Nearly a month has passed in 2021, and for digital products, the period before the Lunar New Year after New Year's Day is actually the best time to review last year's product performance and look forward to next year's development. Perhaps for the same consideration, China Mobile Terminal Lab officially released the "China Mobile 2021 Intelligent Hardware Evaluation Report (Phase II)" at 10 o'clock on January 26, testing representative mobile phones with authoritative equipment and testing methods from the perspective of operators.
The "Report" released this time continues the pattern of previous releases, and the test models are tested in multiple dimensions, and the test report is more representative. So what models or categories of test results in this "Report" deserve our attention?
Communication capabilities are the foundation of mobile phones
First, let's look at the root of the mobile phone as a communication tool: the ability to communicate. Although most of the text messages received by everyone are verification codes at these points, and most of the calls received are also takeaway food delivery, the strong communication ability of mobile phones is still the cornerstone of highly developed mobile networks, after all, no one wants to open the health code as soon as they enter the subway station.
Judging from the test results of China Mobile, Qualcomm is undoubtedly the biggest winner of this communication capability test: whether the mobile phone is priced at more than 4,000 yuan, less than 2,500 yuan or between, the top three mobile phones all use mobile solutions from Qualcomm. Among them, Honor Magic 3, Honor Magic 3 Pro and Xiaomi 11 Youth Vitality Edition ranked first in the scoring list of more than 4000 yuan, 2500-4000 yuan and 2500 yuan below the three price points respectively.
Of course, the quality of mobile phone communication capabilities is completely determined by the mobile phone chip platform, and software algorithms and mobile phone hardware design also play a key role. For example, in the single test of antenna uplink emission performance, Xiaomi MIX4, Xiaomi Cvi and Redmi Note 11 ranked first in their respective price points, and they can also provide users with a better Internet experience in locations with poor network coverage.
But when it comes to the multi-antenna throughput performance and data transmission performance, which affect the comprehensive use of test items, Honor's technology is obviously superior: Honor Magic 3 and Honor 60 Plus won the top spot of more than 4000 yuan and 2500-4000 yuan respectively, and Xiaomi only won the top position below 2500 yuan with Xiaomi 11 Youth Vitality Edition. Compared with last year's round of test results, Redmi's improvement in communication capabilities is still very significant, but if the overall performance of the brand is compared, Xiaomi, Honor and OPPO obviously still have certain advantages in communication capabilities.
But the most surprising thing is the performance of the iPhone: according to the test report, the score of the iPhone 13 Pro Max in the multi-antenna throughput performance test actually ranked second in the mobile phone above 4,000 yuan, surpassing a series of mobile phones such as vivo X70 Pro+, second only to the Honor Magic 3. Considering that this test reflects the data performance in the comprehensive scenario of mobile phone cities, the iPhone's performance is obviously the best proof of the A15 signal improvement.
It is not difficult to see from the iPhone's active improvement signal that the mobile phone manufacturers' view of the 5G network has changed from the former "gimmick" to a "function" that is closer to daily use. Although the "killer application scenario" based on 5G has not yet appeared, mobile phone manufacturers have recognized the concept of 5G networks, and will continue to promote the technological development of 5G networks in the future to prepare the soil for the development of 5G network ecology.
Fever and endurance results are upset
The performance in terms of power consumption is similar to the last test result, and the mobile phone using MediaTek chip still has a better performance in the power consumption test. But just like the performance in communication tests, the new Apple A15 chip has excellent performance in both power consumption and heat control. Taking the heat performance as an example, the surface temperature of the iPhone 13 Pro Max pressures a series of mobile phones such as Xiaomi MIX4 and vivo X70 Pro+.
Even in public power tests, the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max outperformed most phones above the 4,000+, second only to the Xiaomi MIX4. In other words, with the A15 bionic chip, Apple can be said to have got rid of the past label of poor signal and unsurable battery, and has a certain hardware competitiveness outside of iOS.
When it comes to power testing and heating up during gaming, gaming performance is naturally the focus that cannot be avoided. In the mobile game test, the test center selected 6 popular mobile phones, of which in addition to 5 traditional flagship phones also joined the Red Devil 6s Pro gaming phone. In the fluency test, the Red Devil 6s Pro is indeed the most stable frame rate performance of the phone. The iPhone 13 Pro Max has poor frame rate stability in overloaded scenes, and the rest of the phones have also experienced frequency reduction.
