Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 322 S15MAX, a sci-fi phone

At the press conference, on the stage, Xu Shenxue used the remote control in his hand to play pictures on the big screen behind him.

As the picture appeared on the big screen, Xu Shenxue continued:
"Since the advent of smartphones, mobile phones have become an important daily tool for people. People use smartphones to contact family, friends and work partners through text messages, emails and social communication tools!"

"At the same time, mobile phones have become an indispensable tool in our daily lives, such as taking photos, videos, browsing various online information and even doing office work."

“This also means that a lot of our personal information is stored in the mobile phone!”

"How to ensure the security of personal data in mobile phones has always been the focus of our R&D work!"

"From the operating system to the various restrictions on APP permissions, they are all for security!"

"However, the most important security measure is still to set a password on our mobile phone!"

"From the C1 phone to the S9 phone, our Zhiyun phones use a password unlocking solution."

"But mobile phones are frequently used tools, just like people's hands and feet. Every time you open your phone, you have to enter a password, which means you have to enter the password dozens of times or even more every day!"

"So at that time, we found that many people did not set passwords when using their mobile phones!"

"In order to protect the user's data security and make it easier for users to use their phones, we have developed a press-type fingerprint recognition technology. While fingerprint recognition technology ensures data security, it also greatly saves people from the trouble of frequently entering passwords!"

"Today, all Zhiyun mobile phone series have adopted fingerprint unlocking solutions, which has brought a lot of convenience to users!"

"However... now, a new problem has arisen!"

"In order to meet the needs of more extensive reading, watching movies and TV shows, and working on the go, our mobile phones need a larger screen. For this reason, we tried to use a full screen!"

"Yes, when the size of mobile phones cannot be increased significantly, the only way to further increase the screen size is to use a full screen!"

"When using a full screen, a new problem arises: there is nowhere to put our front fingerprint recognition!"

"Should we sacrifice the overall aesthetics and strength of the phone and put the fingerprint module on the back of the phone? Or should we sacrifice the recognition accuracy and make it a fingerprint button on the side?"

"No, we Zhiyun will never use these compromise solutions!"

"If we Zhiyun want to do it, we must do it to the extreme!"

"This is the basic concept of our Zhiyun in developing new products. We will never accept any compromise!"

"We also tried two under-screen fingerprint solutions, but found that the results were not ideal. The optical under-screen fingerprint solution was not secure enough, which could not guarantee the security of user data; the ultrasonic under-screen fingerprint solution had a slow response speed, and users felt sluggish when using it!"

"Both of these under-screen fingerprint recognition solutions have certain limitations and cannot meet our ultimate requirements for mobile phone security and ease of use!"

"We also tried to use a camera to create a 2D face recognition solution, but the security of this technical solution is still not guaranteed. The system can easily be deceived by the user's photo and then unlocked!"

"None of the above three technical solutions are what we want!"

"What should I do now?"

"My engineering team gave me a brand new, groundbreaking solution that has never been used before, and no one has even thought of it before: 3D facial recognition!"

"It is different from the conventional 2D face recognition, which is to use the camera to directly perform face recognition. It is a system integrated by multiple sensors!"

As Xu Shenxue spoke, a 3D facial recognition sensor module appeared on the large screen behind him.

"The entire system consists of an ambient light sensor, a distance sensor, an infrared sensor, a floodlight sensor, an infrared camera, a front camera, and a dot projector."

"So why do we put so many sensors on it?"

"It's very simple. It scans and recognizes the three-dimensional information of the user's face!"

A schematic diagram of 3D facial recognition began to appear on the large screen next to him. The dot matrix projector began to project tens of thousands of light spots, which were then recognized by the sensor and finally formed a three-dimensional image of a human face!

Xu Shenxue continued at this time: "By taking a three-dimensional image of the user's face, our system can accurately and efficiently identify it and then complete operations such as unlocking!"

"Most importantly, its security is fifty times higher than traditional fingerprint recognition!"

