With the improvement of the epidemic situation in Chinese mainland, mobile phone manufacturers have gradually come out of this haze, and various mobile phone manufacturers have launched wave after wave of new machines in the second half of this year.
The inner volume, high price, and convergence of configurations are enough to summarize the mobile phone market in 2021.
According to the average price of GFK Sainuo's domestic mobile phone market, due to the shortage of raw materials in the upstream supply chain caused by the epidemic in the past two years, the unit price of mobile phone manufacturers is constantly growing, OPPO, vivo and other manufacturers are trying to "rob" Huawei's high-end market, and Xiaomi also held a "high-end strategy seminar" some time ago.
In addition, according to the latest data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, domestic smartphone shipments in 2021 will be about 351 million units, an increase of 13.9% year-on-year. Major mobile phones in the middle of the force at the same time, but also face some problems, in addition to the rise in raw materials, the hardware configuration is similar, homogenization is a common problem faced by mobile phones.
Therefore, more manufacturers seek high-end differentiated competition.
The picture comes from the results of the folding screen mobile phone price survey of iResearch Consulting
Folding screens follow the trend and become the heavyweight products of mobile phone manufacturers entering the high-end market.
According to the market research agency DSCC research data, in the third quarter of 2021, the total shipments of folding screen mobile phones increased by 215% month-on-month, an increase of 480% year-on-year, and the shipment of folding screens is expected to exceed 17.5 million units by 2022.
Image from iResearch's mobile phone and folding screen mobile phone shipment survey results
More institutions said that 2022 will be the folding "first year".
After all, the folding screen is currently a high-end product that tests the comprehensive strength of the manufacturer's process, technology, integration and so on.
When it was first released, although there was a "folding screen" look, the overall form, the crease at the hinge and the price could only be regarded as the upstream supply chain, as well as the products of the brand terminal to test the market, and with the maturity of the supply chain technology and the promotion of the head manufacturers, whether it was the MIM axis supply chain such as Changying Precision and Jingyan Technology or the screen industry chain manufacturers such as BOE, Visionox, and Shentianma A, they have made breakthroughs in the field.
For mass consumers, whether there is a crease in the middle, the part that can be perceived by the first contact with the folding screen, has also become a major factor in the purchase, and the brand owner has also solved the "crease" problem through cooperation with the upstream supply chain, which has also become the key part of the manufacturer's conference.
Whose crease is light seems to have become the only "quantitative" criterion for folding screen excellence.
After the consumer buys home, the perception and adaptation of the crease is "temporary", and what is the use of the folding screen, perhaps "a lifetime".
It is not difficult to see from the results of the random search for "folding screen" in various second-hand platforms that many people may use folding screens to figure out a fresh, fresh feeling, and the problems that follow must also be faced, such as not being able to bring higher efficiency than straight-screen mobile phones, shorter endurance, and high maintenance costs after damage, which are the reasons why some consumers are eager to shoot.
It is not difficult to see that the folding screen cannot replace the current direct screen main machine.
In addition to the above hardware problems, the optimization and adaptation of the APP and the innovative functions after the screen are expanded are far from the "crease" that disappears quickly, and the use scenario is too single, which has also become the reason for the user's "dissuasion".
As of now as the technology matures "creases" have become almost invisible such as oppo Find N on the far right
Folding screen is not like a straight screen mobile phone, with the iteration of the system, the mainstream model basically will not have display problems. A small number of direct-screen mobile phones that are not mainstream in proportion have a black edge at the bottom when opening the APP, and can also be displayed comprehensively through the "adaptation to full screen" set in the machine.
A small number of older software can only be adapted to the folding screen by making "stiff" stretches
Folding screen is not the same, the current use of left and right folding of the mobile phone inner screen ratio is not the same, there are close to 1:1 square, there are 8.4: 9 such a horizontal slightly longer ratio, which for the application adaptation and display has brought adaptation problems.
Although they are all folded for left and right opening and closing, the display ratio is basically different
The application of the folding screen inner screen cannot be understood as directly and rudely "stretching" the APP or directly displaying the first-level and second-level pages. Many users who are new to the folding screen will remember that some APP is directly "stretched" in the inner screen of this rough way of coping, not only will there be a lot of blank space in the middle, the photo will also be directly stretched, when the folding screen just appears, this unoptimized third-party APP will be directly displayed in this "weird" effect.
