Qualcomm’s $1,500 Snapdragon Insiders phone finally gets an update, but not the one everyone was hoping for

Qualcomm is known for its Snapdragon chips and modem. But last year, it decided to start selling smartphones under its own brand. This marked the debut of the "Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders"—an Asus-manufactured phone packing high-end internals. With a wallet-busting $1,500 price tag and the chipmaker being directly at the helm, you'd expect the phone to get regular updates. That happened for a few months after release, but since March this year, the device has been stuck on the January 2022 security patch running Android 11. Following the backlash from a handful of device owners and the media, Qualcomm has released a new update for its phone, but even that seems like a half-hearted attempt.