"Because it collects three-dimensional images, whether it is photos or videos, it is impossible to affect the recognition of this system!"

“This is an identification system that perfectly meets our security needs!”

"And it is not only safe, but also convenient enough, more convenient than fingerprint recognition!"

“Users just need to pick up the phone and it will automatically recognize and unlock it!”

“It’s fast and convenient, doesn’t require any extra operations from the user, and doesn’t feel any noticeable lag.”

“Just pick it up and use it!”

As Xu Shenxue began to introduce this 3D facial recognition, everyone at the press conference was stunned.

Especially those friendly competitors who also make mobile phones, they all looked incredulous.

The president of LG's China region murmured, "This is impossible... This is impossible!"

Not far away was the head of Sixing's smart terminals, who also widened his eyes. "Aren't they working on under-screen ultrasonic fingerprint recognition just like us? We have also cross-licensed the technical patents for under-screen ultrasonic fingerprint recognition technology. Why didn't they use it, but instead used this 3D facial recognition and something else?"

"How did they come up with this 3D facial recognition? Didn't the technical department say that this technology route is not feasible?"

Further away was a vice president sent by the fruit company. This middle-aged white man also had a serious expression on his face.

As a senior manager of Fruit, he knows some of Fruit's own technology research and development projects. 3D facial recognition is Fruit's main research and development project in the past two years. For this purpose, it has successively acquired a number of startups to accumulate technology and lay out patents.

At the same time, he also knew that Zhiyun was also conducting research and development of 3D facial recognition technology.

In fact, when Zhiyun and Guoguo are making some cutting-edge technology layouts, they will acquire some startups, acquire technologies, and apply for patents. As each other's core competitors, they are paying attention to each other every day, so once the other party has any intentions, the other party will know some news to some extent.

Therefore, in terms of fruit, we have actually known for a long time that Zhiyun has project research on 3D facial recognition technology.

However, they did not expect that Zhiyun would make such rapid progress in 3D facial recognition technology that it was put into practical use this year. This is much faster than the progress of their fruit project.

Their fruit 3D face recognition project is expected to produce preliminary module samples next year, and large-scale practical applications may have to wait until two years later.

Why is Zhiyun advancing research and development so quickly?
No one could give him the answer, so he could only look shocked, then thoughtful.

As for other domestic mobile phone manufacturers, they were shocked and envious at the same time... Zhiyun's strength is obvious to all, and they have never expected to be able to keep up with Zhiyun's technological progress.

What they are thinking about now is whether this 3D facial recognition technology can catch up quickly?
If it is not possible to follow up quickly, are there any other technologies that can replace it?

Compared to the shock, deep thought and worry of the CEOs and vice presidents in the mobile phone industry, people in other industries, especially those in the news media industry or technology enthusiasts, were simply surprised and delighted.

Chen Duolin couldn't wait to say to the camera of the live broadcast phone: "Brothers, did you hear it? Did you see it? 3D face recognition, black technology. I am worthy of being my big Zhiyun. I am always ahead of others. This 3D face recognition technology sounds awesome!"

"Their Zhiyun S series of mobile phones are becoming more and more sci-fi!"

A group of netizens in the live broadcast room were also making a fuss about all kinds of things, followed by a series of slogans like "awesome" and "great".

The same situation also occurred in the live broadcast rooms of other channels. In the official live broadcast room of Bilibili's platform, the comments posted by netizens almost flooded the entire live broadcast room, with all kinds of slogans such as "awesome" and "shocking".

"This year, Zhiyun has come up with another big hit: 3D facial recognition, a technology that we never thought of before, can actually be used on mobile phones!"

"Looking at this 3D face recognition, I suddenly feel that the S14 Pro I bought at the beginning of the year is not so good anymore!"

“I just don’t know if this 3D facial recognition will be available on the entire series, or only on high-end models?”

