Every year and the beginning of the year, it is time for manufacturers to announce new products, and now it is no exception. Since the end of 2017, major manufacturers have begun to release new products intensively, hoping that these products with new functions and designs can attract users and increase revenue in the new year. In today's most popular smart mobile device market, when we focus on its core SoC industry, we can see that several major mainstream manufacturers in the world, including Qualcomm, Samsung, MediaTek , Huawei , and Huawei have all had new actions, and have also displayed and launched many new products. Next, let’s take a look at these new products and what changes they will bring to the market in 2018.
Not long after the beginning of 2018, we can find that the mobile SoC industry is not as fierce as it was a few years ago. As the market gradually becomes stereotyped and mature, there are only a few manufacturers qualified to enter this field to share their share - Qualcomm, Samsung, Huawei, MediaTek and the Intel , which seems to be continuing to launch new products. The products of these five major manufacturers have basically laid the foundation for the performance and development direction of smartphones in the next period of time.
Qualcomm: What is the purpose of Snapdragon 700 series?
As the de facto overlord of the smartphone industry and the mobile market, Qualcomm's every move in the mobile product industry has attracted great attention. Following the official release of the Snapdragon 845 processor in December 2017, Qualcomm once again announced a brand new product line - the Snapdragon 700 series at this year's MWC 2018.
▲It is quite surprising that the appearance of the Snapdragon 700 series is
This is quite unexpected news, and no rumor was circulated before the press conference. Moreover, from the current Qualcomm product line, from the entry-level Snapdragon 00 to the mid-to-low-end Snapdragon 400, to the mid-to-mid-end Snapdragon 600, and the flagship model Snapdragon 800, this is a quite unexpected
information, and there was no rumor before the press conference. Moreover, from the current Qualcomm product line, the entire effort has been made from the entry-level Snapdragon 200 to the mid-to-low-end Snapdragon 400, to the mid-to-mid-end Snapdragon 600, and the flagship model Snapdragon 800.
Market changes promote product model upgrade
Qualcomm's early products did not have such clear brand logic, but used a large number of numbers to define the product. For example, the familiar MSM8997 is the product code of Snapdragon 835. After Qualcomm confirmed its mobile chip brand as "Snapdragon" in 2012, it once launched a rating for the Snapdragon product level. At that time, S was used as the abbreviation of "Snapdragon", and added numbers afterwards, such as Snapdragon S1, S2, S3, and S4, and the highest level is the S4 level. However, this naming method was quickly deprecated, and Qualcomm then launched a three-digit naming method that continues to this day, with all the first digits using even arithmetic sequences. After
used three-digit numbers to determine the model, Qualcomm's product line stabilized. In Qualcomm's definition, the Snapdragon 800 series is a flagship product, with only one or at most two models each year. It is a top-level chip with complete functions and naturally very high prices. The next 600 series is aimed at mid-range users, and its performance will definitely be good, and its price positioning will not be so exaggerated. The last 400 and 200 series are aimed at mainstream and entry-level users, respectively. Originally, this level of positioning was perfect, but with the development and changes of the global smartphone market, some problems arise in this positioning, especially in the domestic market.
Judging from the market situation in 2017, Qualcomm's flagship processor seems to have become a "mascot", and what is truly recognized by manufacturers and consumers is actually mid-range products. Looking at the popular models in 2017, Xiaomi focuses on , Xiaomi 6 and Xiaomi MI X2, which are both priced and are mainly sold online. Xiaomi really recommends Xiaomi Note 3 offline, and the processor is only , Snapdragon 660, and the rest of the Redmi and other products that are popular also mainly use the Snapdragon 600 series and Snapdragon 400 series. It is known as the "blue and green heroes" and once won the top three in the domestic mobile phone market. It simply does not even have a model that uses Snapdragon 835, and its flagship products are all products that use Snapdragon 660.
Every year and the beginning of the year, it is time for manufacturers to announce new products, and now it is no exception. Since the end of 2017, major manufacturers have begun to release new products intensively, hoping that these products with new functions and designs can attract users and increase revenue in the new year. In today's most popular smart mobile device market, when we focus on its core SoC industry, we can see that several major mainstream manufacturers in the world, including Qualcomm, Samsung, MediaTek , Huawei , and Huawei have all had new actions, and have also displayed and launched many new products. Next, let’s take a look at these new products and what changes they will bring to the market in 2018.
Not long after the beginning of 2018, we can find that the mobile SoC industry is not as fierce as it was a few years ago. As the market gradually becomes stereotyped and mature, there are only a few manufacturers qualified to enter this field to share their share - Qualcomm, Samsung, Huawei, MediaTek and the Intel , which seems to be continuing to launch new products. The products of these five major manufacturers have basically laid the foundation for the performance and development direction of smartphones in the next period of time.
