Theres so much good in this review that I feel I should start with the bad and work my way up from there.
Disclaimer:
Using it on AT&T network
The Bad:
While there's certainly very little bad about this it's missing a couple of features that to me personally aren't very worthwhile but are worth mentioning for people looking to buy the phone.
There is no IR blaster which is something that I use from time to time but that's perfectly fine.
There is no wireless charging in this phone. I personally never use this anyway especially because its bad on the battery so I couldn't care less.
There is a low water resistance rating. I don't know what the recent trend for swimming with phones is but I've used a phone with absolutely no water resistance for the last 5 years in both the rain and sun and had absolutely zero issues. If you have a knack of dropping your phone in the toilet this may affect your purchase.
The only feature I will miss is expandable storage. This phone does start at 128gb so that really helped. While i probably won't fill it up because I am conservative with my storage, it was nice knowing I could always add a few hundred gigs at any moment. It instead has dual sim slots.
No WI-FI calling, more on this at the end.
Now since that's out of the way lets get to the good.
The Good:
Good god the battery life is amazing. I don't know how some people are crying that it doesn't last a full day. Im assuming if your constantly gaming at 90hz overclocked it might not but there hasn't been a day where I ended with less then 40%. I'm coming off of a note 4 in which i changed the battery 3 times. That phone constantly drained between 5-10% battery each night. This phone, drains less then 1% per night. Its wonderful.
Obviously if you're even looking at this phone you know about the binned cpu's so it comes to no ones surprise that the performace is SMOOTH.
The screen is bright and looks great. It does indeed have HDR support. 90hz as well so thats a bonus.
The speakers. They are incredible. Dual front facing INCREDIBLY loud speakers. Its something you need to hear in person. The sound is not distorted so long as you don't turn on "outside mode"
Thank you ASUS for making a phone that doesn't look exactly like every other phone. Its aesthetics are beautiful and it feels extremely well built in your hand. I could do without the glass on the back which is a massive fingerprint magnet but I do understand it from a design perspective.
IT HAS A HEADPHONE JACK!!!
Unique Features:
You've probably heard about the air triggers. I don't normally play phone games (mostly got this because I love overkill and ASUS mobo's. Also I look for phones that will last for a long long time) but I did give them a shot and I feel anyone that does game could make good use of it. It's definitely not something you can rapid fire though.
The 2 extra ports. The fan is a cool feature but is certainly a gimmick. Its biggest upside is that it moves a headphone jack to the wide side of the phone. It also extends the usb-c charging port. You can use the charging port without the fan however just make sure you're plugging it into the correct one.
The software. This is a slightly controversial area for some people. While undeniable its performance is great, some people feel it looks too gamer-y and while I agree I still love the look. Thats a very subjective thing of course and you can always change the launcher.
Everything Else:
The camera. You're probably not buying this phone for its camera capabilities. While I personally think even the best phone cameras are pretty bad due to the fact that I generally shoot on dslr's, if I were to compare this to something like the pixel series I'd say it falls a little bit short but is still rather capable. Decent low light performance and honestly this shouldn't affect your purchase too much. With good lighting you get good photos its that simple.
Since i have my desktop set up in my basement, I always had to turn WI-FI calling on in my old phone (note 4) since I had practically no service (1 bar or less). Knowing that this phone didn't have WI-FI calling I decided to take a gamble and see if it was my service provider or if it was indeed my phone. Turns out it was definitely my old phone because this holds 4 bars EASY thus eliminating my need for WI-FI calling.
In Conclusion:
Great phone, very few downsides, I'm surprised it costs <$1k
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From the manufacturer
ROG Phone
-
90Hz Refresh Rate with 1ms Response Time
AMOLED HDR display with 90Hz refresh rate and 1ms pixel response time for blur-free visuals
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Play Cool
Exclusive GameCool system features 3D vapor chamber cooling & detachable external AeroActive Cooler
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Gaming Comfort, By Design
When AeroActive Cooler is deployed, side-mounted ports still provide what you need to keep gaming
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Take Control
Unique AirTrigger touch sensors- fully programmable to activate any available on-screen action: aiming, firing, inventory selection, steering, navigating
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Keep Your Game Going
High-capacity 4000 mAh battery with quick charge 4.0 gives you more freedom to play
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Outshine The Competition
Featuring an illuminated rear ROG logo that can display a whole rainbow of lighting schemes: static, breathing, strobing or color cycling. customize it for incoming calls, notifications and more
Dual Rear Cameras
The dual-camera system in ROG Phone uses cutting-edge hardware to take your photography to new height with its light-sensitive flagship Sony IMX363 main camera, 120° wide-angle second rear camera, and a capable front-facing camera— ROG Phone takes it all in its stride, capturing more of your world.