"Don't expect it to be installed on the entire series. This thing looks very expensive. According to Zhiyun's nature, it will definitely only be used on high-end models!"

"Just like the previous dual cameras and large-size retina display, they were first used in the Pro model and then popularized to the standard version this year!"

"This 3D facial recognition module looks huge. How can it be put into a phone? Do I need to leave a large space on the top of the phone?"

Soon, the netizens' questions were answered.

At the press conference, Xu Shenxue introduced the 3D face recognition technology and then began to say: "With this 3D face recognition system, we can solve the recognition and unlocking problems caused by the full-screen application!"

"This is how we got our groundbreaking full-screen mobile phone!"

"Friends, please allow me to introduce the new member of our Zhiyun S series of mobile phones: S15MAX!"

Then, a 15D image of the S3MAX appeared on the large screen behind him. The image was still rotating slowly, allowing people to see the details of the front, back, left and right parts clearly.

Xu Shenxue said at this time: "Next, I will demonstrate the key technology of the S15MAX mobile phone, the use of 3D face recognition."

At this time, the 3D image on the big screen disappeared, and then a high-definition camera was aimed at Xu Shenxue, and then the picture was presented on the big screen so that thousands of spectators on the scene and even netizens watching the live broadcast outside and TV viewers could see it clearly.

Xu Shenxue took out a black mobile phone from his pocket, and the moment he raised the phone, the screen automatically lit up and the lock screen appeared.

Many mobile phones nowadays can have the simple raise-to-wake function, but only Zhiyun phones can do it so smoothly.

This involves the calling of gravity sensors and the optimization of algorithms.

It looks like a simple function, but it actually has quite high technical content!
The screen lights up and the lock interface appears. At the same time, a small unlock circle pattern appears at the top of the screen. This pattern stays for a very short time, just flashing by, and then the phone screen is unlocked successfully.

Xu Shenxue slid his finger lightly upwards on the screen, the frequency lock interface disappeared, and the main interface of the phone appeared.

"The whole process does not require any extra actions from the user. Just pick up the phone and it will be automatically unlocked successfully!"

“The whole process is so fast that you can’t even feel it!”

"In order to remind users that the unlocking has been successful, we even put a small icon to show that the unlocking has been successful!"

"Because it unlocks so quickly, so quickly that people will ignore it!"

"Now, let me demonstrate it a few more times to each of you!"

Xu Shenxue used the side power button to turn off the screen of the phone, then turned the phone over... After turning the phone over, the screen automatically lit up and prompted that the unlocking was successful.

Not sluggish at all.

After demonstrating it several times, Xu Shenxue said: "As you can see, the convenience of using 3D face recognition exceeds any other unlocking solution."

"This convenient unlocking solution is more than fifty times more secure than traditional fingerprint recognition solutions!"

"Convenient and safe, this is our 3D face recognition system!"

At this time, the 3D face recognition demonstration animation appeared again on the big screen behind him. Its dot matrix projector projected tens of thousands of light spots, which then formed a three-dimensional pattern demonstration, which made people feel grand and advanced.

“It’s definitely black technology!”

"S15MAX, this is definitely a sci-fi phone!"

"What the hell are these Zhiyun engineers thinking? How can they put something like this into a phone?"

"If this thing is placed in other fields and made into a large piece, then I can accept it, but this is a mobile phone!"

"They were able to cram so many sensors into such a small space, and they were able to make the sensors so small!"

Countless netizens have expressed their amazement on many live streaming platforms. "But did you notice that the S15MAX screen seems to be missing a piece? Look, there is a concave blank space on it!"

"It feels like... Don't get me wrong, I like Zhiyun very much. I'm just expressing my personal feelings. This notched screen looks a bit weird!"

Not only netizens, but also many audiences at the scene, especially those friendly competitors, have already noticed the special appearance of this S15MAX mobile phone at a glance.

Its screen is not a regular screen, but an irregular screen with a concave notch on the top.

