ASUS ROG just keeps upping the ante on their gaming smartphone. On its fourth iteration, the ROG Phone 5 (yes, it’s the fourth on the series despite the name), is as powerful as ever and now there’s three of them: ROG Phone 5, ROG Phone 5 Pro, and ROG Phone 5 Ultimate. 

The upgrades mostly come in all the places that matter, but there’s also a new feature that takes inspiration from one of their gaming laptops. 😉

Still a specs beast

Let’s start with the things that all three members of the ROG Phone 5 series have in common — they’re all spec monsters. Here’s a quick and easy look at the kind of power and performance they’re packing:

Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 5G processor

Snapdragon Elite Gaming allows for  ultra-smooth play at the highest possible HDR quality levels, with desktop-level capabilities. It also debuts Qualcomm Game Quick Touch that gives up to a 20 percent increase in touch responsiveness and lower latency.

There’s also a 35 percent increase in GPU performance and 25 percent in CPU performance. These are numbers based on ASUS ROG’s tests.

Upgraded GameCool 5 cooling system 

GameCool 5 now has an optimum thermal structure featuring a centered CPU with the battery split into two parts, one located on each side of the CPU. This ensures the heat generated by the CPU is transferred to all the edges and corners of the chassis simultaneously for higher thermal efficiency.

The reshaped 3D vapor chamber and extensive graphite sheets also help to spread the heat evenly across the device to reduce heat build-up in the middle.

The completely revamped AeroActive Cooler 5 now intakes and expels more air directly onto the center of the phone — right where the CPU is –to drop CPU temperature. A little bummer though, as this will no longer come as a default accessory unlike in past models.

Armoury Crate new performance manager 

The X Mode now has multiple system profiles to cater to a variety of settings and performance tuning tools. This lets users put to all of the phone’s RAM to good use. Speaking of RAM, the ROG Phone 5 Ultimate is seriously packing with its 18GB LPDDR5 RAM. Intense.

A performance display

The series has a 6.78” Samsung AMOLED display. For the refresh rate, it’s a whopping 144Hz and has a touch sampling rate of 300Hz. That’s super smooth and ultra-low touch latency.

The screen is also made with the toughest Corning Gorilla Glass Victus. It also has an always-on HDR tech that improves non-HDR visuals.

Battery king

The ROG Phone has always been a long-lasting device. That remains true with the ROG Phone 5. It has a 6,000mAh battery but now, ROG also made a few tweaks so it saves energy when it needs to.

These come in the form of software optimizations that limit the power consumption of inactive apps. ASUS says this gives up to 67 percent of power savings. There’s also charging improvements like a charging upper limit, steady charging, enhanced scheduled charging.

Speaking charging, there’s a bundled 65W HyperCharge adapter. They didn’t provide an estimate on how fast it goes from zero to 100 but 65W should be pretty fast even for a 6,000mAh battery.

New to ROG Phone 5 Pro and Ultimate — ROG Vision

Do you remember the AniMe Matrix on the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14? The ROG Phone 5 Pro and Ultimate have something like that. It’s called the ROG Vision.

It functions similarly in that it gives another layer of personalization through an extra display at the back of the phone but this one isn’t built with mini-LED lights.

The ROG Phone 5 Pro features a color ROG Vision display, while the ROG Phone 5 Ultimate has a monochrome version.

Even more gaming centric features

ROG put extra care in making sure the ROG Phone 5 gives more control to the user. The AirTrigger 5 now gives the player four distinct ways to interact with the phone. Put the AeroActive Cooler 5 on and you get two extra physical buttons for a close-to-console gaming experience.

It also supports 10 different motion controls. ASUS cites a racing game as a scenario. Gamers can swivel the phone to steer or pull it towards them to brake. It might take a while to get used to but these seem like thoughtful additions.

Pro and Ultimate 

Naturally the Pro and Ultimate versions have more to offer. Both versions of the ROG Phone 5 have hidden rear touch sensors which provide L2/R2-like functions similar to most game controllers.

GameFX audio

Rounding up the gaming experience is the audio. The ROG Phone 5 series now incorporates symmetrical seven-magnet dual speakers for truly balanced stereo sound effects. There’s also a 3.5 mm headphone jack, and a hi-fi-grade ESS DAC for lossless audio processing.

The AudioWizard audio-tuning app has also been completely revamped to optimize sound for different audio styles, including Game, Cinema, and Music settings.

Themes and customization 

Like previous ROG Phones, you get the option to have the gamer-centric UI or the more toned down material design look. ASUS also partnered with some of the most popular game titles for different theme packs to give you more ways to spruce up the ROG Phone 5’s looks.

Colors, Configurations, and Pricing

ROG Phone 5

• Phantom Black and Storm White
• Up to 16GB RAM/ 256GB ROM
• Starts at EUR 799
• March 2021

ROG Phone 5 Pro

• Phantom Black
• Up to 16GB RAM/ 512GB ROM
• Starts at EUR 1199
• April 2021

ROG Phone 5 Ultimate

• Storm White
• Up to 18GB RAM/ 512GB ROM
• Starts at EUR 1299
• May 2021