After first debuting in Asia and then rolling over to Europe, the uber-powerful Asus ROG Phone 5S and 5S Pro are finally available in the United States. Designed for mobile gaming, the phones are overkill in the best sense of the word, but are they worth their flagship-level pricetags?

I recently had the opportunity to spend a couple of weeks with the ROG 5S Pro, and if you're looking for a phone that is packed to the gills with drool-worthy specs and features, well, this beefy handset certainly fits the bill. Let's get the big numbers out of the way right now: The Asus ROG Phone 5S and 5S Pro both feature a 6.78-inch display, 64MP primary shooter, and large 6,000mAh battery. They're both powered by the Snapdragon 888 Plus.

Related: The New Asus ROG Phone 5S Pro Has More RAM Than Your Laptop

The primary difference between the $1,099 ROG Phone 5S and the $1,299 5S Pro is memory. The 5S comes with 16GB of RAM while the 5S Pro is equipped with 18GB. The design of the exterior — really, just the rear of the phones — also varies between the 5S and 5S Pro. The 5S features an illuminated ROG logo with RGB lighting, while the 5S Pro has a small rear display that plays a variety of colorful animations depending on what you're using the phone for. It's definitely eye-catching, but if you're staring at the front of the screen, the rear display is really just to show off to everyone else that you're using a ridiculously advanced phone.

So. Much. Power. 

asus rog phone 5s pro front and back

As you might expect from a phone with so much power, the 5S Pro gets pretty warm when you're playing graphically-intense games. With that in mind, Asus developed the AeroActive Cooler 5, which snaps onto the back of the phone and features active cooling to boost overall performance by limiting thermal throttling. This add-on also acts as a gaming accessory by adding two extra physical buttons.

Speaking of gaming controls, the ROG Phone 5S Pro offers a variety of input configurations, depending on what is supported by the game you're playing. There are gesture controls, physical touch sensors on the rear of the phone, and sensors on the side of the device that act like triggers on a physical controller. Asus calls these air triggers, and once you get used to the idea, it does add a controller-like feel to some games, specifically racing games and shooters.

If you've ever used a gaming phone before you know that each company has its own way of handling performance tweaking. Asus uses Game Genie, which lets you customize all kinds of settings related to your gaming experience, including vibrations, refresh rate, and even how your phone connects to the network while you're playing games. There are a ton of settings to fiddle with, and while it can seem intimidating at first glance, once you have things set the way you want them, you should rarely have the need to go back and make any significant changes.

This is normally the part of a hardware review where I'd try to break down how the hardware specs translate into gaming performance, but in this case, it's a lot more straightforward. The ROG Phone 5S Pro crushes every game you could possibly want to throw at it. Whether it's PUBG or Pokemon Go, the buttery smooth refresh rate never really dips, aside from the odd hiccup in high-action moments, but that's probably more the fault of the game or mobile connection than the device itself.

When it comes to specs and performance, you're not making any compromises, but there are some drawbacks to carrying this amount of power in your pocket. The phone is thicker than you might expect, and while I'm generally a fan of large, solid phones, it's thicker and heavier than some might wish to carry in their pockets. At 8.4 ounces, it weighs more than an iPhone 12 Pro Max, and it's also 2.5mm thicker.

But that's just the way things are when you have a phone that has more power than many laptops, and it may be a small price to pay if you're serious about mobile gaming. The Asus ROG Phone 5S and 5S Pro are now available via the company's website.

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