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00:00Hey guys, I'm Tomatek Cep and this is a bit of a strange one, actually.
00:10It's the new Qualcomm Snapdragon Insider phone.
00:13It's Qualcomm's hero product, if you will, their flagship with all their tech crammed
00:18in and you can buy this.
00:20It's not like a special edition, really.
00:22You can go online and order this in the US and China.
00:24It's coming to the rest of the world later in 2021 and it will cost you a fairly eye-watering
00:29$1,500.
00:31So as you'd hope for that kind of money and the fact that this is Qualcomm's hero product
00:36and they've just announced the new Snapdragon 888 plus processor, well, bizarrely enough,
00:42it's not in here.
00:43We just get the regular 888 for some reason, which is a bit disappointing, but still, lots
00:47to talk about with this, lots to show you in the box and also, let's try and figure
00:50out who would actually buy this because right now, I'm a bit confused by it.
00:57So this is the very snazzy and also quite chunky box that it comes in.
01:01We've got the Snapdragon branding all around, sliding it open and it reveals this welcome
01:06note saying that apparently, I deserve extra, which is very kind of them to say and also
01:11telling me all about Qualcomm's products including, of course, their Snapdragon 888 5G chip and
01:16also how you can become a Snapdragon Insider if you want and, well, I'll leave a link
01:20to that website below if you fancy checking it out.
01:23So in the box, we have this phone, of course, and also a couple of wireless earbuds.
01:28If I can actually get them out, that's one, come on, I've ruined this unboxing video already.
01:38There we go, got it.
01:39Okay, let's try this again.
01:40So we also get a pair of true wireless earbuds inside.
01:44These are from Master & Dynamic.
01:46I think the case is actually inside the box, well, at least I hope it is, but for now,
01:50they work pretty well as a pair of dice.
01:52Okay, let's check out this phone and even under the plastic cover, I can see how much
01:58it resembles the ROG Phone 5.
02:00Of course, this is built by ASUS.
02:04It feels very similar but with a slightly toned down design.
02:07It's a big phone, 6.78-inch screen, we've also got this triple camera module on the
02:12back, a rear fingerprint reader and also this lights up little Fire logo for the Snapdragon
02:17chip.
02:18So it's certainly a unique design.
02:20Elsewhere in the box, we have this little rubber bumper case for the phone, kind of
02:25reminds me of that bumper case you got with the iPhone 4 about a million years ago.
02:29I think it does a good job of protecting it without covering up the back, although it
02:33feels a little bit plastic-y, but it is rubber and it's also quite chunky as you can see.
02:38We also get the earbuds case, so as I say, these are made by Master & Dynamic.
02:42They've got Qualcomm Sound Tech built in and some of their branding on the actual box as
02:47well.
02:48And finally, the quick charger 5 brick.
02:51It's a 65-watt charger and a couple of cables for charging the phone and the earbuds case.
02:56And that is pretty much it.
02:58So let's pull that to one side and have a look at the inside of the phone.
03:02Okay, so first impressions, well, it is a lot like the ROG Phone 5 and obviously we've
03:09also got some very impressive specs, the Snapdragon 888, not the Plus, but also 16GB of DDR5 RAM,
03:16512GB of UFS 3.1 storage, and this massive 6.78-inch 144Hz AMOLED screen.
03:24So some proper flagship specs there which go some way to explain that very high price.
03:30But if you're thinking about using this as a gaming phone, unlike the ROG Phone 5, which
03:34actually is cheaper and also has a significantly bigger battery, that also has the shoulder
03:40trigger buttons and ROG's range of accessories for like the fan, for cooling it for longer
03:45gaming sessions, and also the controller, the Kunai gamepad.
03:49Now to be fair, they're not marketing this as a fully-fledged proper gaming phone.
03:53This is all about showing off Qualcomm's tech.
03:56Everything from their AI auto-zoom with a camera, and actually just the camera itself
04:00because we have the image signal processor built into that Snapdragon chip, the Qualcomm
04:04sound tech, also the 3D Sonic 2 Gen 2 fingerprint reader, and just the performance generally.
04:10It's an all-rounder phone as opposed to just a gaming phone.
04:13So design-wise, this is a pretty chunky boy.
04:15It's 210g and 9.5mm thick.
04:19We've got this matte midnight blue colour, which actually I do quite like.
04:22It's a very subtle design, except for that light-up Snapdragon logo, although you can
04:26turn that off.
04:27We get Gorilla Glass Victus on the screen.
04:30Also stereo speakers.
04:31The sound on this is actually really, really good.
04:33It supports dual 5G SIM cards, although sadly no microSD card support.
04:38No headphone jack though.
04:39And also, as I say, strangely, we have this rear fingerprint reader, but normally with
04:43these Qualcomm phones, it's all about the in-screen fingerprint reader.
