Review After 3 weeks+ of Usage of ROG Phone 6
I received my Pre-Order ROG Phone 6 on 8th August 2022, since then I have been using ROG Phone 6 as my Daily Phone. I am owner of Google Pixel 2XL (Used for 2 years+) and also ex-owner of ROG Phone 5 (SD888, 8GB RAM, 128GB Storage - Used for 1 years+). After 3 weeks+ of using ROG Phone 6, I am back to give my Personal Experience Review. Here some info of the ROG Phone 6 I own:
Operating System: Android 12
Processor: Qualcomm® Snapdragon® 8+ Gen 1 Mobile Platform
Memory: LPDDR5 12GB
Storage: UFS3.1 256GB
Display: 6.78" 20.4:9 (2448 x 1080) 165Hz / 1ms Samsung AMOLED. Corning® Gorilla® Glass Victus. Delta-E < 1
Audio: Speaker: Symmetrical dual front-facing speakers with Dirac HD Sound 5-magnet stereo speaker with Cirrus Logic amplifier for louder, deeper and less distorted sound effect Audio Output: Hi-Res Audio up to 384 kHz / 32-bit for 3.5mm output Qualcomm WCD9385 for Hi-Res output AudioWizard with multiple listening profiles Microphone: Tri-microphones with ASUS Noise Reduction Technology
Battery: Equivalent 6000 mAh (typical) high-capacity battery, supports Quick Charge 5.0 and PD Charging
Default Firmware: WW-32.2810.2206.97
Warranty: 2 Years International Warranty
Freebies: ROG Aeroactive Cooler 6
I gonna split my Experience and Review into 3 sections and a Final Conclusion, I feel talk about everything I have experienced myself, if anything I don't mentioned here, that mean they have no impact on my daily usage and too insignificant for me to notice its presence, other than that, I will mentioned everything I have experienced and noticed throughout my 3 weeks of usage of this ROG Phone 6.
Week 1+ (First Impression, Few Hours of Usage, Exploring it as my Daily Phone)
Nothing Special Out of the Box, but Definitely Love the ROG PHONE 6's Back Aesthetic Design they look nicer than ROG Phone 5 to me. Also I love the ROG Aeroactive Cooler 6's Phone Case as well, since it doesn't cover most area the back of the Phone, it just feel nice to hold without cover up its Cool Aesthetic Design. Overall, physical build is good, I have no problem store my phone in my Jean pocket, Casual Pant pocket and have a minor drop on table and glass tile/wooden floor few times, see no physical damage issue so far. P.s. I using the ROG AeroActive Cooler 6 phone case and I don't plan to attach any screen protector like how I used on my previous ROG Phone 5.
Screen looks Awesome because no Notch or Punchhole, I put my Refresh Rate in Auto Mode and never bother it anymore, I can't notice any different side by side with my friends' ROG Phone 5, they look almost the same, feel almost the same as well. I can't verify if the 165hz refresh rate or touch 720hz touch-sampling rate actually enhance its experience, for my personal daily usage, I don't feel any significant difference.
Speaker Audio sound great! Side by side with my friends' Rog Phone 5, Rog Phone 5's volume is noticeable lower. I am not an audiophile so other than volume difference I don't hear any difference in term of audio output quality. However, it seem like there is a Software Bug, it very rarely get trigger by me and I don't know how to reproduce it, but once it happened, I can hear the Bass of the Speaker feel over-loud and it sound breaking/cracking. In some case, the Bass of the Speaker Sound Normal, but some "complicated music" with multiple mixture of instruments, vocal, electronic sound, etc, when the speaker trying to output-ing some Loud Bass such as 808 Bass, the other mixture of instruments, vocal, electronic sound, etc will feel and sound like lowering their volume and being push to background. This are the only Speaker Audio Issue I ever found after hours of usage but Interestingly a Phone Restart to resolve everything, just it randomly come back and I have no idea how I even trigger this Software Bug.
