Asus ROG Phone 5
Price: £799 from fave.co/3bgkArs
Following months of whispers, Asus has unveiled the fourth-generation ROG Phone 5, completely skipping the ‘4’ branding which is often seen as unlucky in China. Though it might appear similar to its predecessor on the outside, Asus has been hard at work improving not only the hardware capabilities of the gaming phone but the software too.
Throw in a bunch of accessories, a new dot-matrix RGB system and Qualcomm’s latest and greatest Snapdragon 888, and you’ve got all the ingredients for a great gaming device. But, is it worth buying a phone dedicated to gaming when there are so many capable alternatives, including the Red Magic 6 and Samsung’s Galaxy S21 Ultra? I’ve been spending some time gaming on the ROG Phone 5, and here’s what I think.
DESIGN
The Asus ROG Phone 5, available in both white and black flavours, is immediately identifiable as a gaming phone, complete with space-age graphic detailing on the glossy rear and the illuminated ROG logo that has fast become a staple of the ROG Phone design language, although it comes in an entirely different form this time around.
Asus has borrowed the dot matrix design from the popular ROG Zephyrus G14, which allows the laptop to display text and other simple graphics on the lid, and slapped it onto the rear of the ROG Phone 5. While the idea of displaying text and simple graphics in a dot-like fashion might sound exciting, hold your horses: unlike its laptop counterpart, you can only display the ROG logo on the ROG Phone 5.
Asus is keen to point out that you can now choose two colours simultaneously for a more customizable experience, and while the colour gradients are pleasing to the eye, it’s not as exciting as many had hoped – especially when the ROG Phone 5 Pro and limited edition 5 Ultimate sport an upgraded (and fully customizable) PMOLED Vision display in place of the dot-matrix logo.
You can customize the dot-matrix logo to display different colours when performing different
