Asus ROG Phone 5 and 5 Pro Review, Pros and Cons – The gaming smartphone market has evolved over the course of two to three years, which is not so long ago. All the noise started with Asus ROG phone 5 smartphone shows a new horizon for mobile players. To continue its legacy, ASUS launches the ROG Phone 5 and 5 Pro smartphones. Both models are suitable for high-end gaming that will not let you feel bad.
You are getting the ROG phone 5 badges instead of the ROG phone 4. It is due to the cultural perspective of China and Taiwan, where the meaning of the number four is a bit of bad luck. On the other hand, they are all basically 4th generation ASUS ROG phones, so you no need to worry about that.
In addition to the mesmerizing experience of sound and visual quality, ROG phones arrive with a sweet icing of first-rate specifications. You won’t notice the tactile features anywhere, except on the ROG phone only. In addition, last year’s variant – the ROG Phone 3 was also quite tempting in all aspects.
There are three variants available in the ROG Phone 5 series, ROG Phone 5, the ROG Phone 5 Pro, and, finally, the ROG Phone 5 Ultimate. Each of them is equipped with surprising specs and stands out from the other phones. Knowing this would be just the tip of the iceberg, so let’s start an in-depth review of the Asus ROG Phone 5 and 5 Pro smartphones.
Table of Contents
Asus ROG Phone 5 and 5 Pro Review
Highlights
- You will get a 6.78 inches AMOLED panel with a 144 Hz refresh rate that offers 1 billion color saturation on the screen.
- The thin coating of the Gorilla Glass Victus is implanted in the rear panel with a unique design layout.
- Next, you’re getting the Snapdragon 888 5G chipset, this year’s top killer processor, ready to use.
- The battery is divided into two cells of 3000 mAh which makes the total capacity of the Li-Po 6000 mAh battery.
- The phone is equipped with advanced cooling technology that will ensure proper use of the screen.
Design and Display
First, the ambient light setting that appears on the rear panel is quite surprising. However, it is only available on the ROG Phone 5. Instead, the ROG Phone 5 Pro comes with the integrated AMOLED color on the back. It will display the log of the ROG phone and you will be able to further customize this display according to your need.
But what is most exciting about the ASUS ROG Phone 5 Pro is that you will receive touch sensors on the back, which you can assign to the game’s settings. In addition, this setting will give you a little more advantage over another device, as you can play with multiple fingers. In addition, there are touch sensors on the side panel as triggers.
Not to forget, the previous generation of ROG 3 had only one trigger, unlike the new version that offers both the touch-screen trigger. You may have noticed that about six fingers cover the back panel. With the ROG Phone 5 Pro, you can customize the back screen for more diverse settings and features while playing any game.
Both models look big and attractive in their respective categories from a design perspective, while you won’t get the customization feature in the basic ROG Phone 5 variant. It might not be too bad either, as you’ll receive an FHD + AMOLED feature pack from 6.78 inches panel. This display offers 1 billion colors and saturation from the first day of use.
You can experience sharpness in each frame with a refresh rate of 144 Hz and HDR 10+ coating on the top. If it is not enough for you, then there is also an impressive brightness setting treatment that allows you to see everything clearly in the sunlight. Then, the Corning Victus glass protects the phone from damage.
Memory and Internal
The ROG UI software package is well known for its extreme game-centric features. In addition, the interface is based on the latest Android 11 operating system ready to use. What’s more interesting is that ROG UI retains its game library once again, where you can customize the settings for each game, frame rate, etc.
There are many adjustments to overclocking and performance that appear in the software layers. You can get overwhelming results in the game and on the other hand, the state-of-the-art touch sample setup will further expand the smooth experience of ROG devices.
However, suppose you are a hardcore gamer who does not want all this powerful configuration and wants to experience the pure game. In that case, it is also equipped with EA’s sport mode, which blocks all advanced features and provides an elegant gameplay feel. There are several other fascinating options that you can experience while playing.