Camera Quality I can't comment much, I don't take picture, side by side compare with my friends' Rog Phone 5 using Main Camera (before taking picture on screen, after taking picture on screen), it feel like ROG Phone 6's picture's color look more "warmer", anyway I don't spent even more than 5mins comparing both of them in all kind of scenarios as I don't really care. For my personal usage, the picture I have captured so far all look fine, look steady clear and still. Won't further comment as I rarely use it.
Previously when I pre order ROG Phone 5, I got ROG KUNAI 3 Controller for free, I also having the ROG Aeroactive Cooler 5. If you checked my post the "ROG Phone 5 Bad Experience Highlights" section, both of the Accessories basically didn't work and the enhancement is very insignificant. However, In my ROG Phone 6 pre order I got the ROG Aeroactive Cooler 6, in short ROG Aeroactive Cooler 6 is so much GREATER than ROG KUNAI 3 Controller and ROG Aeroactive Cooler 5. The ROG Aeroactive Cooler 6 back four extra button are very clicky, it feel very nicely to trigger them, I find myself use them all my time when playing Honor of Kings and they bring a lot of convenience and even in game such as Genshin Impact, rather than make the phone become bulky with controller, simply rely on ROG Aeroactive Cooler 6 back four extra button, I can easily Full Star Abyss without any issue. What I hope the ROG Aeroactive Cooler 6 have is the 3.5mm Jackport, even though the game I play such as Honor of Kings doesn't care about Bluetooth Earphone's audio latency that make the sound delay, but having a 3.5mm Jackport below the ROG Aeroactive Cooler 6 is a good plus.
ROG Aeroactive Cooler 6 back four extra button is a very good utility, but the most significant enhancement it bring to cool down the phone is just out of my expectation. Using its Fan in Frozen Mode + By Pass Charging Mode, in a non air-con environment, played Honor of Glory for 1 hours+ it maintain at 33 Degree Celsius and the MAX Temperature is 35 Degree Celsius, In an air-con environment, played Honor of Glory for 1 hours+ it maintain at 28 Degree Celsius and the MAX Temperature is 30 Degree Celsius and I even feel my finger that holding the phone's back are very COLD! Without using the Fan, 1 hours+ of Honor of Glory gaming session, it maintain at 36 Degree Celsius and the MAX Temperature is 39 Degree Celsius. The FPS for Honor of Glory is at constant 60 fps in MAX Graphic at all time and never experience any frame lag at all.
For Genshin Impact (Abyss from 9 to 12 floor full star + all region map browsing farming), in Frozen Mode + By Pass Charging Mode + air-con environment, played for 1 hours+ it maintain at 33 Degree Celsius and the MAX Temperature is 35 Degree Celsius. Without Using the Fan, played for 1 hours+ it maintain at 35 Degree Celsius and the MAX Temperature is 40 Degree Celsius. The FPS for Genshin Impact is at 55-60 fps in MAX Graphic at all time and never experience any frame lag at all. I never experience any consistent below 55 FPS for more than 1 or 2 second at all throughout the gaming session.
ALL My Gaming Performance Testing above is not in X-Mode but in Dynamic Mode, I was so surprised with its performance and cooling capability! In my previous ROG Phone 5 experience playing Genshin Impact (Max Graphic with NO Anti-Aliasing), even with the Aeroactive Cooler 5 on and in X-Mode+, the phone heat up to 45 Degree Celsius within 30mins and the FPS is never having a Stable 60 FPS, especially in late 30mins of gaming session, the FPS basically jump between 40-55 FPS frequently. The ROG Phone 6 definitely perform so much better and cooler than Rog Phone 5, the ROG Aeroactive Cooler 6 is a big plus to cool down your phone even more and come with very helpful 4 extra button. For me, I don't think it is necessary at all if you having a less than 30mins gaming session at outside, even a hour+ without the cooler Maximum Temperature I got is 45 Degree Celsius and the FPS performance never drop at all, in my opinion, this ROG Aeroactive Cooler 6 is a Home Tools for 2 hours+ Long Gaming session to ensure your phone always in Cold Temperature for better comfort holding experience and some gaming convenience experience by using the additional 4 button.
