LightBlog

dimanche 10 juillet 2022

Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro Review: The Pixel Ultra of gaming phones

The Asus ROG line of smartphones is a fairly under-popular one, and that’s thanks to the difficulty most will face in actually purchasing a device in the series. Depending on where you live, there may be no “normal” retailers to purchase one, so you may have to import it. Nevertheless, past smartphones in this series, like the ROG Phone 5, generally go all-out on specifications, and the Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro does exactly that. The Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1, dual front-firing speakers, two USB-C ports, and even a headphone jack — it has literally everything.

XDA Best Award
This is primarily a gaming phone, but that’s the amazing thing about gaming phones — anything that’s good for gaming will be good for everything, too. Think about it: a stellar display is great for gaming, but it’s also nice just to use. Loudspeakers for gaming? Good for listening to music too. The only feature that doesn’t matter for gaming is the camera, and as a result, it’s underpowered when compared to the rest of the phone. However, it also isn’t actually all that bad this year around.

If what you want is a super-powerful phone with incredible specifications, and you don’t mind the camera not being the best of the best, then the Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro is definitely worth a shot. It’s pricey, but it’s also the most crazily-specced phone that I’ve used in a long time. It really does have everything.

    Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro
    The Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro packs basically everything you could ever need in one package, and it looks great to boot. From the phone's presentation when unboxing to its overall aesthetic, Asus really knocked it out of the park.

      Features:

      Pros:

      Cons:

ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro


Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro: Specifications

Specification Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro
Build
  • Corning Gorilla Glass Victus
  • IPX4 water resistance
Dimensions & Weight
  • 173 x 77 x 10.3mm
  • 239g
Display
  • 6.78-inch FHD+ AMOLED
  • 2448 x 1080p resolution (395PPI)
  • 165Hz refresh rate
  • 720Hz touch sampling rate
  • 5-800nits brightness @APL100 + HBM
  • 1200nits peak brightness @APL1
  • 111.23% DCI-P3 coverage
  • 150.89% sRGB coverage
  • 1,000,000: 1 contrast ratio
  • Pixelworks i6 processor
SoC
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1
  • Adreno 730 GPU
RAM & Storage
  • Up to 18GB LPDDR5 RAM
  • Up to 512GB UFS 3.1 storage
Battery & Charging
  • 6,000mAh
  • 65W wired fast charging support
Security  In-display fingerprint sensor
Rear Camera(s)
  • Primary: 50MP IMX766
  • Ultra-wide: 13MP
  • Macro: 2MP
Front Camera(s) 12MP IMX663
Port(s)
  • Dual USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C
  • 3.5mm headphone jack
Audio
  • 5-magnet 12×16 Super Linear Speakers
  • 2x Cirrus Logic CS35L45 with 15V boost
  • Tri-microphone array
Connectivity
  • 5G
  • 4G LTE
  • Wi-Fi 6E
  • Bluetooth 5.2
    • LDAC, aptX, aptX HD, aptX adaptive, AAC
  • NFC
Software
  • ROG UI & Zen UI based on Android 12
  • 2 OS upgrades and 2 years of security updates
Accessories/other features
  • Aero case
  • HyperCharge power adapter
  • ROG Vision color PMOLED display

About this review: I received the Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro from Asus on the 17th of June, 2022. My colleague, Aamir Siddiqui, also received the device from Asus. While the company provided us with review units, it did not have any input into the contents of this review.


Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro: Design

ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro back in hand

I like how Asus isn't afraid to do something different with the ROG Phone series

The ROG Phone experience begins with the unboxing itself, with an exaggerated package and an AR unboxing. We have a dedicated article on unboxing the Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro, so check that out to know what you get inside the box.

The best part of the Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro is that it’s not a gaming phone with the most gamer aesthetic. I’ve seen worse, and I like how Asus isn’t afraid to do something different. Asus added some accenting on the power button and the SIM tray. The aluminum frame also has ROG branding where the ultrasonic AirTriggers are. There are plenty of inscriptions on the back, but the camera module looks nice and the lit-up “dare to play” insignia looks cool.

Of course, the display on the back is also one of the most unique parts of the design of this phone. You can stick any animation you want on it, and there are plenty of pre-made animations that can be enabled in different scenarios, too. It’s fun, and that’s something I love to see on phones. Maybe it’s not your cup of tea, but you can disable it if you want to, or use it as a notification ticker.

Speaking of displays, though, the Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro does something special with it: there’s no notch, and there’s no punch-hole. That’s partially the reason for the screen being so big — the display is entirely unimpeded, with the front-facing camera being situated above the display instead. You get more than just that though too. You get dual front-facing speakers that are equally capable at each end, and you even get a notification LED — talk about a blast from the past. It’s not customizable, which is annoying (the most you can do is disable it on a per-app basis) but it’s incredible that it’s even present.

The display of the Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro is excellent, reaching up to 1200 nits of brightness on the 165Hz AMOLED panel. The reason for the lower resolution display is for performance pushing, as 1440p is graphically intensive to render. Particularly when trying to reacher higher frame rates like 165 FPS, every bit of overhead being freed up matters. While you can change the refresh rate to be as low as 60Hz (which also unlocks a DC Dimming option), it’s not an LTPO display.

What the Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro does have though is an even higher touch sampling rate, sitting comfortably above much of the competition at 720Hz. This means that it scans for input every 1.4ms, and Asus says that thanks to the increased touch sampling rate, the Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro has a touch latency of 23ms. The discrepancy is because while it can read input every 1.4ms, it still has to process that input.

That display isn’t just fast, though, it also supports HDR10+, and it’s powered by a Pixelworks i6 processor. The Pixelworks i6 processor can be used for tone mapping in HDR and is also used for refresh rate calibration. It basically provides a way to use AI to improve the screen quality, though Asus hasn’t explained how it’s used in this case. There are screen-off gestures too so that you can draw letters on the screen with the screen off to trigger actions.

Bottom USB-C port on the ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro Side USB-C port on the ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro

There’s a second USB-C port on the left-hand side of the phone, and it’s even better than the bottom-firing one. It supports HDMI output, and it’s where some accessories (such as the AeroActive cooler) get plugged in. The bottom-firing USB-C port is your standard port, and it’s across from a 3.5mm headphone jack.

