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Speed Test G: ROG Phone 5 Ultimate vs Galaxy S21 Ultra (a close fight)
Asus’ ROG Phone 5 Ultimate is supposed to be a champion performer between its 18GB of RAM and other tweaks, but how much of an advantage does it really convey versus an ‘ordinary’ flagship like the Galaxy S21 Ultra? Gary Sims might have found out. He just conducted a realistic speed test of the ROG Phone versus its Samsung counterpart to find out, and the results are at once surprising and expected.
The ROG Phone 5 Ultimate did emerge triumphant, but only just — it finished the test suite a mere 2.4 seconds sooner than the Samsung flagship. ASUS’ device had a decent lead in the GPU test, but only slightly edged ahead in the CPU test and even fell behind in the mixed-case benchmark. Its advantage was never so huge that you’d regret buying the S21 Ultra instead.
This isn’t to say the extra 6GB of RAM aboard the ROG Phone is pointless — rather, it has its limits versus the 12GB Samsung offers. The most important component here is the Snapdragon 888, and it performs well in both phones during the minute-plus duration of Speed Test G. ASUS’ phone should have the more advanced cooling system, but that may do more to keep your hands sweat-free than boost sustainable performance.
As it stands, there are plenty of other reasons to pick the ROG Phone over Samsung’s hardware. The extra touch input could make all the difference in a fast-paced shooter, and the 6,000mAh battery will keep it running longer whether you’re playing games or checking your social feeds. These results just show that you shouldn’t feel guilty about preferring the Galaxy S21 Ultra for its cameras, optional pen input, or other distinct advantages — you likely won’t lose much performance in practice.