The processing unit deployed on the Asus ROG Phone 5 and 5 Pro smartphones is 25% better than the previous generation chipset. In comparison, visual graphics rendering is integrated with 35% of graphics-intensive features. You’ll notice dramatic growth in performance, too, all thanks to the Snapdragon 888 chipset, which is this year’s flagship SoC.
With this, you will get exposure to high-level performance and nothing can stop you from having a fascinating experience when putting your phone in its maximum settings. In addition, there are overclocking and underclocking software to increase the power of external factors. So, in short, you will have a mesmerizing feeling.
The Asus ROG Phone 5 smartphone comes in three basic models that include the 8GB of RAM with 128 GB of internal storage as the elementary version, while there is also a variant of 12GB and 16GB of RAM supported by 256 GB of storage to eliminate most of the performance of the processing cores. The monstrous Asus ROG Phone 5 Pro is accompanied by 16 GB of RAM and a 512 GB storage set only.
After that, you will get no secondary storage unit support on both ROG models. However, you can export and import data from an external hard drive. However, the sound quality is mind-blowing and refreshing, as it has a double stereo configuration above and below the chin, which also featured its amplification system.
Camera
The camera may not play a significant role in bringing top-notch photographs. In short, it is not a camera phone, although you are not disappointed with image processing and color mixing technology. You will receive a triple camera setup.
The camera board hosts a 64MP as the primary camera, while in the secondary departments, deals everything with the 13MP ultrawide lens and the 5MP macro lens. Although there is no update on the design of the camera. However, software rendering can provide an above-average high-level photograph.
You can’t expect sharpness and dynamic range or fine details in the zoom. All of these factors are likely to be absent, but what hurts is low-light photography, as the photos lack details. Hopefully, the 24MP selfie port can record videos up to 1080p. As for the main configuration, you can record up to 8K videos with gyro-EIS.
In addition, 8K videos can capture up to 30 fps while you record in slow motion at 240 fps with 1080p videos, and the fps will be twice as high in low-quality 720p photos. If you can capture time-lapse with comprehensive and ingenious quality. General resources may not stand a chance in the conventional market. But, like gaming phones, they are pretty decent.
Battery and Others
The battery performance benchmark will surprise you, as you can easily get more than 7 hours of screen time that can be used for games, watching movies, and more. However, the spotlight shines most when you are in a long game session.
As we mentioned earlier, the battery has been divided into two sections and each of them offers a 3000 mAh battery. So, in total, a 6000 mAh battery pack around the chipset. From the employee’s interview, they said the division of the battery in two occurs because the battery will divide the workload. So, you can get spend more time on the phone.
There are several other charging feature covers on the software cover. One is the standby mode, this mode cooled the system and did not charge the phone. It is conceivable that the 65W charging block will charge the battery in less than an hour and you can also charge the phone overnight without causing damage to the battery
The Power Delivery 3.0 technology package is added to the Asus ROG Phone 5 and 5 Pro smartphone with Quick Charge 5 technology. With this pair, you will have no problems in the long run and will have a fast charging experience. In addition, the phones also support 10W reverse charging. Although, we saw nothing about wireless charging.
You can use the Type 3.1 USB port (present on the side) to charge the devices. It depends on you which one to use. But in the game, the USD port on the would be a great choice, since the charging cable doesn’t interfere with anything with your finger.
The Asus ROG 5 price point starts at USD 590 (Rs. 43,999), and with more storage, you have to increase your budget up to $70. As for the Asus ROG 5 Pro phone it cost $950 (Rs. 69,999).
If we compare the Asus ROG Phone 5 Pro with the Asus ROG Phone 5, both smartphones come with similar configurations on the screen, chipset, camera, storage, and battery. The main difference is in the game triggers.
