The "Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders" vs ROG5 Preview: Branded vs Original
by Andrei Frumusanu on August 16, 2021 10:00 AM ESTSystem Performance - Extremely Snappy
System performance of the SSI is rather straightforward: With the well known Snapdragon 888 which we’ve review in tons of devices to date, along with ASUS’s software stack, and the device’s 120/144Hz panel, it should perform extremely well.
In the web-browsing test in PCMark Work 3.0, the SSI is a little bit faster than the ROG 5.
The writing subtest shows a more substantial advantage in favour of the SSI, indicating that there’s actually some more notable BSP and scheduler/DVFS differences between it and the ROG 5. It’s in line with the performance of the Mi 11 Ultra and the Galaxy S21.
Photo editing falls in line with the Mi 11 Ultra and the Axon 30 Ultra.
Oddly enough, both the ROG 5 and the SSI top the charts in the data manipulation test, showcasing similar OS optimisations.
In the overall performance scores, the SSI ends up as the top performing Android device, thanks to its more aggressive tuning.
Web Browser Performance
The web browser results are a bit of a mix between being in line with the ROG Phone 5 and being actually quite ahead of all other Snapdragon 888 phones on the market. Particularly the extremely high WebXPRT 3 scores showcases that the SSI is a lot more aggressive in terms of DVFS than any other Snapdragon powered device.
The overall system performance of the Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders is excellent and outstanding The extremely fast responsiveness of the software as well as for the fast chip, along with the very high refresh rate as well as the low latency input means that it’s amongst one of the fastest and snappiest devices on the market.
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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.