Asus ROG Phone 5 Reviews: Budget Gaming Phone With A Powerful Performance Package

Asus ROG Phone 5 updates the already excellent formula set out by its predecessor for 2021. It offers a quick and fluid screen, an unexpectedly good primary camera, outstanding performance, top-notch audio, and a customizable software environment. The ROG Phone 5 is the most incredible gaming smartphone available because of these factors.

Thanks to its optional RGB logo illumination, the Asus ROG phone 5 has a brief appearance with a light gaming flair. The sim slot and the power button both have a solid blue tone that stands out against the device’s white back and black front. Compared to prior ROG Phones, the design is significantly less overtly “gamer,” and it’s unique enough to stick out without being overly showy.

Asus ROG Phone 5 Specifications

With a 6.78-inch screen, the Asus ROG Phone 5 has a large display. The colors on this 1080p OLED display are consistent across the brightness range, and it appears crisp enough. It’s an upgrade over the model from the previous year, which had a grain problem at low brightness levels. 

You may lock the device at this refresh rate to get smoother animations on this display, which has a refresh rate of up to 144Hz. Because of this, fast-paced games may be simpler to play. While your opponents may only see 60 frames per second, you may receive more than double that. The phone UI feels considerably more snappy when the refresh rate is high.

Overall, it’s not surprising that the Asus ROG Phone 5 offers a better gaming experience than any other phone currently on the market thanks to its powerful specifications, beautiful display, game-assisting hardware and software, and decent battery life. Read more about the latest gaming sensation, the Asus ROG phone 6.

Asus ROG Phone 5 Models Price & Available At Amazon

The three varieties of the Asus ROG phone 5 were released in stages beginning on March 10, 2021. The Asus ROG 5 Pro went on sale in April, the Asus ROG 5 Ultimate will start going on sale in May, although only in a small quantity, and the standard version started becoming accessible in select locations later in March. While regional variations in availability for all models may exist, there won’t be enough of the Ultimate to go around.

Asus ROG Phone 5 Price & Available At

Asus ROG Phone 5 Pro Price & Available At

Asus ROG Phone 5 Ultimate Edition Price & Available At

Asus ROG Phone 5 Hardware

Asus will offer three ROG Phone models this year: Standard, Pro, and Ultimate. I wouldn’t hold out hope for grabbing one of the Pro or the Limited Edition Ultimate, as they are both unlikely to be released in the US. This leaves the Standard, available in two versions with 12 GB and 16 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage, respectively. The 16 GB version is available for evaluation.

Asus ROG Phone 5 Design

With a 6.78-inch screen, the Asus ROG Phone 5 is significant. The colors on this 1080p OLED display are consistent across the brightness range, and it appears crisp enough. This is an improvement over the model from the previous year, which experienced grain problems at low brightness levels. 

You may lock the device at this refresh rate to get smoother animations on this display, which has a refresh rate of up to 144Hz. Because of this, fast-paced games may be simpler to play. While your opponents may only see 60 frames per second, you may receive more than double that. The phone UI feels considerably more snappy when the refresh rate is high.

The Asus ROG Phone 5 has many of the same features as last year’s ROG 3 (yes, Asus skipped a number), including two USB C ports, two touch-based triggers, an unobstructed screen, dual front-facing speakers, a notification LED, and an in-screen fingerprint reader. 

Additionally, the phone comes with a 6,000 mAh battery and two 3,000 mAh packs, one at each end. They may be powered via passthrough while gaming to save heat while charging at 65W with the included charger.

The ROG Phone 5’s sound quality is a standout feature. In addition to having two front-facing speakers, the device also has a DAC that enables high-resolution music and some sophisticated software that can be used to adjust the front-facing speakers’ audio output to ensure the most incredible quality. In every listening situation, the Asus ROG Phone 5 sounds great.

With the Asus ROG Phone 5, Asus is still promoting accessories like the Kunai 3 Gamepad cover. The Aero Active Cooler 5 fan attachment, a controller clip that works with both Xbox and PlayStation controllers, a Lightning Armour case with built-in lighting, a couple of different headphone models, and a document are also included.

Asus ROG Phone 5 Battery

Now let’s discuss battery life. The runtime on the ROG Phone 3 was sporadic at best. The 6,000mAh battery configuration in the ROG Phone 5 improves this and offers reliable performance. With a combination of games, viewing videos, listening to music, and regular social surfing, I lasted a little over a day on a charge. Instead of using mobile data access, all this was done via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections.

According to Asus, dividing the CPU results in a 46% reduced temperature generation when charging the battery. The phone maintained a cool temperature throughout casual play sessions, such as twenty minutes of Call of Duty: Mobile matches, except for the metal frame, which warmed slightly after the session.

A little less than two days of battery life is what you can anticipate if you’re not playing for long periods. The Asus battery performance balancing tools help get the most extended battery life. Dynamic is a combination of the two. X Mode prioritizes performance, and Ultra-durable favors longevity. To properly understand the capability of the ROG Phone 5, I carried out most of my testing in X-Mode.