Qualcomm: What is the purpose of Snapdragon 700 series?
As the de facto overlord of the smartphone industry and the mobile market, Qualcomm's every move in the mobile product industry has attracted great attention. Following the official release of the Snapdragon 845 processor in December 2017, Qualcomm once again announced a brand new product line - the Snapdragon 700 series at this year's MWC 2018.
▲It is quite surprising that the appearance of the Snapdragon 700 series is
This is quite unexpected news, and no rumor was circulated before the press conference. Moreover, from the current Qualcomm product line, from the entry-level Snapdragon 00 to the mid-to-low-end Snapdragon 400, to the mid-to-mid-end Snapdragon 600, and the flagship model Snapdragon 800, this is a quite unexpected
information, and there was no rumor before the press conference. Moreover, from the current Qualcomm product line, the entire effort has been made from the entry-level Snapdragon 200 to the mid-to-low-end Snapdragon 400, to the mid-to-mid-end Snapdragon 600, and the flagship model Snapdragon 800.
Market changes promote product model upgrade
Qualcomm's early products did not have such clear brand logic, but used a large number of numbers to define the product. For example, the familiar MSM8997 is the product code of Snapdragon 835. After Qualcomm confirmed its mobile chip brand as "Snapdragon" in 2012, it once launched a rating for the Snapdragon product level. At that time, S was used as the abbreviation of "Snapdragon", and added numbers afterwards, such as Snapdragon S1, S2, S3, and S4, and the highest level is the S4 level. However, this naming method was quickly deprecated, and Qualcomm then launched a three-digit naming method that continues to this day, with all the first digits using even arithmetic sequences. After
used three-digit numbers to determine the model, Qualcomm's product line stabilized. In Qualcomm's definition, the Snapdragon 800 series is a flagship product, with only one or at most two models each year. It is a top-level chip with complete functions and naturally very high prices. The next 600 series is aimed at mid-range users, and its performance will definitely be good, and its price positioning will not be so exaggerated. The last 400 and 200 series are aimed at mainstream and entry-level users, respectively. Originally, this level of positioning was perfect, but with the development and changes of the global smartphone market, some problems arise in this positioning, especially in the domestic market.
Judging from the market situation in 2017, Qualcomm's flagship processor seems to have become a "mascot", and what is truly recognized by manufacturers and consumers is actually mid-range products. Looking at the popular models in 2017, Xiaomi focuses on , Xiaomi 6 and Xiaomi MI X2, which are both priced and are mainly sold online. Xiaomi really recommends Xiaomi Note 3 offline, and the processor is only , Snapdragon 660, and the rest of the Redmi and other products that are popular also mainly use the Snapdragon 600 series and Snapdragon 400 series. It is known as the "blue and green heroes" and once won the top three in the domestic mobile phone market. It simply does not even have a model that uses Snapdragon 835, and its flagship products are all products that use Snapdragon 660.This strategy of not emphasizing performance specifications and focusing on offline sales has been a great success.
▲ Xiaomi 6 mobile phones that use Snapdragon 835, the processor accounts for nearly 25% of the mobile phone cost.
In addition to these three, other brands such as Samsung generally have a high product positioning, but the C series for the mainstream 1,500 yuan market also uses Snapdragon 600 series processors; in addition to the flagship processors, Huawei has also launched several mobile phones that use Snapdragon 600 and Snapdragon 400 series processors. It is no exaggeration to say that 2017 is the year when mid-range processors are truly coming to the forefront, and whether a mobile phone uses a top-level processor is no longer the primary factor for consumers to consider. The situation of
shows a problem, that is, the domestic mobile phone market has gradually matured and consumers have become more rational. From the manufacturer's perspective, the fierce competition in the early stages, the close fighting, parameter fighting and "no consent to run a point" have gradually made the market lose interest. In particular, manufacturers must maintain low prices while producing high performance, and it is difficult to sustain development without money. Even in the Snapdragon 835 era where mobile phones have been raised, many manufacturers complained in public that their phones are sold for 2,500 yuan, and the price of a Qualcomm chip is close to 500 yuan. In addition to the screen, battery, and other matching chips, the profits of such products can be considered meager.
From the consumer perspective, the development of smartphones to this day is no longer the state of serious lack of performance and long-term stuck in a web page in 2008 to 2010. Most of the applications today can run well even mid-range processors. Instead, people pay more attention to the phone's factors such as picture shooting ability, video shooting, sound quality performance, and even appearance design, battery life. The key is to use it.
