Three years ago, when our Three Easy Life Front Reporting Group stepped into the venue of MWC2019, it was greeted by a variety of dazzling 5G technology displays, folding screen prototypes of various brands, and a large number of flagship new products. I have to say that at that time, we really felt the influence of the Mobile World Congress that unites the entire industry and represents the latest technology direction.
But just after 2019, the MWC of 2020 was directly cancelled due to the epidemic, and MWCS2021 held in Shanghai in June 2021, whether in terms of the scale of the exhibition itself or the heavyweight of new technology releases, is obviously not comparable to two years ago.
That's why when the MWC reconvened in Barceló, Spain, at the end of February 2022, the industry also had high hopes for it. And from the effect presented by this exhibition, although the attractiveness of this MWC for consumers may not be comparable to before the epidemic, the technical "dry goods" it contains cannot be underestimated at all.
There are not many highlights of consumer-grade new products, and the future may not be reversed
First of all, if you pay attention to the main purpose of MWC and want to see the new product "confrontation" of various manufacturers, then this year's MWC may disappoint you. After all, don't say that compared with 2019, it is compared with last year's "shrunken" MWCS, and the "weight" of the new product launch conference held by various manufacturers during this year's MWC is much lighter.
For example, TCL released the new TCL 30 series machine at MWC2022, but all four models of the series are positioned in the entry-level market without exception. Among them, the most "high-end" TCL 30 5G is equipped with the most basic 5G SoC Tianji 700, while the lowest positioning of the TCL 30SE is even based on the Helio G25, that is, the entry model below 600 yuan in the domestic market.
At the 2019 MWC, HMD unveiled their highest-positioned model to date, the Nokia 9 Pureview. But this year, their new products on MWC have become entry-level 4G models C21 Plus, C21, and C2 2nd, all of which are low-positioned products, and it is obviously difficult to arouse interest.
In addition, during the MWC this year, Xiaomi also launched two new machines for overseas markets, Pocco X4 Pro 5G and Poco M4 Pro, namely the mid-range 5G model based on Snapdragon 695 and the mid-range 4G product based on Helio G96. Although both have good image and fast charging configurations in the same level of products, they are obviously not particularly brilliant.
Honor may be the only manufacturer to release a new flagship product during the MWC this year, and the Magic4 and Magic4 Pro launched this time clearly continue the previous Magic 3 series in terms of configuration and styling. The performance configuration based on Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 8, as well as the MAGIC4 Pro's LTPO 2.0 screen and 100W wired fast charging, have also reached the level of this year's flagship new products.
But if you are familiar with Honor's flagship product line last year, you will find that the Magic4 and Magic4 Pro launched at MWC this time do not seem to have too obvious improvements in imagery. Not only that, last year's Magic3 series also has a higher positioning of the "best version", so this means that the Magic4 series currently released overseas is likely to have "left a hand".
In contrast, the ultra-high power wired fast charging technology displayed by several manufacturers, including OPPO, realme, and one plus, may be more exciting. On the one hand, the power of these super fast charging technologies generally reaches 100W-240W, which is almost the highest level in the industry at present.
More importantly, BRANDS SUCH AS OPPO AND ONEPLUS HAVE ADDED SELF-DEVELOPED BATTERY PROTECTION MECHANISM TO THEIR NEW FAST CHARGING TECHNOLOGY, CLAIMING THAT IT CAN MAINTAIN MORE THAN 80% OF THE REMAINING CAPACITY AFTER A LONG TIME OF USE. And this is not only technically eye-catching, but also shows that these technologies already have a high degree of completion, and it is likely that they will be put into mass production in the short term.
Once MWC, but the new machine release of the hot occasion
So, why do mobile phone manufacturers generally stop launching blockbuster new products on MWC? On the one hand, MWC has either been cancelled or rescheduled and shrunk for two consecutive years after 2019, and its influence in market publicity has decreased. In addition, this year's MWC epidemic prevention measures are still strict, in the case of a significant reduction in media and audience traffic, deliberately holding a press conference in the venue is obviously not as eye-catching as holding a larger online launch event.
When OPPO showed MWC this year, their flagship machine had been released for some time
On the other hand, friends who pay attention to the mobile phone market may have noticed that the release rhythm of flagship SoCs in the past two years has accelerated significantly compared with the past, and brands may not release "annual flagships" until the end of February and early March, which is also just in time for the "schedule" of MWC. But now, at the end of December or the beginning of January, the flagship products for the new year will be released, and naturally the MWC stage will not be used.
There are a lot of dry goods, WiFi7, 5G and folding screens are all worth paying attention to
Although consumer manufacturers "don't need" MWC, as the world's most professional communications exhibition, MWC is still of great significance to the entire industry.
For example, Qualcomm released a large number of new products and technologies in one go during the MWC. Many of them could have a significant impact on the future of mobile phones and mobility experiences.
For example, Qualcomm released the industry's first Snapdragon X70 5G that integrates AI computing power, can reach 10Gbps network bandwidth, and supports quad-carrier aggregation, and is also the world's first baseband solution that supports dual independent networking 5G dual card dual-pass. In fact, Qualcomm used a Xiaomi mobile phone to demonstrate the experience of "while the main card is 5G downloaded, the secondary card can also dial 5G VoNR calls".
For example, Qualcomm also launched the industry's first Snapdragon X65 and X62 5G M.2 modules to support global standards on MWC, which are compatible with both millimeter wave and Sub-6GHz networks, and comply with the 5G specification of the official 3GPP Rel-16 version. This means that the future is likely to usher in many laptop products with 5G networking capabilities.
In addition, during the MWC, Qualcomm also released the industry's first connection module that supports the WiFi7 standard, FastConnect 7800. It is not only fully compatible with the latest WiFi7 wireless standards, but also based on Qualcomm's own design, it realizes more "grounded" high-frequency concurrency capabilities, such as connecting two 5GHz bands or 5GHz +6GHz networks at the same time, so that only dual antenna designs can achieve more than 5000Mbps of wireless connection bandwidth.
Of course, the upstream technology highlights unveiled during this MWC are not only Qualcomm. For example, TCL also publicly displayed two new folding screen demonstration devices, one of which is the "360-degree Ultra Flex" that supports 360-degree arbitrary folding/out folding, and the other is the "Fold n Roll" that combines the traditional inner folding screen and the scroll screen.
You know, TCL itself is not only a mobile phone brand, but also its Huaxing Optoelectronics is one of the top screen factories in terms of domestic technical strength. Therefore, TCL's two folding screen devices are not so much a preview of their own new products, but rather that they show a collection of folding screen technologies that can be provided for other brands.
Summary: MWC returns to its technical roots, which is not necessarily a bad thing
In general, compared with previous years, this year's MWC is objectively more technical, and there is relatively less "consumer-grade" content. But it is clear that without the release of blockbuster flagship products, it does not mean that MWC's influence on the mobile phone and mobile communication industry is no longer there.
After all, although upstream technological advances sometimes seem to be some distance from the "consumer level", they will eventually affect the form and user experience of future mobile phones, tablets, laptops, or other smart wearable devices in various ways. Take a series of 5G, WiFi7, and folding screen new technologies on the MWC, although we can't buy related products now, but in half a year or a year later, the advanced technology displayed at this MWC is likely to have become the "standard" feature of consumer electronic products at that time.
Of course, we must also admit that such a change does make MWC less interesting in the eyes of ordinary consumers, but as the world's largest technology exchange and display activities in the communications industry, MWC was not originally born to "sell goods", and it is not necessarily impossible to return to technology and return to seriousness.
【The picture of this article comes from the network】