Xiaomi seeks change: can you win the domestic turnaround without the shackles of cost performance?

Xiaomi flagship machine, we must get rid of the bondage of cost performance.

In Weibo before the Xiaomi 9 conference, Lei Jun once expected the price of Xiaomi 9 to reach 4,000 yuan, but the final price was set at 2,999 yuan, only higher than the previous generation by 300 yuan. Lei Jun also quickly explained to the audience and the media that Xiaomi would not give up the cost performance, but would no longer pursue the ultimate cost performance and hand it over to Redmi.

However, the price increase of Xiaomi mobile phone has become a choice that Lei Jun has to make.

From the product level, a flagship machine needs corresponding R&D investment and cost; From the company level, Xiaomi also needs to increase profits and revise its financial report after listing; From the perspective of market competition, in the context of Huawei and OV competing for high-end markets, Xiaomi will retreat if it does not advance.

Entanglement and trial and error

The price of 1999 yuan enabled Xiaomi to quickly open the market with high cost performance in the early days of its establishment, and also contributed a lot to Xiaomi's ranking first in the smart phone market in China in 20 14. However, in the new market situation, this pricing model has become the bondage of Xiaomi.

Lei Jun admits the challenges faced by Xiaomi's mobile phone. With the increasing complexity of mobile phones, the occupation and requirements of R&D resources are getting higher and higher, such as AI technology, camera and so on. If these R&D costs are limited, it will inevitably affect the innovation of mobile phones.

For example, as long as the back fingerprint is 20 yuan, the screen fingerprint should be at least 150 yuan or even two or three hundred yuan. Xiaomi 9' s DXO camera score ranked third, and Xiaomi camera engineer also suggested to Lei Jun that if the price can be increased by one or two hundred yuan, Xiaomi 9' s camera DXO score will definitely exceed that of friends.

But for the price increase, Lei Jun is entangled.

It is absolutely impossible to set the original price again. Lei Jun, who realized the problem, discussed with the executives to set the price at 3,299 yuan, but this once made him sleep badly for several days, and finally persuaded the executives to set the price at 2,999 yuan.

If Xiaomi's pricing increases, it will be said by rice noodles that Xiaomi has changed and Lei Jun has changed. Lei Jun said. Earlier, he said in public that when almost everyone advised me to sell Xiaomi products more expensive, I felt lonely because they didn't understand my dreams and pursuits. He even pushed the board of directors to pass a resolution on the eve of Xiaomi's listing, and the comprehensive profit rate of Xiang Xiaomi hardware will never exceed 5%.

Xiaomi has never tried high-end before.

The first time was the Xiaomi Note series launched in June 2005+2065438. At that time, the price of Xiaomi's flagship product was still strictly at the level of 1999 yuan, while the price of Xiaomi Note standard version was raised to 2299 yuan, and the top version reached 2999 yuan. However, the Xiaomi Note series did not let Xiaomi go to the high end to open the situation. At present, it has only been updated to the third generation and has become an ordinary mid-range series.

The second time was the MIX series launched by 20 16 and 10. The price of the standard version is 3499 yuan, and the exclusive version is 3999 yuan, which also brings the pricing range of Xiaomi to a new height. At the same time, the series relies on full-screen design to add a lot of color to Xiaomi's brand and image, which opens the prelude for domestic mobile phone manufacturers to explore full-screen solutions.

The transparent exploration version from Xiaomi 8 can be regarded as the third attempt, and the price of this version has also reached the price range of 3000-4000 yuan.

Lei Jun said at the press conference that Xiaomi 9 may be the last flagship of Xiaomi under 3,000 yuan. It is foreseeable that the transparent exploration version of Xiaomi MIX series and digital series will also rise in the future.

External joy and internal worry

Xiaomi suffered a continuous decline in sales at 20 15 and 20 16, and gradually recovered at 20 17. However, in 20 18, although Xiaomi's sales in the global smartphone market maintained growth, it suffered another decline in China market.

According to IDC data, in 20 18, the global shipment of Xiaomi mobile phones was 654.38+226 billion units, up 33.2% year-on-year, ranking fourth in the world. However, in the China market, the shipment of millet was 52 million units, down 5.6% year-on-year. 20 18 in the fourth quarter, the decline rate of Xiaomi's shipments in China reached 34.9%.

