In the first quarter of this year, China's mobile phone market is still cold in spring. Market tracking data from third-party market research institutions shows that the overall market shipment decline is between 11~15%. The sluggish demand of users may only be a phenomenon on the surface of the market, and the root of the overall industry downturn may be more due to the lack of innovation ability of the industry as a whole.
From the market performance in the first quarter, the only bright spot is that shipments of high-end products continue to rise, and Huawei's market shipments in the first quarter increased by 41%, which just shows that innovation is the driving force of the market, so Huawei mobile phones have become the only warm sun in the current market winter.
With the launch of the Huawei P60 series in the first quarter, it once again detonated the market expectations of Huawei mobile phones. At the same time, the P60 series has once again become a model sought after by the market and media with its leading two-way Beidou satellite message, industry-leading imaging capabilities and unique fashion design and manufacturing process.
According to the data feedback from P60 series users, the image capabilities of Huawei P60, especially P60 Pro, not only bring users a very good experience, but also once again establish Huawei's position as a leader in the field of mobile phone imaging and even mobile images.
First, where is the way out for mobile phone photography and moving images?
In the past two years, with the growing "high-end dream" of mobile phone manufacturers, manufacturers have become a trend in the flagship product stacking various parameters, especially in the image system of mobile phones, from the rising pixels, to the increasing number of cameras, and then to this year's continuous increase in CMOS area, an inch of CMOS sensors suddenly became the standard of flagship models overnight.
However, from the perspective of product experience and image performance of each family, simply by stacking accessories, the marginal effect is obvious, which does not bring qualitative improvement to the product experience, and also brings the drawbacks of mobile phones becoming heavier and thicker.
After more than ten years of development, mobile phone photography is no longer simply an auxiliary function of mobile phones, but has become the core selling point of differentiated competition of mobile phone manufacturers. At the same time, for users, the camera function of mobile phones has also become a necessary tool for users to record their lives.
From the development of mobile phone photography function in the past ten years, the current mobile phone image function has developed to a new system, and this system is different from the traditional camera image system, is a new technical system and theoretical system based on mobile devices.
From the perspective of the imaging process of mobile phone images, the imaging of mobile phone images has gone through three core stages, one is light transmission, the second is analog-to-digital conversion (sensor), and the third is the algorithm, that is, the digital reconstruction of the image. This process is very different from the imaging process of traditional images and digital images, simply put, if the principle of light transmission and analog-to-digital conversion is similar to that of traditional images, the algorithm is an independent imaging link of mobile phone images.
Therefore, to fundamentally improve the image capability of the mobile phone, simply stacking the number of cameras and increasing the CMOS area, or increasing the amount of light entering the lens, can not obtain better image quality.
Mobile phone image limited by the thickness and size of the body limitation, lens and sensor can not be like SLR camera by large-scale increase lens aperture and sensor area to improve imaging quality, even an inch of sensor, which and SLR camera sensor also has an essential difference, due to the pixel density is too high and lens quality low caused by noise, artifacts, chromatic aberration and other phenomena are inevitable, so where is the future road to improve mobile phone images?
From the perspective of the imaging process of mobile phone imaging, it may be the only feasible solution to systematically solve the problems in the imaging process.
2. Analysis of Huawei's Imaging Systematization Technical System
In 2022, Huawei's XMGE image system is the first time in the mobile phone industry and the imaging industry to theorize and systematically construct mobile phone images and moving images, and clarify the key technical architectures involved in the development of mobile images from the bottom layer of theory and technology.
In Huawei's XMGE imaging system, Huawei divides the technical aspects of moving images into four technical directions: optical, mechanical, electrical, and computing, in fact, the four technical directions of XMGE basically cover all aspects of the moving image imaging process.
The optical part of XMGE mainly solves the loss of optical signals when passing through the lens and improves the transmission efficiency of optical signals, including Huawei computing optics, concentrating lens technology, multi-camera imaging fusion technology, and lens technology developed with cooperative manufacturers, which can be simply understood as the optical structure and computational optical technology of mobile phone images. "Machine" refers to the mechanical structure part, mainly to solve the mechanical structure of lens design and micro motor, the telephoto macro internal focusing technology developed on the P60 Pro and the 3-axis sensor displacement stabilization technology belong to this category; "Electricity" refers to the sensor technology in the XGME system, and the RYYB sensor and multispectral sensor technology developed by Huawei and its partners are currently widely known to the public. The "algorithm" system is relatively easy to understand, and Huawei's algorithm system currently includes a variety of algorithms such as AI texture image engine, primary color engine, and ultra-dynamic range technology.
In principle, Huawei XMGE is the first time in the industry to raise the technology of moving images to the level of theory and technical architecture, and it is also the first technical restoration that unifies the digitally reconstructed images with the images of human visual perception through software and hardware technology, which is a major evolution in the development of the mobile imaging field.
From the perspective of the technical status of industrial development, the image function of any mobile phone is strong, and it is actually impossible to improve the image capability as a whole by increasing the sensor area or increasing the aperture value of the lens. The sensor of the mobile phone is too small and the pixel density is too large, it is difficult to obtain better picture quality simply through analog-to-digital conversion, and it must be coordinated from many aspects such as lens quality, light input, sensor optimization, and digital reconstruction of original image data, in order to achieve better picture quality. Simply put, the image quality of the moving image is a systematic processing solution involving three imaging stages, and all imaging links need to be coordinated to obtain good image quality.
The emergence of Huawei's imaging XMGE technology system may be based on this basic imaging principle, through systematic technological innovation, an effective solution has been formed, so whether it is the Mate 50 series, Mate X3 or the P60 Pro, which is now known as the king of images, they all show a unified color tone and a high level of picture quality.
