ASUS ROG Phone 5 series lands in Australia this April

One of the best Android smartphones you can buy is getting an upgrade next month. The ASUS ROG Phone 3, which only launched in Australia last August, will be followed up by three new models: the ASUS ROG Phone 5, ROG Phone 5 Pro, and ROG Phone 5 Ultimate sometime in April.

A few of the upgrades to the ROG Phone 5 range include a bigger (6.78-inch), brighter (1200-nit peak) AMOLED display courtesy of Samsung, an improved Snapdragon 888 processor and Adreno 660 GPU, 65Wfast charging (approximately 70% charge in 30 minutes) and a new “rear matrix display” with the ROG Phone 5 Pro and Ultimate that display custom animations for alerts and status. ASUS also claims to have improved upon the gamer-centric features of the ROG Phone 3, including the AirTrigger controls, and Dirac-tuned GameFX audio.

At the premium Ultimate end, you’ll also get a whopping 18GB of RAM, which is more than both the Galaxy S21 Ultra and iPhone 12 Pro Max offer.

There are a handful of other improvements but don’t expect any noteworthy camera upgrades. The triple-lens shooter remains largely unchanged but it was already a formidable smartphone anyway.

ASUS is also chucking in an improved AeroActive Cooler 5 (an external heat sink attachment) with the Pro and Ultimate models. The ROG Phone 3 ran a little hot, so the bundled cooling system is something of a necessity if you plan on using it as a mobile gaming device.

We don’t have a solid release date for the ASUS ROG Phone 5 series in Australia but we’ve been told to expect an April 2021 release date. There’s also no word on where you’ll be able to buy it.

The ASUS ROG Phone 3 is sold through Kogan, Amazon, JB HI-FI and Harvey Norman so you can probably count on those stores to stock the ROG Phone 5 series.

Local pricing for the ROG Phone 5 series is still a mystery but in Europe, the ROG Phone 5 starts at €799, the Pro at €799, and the Ultimate at €1,299. That’s pretty pricey at the premium end.

Here in Australia, the ROG Phone 3 launched between $1,090 and $1,699 depending on where you purchased it. If the Euro pricing reliably translates to Australia, you could expect to pay a little over $1,200 for the ROG Phone 5 but that’s rarely an accurate way to predict local RRP.

Historically, the ASUS ROG Phone line hasn't been sold on a plan through Australian mobile providers so if you do end up opting for the ROG Phone 5 series, you'll need a decent SIM plan.

Here's a short selection of some of the most popular SIM-0nly plans available this week.