Review Verdict: The ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro should still be the default choice for anyone looking for the best gaming phone in the Philippines, though the old caveat of its extravagant price still applies to the 2022 model.

Pros

• The most powerful phone in the Philippines as of writing
• Its gaming aesthetic isn’t overpowering
• Fantastic screen
• Excellent sound

Cons

• Heavy
• Expensive
• Kunai gamepad doesn’t work for some popular multiplayer titles

ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro Philippines Specs:

• Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor
• 18GB LPDDR5 RAM
• 512GB UFS 3.1 storage
• 6.78-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display, 165hz refresh rate, 1ms response rate, 720hz touch sampling rate, 10-bit color
• ROG Vision rear display
• 50-megapixel f/1.8 IMX 766 main camera with PDAF, 5-megapixel f/2.4 macro camera, 13-megapixel f/2.4 ultra-wide-angle camera
• 12-megapixel IMX 663 selfie camera
• 4G, 5G
• WiFi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2
• Stereo speakers, in-display fingerprint scanner, IPx4 Rating
• 6000mAh battery
• 65w wired charging
• Android 12, ROG UI

There may be challengers to the title of “best gaming phone”, but every year ASUS always comes out as the clear winner. 2022 looks no different as the ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro has everything anyone would ever want from a gaming phone – everything except an affordable price tag.

Design

While ASUS tried to appeal to both gamers and non-gamers in the designs of their past ROG Phones, they’ve gone all in as far as the overall aesthetic goes for the ROG Phone 6 Pro. Usually, that’s a surefire way to alienate the non-gaming crowd, but the new phone’s design is so well done that it’s guaranteed to appeal to non-gamers as well.

The ROG Phone 6 Pro only comes in the Storm White colorway, and the back certainly looks busier than previous iterations before it. Lea remarked that the back resembles the lines of a Gundam mecha, and I’m inclined to agree. A customizable, LED-backlit “DARE TO PLAY” is offset to the side, though the biggest design point of interest is the customizable, 2-inch OLED display that ASUS dubs “ROG Vision”.

It’s an excellent display and certainly fits the over-the-top, gaming aesthetic that ASUS is going for with the ROG Phone 6 Pro. The display changes depending on what you’re doing, and like I mentioned earlier, is completely customizable via the Armory Crate UI on the phone.

Like the model last year, the ROG Phone Pro 6 has two USB Type-C ports that allow it to be charged in both portrait and landscape mode without getting in the way of your digits. The phone also gets IPX4 splash resistance this time around. It’s not IPX68 protection, but it’s better than nothing.

ASUS has kept the overall design and dimensions the same across its ROG Phone line to maintain backward compatibility to its previous phones, and past ROG Phone owners will be happy to know that there is some parts compatible with older ROG Phones (starting from the ROG Phone 3) with the ROG Phone 6 Pro.

As nice as the design and build of the ROG Phone 6 Pro is, there are some things you’ll have to accept if you ever decide to buy it. Its bigger than average size and heavier weight are the main downsides here, with the phone measuring 173x77x10.3mm and weighing in at 239 grams.

ASUS has also redesigned some of the accessories that come with the ROG Phone 6 Pro, with the active cooling component, the AeroActive Cooler 6, getting most of the improvements. The accessory now has a Peltier element that works together with the traditional centrifugal fan to draw heat away from the center of the phone where most of the heat-generating bits are. The Peltier element draws power in and makes one side of the cooler hot and the other side cold, increasing the cooling efficiency of the accessory which allows the phone to stave off thermal throttling while gaming.

Aside from cooling the phone, the AeroActive Cooler 6 has 4 buttons on the back, adding to the two ultrasonic shoulder buttons already on the chassis.

Display and sound

The ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro has a big, 6.78-inch AMOLED panel that has a 165Hz refresh rate, along with other goodies like a 2448×1080 resolution and 20.4:9 aspect ratio and Widevine L1 certification, insanely high 720Hz touch sampling rate and variable refresh rate.

