The "Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders" vs ROG5 Preview: Branded vs Original
by Andrei Frumusanu on August 16, 2021 10:00 AM ESTCamera - TBD - Firmware Update Promised
When we first covered the Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders announcement a few weeks ago, we were under the impression that the phone was full ASUS product – as in Qualcomm had no involvement of the development of the phone. After we received a review unit from Qualcomm, the company had reached out to warn us that there was an upcoming firmware update towards end of August, which had “substantial” changes to the way the camera performed.
This was rather confusing, as it was worded that Qualcomm had done the optimisations – which is actually indeed what happened, and goes against our initial impression of the collaboration between the companies. In reaching out for clarification, a Qualcomm spokesperson explained the following differences to ASUS’s cameras, as well as what we are supposed to see in the upcoming major upgrade:
Regarding the camera update, the difference between this phone and a typical ASUS handset for camera are:
- This handset uses Qualcomm’s latest camera SW build including baseline Qualcomm features for MFNR, MCTF, EIS, HDR, etc.
- This handset has different component choices (sensors and lenses) vs. a typical ASUS handset
- This handset has SW features integrated from specific ISV partners, such as ArcSoft and Almalense
- This handset was tuned for best IQ by Qualcomm’s camera team
- This handset has ToF Laser for best lowlight autofocus accuracy
Here are the differences between the build you have now and the MR1.6 OTA updates coming later this month, which the DXOMARK score is based on:
- OTA will have upgraded camera tuning which will boost camera performance to a score of 133 (highest in the US)
- OTA will provide best autofocus experience, better texture/noise performance, and improved night shot quality
- OTA will enable Video Super Resolution
- OTA will add full resolution mode to improve snapshot performance
- OTA will add Cascaded Noise Reduction in video mode for cleaner video capture
- OTA fully optimizes:
- UW/Tele HDR– tone/artifact
- Low light and night modes– noise/brightness and stability
- Multi-frame noise reduction - snapshot noise reduction
- HDR snapshot – tone and stability
- Ultra wide camera – HDR will be better in viewfinder for this camera
Qualcomm goes further to explain that they’ve worked with DXOMark to evaluate the new camera software, and claim to have received a score of 133, the “highest in the US” (probably referencing against the S21 Ultra and OP9Pro's 123-124).
Unfortunately, we did not have access to this new firmware update, and thus weren’t able to test the performance of the camera. For what it’s worth, the camera performance out-of-box seemed generally in line with that of other ASUS phones as well as the ROG Phone 5, aside from obvious differences such as OIS.
Due to the exceptional claims made by Qualcomm for this upcoming firmware and camera update, I deemed it pointless to try to review the current camera performance of the SSI if it’s supposed to be vastly revamped and changed within a few weeks.
What is however interesting in talking to Qualcomm, is that the improvements for this touted firmware update will be exclusive to the Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders – meaning it will not see the improvements translate to other ASUS phones such as the ROG Phone 5. This is actually a very important, and probably the only positive differentiation for the SSI over other ASUS alternatives. It’s also quite of a messy situation for ASUS if we do end up with the phone vastly outperforming the Zenfones/ROG Phones in the camera department.
We’ll be revisiting the topic in a few weeks once we have access to the new update. For this reason, this article is a “preview”, rather than a full review.
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Spunjji - Tuesday, August 17, 2021 - link
Willing to bet that the image samples on that DXOMark review won't gel with the official rating...Kangal - Tuesday, August 17, 2021 - link
Came here to say the same thing.I expect QC to be worse than ASUS in photography, or at the best; not much better.
The ASUS RoG 5, gets so much right that it is one of the best phones of 2021. My only suggestions would be to make it smaller and lighter, better ergonomics, durability upgrades, perhaps IP68 certification, more available/affordable, and have better software support (AndroidOne? Bootloader?). Overall, its great and only outdone by the Sony phones.
s.yu - Tuesday, August 17, 2021 - link
Actually they may well do, I think they're cherry-picking the samples in recent years, at least for certain devices. Perception could be manipulated by manually discarding samples with minor focusing errors, vibrations, AWB issues, questionable lighting etc. and that could matter more than the actual performance of the device.Of course anybody could do that, but it's DXO we're talking about.
Mil0 - Wednesday, August 18, 2021 - link
Review is posted https://www.dxomark.com/smartphone-for-snapdragon-...It seems like dxomark reviewed the phone themselves, and they did find some issues with the algorithms.
BAllen - Tuesday, August 17, 2021 - link
Most people don't know that the Adreno 660 is just a 5nm overclocked Adreno 650. They both have the same 1,024 ALU count and design. The Adreno 650/+ runs at 540MHz-670MHz depending on the phone. The Adreno 660 runs at 840MHz. With these SOC's performance scales almost perfect. Each 100MHz clock bump gives the GPU a 100GFlops of FP32 compute. The Adreno 650/+ is rated at 1.2TFlops-1.38TFlops FP32. The Adeno 660 is rated at 1.78TFlops FP32. So you see the picture. And yes i said TFlops. Phones now have 1Teraflop+ GPU's. What's even better is a SD865 device with an Adreno 650 that holds a sustained clock can basically match a overheating, throttling 660.BAllen - Tuesday, August 17, 2021 - link
Also, the ROG 5's 2Vrms 3.5mm headphone jack uses the latest 32bit ESS SABRE qDAC and can push 700Ω 🎧. That with a 6000mAh battery and dual USB-C 3.1 has HDMI and MicroSD storage. So, its basically an upgrade for LG users. Though, i'm plenty happy with my modded LG v60 running A11 and Note 20 U5. The SD865/+ is all anyone would actually ever need for the next 5 years. That's why i bought 2 of each. With the v60 only costing $350-$400 new and the Note 20 UG at $600, who could pass on those deals. I got one v60 basically running at a HTPC hooked up to my LG OLED with a 512GB MicroSD loaded up.Kangal - Tuesday, August 17, 2021 - link
It's been a while since I've looked into the iGPU performance of phones.But with figures like that, it's pretty close to the power of the XB1 and PS4. Impressive. Not to mention, it getting access to newer software/hardware features, and using a more powerful CPU, you could argue they're even closer to that mainstream-2013-benchmark. Well, that is if you actually dock the phone and give it a steady supply of electricity and use some sort of Active Cooling to regulate it.
Then you have Apple. They might actually be more powerful (slightly) than last-gen console's performance. Add the SteamDeck to the conversation, and it's a good time to be a mobile gamer.
zodiacfml - Tuesday, August 17, 2021 - link
dont know whats going with Q these days. they should have Apple M1 like hardware by now but no, we get this 🤮abufrejoval - Tuesday, August 17, 2021 - link
Looks like you're trying to get somebody fired.Just sure hope it's not you!
CyborgAlienRay - Wednesday, August 18, 2021 - link
I wouldn't waste $1500 on an alpha device that's not even remarkable by any means, let alone one with no 3.5mm jack or can remain cool, or have removable memory, the additional headphones are worthless for me, so what about 16GB DRAM, the fact it's got 512GB of ReadOnlyMemory is great but, still not for the additional $500. Wishy-washy camera, overheating, and complete 5G networks doesn't add up to $1400, the rest are boring stats, it even doesn't have the next gen of processors in it, which may have gone a long ways but, still not worth that. Even looks cheap, not sure if that's a Qualcomm decision or an Asus one but, someone dropped the leaded loaded iron ball on someone's head on that one for sure.