Huawei Pocket 2, blow up the audience!

The Spring Festival holiday has just ended, and the "fighting spirit" of the mobile phone market has been surging at a high speed.

Xiaomi 14 Ultra, Huawei P70 series, vivo X100 Pro+ and other blockbuster flagship models will be released one after another, these three brands choose to take the lead in 2024 are all image flagships, combined with the parameters exposed earlier, these models can also be said to be equal, as for which one can come out on top, it remains to be revealed.

The straight board machine is playing hot, and the folding screen mobile phone is also very lively. According to digital blogger @Digichat.com, vivo plans to launch dual versions of the X Fold3 this year, of which the X Fold3 Pro will be the first large folding screen mobile phone with the "Pro" suffix.

Source: Huawei

The heavyweight Huawei chose to make efforts in the direction of small folding mobile phones, and digital blogger @Fixed Focus Digital revealed two important time nodes: February 22 and February 28, that is, Huawei's new small folding screen mobile phone, Huawei Pocket 2, will be officially announced on February 22, and will be sold for the first time on February 28.

Huawei Pocket 2 is expected to use Kirin 9000S series chips, which is also Huawei's first small folding screen 5G mobile phone equipped with Kirin chips. Compared with the Pocket S and P50 Pocket equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 4G processors, the combination of Pocket 2 "Kirin Core + 5G" is undoubtedly more worthy of market expectations.

In addition to the core configuration, the Huawei Pocket 2 will also receive further upgrades in terms of imaging, including a primary color camera, an ultra-wide-angle camera, a hyperspectral camera, a hyperspectral fill light, and a laser focus sensor. If the Pocket 2 is successfully equipped with the variable aperture patent technology that Huawei applied for earlier, then it is expected to enter the first echelon of folding screen mobile phones.

Source: Huawei

The Pocket series is Huawei's high-end thin and light folding screen mobile phone, and the last product was the Huawei Pocket S released in November 2022. After more than a year, Huawei finally brought an iterative model in the Pocket series, Kirin chip + 5G network + HarmonyOS blessing, Huawei Pocket 2 has been full of expectations before the release.

Can the Pocket 2 replicate the Mate 60 series?

Last year, Huawei officially announced the return of the king with the big sales of the Mate 60 series. And the operation of the Mate 60 series without pre-release has directly pushed the heat to a new height, and the limelight is unmatched for a while. Among them, the successful breakthrough of "Kirin Core" has made the market sentiment boiling.

With Big Brother proofing, the attention of the new Pocket series is naturally not low. But how much of Huawei's leading technology can be applied to the Pocket 2?

Innovative highlights such as Kirin chips, Kunlun glass, HarmonyOS system, Beidou satellite communication, Pangu AI large model and optical accessories are the direct reasons for the success of the Huawei Mate 60 series.

At present, the small folding mobile phone market is developing in the direction of lighter and thinner, heavy image and heavy interaction. At that time, Huawei Pocket S had a leading edge in terms of image, battery life, and interaction, as a new sequel to the Pocket series, Pocket 2 should continue the advantages of the previous work, and give consumers more surprises in order to break through.

Source: Lei Technology

Among them, the interactive experience is definitely a point that cannot be ignored by small folding phones. Although the Pocket series has a round mini secondary screen on the back, this mini OLED screen is obviously not enough today. For example, vivo X Flip has taken the external screen function to a deeper level, truly allowing the external screen of the folding screen mobile phone to play its due role.

How to upgrade the original round secondary screen, Xiaolei believes that it is the key to improving the interactive function of Huawei Pocket 2, and it is also the core of whether the Pocket series of small folding mobile phones can take advantage of the momentum.

Small folding screen mobile phone verifies that "concentration is the essence"?

2023 is the concentrated outbreak stage of the folding screen mobile phone industry, and various manufacturers have successively released more than a dozen folding screen mobile phone products, and the international data agency IDC predicts that the compound annual growth rate of folding screen mobile phone shipments from 2022 to 2027 will reach 27.6%. As of the third quarter of 2023, the sales volume of China's folding screen mobile phone market has been positive year-on-year for 12 consecutive quarters.

