On December 15, OPPO Find N finale was released, priced from 7699 yuan, which is OPPO's highest starting price so far, but it is also the most aggressive pricing of all similar large-screen folding mobile phones, "True Fragrance Warning" on major social platforms one after another.
Liu Zuohu said at the press conference: "Find N represents the unremitting pursuit of the Find series for the top flagship, and is also a new exploration of oppo's future of smart phones, and is another milestone product of OPPO. ”
It is not difficult to see the ambition of OPPO condensed by Find N: the product definition hopes to refresh the standard of folding products to make OPPO more convincing in the high-end camp, but the pricing hopes to give a "floor price" regardless of R& D costs to tilt the balance that is shaken by the product.
Folding screen is almost the current Android camp against Apple's trump card, but almost all previous products are facing an embarrassing situation of high price and difficult to increase production, according to the latest data released by Counterpoint, after the release of the iPhone 13, Apple has ridden the dust in the Chinese mobile phone market, with a share of 22%. The market lacks competitive ultra-high-end products, OPPO also needs more convincing high-end products, and Find N, which has high hopes, will it become the top work of OPPO and even the android camp ultra-high-end?
Independent thinking and polishing technology in order to find a "better solution"
Folding screen mobile phones have been on the market for three years, but before Find N, folding screen mobile phones have always existed as concept early adopters, reflecting the scientific and technological innovation ability of mobile phone brands, and have not really opened the market stock. Advanced technology often becomes the support of ultra-high prices, but it also becomes an excuse for poor experiences.
Whether it is a prohibitive crease or a body as heavy as a brick, it is an important factor in the current product solution is not perfect, and even dissuades consumers; more importantly, the application adaptation caused by the innovation of the folding screen is less adapted and the lack of creative scenes is that the purchase users choose to restart the straight mobile phone in large numbers.
OPPO shared a set of data, in June 2020 OPPO launched a survey of 1,000 users who are using more than 8,000 yuan of mobile phone products found that although there were many products at that time, there were still 79% of users who had doubts about the folding screen, and half of the users' concerns were that the technology was immature and fragile (51%) and no use needs (44%).
This is contrary to the original intention of the development of folding screens. Folding screen itself is to solve the user wants a larger screen and better portable contradictions born of the product, whether it is hardware form or software interaction, folding screen has a lot of new possibilities, Liu Zuohu even emphasized Find N "to bring the form of the experience revolution, will also be a shuffle of the industry."
In the face of the industry and no excellent solutions, Find N is almost rare, from the origin of product definition to completely independent product judgment in the project of attack, do not follow any of the listed projects, but in-depth user independent thinking and judgment, only in this way can get rid of industry inertia, find the real correct answer. "We keep overturning and starting again, just to find an answer that really works in our hearts." Liu Zuohu said.
Because of this, OPPO chose to start from scratch from the form definition, hinge technology and even the screen solution -
In order to solve the crease problem, OPPO has accumulated 125 patents after 4 years and 6 generations of hard work, and launched a Seiko quasi-vertebral hinge that surpasses the current U-shaped and teardrop-type hinges, reducing the crease of the screen by 48%;
In order to make the screen more durable, OPPO and Samsung jointly developed and modified the 6th version of the screen stacking scheme, using more robust UTT glass, becoming the only product on the market that can pass the 200,000 folding worry-free certification of the German Rheinland Laboratory;
In order to play more interactive value of the folding screen, OPPO Find N realizes 50-120 degrees of free hovering, and adapts to a variety of scenes including fitness, music, video, movie watching and so on...
The precipitation of these technologies and their eventual commercialization are also the reason why OPPO Find N took 4 years to finally come out. Choosing the technical standards for optimizing the folding screen in an all-round way and finding a better solution is a matter of awe in itself, not to mention oppo's hope to solve all the "historical contradictions" at once on find N.
Fortunately, OPPO gave the team enough time and also handed over a valuable mature plan, Liu Zuohu said: "Find N is a product that condenses OPPO's painstaking efforts in the past four years, from the inside to the outside represents the best experience of folding screen mobile phones. We hope that more people can experience it, change the industry, and promote the folding screen industry to move forward faster. ”
How to crack the "common" puzzle? Bringing innovation back to the "user layer"
In the process of product polishing, the product team of Find N has also undergone a complete refresh for the user's needs. Unlike the emergence of the iPhone ten years ago, which almost laid the standard for straight-panel smartphones, folding screen mobile phones are new things, and when users use folding screens, the scene will be more complex and more ways to use. In front of the Find N team, there is no good solution to really learn from.
Around many details, such as body size, hardware specifications and even software adaptation, the team is more from the user's point of view to think about how to balance the various characteristics of the folding screen. Liu Zuohu set two rules for the team: the internal and external screens are easy to use; the folding screen must also have a good feel.
In order to define the ideal product size, the Find N team has designed 26 versions of the program, produced more than 120 model machines, and conducted more than 10 user surveys for more than 200 users. In the end, Find N exclusively adopted the gold size of the 5.49-inch outer screen and the 7.1-inch inner screen, achieving an excellent balance of size and weight.
