Image source @ Visual China
Text | Sharp
2021 has ended, in the past year, the most commonly seen word in the high-end flagship mobile phone market is "fighting the high-end", Huawei's fading in the high-end market, the domestic dilemma of Samsung's flagship mobile phone, so that the high-end market has a rare market gap, which is a rare opportunity for other mobile phone manufacturers.
Therefore, although the domestic mobile phone sales in 2021 have once again shown a downward trend, it does not represent the sluggishness of the mobile phone industry, and the competition for major mobile phone manufacturers in the high-end market has become more intense, and various new technologies and designs have emerged in an endless stream, making people lament that competition is the best means to promote technological progress.
Next, let Xiao Lei take stock of what technologies domestic flagship mobile phones have come up with in the past year to compete for entry tickets for the high-end market, and the emergence of these technologies will bring users something.
The field of imaging that is in full swing
Although the competition between major manufacturers in the field of imaging has continued for many years, even so, in the just-concluded 2021, the biggest gap between flagship mobile phones and ordinary mobile phones is still the imaging field, and the gap between the image performance of flagship mobile phones and the image performance of ordinary mobile phones is so large that sometimes it is like it is not a product of an era.
In the domestic flagship mobile phones in 2021, Xiaomi 11Ultra, OPPO Find X3 Pro, OnePlus 9 Pro, Huawei P50 Pro, Honor Magic3 To The Best Edition, vivo X70 Pro+, etc., without exception, have written a special book on their own imaging technology. And unlike the previous "parameters" such as pixels and the number of lenses, manufacturers in 2021 will shift their focus back to the imaging effect, from shooting clearer to better looking, and returning to the original intention of image shooting is not progress?
Manufacturers who no longer pursue high pixels have not given up the "stacking" on hardware, such as xiaomi 11 ultra, which uses a 1/1.12-inch sensor, in addition to Sony's own flagship phone Xperia PRO-I., it is still the largest sensor in the domestic flagship mobile phone.
Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra in addition to the larger sensor, but also equipped with a 48 million pixel periscope telephoto lens and 48 million pixels ultra-wide angle lens, these two auxiliary lenses in the parameters even exceed the main camera of some ordinary mobile phones, coupled with a unique secondary screen design, so that Xiaomi 11 Ultra has enough strength in terms of imaging to cope with the challenges of other flagship phones.
Coincidentally, OPPO also chose a similar development direction, in the annual flagship Find X3 Pro OPPO for its configuration of two main camera level cameras, both 50 million pixels + 1 / 1.56 inch outsole Sony IMX766 sensor, in addition to a unique microscope, up to support 60 times the micromagnification effect, although the practicality is questionable, but the playability is full.
And with OPPO out of the same door, has now returned to OPPO's OnePlus, in the OnePlus 9 Pro, it chose to cooperate with the famous camera brand Hasselblad Soviet name, launched the Hasselblad professional model, focusing on more professional shooting. Of course, the hardware configuration of the OnePlus 9 Pro is also not bad, with a 48-megapixel IMX789 main camera and a 50-megapixel IMX766 ultra-wide-angle lens.
However, this year's most surprising xiaolei is vivo's X70 Pro+, although vivo does not seem to have much achievement in imaging, but it turns out that we all underestimated this manufacturer, X70 Pro+ not only has an excellent main camera, but also cooperates with ZEISS Optics to provide T* coating for the lens used in SLR lenses, and also configures self-developed image chips and micro-gimbal technology.
On the other hand, although Huawei cannot get enough chips for some reasons, it still launched the P50 Pro, as Huawei's new generation flagship, the P50 Pro is still strong in terms of imaging. In addition to the 50-megapixel main camera, it is equipped with a 64-megapixel periscope telephoto camera and a 40-megapixel black-and-white auxiliary imaging lens.
After leaving Huawei, the glory that has been dormant for a while has also brought their new flagship products, the restarted Magic series of new products - Honor Magic3 to the best edition, from the image configuration, we can actually see the shadow of Huawei from the body of this phone, 50 million pixels outsole main camera + 64 million pixel periscope telephoto, in addition to 64 million pixels of ultra-wide angle and 64 million pixels black and white auxiliary lens, like a strengthened version of the Huawei P50 Pro.