In this case, Qualcomm's processor product line needs to be adjusted in a series of ways according to market changes. Qualcomm needs a product that is closer to consumer needs, without such powerful performance and top-notch technology, but all functions must be adjusted well, especially for cheap and cost-effective products. So, how should Qualcomm change? Are there such potential products in the existing product line that can be "promoted"? Why not take a closer look.
First of all, look at the high-end part. The top processor naturally does not need to be changed, and the focus can only be on the "second-top" aspect. In fact, Qualcomm has launched "sub-flagships" before, such as the down-frequency version of Snapdragon 808 and Snapdragon 820. However, these processors with the word "800" are not much different from flagship products in various specifications and support. Even if the frequency is reduced or one or two cores are cut, the specifications are too close to the flagship model, so the price and positioning are often not too low, and the cost-effectiveness is not excellent enough. If you don’t have high-end, just look at the mid-range.
▲Second flagship Snapdragon 808 is a flash in the pan
Qualcomm has launched a number of products on the mid-range model Snapdragon 600 series. On the one hand, it is the Snapdragon 610 series, 620 series and 630 series for mid-range users. The specific models include Snapdragon 615, Snapdragon 617, Snapdragon 625, Snapdragon 635, etc. The characteristics of this series of products are that there are significant differences in each hardware configuration and high-end processor. For example, the core is often Coretex-A53, which depends on the number and frequency of cores to distinguish models. The performance is average, and the technology is not the latest, mainly because the price is low and it is easy to exert volume.
▲OPPO and vivo do the opposite, but use mid-range processors, and their profit performance is better.
Another series is the new celebrity Snapdragon 660. This processor has strong performance. The core uses a large core like Cortex-A73 and a Coretex-A53 to form big.LITTLE. It has excellent configurations in network, images, graphics, audio, etc., but it has opened a certain gap with the high-end 800 series. Such specifications and designs make Snapdragon 660 sufficient strength to "promote" and become a candidate for the new product line.
▲The outstanding performance and balanced configuration of Snapdragon 660 are important reasons for its success
In fact, in Qualcomm's press conference, a large number of explanations and comparisons about Snapdragon 700 appeared with Snapdragon 660. This also proves that through the success of Snapdragon 660, Qualcomm has seen a market segment growing and cultivated and expanded it purposefully.
In addition to the above reasons, there are also analysis from different angles in the industry. Judging from the current development of the global mobile phone market, Xiaomi, OPPO and vivo, which basically do not use their own chips, account for the vast majority of Qualcomm's sales, especially the latter two, which even formed a "round-package" trend for Snapdragon 660 in the early stage. However, the products that use Snapdragon 600 have obvious publicity disadvantages when facing Snapdragon 800 products. Therefore, it is also possible that "OV" and other manufacturers such as Xiaomi have communicated with Qualcomm, which led to the launch of Qualcomm 700 series products. Advantages of
Snapdragon 700: AI leads
▲Snapdragon 700 will strengthen
●AI will be strengthened.
Currently, using AI to improve the effects of mobile phones in photography, video, etc., has become increasingly mature, especially in anti-shake, noise reduction, white balance, and even photo synthesis, background blur. In addition, AI is also promising in user behavior prediction, translation, voice synthesis, etc., and is the focus of future development of mobile devices. Qualcomm has already used the embedded Hexagon vector processor as the main module of AI computing in its previous products. This part on the Snapdragon 700 will be further strengthened, and its performance is expected to be twice that of the Snapdragon 660 to meet the increasing number of AI computing requirements.
▲Qualcomm began to layout AI computing through the built-in Hexagon vector processor in the Snapdragon 820 era, and applied it to videos, photos and other scenarios.
▲Hexagon vector processor internal architecture diagram, it can be seen that the large-scale parallel vector core is its most important performance unit.
▲Qualcomm further strengthened the AI function on Snapdragon 845. This part of the content may be directly used for Snapdragon 700 after a little cropping.
●Photo taken will be improved.
Currently, the ability to take photos of mobile phones has become an important factor for consumers when purchasing mobile phones. The Snapdragon 700 will continue to strengthen the processing capabilities of the processor ISP part so that it can support higher pixel cameras and further process photos in combination with AI functions. In addition, in terms of currently popular multi-frame noise reduction, motion shooting and high-speed photography, the Snapdragon 700 may have further optimizations.
● Further optimization in terms of performance and battery life.
