ROG Phone 5s – More Than Just A Gaming Phone

The ROG Phone 5s and 5s Pro launched late last year to rave reviews riddled with superlatives because of its overly powerful build that can handle even the most challenging of games with ease. This should come as no surprise, especially coming from ASUS ROG, a company that prides itself on pushing the limits of tech and breaking barriers with stylish and equally out-of-the-box ideas.

We recently got to spend a bit of time with the ROG Phone 5s over the past couple of months. In fact, due to an unfortunate incident that caused us to rely on the phone more than usual on a daily basis, we were treated to a device that not only excelled in its main thrust as a gaming phone but also in doing everything else with relative ease.

We also got a chance to collaborate with our sister site Gadget Pilipinas to give you a not-so-technical look at what the ROG Phone 5s can offer you even if you’re not a gamer.

ROG Phone 5s Specs

But before we go there, here are the specs of the ROG Phone 5s:

  • Chipset – Qualcomm Snapdragon 888+
  • RAM – 12GB/16GB LPDDR5
  • Storage – 256GB/512GB
  • Display – 6.78-inch FHD+ AMOLED 144Hz
  • Battery – 6000mAh 65W hypercharge
  • Rear Camera – 64MP main shooter, 13MP ultrawide, 5MP macro shooter
  • Front Camera – 24MP
  • Colors – Phantom Black, Storm White

Those are pretty impressive and very much at par with other flagship devices from other brands.

For a full tech review of the ROG Phone 5s (Pro), head on over to Gadget Pilipinas.

rog phone 5s gaming
Built for gaming and much more.

Games like Final Fantasy 7 First Soldier and Genshin Impact can be played at the highest settings without seeing any significant drop in performance. First Soldier gameplay was buttery smooth while Genshin Impact was playable at peak 60fps at maximum settings.

Gadget Pilipinas

Productivity Power

I had to spend a week and a half without a laptop a few months back, so the ROG Phone 5s had to become my daily driver. I needed specific apps on the phone for work purposes – Slack, Trello, Google Drive, Google Sheets… the works. Everything was online and everything needed serious screen real estate to make things more efficient. On top of that, I needed a device that can handle multitasking and switching between apps with ease.

You can just imagine how the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888+ along with the 12GB of RAM took the challenge – without a sweat. This is a given though, seeing as the tasks did not require any heavy video editing or anything of that sort.

What takes the cake is its 6.78 inches FHD+ AMOLED screen, which was just what I needed to get the job done. As a point of comparison, the iPhone 13 Pro Max has a 6.68-inch screen (measured diagonally), so you can just imagine that there’s more than enough space to see what you need to see and do what you need to do. Of course, working on a phone can’t replace the experience of using a laptop or desktop, but when all else fails, the ROG Phone 5s can be called upon to be your work-from-home partner.

I also used the device to type up some articles for the site. Admittedly, it wasn’t a pleasant experience but it got the job done!

Media Monster

Even though I got access to my laptop again, I still promised myself to run the ROG Phone 5s through all of the things I would normally do on my laptop. That included a healthy amount of Netflix, Youtube, and Encanto viewings by my daughter. Needless to say, I had to go back to my laptop because my daughter wouldn’t let go of the device even after the nth time of not talking about Bruno.

rog phone 5s media monster
The audio will surely make your heart shake.

Apart from the massive screen, what makes the ROG Phone 5s stand out in the media consumption department is its dual speakers that give off solid sound without any hints of distortion even at loud volumes. In particular, when using headphones, the audio quality comes alive thanks to its hi-fi grade ESS DAC, ensuring that every lyric and line you hear is clear and crisp, perfect for those KPOP bops.

Daily Photography Buddy

Whether it’s taking selfies (not my thing) or taking photos of toys and other game-related items (totally my thing), the ROG Phone 5s is surprisingly up to the task.

For this exercise, we asked some assistance from our sister-site Gadget Pilipinas to take some sample shots and the results are quite amazing, considering that cameras aren’t usually the main highlights of a gaming phone.

See some sample shots below:

The results are quite good, with the ROG Phone 5s performing admirably in some medium and close shots, which tend to lean on the “cooler” side of things. The details on Cloud’s shirt are easily recognizable, and even the grooves on Spider-Man’s mask can be distinguished well.

That said, it won’t bag awards for exceptional photos, but the ROG Phone 5s has an above-average set of cameras that can tackle anything from toy photography to TikTok.

Massive Battery Life

Everything the ROG Phone 5s can do is highly dependent on its massive 6,000mAh battery. For comparison again, the iPhone 13 Pro Max has a 4352mAh Li-Ion battery that can last you a day or two depending on how you use the device.

In my experience, I had used the phone for the whole day working on my day job (around 5 hours total of Slack, Trello, and Google Sheets), a couple of hours of Netflix and Youtube combined (35% brightness and 40% volume), and sporadic social media usage (Facebook and Twitter), leaving me with around 10-15% battery at the end of it all.

rog phone 5s charger
Juice up.

it should be good enough to charge the phone to 100% in less than an hour.

Gadget Pilipinas

The ROG Phone 5s comes with a 65W hypercharge adapter that can give you a much-needed boost for emergency purposes, and thanks to its OS, you can even choose some battery-care charging modes to give it some TLC.


Overall, the ROG Phone 5s is a gaming phone through and through. Gaming-specific features like its Airtriggers and its Game Genie enhancement app are some of the best in the business, but over and above that, it can handle more than just your gaming needs. Even working dads like myself can get a kick out of its productivity prowess and media capabilities, ensuring users a device that can take on anything you throw at it.

The ROG Phone 5s is now available with 12GB RAM/256GB and 16GB RAM/512GB variants retailing for PHP 42,995 and PHP 49,995 respectively.

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