufficient if it allows for their identification.
Secondly, as befits a gadget that is a record-breaker in many respects, the price is truly prohibitive. Thirdly, perhaps it's a good thing that we identify as Vikings here, because the Pro version is unfortunately unavailable to Poles. Only an almost identical, but less impressive base model, with less RAM and without the additional screen, made it to our country.
Do I need such a ROG Phone? Absolutely not. Do I know anyone who really would need one? No, not really. But I'm glad someone still wants to show something fresh on this boring market, like a fish from a fjord.