Another cool trick that the Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro pulls off is the addition of “Air Triggers”. They are ultrasonic zones on the side of the phone that can be used to detect various inputs, and can be assigned to actions in games through touch mappings. You can also use them throughout the system, and they enable a squeezing motion that you can use normally, too. On my device, I have it configured that when I squeeze the phone in my hand, the Google Assistant is called. You can enable a long squeeze or a short sweep, and you can also have a long press gesture for when you long-press both triggers.

The haptics of the Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro feels excellent in the hand

In games, Asus’ Air Triggers can detect the following:

  • Tap
  • Dual partition buttons (tap each side of the button)
  • Swipe across
  • Slide across (slower)
  • Tap and swipe
  • Tap and slide

Finally, the haptics of the Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro feels excellent in the hand. Typing is a great experience, and you won’t miss phone calls or notifications when the phone is in your pocket if you’re relying on vibration. Asus did a great job here, as they’re punchy without feeling over the top, and they avoid feeling “mushy” as some other phones may feel.


Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro: Performance

The entire point of the Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro can be summed up in one word: gaming. Pretty much everything about this phone was designed with consideration as to how it would affect the gaming experience, and obviously, performance is paramount when it comes to gaming. This phone has the fastest UFS 3.1 storage (and a lot of it), 18GB of LPDDR5 RAM, and the most powerful chipset at the heart of it — the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1. This is the fastest Android smartphone on paper, and in reality, it matches that experience.

The Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 features an improved Qualcomm Kryo CPU, with a Cortex-X2 prime core clocked at 3.2Ghz, three Cortex A710 performance cores clocked at 2.8GHz, and four Cortex A510 efficiency cores clocked at 2.0GHz. Qualcomm claims that the upgraded CPU is 10 percent faster than the one on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and offers 30 percent better CPU power efficiency. We made similar findings in our testing of the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 reference device that Asus previously shared with us.

The ROG Phone 6 Pro is every bit as fast as you can expect

This phone is every bit as fast as you can expect, and while we’ll expand on it more in the battery section, the efficiency is up to snuff, too. This really is a powerful phone and the fastest that I have ever used. Pretty much every single game you can think of will run flawlessly, and I’ve been playing a lot of Ratchet & Clank and The Simpsons: Hit & Run. I can maintain a solid 60 FPS in both titles, and emulation is some of the most intensive processing you can put any smartphone through. I recently flew from Dublin to Berlin, and this phone with the Kunai GamePad and the AeroActive cooler, complete with AetherSX2, was what kept me company.

ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro in the Kunai 3 gamepad

CPU Throttling Test

CPU Throttling Test no AeroActive cooler CPU Throttling Test with AeroActive cooler

CPU Throttling Test is a freely available app on the Google Play Store, and it repeats a simple multithreaded test in C for as short as 15 minutes. We increased the length of time to 30 minutes. The app charts the score over time so you can see when the phone starts throttling. The score is measured in GIPS — or billion operations per second. It’s essentially a test that can measure the sustained performance of a chipset. While the phone does heat up, it’s not unbearably hot and is perfectly usable even at the hottest that it achieved.

With the AeroActive Cooler attached, I noticed as well that the Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro did perform better than you would expect. It achieved a maximum of 377 GIPs, whereas, without the cooler, the maximum it achieved was 341 GIPS. That’s nearly a 10% increase in maximum performance, and the average was also similarly higher with the cooler attached. It’s not a necessity, but it’s clear you’ll definitely have some benefits when using the cooler on your phone.

Gaming — The Simpsons: Hit & Run, and Genshin Impact

Playing The Simpsons: Hit & Run was a pleasant experience, and the game runs near flawlessly. I played with a 2x internal resolution, and the game ran at more or less 60 FPS at all times. The phone heated up a lot, but keep in mind that the phone was charging while playing. I also discovered an issue within AetherSX2 that was very specific to one mission. Whenever Professor Frink’s hovercar drove by cloaked, the GPU usage would jump to 100% and the FPS would tank. This threw off some of our results, though they were still impressive nonetheless. We measured the game’s performance with GameBench, and the results were as good as you’d expect.

Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro Simpsons Hit & Run Stats

Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro simpsons hit and run stats

The section on Genshin Impact was written by my colleague and XDA Editor-in-Chief, Aamir Siddiqui.

We mention the Genshin Impact experience in the Gaming Experience section below as well. For the purposes of objective testing, we ran the game at absolute maximum settings at 60 FPS. We also took measurements using the Gamebench phone app instead of the desktop app, so the phone was not charging throughout the session. Further, this test was conducted without the AeroActive Cooler 6.

As we mention further down, Genshin Impact is an amazing experience, with practically no noticeable frame drops at all. Genshin Impact has a bunch of loading screens, and the frame rate invariably drops at those instances, which is why you see the fps stability tanking a bit towards the end as I dipped in and out of realms to do resin-based artifact farming within the game. There’s a very slight throttling noticeable past the 10-minute mark, but remember, this is a game that is pushing the phone and the SoC to some of its highest peaks for extended durations. The temperature measured around the phone was around 37° C towards the sides where your fingers rest, while the SoC was a toasty 45° C. But because of the positioning of the chip towards the middle, you don’t actually feel this heat. We also played the game for about 37 minutes and recorded a 17% drop in battery. So even at the end of a 30+ minute maxed-out gaming session without using a cooler, your experience with the phone remains largely unchanged.

We would like to give special thanks to the team at GameBench for the tool they provided us. Their tool makes it possible for any person, whether it be a regular user,  journalist, or engineer, to test a mobile game’s performance on an Android device. Check out GameBench to learn more.

Geekbench, 3DMark Wild Life Extreme, and Androbench

Geekbench is a CPU-centric test that we all know and love. It uses several computational workloads including encryption, compression (text and images), rendering, physics simulations, computer vision, ray tracing, speech recognition, and convolutional neural network inference on images. The score breakdown gives specific metrics. 3DMark Wild Life tests the GPU, and AndroBench tests the storage speed of the phone.

ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro 3DMark Wild Life Extreme test ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro AndroBench ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro Geekbench 5

The ROG Phone 6 Pro presents chart-topping performance across the board

It goes without saying, but this is chart-topping performance across the board. Every single one of these results is incredible, with these clearly demonstrating the computational prowess of Asus’ latest gaming smartphone. It dominates pretty much everything it comes across in the Android realm and is just within the 10% performance range of the iPhone 13 Pro in 3DMark’s Wild Life Extreme test.

X-Mode

Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro X Mode Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro X Mode

Asus’ X-Mode is a feature that essentially aims to maximize performance, and you can enable it at any time on your phone. It reduces thermal throttling and activates other features that can affect or improve your gaming experience. For example, you can have it disable background syncing, automatically enable HyperFusion, and automatically activate Dual-Band Wi-Fi. What I found interesting was that it defaulted to enabling the 144Hz screen refresh rate, rather than 165Hz. As a result, until I disabled it, entering X-Mode would actually reduce my screen refresh rate. It’s a bit of an odd quirk, but not a big deal as you can just disable it or change it to automatically increase the refresh rate to 165Hz instead.

The introduction of “dual-band wi-fi” is interesting, as there are very few use cases where it will actually help the end-user. It can’t increase ping, as each packet will be sent via a single route. Sending over multiple routes isn’t possible as packets would need to be split up, so it’s likely that your phone would simply stick to 5GHz for the lower latency.

As for increasing bandwidth, 5GHz Wi-Fi offers significantly higher bandwidth over 2.4GHz. I have gigabit internet, and without dual-band wi-fi enabled, I get 370 Mbps over Wi-Fi. With it enabled, I get 220 Mbps. I sometimes get a much lower score when I enable the feature versus disabling it. It’s completely inconsistent, which I can only imagine might be related to the fact that it’s switching between the two connections. I managed to get 430 Mbps one time with dual-band enabled, but most of the time it was either significantly lower or sometimes on par with just using my 5GHz network.

In short, your mileage may vary depending on your network conditions. It hasn’t really changed anything for me, and I’d rather leave a feature like this off in case it messes with the stability of my connection when playing games or when I’m on a call.

Game Genie

asus rog phone 6 pro game genie asus rog phone 6 pro game genie asus rog phone 6 pro game genie

Asus’ Game Genie is a dashboard that launches alongside your games and can be accessed as an overlay. It offers quick and easy access to features you may want to modify or look at, such as screen recording, Air Trigger mapping, real-time stats, and more. It’s a fully thought-out overlay with a lot to offer, and you can even enable a crosshair, record macros, and search the internet all from the comfort of your overlay.

Gaming experience

This section was written by my colleague and XDA Editor-in-Chief, Aamir Siddiqui.

The Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro has an amazing experience when you are gaming, and you expect nothing else from a gaming smartphone and moreso from one aiming to be the best one around. My colleague Aamir Siddiqui has spent a fair few hours dipped across games like Genshin Impact, Ingress Prime, Pokemon Go, and Clash of Clans, to see what the experience has been.

For more casual titles, like Clash of Clans, the ROG Phone 6 Pro breaks no sweat, at all. You could easily be one hour deep into raiding villages and strategizing for your next clan war, and the phone will barely get warm. You don’t even need the AeroActive Cooler for casual titles played in landscape, as the phone does just fine with heat dissipation on its own. The SoC being centered also means that you just never really feel the heat. I wasn’t particularly able to take advantage of the ultrasonic AirTrigger 6 buttons on this particular game, as there is a lot more contextual tapping in the game depending on where you are deploying troops — I mapped the Next button to the right trigger for a tap, but the button in-game is fairly easy to reach with the thumb so I disabled it.

Clash of Clans on the ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro

The situation is slightly different for Ingress Prime and Pokemon Go, both of which are games that are played in portrait orientation and outdoors: the weather is extremely hot and humid these days, and the SoC positioning makes this a fairly uncomfortable phone for portrait games. While the phone still doesn’t break a sweat, the ambient heat around you will make it so that you start noticing the heat emanating from the SoC. There is no thermal throttling, but the heat dissipation on the phone (any phone for that matter) and the placement of the SoC do not make it the best phone for an outdoor, portrait game. While the AeroActive cooler seems like a good idea to help with the heat dissipation, it’s not the best idea to add on for a game that requires so much movement as it adds a lot of bulk. The side-mounted USB Type C port is also good for attaching a power bank, albeit you have to be conscious of the weight of the phone.

The battery on the ROG Phone 6 Pro is amazing

The battery is amazing though, so sneaking in some Gym battles and Portal capturing while casually traveling around remains feasible without causing any battery anxiety. The AirTriggers remained largely unutilized in both of these games too, simply because you have only the top right AirTrigger practically available, and the ROG Phone 6 Pro is a tall and heavy phone to bother with finger gymnastics. The front-firing speakers are amazing outdoors, as long as you don’t mind putting up with the music on these games.

Titles like Genshin Impact are precisely where the ROG Phone 6 Pro shines, and it shines brighter than anything I have ever played this game on. Genshin Impact is played in landscape, and you can switch the graphics from the modest settings that are selected by the game by default, and crank it all the way up to the max. You can play this game at max at 60fps, and even after 2 hours of continuous gaming, there was no noticeable lag or throttling in the game, at least nothing that I could experience in the middle of all the action and cutscenes. Genshin Impact plays so amazingly on this phone, it is almost like the ROG Phone 6 Pro begs you to play the game on max, and the phone enjoys making short work of the game like its no-big-deal.

Yes, the phone gets hot when you do push it to these settings. But which phone doesn’t? What surprises me is the sheer consistency of performance: the game performs perceivably the same at the end of 120 minutes of gaming as it did on the first minute of gaming. Yes, the aluminum frame also becomes fairly hot to touch by the end of it, and that’s an indication for you to either take a break or make use of the case that came along with the phone to add another layer between yourself and the phone. Using the AeroActive 6 cooler on Genshin Impact was a good experience, although there is a separate conversation to be had on how the heat is exhausted right onto your fingers (more on this in our dedicated AeroActive 6 cooler review, coming soon).

ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro Genshin Impact

Genshin Impact was the game on which I could finally make use of the AirTriggers with some sense. I had them mapped for jumping and sprinting for the tap action which fit in well with how I played the game. I had the buttons on the AeroActive 6 cooler mapped to dialogue points since I find them annoying to tap with the thumb every 3 seconds. I realize I still am underutilizing the ultrasonic buttons and the cooler buttons, so something I would have liked is a way for Asus to share recommended presets for some popular games. Or maybe a way for users to share their mappings for different games, as there is a whole bunch of permutations and combinations to explore here. Games like PUBG Mobile with a lot more static, non-contextual buttons on the screen will be able to take better advantage of AirTriggers.

What adds to the experience on Genshin Impact at max settings are the dual front-firing speakers. Genshin has some amazing music in its cutscenes, and the ROG Phone 6 Pro plays them back with richness and depth. You’ll very likely end up bringing the volume down soon enough since the game has repetitive music for combat. But the phone delivers, so you can rest assured that the great experience carries on over to other landscape titles like PUBG Mobile, Call of Duty Mobile, and Fortnite.

UI Stutter/Jank test

To quantify how well the Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro can maintain 165 FPS in real-world scenarios, we ran a modified version of Google’s open-source JankBench benchmark. This benchmark simulates a handful of common tasks you’ll see in everyday apps, including scrolling through a ListView with text, scrolling through a ListView with images, scrolling through a grid view with a shadow effect, scrolling through a low-hitrate text render view, scrolling through a high-hitrate text render view, inputting and editing text with the keyboard, repeating overdraws with cards, and uploading bitmaps. Our script records the draw time for each frame during the test, eventually plotting all the frames and their draw times in a plot along with several horizontal lines representing the target frame draw times for the 4 common display refresh rates (60Hz, 120Hz, 144Hz, and 165Hz.)

The results above show that Asus is somewhat conservative when it allows the Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro to reach that 165Hz goal. It definitely can do it, but it’s clear that the company is a bit heavy-handed in when apps can utilize it. I haven’t noticed it dropping, but it clearly does at times.


Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro: Camera

ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro camera lens

This is a gaming phone, and as is always the case with a gaming phone, the camera is the least important aspect. Unsurprisingly, though, in Asus’ pursuit of greatness, the camera got a little bit of love too. It’s not a worldbeater by any stretch, nor would I say that you should ever be buying this phone for the camera. But surprisingly, it’s actually decent. I was able to get some decent shots with it and even took it with me to a concert where I was surprised by the video quality.

ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro

Asus packs the Sony IMX766 50MP sensor as a primary shooter, a 13MP ultra-wide, and a 5MP macro camera. There’s no dedicated telephoto option here, but Asus uses the 50MP sensor to shoot at 2x lossless in bright light situations. When it’s dark, it turns to digital zoom. Asus put a pretty capable shooter in this smartphone, enough that I think pretty much anyone buying a gaming phone for gaming will be happy with it.

As for 8K video recording, it’s mostly just a gimmick. You’ll be hard pushed to find anything that can play 8K video and display it natively, and you lose out on all of the benefits at recording at a more “normal” resolution. There’s no EIS, there’s no additional HDR processing, and it’s essentially just a “raw” video. You can use it if you’d like, but I’d definitely recommend recording in something like 4K instead if you want high-resolution video footage.


Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro: Software

The software of the Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro greatly impressed me, a lot more than I expected it to. For context, I’ve never used an Asus smartphone before, and my only experience of gaming phones has been through the likes of Black Shark and RedMagic. As a result, I’m used to the over-the-top gamer UI that those companies frequently pack, and I was amazed to learn that that wasn’t the case here. In fact, ZenUI is an incredibly tame implementation of Android 12 with some genuinely useful features. You can opt for a gamer-y icon pack aesthetic at setup, but Asus lets you water that down to a more regular-looking icon set if you want to.

There haven’t been many issues I ran into when it came to software. The biggest that I found is that the audio will crackle when the screen rotation changes, though that’s about it. I get notifications, apps work, they aren’t really killed in the background, and it’s overall a pleasant experience. Asus did a great job here, and I haven’t found that there’s any “bloat” in terms of features. Everything that’s needed to use a modern Android smartphone is here, along with Armoury Crate for changing lighting effects and others.

There were a couple of features that stood out to me, though. Asus has surfaced a couple of options from developer options to be accessible through normal menus, including animation speed changing and codec choosing for Bluetooth earphones. Both of these are features that normal users may want to take a look at (especially animation speed) so it totally makes sense to surface these for normal users to take a look at.

As well, Asus introduces other features too, such as Optiflex. Optiflex “accelerates app launches, reduces app reloads, and saves power on standby” according to the company, and is enabled by default for Google Chrome, Facebook, Gmail, and YouTube on my device. It can auto-select based on usage. There’s also Twin App support so that you can have two versions of the same app at the same time: for example, two WhatsApp accounts.

I think it's fair to call the ROG Phone 6 Pro the Google Pixel of gaming phones

In a sense, I think it’s fair to call this the Google Pixel of gaming phones. While there aren’t a lot of software features, the ones that Asus incorporates are completely nailed. The company did a fantastic job at software, packing features that practically everyone will make use of. There’s a level of simplicity I can really appreciate, as there’s nothing that gets in between you and your gaming.


Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro: Battery & Charging

The Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro packs a pretty monstrous 6,000 mAh battery, one of the largest in any flagship phone currently. Couple that with the new Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1, and Asus is on to a winner. I’ve seen as high as eight hours of screen on time from my heavy usage, though it’ll typically be between four and six hours — still very good. That includes gaming, a lot of photography, a lot of messaging, media consumption, and more.

ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro charging time

As for charging, the Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro packs a 65W USB PD-compliant charger in the box. You can use it to charge all of your other USB PD devices too, making it one of the best USB PD chargers out there. I use it to charge my laptop as well, so it’s the only charger that I need to bring with me when I got out. Basically, you’ll get it from 0% to 100% in under 45 minutes, which is incredibly fast and on-par with pretty much all other flagship phones on the market right now.

The Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro achieves some really good battery life, and it seems to be a combination of the more efficient Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chipset, and the massive battery that the phone contains, too. No matter what, it bodes well for future flagship phones that companies are going to release with this new chipset, and hopefully, all of them have much-improved battery life.

If you’re impressed by that battery life, you’ll also want to protect the battery as much as possible to prevent that capacity from being diminished. Thankfully, Asus has two protections built in that will help you do exactly that. The first is bypass charging, which you can enable and will allow you to power your phone without charging the battery and without using it up, either. It basically powers your phone directly from the wall outlet, so less heat is generated and your battery can “rest”.

On top of that, you enable both “steady charging” and a battery charging limit. Steady charging will charge your phone slower to, again, generate less heat, and the charging limit will allow you to limit charging your phone to 80%, 90%, or 100% if you want to protect your battery health, too.


Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro: Miscellaneous

Security

The Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro has face unlock and an under-display optical fingerprint scanner. Both options work well, though face unlocking won’t work with a mask on.

Audio

The speakers on the Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro sound phenomenal. They get really loud, are equally balanced, and are the best speakers I have ever heard on a smartphone. What’s more, you get a headphone jack if you want to listen to wired audio (particularly when you’re gaming), so it’s an all-around great experience when listening to music or playing games.

IP Rating

The ROG Phone 6 series comes with an IPX4 rating, meaning the smartphone can handle a few splashes of water, and you should avoid getting it wet beyond that point. This may not seem particularly impressive in this day and age of IP68 smartphones, but this phone has a dramatically different design and port situation than those smartphones. I would have loved to see a higher rating, obviously, but considering everything else this phone can do, an IPX4 rating works for now.

Bootloader unlocking, kernel sources, and software updates

You can unlock the bootloader of the Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro, and Asus has already released both the unlocking tool and the kernel source. The unlocking process completely wipes the phone and disables subsequent OTA updates. Furthermore, an unlocked bootloader may void the warranty for this device

Software updates are the biggest downside of this phone. Despite the incredible hardware specifications thrown at it, it’s a shame that Asus will only support it with up to two major Android platform updates. With many companies extending that support to three or even four years of updates, Asus has stagnated and only stuck with two.


Should you buy the Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro?

There's so much to love about the ROG Phone 6

There’s so much to love about this phone, and it’s really hard to find any major faults. If what you want is a great camera, then you should probably pass, but otherwise, I can’t think of any other major criticisms I have. Everything about this phone is stellar, and Asus has put together a phenomenally, dare I say it, overpowered package. Does anyone need 18GB of RAM? What about a rear-facing display? Or even two USB-C ports? There’s a very specific niche that these all do something for, but it all being in one package like this is the craziest part of the entire ordeal.

I absolutely love the Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro, and I’m blown away by just how much the company put into this phone. Is it overkill? Certainly. Is it cool? Extremely. If what you want is a gaming phone that serves as a normal smartphone too, then this is honestly the phone to get. It really does do it all, and without the cringe hardcore gamer aesthetics too, it’s a phone that would fit pretty much anyone. The only issue is pricing; coming in at €1299 (that’s £1099 in the U.K.), it’s a pricey smartphone to come across. That with the shorter support window may concern you, and that’s to be expected. In fact, if you want to save a bit of money, the regular ROG Phone 6 might be up your alley. It costs €999, and all you’ll lose is the customizable back panel, and you’ll downgrade to just be able to get up to 16GB of RAM. Oh, the horror.

ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro held out in the hand, against a canopy of trees with the sunset in the backdrop

Nevertheless, I think that smartphones like these do serve a purpose, and it’s clear that Asus is targeting a little bit more of the mainstream now. The cameras are certainly a weak point, but even those can be forgiven when there’s this much power. Google does a terrible job at gaming but a great job at software and cameras. Asus does a great job at gaming and software but doesn’t really impress with the cameras. So in a way, it truly is the Google Pixel Ultra of gaming.

    Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro
    The Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro packs basically everything you could ever need in one package, and it looks great to boot. From the phone's presentation when unboxing to its overall aesthetic, Asus really knocked it out of the park.

The post Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro Review: The Pixel Ultra of gaming phones appeared first on XDA.



from XDA https://ift.tt/gN0CL1F
via IFTTT

How to send ebooks, documents, and webpages to your Amazon Kindle

The Kindle ebook readers are the best devices for reading. Their glare-free E Ink displays are easier on the eyes and read like paper, and since they’re disconnected from the world of social media, they provide a distraction-free, focused reading experience. If you’re a serious reader, a Kindle is a no-brainer and a bunch of us at XDA would agree with it.

If you just bought yourself a Kindle e-reader, you maybe be wondering whether you can transfer your books and documents stored on your PC or phone to your e-reader. Although the Kindle is tightly integrated into the Amazon ecosystem, Amazon lets you add your own ebooks and documents to the device. However, the process isn’t as straightforward as transferring files between your PC and smartphone.

 Navigate this article:

First step: Find out your Kindle email address

Amazon offers a service called Send to Kindle that lets you send supported files to your Kindle e-reader by email. To use it, you’ll need to find out your Kindle email address — it’s different from the email address associated with your Amazon account.

  • On your smartphone or PC browser, go to Amazon.
  • Navigate to Your Account > Content and devices > Devices.
  • Under “Amazon devices,” you should see your Kindle e-reader (as shown below). If you don’t see it, ensure you’re signed into your Kindle using the same Amazon account.

Amazon's Manage your device section

  • Click on the device to reveal Device Summary, which lists your Kindle email address.

Amazon's device page displaying Device Sumary for Kindle Paperwhite

  • This is your default Kindle email address, and it’s automatically generated. If you wish, you can change it to something you like by clicking the “Edit” button.

This is the email address where you will send books and documents. But note that you can’t use just any personal email address to send files. To see the approved email addresses that can send documents to your Kindle, click on the Preference tab and scroll down to Personal Document Settings. At the bottom, you’ll see “Approved Personal Document E-mail List,” which should list the email attached to your Amazon account. If you want to authorize a new email account, click “Add a new approved e-mail address” and enter the new address.