Obviously, overseas markets have become the driving force for the growth of Xiaomi's mobile phones, which is also reflected in Xiaomi's financial report data.

The third quarter financial report of Xiaomi 20 18 shows that the international market revenue increased by 1 12.7% year-on-year to 22.3 billion yuan, accounting for 43.9% of the total revenue, achieving a new high proportion of overseas business. Lei Jun said that it is expected that the income of the international market will soon surpass that of China.

He also introduced that Xiaomi has ranked first in India, second in Indonesia, first in Belarus and fourth in Europe. On the whole, more than 30 of more than 80 countries have entered the top five in the local market. He also said that Xiaomi's focus this year is to win Europe. He also admitted that Xiaomi has not done well in Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, and there is still huge room in the future.

As for the domestic market, Xiaomi vigorously promoted the offline retail system of Xiaomi House on 20 18, which should have been reflected in the growth of sales figures, but why did it drop sharply?

Lei Jun revealed a key message, saying that in the fourth quarter of 20 18, the sales of millet products have already accounted for the vast majority in China, not Redmi. In fact, combing the product release rhythm of the two brands last year, we can find that only four products were released in Redmi in 20 18, and all of them were concentrated in the first half of the year, and no new products were released in Redmi in the second half of the year. It is not difficult to understand why IDC data shows that Xiaomi's sales in China dropped so fast in the fourth quarter of 20 18.

This is also the result of Xiaomi's active adjustment of product structure.

The first quarter financial report of Xiaomi 20 18 shows that among the mobile phone sales in all price ranges of Xiaomi, the highest sales volume is entry-level mobile phones (below 799 yuan), achieving sales of110.69 million units. At that time, it was ridiculed by the media that there would be no millet without Redmi; In the second quarter, the average unit price of Xiaomi smartphones rose from 863.8 yuan in the second quarter of 20 17 to 952.3 yuan, a year-on-year increase of more than 25%; In the third quarter, the average unit price of Xiaomi smartphones increased to 1060.6 yuan, and the average selling price in Chinese mainland increased by 16% compared with last year. Behind this, it is mainly the contribution of two high-end models, Xiaomi 8 series and Xiaomi MIX3.

Change and turn over?

Paying attention to Xiaomi brand and products has improved the overall average unit price of Xiaomi mobile phone, but it has also brought about the side effect of the decline in sales in China.

At the beginning of 20 18, Lei Jun also announced Xiaomi's new goal in an internal letter: to return to the first place in the domestic market within 10 quarter. Over the past year, Xiaomi's ranking in the China market has declined instead of rising, and it has been ranked fifth in the fourth quarter of 20 18. This means that the pressure of 20 19 is undoubtedly greater.

At the end of 20 18 and the beginning of 20 19, Xiaomi has started the reform of the domestic market.

The first is the structural adjustment from June 2065438 to February 2008. Xiaomi reorganized its sales and service department into China district, and appointed Wang Chuan, senior vice president, as the president of China district. Xiaomi said in an internal mail that it was to strengthen its investment in the China market. Wang Chuan said in an interview that in 20 19, Xiaomi will increase its investment in offline and new retail on the basis of maintaining the traditional advantages of e-commerce. At the same time, innovate in store layout and product experience. For example, in order to reflect dark light shooting, we will design darkroom scenes for users to experience. Lei Jun also commented, I think that under the leadership of Mr. Chuan, China has seen great changes in China for two months. He doesn't do simple sales, especially Xiaomi series mobile phones. Last year, we promoted product transformation in China.

Secondly, the Redmi brand was split independently in June 20 19, and the former president of Gionee, Lu Zaihongmi, was introduced to take the helm. After the split of Redmi brand and Xiaomi brand, Redmi brand undertook the mission of pursuing the ultimate cost performance, and Xiaomi brand pursued innovation and perfection more freely. It can not only explore high-end, but also ensure sales. At the same time, the Redmi brand is on the right track in the domestic market after independence. Recently, Xiaomi has just announced the first product after the independence of Redmi brand-Red Rice Note7, with domestic sales exceeding 1 10,000 units in the first month of listing.

