The ASUS ROG Phone 6 is available in South Africa starting today and if you’re looking for a phone that does everything and more, then it might be one to look out for. The ROG Phone 6 is a no-nonsense gaming smartphone that somehow, packs the power and performance that you struggle to find in other brands’ high-end devices. To celebrate the launch, I wanted to share some thoughts on the device after spending a week with it. This is not a review because the phone was released back in June. This is more to catch you up with what you can expect from the ROG Phone 6.
ASUS ROG Phone 6 Display
First off we have the display. The ROG Phone 6 rocks a 165Hz AMOLED 6.78-inch 2448 x 1080 display. Without HDR content being played, the display manages to hit 800 nits of peak brightness. With HDR10 content on the screen, this is increased to up to 1200 nits.
The display on the ROG Phone 6 is also incredibly smooth and responsive thanks to the combination of the 165Hz refresh rate and the 720Hz touch sampling. The panel is also adaptive to whatever app you’re using and game you’re playing. So if you’re browsing Instagram, it will lower the refresh rate to save battery life. However, launch COD mobile and the refresh rate will spike to 120Hz.
At the moment there aren’t a lot of games that take full advantage of the 165Hz display so you’ll likely only experience the 120Hz. However, even at that frame rate, the phone’s screen looks and feels incredible.
ASUS ROG Phone 6 Internal Powerhouse
The ROG Phone 6 can get any task completed that you throw at it. This is thanks to the internal components at work. The phone packs 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. When it comes to the processor, it included a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 CPU. The gaming side of the phone is then powered by the Adreno 730 chip. Together, this tech offers enough power to render all your games and perform all the tasks possible on the device.
The chip also helps drive the ROG Phone 6’s Game Genie which is a built-in suite that gives users better control over their gaming performance while gaming. The Game Genie pop up like a HUD over whatever game you’re playing and provides easy access to a range of tasks. You can toggle the refresh rate on the fly to improve battery life, show your current FPS in a game and even record your gameplay.
Game Genie also gives you an easy glance at some of the performance of your CPU and GPU and just how much of the chipset you’re using. It also ties into ASUS Armoury Crate where you can tweak and customize the RGB lighting at the back of the phone.
ASUS ROG Phone 6 Airtriggers
The ROG Phone 6 comes packed with some extra buttons that are actually hidden from plain sight. These are the Airtriggers. Think of a gaming controller – the most important buttons you’ll use during most games are the triggers. These are found under your index fingers. The ROG Phone 6 has buttons built into the top left-hand and right-hand corners of the phone. These aren’t really buttons but more sensors.
Pressing down on the corners will result in the same feedback you would expect from a gaming controller. This means that in games like COD Mobile, you can easily aim down your sights and shoot using the left sensor to aim and the right sensor to shoot. These sensors are incredibly accurate so you won’t even need to apply pressure to the phone in order to trigger the effect.
The various motion sensors in the ASUS ROG Phone 6 also provide enhancements to gaming. You can aim and look around using the Gyroscope sensor, for example.
Everything you do on the ASUS ROG Phone 6 also feels great thanks to the X-Haptic engine inside the phone. So instead of long vibrations when you do something, these smaller haptic vibrators will nudge your hands at frequencies of up to 130Hz.
ASUS ROG Phone 6 Also Takes Pictures
Believe it or not but outside of all the awesome gaming features on the phone, the ROG Phone 6 also packs a hefty camera. It includes a 50MP Sony IMX766 image sensor that helps power most of the photography and video content you can record. The sensor records at up to 8K 24FPS which is one of the first phones capable of that resolution.
There are also two other lenses. One is a 13MP ultrawide lens and the other is a 5MP macro lens. Together, they all combine to create a great lineup of camera equipment on the go.
ASUS ROG Phone 6 Accessories
While the Kunai 4 Gamepad and the Aeroactive Cooler 6 aren’t available in SA, you can import them if you want to take your ROG Phone 6 experience to the next level. The Kunai GamePad is a Switch-like controller that unfolds over the ROG Phone 6. It pairs through Bluetooth and turns the device into a fully-fledged portable gaming device… with buttons. The GamePad also packs all the needed buttons to play your favourite games without ever having to touch the screen during gameplay.
There’s also the Aeroactive Cooler 6 that clips onto the back of the ROG Phone 6 and thanks to the built-in fan, helps reduce the heat build-up on the device. It also comes with its own set of additional buttons to extend the phone’s functionality.
If you’re looking for earphones for this device, the ASUS Cetra True Wireless Earphones are the perfect companion. These earphones pair instantly to the device and offer a low-latency experience. They also come with Active Noise Cancelation to block out outside noises and feature a 27-hour battery life. You can charge them up again inside the case and place the case on your wireless charger to top that battery up too.
The ROG Cetra earphones are available in South Africa for R1,999. You can use them on anything so you don’t have to buy the ROG Phone 6 to get them.
ASUS ROG Phone 6 Specs
You can find all the specs for the phone down below
- CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen1, SM8475, Qcta-core CPUs,3.2 GHz
- GPU: Qualcomm Adreno 730
- Platform: Android 12.0
- Memory:LPDDR5 16GB
- Storage:UFS3.1 512GB
- Platform: Android 12.0
- Panel: 6.78-inch FHD+ 2448×1080
- Main Front camera: 12MP
- Main Rear Camera: 50MP
- Second Rear Camera: 13MP
- Third Rear Camera: 5MP
- Sim Card: Dual slots
- Model full name: AI2201-1A013EU
The ASUS ROG Phone 6 is available now in South Africa starting at R22,999. You can pick it up at the ASUS store here.