Attack of domestic smartphones From imaging to gaming, the core world is expanding.

The Domestic Smartphone Onslaught From Imaging to Gaming, Expanding the Core World

【Mobile China】Smartphones are symbols and necessities of the modern age. They connect people with each other, the world, and the future. In this field, domestic smartphones were once seen as low-end, cheap, and knock-off products, while foreign brands dominated the high-end, expensive, and innovative market.

However, in recent years, with the relentless efforts and constant innovations of domestic smartphone manufacturers, this situation is undergoing a revolutionary change. Domestic smartphones are not only gradually shedding the label of being low-end and cheap, but they have also achieved great success in the domestic market. With their impressive overall strength and affordable prices, they have also demonstrated strong competitiveness in the international market. Domestic smartphones are able to achieve a dual advantage in terms of quality and price, not only because of the efforts of domestic manufacturers but also due to the support of an increasingly mature domestic supply chain.

There was a time when many domestic smartphone manufacturers liked to promote Samsung screens as an important selling point of their phones, because Samsung was the industry benchmark and an indisputable king. However, in recent years, with the rise of domestic screen suppliers such as BOE and Huaxing Optoelectronics, the spotlight at the phone launch events has also shifted to domestic screens. The same situation has occurred with phone glass. Corning Gorilla Glass, which used to dominate the flagship phone market, has lost ground in competition with domestic phone glass. Huawei’s Kunpeng Glass is the most famous representative of this trend.

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If screens and glass are not representative enough, the domestication process of high-precision components like phone CMOS sensors and chips can better represent the direction of domestication for smartphone parts. Even if we don’t consider the rejuvenated Kirin chips, there have been many domestic self-developed chips appearing in charging, gaming, and imaging chips. In the field of phone CMOS sensors, Hoiwave, which used to only assist Sony, has also started to make a name for itself and become a new choice for more and more domestic flagship phones. As for less eye-catching components like phone motors and speakers, they can be considered the self-reserved territory of domestic manufacturers. Nowadays, most of the motors and speakers in domestic smartphones are almost entirely produced by a company called AAC Technologies.

The rapid development of domestic smartphones cannot be achieved without the help and support of these domestic supply chains. In the current intensifying international tech competition, the domestication of smartphone parts is an important issue that smartphone manufacturers must address. This time, Mobile China will focus on the topic of “The Rise of Domestic Smartphones” and describe the current development status of domestic smartphones. This article specifically focuses on “self-developed chips by domestic smartphone manufacturers”.

Self-developed chips can also be understood as “high-endization of smartphone brands”. Huawei, Samsung, and Apple’s high-endization also rely on self-developed chips. Huawei’s Kirin series chips, Samsung’s Exynos chips, and Apple’s A-series chips have achieved their current results through the test of time. In addition to Huawei, other domestic mobile phone manufacturers have also begun to invest in chip peripherals, such as Xiaomi’s fast charging chip “Surge series” and Vivo’s imaging chip “V3”, etc.

Many top domestic mobile phone manufacturers have self-developed chips, and Vivo may not be the earliest, but it has been moving steadily.

In September 2021, Vivo launched its first self-developed professional imaging chip named “V1”. The V1 chip is an ISP chip and was first used in the Vivo X70 series. In April 2022, Vivo released the second generation of dual-core flagship self-developed chip, V1+, which was used in Vivo X80 series smartphones. In November of the same year, Vivo released a new generation of V2 imaging chip, which adopted the AI-ISP architecture. This chip is used in many flagship models of Vivo, such as Vivo X90 series, X Fold2, and iQOO 11 series.

After several months, Vivo has achieved good results with its self-developed chips. On July 30th this year, Vivo launched the new 6nm process self-developed imaging chip V3, which, together with the multi-concurrent AI sensing ISP architecture and the second-generation FIT interconnect system, has a 30% improvement in energy efficiency and supports 4K movie portrait mode.

Not only that, recent news suggests that iQOO will launch its first self-developed discrete graphics chip and integrate it into the next-generation flagship products, making it the first sub-brand to have a self-developed discrete graphics chip. It will bring stronger super-resolution and super-frame capabilities, comprehensively improving game and video display effects.

