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(Pocket-lint) – Asus has unveiled the ROG Phone 6, the latest in its popular line of gaming phones.
It follows on from the ROG Phone 5 models and again will give you a number of choices across the ROG Phone 6 and ROG Phone 6 Pro models.
The big difference between these models is that the ROG Phone 6 Pro has the full ROG Vision display on the rear of the phone – along with 18GB of RAM – compared to a simpler LED rear display on lower models. The ROG Vision display is customisable and offers 60 animations over six different scenarios.
The ROG Phone 6 family moves to the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, so it offers the latest and most powerful Snapdragon hardware around, and as we said, it can be configured up to 18GB and 512GB storage.
To support long gaming sessions, there’s a new cooling system inside the device, with a larger graphite sheet and a larger vapour chamber, to ship heat away from the SoC located in the centre of the phone. The air gaps are also filled with boron nitride to boost thermal performance.
In addition to the cooling system within the phone, ROG Phone continues to offer an external cooler, the AeroActive Cooler 6. Asus recommends this for people who play for over an hour, as it really can keep the phone much cooler to ensure optimal performance.
The AeroActive Cooler 6 has the added benefit of including more physical buttons to control games, while also offering another external display which looks great.
Moving back to the phone and there’s a 6.78-inch AMOLED, offering refresh rates up to 165Hz, but also boosting touch sampling to 720Hz. The aim here is to ensure that you miss nothing – and to give you a faster response than rivals when gaming competitively.
It’s covered in Gorilla Glass Victus to keep it free of scratches.
To power the whole device there are two 3000mAh cells, so you get 6000mAh total. It’s split because of the arrangement in the phone with the central SoC, but it also supports 65W charging.
As on previous ROG Phones there are two USB-C ports, meaning you can connect a charging cable to the side of the phone rather than the end, which is easier for charging when gaming. Or, you can opt to just power the phone and not charge the battery, which again is an option designed to control heat when gaming.
There’s IPX4 protection for this phone which is rare on gaming phones and means it will take a splash of water or two and not get damaged.
There’s support for Snapdragon Sound, so you have aptX lossless audio and there’s also a 3.5mm headphone socket for those who want to avoid Bluetooth. There are stereo speakers built into the phone.
To support your gaming, Asus is also offering the ROG Centra Ture Wireless Pro, an innovative set of headphones than can either be wireless, or can connect up for a USB-C wired mode, which includes an ESS 9280 DAC to boost audio fidelity.
As per previous ROG Phones there’s an extensive custom control system, with support for nine different gestures, motion controls, air triggers and the optional Kunai 3 gamepad.
We’ve used plenty of ROG Phones in the past and they do make great gaming devices, while offering good value for money for the hardware that you get.
The weak spot is often the camera – and here you have a Sony IMX766 main camera supported by a macro and that’s it.
The other downside is that Asus will only be offering two OS updates – so it will stop at Android 14 – and 2-years of security updates. That’s now a long way behind the rest of the industry, with many companies offering double that.
The ROG Phone 6 Pro will cost £1099, while the ROG Phone 6 will come in with 12GB or 16GB options, priced at £899 or £999 respectively.
Writing by Chris Hall.
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