More expensive than the traditional flagship machine, the arrival of the folding screen has brought the price of smart phones to a new height, as one of the five major domestic mobile phone manufacturers (Huawei, Millet, OPPO, vivo, Honor), Xiaomi's action, although much slower than Huawei, but ahead of the other three, launched the first folding screen mobile phone MIX FOLD a year ago.
Recently, digital blogger @digital chat station confirmed that Xiaomi is about to launch MIX FOLD 2. The blogger made it clear that he did not know how much the second-generation folding screen flagship of others had been upgraded, mix fold 2, which was a leap from 0 to 1.
@ Digital Chat Station and Xiaomi have been relatively close, often exposing Xiaomi's unreleased new models, and even many people ridicule him as Xiaomi executive Wang Teng, since he has said so, it seems that the upgrade range of MIX FOLD 2 is really large. For Xiaomi, the MIX FOLD 2 really needs to be greatly upgraded, because the MIX FOLD is really not good enough.
MIX FOLD, not successful enough?
At the end of March last year, Xiaomi released mix FOLD, 9 months later, OPPO also released the folding screen mobile phone Find N, to today, one sold for about a year, one sold for about 3 months, in the Jingdong platform, the number of reviews of these two is 20,000 + (Jingdong received a period of time after the automatic evaluation, counted in the total number of reviews, but not counted in the praise and bad reviews), which shows that the lead 9 months time release, MIX FOLD did not sell much more than OPPO Find N.
Looking at the praise rate, OPPO Find N is as high as 98%, and mix FOLD's praise rate is only 92%. From the data, the MIX FOLD does not perform well, but is it really a failed product?
First of all, the shortcomings of mix FOLD, the most serious problem is product design. After the advent of the face screen era, in order to pursue beauty and grip, the fuselage design has become more and more narrow and long, from the initial 16:9 to the later 18:9, and then to the more common 20:9, some of the more extreme models, actually 21:9.
Placed on ordinary mobile phones, in order to take into account the beauty and feel, the use of this narrow and long ratio is still reasonable, but there will be some discomfort when watching the video, because the common video resources are mainly 16:9, and there will be large black edges on both sides of this mobile phone. There are also some software that are not adapted to the fish screen, and may encounter some problems when using.
The MIX FOLD outer screen ratio is actually 27:9, which closes like a remote control. After unfolding, the ratio is 3:4 (the official display is usually used horizontally, the ratio is 4:3), and the proportion is still incongruous if the grip direction is not changed after unfolding. OPPO is much smarter, Find N external screen 18:9, very close to the proportion of normal mobile phones, software adaptation is more perfect, the ratio of inner screen is 1:1, very close to the conventional tablet after expansion.
Speaking of price, mix FOLD was released at a starting price of 9999 yuan, 12GB + 512GB priced at 10999 yuan, and currently on the Jingdong platform, the 512GB version is priced at 6999 yuan. You can go to the second-hand platform to see, the price is 2,000 yuan to 3,000 yuan lower than Jingdong. OPPO Find N after the release of the price change is very small, in the second-hand platform did not have much price reduction, although the late release of a few months, but also enough to see that find N retention rate is higher.
The more serious problem is that diving so widely that it will displease users who have already purchased, discourage potential consumers' confidence in purchasing, and may even affect the sales of mixed FOLD 2.
MIX FOLD 2, Xiaomi's hope?
A few days ago, vivo released its first folding screen flagship X Fold, marking that all domestic manufacturers have joined the competition in the folding screen mobile phone market. With the experience of Xiaomi, the follow-up mobile phone manufacturers will be conservative in product pricing, the starting price is generally within 10,000 yuan, and some products are even less than 8,000 yuan. In the face of several other competitors, can mix FOLD 2 help Xiaomi earn back the trust of consumers?
As long as the MIX FOLD 2 is good enough, consumers are naturally willing to buy it. According to the news exposed by the previous @ digital chat station, the size of the mix FOLD 2's internal and external screens has not changed much, but the inner screen will make up for the shortcomings, using a 120Hz refresh rate, I don't know if the proportion will change.
Xiaomi's idea is good, if the folding screen mobile phone as the main machine, it must be more used for the outer screen, and the requirements for the inner screen are not so high. You can look at the folding screen mobile phones of Glory, OPPO, vivo, the inner screen is all 2K + high brush, which means that everyone has reached a consensus to make these high-end flagships more complete.
The other configurations of the MIX FOLD 2 have not been exposed much, but in recent years the homogenization of smartphones has become more and more serious, and we can reasonably speculate based on the hardware available in the supply chain and the configuration of other similar products.
First of all, the battery capacity should be 5000 ~ 6500mAh, which can refer to Xiaomi Civi and Xiaomi 12 series, the battery density is getting higher and higher. The charging power is expected to be around 67W, @ digital small talk station said that the folding screen mobile phone needs to use stacking technology, so the charging power will not be too high.