Week 2+ (Well Used, After Dozen Hours of Usage as my Daily Phone, Experienced enough to Notice most of its Details)
WIFI, 4G and Bluetooth Connectivity are Great! WIFI and Bluetooth Connectivity I can't feel any difference but for my 4G Sim Card Connectivity I experience better and stronger connection, in certain train station where I usually can't get 4G connection with my ROG Phone 5, now with ROG Phone 6 I can still having 4G connection without any connectivity interruption! This is really unexpected and come in handy in a lot of situation!
Battery experience is superb, feel similar like my previous ROG Phone 5, here my daily Saturday travel with ROG Phone 6 experience. Fully Charged Battery at 90%, I walk to train station using around 10mins along the way turn screen brightness to full, few moment of social media browsing and listen to music at 70% Volume with Spotify using Bluetooth Earphone with 4G Mobile Data while talking. Then, reach train station, lower the screen brightness to 50%, travel by train for 1 hours along the way browse Youtube and maintain at 70% Volume until I reach my station destination. Reach station destination having another 15 minutes Taxi & Walking travel distance to my main destination while listen to Spotify Music still maintain at 70% Volume. Reach my main destination, Idle Screen (Turn On Screen for a few swipe occasionally) for around 3 hours. Then, drive to Train Station (Turn On Screen for a few swipe occasionally) around 10mins, when I reach the train station my Battery is at around 65-70%, then repeat my 1 hours train and walk to home 10 mins journey with same behavior as above. When I reach my room, after a 5-6 Hours Outdoor, my phone battery is at around 60-65%. Plug in my phone for charging, it take only around 15mins to fully charge to 90% back. For all my others personal indoor/outdoor usage, I never experience its drop until less than 30%, for me the Battery Experience are Great I got no issue with it, I heard some people said Google Service is consuming a lot of power, in my case it always consume 0.6% and I don't see there is any issue with it. One thing I noticed, the phone get up to Max 40 Degree Celsius while fast charging, after it fully charge it will auto cool down back to 30-32 degree celsius.
Update to WW-32.2810.2207.134 firmware on 17th August, the Speaker Audio Software Bug I mentioned above never occurred anymore, for the audio sound, it still feel the same loudness side by side compare with my friends' ROG Phone 5, I still don't hear any significant difference other than ROG Phone 6 is louder, but no more issue with go FULL Volume with output-ing some Loud Bass such as 808 Bass, the other mixture of instruments, vocals, electronic sound, etc, everything sound nice, clear and punchy, all mixture of sound maintain at their best consistent volume. Other than that, I feel no difference in ALL my other daily usages, performance of the phone and the cooling performance of the ROG Aeroactive Cooler 6 are still having the same exact result.
For some reason, I started to developed a New Habit, I never kill background app at all for now, just simply left all app on background, it feel minor convenient by resuming some apps without the need to relaunch again, maybe just develop this habit because of realizing having a 12GB RAM. Something I should start doing since ROG Phone 5 but it is what it is. In short, 12GB RAM is overkill, 8GB RAM is more than enough, what it gave me just a some kind of Placebo Effect. Also, I always disable any Vibration setting as I feel it very annoying, for the 1st time of my history, I active certain vibration feature using ROG Phone 6 and I don't feel it as annoy as all my other phone, I can't explain anything about it but I just start using the vibration and I feel good about it.
The Game Genie software upgrade for me is Great, upper left swipe in Game to pop out the Game Genie Dashboard, the UI design is very user friendly come with various feature I found myself active toggling them easily such as Brightness, Volume, Navigation Blocking and Real-time Info. It also feel very responsive, the software definitely well-optimized and UI Design is a very good revamp compare to ROG Phone 5 Game Genie. But one minor issue I noticed of the Game Genie, if you put game on background, then open the game back, the real-time info section on screen will align in the wrong position around 1-2cm from it original position, you have to toggle the Game Genie Shortcut dashboard toggle off and on the Real-Time Info option, then it will goes back to the exactly position on screen.
