The Asus ROG Phone series has been receiving subtle updates over the years. With gaming brands such as Nubia’s Redmagic and Black Shark leaving the Indian market long ago, Asus’ ROG Phone remains the last phone standing when it comes to high-end, gaming smartphones. This also means that Asus does not really have any direct competition in India and due to that, it can take its time refining its winning formula year on year, without needing to make any drastic changes in order to stay relevant.
Asus ROG Phone 6 daylight camera samples: Primary camera, ultra-wide-angle camera and selfie portrait (Tap to see full size)
In low light, the primary camera continued to impress with good details and dynamic range in street-lit conditions. Problems began to crop up when I pointed it at darker and dimmer areas. The Night mode is triggered automatically in most conditions, but there were instances when the phone indicated that it would take a three second auto-night-mode exposure, but snapped a regular photo with less detail and dynamic range. The lack of (OIS) can be felt here as the images turn out looking a bit soft with smudged textures even after firing up the dedicated Night mode.
Selfies in daylight using the Portrait mode looked impressive, with good dynamic range and excellent edge detection. However, it captures quite average looking photos in low light.
Asus ROG Phone 6 low-light camera samples. Top: Auto mode, bottom: Night mode (Tap to see full size)
Video recording quality is good in daylight and showcases good stabilisation even at 4K resolution. While 4K video recordings hit the sweet spot with detail, sharpness and dynamic range, they have some abnormally saturated colour tones, which almost appear as though a vivid filter has been applied. While HDR video recordings managed to bring out a lot more detail in the darker areas, the quality was not good and the colours appeared abnormal at best. 8K video recordings were not usable as they were too choppy due to the lower frame rate. Video quality in low light is far from the best I have seen at this price point. with footage having less detail, more noise, and appear quite soft in general.
Verdict
With expected upgrades when it comes to gaming, Asus did surprise me with a quality primary camera this year in the ROG Phone 6. It offers good performance in daylight and has decent low-light quality which is rare when it comes to gaming smartphones.
To a gamer who’s main priority is playing games along with having excellent battery life, this might be enough. To a regular consumer, the camera performance isn’t the best when compared to similarly priced flagships such as the Vivo X80 Pro (Review). This phone too has good gaming performance (minus the frills of the ROG of course), shoots excellent photos and is a lot more pocketable despite having a large display. It also gets you an IP68 rating.
While the phone will not appeal to casual gamers and regular buyers, the Asus ROG Phone 6 is still the only phone in the market to offer this level of hardware and software customisation, which only professional gamers will appreciate. Get one if you are dead-serious about mobile gaming and don’t mind lugging this phone around. For those who still want a premium gaming smartphone but don’t want to spend as much, last year’s Asus ROG Phone 5s from Rs. 49,999 is still a good choice.
