ASUS ROG Phone 5 goes official w/ 144Hz display, rear OLED panel, more

Damien Wilde | Mar 10 2021 - 5:13 am PT

After late leaks uncovered a lot of information prior to launch, the ASUS ROG Phone 5 has now officially been unveiled with some serious specifications in tow.

Dedicated gaming phones are an oddity within the mobile space, with compromises often hindering wider market appeal. ASUS’s latest gaming behemoth, the ROG Phone 5, doubles down on the “gamer aesthetic” but with some interesting hardware making it intriguing to say the least.

Measuring in at 6.78 inches, this is not a small phone. It packs in a FHD+ 144Hz AMOLED panel in a 20.4:9 aspect ratio, which should be ideal for gaming sessions. Under the hood, as you’d more or less expect, the ROG Phone 5 packs in the latest and greatest Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset, either 8, 12, 16, or a whopping 18GB of RAM (on the Ultimate variant), and 128 or 256GB of internal storage.

There’s a frankly huge 6,000mAh dual battery setup inside, with 65W fast charging also joining the package on offer here. Biometric security is offered by the in-display fingerprint scanner. Front-facing stereo speakers are a big benefit here, especially with regard to video and gaming content. We mentioned some interesting hardware inclusions, as at the rear, there is a small OLED display that can broadcast messages and light up when gaming.

ASUS knows what gamers like, so like many other gaming phones the ROG Phone 5 also includes touch-sensitive shoulder buttons called “AirTriggers.” The regular ROG Phone 5 comes with nine such buttons, while the Pro and Ultimate models include “Rear touch” panels at the rear for a total of 11.

There is a camera system included here, too. With a 64-megapixel main sensor, 13-megapixel ultra-wide, and 5-megapixel macro camera bundled in. The front-facing selfie camera on the ASUS ROG Phone 5 is rated at 24-megapixels. The rear camera setup includes support for 8K video recording, 4K at up to 60fps and includes a number of extra modes.

Android 11 is pre-installed, with two UI options available out of the box. You’ll be able to choose between ZenUI or ROG UI — which is tailored specifically for gaming. ASUS also dumps Armory Crate on the ROG Phone 5, which emulates a console dashboard for quickly launching into your favorite games with tweaks available for enhanced graphical performance.

The standard ASUS ROG Phone 5 is set to go on sale from March 2021. US pricing has not yet been confirmed but will have a starting price of €799 (~$950) for the base 8GB RAM/128GB model. You’ll have to shell out €899 (~$1,070) for the 12GB RAM/256GB variant, while the 16GB RAM/256GB model starts at €999 (~$1,190). The insane ROG Phone 5 Pro will be available from April 2021 for a mammoth €1,199 (~$1,426).