ASUS announced the ROG Phone 6 and ROG Phone 6 Pro back in July 2022 with all of the usual fanfare. Both phones use Qualcomm’s top-tier Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset and are jam-packed with the usual slew of advanced cooling and control options we’ve come to expect from ASUS gaming phones. That announcement was followed by a long period of silence, which had us convinced that the Taiwanese giant had just decided to simplify its lineup this year and forego an “Ultimate” edition.

 

 

 

 

 

Fortunately for all the mobile gaming pros and fanatics out there, that’s not the case. The silence was soon broken by rumors of a MediaTek-powered variant of the ROG Phone 6, which turned out to be true. Enter the ROG Phone 6D and 6D Ultimate. The “D” in the name stands for “Dimensity,” and both phones are based on the MediaTek Dimensity 9000+ top-dog chipset. A bold and unusual move on ASUS’ part.

Asus ROG Phone 6D Ultimate specs at a glance:

Disclaimer. We can not guarantee that the information on this page is 100% correct.

Not only is ASUS taking up a MediaTek chip this time around, but it is also clearly staking quite a bit on it by giving it the “Ultimate” moniker. Today we have the ROG Phone 6D Ultimate in for review. Just like its historical predecessors, the Ultimate edition is largely based on the vanilla design, but with some small additions here and there as a sort of “icing on the cake”. This year the Ultimate doesn’t get extra inputs but rather a new AeroActive Portal – a motorized air duct that gives the AeroActive Cooler 6 attachment a channel to directly cool the innards of the device.

It, along with the potential cooling and performance benefits it provides to the Dimensity 9000+ chipset, will be the focal point of this review. We will be referring back to our extensive ROG Phone 6 Pro review for any bits we’ve already covered regarding hardware or software.

 

 

 

 

Just to clear up some potential confusion points, this is the review of the ROG Phone 6D Ultimate, which currently sits at the top of the ROG Phone 6 lineup. It has a Dimensity 9000+ chipset, just like the vanilla ROG Phone 6D, but unlike the ROG Phone 6 and 6 Pro, which use the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1. The ROG Phone 6D Ultimate also exclusively features the new AeroActive Portal and, unlike the other phones in the lineup, always comes bundled with an AeroActive Cooler 6 in the box. Hope that clears some points up, and speaking of the cooler accessory, before we move on to performance, thermals, battery, charging and camera tests, let’s take a glance at the retail package.

Unboxing

ROG Phones have traditionally made a statement with their retail boxes. ASUS decided to start toning down that particular aspect of the experience a while back, and currently, most of the phones in the ROG Phone 6 lineup just come in regular two-piece boxes. Not the 6D Ultimate, though. It ships in a hexagonal prism box which is quite eye-catchy.

 

 

 

 

The box employs a two-piece slide-out construction that also feels futuristic and a bit like unveiling a weapon. There is definitely enough material to keep the phone safe during shipping, which is great to see. And most of the space is surprisingly well used on the inside of the box.

Once you pay up for an Ultimate edition, Asus delivers all of the trimmings. The cradle slides out to reveal the bottom compartment, charger, and cable. The HyperCharge charger is an extremely compact and surprisingly light unit with up to 65W of Power Delivery output over a Type-C port. Asus relies on entirely standard PD + PPS to do its fast charging, which is a real treat to see. It is rated for 5V/9V/12V/15V @ up to 3A, 20V @ up to 3.25A and PPS 3.3-11V@3A, 3.3-21V@3.25A for a max of 65W. This versatile charger can easily be used to even power some modern laptops. You also get a nice black braided USB Type-C to Type-C cable in the box.

There is also a case included with our unit, which according to Asus, should be part of the retail package. Check with your local store for details on that, though. This is not the Asus AeroActive case that came with our ROG Phone 6 Pro unit, but rather the much thinner case with more and bigger holes that ships with the AeroActive Cooler 6 if you purchase that separately.

 

 

 

 

And last but definitely not least, the AeroActive Cooler 6 comes bundled with every ROG Phone 6D Ultimate unit. Also in the box – is a SIM ejector tool, some leaflets and an oddly-shaped ROG card that is meant to be used as part of an ASUS AR setup experience.

Competition

Availability for the Asus ROG Phone 6D and 6D Ultimate is still not completely ironed out at the time of writing this review. We know these phones won’t be coming to every region where the ROG Phone 6 and 6 Pro are available. Notably, they won’t be coming to North America. Some other regions, like Europe, will be getting a choice between all four ROG Phone 6 variants.

Asus isn’t necessarily positioning the Dimensity variants higher or lower than Qualcomm ones. Instead, these are offered as an alternative so that they reach the widest possible audience.

That Ultimate bundle with the ROG Phone 6D Ultimate (16GB LPDDR5X RAM and 512GB ROM) is priced at €1399 MSRP. Remember, that includes an AeroActive Cooler 6, which is an €89-value. A non-ultimate ROG Phone 6D with the same MediaTek Dimensity 9000+ chipset and 12GB/256GB starts at €949, but it has a ROG Vision matrix RGB logo on the back instead of a display.

