In June 18th, China University of Technology promoted an official war. The major mobile phone makers are fully fired and throw multiple offers. Consumers are also looking forward to picking a satisfied mobile phone in this year's biggest shopping spree. In the first half of this year, The major mobile phone manufacturers took turns to launch new machines, and these new machines seem to have 'partners with stunts' in their ministries, almost all with the hottest features of smartphones.
Full Screen, Gradient, A-I Camera, Voice Assistant, Game Phone... Which of these dazzling labels are the real selling points, which are the empty heads, and how do consumers pick?
To this end, Nandu reporters evaluated the 10 flagship models released in the first half of the year from the three aspects of appearance, photographing and differentiated functions, and launched this consumer risk index smart phone 2018 innovation semi-annual report. From the results , Samsung S 9/S 9 + ranked first, but the highest price; Xiaomi 8 followed. The other four models did not go to the 'pass line'.
Exterior
Collective fashion, put on 'Liu Haiping' 'curved glass'
Looking back at the evolution of smart phones in recent years, we can see that as the hardware and technology continue to mature, the factors that affect consumers' replacement also shift from basic performance such as battery, storage, and CPU in the past to higher value, more beautiful. Photographs, more smooth experience and other needs.
Among them, appearance is still an important factor in consumer decision. The main factors affecting the appearance of smart phones are screen appearance, material, resolution, and body material and color.
Southern Metropolis Daily reporters found that among the 10 flagship models mentioned above, 7 models were profiled. Among them, 6 models were 'Liu Hai' shaped screens similar to the iPhone X, and 1 models used the 'Beauty Tip' shaped full screen. All use square full screen.
In terms of screen material, the proportion of O LED screens has further increased. Samsung, O PPO, vivo, millet, and one-plus-one mobile phones all use this screen in their flagship products. Samsung's screen resolution is the highest, reaching 2960× 1440 pixels; the remaining 5 brands are LCD screens.
In the material of the fuselage, the main materials are plastic, metal, glass, ceramics, etc. Among the 10 flagship models mentioned above, a total of 7 models are made of glass material, and the rest are ceramics and metal bodies. This shows that the feel is smooth. The return of glass material has become a popular trend. Ceramics that have the same feel as glass have been used less frequently because of the difficulty of the process. The metal body has been replaced by plastic materials because of its texture and durability, and it has become the mainstream of smart phone bodies. Material. In the past two years, it has gradually been eliminated by the flagship machine. However, it is still widely used in the cost-effective thousand yuan machine market. At present, plastic materials are only visible in functional machines.
As the function of smart phones has evolved from electronic products to fast-moving consumer goods, mobile phone manufacturers have become more and more attentive to the color polishing. Following the local tycoon gold and Chinese red, this year's popular colors have become 'gradient colors'. Huawei and O PPO have the most color types, and they all have 5 color combinations; Samsung has 4 color combinations. Other brands are mainly concentrated in black, white, and red.
To evaluate this area, the Samsung S9 series takes the top spot with its SuperA m oled screen and super high resolution. The millet 8 series uses four-curved glass on the body material, and at the same time, a transparent version of the transparent glass back cover is released. The geek sense is full.
In the first half of the year, there were two main aspects of exterior innovation. The first was the material of the back cover. On the one hand, the metal was replaced with glass, the glass could be better used for wireless charging, the communication signal was better, and it would be more convenient when doing 5G. , This is the glass cover from the functional advantages. On the other hand, the back cover glass can also make more innovations in the color, such as O PPO dream red, Huawei's gradient color. Another innovation is the appearance of Most of the screens now use a full screen, including 'Liu Haiping' and a full screen of 18:9. 'Yan Zhanmeng, research director at international research institute counterpoint pointed out that there is also an innovation in screen fingerprinting.