Previously, Xiaomi also launched a multi-brand strategy. In addition to the game mobile phone Black Shark, overseas high-end brands POCO, Redmi and Xiaomi, and Meitu mobile phone brands are also included. These five mobile phone brands have also enabled Xiaomi to achieve low, medium and high price segments, as well as full coverage of market segments such as games and women.

Whether this series of changes can boost sales in China again and finally achieve Lei Jun's goal of returning to the first place will be answered in the market performance of Xiaomi 20 19 in China.

Sina mobile phone evaluation: Xiaomi 9 can really play this time.

Before the release of yellow rice wine, Lei Jun released several official renderings on Weibo, which can be described as the official exposure of the product upside down. By today's release, for most people, the sense of surprise has actually been reduced by half. But the sense of surprise belongs to the conference, and the quality of the product may have nothing to do with it.

Different angles and different colors of rice 9

In the fierce competition of 20 19 mobile phone industry, how to evaluate Xiaomi's works in the first battle of 20 19 brand premium, whether Snapdragon 855 can be launched, and the face value of the world's most beautiful Xiaomi mobile phone are the key points of our evaluation.

Yan value, the most exquisite mobile phone of Xiaomi Technology.

Before the release of Mi 9, the official said that Xiaomi looks the best, and the back rendering looks cool and fashionable. With Roy's endorsement poster, it gives people an illusion. Take it, you are the most beautiful boy in the whole street.

The radian of the side is beautiful

With the real machine in hand, the feeling becomes more specific: Xiaomi 9 leaves the deepest impression that it is thin and light.

Official data: the weight of the whole machine is173g, and the thinnest part of the frame is 3.5mm. It can be said that it has the beauty of a blade and the side is quite beautiful. Unlike vision, the whole machine is quite round in your hand and needs craftsmanship.

Although many airframes have been designed with nominal surfaces before, the specific bending conditions are not consistent. Xiaomi 9' s back is designed with a full curved surface, claiming that it can't find any plane angle on the back, and it can completely fit the palm of your hand in time. Bending treatment on glass has always been a part of the technical challenge of manufacturers, and it has taken another step in Xiaomi 9.

Every place is a surface.

Color matching is another level that Xiaomi believes that Yan value can play. On the curved glass, Xiaomi finishes three layers (theoretically and technically, the actual coloring times will be more) spraying. First nano holographic pattern (similar to mirror silver coating), then primary color coating (blue or purple), and finally vacuum coating.

In our opinion, nano-holographic patterns that can produce a variety of mirror colors can better reflect the technical difficulty. Xiaomi carved a 65.438+0.7 billion nanometer grating in the back area of the mobile phone. With the optical brightening coating, the back of the mobile phone shows different colors under different light and angles, which is similar to our common anti-counterfeiting logo.

The principle is the same as ID card anti-counterfeiting.

Similarly, the nano-holographic pattern is also made of lens ring flash and all-sapphire glass covering three lenses. Technology and materials are very sincere.

Sapphire glass has a much larger lens area.

But good materials and good design can't be equated completely.

The Xiaomi 9 button is loose and collapsed (not sure if the production version is like this), and the transparent mirror treatment makes the fingerprint residue more obvious. These are minor problems. Premature exposure has improved product expectations, and now it has become a sense of gap. We can say that Mi 9 is very beautiful, and it can also be said to be the most cutting-edge millet phone, but the final face value can only be counted as eight points. Avoid pride, there is room for growth.

Turn over and look ahead. Because mobile phone manufacturers were very aggressive in face value last year, there is not much room for growth of various products in the first half of this year, especially at this time of the year.

Xiaomi has made several minor improvements to the current comprehensive experience. A 6.39-inch AMOLED water drop screen is used on the front, with a screen ratio of 19.5: 9. The new COF technology was used to package the chin to 3.6 mm, which Lei Jun said was the narrowest chin of the mobile phone within 3,999 yuan.

The chin is indeed smaller than many mobile phones of the same shape.

In terms of screen fingerprint, Mi 9 adopts the fifth-generation screen fingerprint technology, and its core is an off-screen sensing element similar to a macro camera: a single pixel of 5m, which can effectively suppress the influence of strong light, dry hands and low temperature scenes and increase the unlocking speed by 25%. At the same time, it also supports low brightness unlocking, and can also open fingerprint shortcut operation through system settings.

A complete lens is hidden under the screen, and the natural experience is better.

