The Asus ROG Phone 5s and its predecessor, the ROG Phone 5, are smartphones that are fully committed to ‘gaming’, both in terms of aesthetics and performance, and that makes them unique on the market.
The reason for the existence of these mobiles is clear: the gaming niche moves more and more money and users, and in many sectors it is the only one that continues to grow despite the pandemic. Playing on mobile is not something rare for a few to do, it is a daily ritual for millions of people in Spain; In that context, launching a smartphone just for gaming is understandable, even if it hasn’t always been successful.
Most manufacturers choose to implement gaming enhancements on their phones, but rarely release one that is specifically for gaming; It makes sense, since we do many more things with mobile. But Asus, with its ROG brand, thinks differently; it is one of the few that has launched smartphones specially designed for video games and gamers.
A beast that does not hide
Asus’ bet goes beyond simply putting the latest hardware available and giving it an attractive name; It means changing absolutely all aspects of the experience to make it more attractive to the average ‘gamer’. That starts with the aesthetic design of the mobile, which is nothing like any other.
We are facing an aggressive and very complex design, completely opposite to current market trends, which dictate simple, minimalist designs and in which light and bright colors predominate. Instead, this mobile takes direct inspiration from other products in the ROG range on computers; that is to say, it is black (the ROG Phone 5 is also in white) with all kinds of details, screen prints and of course, RGB lighting.
Indeed, the eye logo (representing ROG) that Asus ROG Phone 5s and ROG Phone 5 have on the back lights up; we can customize it with a variety of effects and colors as we please, becoming a statement to the world that we have something special on our hands. To say that this is a flashy mobile is an understatement, and if you want to go unnoticed, even turning off the lighting is insufficient; You can’t even use the included cover to hide these details, as it includes holes that highlight them. In other words, it’s not a phone for the timid, but for those who don’t mind showing off and explaining themselves, because believe me, you’re going to have to.
Especially when you unlock the phone (by facial recognition or on-screen fingerprint), and reveal the interface style. While functionally not much different from the base version of Android 11, visually it’s completely different, with redesigned icons, textures, menus, and apps to fit ROG’s visual style.
You will also find pre-installed applications, but unlike the ‘bloatware’ that we usually see in other companies, these apps have been created by Asus to improve the experience and to give us more than one surprise. The best example is the app that starts automatically the first time we turn on the mobile; After configuring everything, the app will ask us to open the mobile box, where we will find a printed comic. If we point the mobile cameras at the comic, an augmented reality experience will be executed that brings the panels to life. It is ‘nonsense’, but it is one of those that surprises and makes it very clear to you what you have bought.
video games above all
And it is that these mobiles are designed, above all, to play. All the decisions that Asus has taken go in that direction, and reach details that we could consider minor; Some decisions even make the device worse for normal use, and go against market trends.
Let’s take the screen as an example. Of course, it is one of the best on the market in every way; Not only is the color treatment very good, but it has always-on HDR to change non-HDR content. Being gaming, it is not surprising that it has a high refresh rate; but while the most cutting-edge mobiles reach 120 Hz, these two ROG Phones reach 144 Hz for greater fluidity in movements and the interface. At 6.78 inches, it’s big for better viewing our games, and the 300Hz sampling rate ensures our touches register correctly.
But that is not what has surprised me the most on the screen; That honor goes to the only element it doesn’t have: a ‘notch’ or a hole for the webcam. Indeed, this screen has a thick upper edge to house the camera and front sensors, something that has not been common for years. Is it that Asus has saved in such an important aspect? Far from it, it has only chosen the option that is least annoying for the player, the only one that keeps the screen clean of holes that can affect the experience or cover parts of the game. I can’t think of a greater commitment to the players than this.
The mobile is full of small details like that. For example, the USB-C charging port is located on the side of the device, so that when holding the mobile horizontally we can charge it and continue playing at the same time; although I don’t like it so much that every time I have had to charge the mobile I have had to remove a rubber cover that I know is going to be lost. It has another port in the traditional place, but it’s meant for the AeroActive Cooler 5 cooling accessory and is positioned lower than usual to be out of the way.
Another addition that we don’t usually see are the ultrasonic sensors, located where the top buttons would normally be on a video game controller; they are additional controls that we can use in our games, for example, to accelerate in a racing game or shoot in an action game. They take some getting used to as they aren’t as responsive as the touch screen, but they are an interesting addition.
On the contrary, the elements that are not essential to play have received little love. The cameras, for example, aren’t bad, but they can’t be said to be exceptional either; Considering that it uses a 64 MP Sony IMX696 main sensor, I put this performance down to the algorithms, which probably aren’t up to par with the best on the market. Still, the photos it takes are good, although it doesn’t do very well in low light, and we have the option of using a wide-angle and macro camera.
Powerful, but which one should you buy?
In terms of performance, it is clear that these phones could only have the best on the market to meet the demands of the players. The Asus ROG Phone 5s is one of the few mobile phones on the market that uses the Snapdragon 888+, an evolution of the 888 launched this year and that has served as an intermediate point until the launch of the next Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. In practice, the Most manufacturers have chosen to stick with the 888, and it’s understandable: the improvements are minimal, with some improvements in chip clocks and better AI performance.
Instead, the original Asus ROG Phone 5 uses a regular Snapdragon 888, and I wasn’t surprised to see that the differences are minor, to the point that I’ve had a hard time finding them. In tests like Geekbench, score differences fall within the margin of error, and in fact, the ROG Phone 5 sometimes outperformed the ROG Phone 5s by just a tiny bit.
In practice, it’s true that I had a somewhat better experience on the ROG Phone 5s; in games like Call of Duty, the processor seems to take better advantage of the high frequency of the screen, and everything was more fluid than in the previous model. On the other hand, in other games like Genshin the difference was negligible.
Apart from the processor, there really aren’t many differences between the two devices, to the point that on a couple of occasions I had to make sure which one I had in my hand, since both the design and the user experience are identical. With all this, the model that I have to recommend is the Asus ROG Phone 5, since it has a lower starting price (799 euros), and at the same price, it is possible to get it with more RAM and storage. I would have liked to find more differences to justify the price difference, apart from the new processor that only enthusiasts who care about having the latest will appreciate; but seen in another way, that is precisely the audience for this type of device.
The important thing is that it doesn’t matter which one you choose, he and he are exceptional gaming phones, which more than fulfill their role of offering us the best experience with our video games.
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