In 2022, the high-end battle in the mobile phone market is intensifying, and domestic manufacturers continue to charge at Apple's dominant market position.
Since the beginning of the year, the intensive conference can also smell the smoke of the battlefield, Honor, OPPO, vivo, Xiaomi frequently launched high-end flagship machines, folding screen mobile phones, each aimed at the same goal, competing for Apple's territory.
This year's environment is more complex and changeable, and the industry is facing the adversity of demand pressure, prolonged replacement cycle, and intensified competition. For domestic mobile phone manufacturers, how to differentiate from the level of product strength and innovation is very critical, of which image capabilities are the key variables to break the high-end boundary.
Overall, smartphones have been highly modular, and the photography module is still an area with huge demand and more breakthrough points. Mobile phone chip and screen suppliers are stable, around the optimization of the operating system has been a long time, the upgrade of images is in a stage of rapid development, in the mobile phone industry to open up a second battlefield in addition to performance, boosting the rise of domestic mobile phones in the high-end market.
At present, the imaging ability of mobile phones has become an important indicator of the high-end market, and it is also one of the core competitiveness of the Android camp against Apple. Previously, the photography technology of Huawei mobile phones was recognized as a benchmark in the industry, but after Huawei strategically reduced its scale, who will take over Huawei and become a new peak in the mobile imaging industry?
Judging from the actions of each family, honor, OPPO, vivo and other major manufacturers have raised the technical competition to the competition of industrial systematization, among which glory has taken the lead in breaking the original ceiling and relaying Huawei to the image throne.
In the latest DXOMARK list, the top four are all Chinese mobile phone manufacturers: the first place is honor, the honor magic4 to the best version won the crown with a total score of 146, the second and third places are Huawei P50 Pro (144) and Xiaomi 11 Ultra (143), and Apple's iPhone 13 Pro Max ranked fifth.
As a new battlefield, mobile phone imaging has an increasing impact on the evolution direction of mobile phones, especially with the development of new interaction methods and new social methods of software and hardware, the demand for photography will grow, and mobile phone manufacturers will continue to compete for the central plains.
AI algorithm image era: domestic mobile phones counterattack Apple
Looking back at the process of mobile phone manufacturers carrying "cameras" to smart phones, the overall stage has gone through the stage of "hard to soft".
First of all, consumers are the first to perceive the hardware mechanical structure of multiple lenses, counterpoint analysis pointed out that in 2021, quad camera has surpassed triple camera and become the fastest growing branch field. In addition to the superposition of the camera, customized image sensors have also become the focus of the manufacturer's hardware configuration, the image sensor is equivalent to the film era of the negative, the larger the area and volume, the easier it is to capture the light, so the "bottom of the large level of crushing people" has also become the consensus of the technology upgrade of the mobile phone imaging industry.
For a time, multi-camera and large bottom have become the targets of manufacturer competition, both are mainly based on traditional optical principles on the mobile phone technology iteration, but many years of hardware evolution gradually came to the platform period, limited to the limited mobile phone design space, the maturity of the supply chain continues to rise, the bottleneck of upgrading also began to appear, the highlights of technology update from hardware to software.
So mobile phone manufacturers have taken a different approach, hoping to improve the quality of imaging through software such as algorithms. In 2019, Apple proposed the concept of computational photography at the iPhone 11 conference, launched the Deep Fusion function, and mobile imaging officially entered the era of AI algorithms. This is equivalent to interpreting the function of the micro single directly on the mobile phone, which can be automatically adjusted to the appropriate setting according to the scene, and through the AI computing power, to achieve the imaging quality of the ideal lens.
Subsequently, domestic manufacturers also began to "die" computational photography, from multi-camera shooting, beauty settings, to multi-frame fusion, etc., gradually popularized on domestic mobile phones.
Among them, Huawei and Honor are representatives of heavy investment in research and development, from multi-camera configurations, to customized sensor chips, to system-level computing photography platforms, has been leading the industry trend; OPPO, vivo and other manufacturers on the one hand in strengthening supply chain capabilities, deepening cooperation with optical device giants, on the other hand, also strengthening self-research capabilities, such as in the image and AI chips to break through, in the past two years also more emphasis on the concept of software to determine the upper limit of photography.
It is worth noting that at present, the head manufacturers represented by Honor have surpassed Apple, the introducer of the concept of computational photography, in some key technologies.
In contrast, Apple's Deep Fusion algorithm scheme is that the camera optimizes into a photo after taking multiple photos in a row, during which the AI algorithm model improves the details such as color, light and shade, texture, etc., making the final imaging more exquisite.
