What kind of "imaging benchmark" does vivo's first Ultra phone set up?

Geek Park

2024-05-21 16:36Posted on the official account of Beijing Geek Park

When it unveiled the X100 Ultra, the first flagship of the year, vivo defined it as a "camera that can make phone calls."

Everything seems to fall into place. In the past few years, vivo has been one of the most stable and well-lived domestic manufacturers, breaking through the ceiling of domestic Android manufacturers little by little, and achieving a leading position in both total sales and high-end flagship product reputation. The X Fold 3 series, which was just released in March, amazes the market with extreme body-dimensional data.

But at the same time, the meaning of the existence of the "super large cup flagship" is becoming embarrassing, and the market performance of almost every manufacturer's Ultra flagship is not outstanding. The reason is also very simple, the iteration speed of the upstream and downstream technologies of smartphones has slowed down overall, and it is becoming more and more difficult to make an Ultra flagship that stands out in terms of features. At the same time, the needs of users are gradually becoming saturated, and it is becoming more and more difficult to be impressed.

At the same time as the release of the X100 Ultra, vivo also proposed the concept of "blueprint image" for the first time. This is not only a summary of vivo's steady progress in the imaging field in the past, but also provides a new benchmark for the existence of a super-large flagship like the X100 Ultra.

After more than ten years on the road of image development, what has vivo done right? What experience and inspiration can it bring to the industry?

01 Focus on technology with long-termism

Today, I'm afraid few people remember that before 2014, the early vivo was a manufacturer that mainly made Hi-Fi mobile phones.

This is related to the company's technology genes in the early days of entrepreneurship, when the vivo brand was still not long established, but the company had already accumulated deep experience in Hi-Fi technology, so they chose to open up the market through this technical angle that they are best at.

In fact, with the development of smartphones, Hi-Fi quickly became a marginal selling point. In 2014, they released the vivo Xshot, a flagship model that focuses on camera functions, and for the first time tilted the focus of technology to "imaging".

In 2016, after the release of the X7 series, vivo officially elevated imaging to the most important brand strategy level, further increasing resources in this field and continuing to invest.

In the early days, most of the domestic Android manufacturers adopted a project-based product development model, and in many cases, one team was even responsible for a project, and multiple projects were developed in parallel. This model has the advantage of being flexible, and can quickly respond to market changes and seize hot spots.

In contrast, vivo has chosen a slower, longer-cycle, but also more stable development concept, choosing a technology track and investing in long-term cultivation, whether it is early Hi-Fi or later imaging.

Looking back on the history of vivo, it may not have a few particularly successful and prominent "star products" like other manufacturers, but you can remember the names of Xshot and Xplay.

This focus and long-term investment in technology has given vivo the ability to break through even greater technical challenges. Today, vivo has become one of the few manufacturers that is still making self-developed image chips. The X100 Ultra's 6nm Blueprint Imaging Chip V3+ combines a super-resolution algorithm to further improve video clarity and tone, and improve CMOS optical crosstalk during imaging through large-scale model technology to improve telephoto image quality. The investment in these hard technologies has brought the product a competitive advantage that is difficult for competitors to surpass.

In fact, vivo's technological investment in mobile phone imaging is far more than the chip, from the precision leap technology in the optical field, GLC nano coating, ultra-high transmission glass lens, customized high-precision motors, to sensor-related VCS bionic spectroscopy technology, deltaE 3.44 level color reproduction, based on 14-bit grayscale black and white mode...... It's all about setting up a truly benchmark flagship of the super-sized image.

vivo is committed to creating a humanized professional imaging experience, and at the "New Image Blueprint ∙ X Series Technology Communication Conference" held on May 21, Yu Meng, vice president and vice president of imaging of vivo, pointed out that independent innovation and joint innovation are the two strategic fulcrums of vivo imaging, among which vivo's new blueprint image represents the cognitive and technical accumulation of vivo imaging in key scenarios, and is a collection of imaging technologies such as vivo's self-developed sensor technology, self-developed algorithms, and self-developed image chips vivo Imaging's vision for the future.

