Asus confirms ROG Phone 5S and ROG Phone 5S Pro with Snapdragon 888 Plus, will replace current ROG Phone 5 models when stocks deplete

We previously reported about Asus working on a ROG Phone 5 refresh, the ROG Phone 5S. The ROG Phone 5 is already among the fastest Android smartphones one can buy today, but it looks like Asus does not want to lose out on bragging rights for Qualcomm's fastest SoC bin. The ROG Phone 5S is powered by the Snapdragon 888 Plus and will be available in two variants — the vanilla ROG Phone 5S in Storm White and Phantom Black, and the ROG Phone 5S Pro that comes only in Phantom Black.

The ROG Phone 5S looks to be a substitute for the standard ROG Phone 5 while the ROG Phone 5S Pro will replace both the ROG Phone 5 Pro and the ROG Phone 5 Ultimate. The Snapdragon 888+ in the ROG Phone 5S is clocked at 2.995 GHz on the Prime Core (2.84 GHz on the Snapdragon 888) along with performance improvements to other SoC components, particularly the Hexagon 780 DSP.

The ROG Phone 5S can be had with up to 16 GB LPDDR5 RAM and up to 512 GB UFS 3.1 storage while the ROG Phone 5S Pro offers only an 18 GB RAM and 512 GB internal storage configuration. Asus is also enhancing the touch response rate from 300 Hz to 360 Hz. The ROG Phone 5S Pro is no longer a limited variant and will now sport a color ROG Vision AMOLED display unlike the previous version. Asus has retained the two additional touch sensors in the rear for the ROG Phone 5S Pro.

The new ROG Phone 5S models are otherwise pretty much similar to their current ROG Phone 5 offerings in terms of hardware specifications. On the software front, the new ROG Phone 5S series sport ROG UI on top of Android 11. There's a new 90 Hz refresh rate option as well in addition to 60 Hz, 120 Hz, and 144 Hz options.

For now, Asus has only officially listed the ROG Phone 5S on its website without pricing or availability information. It looks like Asus will bring the ROG Phone 5S to the market once the current ROG Phone 5 stocks deplete.

That being said, pricing information is available for mainland China and Taiwanese markets. The base ROG Phone 5S variant starts from TWD 29,990 (US$1,075; ₹79,953) while the ROG Phone 5S Pro will set you back by TWD 37,990 (US$1,362; ₹101,281).

Buy the Asus ROG Phone 5 (GSM Unlocked, 12 GB RAM, 256 GB storage) on Amazon