Currently, the industry generally believes that the Snapdragon 700 series and the Snapdragon 660 series have a certain blood relationship, so the performance will continue to be optimized and strengthened based on the Snapdragon 660. In fact, from the product itself, the large and small core matching design of Cortex-A73 and Cortex-A53 on Snapdragon 660 is already the first-class in the industry, and there are basically no regrets in terms of performance. Due to the addition of heterogeneous computing and the addition of new architecture, Qualcomm claims that the Snapdragon 700 can bring up to 30% energy efficiency improvement compared to the current Snapdragon 660. In addition, in terms of battery, Snapdragon 700
supports QC4+ fast charging technology, which can charge 50% of the battery in 15 minutes, and to a certain extent improves the battery life and user experience of mobile devices.
●Network connection is strengthened.
Currently, the best product in the Snapdragon series in terms of network support is Snapdragon 845, which uses the new X20 LTE modem , while the Snapdragon 660 uses the X12 LTE modem. Due to the rapid development of mobile networks and the 5G era, Qualcomm will definitely further strengthen the specifications of Snapdragon 700 in terms of network connection. At least it is quite a problem with the X16 LET specifications of the previous flagship Snapdragon 835, which is the upstream LTE Cat.13 and downstream LTE Cat.16, and the peak speeds can be downloaded to 1Gbps and upstream of 150Mbps respectively, which can basically meet the application needs of all scenarios.
▲In terms of network connection, Qualcomm will likely directly transfer the Snapdragon 835's X16 LTE modem to Snapdragon 700 for use.
Judging from the current specifications, if the Snapdragon 700 can achieve the above improvement, its performance should be comparable to that of Snapdragon 835, but the price has been greatly reduced. This will be more in line with the current market trend, that is, the prices of flagship models will continue to increase, and the mainstream Snapdragon 600 series mobile phones will stand firm at the price of 2,000 yuan. Snapdragon 700 will provide manufacturers with sub-flagships or market hot products, while bringing good user experience and profit performance, guiding the entire market to develop in a more benign direction.In terms of time of launch, it is estimated that the Snapdragon 700 series has begun to match products in the hands of major manufacturers. As soon as possible, we will see a large number of mobile phones using Snapdragon 700 chips in the second half of this year.
Samsung: Exynos 9 enters the AI era
As one of the few manufacturers in the world with independent chip design capabilities, Samsung's every move is quite eye-catching. At the beginning of 2018, Samsung brought two bombs, one was the high-performance processor Exynos 9810 for the flagship market, and the other was the Exynos 9610 for the mainstream market. The following are the two products.
Exynos 9810: Entering the AI era
As we all know, Samsung's product strategy has always implemented "walking on two legs". In the early years, every time the S series and Note series mobile phones were released, they attracted the attention of global consumers. In terms of SoC chip selection, Samsung has also implemented the "two-legged" strategy. Qualcomm's Snapdragon series and its own Exynos series go hand in hand, and each time it releases, it will launch two different versions of the products. On January 4, 2018, not long after the release of Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Samsung released its flagship product, Exynos 9810 this year.
▲Samsung Exynos 9810
As can be seen from the model, Exynos 9810 is Samsung's ninth generation product. Compared with the previous eighth generation products, Samsung has made upgrades to processor process, performance-power consumption ratio, network and AI. In terms of process, Exynos 9810 adopts the new second-generation 10nm FinFET process. Compared with the previous generation process, the second-generation 10nm FinFET process can improve performance by 10% and reduce power consumption by 15%.
▲Samsung's second generation 10nm process is the 10nm LPP
architecture in the figure. In terms of the Exynos 9810 adopts the common "4+4" architecture, that is, the four large core M3s independently developed by Samsung use big.LITTLE technology and four ARM Cortex-A55 to realize eight-core processors,
size and core switching, and heterogeneous computing. Samsung claims that the new generation of large core M3 has increased 2 times the single-core performance compared to the previous generation of M2, and the multi-core performance has increased by 40% - if not unexpected, this description should refer to peak performance under specific test conditions. In terms of frequency, the maximum frequency of Exynos 9810 can reach 2.9GHz, while the previous generation Exynos 8895 has a maximum maximum of 2.5GHz. The frequency improvement means that performance has been significantly enhanced.
▲Samsung Exynos M3 architecture speculative diagram
In terms of GPU, Exynos 9810 uses ARM Mali-G72 MP18 with a frequency of 700MHz. Mali-G72 is originally a GPU core module launched by ARM for the high-end market. Its overall graphics performance is 1.4 times that of previous generation products, an energy efficiency ratio is 25%, a chip area is increased by 20%, and a machine learning efficiency is increased by 17%. In addition, the parallel connection of MP18's 18 cores is huge, so it is believed that 3D performance is also worth seeing.
▲ Currently, Mali-G72 has become a GPU commonly used by mid-to-high-end processors.
