ASUS and Qualcomm have been working together for quite some time now on their new Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders. Yes, that is the actual name of the device. The brainchild of the two tech pioneers comes with a hefty price tag of $1,499.
Like the ASUS ROG Phone 5, the Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders is set to be released with top-of-the-line hardware. It will also be one of the first smartphones that will support Qualcomm Sound. What Qualcomm Sound does is essentially allows the device to play 24-bit 96kHz content wirelessly. To make the Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders more appealing, the users will receive a free pair of Master & Dynamic TWS earbuds along with the device.
The device is set to be available for purchase in the US, UK, Chinese, Japanese, German, and South Korean markets. Essentially all the major markets for premium devices. We can expect it to hit the Indian markets in August 2021, although no exact date has been confirmed. It will be priced at $1,499(1,11,964 INR), making it one of the highest-priced devices out there.
So, what specs can we expect from this premium device? Powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 SoC chipset and 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM, and 512GB of UFS 3.1 storage, it will be the only configuration that the device will retail in. It was surprising that Qualcomm did not integrate their Snapdragon 888+ chipset, the rumours about which have been in circulation for quite some time now. It is a distinct possibility that the chip does not exist at all.
Apart from this, the Smartphone for Snapdragon insiders will sport a 6.7″ AMOLED panel along with a high refresh rate of 144Hz and a peak brightness of 1,200 nits. It will be HDR10+ compliant and will cover 111,23% of the DCI-P3, 106.87% of the NTSC, and 150.89% of the sRGB colour gamut.
A layer of Corning Gorilla Glass Victus protects the screen from daily wear and tear. Asus has claimed that the screen has Delta E values lower than 0.1, making it one of the most colour-accurate panels out there.
The Smartphone for Snapdragon features a horizontal triple-camera setup, eerily reminiscent of those on Pixel models. It will feature a 64MP Sony IMX363 sensor, a 12MP Sony IMX363 ultra-wide lens, and an 8MP telephoto lens that will offer 3x optical zoom.
Apart from the UW angle module, both the lenses will support OIS( Optical Image Stabilization). The phone can record 8k video at 30 FPS along with 4K content at 60 FPS. Finally, it will carry a 24MP sensor that will handle selfies and video calls.
The Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders will support 5G connectivity, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2, and NFC. It will run Android 11 UI by default and has a 4,000mAh battery compatible with Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 5.0. This included power brick charges the battery at 65W. But, Indian users will only receive a 35W brick; it is not clear why. The device will come with a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner instead of an in-display scanner which is a staple in all premium devices.
The icing on the cake for users interested in purchasing the Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders, Qualcomm has pledged to provide 4 years of regular security updates for the Android Software for the device.
It does not specify how many OS upgrades they intend to provide, but 4 years of security updates match them with OnePlus’ new software policy. It will also be twice the duration that ASUS currently provides for its own flagship devices, the Zenfone 8 and Zenfone 8 Flip.
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