The Asus ROG Phone 5 is among the best gaming phones on the market, offering a top-end mobile gaming experience with a high refresh rate display, powerful internals, and more accessories than you can shake a stick at. The Asus ROG Phone 5s Pro looks to continue that trend, upgrading some of the core elements of the gaming phone to take advantage of new chip announcements from Qualcomm. Asus has yet to confirm whether the new range will get a wider launch, but given the fact that its predecessor was available throughout the UK, US and Europe, we assume it’ll be the same this time around too.
On the other hand, there is a Black Shark 4 Pro, which is the new mobile from Xiaomi that the company launched recently. The mobile from Xiaomi comes with a 7.1 inches (18.03 cm) display that has a resolution of 1440 x 3120 Pixels. Furthermore, the aspect ratio of the Xiaomi Black Shark 4 Pro 5G is 19.5:9 so that you can enjoy vivid and crystal clear visuals while watching videos, playing games, or streaming movies online. As we can see, the comparison of these two gaming phones promises to be very interesting. Moreover, choosing a gaming smartphone is always hard, so, let’s get started!
Asus ROG Phone 5s Pro
Asus ROG Phone 5s Series has just been unveiled. The new gaming smartphones are offered in two models — the vanilla ROG Phone 5 and the ROG Phone 5s Pro. Both come with the latest 5G-enabled Snapdragon 888 Plus chipset. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 888+ 5G Mobile Platform provides boosted performance and unrivaled speed to take your mobile gaming experience to a new level. With the clock speed now up to a blistering 3 GHz, the CPU performance has been boosted by 25% for matchless mobile processing power. Combined with the renowned performance manager in Armoury Crate for even more performance controls and tuning possibilities, you can take full control of this amazing CPU’s power to instantly adapt ROG Phone 5s Pro to any task.
The Asus smartphones feature a 6.78-inch Samsung AMOLED E4 display with a 144Hz refresh rate, 360Hz touch sampling rate, and 1200 nits maximum brightness. The new vanilla ROG Phone 5s Pro comes in only 18GB LPDDR5 RAM configuration.
The latest gaming smartphones by Asus have only been listed on the official website as of now. That being said, pricing information is available for mainland China and Taiwanese markets. The base ROG Phone 5S variant starts from TWD 29,990 (US$1,075; ₹79,953) while the ROG Phone 5S Pro will set you back by TWD 37,990 (US$1,362; ₹101,281). Both smartphones have near-identical specifications. The only differences are that the ROG Phone 5s Pro gets a ROG Vision rear matrix color display and the additional touch sensors on the back panel.
Specifications
Both, the vanilla Asus ROG Phone 5s and the ROG Phone 5s Pro gaming smartphones sport the latest Snapdragon 888 Plus SoC paired with Adreno 660 GPU. The latter comes only in the 18GB LPDDR5 RAM option. The ROG Phone 5s Pro features only 512GB UFS 3.1 storage. Both models run Android 11 with ROG UI skin on top.
Display and Camera
The Asus gaming smartphones get a 6.78-inch full-HD+ (1,080×2,448 pixels) Samsung AMOLED E4 display with Corning Gorilla Glass Victus protection. It also comes with a 144Hz refresh rate, 1ms response time, 360Hz touch sampling rate, and 1200 nits of peak brightness. To achieve low-latency gaming and ultra-responsive inputs with a reduced chance of accidental touches, the 144 Hz / 1 ms Samsung E4 AMOLED display on ROG Phone 5s Pro now boasts a 360 Hz native touch-sampling rate, to give you a super-smooth, seamless gaming experience. The supreme visuals are enhanced even further with world-beating color accuracy and always-on HDR technology that improves non-HDR visuals, along with a screen that’s protected by the toughest ever Corning Gorilla Glass Victus. ROG Phone 5s Pro is to endure — and built to win.
For optics, the triple-camera system on ROG Phone 5s Pro is to produce superb-quality photos in any setting. It features a flagship Sony® IMX686 64 MP main wide-angle camera, an ultrawide 13 MP secondary camera, and a macro camera. Enhanced software features include a Pro Video Mode as well as Free Zoom, Wind Filter, and Acoustic Focus function to make your video quality stand out. There’s also a 24 MP front camera for high-quality group selfies and live-streaming videos.
Read also: Best 7 Smartphones For Gaming
Battery and Connectivity
In terms of battery life, the Asus ROG 5 Pro smartphone packs a 6,000mAh battery with 65W fast charging support. The monster 6000 mAh battery inside ROG Phone 5s Pro combined with a 65-watt HyperCharge adapter is a great combo for mobile gamers to play on the go. Additionally, the charging features such as steady charging which allows control of the charging speeds and bypass charging for not charging the battery while gaming, all enable better battery performance and prolonged battery lifespan.
Connectivity options include dual-SIM 5G and 4G LTE support, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/ac/ax, Bluetooth v5.2, NFC, 3.5mm headphone jack, GPS and GLONASS, and USB Type-C port.
Other specs
Onboard sensors for the ROG Phone 5s Pro include an in-display fingerprint sensor, face recognition, accelerometer, e-compass, gyroscope, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, ultrasonic sensors for AirTrigger 5, and grip press. In addition, the ROG Phone 5s Pro comes in a sole Phantom Black color option. The smartphone measures 173×77 x9.90mm and weigh 238 grams.
