The best gaming experience ever
Of course, the ROG Phone 5 is marketed as the greatest gaming smartphone, so what exactly does it have to offer? Actually, the most pertinent question is: where should I begin? Because there’s a lot going on here, boy oh boy.

Hardware
Let’s start with one of the ROG Phone’s most popular features: AirTriggers. The technology is there and accounted for on the ROG Phone 5, with additional sensors and better positioning for a better gaming trigger experience, and Asus has also extended on the gesture-based offering, allowing you to activate actions by tilting, spinning, or shaking the smartphone.

AirTriggers are by far my favourite feature of the ROG Phone in general, since they provide a similar experience to classic controller triggers without the need for additional hardware. You can also customise the actuation locations depending on whether you want touch or press-based activation.

Those who want a more Switch-like experience can purchase the optional Kunai 5 controller, which features dual shoulder buttons, analogue sticks, and additional buttons to enhance the mobile gaming experience. The built-in triggers and Kunai 5 can be mapped to any game, not only those that require controllers, making them compatible with the majority of popular games like Call of Duty Mobile and Fortnite.It’s worth noting that the earlier Kunai 3 is compatible with the ROG Phone 5, but you’ll need a new bumper case due to small dimension differences.

The display is similar to the ROG Phone 3 in many ways: it has the same 144Hz refresh rate for buttery-smooth gameplay, an FHD+ (2448 x 1080) resolution with an impressive 1ms response time, and a maximum brightness of 482cd/m2 in our tests, which is more than enough for a casual game of PUBG in the park.

The refresh rate isn’t set to 144Hz by default; instead, it optimises itself based on what you’re doing. However, you can force it to use the top-end 144Hz setting as well as lower 120Hz and 60Hz settings all of the time.There’s now HDR10+ compatibility, as well as a new 300Hz touch sample rate for lightning-quick response times when playing games.

Asus has focused on improving the wired audio experience on the ROG Phone 5, including the ESS Sabre ES9280AC Pro DAC for Hi-Res audio playback, which benefits both gameplay and the general music-listening experience on the ROG Phone 5. It offers professional DAC-level performance with the ability to handle both high and low impedance loads with ease.

Software
Now that we’ve gotten the hardware out of the way, it’s time to talk about software.

The ROG Phone 5 comes with Asus’ ROG UI preinstalled and runs Android 11 out of the box. It’s comparable to ZenUI with a gaming twist in many aspects, such as the red icon rings that appear when X Mode is enabled or the gamer-focused themes available, but Asus does allow you to restore to the standard ZenUI design if you prefer.

Regardless of the UI you choose, the Armoury Crate app – the heart of the ROG gaming experience – now includes a revamped performance manager that allows you to change system-wide performance with a single tap. Dynamic mode has the best battery life and performance, but X-Mode and the much more powerful X Mode Plus are the ideal for gaming.X Mode boosts performance at the expense of battery life, allowing for greater frame rates, improved GPU performance, and other background modifications to enhance the gaming experience and fully use the 144Hz refresh rate available.

X Mode Plus, as the name implies, pushes the system to its ultimate boundaries, but it’s only available when you’ve connected the AeroActive Cooler 5. The cooler helps keep the phone’s overall temperature stable by cooling the CPU by 10°C and the surface by up to 15°C, as well as providing two additional mappable buttons and a kickstand for gaming, but unlike the ROG Phone 3, it’s not included in the box this time around – that’s reserved for the Pro and Ultimate models.

If you want the best performance out of the regular ROG Phone 5, you’ll have to shell out for the AeroActive Cooler.