We have an official launch date for the next gaming smartphone from ASUS, the ROG Phone 5. A bunch of features and specifications have leaked online, but now we can confirm that ASUS will be bringing back the 3.5mm audio jack on the upcoming smartphone. This is noteworthy because its predecessor (the ROG Phone 3) ditched the legacy port which meant users had to rely on a USB-C dongle (or the AeroActive Cooler attachment) to plug in wired headphones.

An early audio review by DxOMark says that the ROG Phone 5 will be coming with a 3.5mm jack with a DAC (digital-to-analog converter) by ESS. The review also confirms that the smartphone will continue to include a dual-front-facing speaker setup. The handset has been rated as one of the best when it comes to audio performance with ‘consistent results’ and ‘category-leading’ sub-scores in both Playback and Recording. According to the test scores, the ROG Phone 5 offers better audio than the Mi 10 Pro and overtakes the previous champion, the ROG Phone 3.

asus rog phone 5 dxomark audio review rating

ASUS will be officially launching the ROG Phone 5 on March 10, at 7 PM Taiwan time. The smartphone is expected to feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor, up to 16GB of RAM, a similar 6,000mAh battery as its predecessor, a 6.78-inch OLED display, and a triple-camera setup at the back. The smartphone is also expected to replace the ROG logo with RGB backlighting with a dot-matrix setup as seen in some of the leaked images and the official press render shared by DxOMark. There is also a tiny secondary display on the back which could be used for showing things like alerts for games and other notifications. Overall, the design and looks of the new handset could be similar to previous-gen models including a glass body with a standard display with no notches or hole punch cutouts.