It is also worth noting that the GameFX audio system on ROG Phone 5s Pro features symmetrical 7-magnet dual speakers for truly balanced stereo sound effects and a 3.5 mm headphone jack in conjunction with a hi-fi grade ESS DAC. Both have been optimized via a collaboration with audio specialist Dirac, making ROG Phone 5s Pro a rare smartphone with a truly impressive audio quality. In addition to the premium sounds, GameFX also gives you crystal-clear in-game sound effects and powerful aural soundscapes you’ve never dared to hope for in a phone.
Cooling system
The GameCool 5 cooling system on the Asus ROG Phone 5s Pro has an optimum thermal structure featuring a centered CPU with the battery split into two parts, one located on each side of the CPU. This ensures that the heat generated by the CPU is transferred to all the edges and corners of the chassis simultaneously for higher thermal efficiency. The re-shaped vapor chamber and extensive graphite sheets also help to spread the heat evenly across the device to reduce heat build-up in the middle.
AeroActive Cooler 5 intakes and expels an incredible amount of cool air directly on the center of the phone — right where the CPU is — to deliver an unbelievable 10°C drop in the CPU temperature.
Black Shark 4 Pro
Xiaomi Black Shark 4 Pro 5G sports an octa-core (1×2.84 GHz Kryo 585 & 3×2.42 GHz Kryo 585 & 4×1.8 GHz Kryo 585) Qualcomm SM8250 Snapdragon 870 (7 nm+) processor, so that you can enjoy a seamless performance while accessing multiple applications at the same time. Also, the phone comes with 12 GB RAM and 512 GB inbuilt storage so that you can store various files like songs, videos, games, and more without worrying about space constraints. Besides, the Xiaomi Black Shark 4 Pro 5G runs the Android v11 operating system and houses a decent 4500mAh battery that lets you use it for a longer time while watching movies, listening to songs, playing games, and doing other stuff without worrying about battery drainage. The smartphone costs $733.
Display and Camera
The Black Shark 4 Pro adopts a 6.67 inches Super AMOLED display with a refresh rate of 144Hz. It also features 1080×2400 pixels and 1300 nits of peak brightness.
The camera specifications of the phone are very captivating. The Xiaomi Black Shark 4 Pro 5G comes with a Single-camera setup on the rear which has 64 MP + 13 MP + 5 MP cameras. Features on the rear camera setup include Digital Zoom, Auto Flash, Face detection, Touch to focus. On the front, the mobile features a 20 MP front camera so that you can click some amazing selfies and do video chats.
Also Read: Black Shark 4 / Pro Review
Battery and Connectivity
The Gaming smartphone of Xiaomi – Black Shark 4 Pro has a battery capacity of 4500mAh. It also supports 120W fast charging. In detail, you can charge your gaming phone up to 50% in 5 minutes, and 100% in 10 minutes. It can be a super feature for game lovers as you only have to wait 5-10 minutes to fully charge your phone and continue enjoying your favorite game. Various connectivity options on the Xiaomi Black Shark 4 Pro 5G include WiFi – Yes, Wi-Fi 802.11, a/ac/b/g/n, Mobile Hotspot, Bluetooth – Yes, v5.0, and 5G supported by the device (network not rolled-out in India), 4G (supports Indian bands), 3G, 2G. In addition, sensors on the Xiaomi Black Shark 4 Pro 5G include Accelerometer, Gyro, Proximity, Compass.
The dimensions of the Xiaomi Black Shark 4 Pro 5G are 177.8 mm x 83.3 mm x 10.1 mm, and weigh approximately 253 grams. The phone comes in three colors Black, Dark Blue, and Silver.
Other specs
In terms of storage capacities, the Black Shark 4 Pro features 2 options 256GB and 512GB. And what about the memory capacity, here we have three options: 8GB, 12GB, and 16GB. It is also worth mentioning that the more GB your memory module has, the more programs you can have open at once.
This gaming smartphone includes under-display and optical fingerprint, accelerometer, gyro, proximity, and compass.
Wrap up!
As we have mentioned above, choosing a good and functional gaming phone is always difficult. There are some important factors worth focusing on while choosing a gaming phone. Here are some of them:
- Battery capacity and charging speed
- Screen resolution
- Refresh rate and touch sampling rate
- Shoulder buttons
- Third-party accessories
- Many more
In terms of battery capacity, the Asus ROG Phone 5s Pro features a 6000 mAh battery inside ROG Phone 5s Pro combined with a 65-watt HyperCharge adapter, which is a great combo for mobile gamers to play on the go. In this case, Xiaomi’s gaming phone stays behind a bit.
What about the fourth point – the shoulder button, here is what we can mention. While you will only find a shoulder button on higher-end phones, they make important additions to gaming phones. For a number of games, having one or two physical buttons can be really handy. Phones like the Asus ROG series and the Black Shark series come with shoulder triggers that you can map to controls of your choice and take your gameplay to the next level. Even the upcoming Poco F3 GT may have retractable shoulder buttons.
However, in any case, choosing an appropriate gaming phone depends on the player’s own preferences and priorities. Both Black Shark 4 Pro and Asus ROG phone 5s are quite good and worthy options.
What do you think? Which factors are you focusing on when buying a gaming phone?