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Asus's ROG Phone and Xiaomi's Black Shark series have become the pinnacle of mobile gaming. Gamers used to rely on generic flagship phones to game on, but with the advent of dedicated smartphones that present tailor-made cooling solutions and hardware, the times have changed significantly.
Most play on portable devices like smartphones if gaming hardware surveys are anything to go by, which isn't a surprising fact. Games on mobile are significantly cheaper than games on consoles or PCs. Not only this, gaming dedicated phones don't cost a bomb, unlike the ever-increasing prices of GPUs, generation after generation.
Now, the question is, which of the two most popular and custom-designed gaming phones should one get in 2023? Is it the ROG Phone 6D Ultimate or the Black Shark 5 Pro? Let's dive deep to find out.
ROG Phone 6D Ultimate or Black Shark 5 Pro? Which is the definitive gaming phone to buy this year?
On paper, the ROG Phone 6D Ultimate is better equipped and faster than Xiaomi Black Shark 5 Pro
The ROG Phone relies on MediaTek's Dimensity 9000+, which is 10% to 15% faster than the Black Shark 5 Pro's offers with its Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. Even though this factor makes the ROG Phone statistically better, the difference isn't noticeable in gaming except for a few frames per second.
The ROG Phone 6D Ultimate is only available in one variant, 16 GB RAM and 512 GB storage, while the Black Shark 5 Pro is available starting from 8 GB and 128 GB. The difference is stark since the latter starts at a much lower price than the ROG Phone 6D Ultimate.
Both of these devices, however, come equipped with UFS 3.1 storage tech, which boasts incredibly high sequential read and write speeds. The new UFS storage tech is faster than traditional SSDs.
While the Black Shark 5 Pro has an LPDDR5 RAM, the ROG Phone 6D Ultimate has faster memory bandwidth and lower latency than the former. This factor, combined with a faster system on chipset (SoC), will result in a few more fps in favor of the ROG.
The 6D Ultimate also boasts a much bigger battery of 6000 mAh compared to the 4650 mAh of the 5 Pro. Xiaomi offers much faster charging than the ASUS flagship, but the latter lasts much longer on a single charge.
Both phones offer vivid and beautiful OLED screens with good brightness levels regarding display and refresh rate. However, the 6D Ultimate edges past the 5 Pro, thanks to a higher refresh rate of 165 Hz compared to 144 Hz on the latter. This difference is not massive, but gamers who want to experience the maximum fps possible should consider the 6D Ultimate over the 5 Pro.
The ROG Phone offers better cooling than the Black Shark, while both of them have unique approaches to triggers
These top-of-the-line gaming phones employ vapor chambers to cool the SoC, as there is no other way to extract maximum performance without overheating it. Unsurprisingly, both devices manage heat dissipation considerably well. While the Black Shark 5 Pro employs a twice as large vapor chamber as last year, the 6D Ultimate provides an optional air intake vent that opens automatically whenever an AeroActive cooler is attached.
This advantage implies that the 6D Ultimate never runs out of breathing room. With optimal airflow guaranteed with an accessory, the thermal performance of the Asus ROG is superior to the Shark 5 Pro. But this benefit by no means implies that Xiaomi overheats.
Cameras are good on both, but the Shark 5 Pro wins the price-to-performance hands down
The 5 Pro has a 108 MP wide camera at the back compared to the 50 MP on the Asus. As has become common knowledge in the tech community, megapixels are part of the equation but don't govern the quality exclusively. Considering this factor, the rear camera shots of both these phones are about the same in terms of quality, with the Asus opting for a slightly warmer touch than Xiaomi. Selfies do look better on Xiaomi, though.
It is no doubt that the 6D Ultimate is the more powerful, more advanced in terms of heat dissipation, and more expensive of the two. For the price difference, you are getting a device that outperforms everything on the market by a good margin. You also get features like ultrasonic air triggers on the sides that are extremely responsive and useful.
Unfortunately, the price-to-performance of the 5 Pro is extremely difficult to beat. For almost half the price, the device offers more or less equal performance with some noticeable differences in frames per second. Moreover, the UI on Xiaomi may not be as slick and clean as the Asus, but it gets the job done and doesn’t lag.
As an overall recommendation, it would be the 5 Pro, thanks to its incredible features at a very affordable price. For the best model with all the latest bells and whistles, opt for the 6D Ultimate from Asus.
