What other “hot words” will appear in the mobile phone industry in 2020?

I calculated that there is still about half a month until the New Year's Eve on January 24. At the end of each year, all companies are busy reviewing the work of the past year and starting to plan for the next year. Basically, no new products will be launched on the market. Therefore, it is relatively comprehensive to review what happened in the industry last year at this time point.

In 2019, the mobile phone industry has changed significantly. The user groups have begun to move closer to several leading companies, and they have become the absolute protagonists in the center of the stage. In contrast, small brands have had a harder time. Many mobile phone brands that were active in everyone's sight in 2018 have gradually lost their voices this year, and some have even directly given up their mobile phone business.

Although the number of "players" has decreased, the mobile phone industry has not become deserted. There are still many new hot spots and development trends. The key words are roughly as follows: 5G, high pixel, zoom, 90Hz refresh rate, and folding screen. These scattered words are ultimately attributed to the three major directions of network connection, imaging, and screen.

The rapid advancement of 5G

Each generation of communication technology changes will bring many new development opportunities. From the user's perspective, 5G's faster data transmission speed and lower latency will undoubtedly greatly improve our user experience. For mobile phone manufacturers, the change in network standards means that a new round of phone replacement will be created, and the industry landscape is likely to be reshaped.

In this context, the rapid promotion of 5G development has become a common task for the upstream and downstream of the industry chain. Of course, the effect is also obvious. From the official issuance of 5G licenses by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in June last year to the end of 2019, we can see that 5G mobile phones have completed the concept popularization and formal commercial use in a very short time.

In this process, the progress made by the product side is visible to the naked eye. In the early stage of popularization of the concept, manufacturers focused on connecting mobile phones to 5G networks and then showing more ordinary users the ultra-high data transmission speed under 5G networks. To some extent, we can also understand that measuring network speed was the biggest use of 5G mobile phones at that time.

In such a usage scenario, there is no need to consider the usability of the mobile phone itself too much. Many products are modified based on existing models. However, if you want to push it to the mass market and let ordinary consumers pay for it, it is not enough to simply support 5G network connection. As we all know, almost all 5G mobile phones released later emphasize battery life and heat dissipation capabilities.

Above, we briefly reviewed the development of 5G mobile phones in 2019 from the perspective of product usability. In addition, 5G chips are also evolving synchronously. Several major chip manufacturers, including Huawei, Qualcomm, and Samsung, have successively launched SoC products with integrated 5G basebands, and at the same time, the debate about the authenticity of SA and NSA 5G has been completely settled.

High pixels and multiple lenses have almost become "standard"

Imaging capabilities are an important trend in the development of mobile phones and a point of concern for everyone. Almost all mobile phone manufacturers are working hard to improve the photo and video functions of their products. Looking back at the mobile phone products launched in China in 2019, the two major changes in the hardware side are that the main camera pixels are getting higher and higher, and the number of cameras is also increasing.

If you list the camera parameters of mainstream flagship phones released last year, you will find that 48-megapixel main cameras are no longer a rare thing, and most domestic brands have followed suit. In addition to 48-megapixel main cameras, 64-megapixel and even 100-megapixel mobile phone products also appeared on the market in 2019.

From the perspective of actual imaging effects, the pixel level of the camera is only one aspect and does not play a decisive role. However, we have mentioned many times in previous related evaluation articles that the benefits of ultra-high pixels are obvious. In addition to greatly improving the image resolution, it can also act as a telephoto lens in some cases.

In addition to high pixels, multiple cameras have become standard for mobile phone products last year (although some products were ridiculed as just making up the numbers). In order to arrange them reasonably, manufacturers have also tried many more "distinctive" solutions, such as the heater, round, diamond and other designs that are more common in the second half of the year.

Regardless of the quality of the camera itself, the value of multiple cameras does exist. Due to the limited internal space of the mobile phone, it is difficult to achieve multi-focal length shooting like a SLR camera with one lens. At present, it seems that the combination of multiple cameras with different focal lengths is the most reasonable and feasible way.

Regarding mobile phone imaging, generally speaking, the general trend is to move closer to cameras. Of course, from the perspective of imaging, it is very difficult, or almost impossible, for mobile phones to completely replace traditional cameras. But one thing is certain: with the advancement of software and hardware technology, mobile phones will be able to handle more and more shooting.

90Hz high refresh rate + folding, two development directions of screens

In 2019, the OnePlus 7 Pro received excellent market feedback and user reputation. At the same time, the concept of 90Hz refresh rate has become more and more well-known to the general public, and has even become a new standard for evaluating whether a mobile phone screen is good enough. After that, many products with high refresh rate screens have appeared on the market one after another.

It is difficult to describe the improved experience brought by the high refresh rate accurately in words. The more obvious feeling is that when you browse Weibo or slide the screen left and right, it is smoother and more responsive than a 60Hz screen. At the same time, when playing some mobile games that support high frame rate mode, the fluency is also significantly higher.

At the same time, we can see that as the 90Hz refresh rate is being recognized by more and more users, including gaming and third-party applications, the related ecosystem is gradually being established. From another perspective, this will also drive many other industries to make corresponding changes, which is worth affirming.

In addition to high refresh rates, another point of concern in the mobile phone screen in 2019 is the form factor innovation. These include folding screens, ring screens, waterfall screens and many other solutions. However, from the perspective of ease of use, the more representative products are the two folding screen phones, Samsung Galaxy Fold and Huawei Mate X, which have been officially mass-produced and sold.

Compared with the normal straight-screen phones, the biggest advantage of foldable screen phones is that they provide two different usage modes with the foldable characteristics of flexible screens. Especially when unfolded, the viewing experience brought by the large screen is obviously improved. Although the ecological construction is relatively imperfect at this stage, in the long run, this direction is feasible.

Looking back at the changes that have taken place in the mobile phone screen in 2019, although the ultimate goal of both is to bring a better user experience, they are two completely different product paths. In a sense, the high refresh rate is to further enhance the capabilities of the current screen form, while the folding screen is to try a new form, each with its own focus.

What to watch out for in 2020?

Earlier, we reviewed some new technologies and directions in the mobile phone industry in 2019. Overall, 5G-related, imaging, and screens are the three main areas that manufacturers are focusing on.

In our view, 5G will become more mature in 2020. As the Snapdragon 765 and Snapdragon 865 series chips begin to be mass-produced, brands that have not yet entered the 5G mobile phone market will gradually join the ranks, and the layout of mid-range and high-end 5G products will become more complete, giving everyone more choices.

The imaging part is still an important focus for manufacturers. Judging from the currently available information, there are still many new technologies worth looking forward to in the camera part, such as the hidden rear camera that OnePlus just demonstrated at CES, the under-screen front camera that OPPO has exhibited many times before, higher-pixel cameras, and so on.

The two main development directions of screens are still high refresh rate and new form factors. In the future, 120Hz refresh rate screens will appear on more and more mobile phones, and of course, higher refresh rate screens are not ruled out. In addition, according to the news currently learned by Geek Choice, many manufacturers will launch foldable screen phones in the future, but the folding method will change.

In general, 2020 will be the year when 5G mobile phones will officially begin to become popular in large numbers. On this basis, the functional applications of the product itself will also usher in many new attempts, which is worth looking forward to.