Specifically, it takes an average of 20 times for Mi 9 to record a fingerprint, which is a common industry standard. However, in terms of pressing force, Mi 9 can be unlocked almost without too much force, and it can enter the system with a light release, and the success rate is higher than that of ordinary on-screen fingerprints.

In addition, compared with several common screen fingerprint mobile phones, the unlocking speed of Mi 9 screen fingerprint has indeed improved a lot. The unlocking speed of one plus 6T fingerprint with good reputation is slightly slower than that of Mi 9; Compared with the dual-screen version of vivo NEX, which is the first to launch the off-screen fingerprint and has the best experience at present, Mi 9 performs quite well.

Snapdragon 855 has a bright performance, but it still has potential.

Xiaomi mobile phone is the first product of Qualcomm Xiaolong 800 chip every year since the third generation. This history has helped Mitzi mobile phones stand out from HTC and Samsung, and laid a foundation for people to understand Intel in Qualcomm mobile chips.

Even a few years later, other manufacturers came to snatch the crown of Snapdragon's chip release. This is the performance foundation of a flagship product and also the embodiment of a manufacturer's strength. A few days ago in Weibo, Lei Jun announced that Mi 9 would be equipped with Snapdragon 855, and also talked about why it was not good to start. Generally speaking, mobile phone chips are different from computer chips. There is no need to buy it and put it on the motherboard. On the contrary, manufacturers need to invest manpower and financial resources in R&D together with Qualcomm, which is the price of becoming the first.

Qualcomm and Xiaomi have a good revolutionary friendship.

Back to the product itself, Snapdragon 855 is the answer to the guess, and another guess is the improvement of performance. A picture released by Lei Jun Weibo shows this point with curves. Starting from Snapdragon 8 10, the increase of chip computing power is relatively gentle, while the line from Xiaolong 835 to Xiaolong 845 is steep.

Previously, Lei Jun had a picture in Weibo.

This is due to the Kryo 485 architecture and eight nuclear design (1 super core +3 large cores +4 small cores), and the CPU frequency is 2.84GHz, 2.42GHz and 1.8GHz respectively. Compared with 835' s Kryo 385 architecture (4 large cores +4 small cores), the performance of Snapdragon 855 is improved by 45%. In addition, the Adreno 640 GPU is integrated, and the performance is improved by 20% compared with the previous generation.

The Core Architecture of Snapdragon 855

The above is a pile of words, which may be difficult for ordinary users to understand. Let's take a look at the picture and explain it briefly:

About performance

At the room temperature of 20 degrees Celsius, 370,000 yuan is the highest peak of Android phones at present, and our evaluation machine is only the middle version of Mi 9 series (8+ 128GB).

Of course it's 9 102, and it won't just run away without a processor. This year's Snapdragon 855 has a built-in processor called Hexagon 690. Hexagon is actually the standard of Snapdragon's flagship chip. It used to be voice and audio amplification, but later it has more and more functions. Image processing, computer vision, camera and sensor signal processing all have their shadows.

This generation includes a newly designed hexagonal tensor accelerator and four hexagonal vector extension cores, which makes its performance twice that of the previous generation's flagship product vector extension core, and the new task is AI operation. Hexagon 690 also adds a four-thread scalar kernel, and the scalar operation performance is improved by 1.2 times compared with the previous generation.

Snapdragon still has no NPU (Neural Network Processor), which is different from Apple's A series and Huawei's Kirin chip. Qualcomm has always emphasized that AI engine, CPU, GPU and DSP work together. In fact, the tensor accelerator of hexagon 690 can be understood as NPU. /kloc-at the press conference in Hawaii in February, 2008, some media asked whether tensor accelerator could be regarded as NPU. If you can sell more chips in this way, you can call it that,' Qualcomm's spokesman said with a smile.

As for the practical application, the AI part is still not reflected much in this evaluation. Even if Ann Bunny develops a running score software, it can give it more than10.8 million points, but the significance of machine learning is that the optimization results are different from different people. For example, the increase in the number of cores can only show that it has good physical fitness, but whether it can become an athlete depends on the training the day after tomorrow. Need to find a concrete embodiment. Xiaomi's Mi Turbo and Game Turbo (referring to system 18 months' long-term use optimization and game optimization respectively) all have AI, learning the usage habits of most users and individual users and the calling rules of the software itself, making the hardware mobile more intelligent.

