The Galaxy S21 Ultra is arguably the best Android smartphone right now, offering the right blend of features and performance. Now, it has a new competitor in the form of the Snapdragon Smartphone for Insiders. Yes, that's the name of Qualcomm's first smartphone. The device has high-end specifications and it is co-designed and manufactured by ASUS.
Snapdragon Smartphone for Insider packs in Qualcomm's latest technologies
Qualcomm unveiled its first smartphone, the Snapdragon Smartphone for Insiders (EXP21), earlier today. It features a minimalistic design but packs in high-end specs. It has a 6.78-inch Super AMOLED display with Full HD+ resolution, a 144Hz refresh rate, up to 1,200 nits peak brightness (during HDR10+ playback), 111.23% DCI-P3 color gamut coverage, always-on display, and Gorilla Glass Victus protection.
It runs Android 11 out of the box (with stock Android UI) and comes equipped with the Snapdragon 888 processor, 16GB LPDDR5 RAM, and 512GB UFS 3.1 storage. Despite the Snapdragon 888+ being Qualcomm's latest flagship chipset, it is not being used in this smartphone because ASUS started designing it a few months ago. It has high-quality dual-stereo speakers and a rear-mounted 3D Sonic Sensor Gen. 2 fingerprint reader.
The Snapdragon Smartphone for Insiders features a 24MP front-facing camera and a 64MP+12MP+8MP triple-camera setup at the rear. The 64MP camera uses the Sony IMX686 sensor and OIS, while the 12MP ultrawide camera uses Sony's IMX363 sensor with dual-pixel autofocus and doubles up as a macro camera. The 8MP telephoto camera has OIS and features a 3x optical zoom lens. Primary and ultrawide cameras can record 4K 60fps videos, while the primary camera can also record 8K 30fps videos.
It is powered by a 4,000mAh battery, which seems small for such a high-end smartphone with a big high-refresh-rate display. It does come with a 65W Quick Charge 5.0 charger that can top up the phone's battery up to 70% of its capacity within 30 minutes. Other features of the phone include dual-band GPS, Wi-Fi 6E, mmWave and sub-6GHz 5G, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC, a USB Type-C port, and a flowing Snapdragon logo on the rear. It weighs 210g and measures 173.15 x 77.25 x 9.55mm.
It comes packed with a special pair of premium truly wireless earbuds ($299 Master & Dynamic MW08 with aptX LL), two braided USB Type-C cables, 65W Quick Charge 5.0 adapter, and a specially-designed bumper case. The whole package costs a whopping $1,500, which is $300 more than the Galaxy S21 Ultra's launch price. It will be launched this August in China, Germany, Japan, Korea, the US, and the UK, followed by India.
Would you buy the Snapdragon Smartphone for Insider over the Galaxy S21 Ultra?
The main aim of this smartphone is to showcase all the latest Qualcomm technologies, including the Snapdragon 888 processor, Quick Charge 5.0, Qualcomm aptX Adaptive and Snapdragon Sound, and Qualcomm Game Quick Touch. However, this is not the only phone to feature those technologies. Plus, it costs a whole lot more than most other high-end Android smartphones.
If you had the chance, would you buy it over the Galaxy S21 Ultra? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