Approved Email list Amazon


How to send books and documents to your Kindle?

Do it wirelessly

Now that you have the Kindle email address, it’s time to send files to your e-reader. The process is very simple. All you have to do is email the file you wish to send to Kindle as a file attachment.

  • Open Gmail or any email client you’re using.
  • Compose a new mail and in the sender’s address, put the Send-to-Kindle email address.
  • Don’t put anything in the subject or body.

An email generated by Send to Kindle app

  • Attach the document and hit send. That’s it.
  • The document will appear on your Kindle shortly. It may take a while, depending on the size of the document.

Tip: If you’re sending a PDF file, you have two options. You can send the file as it is, which will preserve the original formatting and graphics, but you won’t be able to use variable fonts or Whispersync. The second is to convert the PDF to the Kindle format. For this, simply add “Convert” in the subject line when emailing the file, and Amazon will handle the rest.

Kindle supports a wide variety of files types, including:

  • EPUB
  • PDF
  • HTML
  • Microsoft Word (.DOC, DOCX)
  • JPEG
  • PNG
  • GIF
  • BMP
  • RTF

Amazon has dropped support for MOBI and AZW formats since they don’t support new Kindle features such as custom fonts and the ability to change boldness. The existing MOBI and AZW files on your Kindle will remain accessible and work just fine, but you won’t be able to send books in these formats using Send-To-Kindle anymore.

Good, old USB transfer

You can also transfer files over USB if you don’t have Wi-Fi connectivity. Connect your Kindle to your PC, open the Kindle’s file directory, and drag and drop files into the “documents” folder. You can use Calibre or other online tools to convert files or books to supported Kindle formats.

Kindle file directory

 


How to send articles and web pages to your Kindle for reading later

In addition to books and documents, you can also use your Kindle to read web content such as news articles and blog posts. Whenever I come across an interesting long read on the web, I immediately send it to my Kindle for weekend reading. You can send web pages or articles to your e-reader from your PC or smartphone.

From a PC

Sending a webpage from a PC is quite easy. Here’s how to do it.

  • If you’re using a Chromium-based browser such as Chrome or Microsoft Edge, download the “Send to Kindle for Google Chrome” extension.
  • Once installed, configure the delivery settings.
  • Go to the webpage you want to send and then click on the Kindle extension shortcut from the toolbar.

Send to Kindle extension in Google Chrome

  • Select “Send to Kindle” or “Preview and Send.”
  • If you choose the second option, you will get the option to customize the font.
  • Your web page/article will be automatically downloaded and added to your Kindle Library.

From your smartphone

  • Download Send To Kindle app from the Play Store — It’s a third-party app.

Send To Kindle (Free, Google Play) →

  • Open the app and select “Email configuration” from the hamburger menu.

Send to Kindle email settings page

  • Enter your Kindle email address here and save it.
  • Visit the web page you wish to save to Kindle and hit the share button.

Send to Kindle app highighted in Share Sheet menu

  • From the Share Sheet, select Send To Kindle shortcut and wait for the app to convert the page into HTML format.

Email configuration in Send to Kindle app

  • Once converted, select the post and hit the email button on the left.
  • This will take you to your default email app. Make sure you’re sending the file from the approved email address
  • Hit “send” and wait for the web page to appear on your Kindle.

Conclusion

    Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 11th Gen
    The new Kindle Paperwhite 11th Gen has a large 6.8-inch E Ink display, up to ten weeks of battery life, and USB-C charging port.

Amazon’s Send-to-Kindle service provides a great way to wirelessly send books and documents to your Kindle e-reader. The process of finding out your Kindle email and adding new approved email addresses is a bit tricky. But once everything is in place, sending a book or document is as simple as sending an email. You can also send web pages and articles to your Kindle from your PC and smartphone.

The post How to send ebooks, documents, and webpages to your Amazon Kindle appeared first on XDA.



from XDA https://ift.tt/u7692NC
via IFTTT

samedi 9 juillet 2022

How to convert PDFs into ebooks for your Amazon Kindle ereader

After buying one of the best Kindle e-readers, it’s only natural that you would want to load it up with your favorite books. If prior to getting the Kindle, you have mostly been doing your reading on a PC or smartphone, you undoubtedly have a vast collection of PDFs and other documents. The good news is you can bring your PDF books to your Kindle without any issue. Kindle supports a variety of file extensions, including PDF. But there’s a catch. PDFs don’t make for the best reading experience on a Kindle. You can’t change the font size or typeface, and most of the time, you’ll be squinting and straining your eyes, dissolving the benefits of the Kindle experience. The good news is you can easily convert your PDFs into supported Kindle ebook format for the best reading experience.

When it comes to converting PDFs to ebooks, you have multiple options at your hand. You can have Amazon convert it for you or get the help of third-party apps or online tools. Let us walk you through the best options and tools to get the job done.

Navigate this article:

The easiest way: Use Amazon’s Send to Kindle service

The easiest and fastest way to convert a PDF to an ebook format that your Kindle can understand is using Amazon’s Send to Kindle service. You just email your PDF file to Amazon, and it does the heavy lifting, converting your file into EPUB format and then automatically sending it to your Kindle device and your digital library. Here’s how to do it.

Before we begin, you’ll need to find out your Kindle email address to which you’ll send your PDF file. Your Kindle email is different than the email address associated with your Amazon account. If you’re unsure, follow the steps in this guide to obtain the Kindle email address and come back here.

  • From your smartphone or PC, compose a new email and attach the PDF file you wish to send to your Kindle.
  • Address the email to your Kindle email.
  • In the subject line, write “Convert” and nothing more. Don’t put anything in the body either.

Gmail's compose view with a PDF attachment

  • Hit send.
  • Conversion may take some time depending on the size of the file, so be patient.
  • Your converted file will automatically appear on your Kindle once it’s processed.
  • If there was an issue with conversion, Amazon would notify you via email.

This is the most convenient way, but it’s not foolproof. It doesn’t play nicely with all PDF files, and you may run into some formatting issues and other glitches. Thankfully, there are other ways to convert PDFs with a higher success rate.


