Asus ROG Phone 5 A smartphone, but for gaming
With superpower specs and smart gaming features, is this phone the antidote to the next-gen console shortage?
£800 / stuff.tv/rog5
■ It’s still seemingly impossible to bag yourself a PS5 without paying a scalper a kidney, so one solution is a gaming-dedicated smartphone for playing Fortnite on the khazi.
The ROG Phone 5 might be the size of a tank and hardly any less showy, but it means business.
■ Samsung has custom-designed a 6.78in AMOLED display that sits behind Gorilla Glass Victus with always-on HDR and impressive colour accuracy. There’s a zippy 144Hz refresh rate and 300Hz touch sampling too – every swipe or tap is instantly registered.
■ A Snapdragon 888 and 16GB of RAM is beefier than a barrel of cows and ensures the smooth running of Android’s most demanding titles, but there’s also an X Mode to max out CPU and GPU performance. Vainglory managed a median 126fps through a full match, with pretty much zero fluctuation.
■ Multiple cooling methods keep the air flowing, and Esports Mode blocks notifications and disables features forbidden in tournaments, such as the excellent Air Triggers.
■ The 65W-charging 6000mah battery might be a behemoth, but those power-sapping components mean you’ll only get a couple of hours of Genshin Impact action from a full charge. Ultra Durable Mode scales back features to extend battery life, but with a serious impact on performance.
Tech specs
Screen 6.78in 2448x1080 144Hz AMOLED Processor Snapdragon 888 RAM 16GB Storage 256GB OS Android 11 Cameras 64+13+5MP rear, 24MP front Battery 6000mah Dimensions 173x77x9.9mm, 239g