Qualcomm and ASUS Made a Phone for Snapdragon Insiders

ASUS and Qualcomm have teamed up to make a smartphone that shows off some of the latter's mobile tech. Although the phone is ostensibly for the 1.6 million members of the Snapdragon Insiders program (which is a bit like Microsoft's Windows Insider early-access scheme), it'll be more broadly available by August. From a report: The snappily named Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders harnesses Qualcomm's Snapdragon 888 5G chipset with a 2.84 GHz octa-core processor and the Adreno 660 GPU. It has what Qualcomm describes as "the most comprehensive support for all key 5G sub-6 and mmWave bands" of any device, along with WiFi 6 and WiFi 6E support with speeds of up to 3.6 Gbps. You'll get 16GB of LPDDR5 memory and 512GB of storage. The 6.78-inch AMOLED display from Samsung has a 144 Hz refresh rate, which could help make it a solid gaming phone. The screen has up to 1,200 nits of brightness and it's HDR10 and HDR10+ certified. The phone has three rear cameras: a 64MP main lens, 12MP ultrawide camera and 8MP telephoto. The array can capture video in up to 8K. The device also has a 24MP front camera and AI auto-zoom. You'll be able to buy the $1,499 device at ASUSTeK's eShop and other retailers.

The important paragraph

[bill_mcgonigle]

There's also Qualcomm Quick Charge 5 support, which should charge the 4000mAh battery up to 70 percent of capacity in half an hour or fully in 52 minutes, according to the company. In addition, the phone has dual SIM slots and it runs on stock Android 11.

Re:

[Surak_Prime]

I found this comment interesting and thoughtful. I don't have any mod points, and you're way off-topic, so you'll probably stay in the moderation null zone, but I just thought I'd let you know you reached *at least* an audience of one. I hate it when I post stuff and don't get any indication that anyone saw it. Loathe though I am to suggest that Slashdot adopt anything from Facebook, it'd be nice if we had a thumbs up / thumbs down system for posts like this one, separate from the regular moderation system.

Re: The Internet is dead.

[Malays2 bowman]

People see this as spam, and I'll likely get modded down for replying, but there are some very valid points here. I made my own list of 'internet/technology woes' and It seems in general tech has become much more combative and user hostile within the past decade. My woes have nothing to do with proxies and such, but rather with the tech in general, such as constant page overlays, constant telemetry, and constant attempts to override the user's wishes.

I want to add a new one to my list, and it's the constant

Re:

[Merk42]

You're free to make your own websites and show everyone the "right" way to do it.

Re:

[Ostracus]

Wasn't that suppose to be the idea behind Tor hidden services [propublica.org]? Besides everyone wanted freedom, or so they said. So why are people complaining about the results of exercising that freedom? Answer that and people will realize why the title should be, "the internet isn't the way I want it".

Surely the price is ... insane?

[larwe]

If this is a tech proof of concept, intended to make people enthusiastic about what Qualcomm silicon can do (a la "Intel Inside" stickers) - pricing it as a super-premium offering seems a bit ridiculous. Qualcomm should be subsidizing it so that it can be sold at no higher a price than the current lowest-end flagships - ideally, cheaper than that.

Phone audio?

[Leading Edge Boomer]

No doubt it's crappy, like they all are. Smartphones have not been phones for a long time.

Re:

[Pascoea]

I have no issue with that, as I rarely use my phone as a phone. When I do the sound quality is 100% adequate. Noise cancellation is head and shoulders above anything from the era of when we actually used our phones as phones. Verizon's (maybe it's not just theirs?) "HD Audio" makes a huge difference.

8 MP telephoto?

[u19925]

Main camera is 64 MP. So if you take 2x crop, you get 16 MP and and if you take 2.8x crop, you get 8MP. So the telephoto needs to be at least 4x or more to be of any use. Even there, if the f-ratio of the telephoto lens is higher (smaller aperture) than the main lens, then you will be limited by diffraction. I will keep my fingers crossed but I hardly see any value of telephoto lens based on the specs alone.

(a simple diffraction limit formula is f-ratio = pixel-size / wavelength or f-ratio > pixel-size/0

I just want a phone

[bobstreo]

to make calls, texts, and exchange some files. With a battery that will last a few days. The most I use my cell phone for is a visual display of the time.

I don't want or need a better cpu or gpu or screen than my laptop in a 6 inch format that I can't easily (screw you Roku) share with my television.

Re:

[UnknowingFool]

But just think of how all those texts will look better at 144Hz. I mean every text conversation is enhanced especially when asking your significant other where they want to eat and they reply that they "don't care" only to reject every suggestion for the next ten minutes. You have not lived unless you have experienced this at 144Hz!

Re:

[JackieBrown]

I see those phones at walmart. This phone doesn't take the place of that kind of phone

I feel like we're exceeding what is necessary

[rsilvergun]

In a phone. At a certain point it doesn't make sense to keep adding more horsepower because even if you're playing advanced 3D games you're not going to be able to see the increased detail on its phone screen. And that ignores that there aren't a lot of advanced 3D games for phones. I mean is that 16 GB of RAM ever even going to see full usage? If you could turn this into a desktop PC by docking it I could see the point, but support for that is kind of dodgy even at the OS level.

Lets ask the important question

[dbitter1]

The most important question is, of course, if it comes with an unlocked or unlockable (without any drama) bootloader. Everything else is water under the bridge without that.