The curved screen that has dominated the mobile phone market for more than ten years is finally going to be eliminated?

Ray Technology

2024-05-17 23:54Published in Guangdong science and technology creators

With vivo holding the last flagship mobile phone conference in the first half of this year on May 13, the mainstream brands in the Chinese market have completed the iteration of their important product lines, and the report cards of each brand are also about to come out: Xiaomi Huawei has a big voice and high sales, OV maintains a normal iteration route, and Honor Meizu has its own innovation and breakthrough.

(Source: vivo)

According to the news, the schedule for the launch of MediaTek and Qualcomm's next-generation flagship mobile platform is accelerating, of which the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 is expected to be released as soon as early October, and according to the usual prediction, the Dimensity 9400 is very likely to be released in mid-September. This indicates that the next generation of flagship models of various brands is also ready to fly.

Although it is still in the early stages of development, a lot of information has been leaked, and the most surprising thing is that the vivo X200, OPPO Find X8 and Xiaomi 15 will all give priority to the small vertical screen solution, among which OPPO and Xiaomi are the first to choose the isodeep quad curved screen, which is the same design as the Xiaomi 14 Pro. As for the "small size", the standard flagships of these companies have chosen to maintain around 6.5 inches.

(Source: Weibo)

Small-screen mobile phones will become a popular trend again in 2024, on the one hand, Xiaomi has completely gained a firm foothold in the small-size segmentation track with the hard work of the 13th and 14th generation models, which has attracted the attention of many consumers; On the other hand, with the advent of more new screen technologies and new biometric technologies, the price of solutions for small-screen mobile phones tends to be reasonable, which has naturally become the choice of many manufacturers.

The small-screen mobile phone track is getting more and more crowded

The Xiaomi Mi 14 can be described as a dark horse in this generation of flagship phones. According to official data, the first sales of the Xiaomi 14 series were 1 million units, and professional institutions revealed that the series achieved sales of 1.44 million units in less than half a month after it was launched, becoming one of the flagship mobile phones of the Xiaomi digital series with the highest first-sale data so far. Recently, a research institute released another report revealing that the cumulative sales of Xiaomi 14 and Xiaomi 14 Pro have exceeded 8 million units.

(Source: Weibo)

Judging from the market feedback, the Xiaomi 14 is undoubtedly a success, which is inseparable from its product itself. The advantage of the Xiaomi Mi 14 is that it is "handy", partly from the 6.36-inch straight screen, and partly from the weight control of 193g. Even so, the Xiaomi Mi 14 retains wireless charging, IP68 dust and water resistance, the latest flagship mobile platform, and even in the most important imaging section, it does not open a huge gap with the Xiaomi Mi 14 Pro.

This is a near-perfect trade-off for the standard version of the flagship series.

(Source: Xiaomi)

Of course, the success of the Xiaomi 14 is not "irreproducible", which has triggered a new trend of small screen tracks, taking OPPO as an example, the Reno 12 series that will be released this month is the best example. Although the display size is still 6.7 inches, the screen of the Reno 12 has a micro-curved design of equal depth, and the middle frame is narrowed as much as possible, so that its three dimensions have changed more radically than the previous generation.

(Source: OPPO)

Unlike the "super large cup", the standard version of the flagship series is meaningful to consumers in terms of flagship-level performance, the design language that represents the top of each brand, and the image power of the mid-to-high range. And most brands seem to pay more attention to image performance, such as the OPPO Find X7, vivo X100, their respective image strength can indeed play, but there are some costs for this: large size, slightly heavy body.

Perhaps it is because we see the growing demand for small-screen mobile phones in the market, or the hot sale of Xiaomi 14 has attracted the attention of other brands, which makes more brands begin to join the small-screen mobile phone track and compete head-to-head with the Xiaomi digital series.

Performance, battery life, and image, all of which can be found on small-screen mobile phones

The core reason for the continuous increase in the screen of mobile phones lies in two aspects, one is battery life, taking iPhone 15 Pro as an example, the 6.1-inch body is only equipped with a 3274mAh battery, while the Android camp is generally above 4500mAh; Second, in order to meet the performance release, Android phones need to do more heat dissipation measures inside the fuselage, such as VC vapor chamber, graphite heat dissipation, etc., as we all know, Apple has never been interested in iPhone heat dissipation.

However, with the continuous optimization of the energy consumption ratio of the flagship mobile platform, the continuous upgrading of the self-developed battery technology of mobile phone manufacturers, and the maturity of screen technology, the screen size is expected to return to within 6.7 inches, which has both feel and experience.

(Source: Apple)

The single-core power consumption of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is roughly around 2W, while the single-core power consumption of the Dimensity 9300 is also around 1.7W, and the multi-core power consumption of the two can also be controlled within 2.7W, which is more optimized than the flagship chips of the previous two years. As for the performance part, as a flagship chip, whether it is Qualcomm or MediaTek, it can achieve an Antutu running score of more than 200W, games, entertainment, and daily use are not a problem.

The battery part, such as vivo, was unveiled at the flagship conference held on May 13 vivo X100S new machine, this new machine adopts a straight screen + right-angle bezel design, but the thickness is controlled at 7.8mm, and the battery capacity is still given to 5100mAh. This is due to vivo's self-developed high-density blue ocean battery, which increases the battery capacity by improving the energy density of the battery, and at the same time supports higher charging power to achieve a balance between battery life and fast charging.

(Source: vivo)

When the comprehensive experience is no longer limited by the size of the mobile phone, it can not only meet the needs of some consumers for small-sized mobile phones, but also help manufacturers formulate more suitable product routes. The positioning of the three models of the Xiaomi 14 series is relatively clear, the standard version focuses on small size, straight screen, and ProIt is responsible for the mainstream curved screen route (contour quad curved surface), Ultra is naturally the same image flagship as various brands. In order to meet the needs of the vast majority of consumers, the gap between the standard version and the Pro is often very small, and the gap between the standard version and the Ultra model is very large, forming a fairly obvious generational gap.

Obviously, when everyone begins to position the standard version as a small-screen flagship, there will be obvious differences in the positioning between various products, and the choice for consumers will become larger. The only downside may just be that there is more competition between brands, but it's a good thing for consumers.

Small screen to let the mobile phone market see spring?

Apple has been aiming at the small-screen mobile phone track for a long time, but to be honest, the iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 13 mini are a bit too extreme in terms of size control, and the 5.4-inch is obviously not in line with the current mainstream use scenarios. If you've been paying attention to iPhone sales in recent years, you'll find that, with the exception of the Pro Max, the standard iPhone has been very consistent and popular.

The standard iPhone has almost nothing to look at compared to the current flagship phones in the Android camp, and the only advantage is the 6.1-inch screen, as well as a thin and light feel. Less than half the price of the standard iPhone 15 in exchange for a better user experience, this is the market goal of the Android camp for small-screen phones.

(Source: Xiaomi)

As AI becomes the next involution direction of the mobile phone market, brands will also be more in-depth in the research of AI computing power and AI applications, which makes the Android camp have more opportunities to compete with the iPhone. The data shows that the performance of the iPhone 15 series in the Chinese market has been significantly weaker than that of its predecessor, and it can hardly support Apple's sales demand until the launch of the next iPhone.

Apple's failure in AI has left enough market space for the Android camp, which is one of the opportunities for brands to focus on small-screen flagship phones. Admittedly, such a decision can also bring the smartphone market back to a period of different shapes, and consumers have more space to choose their favorite mobile phone style, whether it is a small screen enthusiast, a micro-curved screen enthusiast, a straight screen enthusiast, or a user who pursues a curved silky feel, there are products to choose from.

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