Spring is here, it's here again... Season of new phone releases. With the launch of Qualcomm and MediaTek flagship SoCs, major smartphone manufacturers are ready to start the trend of flagship mobile phone replacement from this month.
Don't forget the past, the teacher of the future. Before we get to the new phone, let's take a look back at the unsatisfactory products of the past year. Which products have "rolled over"? Will they be able to make progress in the new year and re-emit the scent of true fragrance?
Snapdragon 888
888, a string of auspicious numbers in the hearts of the Chinese, set the name for the successor of Snapdragon 865 - to please the auspicious and also to please the Chinese market.
Qualcomm said that the Snapdragon 888 debuted the Cortex-X1 performance core, the CPU architecture is the latest generation Kryo 680, CPU performance increased by up to 25%, Adreno 660 GPU graphics rendering speed increased by 35%. Not only that, the Snapdragon 888 is also Qualcomm's first flagship SoC with integrated 5G Modem, which is theoretically more conducive to heat dissipation and reduces power consumption.
However, the Performance of the Snapdragon 888 was not satisfactory, which was attributed to severe heat and high power consumption. AnandTech review data shows that although the peak performance of the SNAPDR 888 GPU is improved compared to the previous generation of Snapdragon 865, it has experienced a significant performance decline due to severe heat generation and excessive power consumption.
On average, the Gpu Improvement Range of the Snapdragon 888 is only 5%-20%, which is less than the advertised 35%. In some scenarios, the Snapdragon 888 is even lower than the previous generation of Snapdragon 865 due to overheating and frequency reduction.
In order to maintain better equipment performance, mobile phone manufacturers have played the banner of "how to train the dragon", and each flagship mobile phone must talk about heat dissipation design. Not to mention, many mobile phone manufacturers have also developed accessories side businesses and made heat dissipation back clips. Only a few months after the snapdragon 888 was released, Qualcomm took out the previous generation of flagship Snapdragon 865 to make a "Max" version - Snapdragon 870, which explained the unsatisfactory 888 from the side.
The most likely "back pot" for the Snapdragon 888 should be that the Samsung 5nm LPE process is not mature enough, so Qualcomm will be eager to let the new generation of Snapdragon 8 turn to TSMC process. Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 was handed over to TSMC, one is that TSMC's 5nm production capacity in 2020 is almost squeezed by Apple and Huawei, and the other is that the previous Samsung OEM Snapdragon 835 performs really well. In hindsight, this was ultimately a bad decision.
The Snapdragon 888 has many bright spots, not only integrating 5G baseband, but also an upgraded AI engine and a 14-bit triple ISP, bringing stronger image performance to the flagship phone. But overall, the performance regrets of the Snapdragon 888 have overshadowed these improvements.
MIUI 12
MIUI has always been one of the best custom Android systems in China, after years of updating, the evaluations received are basically praise, from the interface design to the degree of functional integrity are the top existence in China.
But in 2021, users' complaints about MIUI continue to emerge, a sentence of "change MIUI bar", directly pushing MIUI to the cusp of network public opinion. MIUI 12, which integrates multiple major updates, is the hardest hit area of the bug reported by users, from common functions such as negative one screen, horizontal screen split screen, small window, to animation response and various small functions may be triggered.
Image from Zhihu
The reason for such a reversal is that the functions of MIUI 12 are too new, coupled with the animation engine update and the iteration of the underlying version of Android, the test time cannot be guaranteed. Although MIUI has a large number of active rice noodles participating in the test, under the fast-paced update, some low-priority issues cannot be responded to quickly, leaving it in the subsequent stable version update. This not only brings a bad impression to the user, but also causes the user to pursue the speed of problem processing for a period of time, and the situation of "occupying the pit" of the development version is poured in.
In order to improve the experience, Xiaomi has not spared no less effort, such as launching miUI 12.5 enhanced version on the basis of MIUI 12.5, focusing on optimizing the experience and fixing many serious bugs. By the time MIUI 13 was released at the end of the year, there was much less criticism of MIUI.
However, a small repair is not a long-term solution. What MIUI needs to do is to locate the core of the emergence of bugs and solve the problem at the root. In addition, in terms of development rhythm, MIUI needs to carefully measure the new and testing rhythm of functions, and not leave stability behind while launching new features. As domestic manufacturers continue to increase the system experience, MIUI needs to hand over a good enough report card to continue to prove that it is still the first echelon of domestic systems.
