In July, Asus confirmed what had been talked about for months in the industry: the next generation of their high-end gaming phones. The ROG Phone 6 and 6 Pro were first shown off at an event in Taiwan. It took a few weeks before they could be bought, and the 6 Pro is still not available.
Even so, Asus is making more ROG-branded phones. But seriously, what will the new 6D and 6D Ultimate bring to the table? Here is what we know so far about an event that will happen later this month.
Date of the upcoming Asus ROG Phone 6
On July 5, Asus showed off the ROG Phone 6 and 6 Pro at a special event. Pre-orders for the 6 Pro started in August, and this is still true. Here are all the details to fill you in:
- Buy the ROG Phone 6 in the US – out of stock
- Buy the ROG Phone 6 in the UK – in stock
- Buy the ROG Phone 6 Pro in the US – not yet available
- Buy the ROG Phone 6 Pro in the UK – pre-order, estimated delivery mid-September
As you can see, people in the US are not able to buy mobile devices right now. The ROG Phone 6 launch event hasn’t been set for a date yet, but the company has said that there will be a special event for it.
However, Asus isn’t content to stop there. On September 19, a second event will take hold, during which the ROG Phone 6D Series will be introduced. According to a page dedicated to the event on the ROG website, there will be both regular and Ultimate models available.
Asus ROG Phone 6 pricing
To this point, we have only received confirmation of the following prices for the ROG Phone 6 and 6 Pro in the United Kingdom and Europe:
- ROG Phone 6 (12GB RAM, 256GB storage) – £899/€999 (approx. $1,090)
- ROG Phone 6 (16GB RAM, 512GB storage) – £999/€1,149 (approx. $1,090)
- ROG Phone 6 Pro (18GB RAM, 512GB storage) – £1,099/€1,299 (approx. $1,090)
Since direct conversions don’t happen very often in the U.S., the values above that were changed are subject to some variation. The regular ROG Phone 5S cost 999 or 1,099 U.S. dollars when it came out, while the 5S Pro cost 1099 or 1,299 dollars.
There is a good chance that the 6D and 6D Pro will cost much more when they come out in the future. The ROG Phone 5 Ultimate used to cost €1,299, but the price could go up again in a year.
Asus ROG Phone 6 specifications
ROG Phone 6 and 6 Pro
The ROG Phone 6 and 6 Pro are the most costly gaming phones that are currently available for purchase, and they fall into the premium pricing range. The ROG Asus tries to explain this by providing both phones with top-of-the-line specifications while waiting for the ROG Phone 6D Series to be released.
The transition to the brand-new Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor, which is included in both phones, will likely be the feature that excites the majority of consumers the most. After the Xiaomi 12 Ultra, these are the only other two phones that have been given Qualcomm’s brand new flagship chip to utilize.
However, the Snapdragon 888+ was used in the ROG Phone 5 Series; this is two generations more recent. On the standard ROG Phone 6, you can have it with either 12 or 16 gigabytes of RAM; on the Pro, however, the maximum capacity is 18 gigabytes. The phones allow dual SIMs but do not have expandable storage; thus, you will have to make do with 256 or 512 gigabytes of storage on the iPhone 6 and just 512 gigabytes on the iPhone 6 Pro.
The display on both phones is still an AMOLED panel with a resolution of FHD+ (2448 by 1080), but the refresh rate has been increased to 165 Hz. This is an increase over the ROG Phone 5 Series, which had a refresh rate of 144Hz, and it joins the Red Magic 7 and 7 Pro as the highest refresh rate phones now available for purchase. On the other hand, it maintains the same touch sampling rate of 360Hz, which is far lower than what you’ll find on Nubia’s smartphones.
Even though battery life would undoubtedly be impacted by gaming on such a vibrant display, Asus has chosen to keep the same 6,000mAh cell as in previous models. The increase in refresh rate from 144Hz to 165Hz is not anticipated to have an impact on the outstanding battery life that we saw in the ROG Phone 5s Pro. The package additionally comes with a 65W charger for your convenience.
Both the ROG Phone 6 and the ROG Phone 6 Pro have the same camera hardware and software. This implies that the rear camera has a 50-megapixel primary lens, a 13-megapixel ultrawide lens, and a 5-megapixel macro lens, in addition to a 12-megapixel front-facing camera. The latter can be used for face unlock, but it’s more likely that you’ll depend on the fingerprint sensor that’s located beneath the display instead.
The only other difference between the Pro and the regular version is the secondary display labeled “ROG Vision” that is located on the rear of the Pro. It is possible to utilize it to show information such as the percentage of the battery, incoming calls, and information about any accessories that have been attached. However, in contrast to the exterior screen of the Galaxy Z Flip 3, it is unable to display your notifications. Only a logo that is lit up with RGB lighting can be found on the standard model of the phone.
The phones come pre-installed with Android 12, but Asus has added its usual assortment of gamer-oriented software customizations. Additionally, it only promises to receive two major Android updates, which leads one to believe that it will receive Android 13 in addition to one more.
The iPhone 6 and 6 Pro, both weighing 228 grams, are among the heaviest mobile devices that money can purchase. This may be extended even further by attaching a broad variety of accessories, such as the AeroActive Cooler 3 and the Kunai 3 gamepad, amongst others. However, these are extras that are not included in the base price and must be ordered individually.
ROG Phone 6D and 6D Ultimate
It is anticipated that the forthcoming 6D and 6D Ultimate will have a great deal in common with the standard 6 and the 6 Pro. The question now is, what exactly will be different?
We are not forced to wait until the actual happening of event to get all of the necessary information. There are two integrated Facebook postings on the official page for the event that will take place on September 19. They have confirmed that the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 will not be used in the 6D Ultimate and that instead, it will use the Density 9000+ chipset.
It remains to be seen how this will influence both performance and power efficiency, with the latter being a particular strength of the 8+ Gen 1 chipset. MediaTek’s most powerful chipset is the 9000+, but it remains to be seen how this will affect either one. However, it is unclear at this time if the ordinary 6D will use the same CPU, switch to something with lower processing power, or even continue to use Qualcomm.
Cooling is always a top priority when it comes to gaming smartphones, but Asus claims that the 6D Ultimate will feature an innovative cooling system “that allows airflow unlike any ROG Phone before.” Since this isn’t mentioned anywhere, it’s safe to assume that the standard 6D will continue to use the same cooling mechanism as the 6 and 6 Pro, despite the fact that it’s already rather efficient.
However, as the well-known leaker Evan Blass disclosed via 91mobiles, the 6D and 6D Ultimate appear quite similar to the variants that are already on the market. On the other hand, the Ultimate seems to be missing the second LED branding on the back of the device, which might be due to the introduction of the new cooling system.
Have a look at our rundown of the top mobile gaming devices in the meanwhile, as we wait for the new phones to hit the market and see how they stack up against the competition. This particular chart has the 6 Pro in third place at the moment.