 

 

Left to right: ROG Phone 3, ROG Phone 6D Ultimate, ROG Phone 5

 

 

In any case, we would be remiss if we didn’t mention the ROG Phone 6 and 6 Pro as the most viable alternatives to the 6D and 6D Ultimate. The ROG Phone 6 start at €999 in Europe for the base 12GB/256GB configuration. The ROG Phone 6 Pro is only available in one configuration – the 18GB/512GB white model we reviewed with an MSRP of €1299 (w/ VAT), which puts it at the about the same price level as the 6D Ultimate if you factor in the extra price of the Aeroactive cooler.

If you find yourself considering the ROG Phone 6 Ultimate, we can already assume that (1) you are after a gaming phone and that (2) money is no object. Well, holding on to the second assumption, let’s look into other gaming alternatives starting with the Xiaomi Black Shark 5 Pro. Some of its important highlights include a 6.67-inch, 10-bit, 144Hz, HDR10+ OLED display, Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset with up to 16GB of RAM and 512GB of NVMe SSD storage, stereo speakers, a potent 108MP main camera and slide-out magnetic physical triggers for game mapping. It costs a lot less than the ROG Phone 6 Pro, but you could also save a bit more and get most of the same experience with the vanilla Black Shark 5 too.

 

 

Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro • Xiaomi Black Shark 5 Pro • ZTE nubia Red Magic 7S Pro • Lenovo Legion Y70

 

 

Another big name in gaming is ZTE’s gaming brand, Nubia. Currently, its headliner is the Red Magic 7S Pro. Some of its highlights include a built-in cooling fan to keep the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 at bay. A 6.8-inch, 10-bit, 120Hz AMOLED panel with Gorilla Glass 5 protection. Stereo speakers, a 5,000 mAh battery with 65W charging and up to a whopping 1TB of storage with 18GB of RAM.

Lenovo has a challenger in the ring as well, in the face of the Legion Y70. The Legion line is a bit newer to the market and still lacks the kind of pedigree some of its rivals have, but that shouldn’t reflect poorly on the device itself. Despite its lower model number, it is newer and better than its Y90 sibling. It is rocking the latest Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset and up to 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. Also, a 6.67-inch, 144Hz, HDR10+ OLED, stereo speakers, 5,100 mAh battery and 68W fast charging.

verdict

Putting a MediaTek chipset inside a ROG Phone is an interesting experiment and a fascinating first for the lineup. One that was bound to happen sooner or later. It definitely proved that the Dimensity 9000+ has the “oomph” required to compete with the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 in raw performance. Asus engineers did an amazing job overclocking and squeezing every last bit of performance from the chip. The addition of the Aeroactove Portal has undoubtedly helped them achieve this task.

We had a wonderful time with the ROG Phone 6D Ultimate. It chewed through anything we threw at it and did so in style with all of the usual ROG bells and whistles present.

However, we are not sure whether the phone is worthy of the Ultimate moniker. We saw its benchmark scores fall slightly behind the ROG Phone 6 Pro in more graphics tests than one.

It also exhibited slightly more thermal throttling than the ROG Phone 6 Pro with or without the Aeroactive cooler attached.

Then, the battery draw in standby was slightly worse than the ROG Phone 6 Pro. And finally, its camera image quality was also slightly behind the 6 Pro.

And we won’t even go into debates around MediaTek vs. Qualcomm drivers, optimization and third-party support for niche gaming purposes like emulators.

In the end, the ROG 6 Ultimate feels like a version that’s 99%-as-good as the ROG 6 Pro but certainly not improved in any way.

The bottom line is that the ROG Phone 6D Ultimate would have probably been the top-dog gaming phone in isolation, but it still gets outshined by its sibling – the ROG Phone 6 Pro.

If it has been Asus’ strategy to diversify the chip supplier and have an equally good ROG phone made with MediaTek silicon, well, they’ve succeeded. We don’t think anyone would notice the subtle differences between the two phones. It’s impressive to think that MediaTek is closing the gap on Qualcomm when it comes to flagship chipset performance.

But the extra overclocking and cooling ingenuity it took on Asus’ part also highlighted that the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipsets remain class-leading. MediaTek won’t be breathing on Qualcomm’s neck just yet – at least not this year.

With all the extra work that Asus has put into making the ROG Phone 6D Ultimate, we’d say users will be happy with either flagship ROG phone. You might have your preference, but we’d say – go for whichever is more easily available near you or with whichever one is cheaper. They are both really good.

Pros

• Toned-down, but still ROG-inspired gamer’s design with great build quality.
• IPX4 certified body.
• AirTigger 6 ultrasonic touch sensors remain industry-leading for their precision and versatility. Motion controls are extended and improved from last gen.
• Simplified side port is now just a regular Type-C port – major durability improvement over last gen.
• Industry-leading stereo speaker performance, complete with gaming-specific sound tweaks.
• One of the best around 10-bit, HDR10+, AMOLED screen, 165Hz refresh rate.
• Solid battery life. Rich battery health prolonging options. Fast charging (65W charger bundled).
• AeroActive Portal allows the MediaTek Dimensity 9000+ to reach the level of the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1.
• Great Android implementation, an unparalleled number of game tweaks, control-mapping and performance options.
• Solid daylight photos, as well as low-light images.
• Very good video quality, impressive EIS.

Cons

• Available accessory ecosystem is significantly smaller than on older models.
• Rather basic camera setup, compared to typical 2022 flagships. 8K video recording is capped at 24fps.
• The ROG Phone 6 Pro exhibits less thermal throttling with or without the fan attached and has more consistent graphics benchmarks scores.