In addition to these regular upgrades, Exynos 9810 has three technical features worth looking forward to. First of all, the LET modem built in Exynos 9810 is the industry's highest-spec product, even better than the Snapdragon 845. The Exynos 9810 built-in modem supports CAT.18, which can realize 6CA carrier aggregation, supports up to 1.2Gbps downlink speed and 2CA 200Mbps uplink speed. In contrast, Snapdragon 845 also supports CAT.18, but only supports 1.2Gbps downlink and 150Mbps uplink, which is a little lost.
Secondly, Exynos 9810 has built-in AI module, supports deep learning of neural networks, and can perform fast image retrieval, precise classification recognition, deep recognition, face detection and other operations. Samsung has not released more information in this part, but judging from the fact that major giants have made artificial intelligence this year, the AI part will become a key parameter for the future development of SoCs. Finally, Exynos 9810 has a built-in security module, and an independent security information unit can safely store user biometric information, avoiding information leakage and theft.
▲ With the help of Exynos 9810's AI enhancement, Galaxy S9 also focuses more on AI applications.
Overall, Exynos 9810 is one of the few flagship SoCs that can challenge Snapdragon 845 head-on. Its main battlefield is Samsung S9 series mobile phones, which may also be sold to Meizu to help it create the latest flagship models.
▲The phone using Samsung Exynos 9810 is Samsung's latest Galaxy S9.
currently equipped with this processor has been launched. Judging from the current test results, there is still a slight difference between Exynos 9810 and Snapdragon 845, with an overall performance difference of less than 10%, and the results of various details have their own advantages. Overall, Exynos 9810 has successfully completed Samsung's development requirements on flagship processors this year, and is also one of the top products worth choosing.
Exynos 9610: New choice for mid-to-high-end market
In addition to the flagship market, in the mid-to-high-end market, Samsung and Qualcomm have launched new products at the same time. Qualcomm released the new Snapdragon 700 series, while Samsung responded with Exynos 9610.
As analyzed in the previous article, current consumers care more about the mobile phone experience rather than just looking at the performance index. In this market change environment, Samsung has also put a lot of effort into the Exynos 9610. First of all, the process used by the Exynos 9610 is exactly the same as the high-end Exynos 9810. It is both a new second-generation 10nm FinFET process, which performs better in terms of power consumption and performance. Secondly, Exynos 9610 uses a 4-core Cortex-A73 with 4-core Cortex-A53 to form the eight-core architecture of big.LITTLE, which is also the mainstream choice. In terms of frequency, the maximum core is 2.3GHz and the maximum core is 1.6GHz. In terms of GPU, the Mali-G72MP3 is reduced a lot compared to the previous MP18 of Exynos 9810. The corresponding frequency should be improved, and the overall 3D performance has been weakened, which is slightly insufficient.
In addition, Exynos 9610 has also strengthened its AI, inheriting the advantages of Exynos 9810 and has obvious advantages in facial recognition and image retrieval. In terms of network capabilities, Exynos 9610 supports the highest CAT.12, has a downlink speed of 600Mbps and a uplink speed of 150Mbps, which is also considered the mainstream specification now.
Judging from the action of Samsung launching the Exynos 9610, Samsung's domestic sales have continued to decline in recent years. The high-end market has been severely squeezed by manufacturers such as Xiaomi and Huawei. The mid-range market is challenged by OV companies. Therefore, Samsung needs a brand new processor to redefine the entire series of mid-range products. Exynos 9610 is a product launched in accordance with this market trend. It can be expected that the mid-to-high-end market may usher in a bloody storm this year.
MediaTek: Xili P60 is fighting against the mainstream market again
MediaTek seemed relatively lonely in 2017. Due to the strength of Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 series, MediaTek's products face great competitive pressure. Only a few mobile phones are used in the terminal market, and the market response is not as hot as before. MediaTek needs to regroup and fight again in 2018. The first answer is the brand new Xili P60 processor. Xili P60 is MediaTek's first product that uses 12nm process and has been manufactured at TSMC.
Traditionally, in order to better control costs, MediaTek often uses a generation of processes that are later than the current mainstream processes in products that focus on cost-effectiveness. However, MediaTek changed its previous approach this time and enabled the latest 12nm process on the P60, hoping to make breakthroughs in performance and power consumption. In addition to the process, MediaTek has also added its own unique CorePilot power saving technology, claiming that it has a 30% reduction in power consumption under heavy load compared to the previous generation P30 products and a 12% reduction in overall power consumption.