Sun Yanyi, dean of the first mobile phone industry research institute, also pointed out that this year's innovation in appearance is mainly focused on materials and colors, in line with the pursuit of fashion trends by young women. 'First, we have seen ceramic materials being used better. The ceramic materials are monotonous in color and design, and now ceramic materials have become more vivid. Second, the color of the optical materials on the glass material, the coating time and technical difficulty are greatly enhanced. These designs make smart phones more and more Fashion. '
Photo Innovation
How to install the camera is the difficulty of comprehensive screen evolution
There are two main factors that affect the camera's camera level: First, the camera lens configuration, including front and rear camera configuration, pixels, aperture; second, scene optimization, such as portrait landscaping, dark light, backlight shooting and so on.
Taking pictures as one of the core functions of a smart phone is an innovation point that manufacturers cannot ignore. However, depending on the hardware configuration such as pixels and aperture, it is no longer possible to produce large differences. Therefore, the optimization of the photographic effect of a specific scene has become the focus of competition. Different from the popular autofocus, optical image stabilization, four-axis image stabilization and other concepts, many flagships released this year are mainly used in portraits, dim light, and sports scenes.
In terms of professional photography, Samsung and Huawei launched a slow-motion shot of 960 frames per second to capture dynamically changing scenes. In addition, the appearance of large aperture cameras such as f/1.5, f/1.6, was used to optimize shooting in dark environments. The OPPO, Vivo, and Xiaomi all improved the front camera configuration to the same level as the rear camera, and even higher than the rear camera, for the main shot.
Southern Metropolis Daily reporters found that among the 10 models, 6 models emphasized the optimization of portrait shooting scenes. Among them, Huawei, OPPO and Glory have all introduced '3D portrait lighting effects'; vivo, millet, and hammers emphasize AI bokeh. And beauty effects; Xiaomi even shouted 'micro plastic beauty' slogan.
To evaluate this area, Huawei P 20P RO has 40 million pixels (color lenses) + 20 million pixels (black and white lenses) + 8 million pixels (telephoto lenses). The front-facing camera also achieves 24 million pixels. , In the shooting scene launched 960fps per second slow-motion shooting, f/1.6 large aperture to enhance nighttime photography and 3D portrait light efficiency optimization of portrait photography, so ranked first with 49 points high score.
The integration of AI functions into the camera level is a relatively common phenomenon in the first half of the year. Its core lies in the support of chips. For example, Qualcomm’s 845 and 660 chips will automatically recognize different scenes and different objects to help them select the phase. Corresponding algorithms and optimization. Some mobile phone manufacturers have developed new features based on the chip, so it is reflected in the photographing features. ' Yan Zhan Meng said.
Differentiated features
AI is a standard innovation, but users are still adapting
The differentiated function refers to a function newly developed by a mobile phone manufacturer to make the brand unique.
Currently, smart phone manufacturers mainly differentiate themselves from two aspects: First, through the system's intelligent optimization, which is the A I capability emphasized by mobile phone manufacturers; second, vertical segmentation and positioning.
In terms of segmentation, music phones and camera phones have been popular before; this year is the year of 'game phones'. For example, Xiaomi launched the Black Shark game phone, Nubian Red Dev game phone, and 360N 7 'Chicken mobile phone'. ', mainly in the CPU performance, heat and shape optimization.
'Game phones meet the specific needs of market segments, mainly to address the two pain points of standby and fever issues, and innovative design', Yanzhan Meng pointed out.
At present, it is still unknown whether the positioning of game phones can be accepted by the market. After all, almost all of the flagship machines are constantly enhancing their game functions. The game has become the second largest application scenario after photographing.
In addition, the application of artificial intelligence has become the trend of smart phone software innovation. Statistics show that face unlocking, AI camera is the most common AI application scenario. In fact, this is only the visual recognition technology in artificial intelligence, speech recognition technology. The application is not much at present. In addition to iP hone's Siri voice assistant, only Samsung and Xiaomi use voice assistants. Smart integration of mobile phone application information to enhance the experience is also a common practice for mobile phone manufacturers. Such as OPPO, Vivo, One Plus, etc., all have smart aggregate information homepage.