This kind of APP that adapts by direct stretching will have a disproportion problem
In the matter of being able to display the application "normally", each family has made no less effort
To be fair, the folding screen doesn't have much of a field of view advantage when playing games like League of Legends
In order to solve the display problem, Huawei took the lead in formulating a UX design specification standard strategy, and its design is divided into three levels: the presentation layer, the framework layer and the structural layer, the performance layer is the most intuitive level, consumers can directly see, and the outer interface elements, layout, dynamic effects, etc. are also included in the presentation layer, and the framework layer is a problem of interface information structure, such as whether it is primary and secondary, or information juxtaposition, or hierarchical development.
Huawei released UX design specifications after the launch of the Mate X Picture from Zhihu Zongning
It can be seen that the design specification was laid for the first "parallel horizon" created later, and the parallel horizon first appeared on the Huawei M6, and then it was lowered to its own folding screen. Its core is the left and right window separation display technology, dual window lifecycle management, dual window display mode, which is implemented on EMUI, which directly extends the Android framework.
Demonstration of the Parallel Horizon principle
In order to be able to more conform to consumer habits, parallel horizon has three interactive methods, navigation bar mode, shopping mode and custom mode, covering most of the experience scenes, navigation bar mode can fix the left page, the right page for the left page to open the content, to achieve a level of secondary page display at the same time; shopping mode for the left and right are the latest pages, in addition to the custom mode allows users to freely choose whether to be 4:3 or 16:9 or parallel horizon page.
The Magic UI used by the subsequent Honor Magic V "carries forward" the parallel horizon, with three modes: content layout, list detail type and independent display.
The Split Screen of the Magic UI is more like a "Parallel Horizon" enhanced version
For the optimization of the large-screen display operation, different manufacturers also have different strategies, OPPO Find N directly through the two fingers in the middle of the screen from top to bottom to achieve split screen; Huawei Hongmeng 2.0 system is by sliding up to the upper left corner to achieve split screen, while there is also a smart multi-screen, through an application to open multiple split screens to achieve interconnection operation.
This is all about the reuse of the inner screen space after folding.
The image comes from the concept proposed by Taobao Design, which knows Alibaba's Taobao technology
However, for now, the folding screen still encounters the problem of inconsistent interface.
In other words, mobile terminal manufacturers are one set of architectural design for their own APP, and the display method for third-party APP is another set of architecture design.
Taking Huawei Mate X2 as an example, its own APP has been adapted through a folding screen, the display page is closer to the "flat panel" display page, the entire layout and menu bar position is similar to its own tablet, such a design scheme is more intuitive, but the displayed content display is too crowded, and the visual effect is not outstanding.
Only the official APP can do depth adaptation according to the large screen
Waterfall streams are friendly for direct-screen phone displays, but are too messy for large screens
Collapse the "Normal Column View" and "Parallel Horizon" display inside the screen
Third-party applications can only be displayed in accordance with the direct screen APP style, which leads to less display content, open the "parallel horizon" can make the APP display normal, but this feels like two direct screen mobile phones "spliced", lack of depth optimization for the large screen.
This leads to a sense of separation when browsing apps.
So how to design a set of UX interfaces for large screens, especially folding screens? From Google's recent release of the "Android folding screen mobile phone application design specifications" can be seen at first sight.
This set of norms is more like guidance and advice.
It instructs developers on how to maximize the display content of the app on the basis of ensuring aesthetics, for example, it introduces the concept of layout containers, which helps developers think about how to arrange interface elements such as navigation bars, toolbars and content on the screen.
The Google specification proposes a layout container intuitive experience is to increase the beauty of the large-screen display
In the content of the article reading APP, this kind of application is no longer blindly stretched, but uses a visual divider to separate the latest news, and on the other side of the screen, use blank space and typography to group different categories of news reports.
Fortnightly apps are designed to follow application specifications
In addition, Google has also introduced a column grid in the design specification to provide a reasonable way to guide developers to rearrange the content as the screen size becomes larger or smaller, so as to better conform to the large-screen display.
For non-reading APPS, Google also gives a standardized layout design according to different pages, and provides a series of common layout schemes. For example, document support panels can be used for experiences where people need to focus. In the display of specific information, the flow of information is a common pattern in news or social applications, and the template uses the form of a tile to attract users to discover more content.
Responsive interface enables users to browse without interrupting the display of content based on different screen sizes
For the multi-window mode, Google also gave a "specification" mode, which is the same as the split screen design brought by domestic terminal manufacturers for the folding screen.
But at the end of the day, this is Google's advice to mid-range vendors and app developers, and it's not as mandatory as for 64-bit apps.