Calibre: The best in the business

Calibre is a powerful open-source ebook manager that lets you convert your books, files, and documents into many different formats, including EPUB and MOBI. It’s a one-stop-shop for all your ebook and file conversion needs. When you convert a file using Calibre, you get much more control over the final output. You can specify the output device for which you’re converting the file. This allows Calibre to optimize the document for your particular device. You can convert multiple files at once, edit metadata, change the look and feel, including the base font size, and a lot more.

Calibre device selection window

  • On the next screen, you’ll be asked if you want to have your converted books automatically sent to your Kindle via email. Follow the instructions to set up email delivery. Otherwise, skip to next.

Email delivery option in Calibre

  • Once you’re on the home screen, click on the green “Add books” button located in the upper left corner.

Calibre home screen

  • Navigate to the directory where you have stored your PDF file and select it.
  • Right-click on the book and select Convert books > Convert individually. Or, click the “Convert books” button from the toolbar.

Calibre book conversion screen

  • Change the output format to EPUB. See if you want to tweak other settings such as page setup, font size, layout, styling, etc.

Calibre output format selection screen

  • Now click on the “OK” button in the bottom right corner to initiate the file conversion. Click the “Jobs” button to see the status and progress of the conversion.
  • If it’s a small PDF, your converted file will be processed and ready in no time. When dealing with larger, image-heavy, and complex PDFs, it may take several minutes for the file to be processed.
  • Your converted ebooks are saved to the “Calibre” folder. Or you can manually save the file to another folder/directory using the “Save to disk” option.

Online Ebook Convert

Online Ebook is a free web PDF to EPUB converter. If Send to Kindle isn’t working and you don’t want to download a dedicated app like Calibre, this is the best tool to quickly turn your PDFs into the Kindle readable EPUB format. It’s very simple to use.

  • Go to Online Ebook Converter.
  • Click on Choose Files to upload the PDF file. You can also drag and drop or select the file from your Google Drive or Dropbox.

Online Epub Converter home screen

  • Hit “Start” to initiate the conversion.
  • Your file will be automatically downloaded once it’s converted. If it doesn’t, click on the download button.

What about MOBI and AZW files?

Amazon no longer supports MOBI, AZW, and AZW3 fortmats. If you have books in these formats, you’ll need to convert them to EPUB or another supported format before sending them to your Kindle. You can do it using Calibre or online file converters. Existing MOBI or AZW books stored on your Kindle will work just fine, but you won’t be able to take advantage of the new Kindle features for documents.


Conclusion

    Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 11th Gen
    The new Kindle Paperwhite 11th Gen packs a large 6.8-inch E Ink display and offers up to ten weeks of battery life.

While Kindle supports PDF files, it often doesn’t provide the best reading experience. Not to mention, you’ll be missing out on the ability to change the font, style, and other features. If you have a big collection of PDFs, convert it to the EPUB format using one of the methods shown in this article. Amazon’s Send to Kindle is the easiest way to convert a PDF to EPUB. But it’s not full-proof, and you may run into formatting issues or, in the worst case, end up with a file with gibberish text. Calibre is your best bet for converting PDFs into an ebook format like EPUB and MOBI. I have converted hundreds of ebooks for my Kindle Paperwhite without any issues. The UI may feel convoluted and a bit intimidating if you’re using it for the first time, but you’re unlikely to find an ebook file converter as powerful and feature-rich as Calibre.

The post How to convert PDFs into ebooks for your Amazon Kindle ereader appeared first on XDA.



from XDA https://ift.tt/qHbz1Rt
via IFTTT

How to make the most of your Galaxy Watch 4 with a non-Samsung phone

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 4 Classic are undoubtedly one of the best Wear OS smartwatches available on the market. It’s currently one of the only smartwatches that run the latest version of Google’s operating system for smartwatches — Wear OS 3 — making it the go-to choice for most Android smartphone users looking for a premium smartwatch.

Sadly, the Galaxy Watch 4 does not offer the same experience with non-Samsung phones as it does when connected to a Samsung Galaxy device. This makes it a less than ideal purchase for those who own an Android smartphone from a different OEM. Fortunately, you can use a couple of third-party apps and mods to get some of the Samsung-exclusive features on the Galaxy Watch 4.

Which Galaxy Watch 4 features are exclusive to Samsung phones?

Before we get to the third-party apps and mods, let’s first take a quick look at some of the Samsung-exclusive features you don’t get when connected to a non-Samsung device.

Galaxy Watch 4 features that you don’t get when connected to non-Samsung devices:

  • ECG
  • Blood pressure monitoring
  • Samsung Messages
  • Camera controls
  • Do not disturb mode syncing
  • Bedtime mode
  • Make/receive calls when not connected to a phone via Bluetooth
  • Customizable AR Emoji watch faces

Now that you know what you’re missing, let’s take a look at some workarounds and third-party apps to get some of these features on your Galaxy Watch 4.

Make the most of your Galaxy Watch 4 with a non-Samsung phone

Enable ECG and blood pressure monitoring on the Galaxy Watch 4 with a non-Samsung phone

First and foremost, we’ll talk about enabling ECG and blood pressure monitoring on the Galaxy Watch 4 when connected to a non-Samsung phone. ECG and blood pressure monitoring are two of the most useful Galaxy Watch 4 features, and not having access to them just because you don’t own a Galaxy smartphone is a bummer. Thankfully, a modded version of the Samsung Health Monitor app by XDA Senior Member Dante63 can fix that.

The modded Samsung Health Monitor app enables both ECG and blood pressure monitoring on the Galaxy Watch 4 when connected to a non-Samsung device. Check out our in-depth tutorial on installing the modded Samsung Health Monitor app to enable ECG and blood pressure monitoring on the Galaxy Watch 4.


Enable BP sync on the Galaxy Watch 4 with a non-Samsung phone

While the modded Samsung Health Monitor app enables ECG and blood pressure monitoring on the Galaxy Watch 4 with any non-Samsung device, it doesn’t enable BP sync. Without the feature, your blood pressure data won’t sync with the Samsung Health app on your phone, making it difficult to track. However, Dante63 has you covered. Follow the link for our step-by-step tutorial on how to enable BP sync on the Galaxy Watch 4.