Asus ROG Phone 5 and 5 Pro Specifications Detail
Down below you can see the full specifications of the Asus ROG Phone 5 and 5 Pro smartphones.
| Specifications | Asus ROG Phone 5 Pro | Asus ROG Phone 5 |
| Network | 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G | Same |
| Announced | March 2021 | Same |
| SIM | Dual SIM | Same |
| Dimensions | 6.80 x 3.04 x 0.41 inches | Same |
| Weight | 238 g | Same |
| Size | 6.78 inches | Same |
| Display | AMOLED 1B colors 144Hz HDR10+ 800-1200 nits brightness ~395 ppi densit | Same |
| Protection/Others | Corning Gorilla Glass Victus Pressure sensitive zones (Gaming triggers) Touch sensor: ROG Vision color PMOLED display on the back | Corning Gorilla Glass Victus RGB light panel (on the back) Pressure-sensitive zones (Gaming triggers) |
| Resolution | 1080 x 2448 pixels | Same |
| OS | Android 11, ROG UI | Same |
| Chipset | 5nm – Qualcomm SM8350 Snapdragon 888 5G | Same |
| CPU | Octa-core 1×2.84 GHz Kryo 680 3×2.42 GHz Kryo 680 4×1.80 GHz Kryo 680 | Same |
| GPU | Adreno 660 | Same |
| Card slot | No | Same |
| RAM | 16 GB | 8GB, 12GB, 16GB |
| Internal | 512 GB UFS 3.1 | 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB UFS 3.1 |
| Camera | 64 MP (wide), PDAF 13 MP (125Ëš ultrawide) 5 MP (macro) LED flash, HDR, panorama, gyro-EIS 8K@30fps | Same |
| Selfie | 24 MP (wide) Panorama, HDR 1080p@30fps | Same |
| Loudspeaker | Yes, with DTS:X stereo speakers | Same |
| 3.5mm jack | Yes 24-bit/192kHz audio | Same |
| WLAN | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6e, dual-band Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot | Same |
| Bluetooth | 5.2, A2DP, LE, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive | Same |
| GPS | Yes, with dual-band A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS GALILEO, QZSS, GNSS | Same |
| NFC | Yes | Same |
| Infrared port | No | Same |
| Radio | No | Same |
| USB | USB Type-C 3.1 (side), USB Type-C 2.0 (bottom) accessory connector, USB On-The-Go | Same |
| Sensors | Under display fingerprint, accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass | Same |
| Battery | Li-Po 6000 mAh Fast charging 65W Reverse charging 10W Power Delivery 3.0 Quick Charge 5 | Same |
| Colors | Glossy Black | Phantom Black, Storm White |
| Expected Price | $950 (Rs. 69,999) | USD 590 (Rs. 43,999) |
Asus ROG Phone 5 and 5 Pro Pros and Cons
Down below you can see the list of pros and cons (advantages and disadvantages) of the Asus ROG Phone 5 and 5 Pro smartphone.
Pros
- Convenient gaming-centric ROG UI features based on Android 11.
- Smartphone ready for 5G
- AMOLED display screen.
- Li-Po 6000 mAh huge battery.
- Robust gaming experience.
- Above-average camera technology.
- Advanced fast charging features.
- State-of-the-art refresh rate settings.
- Gorilla Glass Victus protection.
- 64W fast charging.
- 8K video recording with stabilization.
- Under display fingerprint scanner.
- DTS:X stereo speaker
- RGB light panel on the back for ROG Phone 5.
- ROG Vision color PMOLED display for ROG Phone 5 Pro.
- Pressure-sensitive gaming triggers.
Cons
- No wireless charging.
- Not for general use, except gaming.
- Average camera performance.
- Lack of secondary storage.
- Without IP certification.
Conclusion
The Asus ROG Phone 5 and 5 Pro versions are spectacular and made only for serious players looking for a better gaming experience. The phones have cutting-edge specifications with a wide range of customization to play your favorite games. However, you will not see cutting-edge photography which is the main disadvantage.
Unlike the previous version, this phone has received some new performance and battery updates. But at the same time, it brings some relics of the older generation that undoubtedly put a smile on the gaming enthusiast. The Black Shark 4 Pro is the only smartphone that can take as rivalry to Asus ROG 5 series. I hope you enjoy the in-depth analysis and try to cover most of the critical factors about ROG 5 and ROG 5 Pro.
