If 2021 Honor has created a miracle of "V" shape counterattack with digital series and Magic series, then in 2022, "V" will become Honor's firm anchor in building a global iconic technology brand.
On January 10, 2022, Honor's first folding screen flagship, Magic V, was officially unveiled, and the long-awaited product of users was finally settled. In Glory's view, V may be the most vivid and romantic interpretation of the folding screen series, which represents both a folding form and the V-line curve that Glory has walked in the past two years or so, although it has been bumpy all the way, but it has finally ushered in the dawn.
For the current folding machine market, in fact, Glory is still just a novice player. Before the continuous iteration of Huawei and Samsung, it has already launched a variety of products including in-fold, external folding, and vertical folding, and then there is the orderly follow-up of Xiaomi MIX FOLD 5G and OPPO Find N, which has achieved folding screen products within 10,000 yuan and gained a good reputation. The folding screen has long since stepped down from the altar that was high in the early years and began to fly into the homes of ordinary people.
Glory chose to enter the game at this time, although a little later, it is an irreversible reality, but it does not mean that the market will not be reshuffled. Glory's obsession with technological idealism may become an important weight in this folding screen war.
Insight into user needs, ideal and common ideal
In December last year, China News Weekly released a "China Folding Screen Mobile Phone Market Insight Report", which introduced the current situation of the domestic folding screen mobile phone market with data. In the three years since its advent, folding screen mobile phones are particularly conspicuous, in the context of the overall decline in smartphone shipments, consecutive years of contrarian growth, of which 200,000 units were shipped in 2019, 1.2 million units were shipped in 2020, shipments are expected to reach 1.7 million units in 2021, and by 2025, shipments are expected to climb to 13.8 million units. In the future, the folding screen may become an important support to promote the recovery of global smartphone shipments.
In addition, the report also shows that in 2021, China's folding screen mobile phone sales market share Huawei accounted for 64%, Huawei has become the absolute leader in China's folding screen mobile phone market. However, in the face of various practical reasons, Huawei's current sales of traditional bar machines and folding screen products are declining, and the gap left by the market needs to be filled. Before glory CEO Zhao Ming also admitted that if Huawei's empty high-end market is naturally divided by several domestic brands, it is very naïve and naïve, there is no shortcut to the construction and growth of high-end brands, manufacturers need to return to the fundamentals of consumer experience, can not take the configuration as a brand, nor can the various high-end devices pieced together as innovation. This is true for straight board machines, and it is even more true for folding screen products with higher technical thresholds.
After the Magic V conference, Zhao Ming also said in an interview with the media group that high-end is not a slogan, and high-end is not just a decision that can be solved, but a systematic strength and ability. Honor's goal and strategy is to do it, high-end flagship phones are comparable to and surpass the iPhone, and the software system compares and surpasses iOS, which is what Honor will always do in the future.
Half of New Honor's nearly 10,000 employees are R&D personnel, including experts and engineers from Beijing, Xi'an, Shenzhen and other places. Therefore, in terms of folding screen creation, Honor has the confidence and ability to create products that surpass mainstream brands such as Huawei and Samsung.
As far as market demand is concerned, consumer demand for folding screens is mainly concentrated in the horizontal folding screen to display a larger area, the internal and external screens are easy to use, and the vertical folding screen brings a stronger sense of fashion. Honor is also looking at this demand direction, with the ultimate productism of two-wheel drive as the guide, in a limited time to create a Magic V product, in the hardware configuration, brand reputation, shape design, software ecology in all aspects of the upgrade, hope to meet the current use of other folding screen products can not be met the needs of consumers, so as to truly achieve "one in place".
The inner and outer screens blossomed, and the technology waltz jumped on the hinge
According to the survey data, consumers use folding machines more than 50% of the time, and the external screen greatly affects the final experience of users. Looking at the current folding screen mobile phone market, you will find that the outer screen has almost become a depression for the user experience, and the slender screen ratio seems to have increased the value of the face, but from the moment of the bright screen, the user will be troubled by software adaptation. For example, the display content directly swallows the word, so that the user receives the wrong information; for example, because the screen is too narrow, the input method key must be continuously reduced, and the daily typing mistake has become a common thing; for example, the folded up thick fuselage, holding it in the hand as if in the gym, too exercise arm strength. A folding screen product that folds up and is also comfortable is about to come out.
Honor Magic V is equipped with a 6.45-inch 44 ° micro-curved outer screen, the screen ratio is 21:9, whether it is the size or proportion, and our daily use of the straight plate machine is basically consistent, which is a good solution to some folding screen products display incomplete glass aside from other screen parameters, this size of the grasp is Glory of a deep insight into the needs of users, hold comfortably in the hand, look at the eyes is the glory wants to bring to consumers.
After unfolding, magic V is equipped with a 7.9-inch inner screen, the screen ratio is 10:9, just like the effect of two bar-panel screens put together, so that the transition between the inner and outer screens is more natural. Especially under such a large screen, interaction has become the finishing touch, and the parallel horizon, split-screen navigation, intelligent split-screen, multi-screen collaboration, etc. created by Glory have given full play to the value of the large screen, so that users can not only feel "big" when using this screen, but also "efficient" and "reasonable".
