On the evening of February 22, 2022, Samsung officially held the first new product launch conference in China this year, and launched the Galaxy S22 series flagship smartphone and the Galaxy Tab S8 series tablet pc as expected.
If you've been following Samsung's new product launches in China for years, you might be dazzled by this year's event. After all, after two consecutive years of online conferences, Samsung's release of this annual flagship new product is obviously more "grounded", and for the first time, the sitcom is the main line of the whole event, changing the previous form of "micro-movie". Let the audience have a deeper memory of the Galaxy S22 series' night scene shooting capabilities, improved body workmanship, and new screen effects in laughter.
Of course, as a serious technology media, after carefully reading the information conveyed by this event, we three easy lives have discovered some "hidden details" that may be difficult to be aware of.
The "change and invariance" in image design is the foundation of self-developed CMOS
Obviously, the image capability is undoubtedly a highlight of the Galaxy S22 series. Whether it is the new "Super Visual Night Shooting System", the "Intelligent Dynamic Frame Rate" technology that can significantly improve the performance of low-light video, or the Galaxy S22 Ultra's 100X "Ultra Visual Space Zoom" function, all of which make Samsung's annual flagship model have a fuller confidence in the experience of related functions.
However, I don't know if you have noticed, specific to the hardware design, how did Samsung achieve the galaxy S22 series of image capabilities to improve it? I have to say that this is actually a very interesting topic.
First of all, on the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22+, this time ushered in a very large rear camera program innovation. Compared with the 12-megapixel outsole main camera used in the previous two generations of products, Samsung used its own 50-megapixel GN3 main camera solution on these two new machines, and introduced a combination of 10 million pixels + true 3 times focal length optical lens.
What does this mean? On the one hand, as Samsung's self-developed and self-produced outsole CMOS, GN3 provides high-pixel still photography and 8K video recording capabilities, while supporting full-pixel dual-core focus technology and increasing the focus-chasing performance of oblique moving objects.
On the other hand, although the new telephoto secondary camera seems to have reduced pixels, the amplification effect brought by "true 3 times the focal length" is enough to overcome the zoom resolution achieved by relying on 64 million pixels and algorithmic magnification in the past, which is undoubtedly very obvious for the user's experience improvement.
At the same time, on the oversized Galaxy S22 Ultra, Samsung chose to continue the design of the previous generation of 108 million pixel S5KHM3 sensors without replacing the new CMOS.
Why is that? This actually involves a very important industry common sense. That is, most of the other known mobile phone manufacturers, their CMOS sensors are based on the purchase of ready-made solutions from suppliers, and then tuned, optimized to use. However, only Samsung is one of the few manufacturers, which is both a mobile phone manufacturer and the industry's most important upstream image CMOS design and manufacturer.
Yes, in Samsung's CMOS product lineup, we can often see some "exclusive" models that are never sold, such as the S5K2L4 used in the Galaxy S10 series, such as the HM1 used on the Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G, and the HM3 main camera of the Galaxy S22 Ultra this time. For these CMOS, Samsung obviously has a much deeper understanding than other manufacturers. To put it bluntly, they clearly know exactly how to continue to tap more of the potential of this 108-megapixel, 1/1.33-inch oversized sensor, rather than just buying a newer cmOS model to enhance product competitiveness.
Because of this, the Galaxy S22 Ultra on the one hand continues the main camera sensor of the previous model, but on the other hand, it is also equipped with the industry's first ultra-clear glass lens, using the industry's first adaptive pixel fusion technology (using CMOS pixel fusion and non-fusion modes to shoot separately, and then synthesizing photos with high pixel and high sensitivity), as well as AI detail enhancement algorithms that make full use of the new master computing power. And these functions involving optical design, camera mode design, and post-algorithm design are all newly developed technologies, in order to fully exert the picture quality advantages of this self-developed CMOS.
The "say or don't say" in product promotion is almost no other manufacturer can imitate
Of course, friends familiar with Samsung may know that as the most important mainstay of the mobile phone industry, it is not only the CMOS sensor that can be "self-developed and self-produced". In fact, they also control the most advanced screen recognized in the industry, with the industry's top processor and memory, flash memory semiconductor production line, while independently producing various types of metallurgy, PCB, battery parts. In addition, a series of well-known audio brands such as AKG, JBL, Harman Kardon, mark Levinson and so on, which are now also owned by Samsung.
It is very interesting that throughout the conference, it is not difficult to find that almost all of the product selling points that Samsung emphasizes are related to their own research and development and production of components or technologies.
For example, as mentioned above, the GN3 main camera equipped with galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22+ and the HM3 main camera used on the Galaxy S22 Ultra are the top flagship CMOS that Samsung has never sold.
For example, at this conference, Samsung focused on describing the "ultra-bright and smooth full screen" equipped with the Galaxy S22 series. And they naturally also originate from Samsung's Dynamic AMOLED 2X technology. While supporting variable frame rates up to 120Hz, it also increases brightness to the industry's highest 1750nit, enough to ensure that you can see clearly even in strong sunlight.
At the same time, the built-in S Pen equipped with Galaxy S22Ultra this time has also become a very noteworthy highlight at the conference. The S Pen equipped this time not only inherits Samsung's proud built-in supercapacitor power supply design, but also has the ability to remotely control the mobile phone with long standby time and Bluetooth. Importantly, through AI coordinate prediction and a new "multi-point" algorithm, Samsung has successfully reduced the latency of the S Pen by as much as three times again, and its writing delay of only 2.8ms not only set an industry record, but also makes the Galaxy S22 Ultra's S Pen experience like using real paper and pencil, further in line with the needs of professionals.
Compared with the above selling points derived from Samsung's self-developed technology and components, at the launch of the Galaxy S22 series, we hardly saw much relevant publicity from third-party suppliers. That's right, Samsung doesn't run points at the conference or emphasize its frame rate performance in a certain game. In addition, even if the Galaxy S22 series is also equipped with a customized X-axis vibration unit that is twice as large as many models, it was not mentioned at the press conference. In contrast, the "first Corning Gorilla Victus + glass" became the launch of the few configurations that originated from Samsung's self-development.
And unlike that, this is the trait that exclusive industry status brings to Samsung
I have to say that the whole conference looks like a peaceful and joyful one on the surface, but if you think about it carefully, in fact, the whole process is Samsung "showing muscles" in its own unique way.
The new camera function from the self-developed sensor, the screen perception from its own display technology, and even the new workmanship of the fuselage supported by its own materials science, the new experience of the S Pen condensed by successive product lines... Looking at the entire mobile phone industry, this is undoubtedly only Samsung can do, and only Samsung has the courage to achieve the publicity method.
Of course, "having confidence" does not mean that Samsung is lonely. In fact, Samsung's strong self-research capabilities and unique supply chain position have also brought them transcendent industry influence to some extent. Many years ago, when Bixby was launched in the Chinese market, the grand situation of a large number of head applications adapted to the first time was still vivid, and now at the launch of the Galaxy S22 series, Baidu CarLife+ Samsung Edition, Mango TV Samsung Edition, and the appearance of localized services cooperated by Lebo Casting and Samsung have further enriched the lineup of "Samsung App", so that users who use Samsung mobile phones have some more enviable "privileges".
It is not difficult to see that this situation of not only having unique technical advantages, being able to have self-confidence in product promotion, and at the same time relying on its special industry status, many partners are working together, which is the biggest reason why Samsung can achieve "harmony and difference" in product promotion and user experience. To some extent, this is also the basis that Samsung's Galaxy S series can last for more than a decade and has been recognized as the "king" of Android, and has never encountered a wave of status.