The Ultra-Performer
Each Octa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 Mobile Platform CPU is speed-binned and specially selected for maximum performance — including sustained clock speeds of up to 2.96GHz — and the Adreno 630 GPU is a gaming powerhouse, with graphics performance outstripping the previous generation by up to 30%.
Compare with similar items
This Item  ASUS ZS600KL-S845-8G128G ROG Gaming Smartphone 6" FHD+ 2160x1080 90Hz Display - Qualcomm SD 845 - 8GB RAM/128GB Storage - LTE Unlocked Dual SIM (GSM Only), Black |  | ![Sony Xperia 1 V 256GB 5G Factory Unlocked Smartphone [U.S. Official w/Warranty],Black](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31uQ5sIV+-L._AC_.jpg) |  |  |  | |
| Price | — | $899.99 | $1,198.00 | $899.99 | $189.99 | -42% $349.99 List: $599.99 |
| Delivery | — | Get it May 9 - 14 | Get it as soon as Saturday, May 11 | Get it as soon as Saturday, May 11 | Get it as soon as Saturday, May 11 | Get it as soon as Saturday, May 11 |
| Customer Ratings | ||||||
| Fingerprint reader | ||||||
| Battery life | ||||||
| Value for money | ||||||
| Screen quality | ||||||
| Sold By | — | Mobile Advance | Amazon.com | Amazon.com | NUU Mobile | Amazon.com |
| display size | 6 inches | 6.78 inches | 6.5 inches | 6.82 inches | 6.7 inches | 6.55 inches |
| memory capacity | 128 GB | 16 GB | 256 GB | 16 GB | 128 GB | 256 GB |
| model name | — | ROG Phone 6 Diablo Immortal Edition | Xperia 1 V | OnePlus 12 | A25 Black | Motorola Edge 2023 |
| operating system | — | Android 12.0 | Android 13.0 | Android 14.0 | Android 13 | Android 13.0 |
| connectivity tech | usb bluetooth nfc | 5G | Bluetooth, USB, Wi-Fi | Bluetooth | Wireless | Bluetooth, NFC, Wi-Fi |
| display type | — | AMOLED | OLED | AMOLED | AMOLED FHD+ | OLED |
| headphones jack | 3.5 mm | 3.5 mm | — | — | 3.5 mm | — |
Reviews with images
buy the 2nd gen not the 1st
this phone in general is a very good phone however I think I was sold a lemon, apon opening the phone I saw it had a very slight crack I'm the middle left, I assumed that's what "slightly used" meant but didn't know why they wouldn't mention it when first buying the device.the battery only charges when you have gaming mode off otherwise it drops very slow even while charging. on the 42 watt charger that came with the phone (if I remember correctly it's a 42 watt charger)the phone also wouldn't capture any gameplay or screenshots until I literally master reset the whole thing twice and then it finally started workingat least 10 times a day my screen has a pop up saying "Asus rog system has stopped" and this locks my phone and gets rid of all my tabs basically like I powered off my phoneno complains on the fingerprint reader.but the screen quality is where it's the worse the screen quit working. like just went all black with green lines through it up and down. (I was showing some family members my new device and this happened while they were watching) I thought it broke so I held the volume down and power button until it powered off and reset it and this seemed to fix the phone but less than 24 hours ago the screen did the same thing mid game. (this time the lines were sideways) I was kind of mad but reset the device the same way and waited for it to turn back on, but it never did I bought a case screen protector and phone to have my phone take a dump multiple times in less than 2 weeks of use I already used a screen protector so I can't get my money back on that and I'm going to need to return the case too.I would never buy this product again, but not because of my experiences here I just assume I got a bad device but because I'm going to be getting the updated version (Asus rog 2 phone) and hope this one works betterthe picture sent with this review is what my phone looks like now and it won't changebut the seller did accept my refund so props to you overall if these bugs were fixed it would get a 5 star rating from me
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Top reviews from other countries
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