It can be seen that compared with the flagship mobile phones of previous years, the main camera of the flagship mobile phone in 2021 is mostly limited to 50 million pixels, and at the same time, it uses larger sensors. The number of lenses is no longer the focus of publicity, some flagship mobile phones that focus on image strength, there are only three cameras, and it is no longer often five lenses arranged and combined on the camera module.
Moreover, compared with the hardware stacking, the major manufacturers have also significantly increased their efforts in software algorithms this year, such as Xiaomi's Night Owl algorithm, OnePlus' Hasselblad professional model, and Huawei's XD Fusion Pro image engine. The camera algorithm complements the image technology, bringing more intuitive improvements to the user, and the performance in special scenes such as night scenes is far more than ever, of course, there is also a credit for the large size sensor.
In addition, major manufacturers have also begun to add some self-developed or cooperatively developed technologies to the image module, such as vivo's micro-gimbal and self-developed image chip, Xiaomi's 1/1.12-inch outsole, OPPO's 60x microscopy model, etc., with unique technical selling points to attract users' purchases. Although in the end, it is inseparable from the shooting needs such as night scenes and anti-shake, at least the flagship mobile phones on the market look no longer the same, but have their own characteristics.
In Xiao Lei's view, the flagship mobile phone in 2021 has a remarkable performance in image technology, and compared with the flagship mobile phone in 2020, the word-of-mouth evaluation in terms of image has increased significantly. In fact, some flagship mobile phones in 2020 can also be regarded as a crooked road, high pixel is important, but the actual imaging results may not be able to please the user's eyeballs, and ultra-high pixels have high requirements for the performance and algorithm of the processor, otherwise the experience may not be as good as the low pixel mode.
Judging from the performance of major manufacturers in 2021, it is obvious that they are aware of this, so in this year's flagship mobile phone market, we have hardly seen a single ultra-high-pixel mobile phone, but instead re-invested where users can feel the changes more intuitively.
Xiao Lei has started several flagships in 2021, the biggest feeling is that no post-processing can take a satisfactory photo, send a circle of friends that is more than enough, and under the output support of various native formats, the flagship mobile phone in 2021 can even meet some of the professional shooting needs, and post-processing is more convenient.
Speaking of post-processing, this is also the flagship mobile phone in 2021 and the previous flagship mobile phone is different, whether it is Xiaomi or OPPO, including vivo, one plus and other manufacturers, flagship mobile phones support straight out of professional RAW image files, so that photographers and amateurs can more easily modify the parameters of the photo, but also the flagship mobile phone from amateur equipment to professional photography equipment to move forward.
Although Xiao Lei does not know whether the future mobile phone can replace the camera, the fading of digital cameras and entry-level SLR cameras has actually foreshadowed part of the future.
Show that the Great War is over? The smoke is still there
In the mobile phone screen war in 2020, XiaoLei is still fresh in his memory, from 1080P to 2K, from 60Hz to 90Hz to 120Hz, the resolution and refresh rate of mobile phones have improved at an unprecedented speed in 2020, allowing more people to feel the charm of high resolution and high refresh rate.
However, the time to 2021, it seems that because of the excessive force in 2020, it may also be that the mobile phone screen has come to a temporary end, and the flagship mobile phone in the past year has not changed much in terms of screen parameters. Looking at the flagship mobile phones in 2021, the screen parameters are basically 2K+120Hz+10bit colors, except for a few mobile phones that are still using pseudo-2K resolution screens, most mobile phones have been upgraded to the current best configuration with the mainstream.
From the perspective of parameters, the biggest improvement is that the screen brightness has been improved again, thanks to the introduction of Samsung E4 and E5 material panels, the local peak brightness of the mobile phone screen has reached 1700 nits, and the global brightness peak is basically more than 1000 nits.