Compared with the straight smartphones that are stuck in the quagmire, the high growth trend of the folding screen mobile phone market is attracting the attention of more and more manufacturers. It is no exaggeration to say that the current folding screen mobile phone is the incremental space of the future mobile phone.

Source: iResearch

Judging from the market share data of domestic folding screen mobile phones in 2023, Huawei is far ahead with a market share of 50.3%, ranking first on the list. OPPO, Samsung, vivo, Honor, and Xiaomi are ranked 2-5. If the scope is narrowed down to ultra-high-end folding screen phones (priced at > 10,000 yuan), then Huawei's market share will come to an exaggerated 65.6%. On average, for every two foldable phones sold, one comes from Huawei.

Let's continue to split the data, the top 3 sales of Huawei's folding screen mobile phones are Mate X5, Mate X3, and Pocket S, of which large folding phones account for a very high proportion of sales. Obviously, the big folding phone is the foundation of Huawei's folding screen phone.

So the success of big folding phones, is it suitable for small folding phones?

Before thinking about this question, we must first understand what kind of target users of small folding phones are. According to iResearch's report on folding screen mobile phones, the core target users of small folding mobile phones are "women aged 18-29 from first-tier cities". This group accounts for the largest proportion of all users, and whether it can win the hearts of this group will greatly affect the sales of Huawei Pocket 2.

Source: Huawei

We can clearly see that women are the largest consumers of small folding mobile phones in the market, "appearance, selfies, light and thin" This is the first product demand that comes to Xiaolei's mind, and the productivity needs of large folding mobile phones are different, the positioning of small folding mobile phones is more casual, and the summary is fun + good-looking. I believe that mobile phone manufacturers have far more insight into the market than us, but how to cram the above functions into a limited number of small folding phones may still have certain difficulties.

Simply stacking materials is worry-free, but adaptation is the prerequisite for improving the experience of folding screen mobile phones.

As early as the Pocket S and P50 Pocket, Huawei has made separate adaptations to the native system and mainstream applications, and has made many small designs to match the round secondary screen on the back. However, the increase in HarmonyOS system, Pangu AI large model and mainstream applications has added difficulty to mobile phone adaptation.

However, Xiao Lei believes that it is not so much the difficulty as the addition of a lot of maneuverable space. How to distinguish but not depart from the operating habits of straight phones is one of the key factors for folding screen phones to outperform their competitors, and these small optimizations can also bring better reputation to the brand.

Small folding becomes a must form, and mobile phone folding is full of infinite possibilities

The first product of domestic mobile phone manufacturers to enter the folding screen mobile phone market is basically based on large folding products. But judging from the recent new products, Huawei, OPPO and other manufacturers are making efforts in the direction of small folding. Last year, Nubia also reported that it was going to develop a small folding phone for the Flip 5G.

Small folding phones are becoming a market segment that cannot be ignored by folding screen mobile phones, although it does not provide users with the productivity of large folding mobile phones, but for folding screen mobile phone users, there is a new choice, after all, everything looks to demand.

Will the small folding phone be the mainstream form of the folding screen mobile phone in the future?

Not necessarily, Xiaolei believes that whether it is a vertical or horizontal fold, the essence is the judgment of mobile phone manufacturers on the future of the market, and there is no right or wrong, not to mention that there are more possibilities in the folding method.

Source: @xleaks7 

Samsung has recently been granted a new patent, which brings a new "folding + scrolling" combination design for mobile devices. From the renders made by netizens, we can see that the Galaxy Z Fold series phones can extend the screen on top of the existing foldable and further expand the screen size.

At this year's CES 2024, we've seen many companies showcase imaginative display panels, including transparent MicroLED screens, "In&Out Foldable" screens that can be folded 360 degrees inside and out, "IRollable Flex" screens that can be rolled up to a quarter of their size, and "Flex Hybrid" screens that can be folded and slid at the same time.

In addition, a few days ago, Lei Technology reported that Huawei may also launch a "Z-fold machine", that is, a three-fold screen mobile phone, "Huawei's first three-fold screen exposure, folding screen mobile phone" volume form "the world"?". The mobile phone of the future will be foldable, rollable, or fully transparent...... Mobile phone folding, infinite possibilities, let's look forward to it together.