Use these third-party apps to get some of the missing features on your Galaxy Watch 4

Google Messages

Now that you have enabled ECG and blood pressure monitoring on your Galaxy Watch 4 and turned on BP sync, it’s time to move on to the other features. As mentioned earlier, the Galaxy Watch 4 does not give you access to the Samsung Messages app when you’re connected to a non-Samsung device. Fortunately, you don’t have to look too hard to find an alternative.

Screenshot of Google Messages app on Galaxy Watch 4. Screenshot of Google Messages app on Galaxy Watch 4.

The Google Messages app is a great replacement for the missing Samsung Messages app, and it works on the Galaxy Watch 4 even when connected to a non-Samsung device. You can download the app by opening the Play Store on your Galaxy Watch 4, searching for Google Messages, and then selecting the Install button. The only drawback to using Google Messages over Samsung Messages is that it lacks two features. The Google Messages app does not offer support for sending audio messages from the Galaxy Watch 4 or a shortcut to help you quickly open a message on your phone. Sadly, you can’t get these features with a third-party app.

Messages (Free, Google Play) →

Camera One: Wear, Galaxy Watch

While you don’t get access to camera controls on the Galaxy Watch 4 when connected to a non-Samsung phone, you can get the same set of features with the Camera One app. You can download the app from the Play Store on your Galaxy Watch 4 and use it to preview the viewfinder on your watch’s screen, click photos, capture videos, and even record audio.

Screenshot of Camera One app on Galaxy Watch 4. Screenshot of Camera One app settings on Galaxy Watch 4.

The Camera One app features a functional UI with buttons for all commonly-used camera features right on the viewfinder. Its default interface includes shutter buttons to help you quickly capture photos and videos, along with buttons for the power saving mode, timer, flash, zoom, exposure value, white balance, and filters. The app opens the rear-facing primary camera by default and you can swipe down from the top of the display to switch to the selfie shooter.

Camera One: Wear, Galaxy Watch (Free, Google Play) →

Unfortunately, you can’t get Do not disturb mode syncing, Bedtime mode syncing, the ability to make/receive calls when not connected to a phone via Bluetooth, and customizable AR emoji watch faces on the Galaxy Watch 4 using third-party apps. But there are a couple of other third-party apps that you can use to enhance your experience further. Check out the section below for a few app recommendations and tips to make the most of your Galaxy Watch 4 when connected to a non-Samsung phone.


Miscellaneous apps and tips

Use Gboard instead of the built-in keyboard app

The built-in T9 keyboard on the Galaxy Watch 4 is a blast from the past and, frankly, it should’ve stayed there. It’s a pain to use, and you’d be better off installing the Gboard app on your watch.

Screenshot of Galaxy Watch 4's T9 keyboard. Screenshot of Gboard on Galaxy Watch 4.

The Gboard app gives you access to a full keyboard layout on your watch’s display and the best part about it is that it offers support for swipe input. It’s well optimized for the watch’s tiny display and offers a significantly better typing experience than the stock keyboard app.

Gboard - the Google Keyboard (Free, Google Play) →

Launch apps and perform actions faster with Wear Gesture Launcher

The Wear Gesture Launcher app is a handy app that lets you open apps and perform actions by drawing custom gestures on your Galaxy Watch 4 display. For instance, if you want to open Google Maps, you have to open the app drawer by swiping up on the homescreen and then tapping on the Google Maps icon in the app drawer.

Screenshot of Wear Gesture Launcher on Galaxy Watch 4.

With Wear Gesture Launcher, you can do so by simply tapping on the right edge of the display, no matter which page you’re on, and drawing the Google Maps gesture. The app lets you add custom gestures for all apps installed on your phone and a few timer actions, like setting a new alarm, managing alarms, opening the timer, and opening the stopwatch.

Wear Gesture Launcher - Wear OS - Wear launcher (Free, Google Play) →

Enable notifications only for essential apps to improve battery life

One of the biggest drawbacks of using a Wear OS smartwatch is the below-average battery life. When I first started using my Galaxy Watch 4, it barely lasted a full day and I had to take it off while going to bed to charge it back up for the next day. Because of this, I couldn’t use the sleep tracking feature.

While you can’t do anything to get the Galaxy Watch 4 to last several days like some fitness trackers without sacrificing several features, you can turn off notifications for all non-essential apps to eke out about a day and a half of use on a single charge. I personally only have Telegram and Slack notifications enabled on my watch, and it now lasts me slightly over a day and a half on a single charge, even with continuous heart rate tracking turned on.

Turn on Airplane mode while charging to charge your watch faster

Another issue that I encountered in the first few weeks of using the Galaxy Watch 4 is the painfully slow charging speed. That’s why it initially made sense for me to charge the watch overnight. But I can’t do so anymore, since I wear it to bed for sleep tracking.

Screenshot of Galaxy Watch 4 quick settings with Airplane mode toggle.

To overcome this, I now turn on Airplane mode when I put the watch on charge and I’ve noticed that it charges slightly faster. You can improve the charging speed further by turning it off while it’s charging. But I find that a bit inconvenient, so I’m sticking with Airplane mode. Thankfully, Samsung is reportedly doubling the charging speed on the upcoming Galaxy Watch 5 lineup, so this shouldn’t be an issue if you plan on upgrading to one of the newer models.


    Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Classic
    The Galaxy Watch 4 is Samsung's latest generation of smartwatches, and this Classic model retains the beloved spinning bezel from earlier watches.
    Samsung Galaxy Watch 4
    If you want a more minimalist look without the rotating bezel, the standard Galaxy Watch 4 offers all of the same features as the Classic.

That sums up our guide on making the most of the Galaxy Watch 4 with a non-Samsung phone? Which of these tips did you know already? Did you find something useful to enhance your experience? Let us know in the comments section below.

The post How to make the most of your Galaxy Watch 4 with a non-Samsung phone appeared first on XDA.



from XDA https://ift.tt/FE4yxXG
via IFTTT