The Asus ROG Phone 6 wants game time to be all the time

Asus’ gaming division has been let loose for its fifth-generation phone. Not only is the Asus ROG Phone 6 one of the most powerful handsets going, it lands with a bunch of bolt-on accessories that should give dedicated handheld consoles a run for their money. Available in vanilla and Pro forms, it gets the latest and greatest Qualcomm smartphone silicon, a high refresh rate display and beefy battery that aims to keep you gaming for longer.

Naturally for a gamer-focused handset performance is the priority, with a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 CPU doing all the heavy lifting. It promises a 10% uplift over the previous processor, and a 30% battery improvement to boot. It’s paired with up to 16GB of RAM and 512GB of onboard storage, or a colossal 18GB if you go for the Pro model. The 6000mAh battery is a big step up over rival handsets, too.

Asus has gone all-out to keep the chip cool, overhauling the internal structure from the last ROG Phone and offering the AeroActive Cooler 6 accessory to massively drop temperatures. The USB-powered device isn’t just a fan: it uses thermoelectric cooling, which is apparently good for an impressive 25 degree reduction in temps over phone-only cooling.

Both the regular and Pro versions get a 6.78in AMOLED display with 2448×1080 resolution and 165Hz refresh rate, HDR10+ support, and complete coverage of both DCI-P3 and sRGB colour spaces. Asus has ratcheted touch sampling up to 720Hz for near-instant response to your taps and prods. The ROG Phone 6 Pro goes one better with a second OLED panel on the rear, which shows customisable graphics when getting calls and notifications, or when opening certain games. The regular phone makes do with a light-up ROG logo.

There’s no mistaking it for anything other than a gaming phone, with spaceship-inspired styling in white and black colour options. The rear camera module is just as distinctive with sharp angles and contrasting colours. It holds 50MP main and 13MP ultrawide lenses, while a 12MP selfie cam sits up front.

It’s packing a pair of front-facing stereo speakers, and supports all the major Bluetooth standards including aptX adaptive, aptX Low latency, LDAC, and Snapdragon Sound. The rest of the front is uninterrupted, with an in-display fingerprint sensor on hand for security.

Gaming-specific features like pressure-sensitive air triggers at the sides of the phone make a return. There are also two USB-C ports – one at the bottom for charging and one at the side for power or hooking up an external display. But if that’s not enough, the optional, Nintendo Switch-like ROG Kunai 3 gamepad can attach to the phone or be used solo for when onscreen controls just won’t cut it. Anyone with a PS4, Xbox or Google Stadia controller already can instead for the ROG Clip, which mounts the phone directly onto the controller. Finally, a docking station lets you hook up two USB devices (say a mouse and keyboard) and plug in to an HDMI display for some big-screen action.

The Asus ROG Phone 6 will be going on sale imminently, with prices starting from £899 in the UK.

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A tech addict from about the age of three (seriously, he's got the VHS tapes to prove it), Tom's been writing about gadgets, games and everything in between for the past decade, with a slight diversion into the world of automotive in between. As Deputy Editor, Tom keeps the website ticking along, jam-packed with the hottest gadget news and reviews. When he's not on the road attending launch events, you can usually find him scouring the web for the latest news, to feed Stuff readers' insatiable appetite for tech.