Specific to the game part, naturally we can't bypass the glory of the king's chicken-eating game.

Let's start with the glory of the king. When the multi-thread mode with high frame rate is turned on, the frame rate of the picture will be maintained at about 60 frames, and it will be reduced to 59 frames in the group war, and some scenes will exceed 60 frames, reaching 665,438+0 frames. After starting the practice mode, the frame rate of Xiaomi 9 can be maintained at around 59 frames. After 20 minutes of the game, the calorific value of the mobile phone is not large, which is within the acceptable range.

Real-time display effect of game turbine

Followed by "Survival of the Jedi: Stimulating the Battlefield", the picture quality of this game Xiaomi 9 can reach HDR HD, the frame number setting can reach super high, and the overall frame rate performance is acceptable. When parachuting, the ground screen loads faster, but when the angle of view changes, it will encounter the phenomenon of frame dropping, which will be a little stuck in a crowded environment, but it will not affect the normal operation of the game. There was a slight jam when three smoke bombs were released continuously. At the end of a game, the calorific value of the mobile phone was slightly higher than that of the glory of the king.

Judging from the stable frame rate and picture jam, the stability of Mi 9 is obviously higher than that of a group of Snapdragon 845 game phones last year. In other functions, the performance of GameTurbo is not limited to screen fluency. In the function part, it can adjust the screen touch parameters, such as the sensitivity of sliding and clicking, to create a better control experience for gamers.

Although it is not named as a game phone, the blessing of 855 makes it naturally one step ahead in this link.

Wireless charging finally came into the room.

In the past, charging before going to bed was the main scene of wireless fast charging, which was slow and hot, but it just liberated the cumbersome few seconds of plugging in before going to bed. This sentence is not only for Xiaomi, but the status quo of all smart phones.

Charging equipment family portrait set

Mi 9 subverts this concept. In terms of quantity, Xiaomi is ready in one breath: high-speed wireless seat charging, high-speed wireless car charging, and even wireless charging mobile power supply not only cover multiple charging scenarios, but more importantly, the charging efficiency has been significantly upgraded. The official said that 20 watts wireless charging can fully charge Mi -9 in one and a half hours (the body power is 3300 mAh), and the evaluation results are consistent with it. The efficiency has been faster than many wired ones.

According to the actual measurement, the output of the 20W wireless fast charging port of Mi9 is 15V- 1.5A, and the output power is 22.5W (considering the transmission loss, the mobile phone terminal will definitely be lower than this value), but after 15min, this value is stable at 14.5V-6550. Ten-minute charging capacity 14%, the fuselage is not hot.

Measured current and voltage data

Due to time, we didn't do electricity monitoring for a long time, but the existing data are basically similar to the official conclusion. Millet adopts multi-layer nanocrystalline structure, plus multi-strand winding technology and charge pump to reduce induced current and stabilize voltage.

In addition, in order to maintain long-term power stability, Xiaomi also added an active cooling fan to the charger, so the new wireless charging is thicker in size. After charging for more than ten minutes, you can hear a slight fan sound about 30 cm near it, but it is not enough to affect the daily experience.

About another high-speed wireless car charger, we have prepared another article. You can click here to jump and watch it.

Photographing: enough to wash away the outstanding performance of the brand.

I still remember the tangled feeling of holding Xiaomi MIX generation at first, which is that it is difficult to take pictures. Fortunately, Xiaomi MIX 3 made a beautiful turnaround last year. After this evaluation, Mi 9 can finally wash the photos of Xiaomi.

The lens quality is absolutely hard enough.

The Xiaomi 9 rear camera adopts Sony's 48 million super wide-angle macro AI three-camera combination. Among them, the main camera adopts 48 million Sony IMX586 flagship sensor, has a 1/2-inch outsole, and supports four-in-one 1.6m large pixels; The auxiliary lens includes12 million telephoto portrait lens, and a new16 million 120 degree ultra-wide-angle lens is added, which can support 4 cm ultra-close shooting. There is also a phase+laser hybrid focusing system, and the flagship has not been mentioned for many years. In addition to focusing faster, it also plays a role in adjusting the white balance of night metering.

Specific to the proof part, based on iPhone XS, four indoor scenes of low light, high contrast, macro and night scene are selected for comparison.