Third, P60 Pro's technological breakthrough in imaging
With the support of Huawei's XMGE imaging technology system, how did Huawei P60 Pro become the king of images this year? Or, what single breakthrough does the P60 Pro have in terms of image performance?
On May 24, at the Huawei mobile phone innovation technology media conference, Bruce Lee, CTO of Huawei terminal BG, summarized the technical breakthrough of P60 Pro as the progress of ultra-concentrated night vision telephoto and ultra-concentrated main camera technology, and its deep meaning is that for moving images, the most complex is the concentrating technology of mobile phone images, and through breakthrough technological innovation, the light transmission efficiency is greatly improved in fine optical modules. It is possible to provide a broader technical space for subsequent analog-to-digital conversion and digital image reconstruction.
Indeed, the telephoto of Huawei P60 Pro brings users great shooting portability and better picture quality performance, and has also become a very attractive technical highlight in this year's flagship mobile phone.
Simply put, the P60 Pro's telephoto compares to all mobile phones currently on the market and even before. The P60 Pro's aperture reaches F2.1 and has a macro function, which not only means that the P60 Pro's telephoto has not only greatly improved the imaging quality, but also brought a better shooting experience to the user. Specifically, on the one hand, in extremely low light environments, P60 Pro can not only take clearer photos, but also make the environmental rendering of photos more atmospheric, which is also the transparency and realism interpreted by XMGE. The more typical scene is night shooting with the moon, and the telephoto of the Huawei P60 Pro can not only capture the moon clearly, but also capture the foreground when shooting the moon, from supermoon to supermoonlight.
Another big change is the higher subject magnification and the ability to capture more detail due to telephoto macro. The 10cm minimum shooting distance allows users to easily present small subjects in the frame and present more detailed textures when shooting flowers, still lifes or portraits, which is a seemingly simple but actually very practical function, even in SLR lenses, telephoto lenses that can achieve macro function are rare.
How can I achieve a greater amount of light in a limited space? In order to realize this function, Huawei has undergone three years of technical development. The large aperture of F2.1 that we see on the Huawei P60 Pro today is actually Huawei's ingenious addition of a condenser to the first prism to achieve more light convergence, which in turn achieves a larger amount of light intake and a smaller module size. Compared to conventional solutions, without condensers, the light intake area of the module of the same height is reduced by 65%. At the same time, if there is no condenser, if the same light intake as the condenser is achieved, the module thickness will increase to 120%. The emergence of condenser groups can solve the problem of not only entering the amount of light without increasing the thickness.
In order to further reduce the increase in the thickness of the mobile phone caused by periscope telephoto while maintaining the telephoto, Huawei introduced a second prism on the telephoto module for the first time to achieve a smaller module size. According to the design structure of the industry's common scheme, the final sensor is to be erected, which means that the height of the module is limited by the sensor. Huawei added a prism to the P60 Pro, trading area for height, effectively reducing the scheduling of periscope telephoto modules by 20%. This is the root cause of the Huawei P60 Pro, although it also uses periscope telephoto, but the thickness of the fuselage is much lower than all models that use periscope telephoto on the market.
At the same time, in order to achieve macro and higher light transmission efficiency, Huawei introduced a long-stroke sliding axis zoom lens group for the first time on the P60 Pro, which allows the P60 Pro to improve the tilt accuracy by more than 2 times when moving. This means that the light rate is optimal regardless of the scenario in which it is used. Works that can only be completed with traditional SLR lenses can now be easily realized by ordinary consumers with the P60 Pro.
Another technological breakthrough of the P60 Pro is the technical optimization of the main camera module. The P60 Pro is the only product that achieves the maximum light intake of the main camera at 8.3mm thickness, in fact, the P60 Pro not only has a large amount of light, but its variable aperture structure brings some photographers a shooting experience close to that of a professional camera. The variable aperture image module used in Huawei P60 Pro can realize the physical aperture change from F1.4 to F4, providing four stops and ten levels of variable aperture, providing a very good experience for users to take photos with different depth of field effects in different scenes.
The variable aperture structure realized by the P60 Pro main camera module is a huge progress in the field of mobile phone imaging, providing a reference path for mobile phone imaging to have a broader application range. Why the imaging quality of Huawei P60 Pro's main camera is better than one-inch CMOS products in many scenarios, not that one-inch CMOS has no value, but Huawei through F1.4 large aperture high-quality lens and RYYB sensor technology, to achieve a larger amount of light than the conventional one-inch CMOS sensor, that is, to digitally reconstruct the image to provide more original information, so that the P60 Pro's main camera shows better picture quality.
Huawei has achieved a larger amount of light intake in the optical module through ultra-concentrating technology in the P60 Pro, and achieved another breakthrough in the field of mobile phone imaging through sensor technology and ultra-concentrated XMAGE imaging system, XD Fusion Pro's new texture engine.
The development of Huawei's mobile phone imaging system, starting from the release of P9 in 2016, has gone through nearly eight years of technological evolution, and has gradually formed a theoretical and systematic mobile image technology architecture and system from the application of sensor technology and AI technology, the optical structure design of lenses, and the improvement of transmission efficiency, becoming the current leader in mobile phone imaging technology, and laying the potential for future development of Huawei imaging through forward-looking insights and technology research and development.
Mobile phone images and even mobile images have developed to today, its imaging principle has been very different from traditional images, relying on the technical path of traditional images has been difficult to promote the development of moving images, moving images need to be re-architected from the theoretical and technical architecture to truly promote the development of future mobile images, and Huawei is exploring the development of mobile images by relying on the XMAGE image system.