Asus ROG Phone 5 vs ROG Phone 5 Pro vs ROG Phone 5 Ultimate: Price in India, Specifications Comparison

Asus ROG Phone 5 vs ROG Phone 5 Pro vs ROG Phone 5 Ultimate: Design

The Asus ROG Phone 5 is certainly a unique looker in a world of standardised smartphone offerings, and features slightly thicker bezels at the top and bottom than what’s usually seen. As a result, the ROG Phone 5 does not have a punch-hole or a drop notch at the front, instead housing the front camera in the bezel itself. The most unique bit is the multi-colour Asus ROG logo at the back of the ROG Phone 5, which features a two-colour gradient logo, and eight customisable colours to let you set it to whichever colour you please.

The ROG Phone 5 Pro further features a matrix PMOLED colour display at the back, which can show custom graphics based on what you’re doing with your phone – such as receiving a call or loading a game. It isn’t entirely functional, but adds a nice and unique graphic touch to the smartphone. The rear of the phone is the most attractive, with an asymmetrical camera module further adding to its funky appeal.

The limited ROG Phone 5 Ultimate, meanwhile, features a monochrome PMOLED display at the back, fused with the company’s typical dot matrix pattern style at the rear. The device is also rather tall with a 20.4:9 screen aspect ratio, meaning that users with small palms may struggle with the device’s ergonomics.

Asus ROG Phone 5 vs ROG Phone 5 Pro vs ROG Phone 5 Ultimate: Display

All three variants of the Asus ROG Phone 5 feature a 6.78-inch AMOLED display panel, with 2448 x 1080-pixel screen resolution. The display panel offers 144Hz refresh rate and a 20.4:9 aspect ratio. The panel is HDR10+ certified, and gets 300Hz touch sampling rate for super smooth touch response. The display renders 1200nits peak brightness, offers 1000000:1 contrast ratio and covers 111 percent of the DCI-P3 colour gamut. It has a 2.5D curved Corning Gorilla Glass Victus layer on top, and to the rear, gets the Gorilla Glass 3.

The display specifications are exactly the same on the ROG Phone 5 Pro and Ultimate. The only differentiating factors are the secondary colour display on the ROG Phone 5 Pro, and the monochrome one on the ROG Phone 5 Ultimate.

Asus ROG Phone 5 vs ROG Phone 5 Pro vs ROG Phone 5 Ultimate: Performance

The Asus ROG Phone 5 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 SoC. The standard variant gets 8GB or 12GB of RAM, paired with 128GB and 256GB native storage, respectively. It also gets a dedicated Pixelworks i6 processor to render the fast refresh rate display, and uses LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 3.1 storage standards. The smartphone is compatible with Wi-Fi 6 and 6E, as well as Bluetooth 5.2. It gets the ROG GameCool 5 cooling system, and the shoulder AirTrigger buttons get more sensors that map 14 touch points on the screen.

The ROG Phone 5 Pro has the exact same setup, but with higher 16GB RAM and 512GB storage. It also gets two extra capacitive AirTrigger buttons place at the rear of the phone, which gives it a total of 18 touch points to be controlled by the console-like button setup

The ROG Phone 5 Ultimate, meanwhile, gets a standout 18GB of RAM, and has the same active storage and button layout as the Pro variant.

Asus ROG Phone 5 vs ROG Phone 5 Pro vs ROG Phone 5 Ultimate: Camera

The Asus ROG Phone 5 features a triple rear camera with a 64MP primary unit with f/1.8 lens, a 13MP ultra-wide unit with f/2.4 lens, and a 5MP macro unit with f/2.0 lens. To the front, it gets a 24MP camera with f/2.45 lens. This setup can record up to 8K videos at 30fps, and 4K and full HD videos at 60fps. It also gets a 4K time lapse recording feature, and in slow motion mode, can shoot 4K videos at 120fps, full HD videos at up to 240fps and HD videos at 480fps. The camera also gets a three axis electronic stabilisation feature to slightly help steady moving videos.

The ROG Phone 5 Pro and Ultimate get the exact same camera setup as the ROG Phone 5, so there’s nothing to differentiate the three variants in this department.

Asus ROG Phone 5 vs ROG Phone 5 Pro vs ROG Phone 5 Ultimate: Battery

All variants of the ROG Phone 5 get two 3,000mAh batteries in an MMT design to offer 6,000mAh total battery capacity. This is combined with 65W HyperCharge fast charging setup, which can charge the battery up to 70 percent in 30 minutes, and 100 percent in 52 minutes.

Asus ROG Phone 5 vs ROG Phone 5 Pro vs ROG Phone 5 Ultimate: Which one to buy?

All features considered, the Asus ROG Phone 5 Pro sounds like the most appealing offering in the lineup, thanks to the extra buttons, the added colour display and the back, and higher RAM and internal storage options. The ROG Phone 5, however, will offer better value at Rs 49,999, and may hence be the best choice for most gamers as 12GB RAM should still suffice most. The ROG Phone 5 Ultimate may not be the most prudent purchase, barring for those who want the added room than 18GB RAM brings to the table.

Asus ROG Phone 5 vs ROG Phone 5 Pro vs ROG Phone 5 Ultimate: Specifications compared