Looking at the technical landscape of the entire blueprint image, it is not difficult to find that vivo has accumulated a large number of technical points in the long technical investment. From optical modules, CMOS, image signal processing engines, to chips and computational photography algorithms, almost the whole link is covered. This includes not only the success of vivo's independent innovation investment, such as the core algorithm that has achieved 100% self-development, VCS bionic spectroscopy technology and self-developed blueprint image chips, but also the results of cooperation with co-research partners, including Zeiss optical lenses, T* coatings, and the universal design scheme of sensors optimized in cooperation with Sony Samsung.

Practicing long-termism on a ten-year cycle and focusing on technology has played a key role in the X100 Ultra's ability to stack such a "super cup" configuration.

02 The ability to resonate with technology and experience

A key milestone in the evolutionary history of vivo's imaging technology is the strategic partnership with ZEISS.

At that time, the popular trend in the industry was co-branding, and almost every mobile phone manufacturer wanted to find a traditional camera factory to endorse the camera system of their mobile phone. However, this kind of co-branding stays more at the brand level, and traditional camera factories will not be involved in the development of products, but more of a "OEM".

In the early days, many people thought that the collaboration between vivo and Zeiss would only be a similar collaboration. In fact, the two sides jointly established a joint imaging laboratory, and made a very targeted breakthrough for the most complex and sophisticated optical system in the imaging system. Later, this cooperation gradually expanded from optical lenses and coatings to a series of fields such as color reproduction and chromatic aberration control.

The cooperation between the two parties has also been much longer than expected, and today is in its fifth year, and a new joint research and development contract was renewed in March this year.

It is not difficult to find that vivo's many breakthroughs in image experience in recent years can be seen behind the shadow of Zeiss. For example, many mobile phone users are troubled by the problem of "ghosting" in the night light, which is caused by the repeated reflection of strong light between the lenses. Lenses and coatings developed by vivo and ZEISS solve this problem well.

Including with the advancement of computational photography, the photos taken by many mobile phones have become clearer, but the exposure brightness, white balance and color look "fake", "plastic", not good-looking, and it is also a problem in the process of tone and color reproduction, and vivo's Zeiss natural color technology also helps solve this problem.

For mobile phone manufacturers, imaging is a very complex system. The technology it contains is very granular, so many flagships will come up with a major technical concept as a selling point, such as the size and pixels of CMOS. At the same time, the user experience is also very complex, which will be affected by various factors, not only to shoot clearly, but also to shoot well, with a high yield and easy to use. Only by taking both ends into account, maintaining a sensitive experience perception while developing technology, and making the two resonate, can we make truly excellent products.

On the X100 Ultra, vivo's biggest investment in technology upgrades is in image quality. The main camera uses the new one-inch sensor LYT-900, while the telephoto not only uses a Zeiss APO lens with an 85mm f2.67 aperture, equipped with a one-inch, 200-million-pixel HP9 sensor, but also uses a fluorite-grade glass lens FCD100 to improve the dispersion that is more likely to occur in telephoto. In addition, the four cameras are equipped with VCS bionic spectral technology, which is similar to the perception of the human eye from the sensor level, and improves the light sensitivity and color reproduction capabilities. On this basis, through the integration of software and hardware innovation, vivo X100 Ultra's telephoto has also achieved a further breakthrough, becoming the "king of 20x", and the telephoto macro can also achieve 20x equivalent 3.4:1 magnification, thus having Thanos telephoto capabilities.