It is worth mentioning that when the folding screen mobile phones of major brands use Samsung screens, Glory is still insisting on supporting the domestic supply chain. After the press conference, BOE announced for the first time that Magic V used its own flexible OLED display, which brought excellent performance. There are a few points to watch out for:
First, the use of BOE's first innovative integrated tailoring process to ensure the overall narrow border display of the folding screen, to achieve the dynamic best narrow border effect of the folding screen, and the screen display area accounts for up to 95%;
Second, using BOE's self-developed wide color gamut technology, DCI-P3 up to 106%;
Third, the use of a domestic first 28nm advanced process of drive IC and BOE self-developed Q8 new generation OF EL light-emitting devices, screen power consumption reduced by 15%;
Fourth, the first 40nm touch IC in China is adopted, which supports the high reporting point rate of 240Hz.
With the help of partners, Honor has built Magic V into a folding screen product with the most friendliness and practicality for both internal and external screens.
It is said that hinges test the scientific and technological strength of an enterprise, and after several years of development, it also confirms this view. At present, Huawei's teardrop hinge and OPPO's Seiko quasi-vertebral hinge have been recognized by consumers. In order to solve the problem of thinness and crease, Honor adopted the thinnest hinge with advanced and precision manufacturing process - ultra-thin suspended water droplet hinge, making Magic V the thinnest horizontal folding machine in the industry. At the same time, it also cleverly solves the folding gap and better screen flatness caused by the traditional baseball hinge, ensuring the long life and light crease of the screen after multiple opening and closing.
The reason why the water droplet form hinge is difficult is that when bending, there are 1 inner vertices and 2 external vertices, and the flexible folding screen looks very thin, but it contains up to a dozen functional superlayer combinations such as anode material, cathode material, and light-emitting layer. The hinge in the form of water droplets will make the flexible folding screen be squeezed by both the inner folding action and the stretching action when the outer folding is folded, which poses a great challenge to the material and design and manufacturing process of the screen. Finally, through the use of complex mechanical mechanisms and aerospace-grade materials, the opening and closing life of 200,000 times was finally realized, and the service life was up to 5 years according to the average number of opening and closing times of 100 times per day.
Thanks to the in-depth development of the hinge and the ultra-thin screen, the Magic V has become the thinnest folding machine to date, fully demonstrating the charm of the ultimate artistic aesthetic and precision manufacturing process. This also makes us look forward to the next folding screen created by Honor.
The new generation of Snapdragon 8 is added to keep pace with MagicUI 6.0
Which folding screen phone can you think of with the strongest performance? Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 or OPPO Find N with Snapdragon 888? For the special category of folding screens, the research and development cycle is often very long, and the configuration used will be relatively different from the new configuration. For example, when OPPO designed Find N before, the screen IC did not support the 120Hz screen refresh rate inside and outside, so the 60Hz of the outer screen became a regret for many potential users and OPPO product managers. For the processor, the same is true, the latest folding screen mobile phone uses nothing more than the Snapdragon 888, which is the product of more than a year ago.
In order to bring the most extreme experience to consumers, Honor directly gave Magic V a new generation of Snapdragon 8 mobile platform, directly pulling the performance full, which also made it the industry's only folding screen product equipped with a new generation of Snapdragon 8 mobile platform, perhaps in the first half of the year it will lead the way. Counting the current smartphone market, the only products that have been released with the Snapdragon 8 mobile platform are moto edge X30, Xiaomi 12 series, realme gt2 Pro, and Magic V will be the fourth. It is not difficult to see that with the help of the Honor 50, 60 series and Magic3 series, Honor has formed a deep cooperative relationship with Qualcomm, combined with Honor's own deep chip tuning capabilities, we will see a new generation of Snapdragon 8 on magic V.
At this conference, Zhao Ming spent a lot of time to introduce MagicUI 6.0 to global consumers, and "enable" has become a word that is frequently mentioned, which is very different from previous conferences. Honor positions MagicUI 6.0 as "AI Evolution Dream", which is enough to see the role played by AI capabilities in it. MagicUI's business architecture includes a scenario-based experience of active services, a cross-device OS with intelligent collaboration, and a personalized basic OS, each of which is convenient for users.
For example, the scenario-based experience of active service brings more and more understanding of your YOYO suggestions, which can be used according to the habits of thousands of people, it is difficult not to let people love; such as intelligent collaboration cross-device OS, in addition to multi-screen collaboration, Glory also reached a strategic cooperation with Microsoft to support Microsoft's Your Phone, which contributed to the interconnection of Honor mobile phones and other brand notebooks; for example, personalized basic OS has GPU Turbo X, Link Turbo X, OS Turbo X, Security Engine is a series of basic OS for a better experience. MagicUI 6.0 has also become an AI-enabled all-scenario operating system, which will better help honor 1+8+N's all-scenario strategy to land.
Zhao Ming also admitted that the operating system based on the Magic live intelligent engine will be the future direction of Glory, and no manufacturer has ever gone as thoroughly and resolutely as Honor in this field.
Write at the end
Three years ago, two years ago, or even a year ago, when mentioning the use of folding machines as the main machine, many people may still think that it is "a fantasy", and one folding screen after another is constantly developing on this road. From hinge innovation to hardware innovation to the establishment of a folding screen application ecological alliance, although the road forward of the folding screen industry is not full of flowers and applause, the quenching of blood and fire gives products higher value. Honor uses its own understanding of users and the market, relying on strong technological innovation capabilities to create a trustworthy "main machine".
The appearance of Magic V not only tests Honor's control of the consumer demand for folding screens, but also tests its ability to integrate software and hardware systems. Magic Live intelligent engine will become the soul of future glory products, even if the model, hardware configuration changes, but the ever-changing magic Live will build glory in the market competition unique "software fence", the formation of personalized competitiveness.
As for whether magic phones can match and surpass the iPhone, whether MagicUI can match and surpass iOS, it is too early to decide, may wish to let the bullet fly a little longer!