Companies use big tech events to reveal their new products, but increasingly they’re also making a point of showing off how they’re doing it. At Wednesday’s Qualcomm Snapdragon Summit 2025, the livestreamed keynote included a prominent Shot on Snapdragon badge during some of the wider camera angles inside the Monarch Ballroom at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Maui, Hawaii.
A Shot on Snapdragon badge appeared on a few camera angles during the livestream of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit 2025 event.
Screenshot by Jeff Carlson/CNET
Recording an event like this with a smartphone isn’t new, but it’s still novel. The last several Apple keynotes, all pre-recorded and edited before being delivered, were captured entirely using the latest iPhone Pro models at that time; Apple created a short documentary about using the iPhone 16 Pro to shoot last year’s event. It’s a flex not only of a company using its own tools to make its content, but to show other video professionals how it can be done.
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Qualcomm’s event looked to be a mix of cameras, since Shot on Snapdragon appeared only from some moving camera angles within the venue. CNET senior reporter David Lumb snapped a photo of a cameraman pushing in during the event using a Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra (which is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite) mounted in what looked to be a DJI Ronin 2 gimbal on a long boom arm. It’s not clear which other cameras were used for other angles. But it’s worth noting that a consumer phone camera was intermingled with no doubt more capable and professional cameras to capture live footage, share it globally and maintain the same color and image quality.
A cameraman records the Snapdragon Summit 2025 using a Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra in a DJI Ronin gimbal.
David Lumb/CNET
Not too long ago, shooting video with a smartphone would have been impractical, particularly in such a dark environment. But despite the relatively small sizes of the camera sensors, video quality has improved a lot over the years. If you want to put it up against the big dogs in Hollywood, it’s held its own, such as last year’s movie 28 Years Later, which was shot entirely on iPhones using an assortment of rigs, lens adapters and even a telescope grafted to the devices.
Shooting with the Galaxy S25 Ultra in this context was also important to Qualcomm because it announced the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, which supports the new Advanced Professional Video codec that enables a fully computational video pipeline and near lossless-quality footage. For events like this and for producers who need fast turnaround without extensive (and expensive) toning and color grading, a high-end smartphone that’s priced at a movie-friendly budget of just $1,300 could be just what’s needed.