Of course, industry insiders can basically understand why Zhiyun wants to develop this kind of special-shaped screen with just a little thought, because the 3D face recognition module is too large and has too many sensors.

There are only two feasible solutions left. Either leave a blank space on the top to accommodate so many sensors, but this will conflict with the full screen... If a large space is left on the top, then for the sake of symmetry, it is better to leave one at the bottom... Since there is space at the bottom, it will be easy to put in a front fingerprint recognition.

But in this case, there is not much difference between this and the existing front-facing fingerprint recognition phones.

There’s no need for 3D facial recognition.

Obviously, Zhiyun's engineers chose the second option, which is to dig out a concave screen on the top of the screen and arrange a large number of sensors in this concave position.

Apple, Samsung, and Huawei, which has developed its own mobile phone SOC and communication baseband and has a good technical foundation in all aspects, are all thinking about this design. They are wondering if they will also do the same after their mobile phones use 3D face recognition. Are there any other better solutions?

However, other mobile phone manufacturers do not have so many ideas. When it comes to 3D face recognition, just by hearing the name, you know that it is not something they can copy now. Even if they want to copy it, they will probably have to wait for a long time. They need to wait for the emergence of supporting manufacturers that supply 3D face recognition technology to the market before they can follow suit.

After all, they are all assembly plants. It is not realistic to ask them to develop such core parts technology by themselves. They don't have that ability.

But isn’t it time to take advantage of the popularity of the S15MAX?
No matter how this phone is evaluated now, whether it is ugly or not, the key is that this phone is made by Zhiyun, and coupled with 3D face recognition technology, it is destined to make this phone popular all over the world, and at least it will cause a new wave.

Therefore, the popularity is definitely there, and they must catch up quickly to take advantage of it.

So what can they copy now?
Of course it’s the appearance of this new phone!

And what is the most obvious feature of this appearance?
It’s not 3D facial recognition. It’s hidden inside the phone and can’t be seen at a glance.

The most obvious feature is this concave screen!

Many CEOs of mobile phone manufacturers at the scene have been thinking about developing a mobile phone with a similar concave screen to catch up with the market trend.

It doesn’t matter if there is no 3D face recognition. We can arrange 2D face recognition later. This technology is not difficult, but we can still do it with some effort.

The concave screen plus a 2D face recognition makes it a full-screen mobile phone!

This seems to be a way?
As for fingerprint recognition, you can use rear-mounted or side-button fingerprint recognition.

If it is a mid-to-low-end model, you may not need fingerprint recognition at all, which can save costs.

Many CEOs and vice presidents of mobile phone manufacturers present at the scene were all smart people, and it didn’t take long for them to come up with ideas in their minds.

At the scene, Xu Shenxue also began to introduce the appearance of S15MAX, and briefly talked about the concave screen... After all, this is not a selling point, but a helpless choice, so I won’t say much.

In fact, Xu Shenxue also has a better solution, such as making the notch of the screen into a capsule shape, and then adding a small component function to utilize it, so as to reduce the visual defects of the screen notch as much as possible.

It is the Warwick in the original time and space and the smart island of the fruit phone.

But when it comes to making mobile phones... you can’t release all the good stuff out there all at once.

Squeeze the toothpaste slowly!

This year we released the Spirit Island, what will we do next year? What will we do the year after?
The Zhiyun S series of mobile phones releases a new generation every year. You cannot use all the innovations in one year and then just go around in circles in the next few years. This will seriously affect sales and even reputation.

The best way is to upgrade every year, continue to innovate, attract consumers' attention, and stimulate consumers to replace their phones.

There has been no change for several years, so consumers have no motivation to replace their old phones... Anyway, the performance of Zhiyun phones is very good, and the system has a mode that kills background processes. The S series flagship phone will not lag even after three or four years of use.

Even now, many people are still using Zhiyun's earliest S9 mobile phone, and there are still many existing users of S10.