AirTag
Followed by a fruity advertisement for a "couch adventure", Apple unveiled the AirTag tracker at the spring conference in 2021, 229 yuan a piece, 779 yuan four, making the cost of losing keys expensive. The unexpensive price did not make people back off, and it also aroused the creative desire of some gods - such as buying 64 AirTags to play backgammon.
Under the Internet boom, AirTag is not as hot as we expected, and it is rarely mentioned after the release boom, and it is not as easy to use as people expect. Judging from Apple's official advertising, the main function of AirTag is indoor rapid positioning, finding what you need in a small area, and many people imagine that running to the end of the world can find the effect of the gap.
By design, with UWB ultra-wideband technology and relying on Apple's Find My network, AirTag is rounded to the end of the world. The problem is that not everyone uses an iPhone, and not all phones support UWB. Although the iPhone is a bestseller every year, its penetration outside the North American market is not so high, limiting the use of airTag.
In turn, Apple devices cover a wide area, and AirTag brings new annoyances. Since its release, foreign media reports of Airtag tracking events have continued, and even some media have described AirTag as a "perfect tracking tool".
Although Apple has introduced anti-abuse measures, such as issuing a warning prompt within 8 to 24 hours after the AirTag leaves the holder, and launching a detection and inspection app for Android users, it is ultimately invincible and the vulnerability is not small.
The Android version of the AirTag tracking detection tool requires users to install it themselves
Of course, there is nothing wrong with the tool itself, the fault lies with the person who misuses it. How to improve the practicality of AirTag and improve the privacy mechanism requires Apple to study more.
Meizu triple zero system
At the press conference of Meizu 18 series, Meizu shouted out a feat against the tide of the times, to create a 0 wide 0 push 0 pre-installed "three zero mobile phone": starting from Meizu 18 series, the system comes with no advertising, 18 series does not pre-install any third-party applications, no operation advertising push, etc.
The advertising industry is one of the most important industries of the Internet and a large source of income for manufacturers. Killing advertising, pre-installation, and pushing is unimaginable for any smartphone manufacturer, let alone Meizu, which has reduced its share to "others". Can Meizu really do it?
At least today's Meizu, it is certainly impossible to do. After only half a year, Meizu made a "difficult decision", Meizu official blog deleted the relevant content about the "three zero mobile phone", and the Flyme 9 and Meizu 18 series product descriptions in the official website could not find the "three zero mobile phone" related content.
Meizu said that meizu 18, 18 Pro two models are not affected by this adjustment, will continue the Meizu 18, Meizu 18 Pro user commitment. So sincere and touching. Unexpectedly, three months later, Meizu ate a ticket from the Zhuhai Municipal Market Supervision and Administration Bureau, because of the weather in the Meizu 18 and 18 Pro series mobile phones, pedometers and other systems including advertising pushes, which did not match the description of no ads in the advertised "three zero system". Meizu responded that it was a background system failure and had been seriously rectified.
The world has been suffering from advertising for a long time. As ordinary consumers, the advertising in front of us is constantly evolving, from web advertising, to film and television program opening advertisements, to mobile phones everywhere advertising space. Not only Meizu users, but all smartphone consumers will expect a three-zero policy.
In China's smart phone market, the major smart phone manufacturers - especially domestic manufacturers, under the price war, the profit margin of mobile phones is quite scarce, manufacturers invariably rely on advertising business. The only manufacturers that can stay out of the matter, sell well and do as much as possible without advertising, perhaps only Apple - in the second quarter of 2021, Apple swept away 75% of the operating profits of the world smartphone market, and most of the remaining 25% was swept away by Samsung, leaving few "meat" for domestic manufacturers. The more "not to make money" selling mobile phones, the more they have to rely on selling advertisements to make money, which has become the norm for Chinese manufacturers.
Looking back, the Triple Zero policy is like all kinds of New Year flags. Those who have realistic goals and resolute execution will eventually reach the other side of the ideal, and those whose goals are higher than the sky, and it is more important to show off than those who implement them, and failure is inevitable. The end of the Triple Zero policy, which has been doomed from the beginning, is regrettable but not regrettable.
Overall, these products are not a complete failure, but in the final experience, not up to the level that people expected. What we really hope is that manufacturers can find the direction of improvement in imperfect products and convince consumers with more excellent products in the new year.