The "Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders" vs ROG5 Preview: Branded vs Original

Camera - 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.