Based on the excellent image quality, vivo has also further improved the tone and color performance of the X100 Ultra. With ZEISS Natural Color, vivo has focused on optimizing color accuracy in dark areas of photos, improving the overall deltaE to 3.44, which is even better than many professional cameras. For users, in addition to ZEISS natural colors, they can still choose a more vivid and saturated "vivid" style, emphasizing the "texture" color of light and shadow contrast, to find the picture they want. At the same time, vivo has also launched a new black and white color style to capture delicate and rich grayscale changes, and with a humanistic street photography camera, it helps users enjoy purer street photography.

The X100 Ultra's biggest upgrade in subdivision scenarios is "Portrait". Because the signal-to-noise ratio of this new 85mm telephoto is 350% higher than the previous generation, and the resolution is increased by 50%, even "long shots" can achieve extremely high portrait resolution, even details such as eyes, eyelashes, and hair can be rendered very sharply. The out-of-focus color does not diverge and still maintains the purity of the image.

Finally, in terms of video capabilities, the X100 Ultra is equipped with the self-developed blueprint image chip V3+, with the LYT-900 main camera and HP9 outsole telephoto, bringing the recording specifications of professional video cameras to the mobile phone, achieving 4K 120fps upscaling capability of multiple focal lengths, while strengthening image stabilization and expanding the dynamic range, even in complex low-light environments, you can also get excellent contrast performance and shadow details. Including for the long-distance "shooting idols" scene of concerts, which has been very popular in recent years, vivo not only improves the telephoto's long-distance shooting ability, but also optimizes the noise reduction and sound recording of the microphone, using all these technologies to help users shoot the pictures they want.

In the past two years, vivo has put forward the slogan of "humanized professional imaging". This word is almost the most powerful summary of "technology and experience resonance". It is easy to see that vivo has done a variety of technologies in the development process of the imaging system, and the final experience is simple "software is easy to use, accurate imaging, and good looking at the film". Even in terms of functions such as scanning codes, the X100 Ultra achieves "ultra-long code scanning" from 40 meters away through telephoto optical zoom and high pixel capability.

"Humanization + professionalism" sounds like a very virtual concept, but behind it actually requires a very long period of technology accumulation and experience transformation, and finally to achieve the effect of great ingenuity. Through the resonance of technology and experience, we optimize small function points to impress users and gain word of mouth.

03 The future of mobile imaging is simplification

Looking back at the entire history of the development of mobile phone imaging technology, early users focused on parameters, looking at CMOS size, number of pixels, aperture size, zoom factor...... After that, users began to pay attention to technology, such as low-light performance, white balance, and accuracy of color reproduction, and manufacturers began to look for solutions to these problems one by one.

As technology evolves, functional concepts become complex. Today's users are increasingly looking for their own answers from experience, and no matter how technical they are, they are not as impressive as a good dailies.

That's why the best selling cameras on the market today aren't the most advanced full-frame cameras, and many users are instead chasing old CCD digital cameras and disposable film cameras, setting off a nostalgic retro trend. Ricoh and Fujifilm's after-format cameras have become popular and hard to find.

The simple technical concept of "the higher the pixels, the larger the aperture, the brighter the exposure, and the sharper the dark details, the better", is becoming obsolete. Such a market environment puts forward higher requirements for manufacturers to make their products perfect.

In fact, vivo is already a mobile phone manufacturer that has sensed this water temperature for a long time. A few years ago, when most manufacturers were still aiming for camera optimization of "increasing the brightness of the film through computational photography", vivo had already proposed to restore the "correct tone", emphasizing that aesthetics are greater than parameters.

In the future, mobile phone imaging will need to be simplified, and the investment in technology will be "hidden", focusing on helping users take the photos they need.

This time, the black and white color style introduced on the X100 Ultra is a good example of this, including further improvements in stabilization performance, which allows users to broaden the scene they capture and find more extreme shooting angles to capture fleeting moments.

They also emphasized that the X100 Ultra will be a more creative humanistic street photography camera.

All these efforts are condensed under the "blueprint image". It encapsulates vivo's long-term commitment to technology and the confidence of vivo to assist users in creating with ease.

*Header image source: Visual China

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