▲Basic parameters of MediaTek Helio P60
After adopting the new process, MediaTek can boldly start stacking scale. In terms of architecture, the Helio P60 finally no longer uses MediaTek's unique three-cluster and ten-core design, but instead uses the industry's most mainstream four-core Cortex-A73 with four-core Cortex-A53's big.LITTLE solution. The L2 cache is 1MB+1MB. The maximum frequency of all cores is 2.0GHz in terms of frequency. MediaTek claims that it can better balance the power consumption and performance of multiple cores.In terms of GPU, due to its mid-range positioning, MediaTek has designed Mali-G72MP3 for it, with a core frequency of 800MHz, which is also the most mainstream
choice in the industry.
▲Mediatko Helio P60 has made significant progress in imaging.
MediaTek Heli o P60 has also made certain achievements in AI. MediaTek claims that Helio P60 has designed two AI Process Units (APUs for short). When one APU performs face recognition, picture segmentation, and background blurring, the other AP U can perform R AW HDR shooting and perform multi-frame synthesis at the same time. This design makes AI smarter and faster under actual application conditions. In addition, the APU has a higher energy consumption ratio when processing tasks such as pictures, and can also extend battery life.
▲MediaTek Helio P60 strengthens AI and supports more architectures.
Overall, MediaTek Helio P60 has a lot of changes in process, architecture and functions compared with the previous generation of P30. Its energy consumption ratio control should perform well under the new process. In addition to the addition of the AI engine, the overall performance should be very worth looking forward to.
It is worth mentioning that in order to meet the usage needs of domestic users, MediaTek has also specially added dual-slot dual standby technology. A single chip can support dual-slot dual VoLTE, realizing 4G signal standby, communication, etc., which is quite practical. Currently, the Helio P60 has been sold on OPPO's latest R15 phone, and its performance is equal to that of Snapdragon 660. I believe that with Helio P60 and a number of subsequent products, MediaTek will be able to regain lost ground in the mid-range market this year and continue to grow. In terms of communication, although MTK P60 is not as strong as Qualcomm, it is completely enough for the market it faces.
▲OPPO R15 uses MediaTek P60 and Snapdragon 660 to compete on the same stage, which is also a recognition of this product.
Huawei: AI continues to support it, Kirin 670 appears
Huawei has been conquering cities and land in the global market in recent years with its research and development on mobile SoCs. The latest Huawei P20 family has become popular again with its powerful photography capabilities, which shows the terribleness of a manufacturer with a vertical ecosystem. The high-end is so powerful, what about the mid-range market? In terms of model, Huawei and Qualcomm are similar to that of Qualcomm, and also named the product with three digits as the model. Huawei's high-end products use the Kirin 900 series, while the mid-range products are the Kirin 600 series. In the weak link in the mid-range, rumors in the industry began to rumor that Huawei will soon launch a brand new SoC chip to strengthen the front, which is the Kirin 670.
Since Kirin 670 has not been officially released yet, there is no very certain news about its specifications. Judging from the current situation, Kirin 670 is basically a streamlined version of Kirin 970. For example, in terms of CPU, it has been streamlined from the previous 8 cores to 6, using 2 Cortex-A73 cores and 4 Cortex-A53 to form big.LITTLE technology, and in terms of GPU, it uses Mali-G72 MP4, which is also the mainstream level in this level of products.
▲There is very little news about Kirin 670, so we can only make some speculations on it through the latest Kirin 970.
However, what is most interesting is that many news currently show that Huawei is going to directly lower the NPU used in the high-end Kirin 970 to the Kirin 670, so that Kirin 670 can obtain complete AI computing power, thereby realizing the advantages of Kirin 670 related products in image recognition, voice recognition, and user behavior learning.
▲Full AI computing power will be a powerful tool for Kirin 670 to compete for the mainstream market.
Since Kirin 670 has not been released yet, most of the current news is speculation. But judging from the current news, if Kirin 670 can really achieve the above specifications, it will undoubtedly be a stance in the mid-range market and strengthen the competitiveness of Huawei's 1,000-yuan product.
flagship Qu Gao and Wu, mid-range fierce fighting
This article introduces the new products of the four major manufacturers this year, and it has come to an end here. Judging from the information given in this article, the battle between flagships and top markets is not very fierce. Now only Samsung has launched Exynos 9810 against Snapdragon 845. Huawei's flagship processor ( Kirin 980?) may be released in the second half of the year and is still in the confidentiality stage.At the same time, as smartphone prices rise, consumers have to pay more and more to get to the top SoCs.
Under this situation, the mid-to-high-end market, which was already fiercely competitive, has already gathered four new products from Qualcomm, Samsung, Huawei and MediaTek. This year's mid-range battle seems inevitable. What is more worth thinking about is that no matter the Snapdragon 600, Snapdragon 700, Samsung Exynos 9610, Huawei Kirin 670 and MediaTek P60, they all have AI factors in mind. It seems that after a long period of development, AI technology has extended and transferred from the desktop and cloud to the mobile terminal. At present, it is only used more in photography, photography, and voice recognition, but there is no doubt that the application of AI on mobile has just begun, and there are still many updated application experiences that have not yet appeared. As consumers, we have reason to look forward to more in 2018.
