After lightning-fast charging, Chinese brands are in a race to boost camera sizes and screen brightness.

Not limited to Xiaomi, other Chinese manufacturers like vivo, realme, etc., are also trending towards increasing camera sizes and screen brightness on their products. For example, the OPPO Find X6 Pro features a 50MP main camera with a 1-inch sensor, and the screen brightness goes up to 2,500 nits. The vivo X90 Pro+ boasts a 50.3MP main camera with a 1-inch sensor, and the screen brightness reaches 1,800 nits. Notably, the newly launched realme GT5 Pro sports a 50MP main camera with a 1/1.43-inch sensor and a screen brightness of up to 4,500 nits.

Looking back 5 years, what were the brands pursuing?

In recent years, the global smartphone market has witnessed significant changes, particularly with the ascent of Chinese brands. Five years ago, these brands primarily focused on the budget segment with impressive technical specifications. However, now they have made substantial strides and are gradually dominating market share from major players like Apple and Samsung.

Five years ago, Chinese brands were heavily focused on technical specifications. Particularly, on models like OnePlus or OPPO Find X, performance, display, and camera were highly emphasized and competed for every segment of customers.

This period also marked the saturation phase of smartphones as everyone had identical configurations. Speaking of configurations, the competition among top smartphone brands in 2013 was noteworthy. It was a time of intense filtering, leading to the departure of renowned brands like LG or Sony from the game.

Following the saturation period from 2016 to 2017, once again, Chinese smartphone brands led the race in technical specifications and pricing for budget smartphones. Flagships even had price tags only half of those from leading brands of that time, such as Samsung or Apple.

At this point, mainstream phones gradually introduced high-resolution cameras up to 32MP or 48MP, like the Vsmart Active 3. Even the 64MP camera on the realme 6 brought a lot of competition in specifications on budget smartphones.

In the premium segment, brands are also racing towards displays with better color rendition, higher resolution, and support for high refresh rates up to 90Hz or 120Hz. Processors are all top-of-the-line, exemplified by the POCOPHONE F1 with Snapdragon 845 but priced at less than half compared to other phones with equivalent specifications.

Saturation is the reason they have to seek something new

After that tense period, manufacturers have accumulated enough experience and resources to develop better phones. This is also the time when phones become saturated, appearing similarly on the market.

Without looking at the specs, you can guess that both the Xiaomi 14 and OPPO Find X6 are equipped with the latest high-end processors at the time of release, such as Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 or Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, 2K displays, 120Hz refresh rates, and high-resolution cameras. Thin bezels and designs also have minimal differences.

Due to the lack of major brand recognition in the global smartphone market map, most Chinese manufacturers strive to catch up or advertise more effectively than their competitors. Brightness of the screen and sensor size of the camera are still lacking in the current market.

Looking back at the first 1-inch camera phone on the market, those were smartphones from Sharp combined with Leica or Nubia with the Z50s series. Xiaomi also has the Xiaomi 13 Pro in partnership with Leica, but mostly they are theoretical and lack significant breakthroughs in the initial period.

In theory, improvements in sensor size or brightness are great, but we should acknowledge the reality of how many users actually need these when software cannot efficiently utilize them.

This is understandable, and one can empathize when they have to 'race' and find something to 'race' for marketing highlights compared to Apple or Samsung in the market. Apple or Samsung, despite not making significant breakthroughs, still generate significant revenue, enough to delve further into what happens next.

Meanwhile, as introduced above, the race for screen brightness has now reached a maximum of 4,500 nits, and no one really cranks up the brightness to that level when in use. However, Chinese manufacturers are compelled to compete because this is what keeps them on par or gives them something to compare with Apple and Samsung after the screen brightness on current smartphones has basically met the usage demands.

Similarly, a camera sensor larger than 1 inch will also be a physical limitation on mobile devices, so the screen might continue to be the next battleground. Screens with high touch sampling rates have been brought up for comparison, and recently, PWM blur frequency has been discussed more. Therefore, it's highly likely that these technical specifications will definitely be scrutinized and could become a new battleground in 2024.

Furthermore, AI processing capabilities cannot be overlooked. Google has done a great job of this on their Pixel phones with the Tensor chip to provide many smart features. With recent rumors, it seems like Samsung will also focus heavily on AI in their upcoming device, which could be another fierce competition among smartphone manufacturers next year.

Conclusion

Similar to Samsung and other manufacturers before, Chinese manufacturers are also entering the exciting spec race. This is to have more advertising leverage when comparing with other leading products such as iPhone or Galaxy. Additionally, users will also see the strengths of phones from China and contribute to capturing more market share.

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• Article section: Market