A new habit I have develop while using Game Genie is that Adding Spotify and Youtube App to the Game Genie List, now I often plug the Type-C USB at the Phone Below Port using By-Pass Charging, open Youtube/Spotify to listen to Music at 100% Volume with ROG Phone 6 Aeroactive Cooler attached in Frost Mode for hours while working, the phone will always maintain around 30-33 degree celsius as well. Feel like using the phone as External Speaker, but I just can't deny it's loud and clear Front-Stereo Speaker which sound so much louder and better than my Laptop Speaker.
ROG Phone 6 have Added a Very Great Built-In Software that I could never go back. The Edge Tool bring too much convenience in while gaming. While I play Honor of Glory, I often use others apps such as Discord to communicate with my friend, Edge Tool basically allow you to add few supported apps, and allow the registered apps to launch in Picture-In-Picture mode! Basically while I playing game I don't need to put the game on background and switch to other apps, simply swipe the right top edge of the screen, select the desire apps to launch it in Picture-In-Picture mode. Currently, I often launch Discord, Messenger and Whatapps with it which is very convenience while gaming!
There are some Misc Built-In apps I can't miss out are still there, the LED Notification Indicator, Double tab lock/wake screen feature, Squeeze to open Apps feature (Often use it to open Skype and Calculator), the New Customizable Double-Tapping on the back (I used it for Screenshot, it is not possible to accidentally trigger the screenshot, compare to 3 Finger Swipe Down Gesture I used in ROG Phone 5, best shortcut feature I ever had for now! Lastly the new Hide-App feature, Pinch Out in Home Screen to show a list of Configured Hide Apps, I just hide my Financial related apps and use it as a simple shortcut to access these Finance related apps. Honorable Mentions, for some Reason, the one tap WIFI Toggle On/Off is presence now, my previous ROG Phone 5 after the Android 12 update it just Gone.
Fingerprint experience for me feel the same as ROG Phone 5, nothing special, I register my finger once, it work well, different is ROG Phone 5 out of the Box have some Fingerprint Software Bug and waited for next patch to fix it, while ROG Phone 6 out of the box work perfectly fine until now.
IPX4 is something additional, I just feel safer and every time I bath I bring along my phone and play some music without a single worry. I guess another Placebo Effect.
For the Built-In Air Trigger work well and feel the same as ROG Phone 5, nothing special but is a must have for me for gaming and squeeze shortcut feature.
Week 3+ (Heavily Used, I can't find anything new with phone, I have utilized it to the Max in whatever way I can)
Everything just Business as Usual, What I mentioned above basically remain the same, I don't find anything new, Just utilized and enjoy features I mentioned above everyday and don't see any issue arise so far which is kinda surprise. Because if you read my Post "ROG Phone 5 Bad Experience Highlights", basically Phone Temperature is a Day 1 noticeable issue, after 1-3 weeks of updates (1-2 patches updates), performance issue and accessories issue arise. I guess ROG Phone 6 out of the box just make it so obvious to me that ROG Phone 5 really can't handle its Thermal under Pressure Load.
Update to WW-32.2810.2208.160 (Updated in 1st September), I didn't noticed any difference to be honest, I did the same retest on Honor of King and Genshin Impact as what I mentioned above. The Performance and Temperature Result are still the same. So Business As Usual I guess, ROG Phone 6 X-Mode is useless at least for me I don't find any reason to active it.
If you read my post comment, I actually sold my Genshin Impact Account, currently I just occasionally play my friend's Genshin Impact account to test the ROG Phone 6 Performance. The only game I really play for now just Honor Of King, I don't think I will able to fully utilize the Phone Performance to the Max anytime soon. But I have been playing dozen of Hours of Honor Of King, I have a great time with it!
