Qualcomm's Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders is a $1,500 superphone

(Image credit: Qualcomm)

Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders Specs

Starting cost: $1,499
Screen size: vi.78-inch AMOLED (2248 x 1080; 144Hz)
CPU: Snapdragon 888
RAM: 16GB
Storage: 512GB
Rear cameras: 64MP master (f/1.eight), 12MP ultrawide (f/2.two), 8MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom
Front photographic camera: 24MP
Battery size: iv,000 mAh
Charging speed: Qualcomm QuickCharge 5.0
Size: vi.8 ten 3 x 0.38 inches

Qualcomm has made a proper noun for itself building the silicon that powers some of the best Android phones y'all can purchase. Now the bit maker is throwing its weight behind a phone of its own intended to show off what a summit-of-the-line Snapdragon chipset is capable of doing.

The manifestly named Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders made its debut today (July 8), boasting a Snapdragon 888 system-on-scrap, extensive 5G connectivity, and the kinds of experiences you'd await from a premium smartphone. Built by Asus, the telephone goes on sale in Baronial.

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Qualcomm insists it's not getting into the phone business organisation with the launch of Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders, a position the phone makers who rely on its fries volition be happy to hear. Instead, this telephone is designed specifically for Qualcomm's Snapdragon Insider program, a community of mobile enthusiasts launched by the company earlier this year. Qualcomm is hoping to use its phone to go feedback on the kind of experiences mobile users want out of Snapdragon-powered devices.

The Snapdragon Insider program is free to bring together, simply the Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders is incomparably not free. It costs $one,499, which is $300 more than the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra (which likewise happens to be powered a Snapdragon 888 chipset). Of grade, that $ane,499 is buying you more just a telephone — Qualcomm is including a pair of noise-cancelling wireless earbuds from Master & Dynamic, a 65W charger, braided cables for charging both the earbud example and the phone, and a custom prophylactic bumper.

Equally for the telephone itself, it'd exist wrong to recall of the Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders as a glorified reference device. While design is clearly non the chief focus of this telephone, it looks solid plenty with a midnight blue color and cherry accents around the rear camera array and side buttons. You get a 6.78-inch OLED display protected by Gorilla Glass Victus up front and a fingerprint sensor on the rear.

The star of the show is the Snapdragon 888, which is augmented past 16GB of RAM along with 512GB of storage. The Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders arrives just as Qualcomm is rolling out the improved Snapdragon 888 Plus chipset, which wasn't an available option for Asus when it came time to design this handset.

Still, the Snapdragon 888 is no slouch when it comes to performance, and Qualcomm hopes that this telephone can highlight the various components that included as part of this silicon. For example, the Snapdragon 888 features the Spectra 580 paradigm indicate processor, a triple Internet service provider capable of capturing images from three unlike cameras at the same fourth dimension. Not coincidentally, the Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders features three rear lenses — a 64MP main shooter, 12MP ultrawide camera and 8MP telephoto lens that tin can evangelize a 3x optical zoom. Qualcomm says the telephone can shoot both 8K and 4K video.

That OLED screen features a 144Hz refresh rate and to make things fifty-fifty more appealing for gamers, the phone supports Qualcomm's Quick Impact for a 20% boost in screen responsiveness. The phone too supports the Variable Charge per unit Shading as part of Qualcomm's Snapdragon Aristocracy Gaming features that await to deliver console-mode experiences to mobile devices.

The Snapdragon 888 features Qualcomm's sixth-gen AI Engine that's capable of 26 trillion operations per second (TOPS). Addition, this Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders is the amongst the first handsets to support Snapdragon Audio, a new technology that promises 24-chip 96kHz music streaming. Snapdragon Audio likewise supports super wideband vocalism to ameliorate your sound on phone calls.

Considering Qualcomm is and then heavily invested in the growth of 5G networks, information technology's also making 5G connectivity a summit feature of the Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders. The phone comes equipped with a Snapdragon X60 modem along with extensive support for both sub0-6GHz and mmWave-based 5G bands. Qualcomm's promising the earth's fastest available 5G speeds for this telephone, which likewise supports Wi-Fi6 and Wi-Fi 6e.

Qualcomm says 1.6 million people have joined the Snapdragon Insider programme since information technology launched in March. While not every one of those members volition have $ane,499 lying effectually for a new telephone, Qualcomm is hoping to get enough interest in its Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders to learn more almost the features people are looking for in their next mobile device.

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Philip Michaels is a senior editor at Tom'due south Guide. He has strong opinions about Apple, the Oakland Athletics and old movies. Follow him at @PhilipMichaels.