Every editor, Wang Jiaqi
In the field of science and technology, whoever can grab the first place will get more eyeballs, has the voice over, and even more money…
Now that the entire smartphone industry has entered the cold winter, it is time to start a new era. From the current trend, folding screen mobile phones are the next era.
From the quarrel between Xiaomi and Rouyu Technology in January this year to Samsung’s "rush" to Huawei in February, folding screens have become a battleground for mobile phone manufacturers.
However, who can actually fold depends on the product.
Today (February 21), Samsung’s folding screen phone Galaxy Fold was unveiled, summing it up: stunning design, expensive to cry.
At 3 am Beijing time on February 21, Samsung held a new product launch event in San Francisco, USA, and officially released the Galaxy S10 series and the much-anticipated folding screen phone – Galaxy Fold. This is Samsung’s first folding screen phone.
Image source: Samsung official website
The Galaxy Fold has a 7.3-inch folding screen and a 4.6-inch secondary screen, which is folded inside. When the phone is folded, the 4.6-inch (resolution 840×1960 pixels) secondary screen can realize all the operations of the current ordinary smartphone, and the overall operation logic is no different from that of the ordinary phone.
Image source: Tencent video screenshot
When the screen is turned on, the Galaxy Fold turns into a full-screen tablet, expanding the entire display area to 7.3 inches, and the main display has a resolution of 1536×2152 pixels. When the phone unfolds, apps that were previously running on the small screen will seamlessly switch to their current location, automatically adapting to the larger screen – if you’re looking at a map, then when you unfold the phone, the map will also expand and show more detailed information; if you’re taking a photo, then when you unfold the phone, it will automatically enter a wider editing mode.
Image source: Tencent video screenshot
The Galaxy Fold can display up to three apps on a single screen, with seamless switching between them.
Image source: Tencent video screenshot
This is due to the powerful performance of the Galaxy Fold. The Galaxy Fold is equipped with a 7nm SoC, with built-in 12GB RAM + 512GB ROM (UFS 3.0), and a 4380mAh battery.
Unlike the Galaxy S10 series, the Galaxy Fold does not use the latest ultrasonic screen fingerprint technology, but instead uses a side fingerprint to unlock it.
In terms of imaging, the Galaxy Fold machine contains a total of six lenses. Among them, the three rear lenses are 16MP ultra-wide-angle, 12MP standard wide-angle and 12MP telephoto, the front camera on the small screen is 10MP specification, and the front dual-camera specifications in the open state are 10MP ultra-wide-angle and 8MP depth-of-field cameras.
Image source: Tencent video screenshot
Of course, what everyone is most concerned about is how the phone screen folds. Samsung uses a sophisticated hinge system to reinforce it, hiding multiple interlocking gears in the phone case.
Image source: Tencent video screenshot
The key point is that the Galaxy Fold starts at $1980 (about 13,377 yuan) and has four color schemes. It will launch an LTE version and a 5G version respectively. It is expected to go on sale on April 26.
Image source: Tencent video screenshot
After the Note 7 explosion, Samsung’s share of the Chinese market plummeted, from 20% at its peak to 1% today.
Can Samsung rely on folding phones to make a comeback in China?
Some people are not optimistic about this. Today, a CNBC article analyzed that Samsung may be repeating the mistakes of Apple’s mobile phones.
Image source: Photograph Network
1. The price is too high
In addition to the Galaxy Fold, which starts at $1,980, today Samsung also announced the entry-level Galaxy S10e, which starts at $749; the Galaxy S10, which starts at $899; and the Galaxy S10 +, which starts at $999. Those prices will rise as storage space increases.
Todd Haselton, technology product editor at CNBC, believes that with the longer lifespan of mobile phones, consumers don’t have to replace them as urgently as they used to.
2. Lack of "rigid demand" function
People used to queue up for new phones because they had better cameras, sharper screens and faster data transfer speeds – all must-have features. But that innovation has slowed.
Although Samsung has introduced a more colorful display, a fingerprint reader hidden under the screen, and an interesting feature that allows wireless earphones to be charged on the back of the phone, why would users want to spend another $850 or $999 to upgrade the Galaxy S8, which already has a good display and facial recognition? They are not attractive enough to make consumers spend so much money.
3. Failed miserably in the Chinese market
Apple’s phone shipments in China have plummeted nearly 20% due to pricing issues, but Apple is still on the Chinese market map anyway. But what about Samsung?
Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO and other local brands have taken advantage of Apple and Samsung’s mistakes in the market to rise rapidly through affordable mobile phones. It is expected that new products will also be difficult to reverse Samsung’s decline in the Chinese market.
After the Spring Festival, the folding screen + 5G concept ignited the class A share market. Today, 5G concept, Huawei concept, Xiaomi concept, flexible screen concept and other sectors led the rise.
When it came to folding screens last year, it seemed like it was just a gimmick, but this year, after the debate between Xiaomi and Royole Technology "who is the first", and the exposure of Samsung’s patent related to Huawei and Apple’s folding screen, people found that folding screen mobile phones have become a reality.
On October 30 last year, Rouyu Technology released a folding screen hand, the core selling point is "the world’s first foldable flexible screen mobile phone".
On January 23, Lin Bin, co-founder and president of Xiaomi, announced on Weibo that the engineering machine of Xiaomi’s folding screen mobile phone has been launched, accompanied by a demonstration video. In the 200-word introduction, Lin Bin mentioned that Xiaomi "has overcome a series of technical problems such as flexible folding screen technology, four-wheel drive folding shaft technology… After a series of technical problems, we have made the first folding screen mobile phone, which should also be the world’s first dual folding mobile phone".
As a result, Xiaomi became a target for Fan Junchao, vice-president of Royole Technology.
In Moments’ more than 900-word response, Fan Junchao pointed out that Xiaomi’s dual-folding screen mobile phone only used concept flexible screens and engineering prototypes that could not be mass-produced, and claimed that he had conquered flexible display technology, and there was suspicion of plagiarism. In addition to Samsung and LG, other manufacturers around the world are still 108,000 miles away from the launch of the whole machine. The words are quite fierce.
Yesterday (February 20), at the Xiaomi press conference, Lei Jun responded to the matter: "That folding screen is indeed not made by our Xiaomi, but if we turn the folding screen into a product, the workload here is unprecedented. The dual folding screen is definitely the first of Xiaomi."
The battle for folding screen mobile phones is not just a technical issue, but a dark battle over time and order.
Because just one day after Xiaomi’s official exposure (January 24), Huawei Consumer CEO Yu Chengdong said that Huawei will launch a 5G folding screen smartphone at the 2019 Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona, Spain from February 25 to 28. Xiaomi’s early exposure beat Huawei by a day.
According to data, Huawei’s previous schedule for the launch of 5G smartphones was June 2019, but now it has been advanced to February.
As a result, Samsung was earlier than Huawei. On January 9, Samsung executives confirmed to the media that Samsung would release a folding display phone in the first half of 2019. Shortly thereafter, the Wall Street Journal received news that on February 20, four days before Huawei’s 5G folding phone was released, Samsung would showcase a foldable screen phone at a new product launch event.
As early as the launch of Samsung’s Galaxy Note9 in August 2018, Koh Dong-jin, president of Samsung’s mobile division, said that "it will not let the outside world [wait for the folding screen phone] for too long", because Samsung does not want to lose the title of the world’s first foldable screen phone to others.
Nowadays, Samsung has set the tone for the appearance, performance and price of the folding screen mobile phone. After the release of Huawei and Xiaomi’s mobile phones, the war will really start when consumers choose.
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