The ROG Phone 6 Pro’s display looks fantastic and is every bit as good as the already excellent one found in last year’s model. Color reproduction is spot on, and the panel is bright enough that it can easily be seen even under direct sunlight without having to bump up the brightness to max. ASUS gives users plenty of control over the display’s refresh rate too, allowing you to set it to 60Hz, 90Hz, 120Hz, 144Hz, 165Hz or leave it completely automatic. You can also set the refresh rate on a per-game basis.

ASUS’ gaming phone offerings have traditionally offered great sound quality, and the ROG Phone 6 Pro doesn’t deviate from this. The two stereo speakers belt out excellent audio, thanks to the fact that the 5-magnet, 12×16 Super Linear Speakers have dedicated Cirrus Logic CS35L45 mono amplifiers connected to them.

Camera

The ROG Phone series don’t particularly have great cameras for the price (this isn’t the point of the phone anyway) and this seemingly hasn’t changed with the latest iteration of the phone.

You’re looking at a 50-megapixel f/1.8 IMX 766 main camera with PDAF, a 5-megapixel f/2.4 macro camera and a 13-megapixel f/2.4 ultra-wide-angle camera. There’s a 12-megapixel IMX 663 selfie camera stuck in the front.

The phone’s primary snapper captures clean and well-detailed photos, though they’re not really as good as the images produced from phones in the same price range. They’re still pretty usable, with low-light images being better than last year’s model but know that if you’re looking for a phone that takes flagship-grade photos, the ROG Phone 6 Pro isn’t it.

 

Performance, software, battery

ASUS decided to skip Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 for the ROG Phone 6 Pro and went directly to the improved version, specifically the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1. That means this is probably going to be the only version of the ROG Phone launched this year.

ROG Phones also have traditionally come with insanely overpowered components as far as RAM and storage go, and the ROG Phone 6 Pro is no exception to this. You’re getting 18GB LPDDR5 RAM (that’s more RAM than on an average notebook nowadays) and 512GB of UFS 3.1 storage.

Benchmark numbers prove the ROG Phone 6 Pro’s superiority when it comes to gaming, and it obviously is able to keep up with whatever Android games are currently available in the market today. It doesn’t matter what game it is – the ROG Phone 6 Pro can handle it.

I do have one caveat with the ROG Phone 6 Pro, specifically one of its accessories, the Kunai Gamepad. While it’s a great gamepad and gives you console-like control over single-player games, it doesn’t work on many popular multiplayer games like Genshin Impact, Call of Duty, Apex Legends Mobile, and more. That’s not ASUS’ fault though as developers have turned off controller support (it’s the same problem we encountered on our review of the Razer Kishi V2) so as to not give people with access to physical controllers an unfair advantage, though it is certainly a concern for people who bought into the phone’s ecosystem thinking that.

As with other ROG Phones, the ROG Phone 6 Pro gives users a large amount of control over the parameters of the phone, giving users a way to fully customize the performance of their device according to their needs.

The ROG Phone 6 Pro has a massive 6000mAh battery that’s split into two cells, along with a 65W fast charger.

You’d think with all of the power-hungry components in the ROG Phone 6 Pro it would be a battery hog, but the opposite is true. The phone recorded an astounding 19 hours and 48 minutes on a single charge (without X-mode on), which makes it the best phone in terms of power efficiency for any flagship we’ve tested so far this year.

Wrap-up and conclusion

The ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro is the most powerful phone we’ve had the pleasure to review so far in the Philippines this year. What’s surprising here is the fact that all of that performance doesn’t come with the usual caveats of poor battery life, instead sporting the best battery endurance of any flagship phone we’ve reviewed so far this year.

The only thing holding it back from mass adoption is the price – at Php 64,995 for the top-tier, 18GB/512GB variant when it arrives mid-September, it’s certainly spendy. You can settle for the non-Pro variants that arrive sooner which have lower price tags (the 12GB/256GB variant of the ROG Phone 6 is priced at Php 47,995) if you want roughly the same experience without the same damage to your bank account.

ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro Review Philippines Price

The ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro as it appeared in this review (18GB RAM/512GB storage) has a price of Php 64,995 and will be available in September in the Philippines. The ROG Phone 6 non-pro variant has a price of Php 47,995 for the 12GB/256GB variant and Php 54,995 for the 16GB/512GB variant. Both the non-pro ROG Phone 6 variants will land end of August.