Smartphone 2022 New "Start": How Folding Screen Mobile Phones Perform "Metamorphosis"

Three months, placed in the long river of human evolution, is just a drop of water, even compared to the nearly 30 years of development of smartphones, it is not worth mentioning. However, the truth that dripping water wears away stones tells us that the people and things that drive the development of the industry never care whether three months are too short. At the beginning of 2022, the smartphone industry has ushered in spring as usual. As new phones approach us and the industry undergoes a quiet transformation due to them, has anyone smelled the mystery behind them? In order to explore the answer, Mobile China has launched a special report on "New 'Beginnings' of Smartphones 2022". The focus of this article is on how folding screen phones perform the "Metamorphosis".
From the end of last year to the beginning of this year, mobile phone manufacturers such as OPPO, Huawei, and Honor have successively released their own folding screen products, and the domestic folding screen mobile phone market has flourished. According to Canalys data, the shipment volume of foldable screen smartphones reached 8.9 million units in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 148%, while the overall smartphone market only grew by 7%.
Smartphone 2022 New "Start": How Folding Screen Mobile Phones Perform "Metamorphosis"
In addition, the latest forecast data shows that the global annual shipment of foldable screen smartphones will exceed 30 million units in 2024, which means a compound annual growth rate of 53% from 2021 to 2024. The industry expects that the popularization process of foldable screen phones will continue to accelerate, and the penetration rate of foldable screen phones will accelerate in 2022.
Folding screens are definitely the main direction of future mobile phone development. So what changes will happen to the appearance, configuration, and price of folding screen phones in 2022?
Hinges are more durable and creases are more invisible
The first thing we see when we get a phone is its exterior design. Looking back at the foldable screen phones released by domestic brands not long ago, the OPPO Find N machine uses a 3D micro curved body design and the world's first finely crafted cone-shaped hinge, with excellent workmanship and a square and round visual appearance; The Honor Magic V adopts the popular water droplet hinge, which makes the machine very thin. The Honor Magic V is also the thinnest folding screen phone in the industry, and when closed, it has almost no gaps and fits very tightly.
Smartphone 2022 New "Start": How Folding Screen Mobile Phones Perform "Metamorphosis"
And today, vivo announced that its first foldable screen phone, vivo X Fold, will be officially released on April 11th. I believe everyone is looking forward to this phone. Looking at several major domestic brands, Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, and Honor have all launched their own foldable screen phones. vivo should be the latest mobile phone brand to launch its own foldable screen phone, so everyone's expectations for such a "thick accumulation and thin hair" phone are directly increased.
For the appearance design of this phone, you can have some understanding from some relevant information. The code name of this phone is called Butterfly, and from the official preview, it can be seen that the appearance of the new phone does indeed look as beautiful as a butterfly. Previously, it was reported that vivo X Fold has made significant breakthroughs in hinge technology, adding multiple aerospace materials to the hinge and significantly increasing the folding frequency of mobile phones; Significant optimization has also been achieved in terms of creases, with almost no obvious creases observed.
As the core component of folding screen models, screen hinges are directly related to the user experience of such products. From vivo's foldable screen phone, it can be seen that in the future, if new foldable screen products are to be launched, manufacturers still need to work hard on the hinges.
Also today, Vivo Vice President of Products, Huang Tao, announced in an article that the company had already started developing foldable screen phones four years ago, and Vivo X Fold will launch its first dual screen fingerprint. He introduced that folding screens are of utmost importance. The original intention of the design is not to sacrifice the screen experience due to the folding form.
In addition, industry insiders have revealed that "ordinary mobile phones have started to roll up the screen form after being rolled up, and the flexible hinge glass and screen have gradually matured. After the outer folding, inner and outer double folding, and scrolling have all been promoted for commercial use, the cost of ordinary inner folding has decreased. The scrolling has even matured in terms of form and appearance, and the internal iteration has even become more mature, but the specifications are not yet practical." In other words, the double folding and scrolling will achieve commercialization, and the forms of folding screen phones will be more diverse, Users will also have more choices.
High end configuration with full performance
We know that OPPO Find N is equipped with the Snapdragon 888 mobile platform, a 4500mAh high capacity battery, and supports 33W super fast charging. It is complemented by an internal and external 32 megapixel front main camera, a 16 megapixel ultra wide angle camera, and a 13 megapixel telephoto lens. The configuration is very balanced in all aspects. And Honor Magic V is equipped with a new generation Snapdragon 8 mobile platform, with a rear mounted 50 million pixel multi main camera fusion for computational photography; It adopts a 4750mAh high capacity battery, supports 66W wired super fast charging, and is also a versatile hexagonal player. In addition, the configuration of foldable screen phones from manufacturers such as Samsung and Huawei is also very impressive.
Smartphone 2022 New "Start": How Folding Screen Mobile Phones Perform "Metamorphosis"
It is not difficult to find that due to its high price and generally being launched as flagship models, mobile phone manufacturers' foldable screen products generally have good configurations. High end configurations can increase the attractiveness of the phone and to a certain extent make consumers more willing to pay for an expensive foldable screen phone. So it can be inferred that in the future, the configuration of foldable screen phones will not be inferior in all aspects.
And now the information about the configuration of vivo X Fold also proves this point. According to a digital blogger, the vivo X Fold will be equipped with the Snapdragon 8 mobile platform and a Zeiss Imaging co branded 50 megapixel GN5 main camera+48 megapixel ultra wide+12MP 2 ×+ 8MP 5 × Full focus lens, supporting 80W wired+50W wireless fast charging. These configurations make the vivo X Fold a truly high-end device.
Price down by 5000 yuan
Since its inception, foldable screen phones have been bundled with the term 'expensive'. In the mobile phone market, the price of foldable screen phones is generally around ten thousand yuan, and many consumers directly persuade them to withdraw when they see the price of the product.
Smartphone 2022 New "Start": How Folding Screen Mobile Phones Perform "Metamorphosis"
Although the vast majority of foldable screen phones are priced at over 10000 yuan, some manufacturers have currently controlled their prices. With a starting price of over 7000 yuan, OPPO Find N has been highly sought after by consumers, with sales exceeding 50000 units in two weeks, showing impressive performance.
In the future, the price of foldable screen phones will be controlled and no longer prohibitively high. Industry analysis shows that with the improvement of upstream supply chain technology and maturity of processes, the price of foldable screen smartphones is expected to decrease to within the price range of 7000 yuan in the future. In addition, there are also digital bloggers who boldly speculate that due to more transparent upstream resources and reduced costs, the future price of foldable screen phones is expected to sink to the 5000 yuan price range, allowing more people to use foldable screen phones.