However, in the endurance stage of the game test, the performance of the iPhone 13 Pro Max surpassed that of other mobile phones, consuming only 25% of the power under the 5-sentence heavy-duty game, while the power consumption of other mobile phones was around 30%, and the power consumption of the Red Devils was more than 50%. The temperature of the iPhone, Xiaomi Mix4 and Honor Magic 3 in the heat test was in the first echelon, but the Red Devils 6s Pro had the best temperature, exceeding 50 degrees Celsius, and the results were surprising.
In the loading speed, picture quality and sound effects project, the iPhone 13 Pro Max has the best performance, which is why the laboratory decided to choose the iPhone 13 Pro Max as the best gaming phone.
To be honest, I was really shocked when I saw that the gaming phones in the report didn't perform as well as the different flagship phones. To know the reason why the game phone was born, its ultimate purpose is to use more powerful performance and cooling configuration to run the flagship mobile phone game with no movement. But in my opinion, the game phone is only a temporary solution under the chip heat dissipation bottleneck. As long as the flagship chip can balance performance, power consumption and heat like the A15, the gaming phone will lose its meaning of existence.
Ease of use is becoming more and more important
In the test report, we also found some test dimensions that were difficult to quantify in the past, such as the fluency and ease of use of the system. Let's first look at the fluency data: for the startup delay of typical applications of the system, Xiaomi, Honor and Redmi perform better, of which Xiaomi is the top of the 4000 yuan price point. However, under the influence of hardware performance, system optimization and third-party software adaptation, the iPhone 13 series performs best in the project of continuous launch of third-party applications that is close to daily testing.
As for the ease of use, and everyone imagines the difference, often referred to as the "elderly machine" iPhone performance is not outstanding, from the system point of view, in the three price points MIUI have a better ease of use score, I believe this depends on MIUI and other domestic mobile phone brand operating system in the localization of optimization and adaptation. In addition, the report also specifically mentioned that the consistency of MIUI mobile phones is better, and the operating system is not differentiated due to different hardware configurations. In other words, the functions of high-end machines can also be enjoyed by entry-level mobile phones.
In other words, compared with domestic MIUI and EMUI, the ungrounded iOS obviously has some gaps in practicality. This also confirms the consideration of domestic users for advertising, privacy and ease of use from another perspective. It is undeniable that iOS does have a lot of advantages in system permission management, and the software ecology is healthier. However, because iOS needs to be aimed at global users, there are some trade-offs in functionality. If Apple wants to further increase its market share in China, bringing true localization capabilities to iOS would be a good place to start.
Software makes the mobile phone industry shuffle again?
Looking at the entire test report, it is not difficult to see that the 5G era has brought new opportunities to many brands. In the 4G era, Qualcomm has always been the "overlord" of the mobile phone chip industry, with the advantages of hardware and software, Qualcomm's 8 series flagship chips have also been the preferred chip for major mobile phone brands in planning mobile phones, and even in the early stage of 5G, Apple also used the 5G baseband from Qualcomm in the iPhone, trying to use this as a supplement to the competitiveness of mobile phones.
But in the 5G era, MediaTek seized the gap between Qualcomm Snapdragon and Apple A14 and achieved a product leap with the advantages of the process. At the same time, the cost performance of MediaTek's 5G chips also allows 5G technology to have greater coverage. It can be said that 5G gives MediaTek the opportunity to overtake, and MediaTek has opened up a broader market for 5G.
Although there is no scene that must use 5G, considering the rapid development speed of the mobile phone industry, the soil of 5G development will surely give birth to application scenarios belonging to the 5G era, and at that time, 5G can naturally get rid of the insult of "increasing power consumption" and show real strength.
In addition, the report also emphasizes the importance of software in the mobile phone competition. Whether it is iOS, which helps the iPhone win in the game link, or MIUI, which helps Xiaomi and Redmi win the first place in ease of use, the participation of the system has given the mobile phone competition more dimensions and application scenarios, and also gives the small factory that does not have obvious advantages in the chip field an opportunity to overtake in the corner. It is foreseeable that the impact of software on mobile phones will only increase in the future. In 2022, when hardware options are not abundant, software will be the best battleground for mobile phone brands to compete.