In Google's latest release of the first Android 13 developer preview, Google finally adapted the main page for different forms of screens, Pixel Launcher supports two home screen layouts, while the "dock" bar has been added to six application positions, which is obviously prepared for larger screens with more space.
The software adapts to the folding screen, and gives play to the advantages of the folding screen large screen, which can only be said that it is not easy to go up to Google to the top of various specification protocols to all kinds of terminal brands, and the adaptation road has a long way to go.
If the software problem can be used, the "crotch" on the hardware directly affects the experience.
A big thorny problem encountered by many folding screen users after getting the folding screen is that regardless of the folding screen style, the left and right folding is good, the up and down folding is also good, and the battery life is not satisfactory.
From the perspective of the folding screen on the market, the battery capacity of the up and down fold is up to 4000mAh, and the maximum folding of the left and right is 4750mAh, although in the literal view, it is almost the same as the direct-screen mobile phone with the battery capacity of 5000 and 5500mAh now.
So why do consumers who use folding screens generally think that the battery life is not satisfactory? The folding screen above and below as an example, the current Samsung and Huawei mobile phones are sacrificing battery capacity in exchange for a lightweight appearance, Samsung Z Flip3 is only 3300mAh and Huawei P50 Pocket is only 4000mAh, plus the two mobile phones use flagship 888 processors, limited by the machine structure and tuning, for the battery load pressure is too large, resulting in the same capacity battery than the direct screen mobile phone more "power consumption".
Although the left and right folding screens have a "normal" battery capacity, for the inner screen with a display area that doubles, additional battery power consumption is inevitable, and two charges a day and three charges a day are common things.
Folding screen mobile phone form and cost control, for the camera part of the trade-off is greater. If the camera module of each direct screen flagship is "transplanted" to the folding screen, not only the fuselage structure needs to be designed, the cost and structural thickness of the lens module are "unstoppable", Mate X2 in order to balance the rear periscope to bring about an increase in the thickness of the fuselage, the use of wedge design, although in the aesthetics, one-handed grip to do their best to make a trade-off, but the cost rise directly through the price embodiment, the final price soared to 20,000.
OPPO Find N is in order to be light and thin in the body, and it is more conservative in the image lens configuration.
In terms of follow-up warranty, the price is also "ridiculously high", taking Huawei Mate X2 as an example, if artificially damaged, planed off the built-in 3999 yuan for the first time to change the screen "preferential price", such as damage again, and then change the screen together with the corresponding components need to spend 5899 yuan, even if the purchase of 7 days to buy 2299 yuan broken screen insurance, but also need to pay a separate maintenance fee at the time of maintenance. P50 Pocket Broken Screen Insurance is priced at 899 yuan, and the out-of-warranty price starts from 3579 yuan.
Repair costs are catching up with a flagship phone
When Samsung buys a mobile phone, it can buy broken screen insurance at a price of 699 yuan, if you do not buy broken screen insurance, the Galaxy Z Flip3 inner screensaver is as high as 2760 yuan, and the Fold3 inner screen component costs up to 4420 yuan. Of course, this does not include repair costs.
OPPO Find N price is currently the relative cheapest in the left and right folding screen models, but the screen maintenance price, even fast to the price of the mobile phone, the main screen component price of up to 4800 yuan, the same OPPO launched for the folding screen OPPO Care+, ordinary users need to buy 2999 yuan, gold card users need to buy 1999 yuan, diamond card users buy the lowest price, but also reached 1499 yuan.
Although the Honor Magic V was the last folding screen released last year, in terms of screen proportion and ease of use, it has achieved a more balanced form in the folding screen, but even the first maintenance discount price is as high as 3579 yuan, and the original price is 5079 yuan.
The maintenance cost is too high, and the short battery life problem has become the main reason for the user's "dissuasion".
What is the new way to play the folding screen?
Since high-end manufacturers are working on folding screens, in the case of not being able to open up the "folding ecology", the new way to find a folding screen is only a "short-lived" function, which can only play the role of icing on the cake.
For example, OPPO Find N supports the hover playback movie function, which seems to be the most practical "hover function", in fact, in the application scenario, the limitations are relatively large, it seems that it can only be used when exercising on the ground, but since the folding screen has been used, this operation returns to the small screen display.
Hover operation can bring a differentiated experience, but the actual application scenario is still single
The skin detection function added by the Huawei P50 Pocket is very affected by light, and it is not a "just needed" function.
It seems that these functions can only be regarded as "showmanship".
The future folding screen still has a long way to go. Since 2022 is considered to be the first year of the folding screen, can the products to be released after that break the current status quo of the folding screen being unsatisfactory? See.