How to get existing users of old mobile phones to replace their phones is a big question and also an important measure to maintain mobile phone sales.

Especially when the mobile phone market has developed to its current level and has entered the stock market, stimulating users to replace their mobile phones has become an important means to maintain sales.

Many analysis agencies believe that the smartphone market will usher in an unprecedented super explosion this year, especially the large-scale popularization of low-end mobile phones, which will make smartphone shipments exceed 1.5 billion.

But… this will be a culmination.

After reaching the shipment volume of 1.5 billion, it is unlikely to see a large-scale increase in the future. It may even be difficult to maintain the shipment volume of 1.5 billion. Some institutions, especially the analysis agencies within Zhiyun Group, believe that the global smartphone market will experience a slow decline in the next few years.

After all, the world's population is limited, and the number of smartphone consumers is also limited. Most consumers do not change their phones every year, but often only every few years.

In the future, the new market capacity for smartphones may go to regions such as India and Africa, but the new capacity in these markets cannot offset the decline in capacity in major mobile phone markets.

Under this market environment, Xu Shenxue naturally needs to take some targeted measures, such as continuing to maintain a certain degree of innovation every year by squeezing toothpaste to stimulate existing users and users of other brands of mobile phones to replace their old phones with new ones.

Otherwise, if Zhiyun mobile phone sales drop significantly, the impact will be too great.

Millions of employed people and their families rely on Zhiyun phones for their livelihood!
Xu Shenxue has to be cautious!
Therefore, although the notch screen does not look good, for the sake of the product's life cycle, Xu Shenxue still chose to use it and did not adopt the better Smart Island mode.

Because the notch screen is not easy to praise, Xu Shenxue focused more on praising the screen itself.

"In order to meet users' needs for large screens for reading, watching movies, playing games, working, etc., we chose a six-inch OLED large screen!"

"This screen has the best reality effect ever, the screen display is detailed and high-definition, and the color performance is excellent!"

"Compared with traditional mobile phone screens, it is thinner, lighter, more power-efficient, more responsive and has better display effects."

"Our OLED screen also has an interesting effect. Due to the special active light emission of OLED, our screen can display black more purely... because we can simply turn off the light source in the area that needs to display black."

"Using this six-inch OLED ultra-high-definition screen can also make our mobile phone have better battery life performance, because this kind of screen is more power-saving!"

"The OLED screen is very thin and light, which can save us more space in the fuselage. We can then place more components inside the fuselage and add a larger battery, which can further improve the performance of our entire S15MAX."

"There have been significant increases in performance, heat dissipation, battery life, and other aspects!"

Xu Shenxue praised the OLED screen a lot on the stage, which made the Four Star staff in the audience and even the Four Star staff watching the live broadcast in South Korea feel deeply moved.

When it comes to large-scale application of OLED screens, Samsung was the first. They have been using OLED screens since the first generation of Galaxy phones.

But unfortunately, it didn't cause any waves.

Because 4-Star’s influence is not enough, the sales of their Galaxy phones are also limited.

Many people even generally believe that their 4-star OLED screen is not as good as the LCD screen used by Fruit and Zhiyun... Although this was true in the early days, their OLED screens have actually done very well later on, but still no one thinks how good their screens are.

In order to further promote OLED screens and avoid wasting its huge investment in the OLED screen field, Sikao finally chose to cooperate with Zhiyun and injected some of its own OLED screen technology into Huaxing Technology.

Huaxing Technology combined the OLED screen technology provided by Sixin with some of its own OLED technology, and then innovated to develop OLED screen technology that is unique to Huaxing Technology.

In other words, the six-inch screen currently used on the S15MAX is actually technically superior to Samsung's self-developed OLED screen.

It is foreseeable that as the S15MAX phone is launched on the market, there will be a big discussion about OLED screens around the world.

But the protagonist of the discussion is not Sixing, but Zhiyun!

This situation made the four-star people feel helpless... They were the ones who did it first, but why was it Zhiyun who was greeted with applause in the end?