Statistics show that most mobile phone manufacturers are committed to enhancing user experience through intelligent optimization of the system and driving the user to change machines; while the second echelon of mobile phone brands or niche mobile phone brands, they choose to plunge into a certain market segment to form differentiation. Positioning.
In the evaluation of this field, Samsung and Xiaomi ranked first with the intelligent operation system. The innovative features of the two models in the AI function are mainly embodied in visual recognition and speech recognition. At the same time, they have the ability of deep learning. In contrast, Most other brands emphasize information aggregation functions. For example, Glory 10's 'negative screen' smart assistant, polymer flow information, Alipay payment code, new to-do, hotel reservation, airline ticket booking, sports information and other common life services, and Users use habits to adjust.
'Artificial intelligence is indeed a direction of cell phone differentiation. But at present, consumers do not have this habit. Many technological innovations, from the time of landing to becoming a habit of use, take about a year. For example, iP hone's fingerprint recognition, Although iP hone5S is available, it has been widely used since iP hone6. 'Sun Yanqi said that at present, no matter whether it is Xiaomi's love classmate, OPPO, vivo's emphasis on intelligent assistants, or Huawei's emphasis on AI photography, consumers have not become dependent. The usage habits also require a learning process. 'This year, it can be described as the first year of mobile artificial intelligence applications. The completion of large-scale consumer habits should be next year.'
Comprehensive ranking
The competition is becoming increasingly severe, and mobile phone manufacturers are striving to change the market
From a comprehensive evaluation point of view, Samsung S9/S9+ won the first place with a score of 150 out of 150, but the price was the highest; S9 and S9+ started at 5,799 yuan and 6,699 yuan respectively. It is Xiaomi 8, with a score of 134 points, starting at 2699 yuan. It is followed by Huawei P20 and P20Pro, ranking third with 128 points.
Among them, more than 100 points in order are: Glory 10, vivoX 21, O PPO R 15. And a plus phone 6, Nubian red devil game phone, Hammer R 1, 360N 7 did not reach the pass line of 90 points.
Previously, data from a number of research institutions showed that in the first quarter of this year, the Chinese smart phone market continued its downward trend in the previous quarter, and the overall sales volume fell below 100 million. Among them, IDC data shows that in the first quarter of this year, the Chinese smartphone market Shipment volume was 87.5 million units, down 16% year-on-year.
According to the report of the CAnals, in the first quarter of this year, shipments of smart phones in the Chinese mainland fell by 21% to 91 million; of the top ten vendors, sales fell. “To maintain existing sales”, 'Survive ', Become a universal target for mobile phone manufacturers on the domestic market.
In the face of increasingly severe competition in inventory, handset manufacturers have spared no effort to update their functions and technologies in order to shake up the replacement market. In the first half of this year, whether these 10 models can ultimately drive consumer buying impulses? We will wait and see.
assess target
In the first half of 2018, the flagship new products released by major mobile phone manufacturers in the Chinese market consisted of 10 models: Samsung S9/S9+, Huawei P20/Pro, OPPOR15, vivoX21, Xiaomi 8 Series, Glory 10, and One Plus Mobile Phone 6. Hammer Nut Pro2, 360 N7, Nubian Red Devils Game Phone.
Evaluation Criteria
Currently, the most competitive features of the smart phone market, including appearance, photography, and differentiated function innovation, are the three major dimensions of the evaluation. These include the front screen of the mobile phone and the camera body; camera functions include cameras. Hardware and software optimization; function innovation refers specifically to innovations made by some mobile phone manufacturers for certain specific functions of smart phones. Each of the three indicators is 50 points and the total score is 150 points.
Sample data collection
Data collection channels include: Southern Metropolis reporters measured experience, third-party assessment agencies, corporate official product introduction.
Evaluation period
January 1 to May 31, 2018