There is also a brand-new ultra-durable battery mode, which primarily involves reducing the phone’s performance and conserves as much power as possible while maintaining functionality. When the mode is on, the device’s CPU and GPU operate at a slower clock speed, the display’s refresh rate is reduced to 60Hz, the amount of touch input is reduced, and background processes are limited. Even more, there are only the absolute necessities to extend the battery’s life.

Asus ROG Phone 5 Great Smartphone Screen

The large, bright, responsive panel will benefit a competitive gamer. This display is quick, boasting a 144Hz refresh rate, a 1ms stated response time, and a 300 Hz touch sampling rate (360 Hz for the ROG Phone 5s). 

The touch screen on this smartphone has the best fluidity and responsiveness. This is excellent for gamers who enjoy fast-paced games like PUBG Mobile, where having an advantage over your opponents might mean the difference between winning and losing.

Asus ROG Phone 5 Software and Performance

Asus ROG Phone 5 Software

Once more, Asus gives you two UI options while configuring your device. The Default theme provides a gaming appearance, while the Classic music is similar to stock Android. The original version works with Google Discover and all other stock Android features. 

• Android 11
• ROG UI

Not just the camera has excellent software. A gaming Android skin done correctly is Asus’ ROG UI. Asus allows you to select between a gamer-friendly design and a more understated, stock-like theme right during setup. Since the ROG Phone 2, this has been the situation, and it is still acceptable here.

While it has some additional features and settings, the more conventional skin is similar to vanilla Android. However, Asus restrains itself from loading the phone with clutter; the only pre-installed third-party apps are Instagram and Netflix. Only Netflix can be disabled once Instagram has been uninstalled.

The phone’s OS has a tonne of choices focused on gaming. You may quickly access the Armoury Crate app through a Game Genie menu at any point while playing a game to change the bulk of these settings. There are several alternatives there. The best part is combining your networks for a dual mode, increasing network stability and speed. You can modify your temperature control, CPU/GPU performance, RAM performance, fan speeds, and more. Asus gave the gaming functions a lot of attention, but the rest of the feature set is minimal.

Asus ROG Phone 5 Performance

The Asus ROG Phone 5 performs admirably overall, especially if the screen’s refresh rate is 144 Hz. The expression smooth as butter is often used, which is precisely how the display is. All the games I tested ran better than anticipated, and the apps loaded swiftly.

Nothing, not even Genshin Impact, which maintained a respectable 60 frames per second at its maximum graphics setting, slowed this phone down (though there was some stutter when loading assets). I could play Dead Cells with maximum visuals at 144Hz the entire time while testing. Although you can’t always benefit from a high frame rate because many games cap your frames at 60 or 30, the performance is still quite impressive.

The battery drains faster when playing mobile games at their top settings, which is why you only receive 6,000 mAh. Your battery life will be emptied if you play a challenging game at 144 frames per second for a few hours, but perhaps not as much as you might expect. 

A low battery will be quickly resolved thanks to the device’s rapid charging. This phone can go more than two days with regular phone use and even with intensive gaming. It will never give you trouble getting through the day.

Asus ROG Phone 5 Cameras

Asus acknowledged that the ROG Phone line’s cameras weren’t a complete focus during the unveiling of the ROG Phone 5. It appears that the firm has modest expectations and merely wants to provide the most average camera a gaming phone can give. Although the front and rear cameras are adequate, given the gadget’s price, It would anticipate more incredible performance. However, gaming phones frequently make photographic compromises.

With a 16MP primary sensor, f/1.8 aperture, and 1.6um pixels, it is possible to take excellent images outside while low light is an issue, much like on the ROG 3. The third sensor is a 5MP macro with an f2.0 aperture, while the second is an ultra-wide 16MP sensor with an f2.4 aperture. As long as the lighting is favorable, the front camera’s 24MP resolution and f/2.45 aperture allow for some reasonably detailed selfies.

Value of the Asus ROG Phone 5

Although the regular ROG Phone 5 has been the center of this study, there are two other models to discuss. Two touch sensors have been added to the back of the Asus ROG Phone 5 Pro, along with a bit of color PMOLED display that Asus calls ROG Vision.

Additionally, the Aero Active Cooler 5 is included in the bundle. Similar to how the ROG Phone 5 Pro edition has many of the same features as the Ultimate edition. Instead of a color display, it has a monochrome ROG Vision panel on the rear.

Along with the ROG Phone 5 Ultimate edition, Asus will also sell a fan package that includes some upscale goods.

Asus ROG Phone 5 Pros & Cons

Techywired Final Verdict

The ROG Phone 5 builds on last year’s outstanding ROG Phone 3 to produce a well-balanced, modern gaming powerhouse. As they say, don’t fix it if it isn’t broken. It’s evident that Asus heard the expression, and it worked.

The ROG Phone 5 is the top gaming phone available as of mid-2021. It offers a display that is optimized for gaming, best-in-class audio, strong battery life, a primary camera that is shockingly good, a tonne of other hardware functions, and a software experience that is well-rounded and fully equipped.

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