Liu Zuohu said: "Find N is hoping to bring you a new product form that can take into account both the experience of the inner and outer screens and the feel of holding, and we believe that this is the "golden folding ratio" of the folding screen, which is the optimal solution of the folding screen form."
There are many small but touching product details in the product, such as the screen ratio after the Find N is turned on, which is different from the industry inertia of almost all mainstream folding screen products that are vertical after opening.
The folding screen actually provides a different idea for the large screen. Consumers in the large-screen state will be more used to browse videos, pictures and even complex PPT and other documents, so the straight mobile phone everyone will turn the mobile phone 90 degrees across to get a more immersive experience, which is the user's intuition.
"It was a small-looking option, but it was a huge challenge, because once we chose landscape, the screen specifications of the product itself had to be redefined, and the cost of software development increased dramatically, and we discussed it for 3 months." Oppo Find N product manager Zhou Yibao also shared that in the end, the development team chose to keep the 90-degree rotation action to themselves in order to have a better experience.
For example, many software interactions of Find N also reflect OPPO's understanding and thinking about users, such as the "two-finger split screen" that can be achieved in only one step, the hover 4K delay photography derived from the folding screen hover mode, and the "one-click multi-search" that makes full use of the large screen space, which are repeatedly adjusted and optimized according to the user's actual operation and feedback.
In the end, the decision to "exchange a good experience at a high price" also reflects OPPO's work concept of starting from the user. The perennial working style and way have precipitated the independent thinking and keen judgment of the whole team for the user, which has also become an important internal reason for Find N to be more suitable for users to polish and innovate.
The road to innovation, good enough is not afraid of far
The emergence of Find N, in the words of Liu Zuohu's long Weibo article, is at a critical point in the development of smart phones.
In the past two years, the mobile phone industry lacks explicit technological innovation, and even the differentiation of appearance has gradually decreased, in fact, there are certain industry factors. As the mobile phone market continues to roll in, the cost of components rises and the profit margin is down, more and more non-head brands gradually choose the model model machine, and the shell machine is born, which is the big truth that the industry has not said thoroughly.
More brands choose to live, and only a few brands are qualified to make "different" choices. Therefore, a large number of technology research and development has gradually converged to the head brand, and the industrial chain has gradually tilted to the brand that can create profits and scale effects.
As market share is occupied by oligarchs, the Matthew effect is having a profound impact on the more vertical dimensions of technology, research and development, etc.
Therefore, when a Find N full of self-developed or customized attributes is unveiled inside and outside the body, and even software, in fact, another aspect can reflect the all-round improvement of OPPO's ability to control the supply chain and the upstream and downstream linkage of the industry. The ultra-high technical difficulty of the folding screen means that OPPO needs to link up with the world's top technical team, based on OPPO's program "project special", which is not a sentence of "money" can be done, OPPO's industry appeal, has been hidden and grown.
"For example, the hinge solution, Find N's "Seiko quasi-vertebral hinge", which is another industry-leading form innovation that we achieved after the "dual-track periscope structure" of Find X in 2018." Liu Zuohu stressed. According to the sharing of OPPO's R & D team, OPPO's precision requirements for Find N's hinge scheme have reached 0.01mm, which is only one-tenth of a piece of paper, "This hinge, whether it is structure, material or process difficulty, is the absolute top level of the industry, the cost is particularly high, the cost of making a hinge alone is more than 600 pieces." Liu Zuohu sighed.
This also means that OPPO has done what many peers think is the "stupidest": it does not use the existing solution, but it has to re-set a higher and stricter standard. But it is this "stupidest" thing that makes the exploration of technology go to the deep water area, activates more technical possibilities in the industry, and gives the industry the latest blood.
OPPO CEO Chen Mingyong
"On the right road, we are not afraid of the distance, not afraid of difficulties." OPPO CEO Chen Mingyong's statement at the future technology conference confirms to a certain extent the key to the birth of Find N - the intrinsic driving force of OPPO's brand.
Insisting on doing the right thing, insisting on doing difficult things, and insisting on doing things that require a long period of accumulation, such a business philosophy is easier said than done. Whether it is strategic determination, talent reserves, technology accumulation and even capital operation, etc., it will be the threshold for being able to truly practice this sentence.
But fortunately, we have seen Find N, and even Mariana's self-developed chips, AR glasses, etc., which is an important sign that OPPO is currently moving towards in-depth development and scientific and technological self-reliance. Whether it is the user thinking behind it, the accumulation of technology or the product judgment, it reflects oppo's independence and persistence.
Liu Zuohu also sighed: "The technology industry has always been rolling forward, but not every company can keep moving forward in this wave." Many companies were once successful, but slowly lost the impetus to innovate and were abandoned by the market within a few years. That's what we've been thinking about within OPPO for the past few years. Innovation will always be OPPO's pursuit, which is engraved in OPPO's GENES and culture. We hope that through Find N, we will promote folding screen mobile phones into a new era. (This article was first published on titanium media App)