In addition to the above reasons, there are also analysis from different angles in the industry. Judging from the current development of the global mobile phone market, Xiaomi, OPPO and vivo, which basically do not use their own chips, account for the vast majority of Qualcomm's sales, especially the latter two, which even formed a "round-package" trend for Snapdragon 660 in the early stage. However, the products that use Snapdragon 600 have obvious publicity disadvantages when facing Snapdragon 800 products. Therefore, it is also possible that "OV" and other manufacturers such as Xiaomi have communicated with Qualcomm, which led to the launch of Qualcomm 700 series products. Advantages of
Snapdragon 700: AI leads
▲Snapdragon 700 will strengthen
●AI will be strengthened.
Currently, using AI to improve the effects of mobile phones in photography, video, etc., has become increasingly mature, especially in anti-shake, noise reduction, white balance, and even photo synthesis, background blur. In addition, AI is also promising in user behavior prediction, translation, voice synthesis, etc., and is the focus of future development of mobile devices. Qualcomm has already used the embedded Hexagon vector processor as the main module of AI computing in its previous products. This part on the Snapdragon 700 will be further strengthened, and its performance is expected to be twice that of the Snapdragon 660 to meet the increasing number of AI computing requirements.
▲Qualcomm began to layout AI computing through the built-in Hexagon vector processor in the Snapdragon 820 era, and applied it to videos, photos and other scenarios.
▲Hexagon vector processor internal architecture diagram, it can be seen that the large-scale parallel vector core is its most important performance unit.
▲Qualcomm further strengthened the AI function on Snapdragon 845. This part of the content may be directly used for Snapdragon 700 after a little cropping.
●Photo taken will be improved.
Currently, the ability to take photos of mobile phones has become an important factor for consumers when purchasing mobile phones. The Snapdragon 700 will continue to strengthen the processing capabilities of the processor ISP part so that it can support higher pixel cameras and further process photos in combination with AI functions. In addition, in terms of currently popular multi-frame noise reduction, motion shooting and high-speed photography, the Snapdragon 700 may have further optimizations.
● Further optimization in terms of performance and battery life.
Currently, the industry generally believes that the Snapdragon 700 series and the Snapdragon 660 series have a certain blood relationship, so the performance will continue to be optimized and strengthened based on the Snapdragon 660. In fact, from the product itself, the large and small core matching design of Cortex-A73 and Cortex-A53 on Snapdragon 660 is already the first-class in the industry, and there are basically no regrets in terms of performance. Due to the addition of heterogeneous computing and the addition of new architecture, Qualcomm claims that the Snapdragon 700 can bring up to 30% energy efficiency improvement compared to the current Snapdragon 660. In addition, in terms of battery, Snapdragon 700
supports QC4+ fast charging technology, which can charge 50% of the battery in 15 minutes, and to a certain extent improves the battery life and user experience of mobile devices.
●Network connection is strengthened.
Currently, the best product in the Snapdragon series in terms of network support is Snapdragon 845, which uses the new X20 LTE modem , while the Snapdragon 660 uses the X12 LTE modem. Due to the rapid development of mobile networks and the 5G era, Qualcomm will definitely further strengthen the specifications of Snapdragon 700 in terms of network connection. At least it is quite a problem with the X16 LET specifications of the previous flagship Snapdragon 835, which is the upstream LTE Cat.13 and downstream LTE Cat.16, and the peak speeds can be downloaded to 1Gbps and upstream of 150Mbps respectively, which can basically meet the application needs of all scenarios.
▲In terms of network connection, Qualcomm will likely directly transfer the Snapdragon 835's X16 LTE modem to Snapdragon 700 for use.
Judging from the current specifications, if the Snapdragon 700 can achieve the above improvement, its performance should be comparable to that of Snapdragon 835, but the price has been greatly reduced. This will be more in line with the current market trend, that is, the prices of flagship models will continue to increase, and the mainstream Snapdragon 600 series mobile phones will stand firm at the price of 2,000 yuan. Snapdragon 700 will provide manufacturers with sub-flagships or market hot products, while bringing good user experience and profit performance, guiding the entire market to develop in a more benign direction.In terms of time of launch, it is estimated that the Snapdragon 700 series has begun to match products in the hands of major manufacturers. As soon as possible, we will see a large number of mobile phones using Snapdragon 700 chips in the second half of this year.
