The Daily Authority: 🎮 Ready for ROG?

🍐 Good morning, and welcome to this sunny Tuesday’s Daily Authority! On Sunday I discovered pears go really well with blue cheese. Who knew? (probably everyone but me, to be fair).

Ready for ROG Phone 6?

We got a look at the ROG Phone 6 as renders broke cover — and although it looks similar to previous ROG phones in terms of design aesthetic, the cooling accessory is bigger than ever before.

Looking good (but big)

The latest ROG phone — which many would agree is the best gaming phone on the planet — is looking pretty good.

• We got a sneak peek courtesy of Evan Blass and 91 Mobiles.
• Fans of the ROG phone design will feel right at home, as the design isn’t changing too much this time around.
• Though the rear display panel has moved, which is a nice touch.
• The leaked renders only show the phone in white, but we’ll likely see a black variant too, if past versions are anything to go by.

What we know so far

In terms of the ROG Phone 6’s specs, here’s what we’re expecting:

• We should see a 6.78-inch AMOLED display, the same as the ROG Phone 5, but this time around there’s a 165Hz refresh rate (the ROG Phone 5 was 144Hz).
• Under the hood should be a Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chip, promising power efficiency improvements from 15 to 30% over Qualcomm’s current flagship chip, plus 10% clock speed improvements.
• The chip still runs hot — more on that in a minute.
• We’re expecting up to 18GB RAM and up to 512GB storage, plus a beefy 6,000mAh battery and 65W wired charging, so not much will have changed here from the ROG 5 Ultimate.
• There’s also a headphone jack.

Keep your cool

With the notably hot-running Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1, ASUS has had to step up its game to ensure the ROG Phone 6 stays cool.

• The ROG Phone 5 got a little warm during extended play, becoming noticeable after 15 to 20 minutes.
• Though the previous generation’s cooler accessory was a little bulky for on-the-go use, it’s absolutely massive this time around, so not the most portable.

We’ll soon know more, as there’s not long to wait until the ROG Phone 6 launches — next week on July 5 at 8 AM EST.

Roundup

🧟 HTC’s metaverse phone shows without all doubt that the company is a zombie (Android Authority).

😲 Yet another OnePlus 10 series phone surfaces in leaks (Android Authority).

🔋 Samsung’s next phone might be the most powerful one with a removable battery (Android Authority).

💲 Here are the (leaked) specs and prices of the Nothing Phone 1 (Android Authority).

🌍 Xiaomi’s first three Leica camera phones are coming on July 4 (Android Authority).

📷 Galaxy S23 camera might not get an improvement in at least one area (Android Authority).

📱 A new OnePlus phone just hit the FCC, could be North America exclusive (Android Authority).

🔑 Pixel 6a wins against Pixel 6 Pro in fingerprint unlocking test (Android Authority).

☝ And here’s the Pixel 6a fingerprint sensor working faster than the 6 Pro’s (9to5Google).

👋 Google Hangouts finally gets a shutdown date: November 2022 (Ars Technica).

🍎 Rugged Apple Watch, new SE again rumored for 2022 release (iMore).

🧠 Brain-machine interface helped a man with paralysis feed himself using robotic arms (Engadget).

🕹 Atari turned 50 yesterday: The video game pioneer unveiled its new logo to celebrate (VGC).

👾 There’s a new Nintendo Direct “Mini” today at 9 AM ET, focusing on third-party games: we could see Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak, Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series, and more (Polygon).

🎮 July’s PS Plus games leaked ahead of Sony’s formal announcement (though take this with a pinch of salt): Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan, and Arcadegeddon are coming (Eurogamer).

🧹”Eventually, where does all the dust in the world go?” (r/ELI5).

Chart Tuesday

Here’s how the mobile phone market has evolved over 30 years, and it’s pretty interesting. You’ll need to click through to see it evolve…

• In July 2000, Samsung still had just a 4.6% share of the market.
• By summer 2007, when Apple launched the first iPhone (June 29), it still only had a 0.3% share of the market. That had risen to 6.8% just a year later, and more than doubled again to 13.9% by June 2009.
• By December 2021, Apple’s market share was 27.3%, with Samsung taking a 27.8% share of the market pie and every other manufacturer lagging behind.
• Gone are the days when Motorola and Nokia topped the leaderboard.
• It’s not clear though whether these figures are global or just for the US.

Have a great day!

Paula Beaton, Copy Editor.