Qualcomm Just Released a $1,500 Smartphone for Some Reason

Qualcomm makes the chips present in virtually each Android telephone, however at this time the corporate is stepping away from its regular position. With some assist from Asus, Qualcomm is saying the primary telephone of its personal.

Officially known as the Phone for Snapdragon Insiders (which actually rolls off the tongue), Qualcomm’s first telephone is definitely much less of an iPhone or Galaxy rival and extra of a showcase for Qualcomm tech designed for Qualcomm’s social media viewers—particularly those following the varied Snapdragon channels internationally.

That’s a reasonably small group, and whereas Qualcomm claims it has round 1.6 million Snapdragon Insiders internationally, these numbers don’t appear fairly as spectacular when you think about Apple’s Twitter account alone has 6.4 million followers, regardless of having by no means truly posting an actual tweet. (All of Apple’s “tweets” are technically paid advertisements, so that they don’t present up as tweets or replies in its Twitter timeline.) Meanwhile, the Samsung Mobile Twitter account has greater than 12 million followers.

The Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders can also be uncommon as a result of Qualcomm doesn’t actually make shopper telephones (except for a handful of reference units), so the corporate needed to enlist the assistance of Asus to place this factor collectively. What we’re actually is a telephone stuffed to the brim with assorted Qualcomm tech, however put collectively, bought, and supported by Asus, with some fancy Snapdragon badges scattered round its physique.

What you really want to know is that Qualcomm’s Snapdragon telephone goes to price a whopping $1,500, which is dearer than any non-foldable telephone obtainable from both Samsung or Apple. That stated, Qualcomm has tossed in a handful of equipment, so let’s take a better have a look at what you’re getting for that cash.

The Snapdragon telephone itself will include a Snapdragon 888 processor (sadly not the newly introduced Snapdragon 888+) together with a 2448 x 1080 6.78-inch AMOLED show with a 144Hz refresh charge, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, and a 4,000 mAh battery. There will even be a 24-MP selfie cam in entrance and three cameras in again: a 64-MP predominant cam, a 12-MP ultra-wide cam, and a 8-MP telephoto cam with a 3x optical zoom, which can be utilized concurrently to document each photos and movies.

Qualcomm can also be seeking to showcase its Snapdragon Sound and quick wi-fi connectivity, which suggests the telephone additionally helps Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E together with a number of the widest cellular information assist obtainable on any telephone. And after all, the Snapdragon telephone is suitable with all the most important styles of 5G.

Interestingly, for a handset this costly, the Snapdragon telephone doesn’t have wi-fi charging, although you do get Qualcomm’s second-gen 3D Sonic fingerprint sensor, although as a substitute of being an in-screen sensor, it’s on the again of the telephone, proper above Qualcomm’s light-up Snapdragon emblem.

Now if this doesn’t precisely sound like a $1,500 telephone to you, you’re not alone. To sweeten the deal, Qualcomm is throwing a handful of extras within the package deal, together with a braided USB-C cable, a customized rubber bumper, a Qualcomm Quick Charge 5 energy brick, and, most significantly, a particular version Snapdragon-branded model of Master and Dynamic’s MW08SI wi-fi earbuds, which usually retail for $300 on their very own.

Now these extras ought to take a number of the the sting out of the telephone’s $1,500 price ticket, however a giant query stays: Why make this factor in any respect? In a media briefing for the press, Qualcomm advertising and marketing lead Mike Roberts stated Qualcomm isn’t attempting to compete straight with different OEMs, because the telephone actually is meant for Snapdragon Insiders. And if we have a look at different latest fan-building efforts from Qualcomm, such because the launch of the Snapdragon Podcast, that sentiment usually rings true, as Qualcomm continues to make an effort to construct an viewers of cellular chip lovers, presumably to reflect the (typically) rabid fanbases we see over within the PC marketplace for corporations like AMD, Intel, and Nvidia.

But it’s nonetheless form of bizarre, as a result of in contrast to desktop CPUs or GPUs, the typical individual can’t actually decide a cellular processor off the shelf and set up it of their telephone. Customers are largely on the whim of gadget makers like Samsung, Google, or Apple to resolve what sort of silicon is used of their handsets.

That makes the Snapdragon telephone form of pointless, and with Asus answerable for precise retail gross sales, person assist, and future updates (the Snapdragon telephones will run a comparatively inventory model of Android 11), it seems like Qualcomm remains to be far off from constructing one thing it could really name its personal. Rumor has it Qualcomm might launch its personal model of the Nintendo Switch subsequent yr, so the chip big could also be utilizing the Snapdragon telephone to check the waters earlier than coming into the buyer marketplace for actual.

Regardless, if for some cause the Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders strikes your fancy, maintain an eye fixed out on Qualcomm’s social channels at this time for more information on the right way to purchase one.