Looking back at Vsmart's glorious past, the surprising farewell, and the regret over a Made in Vietnam phone brand

Founded in 2018, Vsmart quickly gained popularity among Vietnamese users. It was the first Vietnamese phone brand with the potential to become a national technology icon, making a certain impact on the domestic smartphone market and even making strides abroad. However, after just 3 years of operation, on May 9, 2021, the company officially announced the cessation of phone and TV production.

Since then, many tech enthusiasts have truly regretted a promising Vietnamese brand. Let's take a look at this article at the shining journey before saying goodbye to Vsmart users.

Introduction to Vsmart and the formation of the Vsmart brand

Which country is Vsmart's phone company from? With a team of experienced engineers, Vsmart has an ambition of 'Vietnamese using Vietnamese products' and competing with big brands from abroad.

The Vsmart brand is owned by VinSmart Research and Production Joint Stock Company - a pioneering technology company under the VinGroup conglomerate - and was launched at the end of 2018. Despite being a relatively young brand, Vsmart has still won the hearts of many and received positive feedback from Vietnamese users.

VSmart phone models, are Vsmart phones good?

Super cheap smartphones - Vsmart Bee, Vsmart Star

At the time of its launch, Vsmart Star 5 was priced at just 1.5 million VND, targeting users with low incomes who wanted an affordable device to experience Android's many features. It featured a sturdy plastic back, rounded edges, and a waterdrop notch display, which was quite popular in its price segment at the time.

The Vsmart Star features a large screen with a waterdrop notch for a large display area, making it easy for everyday users, especially tech-savvy drivers, to observe and work. It can be said that Vsmart has been very successful in producing extremely cheap phones that can still be used stably.

Cheap smartphones - Vsmart Joy, Vsmart Live 

Following the success of the super cheap phone line, Vsmart has also achieved great success with these 2 phone lines. Users get stable performance, along with the trending hole-punch display at the time, plus a large battery, all at an affordable price.

Mid-range smartphone - Vsmart Active 

Still focusing on the average user. Vsmart Active 3 delivers stable performance, all-day battery life, being a device that is not only fashionable but also very practical.

High-end smartphone - Vsmart Aris series

The launch of the Vsmart Aris Series marks the successful pioneering position of the Vietnamese brand in the international technology market. The camera hidden under the screen and the quantum security chip are Vsmart's breakthroughs to change the technology game, offering users the opportunity to experience world-leading innovative inventions.

This is the highest-end product line of the brand, the Vsmart Aris Pro boasts a large 6.39-inch screen with the special highlight of the camera located under the screen, enhancing the viewing experience like never before.

In addition to the breakthrough in camera technology with the Aris Pro model, the Vsmart Aris Series also features the Quantum QRNG Security Chip from ID Quantique (Switzerland) and FIDO2 network authentication lock technology to ensure enhanced security and privacy for data, especially banking, personal finance, and health data.

In terms of performance, the Vsmart Aris and Aris Pro are equipped with the Snapdragon 730 octa-core processor with 2 cores at 2.2 GHz and 6 cores at 1.8 GHz, along with the Adreno 618 GPU. At the price range below 10 million VND at the time of launch, the Vsmart Aris series is a great deal that users can support the Vietnamese brand.

• Updating VOS 4.0 for Vsmart Aris Pro: What's new?

VOS

VOS is a proprietary operating system developed by VinSmart that allows the Vsmart user community to enjoy the most convenience. In the early days, VOS was not highly regarded because it was quite simple. However, Vsmart quickly improved the user interface, added features, and upgraded it.

Vsmart has been very successful in the budget segment

The sales of budget smartphones are nothing short of impressive. VinSmart once held 16.7% of the Vietnam smartphone market, officially setting a record for unprecedented growth in just 15 months after its launch. This information was announced in the March 2020 report by market research firm GfK – one of the most reputable market research companies in the world.

GfK noted that Vsmart smartphones have a significant advantage in the budget segment, priced from 1-3 million VND. Among them, the Vsmart Joy 3 is a breakthrough factor, with a record of 12,000 units sold in the first 14 hours after its launch. By the end of March 2020, the Vsmart Joy 3 (2GB and 3GB RAM versions) had entered the top 3 best-selling products in the 2-3 million VND segment, capturing 13.3% market share for VinSmart.

The Vietnamese people's ambition to use Vietnamese products from Vsmart has been warmly received and supported by users. The smartphone user community is very excited about Vsmart because it is a Vietnamese product that must be supported by Vietnamese people.

They also expect Vsmart to bring national pride, similar to what Samsung has done in South Korea, such as expanding its product range to include tablets, headphones, accessories, and even building its own ecosystem for Vietnamese users.

Why did Vsmart stop producing phones?​

The smartphone market is no longer an easy cake. After more than 10 years of development, the smartphone market has become oversaturated to the point where companies have to compete fiercely to attract users' attention.

'Manufacturing smartphones or smart TVs no longer brings breakthroughs or creates different values for users. Meanwhile, developing especially smart car models, smart homes, or even creating smart cities... will bring many benefits and superior experiences to humanity. Therefore, we are determined to focus all resources on this spearhead.' - Mr. Nguyen Viet Quang, Vice Chairman and CEO of Vingroup, stated.

VinSmart ceased smartphone production when after nearly 3 years, the company had once dominated the top 3 smartphone market share in Vietnam and was honored as the best Vietnamese phone brand at the Tech Awards 2020.

Yet Vsmart has come to a halt, leaving behind many unfinished projects such as producing flagship phones, bringing 5G technology to Vietnamese users earlier, and doing business in the US.

The company wants to focus more on the electric car market, a 'nascent' field that is also a lucrative one. Nevertheless, this decision has caused immense regret for Vietnamese people in general and Vsmart users.

After VinSmart announced the cessation of production, users rushed to buy the remaining stock as a souvenir to preserve national pride. The number of customers visiting the website as well as the store to inquire about and buy the phones increased significantly.

Vsmart's final gift to users

Despite ceasing production and sales, Vsmart still releases VOS updates for its users. VOS 4.0 is the latest version released by Vsmart on June 15, 2021, bringing users many new experiences with their phones.

• 8 new features on VOS 4.0 that are so cool you'll want to update immediately

This demonstrates that VinSmart greatly appreciates the support of its customers, which is also a token of gratitude to customers for sticking together until the day the company says goodbye to its users.

For Vsmart fans, they are both sad and happy because their beloved brand cares so much about the user community, while also grieving deeply because they won't see Vsmart on shelves in the future, on the streets, or even accompanying hardworking people outside.

• List of Vsmart devices receiving the software update for March 2022.

Conclusion

Vsmart was truly a hope of the Vietnamese people for a Made-in-Vietnam phone brand. The halt of Vsmart leaves a lot of regret for the tech community when a phone company with many good products is not further developed.

I believe, like many others, I also hope for a day when Vsmart returns to Vietnam, to those who love Vietnamese products, or a new Vietnamese brand that will bring the intelligence, values of Vietnamese people to the world in the future.

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See more:

• Vsmart smartphones are still extremely worth buying at this time, the reason is...
• The reason why Vsmart Aris Pro is worth every penny at the price of 5.5 million VND.
• The reason why Vsmart phones are still very worth buying at the moment.