The left is for iPhone XS, and the right is for Mi 9.

The first is indoor low light, both of which are at the same level except the expressive force of lines and the control of brightness and noise in low light, while the glare suppression of apples is slightly better than half a point in high light.

In the high-contrast proofs, Xiaomi wins more, and has intuitive advantages in dark detail preservation, highlight color transition and overall sharpness. However, this set of comparative proofs shows that the color cast of Mi 9 is slightly obvious.

The picture above shows iPhone XS, and the picture below shows M 9.

Macro links have different concerns in the algorithm. After all, it is a physical objective fact that macro relies on AI for mobile phones. The macro of 4 cm makes the composition subject of Xiaomi more prominent, and the blurring of the inner edge of the focus is more accurate. Apple's blur in Jiao Wai is obviously more beautiful. Overall, the expressive force of iPhone XS is slightly better.

The top is Mi 9 and the bottom is iPhone XS.

In view of the fact that mobile phones generally have a hand-held night scene mode and a normal mode, night shooting is also a consistent difficulty for mobile phones, so the night shooting part needs more space.

The first is the ordinary camera mode, which is highly consistent in noise control, metering and color temperature, and overall exposure. Even if the two are mixed together now, it is completely difficult to distinguish from the above aspects.

The only difference is highlight suppression (that is, whether the brightest lamp will be overexposed).

Although the overall exposure of Mi 9 and the brightness of most neon lights are the same as those of Apple, there will be obvious glare and overexposure in one or two points of the brightest picture.

Turn on the hand-held night scene for Mi 9 from left to right.

Mi 9 didn't open the hand-held night scene and iPhone XS shooting.

In the super night scene, the holding time of Mi 9 is about two seconds, so it is not too difficult to use hands outdoors in winter. Compared with iPhone XS, both highlights and dark details have been significantly improved, which is also the shortcoming of Apple's night shooting.

In addition, Mi -9' s hand-held night shot will also have traces of algorithm-the picture is slightly oily, but it can handle the drag of high-speed objects well and reduce the afterimage of people better.

In the hand-held state, the edge of the building has a slight sense of oil painting, and the shadow is not obvious when walking.

In addition, Xiaomi also prepared a smart slimming selfie that can take into account the surrounding background; Adjust the parameters with AI, zoom in with telephoto lens, and realize the lunar shooting mode with 20 times zoom; And the video following of the moving subject and other functions similar to the Yuntai experience. However, due to the firmware update problem of the evaluation machine, these functions have not been experienced yet.

More 9-meter proofs list

More 9-meter proofs list

More 9-meter proofs list

In short, if you want to buy a photographed flagship machine, Xiaomi has been on your shopping list since last year's MIX3; Now Mi 9 has steadily improved and finally reached the master level of mobile phone photography.

Some small details that can be typed.

First, the dark system

AMOLED is more energy-saving because of its luminous characteristics in black, so the dark system is destined to become a must after the popularization of a screen. The measured black color not only saves energy, but also makes the visual effect more comfortable at night. As for how much the actual power consumption will be saved, it is actually a difficult problem to control. After all, users will stay in the application for a longer time, which has little to do with simple system color matching.

Second, the new audio system.

Mi-9 is known as the best Xiaomi mobile phone with the best external effect so far because of SLS superlinear unit speaker and high-voltage intelligent PA power amplifier. This function didn't get much attention in the previous evaluation, but when I woke up Xiao Ai's classmates at home occasionally that day, the sound quality and sound size of the mobile phone were not much worse than the mini speaker, which was very impressive. In daily movies and games, this advantage is also reflected, and the sound performance of Mi 9 will be more three-dimensional.

Evaluation summary

Taking photos, performance, charging and discharging, and playing games, from the above perspectives, Mi 9 can naturally be called this title. Coupled with a better speaker system, the best NFC read-write card expansion function, MIUI AI voice, dual-frequency GPS, and Mi 9, it can be called a flagship mobile phone that can be played in all directions. The official claim that this phone contains the improvement of 1 18, in order to change Xiaomi from the original cost-effective flagship to the all-around flagship.

As for the open topic of Yan value, this mobile phone is sincere enough in technology, but it is the best-looking Xiaomi mobile phone. I think there is still a lot of room for the next generation.