After the launch of the ROG Phone 6 Pro gaming cellphone, some hardcore followers have been left questioning what occurred to the “Ultimate” variant. As it seems, ASUS waited for over two months earlier than unveiling its “yet another factor”: the ROG Phone 6D Ultimate. It’s an identical to the 6 Pro in virtually each means, aside from 4 issues: the brand new “house grey” colour, the fascinating selection of the MediaTek Dimensity 9000+ processor (which is what the “D” in “6D” stands for), the change to the sooner LPDDR5X RAM, and the brand new “AeroActive Portal” design for blowing cool air into its inside heat-dissipation fins — I’ll abbreviate this as heatsink from right here onwards.
The AeroActive Portal itself is basically a door flap that opens when the bundled AeroActive Cooler 6 is connected, so {that a} portion of the cool wind produced by the fan — at almost 1,000cc per second — is guided by way of a wind tunnel and into the heatsink, with scorching air popping out from the highest slot. The heatsink is, after all, linked to the generously sized thermal layers overlaying the logic board and battery cells, to be able to switch warmth from the elements to the airflow. This is to assist maintain a excessive body charge over an extended interval whereas gaming, in addition to to make sure the cellphone continues to be snug to carry.
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ASUS claimed that after 60 minutes of Perfdog benchmarking on Genshin Impact at 60Hz in air cooling mode, the ROG Phone 6D reached 36.9°C (98.42°F), which was 3.4°C decrease than the ROG Phone 6 in the identical mode. It seems that the AeroActive Portal does make a notable distinction. Likewise in “Frosty” and “Frozen” modes (with the Peltier thermoelectric cooling chip enabled), and it is price noting that the AeroActive Cooler 6 is the one Peltier-enabled cooler available in the market that does not require further energy externally — it solely wants that for the extra highly effective “Frozen” mode.
While the AeroActive Portal solely kicks in when an AeroActive Cooler 6 is connected, you’ll be able to open it briefly in settings for cleansing functions. The flap is in any other case shut tight to safeguard the cellphone’s IPX4 splash resistance. It additionally has fall detection for routinely retracting the flap, and the stepping motor together with the zirconium alloy hinge are apparently good for over 40,000 flips — each of that are primarily based on the learnings from the now-retired Flip Camera characteristic from the Zenfone collection.
The 6D Ultimate packs the identical set of key options because the 6 Pro: 165Hz 6.78-inch AMOLED show, 720Hz contact sampling charge, as much as 512GB of storage, 6,000mAh battery, 65W quick charging (42 minutes), Dirac-tuned front-facing stereo audio system, ultrasonic “AirTiggers” and a customizable “ROG Vision” colour show on the again. It’s additionally the identical set of cameras: a 50-megapixel important digicam with Sony’s IMX766 sensor, a 13-megapixel ultra-wide digicam plus a 5-megapixel macro digicam; and on the entrance, there is a 12-megapixel selfie digicam with a Sony IMX663 sensor.
For the processor, ASUS made the shock change to MediaTek for its Dimensity 9000+ processor, which apparently scores a tad greater than the ROG Phone 6’s Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1. The firm added that whereas the Snapdragon flagship chipset packs a greater GPU, the Dimensity’s CPU is allegedly 10 p.c extra highly effective (albeit with the identical 3.2GHz most clock velocity), and that is extra essential to most cellular video games. The CPU is complemented by the sooner LPDDR5X RAM as effectively, although this is similar cause as to why that is capped at 16GB as a substitute of 18GB right here.
The ROG Phone 6D Ultimate might be obtainable throughout Europe very quickly, with the only real mannequin (16GB RAM with 512GB storage) priced at €1,399 (round $1,400) or £1,199. Again, this premium mannequin comes bundled with an AeroActive Cooler 6. There’s additionally the ROG Phone 6D launching alongside, which is principally the ROG Phone 6 however packing MediaTek’s chipset and LPDDR5X RAM as a substitute (additionally, it is simply an RGB emblem as a substitute of an ROG Vision display on the again; and no AeroActive Portal, after all). This begins from €949 (round $950) or £799 with the 12GB RAM plus 256GB storage base mannequin.