However, despite their helplessness, they still very much hope that Zhiyun's S15MAX can be successful, especially the OLED screen on it can be well received.

On the one hand, they also own shares in Huaxing Technology and can obtain part of the profits from it.

On the other hand, with Zhiyun taking the lead in using OLED screens, their four-star OLED screens will be able to open up sales.

For example, Apple has been in contact with Four Star to discuss the use of OLED screens, but Apple has been slow to make up its mind, leaving Four Star with nothing to do but watching this big customer drool.

Now that Zhiyun is taking the lead, do you want your fruit to follow suit?

As long as Apple follows suit, their four-star screen business will be able to welcome a super big customer, which is beautiful to think about...

The same goes for other mobile phone manufacturers. When you make flagship phones in the future, do you want to follow suit and use OLED screens?

If you want to follow up and use it, in the current mobile phone screen market, only our Sixing and Zhiyun's Huaxing Technology can provide mature and available high-end OLED screens. Even if some manufacturers choose to use Huaxing Technology's OLED screens, in order to reduce supply chain risks and improve bargaining power, you have to purchase a batch of OLED screens from us Sixing!
Don’t tell me you don’t even know the 28 supply chain security principles!
As long as the OLED screen market is boosted, then no matter what, the four stars will be able to take a big piece of the pie!

Xu Shenxue boasted about his own OLED screen on the stage, while people from other mobile phone manufacturers had their own ideas.

After praising the screen for a long time, Xu Shenxue began to introduce other features of the S15MAX phone.

For example, the rear glass cover continues to be used, and it is emphasized that this year's glass cover has undergone a technical upgrade, with its strength increased by 30%.

While using glass cover technology, wireless charging technology is naturally also used!
It is also an upgraded wireless charging technology, which charges faster and safer, and supports the upgraded QI protocol and Zhiyun's self-developed wireless charging protocol.

Then the new camera module was introduced, which uses a Sony CMOS with higher pixels, supports 2000W pixel cameras, supports optical image stabilization, dual-color temperature fill light, larger aperture, etc.

Twenty million pixels is already a top-notch level for flagship phones these days, and there is no need for anything better.

Other fruit companies are still using 12-megapixel cameras.

In addition to hardware, what is more important for taking photos is the optimization of the photo algorithm, and this aspect has always been Zhiyun's strong point.

We did our own research and development in the early years, and then recruited a lot of technical talents from the declining Nouya. We had already developed a very good photo-taking algorithm a long time ago.

In the field of smartphone photography and even videography, the Zhiyun S series of mobile phones are the undisputed number one, and any fruit or four-star ratings have to take a back seat.

Even many professionals use Zhiyun phones to take photos or videos, such as the mobile phone live streaming industry that has become popular this year.

Almost all of those anchors use Zhiyun S series phones!

The reason is simple: the photography function of the Zhiyun S series mobile phones is awesome enough!
After introducing many upgrades and new features.

Xu Shenxue said: "The core of a mobile phone is undoubtedly its SoC. A powerful SoC is the foundation that supports the performance of the entire mobile phone."

"And our Zhiyun S series SOC has always been top-notch, and this year is no exception!"

"We have adopted the latest S15 chip in the entire series of S603 phones this year!"

"This is the first mobile phone SOC chip produced using 14-nanometer technology in the world, and it will be the only one for a long time!"

"The S603, produced using a 503-nanometer process, has an astonishing billion transistors. The number of transistors has increased by percent compared to last year's S!"

“The overall performance improvement, especially the CPU improvement, is more than 50 percent.”

"The GPU improvement is more than 60%!"

"This year, our S603 can still arrogantly say: Suppress all disobedience!"

"No mobile phone SOC chip can reach the level of our S603 chip. Even in the next year, or even in the next two years, there will be no competitor!"

“It is undoubtedly the most powerful SoC for mobile phones!”

(End of this chapter)