The Asus ROG Phone 5 is among the best gaming phones on the market, offering a top-end mobile gaming experience with a high refresh rate display, powerful internals and more accessories than you can shake a stick at. The Asus ROG Phone 5s range looks to continue that trend, upgrading some of the core elements of the gaming phone to take advantage of new chip announcements from Qualcomm.
Here’s all there is to know about the Asus ROG Phone 5s range right now, including features and specs, along with confirmed UK and US availability.
When was the Asus ROG Phone 5s range released?
The Asus ROG Phone 5s and 5s Pro both went on sale on 24 August 2021 – but only in Taiwan.
Asus initially kept quiet on UK and US availability, then quietly launched the smartphones in the UK on 4 November, with US following suit on 24 November. You can now buy both the ROG Phone 5s and ROG Phone 5s Pro in the UK and USA.
Take a look at our selection of the best gaming phones – they’re all available to buy right now.
How much do the Asus ROG Phone 5s and 5s Pro cost?
In terms of Taiwanese pricing, the ROG Phone 5s comes in at 29,990 TWD while the ROG Phone 5s Pro comes in at a more premium 37,990 TWD.
In the UK, the entry-level ROG Phone 5s will set you back £999, while the premium ROG Phone 5s Pro will set you back £1099. When it comes to US availability, it’ll cost you $1,099 and $1,299 respectively.
If you’re interested, you can grab the Asus ROG Phone 5s and ROG Phone 5s Pro from Asus itself in the UK, along with Amazon in the US.
What’s new with the Asus ROG Phone 5s and 5s Pro?
If you were expecting a major overhaul of the ROG Phone 5 design language with the ROG Phone 5s and 5s Pro, prepare to be disappointed. Instead, it’s essentially a spec boost that’ll keep the ROG Phone at the top of its game – after all, what’s the point in a gaming phone if standard flagships can outpace it?
With that in mind, the main new addition to the Asus ROG Phone 5s range is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888+, replacing the (already impressive) Snapdragon 888 on the models released earlier this year. It’s a chipset available on very few smartphones at the time of writing, offering the most graphical power possible from a mobile chip right now.
As well as a boosted chipset, the ROG Phone 5s range features a boosted touch sampling rate, up to 360Hz from 300Hz of its predecessors. Though still not quite the 400Hz of the Red Magic 6, the faster sampling rate should make touch-based games feel more responsive – especially when combined with the rapid 144Hz 1ms display on offer.
The ROG Phone 5s is designed to replace the ROG Phone 5, complete with RGB lighting on the rear, while the ROG Phone 5s Pro relaces the ROG Phone 5 Ultimate, a smartphone initially considered to be limited edition. The Pro model sports the same general design and rear-OLED display as the previous-gen Ultimate model (with colour this time too!), along with boosted RAM compared to the standard 5s.
That may be all that’s new, but unless you’ve already got the ROG Phone 5, the ROG Phone 5S and 5S Pro look to be among the most capable gaming phones on the market at the moment.
The headline features of the ROG Phone 5 range are still present and accounted for, including the 6.78in FHD+ AMOLED display, a whopping 6000mAh battery for extended gaming sessions, side-mounted ports for easier charging, a bespoke phone cooling system and the AirTrigger tech that turns the bumpers of the phone into touch-sensitive triggers.
There’s also the range of ROG Phone accessories that further enhance the gaming experience, including a Switch-like controller, a cooling unit and much more.
If you want to find out more about the core ROG Phone experience, take a look at our Asus ROG Phone 5 review.
Asus ROG Phone 5S specs
- 8 x 77.3 x 9.9mm
- 238g
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 888+
- Up to 16GB LPDDR5 RAM
- Up to 256GB UFS 3.1 storage
- 6.78in FHD+ AMOLED display
- 144Hz refresh rate and 360Hz touch sampling rate
- Gorilla Glass Victus on the front, Gorilla Glass 3 on the rear
- Dot-matrix RGB lighting (rear)
- AirTrigger 5 support
- Rear cameras: 64Mp Sony IMX686 sensor, 13Mp 125-degree ultra-wide, 5Mp Macro
- Front-facing camera: 24Mp
- Video: Up to 8K@30fps, 4K@60fps & 1080p@60fps also available
- 5mm headphone jack with ESS Sabre ES9280AC Pro DAC
- 6000mAh battery split into two 3,000mAh cells
- 65W HyperCharge capabilities
- Two USB-C ports
- 5G connectivity
- Wi-Fi 6E
- Bluetooth 5.2
Asus ROG Phone 5S Pro specs
- 8 x 77.3 x 9.9mm
- 238g
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 888+
- 18GB LPDDR5 RAM
- 512GB UFS 3.1 storage
- 6.78in FHD+ AMOLED display
- 144Hz refresh rate and 360Hz touch sampling rate
- Gorilla Glass Victus on the front, Gorilla Glass 3 on the rear
- Touch sensors & ROG Vision PMOLED display (rear)
- AirTrigger 5 support
- Rear cameras: 64Mp Sony IMX686 sensor, 13Mp 125-degree ultra-wide, 5Mp Macro
- Front-facing camera: 24Mp
- Video: Up to 8K@30fps, 4K@60fps & 1080p@60fps also available
- 5mm headphone jack with ESS Sabre ES9280AC Pro DAC
- 6000mAh battery split into two 3,000mAh cells
- 65W HyperCharge capabilities
- Two USB-C ports
- 5G connectivity
- Wi-Fi 6E
- Bluetooth 5.2
Author: Lewis Painter, Senior Staff Writer
Lewis Painter is a Senior Staff Writer at Tech Advisor. Our resident Apple expert, Lewis covers everything from iPhone to AirPods, plus a range of smartphones, tablets, laptops and gaming hardware. You'll also find him on the Tech Advisor YouTube channel.