Instead of just supplying processors and other chipsets to smartphone manufacturers, Qualcomm wants to bring its own smartphone onto the market. In March 2021, Qualcomm launched the Snapdragon Insiders community, and now the company presents its own smartphone produced by Asus for Snapdragon Insiders. A mobile designed, manufactured and sold by ASUS that comes with a lot of desire to become one of the most powerful on the market.
The smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders is a 6.78-inch model with a blue and black color scheme; it measures 173 x 77 x 9.55 mm at 210 grams. The OLED panel comes from Samsung and has a resolution of 2,448 x 1,080 pixels at 144 Hz, and the brightness is 800 candelas per square meter with up to 1,200 nits in the top for about HDR10 + material.
On the back — and not under the display — is the 3D Sonic Sensor Gen2, as Qualcomm calls the improved version of the ultrasound-based fingerprint sensor. Above it sits a white illuminated Snapdragon fireball logo that can be switched off. There are also three cameras: one with 64 megapixels (Sony IMX686), a 12-megapixel ultra-wide model (Sony IMX363) and an 8-megapixel telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom.
Inside, a Snapdragon 888 has 16 GB of LPDDR5 memory, and there is also 512 GB of storage (UFS 3.1) for Android 11, as well as applications and data to be backed up. Also in the SoC is the 5G modem, which is supported by mmWave and sub-6 GHz antennas, which is not a matter of course. There is also dual SIM functionality and WiFi-6E with 2×2 MIMO.
In addition to the camera equipment, Qualcomm also attaches great importance to the sound, so there are four microphones plus two stereo speakers and Snapdragon Sound is supported. Here, the manufacturer combines various hardware and software of its own in order to guarantee high quality with low latency via Bluetooth and Aptx codec.
Qualcomm also includes branded ANC earplugs (MW08) from Master & Dynamic with a charging case with the Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders. The other accessories include a 65-watt Quickcharge 5 power supply unit for the 4,000 mAh battery, a protective cover and two 1 m USB-C cables.
However, the smartphone is not offered exclusively for Snapdragon Insiders. It is slated to go on sale in August via Asus’ online store at a price of $1,499 in the United States, China, Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea and, later, India.
