Asus ROG Phone 5: Release date, rumours and everything you need to know

Asus announced the ROG Phone 3 in July 2020, but rumours for the next gaming phone from Asus have not only picked up - the Taiwanese company has confirmed a launch date for the forthcoming next-gen gaming phone.

So here's everything you need to know about the ROG Phone 5 from the leaks, rumours and official details. 

Release date and price

• 10 March 2021 launch event confirmed
• Release date TBC - rumoured for India in March

The ROG Phone 3 was unveiled in July 2020 but took some time to roll-out internationally - it didn't reach the US until October 2020. Asus has  officially confirmed the ROG Phone 5 launch on 10 March - here's how to watch the online event.

We're expecting the ROG Phone 5 release date to be soon after - a leaker has suggested that it will be available in India in March, which would fit with the reveal date. International roll-out, however, is likely to take longer.

Design and build

• Dimensions: 172.83 x 77.2 x 10.2mm
• Secondary display on rear of the phone
• Similar design to ROG Phone 3

With the previous version of this phone only launching in July 2020, we're not expecting huge changes - and leaks suggest to be the ROG Phone 5 shows that it sticks to a familiar design. There are a couple of interesting details however.

There could be a secondary dot display on the back of the phone for RGB action or to show graphics related to gaming. It looks like this is going to be managed by a ROG Vision system - where you can customise what's shown on this display.

Thanks to a very brief leak of a prototype via a gif, we've seen it showing a gaming-related motto as well as showing a phone icon, so we imagine it will be linked to notifications too. The official ROG launch page also shows a glowing logo, in more LED-like form, which further supports this. Thanks to a detailed image from DXOMARK, the full design is comfirmed.

There's a button on the base of the left-hand side of the phone, which looks like it could be a dedicated launch button to get to your games. 

The ROG Phone 5 also avoids any sort of notch or punch hole, instead keeping the front camera in the bezel at the top of the phone. Dual front-firing speakers are confirmed and there's also a 3.5mm headphone socket. DXOMARK has already confirmed stellar performance for the speakers and the quad microphones.

Display

• 6.78-inch AMOLED, Full HD+ resolution
• 144Hz refresh, 270Hz touch sampling?

According to details registered at TENAA, the ROG Phone 5 is going to come with a 6.78-inch display, larger than the ROG Phone 3. We'd expect it to keep the AMOLED panel with 144Hz refresh rate, 270Hz touch sampling - although this could increase to match the 480Hz sampling found on the Xiaomi Mi 11 - and a flat finish.

Previously the resolution was Full HD+, so we'd expect the same in the next ROG Phone, and it looks like it might also support HDR10+ for boosted visuals.

Hardware

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 888, 8GB RAM
• 65W charging wired charging
• 6000mAh battery

The ROG Phone 5 is confirmed to run on Qualcomm's latest hardware, the Snapdragon 888. Thanks to the DxOMark report, we have confirmation of that premium hardware.

That's to be expected from a gaming phone where the focus is on power and performance. Leaked benchmarks also corroborate the Snapdragon 888 with 8GB RAM. There's likely to be step-up versions of the phone as there is for the ROG Phone 3, so we'd expect up to 16GB RAM in other versions, and both have had beachmarks leak via Geekbench. There's also been a Geekbench report of a version with 18GB RAM.

Thanks to certification, it's confirmed that there will be a 6000mAh battery - thought to be a dual cell type - with support for 65W fast-charging.

We're expecting this phone to launch with Android 11.

ROG Phone 5 cameras

• Triple rear cameras
• 64MP main camera

There haven't been many leaks around the camera for the ROG Phone 5, but we suspect it will stay the same as the ROG Phone 3. 

From the detailed image we have from DXOMARK, we can see that there's a 64-magapixel camera on the rear of the phone. This is going to be the main camera, suggesting it might be the same as in the ROG Phone 3. The ROG Phone 3 also had an ultra-wide camera and a macro camera and we suspect it's the same on the ROG Phone 5.

All the leaks and rumours so far

Here's a rundown of all the leaks surrounding the ROG Phone 5.

02 March 2021: ROG Phone 5 hits Geekbench with 18GB RAM

A Geekbench report of showing the ROG Phone 5 with 18GB of RAM has appeared online.

22 February: ROG Phone 5 passes through DxOMark, confirming a heap of specs

DXOMARK has published a report on the audio performance of the ROG Phone 5, confirming a range of specs and the design along the way.

19 February: ROG Phone 5 launch event date official

How to watch the 10 March launch event

18 February 2021: ROG Phone 5 name gets confirmed as launch nears

A poster on Weibo has confirmed the ROG Phone 5 name, as predicted, again suggesting that launch is getting very close.

17 February 2021: Leaker suggests India launch in March

A leaker has suggested that the ROG Phone 5 will be available in India in March, suggest launch will be soon.

9 February 2021: Asus ROG Phone 5 appears on Geekbench with Snapdragon 888 and 16GB RAM

A visit to Geekbench suggests Snapdragon 888 and 16GB of RAM for the ROG Phone 5.

1 February 2021: Asus ROG Phone 5 images and specs appear online

Thanks to a listing in TENAA, we've now seen images of the new phone, as well as confirmation of some specs.

19 January 2021: New ROG Phone passses through NCC certification

A device thought to be the new ROG Phone has passed through certification, suggesting it is close to launch. The certification confirms a few battery details.

19 January 2021: ROG Phone 4 appears in very brief video leak

A very quick video of the next ROG Phone has appeared on Weibo, clearly a pre-release device.

18 January 2021: Alleged ROG Phone 5 hands-on image leaks, revealing minor design changes

An image claiming to be of the new ROG Phone appears online.

14 January 2021: Asus ROG Phone 4 gets official teased

An official teaser for the next-gen ROG Phone appeared on Weibo. 

08 December 2020: Benchmarks for a future ROG Phone have appeared online

Geekbench and HTML5 benchmarking scores have appeared for a new Asus device thought to be the next ROG Phone. 

from Pocket-lint