A clear characteristic of Vivo’s chip development is its focus on imaging and gaming chips, rather than choosing to develop SoCs for smartphones. On the one hand, of course, it is because SoCs are difficult, but on the other hand, it is also because, under the premise of huge investment, it is difficult for Vivo to form differentiated competitiveness in self-developed SoCs. Therefore, Vivo’s self-developed chip strategy is gradually progressing.

For Vivo, it has already taken an important step in the self-developed chip road, focusing on image and game chips that have differentiated experiences and match the market without touching high investment, high difficulty, and high barriers SoC chips. From the market feedback, it has achieved remarkable results.

Unlike Vivo, Xiaomi revealed its intention to develop its own chips very early on. In October 2014, Xiaomi established its wholly-owned subsidiary Beijing Songguo Electronics and officially entered the mobile chip field. After years of preliminary design, tape-out, back-end, chip selection, and mass production, Xiaomi finally successfully launched its first self-developed chip, the Surge S1. This milestone achievement marks Xiaomi’s solid step in the chip field.

The Surge S1 adopts an 8-core 64-bit architecture with a maximum frequency of 2.2GHz and uses the Mali-T860 GPU. As the fourth company in the world that can simultaneously develop chips and smartphones, Xiaomi has demonstrated strong strength and innovation capabilities in self-developed SoC chips. However, after the launch of the Surge S1, Xiaomi did not continue to develop self-developed SoC chips. It wasn’t until March 2021 that Xiaomi launched its second chip, the self-developed image chip Surge C1, which debuted on the MIX FOLD. The development of this chip lasted for two years and invested nearly 140 million yuan.

In December 2021, Xiaomi introduced its self-developed Xiaomi Surge P1 charging management chip, which is equipped on the Xiaomi 12 series. This chip became the industry’s first resonant charging chip at that time. Xiaomi stated that the development of this chip took 18 months and cooperation from four major R&D centers, with a total investment of over 100 million yuan.

In July 2022, Xiaomi released the Surge G1 battery management chip, which debuted on the Xiaomi 12S Ultra. This chip, combined with Surge P1, forms the “Xiaomi Surge Battery Management System,” which extends battery life while significantly improving charging efficiency.

In April 2023, Xiaomi once again used the Surge P2 charging chip and the Xiaomi Surge G1 chip to form a battery management system for the Xiaomi 13 Ultra. According to reports, even with only 1% battery remaining, the Xiaomi 13 Ultra can still stand by for 60 minutes and make calls for 12 minutes in emergency power-saving mode.

We can see that Xiaomi’s pace in developing its own chips is similar to Vivo’s, but there are some differences. This is because Xiaomi tried to develop its own smartphone SoC chips early on and has experience in this area. That’s why Phone China says Xiaomi is prepared for a “prolonged battle” in the field of self-developed chips.

When it comes to self-developed chips, we can’t ignore two other Chinese smartphone manufacturers: Huawei and OPPO. In 2004, Huawei established its wholly-owned subsidiary Hisilicon (also known as “Huawei Hisilicon”), which started with digital security chips. It was not until 2009, when they launched their first product, the K3V1 chip, that they began their long exploration into smartphone chips. Hisilicon can be said to have been “ten years in the making”. In 2013, Hisilicon released its first smartphone SoC chip, named Kirin 910, which laid the foundation for Huawei’s entrance onto the world stage.

In Huawei’s latest Mate60 series, they have introduced a brand-new Kirin chip. Statistics show that Hisilicon has launched Kirin 920, 925, 928, 930, 935, 950, 960, 970, 980, as well as mid-range chips like 620, 650, 710, and 810.

Many people believe that OPPO will not release its own chips anymore, but that’s not true. Recently, JD.com held a new product launch event and announced that they had produced their one billionth OLED screen, along with introducing the X1 display screen (Oriental Screen) in collaboration with OnePlus and OPPO.

In addition to the Oriental Screen being a major highlight of this event, there is another significant achievement: the “Oriental Screen” is equipped with OPPO’s self-developed first-generation display chip called “Display P1”. This chip, when combined with the screen, achieves top-level display performance worldwide. The release of Display P1 display chip also indicates that OPPO has not given up on the path of self-developed chips.

Developing chips has never been a simple task. Starting from a small field and doing difficult but right things is like our continuous process of learning and improvement. However, we firmly believe that with the continuous integration and innovation of the industry, the future development of the Chinese chip industry will be more prosperous and sustainable, and will surely usher in a “chip” world.

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