ASUS ROG Phone 6 Teardown Reveals Its Cooling Secret

A teardown video of the Asus ROG Phone 6 reveals the unique architecture of the phone’s components. While split batteries aren’t exactly groundbreaking at this point, Asus arranged the two battery cells away from each other and placed the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor between the two, right in the middle of the phone. Normally, the logic board with the processor will be located at the top, leaving room for a single large slab of battery to take up the majority of the space inside of the device.

This unusual design has the effect of spreading heat more evenly across the phone. The location of the processor in the middle also means it will be directly underneath the AeroActive cooling add-on, making its heat dissipation even more effective. Even without the external fan, though, the passive cooling system should still kick in to prevent premature throttling of the CPU that leads to dropped frames, at least in theory. At the very least, the design also keeps the heat away from your fingers when you’re playing a game.

Whether this unconventional arrangement of components will actually be effective will require some real-world evaluation. The ROG Phone 6 is really pushing the limits of smartphone hardware, including a RAM capacity that puts some laptops to shame. It doesn’t come without its price, though, as the base model costs €999 ($1,020), and that’s without that AeroActive Cooler 6 accessory.