04:47So perhaps this is Qualcomm's subtle way of encouraging phone brands to go back to
04:51physical fingerprint readers like this.
04:54As for the cameras, we get a 64MP main lens that's using an IMX686 sensor.
05:00We also have a 12MP ultra-wide using Sony's IMX363, and finally an 8MP telephoto lens
05:07which gives us 3x optical zoom, and actually the quality is very good.
05:11DxOMark has given it a 1.32, which puts it in first place in the US and 6th globally.
05:17And also bear in mind that these shots were taken with pre-release software, so it's likely
05:21they'll improve further.
05:23But one of the cool features of this phone is we have this auto-tracking video mode.
05:28So let's try this with Sylvie the cat, because while she's not moving, she's obviously having
05:34a nice time snoozing, I can move around.
05:36So we're tracking her, if I move in a little bit, the camera zooms out, and we get a nice
05:45ultra-wide view, but then if I move back and she gets further away, you can see it switches
05:50to the telephoto lens, a bit of a white balance shift there, and that quality really has dropped
05:55actually.
05:56All this actually is limited to 1080p as well, there's no 4K.
05:59If I come right back in, you can see it pull out.
06:04So it's definitely doing a good job of tracking her.
06:05I'm not sure about the consistency of the quality between the lenses, but it certainly
06:11works.
06:15So it goes without saying that with this 144Hz screen and the specs we get in here, this
06:19is blisteringly fast.
06:21It will play any game you throw at it flawlessly, including the likes of Genshin Impact, Max
06:25Dial, it's at 60fps, this doesn't really bat an eyelid.
06:29Although of course over sustained gaming loads, having something like an external fan that
06:33we get as an accessory on the ROG Phone 5 would make a difference.
06:38However, I think my biggest issue with this is the battery, because while we have that
06:44pretty fast 65W Quick Charge 5 charger, which will top you up to 70% in half an hour, that's
06:51okay, but we only have a 4000mAh cell in here, which isn't that big for a phone this size,
06:57and also significantly smaller than the 6000mAh cell we get in the almost identical ROG Phone 5.
07:05And considering ASUS built this as well, it's a bit odd that we haven't also got that massive
07:09battery in here, which would have been good to see, so you'll still get a reasonable battery
07:13life out of this, but considering the specs and that, you know, you might want to play
07:16a bunch of games on here, it's not going to last anywhere near as long as something like
07:21the ROG Phone 5, so a bit of a strange decision there.
07:24But I love the fact that this comes with what is essentially stock Android 11.
07:29That's what usually comes with ASUS phones, and while of course we do have some Snapdragon
07:32branding in terms of wallpapers, it is near enough stock Android, so it's nice and fast,
07:37there's no horrible bloatware or ugly skin you have to sort of hide or navigate around,
07:42it's just a good clean stock Android 11 experience.
07:45We also have these guys.
07:47Now I've been testing these for a couple of hours this morning, and they actually sound
07:50really good.
07:51I normally use the Sony WF-1000XM4s, which are incredible wireless headphones.
07:58As soon as they're paired to the phone, you can see that we have Qualcomm's aptX Adaptive
08:02audio enabled, and we can also switch between different sound optimizations depending on
08:06what you're looking for.
08:07So we're getting 24-bit audio support, 96kHz music streaming, ultra low latency, and also
08:14some improved microphone quality.
08:16The funny thing is though, I thought the earbuds sounded terrific, at least to my ear, but then
08:20I was told by Qualcomm that these are also pre-production models and don't yet fully
08:24support Snapdragon sounds.
08:26So I am actually really curious to hear what kind of difference that will actually make.
08:30But right now, I can't really comment on it.
08:33So who should buy this?
08:34Well, I don't know.
08:36The idea is that this is going to give feedback to Qualcomm, you get to sort of be a Snapdragon
08:41insider, tell them how they can improve things, I'm guessing they're tracking a lot of the
08:44information, a lot of the data on here as well, and it's kind of just like their demo
08:48device.
08:50But as I say, I'm not quite sure who would actually buy it, especially for that kind
08:54of money.
08:55You could get an iPhone 12 Pro Max top spec or an S21 Ultra for that kind of money.
08:59But it's certainly not a bad thing that Qualcomm are making these kind of demo devices because
09:03anything that they can do to get more feedback and have a better idea of what users want
09:08so they can then develop that going forward, which will then trickle down to pretty much
09:12every other phone that we use, can't be a bad thing.
09:15But if you do fancy checking this out for yourself, I'll leave a link in the description
09:18below.
09:19Also, let me know what you make of this in the comments.
09:21Would you potentially buy one?
09:23Have you got an idea of who might want to buy one?
09:25Thank you so much for watching, guys.
09:26If you enjoyed this video, a cheeky little like and subscribe would be very much appreciated.
09:31And I'll see you next time right here on the Tech Chap.