Honor Magic4 series is pioneering the use of multi-main camera fusion computing photography technology, can improve the picture quality, color, clarity, etc. secondary, according to the effect and environment intelligent adjustment of the computing photography scheme, in the ultra-wide angle & main camera fusion, main camera & telephoto fusion, telephoto multi-frame fusion in different ways to automatically switch, and through RGB, grayscale, spectrum, depth and other multi-dimensional information comprehensive optimization, the real meaning of full lens participation, full focal length fusion.
There are photography schemes for creating several lenses, but using the AI computing power of mobile phones, it is not easy to combine and tune each lens, and it is impossible to achieve without long-term technical accumulation and close cooperation at the manufacturing end. Honor's main multi-main camera fusion computing photography directly refreshes the technical height and experience of mobile phone image power, and has become one of the high-end weapons that compete head-on with Apple.
As can be seen from the latest mobile phone image power list DXOMARK, Honor has quickly counterattacked, honor Magic4 to the best version is currently ranked first, and Apple's iPhone 13 Pro Max is ranked fifth. The list competes not only in a single dimension of technology, but also in the embodiment of comprehensive strength.
"Soft and hard": the surprise way to increase the influence of mobile phones
Nowadays, multi-lens, customized image chips, algorithm optimization, and computational photography have become the standard of flagship mobile phones, in the mobile video market where optical capabilities and AI capabilities go hand in hand, how can Honor quickly break through?
In fact, in the photo field, it is not only a single competition in the hardware supply chain and software algorithms, but also a systematic adjustment competition of "soft and hard". Behind the seemingly simple mobile phone camera action is the test of the manufacturer's software and hardware integration combat capabilities, as well as the research and development strength accumulated over the years.
After the absence of Huawei, the new championship of domestic mobile imaging has begun. In contrast, although the systematic integration of software and hardware is already the trend of the times, most manufacturers are focused on breaking through some links, and Glory is breaking the ceiling in all core links of the imaging system with deep research and development skills.
In addition to multi-main camera fusion computational photography, the extremely competitive FIELD of AI algorithms, Honor through the image engine, in the field of portraits and color is also riding the dust. In particular, the self-developed HONOR Image Engine image engine upgraded again by the Honor Magic4 series integrates chip capabilities through heterogeneous different chip platforms and plug-ins to comprehensively improve the performance of software and hardware.
Specifically, when we shoot portraits in complex scenes such as night scenes and HDR scenes, the Honor Magic4 series can ensure that the portraits are clear and well exposed through the new AI portrait engine, and can also show more highlights and dark areas of detail; the new AI color engine introduces the human eye color adaptation mechanism for the first time, based on visual physiology theory, objectively and accurately restores the color of the user's psychological perception and creates a sense of atmosphere that is truly restored.
At the same time, under the synergy of AI algorithms and computing power, Honor further improves the optical imaging quality on mobile phones. Whether the user is shooting a landscape in a dim light environment, or a long distance, enlarging or reducing the object, you can not consider the aperture adjustment, shutter speed, just press the shooting button, honor Magic4 series can be based on multi-dimensional information comprehensive optimization, providing more delicate and more textured picture performance.
On top of the software and hardware collaboration, Honor has also carried out more innovations, such as based on the insight of consumer demand, and launched innovative functions such as "Recording Chinese and American Auctions" and "One Record Multiple Acquisitions" for the domestic market.
Taking "recording And Shooting" as an example, Honor found that many users have the habit of taking pictures during the video recording process, and the video capture function provided by the industry often adopts a simple way of video middle frame capture, and the photo clarity and light quality obtained are difficult to guarantee, and the Honor Magic4 series of "Record China and Video Shooting" function, through AI RAW domain imaging technology, while shooting video, through multi-frame fusion, to achieve better clarity performance.
In addition, Honor has also teamed up with Hollywood's professional imaging team to launch the 4K 60fps 10bit-log movie mode, providing cinematic video production capabilities.
In the view of Zhao Ming, CEO of Glory, the competition point of the future flagship machine is not simply to show off the skills and show parameters, but to design and adjust the system system based on consumer needs.
The same is true of the concept of the imaging field, and imaging has become the core barrier for Honor to strengthen the high-end market, and these innovations are inseparable from continuous investment in research and development. In the case of software and hardware integration becoming the consensus of the industry, Honor can effectively solve consumer pain points, carry out localization innovation, adhere to technology investment, continue to maintain a leading position in the mobile image ecosystem, and shape a new image order.
Source: 21st Century Business Herald