The processor is most likely Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Plus, overseas digital blogger @Yogesh Brar said that the chip will be released in early May, foreign media GSMArena said that Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Plus is expected to be released in June, and released in July at the latest. In terms of timing, the MIX FOLD 2 can catch up.
The last important configuration is the camera, the main camera will most likely be the Samsung GN series, the series of sensors Xiaomi flagship used many generations, with Xiaomi's self-developed ISP chip, shooting performance will not be bad. Last year, Xiaomi released the surging C1 chip, first launched by mix FOLD, more than a year has passed, and perhaps this year Xiaomi can come up with the surging C2.
Mix FOLD failure, unreasonable pricing also has some factors, after OPPO, vivo are a lot smarter, product prices are getting cheaper and cheaper. For example, OPPO Find N, the configuration is not inferior to Xiaomi, Snapdragon 888, 2K 120Hz screens have, but the starting price is 2300 yuan cheaper than Xiaomi.
Fight the price war, engage in cost performance, this is Xiaomi's strength, MIX FOLD price is unreasonable, is because it benchmarks Samsung and Huawei, now OPPO and vivo join, MIX FOLD has more than a few opponents, the starting price will certainly be much lower.
@Digital chat station revealed that the flagship price of the folding screen will definitely be reduced to about 7,000 yuan, and even a brand has filed a folding screen mobile phone based on the Tianji platform, and the planned price is about 5,000 yuan. Xiao Lei boldly predicted that the MIX FOLD 2 would start at 6999 yuan.
Folding screen mobile phone, can help Xiaomi hit the high-end?
Folding screen mobile phone has been born for several years, but is this mobile phone a new choice for high-end flagships, or can it only become the exclusive of enthusiasts and business people? Whether it can become the mainstream model of the flagship market is still worth thinking about by all mobile phone manufacturers.
At present, the highest sales of folding screen mobile phones is Samsung, the total sales of galaxy Z Fold/Flip in 2021 is 8 million units, in view of the success of the folding screen flagship, Samsung officially announced the cancellation of the Note series of flagship phones.
According to data provided by The Elec, the total sales of the Samsung Galaxy S21 series in 2021 are only 25 million units, and the sales of Z Fold/Flip phones have reached one-third of it. This shows that in the high-end market, folding screen mobile phones already have the strength to compete with traditional high-end flagships.
Counterpoint data shows that Samsung's share in the high-end market (more than $400, about 2500 yuan) in 2021 is 17%, which is 3.4 times the sales of Xiaomi's flagship. That is to say, the sales of the Galaxy Z Fold/Flip series may be only slightly inferior to the Xiaomi Mi 11 series. The folding screen mobile phone market is still rising rapidly, which shows that relying on folding screen mobile phones to rush to the high end is definitely a good choice.
How can Xiaomi continue to hit the high-end with the MIX FOLD 2? Today, if mobile phones want to impact the high-end, they need to achieve a point of quantity, one is differentiation, and the other is to cultivate brand value.
First of all, differentiation is also divided into two points, namely hardware differences and software differences. At the hardware level, Xiaomi has been full of materials, MIX FOLD Although there are some regrets, MIX FOLD 2 will definitely make up, Xiaomi also has a self-developed ISP chip surging C1, OPPO, vivo, etc. Although similar chips have also been developed, they have not been used for folding screen mobile phones. The MIX Fold uses a liquid zoom lens and a surging C1, and from the evaluation performance, it does have a great improvement in shooting performance, and it is very gimmicky.
At the software level, MIUI, Xiaomi's long-term plus points, but the past two years seem to have become a minus. Fortunately, Xiaomi's software strength is still there, after listening to the needs of users, it will be improved in time, MIUI 12.5 and MIUI 13 have saved the reputation of Xiaomi system. Folding screen mobile phone is a new product, many software need to re-equipment, if Xiaomi can seize the opportunity, the launch of a more mature MIUI folding screen system, and actively cooperate with the software to adapt the application for the mobile phone, you can get the first opportunity.
Cultivating brand value is also divided into many aspects, and high-end products are indispensable to supporting services. After-sales service this point does not need much, Xiaomi home has done a good job.
Most importantly, a high-end mobile phone, the price can dive, but not too serious, Xiaomi also needs to control the channel and supply chain control, for consumers to establish a reliable price rules. The price of the product does not plunge sharply, consumers will trust the xiaomi brand, and we can identify with the brand value of xiaomi.
Counterpoint Research statistics show that from 2018 to 2020, the annual sales of folding screen mobile phones increased from 198,000 units to 2.8 million units, reaching the highest growth rate in 2021, with annual sales of 11.5 million units. The agency predicts that the sales of folding screen mobile phones can reach 18.3 million units in 2022. From the data point of view, folding screen mobile phones still have great room for growth.
With the test of MIX FOLD, I believe that MIX FOLD 2 will be more excellent, as the world's top three mobile phone manufacturers, Xiaomi has performed very well in recent years, repeatedly impacting the high-end market, and has also achieved good sales, perhaps with MIX FOLD 2 to further expand the share of the high-end market.