Today we're going to be durability testing this $1300 ROG Phone 6 Pro. I think it was
released last week...last month? One second. I'm losing track of time.
There it is....July. So maybe I'm a little bit late. I gotta get back on schedule. But,
it was still released this year, so it still counts. If you remember
last year's ROG Phone 5 Pro didn't do so well during the durability test.
So we'll have to see how well this newer version holds up because seeing a phone that expensive
snap in half is very painful, even to me. You know what else is getting expensive? Phone
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into that. Link is down in the description, and huge thanks to Tello for sponsoring this video.
Now it's time to see if the Republic of Gamers, this ROG Phone 6 Pro,
has made any improvements from last year. Let's get started.
[Intro]
The ROG Phone 6 Pro is definitely the most powerful smartphone we've tested this year. And
definitely the most expensive....and also has the most complicated box to open.
I really am struggling with this one, and I'm kind of an expert at opening phone boxes.
Ah, you can't hold the box while you're opening it. Squeezing the sides won't let it slide.
Big brain time. Off to a good start. Inside the hexagonal carton we have an AR card for
some virtual reality gaming stuff that ROG does. We also have the phone itself. Super
heavy in its plastic sleeve. Underneath the phone we find a thin flexible rubber case,
which won't be much help structurally, but would help with impacts and scratches. I'll
set this off to the side. We also have the massive 65 watt USB-C charging brick,
which powers the dual batteries inside of the ROG 6. There's also a pretty classy
USB-C braided cable which is kind of cool. The box is intense, but the phone is also intense.
Speaking of which, let's get a closer look at the ROG 6 Pro,
and compare it to the ROG 5 from last year and see if ASUS has changed anything.
[Music playing]
The 6 starts playing walkout music like this is some kind of boxing match. On the sides of the
phone we have the same antenna line placement between both generations, the same power button
locations, and same charging port locations, with the only difference being little gold contacts on
the side of the 5. For the most part, this busted 5 and the new 6 look structurally identical.
[Music playing]
So as far as having a phone in one piece after this test is over. I won't be holding my breath.
Mostly because this video would be awfully quiet if I did. Let's see what else the ROG 6 Pro has
to offer besides invigorating smartphone setup music. The design at first feels pretty solid.
In years past, ROG has iconically been the phone with the metal hump and vents out the back glass
for cooling. This year they've done away with the vents in exchange for a pretty cool back display.
It can show notifications and charging status among other things. I mean, personally I think
more RGBs would have been cool, but I'm all for the creativeness that goes into gaming phones.
There are dual USB-C ports as you can tell so you can charge the phone horizontally while gaming,
as well as add plug-in accessories, like the aerial active thermoelectric cooler
that's like a portable refrigerator for your phone. A cool accessory to be sure.
Let's begin the scratch test...After
removing the pre-installed screen protector, of course. This standardized scratch test can
find out what the screen is made from. At $1300 it could very well be sapphire. But
as we work our way up through Mohs scale of hardness past level 2 where we would
see plastic start to scratch, and beyond level 5, we do start seeing scratches at
a level 6 with deeper grooves at a level 7. The ROG 6 Pro is using Gorilla Glass Victis,
at least on the front. This means that the 12 megapixel selfie camera tucked up into the top
bezel is also protected by that same glass. Between the glass and the frame we have a
super thin and deep earpiece slit that doubles as one of the symmetrical loudspeakers. There
is an equally sized slit at the bottom. No grill or anything else that would fall out.
The sides of the ROG 6 Pro near the gaming triggers are made from anodized aluminum,
and surprisingly the buttons are removable. We have the smaller metal power button with a blue
accent, and the larger volume rocker that can also pop out of the phone like we've
seen on Samsung devices. So be careful if you have the type of friends who would steal your
buttons. Also if you have the type of friends who would steal your buttons, you need new friends.
The top of the phone has nothing...just
like Ye after last week. And here on the left side we have again the accessory USB-C port
which can also fully charge the dual batteries at a whopping 65 watts. The cute little blue SIM
card tray once again does not have a rubber ring around the opening. The 6 Pro is ipx4,
meaning that it can handle a bit of a splash or a sprinkle of liquid, but no submersions.
If we look really close, closer than we've ever looked at a SIM card tray before, we do
see the tiniest of little rubber lips, which is probably to help keep the SIM card tray in place.
Down here at the bottom we have another 65 watt USB-C port. Only one can be used to charge the
phone at a time. We also have a headphone jack which is pretty rare these days. One thing I
can definitely appreciate with the ROG6 Pro is the attention to detail and the refreshingly
unique design. For example, just beyond the secondary 2 inch screen we have embossed text.
Instead of using a sticker inlaying or engraving, ROG has raised letters on the
glass. It's subtle but satisfyingly different. It's hard to read the clear on white text,
but it says 'Join the Republic.' Republic is the “R” in ROG. Moving our way up to the camera bump,
we have our 50 megapixel main camera, 13 megapixel ultra wide,
and a 5 megapixel macro camera, all protected by glass with a singular flash off to the side.
Enclosed in an ever so slightly protruding camera bump. So far I'm a pretty big fan of
the ROG 6 Pro. The 6.8 inch 1080p screen takes visualization to another level with
1 billion colors, 165 hertz refresh rate, and from the looks of it, the display lasts about
30 seconds under the heat from my lighter before burning black and not recovering. It's AMOLED.
Last year the fingerprint scanner struggled with my fingerprint. And for some reason most phones
do. This ROG 6 Pro is no different. It thinks my thumbprint is dirty even though it's not.
It'll be nice when the underscreen technology improves enough to function with people who
work with their hands. Once it was set, and then damaged with some level 7 deeper grooves,
the scanner does continue to function just fine though, even with the extra scratches. There's
a shortage of perfect phones in the world and it would be a pity to damage this one. Historically,
most phones do survive my durability tests, but at first glance, since ROG hasn't changed anything
structurally from last year's catastrophe, I don't have high hopes for this year.
I guess if nothing changes...then nothing changes. The ROG Phone 6 Pro fails my durability test
catastrophically again. That's two years in a row now. The front glass of the phone, while
majorly curved and not functional anymore, doesn't appear to be cracked. The back glass however, is
obliterated with just the foil barely holding the glass shards together. We'll have to dive deeper
into the structure during the teardown, but at first glance it looks like the bend test happened
between the two batteries again just like last year, along that metal motherboard and at that
centrally placed power button and side USB-C port on each of the frame rails. Crazy enough the rear
screen does appear to still be lit and functional under the obliteration, so thumbs up for that.
Super impressive rear screen there ROG. The front screen has no surface level cracks, nice work
Victus, but the screen under the protective top glass is cracked and won't be functioning again.
Hopefully ROG is already working on a solution for next year since, in my opinion, the world's most
powerful smartphone should also be able to handle the physical world as well as the digital world.
And, of course, I'll be right here to keep you updated on if anything changes.
Hit that subscribe button if you haven't already. Let me know your thoughts down in the
comments, and come hang out with me on Instagram. Thanks a ton for watching. I'll see you around.