With the increase in brightness, a significant improvement is that hdR video playback has become better, and support for visual effects such as Dolby Vision has become more perfect, and film and television enthusiasts should be able to have obvious perception. However, for the average user, in addition to the screen becoming clearer under the hot sun, that is, when the night is accidentally pulled to a high brightness, the screen can illuminate a pair of eyes.
In addition to the increase in brightness, the new flagship mobile phones have also used LTPO technology, that is, intelligent variable frame rate technology, this technology is to alleviate the power consumption problems of the flagship screen and developed, equipped with LTPO technology flagship mobile phone will intelligently adjust the screen refresh rate according to the user's usage scenario, such as 120Hz when playing, browsing text is reduced to 30Hz or even lower.
LTPO technology in the test can significantly reduce the flagship screen power consumption, up to more than 50%, some readers may complain: do not feel that the battery life has improved. In fact, this point can not blame the screen, the larger pot should be on the processor, the power consumption problem of snapdragon 888, so that a number of flagship mobile phones are facing heat and endurance problems, although after optimization, basically have improved, but the problem still exists, enough to offset the power consumption saved by the display energy saving.
On the whole, the 2021 flagship mobile phone in terms of screen parameters in terms of the improvement compared to the 2020 flagship mobile phone is not large, in addition to brightness and power consumption, the biggest change may be the color accuracy, but the color accuracy for the general user is not too useful, it is estimated that only designers and photographers can feel the color accuracy changes brought about by the improvement.
Some users mistakenly think that color accuracy refers to the degree of color reproduction of the mobile phone when displaying content, in fact, when the mobile phone displays photos, videos and other files, the deviation value between the screen color and the standard color, the smaller the deviation value, the closer to the standard color, which is convenient for designers and photographers to modify and adjust the color of the work.
However, although the hardware parameters have not been improved much, there have been many upgrades in the software, and OPPO's full-link color engine allows the upgrade of imaging technology and display technology to be organically combined to achieve the real shooting. At the same time, OPPO also added color enhancement technology to the system to improve the color tendency of the screen according to the color preferences of the test users and bring better visual perception.
For most users, today's flagship mobile phone screen has been very perfect, and the experience of upgrading is not high, so many manufacturers will focus on display technology to bring users better film and television perception with display enhancement technology. In fact, in 2020, many people think that the flagship mobile phone in 2021 will enter the 4K field, but at present, it seems that power consumption and cost are difficult to balance, which is not suitable for most users.
As for the future screen, before Micro-LED and MiniLED were applied to the field of mobile phones, the upgrade of OLED screen materials has basically come to an end, and it is nothing more than to continue to improve in color, brightness and resolution. Therefore, when the cost of 4K high-refresh rate screens drops and power consumption is controlled, we should be able to see the popularity of 4K mobile phones.
At last
2021 for the mobile phone industry, is not a bumper harvest year, sustained mobile phone sales decline, domestic mobile phones are also facing a high-end mobile phone dilemma, millet, OPPO, vivo and other manufacturers have repeatedly impacted the high-end, but the results are not optimistic. From the perspective of mobile phone design, the traditional domestic flagship mobile phone is still unable to catch the mountain of the iPhone, and it is difficult to break through the roadblock of Apple.
In the market below 5,000 yuan, the domestic flagship mobile phone is also a strong competitive existence in the world, at least in the field of Android mobile phones, the domestic flagship mobile phone is still proud. However, Xiao Lei also believes that the future flagship mobile phone will stand on the high-end market and be recognized by the high-end market, at least in terms of screen, image, etc., the domestic flagship mobile phone is not lagging behind, or even surpassed.
Now the difference is only the product ecology and user recognition, and in the past year, Millet, OPPO and other manufacturers are building their own product ecology, the Internet of Everything proposed, Windows-Android Unicom, have pointed out a path for the ecological construction of Android manufacturers, with the development of ecology, the future of domestic flagship mobile phones in the experience will certainly have a significant improvement.
From competing hardware parameters to optimizing user experience, domestic flagship mobile phones are on the right path.