Asus ROG Phone 5s, ROG Phone 5s Pro launched with Snapdragon 888+ SoC, 6,000 mAh Battery

Asus officially took the lid off its first Snapdragon 888 Plus-powered smartphones. The Asus ROG Phone 5s and ROG Phone 5s Pro are faster versions of the Asus ROG Phone 5 (Review) that was previously revealed in April 2021.

The Asus ROG Phone 5s and 5s Pro are powered by the Snapdragon 888+ SoC with a 3.0 GHz prime core (Cortex-X1), up from 2.84 GHz on the original chip. Additionally, the AI Engine gets a 20 percent boost and delivers 32 TLOPS, up from 26 TFLOPS.

The Snapdragon 888+ chipset on the two devices can be configured with up to 18GB of LPDDR5 RAM and up to 512GB of UFS 3.1 storage. It is worth noting that RAM and storage on the ROG Phone 5s top out at 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. There’s no microSD card slot on both devices but they support NTFS-formatted external USB drives.

The triple-camera setup is the same on both models with a 64 MP primary sensor, a 13 MP ultrawide shooter, and 5 MP macro units. On the front, the ROG Phone 5s and ROG Phone 5 Pro retain the top bezel and the 24 MP selfie camera.

Asus’ latest gaming phones also sport a 6.78-inch FHD+ E4 AMOLED panel. The screen has a 144Hz refresh rate and a 1ms response time. The native touch sampling rate has also been bumped up to 360Hz. The screen on both phones supports HDR10+, 151 percent of sRGB, and 111 percent of DCI-P3. The panel also boasts 1,200 nits of peak brightness and is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus.

Both the ROG Phone 5s and ROG Phone 5s Pro measures 9.90mm thick and weighs 238 grams. The phones pack a 6,000 mAh battery with 65W fast-charging support. You also get a side connector with USB 3.1 Gen2 speeds on both phones with support for DisplayPort 1.4 and fast charging.

In terms of aesthetics, both the ROG Phone 5s and ROG Phone 5s Pro have a similar design to the ROG Phone 5 and ROG Phone 5 Pro. The vanilla model opts for an RGB-backlit ROG logo, while the Pro model has a PMOLED display on the back. While you get ultrasonic AirTrigger 5 shoulder buttons on both models, the Pro version also gets two touch sensors on the back.

Lastly, Asus bundles an AeroActive Cooler 5 with the ROG Phone 5s Pro. The ROG Phone 5s comes in Storm White and Phantom Black colour options, while the Pro model arrives in a single Phantom Black colour. Asus says that the ROG Phone 5s series will replace the current ROG Phone 5 models with more details on pricing to be made available during the global launch.