Some random info I have noticed, while I writing this review on my working table, currently in air-con environment room without directly blow the air-con's air to the phone, my phone temperature is at 27 Degree Celsius. When I back to sleep put below left side my bed where the air-con air directly blow toward the area from around 4 meters overnight, it would go down to 23-24 Degree Celsius. In non air-con environment, it will maintain at 30-33 Degree Celsius. Just on touch it feel cold, something I don't ever experience with my ROG Phone 5, so I just curiously check it temperature out.
Final Conclusion
Based on my personal Real Life Experience and Daily Real Life Practical Usage, ROG Phone 6 Gaming Experience score is a solid 8.5/10 for me (My Previous ROG Phone 5 score is 6.5 if you read my Post), the ROG Phone AeroActive Cooler 6 Utility + Cooling Performance, Game Genie + Edge Tool Built In Software, FPS Performance and its Stable Temperature Speak louder than words. If ROG Phone 6 wanna score higher, I guess I have to wait until Honor of Glory and Genshin Impact to Support 90hz/120hz or Above to review its rating.
For my daily practical usage of the phone, I still gave a 9/10 score, indeed there are some good built-in software, I develop few new usage habits that indirectly bring more convenience, but I think they just not significant enough to increase more than 0.5 point. It just feel and perform the same for my daily practical usage compare to ROG Phone 5.
Did it Meet my expectation Based on my Personal Experience? (Refer to my personal rate for each specific item below)
ROG PHONE 6's Aesthetic Design :up_right_arrow:
Screen :left_right_arrow:
Speaker :up_right_arrow:
Camera :left_right_arrow:
Accessory (ROG AeroActive Cooler 6) :up_right_arrow::up_right_arrow::up_right_arrow:
FPS Performance and Thermal :up_right_arrow::up_right_arrow::up_right_arrow:
WIFI/4G/Bluetooth Connectivity :up_right_arrow:
Battery :left_right_arrow:
Software Firmware Updates (3 Updates at the time of this post) :up_right_arrow:
Built-In Software (Game Genie, Edge Tools, etc) :up_right_arrow:
On Screen Fingerprint :left_right_arrow:
IPX4 :right_arrow:
ROG Phone 5 Existing Utility (Air Trigger, Gesture Customization, LED Notification) :left_right_arrow:
For now, I just can't find myself have any issue that really bother and disturb my personal daily usage and gaming behavior with the ROG Phone 6 after 3 weeks+ of Usage. But in my personal experience (as you can read in details above), So far I really having a great experience and a good time by only Paying RM1490 for it. ROG Phone 6 just exceeded far from my my expected experience and experience from ROG Phone 5.
P.S.
All Temperature Measurement is taken from the built-in Game Genie apps.
Can't Wait for Final Fantasy 7 Ever Crisis Release in Winter! Based on my Experience with Honor of King and Genshin Impact, Stable 60 FPS is basically 100% Confirmed, the possibility of Stable 90 FPS or Above is very hard to call it a "Possibility" anymore, I guess I just gotta wait.
I did this Review Post to share my how I experience everything in first hand and share everything in details based on my personal real life experience to Complete this Post as its Title said. I don't plan to coming back and revisit this Post or Forum anymore unless I really encounter any issue that impact my Experience of using this ROG Phone 6, if that really happen, it definitely a 100% Legit Reason for me to come back and report to expose the Truth to everyone and raise awareness.
I did check out some new Post on this Forum and I Noticed someone have a new Achievement getting the new title of "Mr. Always Right", "Mr. Assuming", etc. Personally I think its Actions within this Forum just too irrational and meaningless, I have no idea how can it able to justify its actions within this Forum that will bring feasible/tangible benefits to the Community. There are so many effective way, yet it choose some method that is obviously irrational, being a laughing stock and put great shame on itself. I guess everyone have the right to choose their own path in Life, not gonna further get myself involve with such pitiful object which I will suggest everyone else to do the same to avoid wasting your time deal with its irrational actions.