Samsung: Exynos 9 enters the AI era
As one of the few manufacturers in the world with independent chip design capabilities, Samsung's every move is quite eye-catching. At the beginning of 2018, Samsung brought two bombs, one was the high-performance processor Exynos 9810 for the flagship market, and the other was the Exynos 9610 for the mainstream market. The following are the two products.
Exynos 9810: Entering the AI era
As we all know, Samsung's product strategy has always implemented "walking on two legs". In the early years, every time the S series and Note series mobile phones were released, they attracted the attention of global consumers. In terms of SoC chip selection, Samsung has also implemented the "two-legged" strategy. Qualcomm's Snapdragon series and its own Exynos series go hand in hand, and each time it releases, it will launch two different versions of the products. On January 4, 2018, not long after the release of Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Samsung released its flagship product, Exynos 9810 this year.
▲Samsung Exynos 9810
As can be seen from the model, Exynos 9810 is Samsung's ninth generation product. Compared with the previous eighth generation products, Samsung has made upgrades to processor process, performance-power consumption ratio, network and AI. In terms of process, Exynos 9810 adopts the new second-generation 10nm FinFET process. Compared with the previous generation process, the second-generation 10nm FinFET process can improve performance by 10% and reduce power consumption by 15%.
▲Samsung's second generation 10nm process is the 10nm LPP
architecture in the figure. In terms of the Exynos 9810 adopts the common "4+4" architecture, that is, the four large core M3s independently developed by Samsung use big.LITTLE technology and four ARM Cortex-A55 to realize eight-core processors,
size and core switching, and heterogeneous computing. Samsung claims that the new generation of large core M3 has increased 2 times the single-core performance compared to the previous generation of M2, and the multi-core performance has increased by 40% - if not unexpected, this description should refer to peak performance under specific test conditions. In terms of frequency, the maximum frequency of Exynos 9810 can reach 2.9GHz, while the previous generation Exynos 8895 has a maximum maximum of 2.5GHz. The frequency improvement means that performance has been significantly enhanced.
▲Samsung Exynos M3 architecture speculative diagram
In terms of GPU, Exynos 9810 uses ARM Mali-G72 MP18 with a frequency of 700MHz. Mali-G72 is originally a GPU core module launched by ARM for the high-end market. Its overall graphics performance is 1.4 times that of previous generation products, an energy efficiency ratio is 25%, a chip area is increased by 20%, and a machine learning efficiency is increased by 17%. In addition, the parallel connection of MP18's 18 cores is huge, so it is believed that 3D performance is also worth seeing.
▲ Currently, Mali-G72 has become a GPU commonly used by mid-to-high-end processors.
In addition to these regular upgrades, Exynos 9810 has three technical features worth looking forward to. First of all, the LET modem built in Exynos 9810 is the industry's highest-spec product, even better than the Snapdragon 845. The Exynos 9810 built-in modem supports CAT.18, which can realize 6CA carrier aggregation, supports up to 1.2Gbps downlink speed and 2CA 200Mbps uplink speed. In contrast, Snapdragon 845 also supports CAT.18, but only supports 1.2Gbps downlink and 150Mbps uplink, which is a little lost.
Secondly, Exynos 9810 has built-in AI module, supports deep learning of neural networks, and can perform fast image retrieval, precise classification recognition, deep recognition, face detection and other operations. Samsung has not released more information in this part, but judging from the fact that major giants have made artificial intelligence this year, the AI part will become a key parameter for the future development of SoCs. Finally, Exynos 9810 has a built-in security module, and an independent security information unit can safely store user biometric information, avoiding information leakage and theft.
▲ With the help of Exynos 9810's AI enhancement, Galaxy S9 also focuses more on AI applications.
Overall, Exynos 9810 is one of the few flagship SoCs that can challenge Snapdragon 845 head-on. Its main battlefield is Samsung S9 series mobile phones, which may also be sold to Meizu to help it create the latest flagship models.
▲The phone using Samsung Exynos 9810 is Samsung's latest Galaxy S9.
currently equipped with this processor has been launched. Judging from the current test results, there is still a slight difference between Exynos 9810 and Snapdragon 845, with an overall performance difference of less than 10%, and the results of various details have their own advantages. Overall, Exynos 9810 has successfully completed Samsung's development requirements on flagship processors this year, and is also one of the top products worth choosing.
Exynos 9610: New choice for mid-to-high-end market
In addition to the flagship market, in the mid-to-high-end market, Samsung and Qualcomm have launched new products at the same time. Qualcomm released the new Snapdragon 700 series, while Samsung responded with Exynos 9610.
As analyzed in the previous article, current consumers care more about the mobile phone experience rather than just looking at the performance index. In this market change environment, Samsung has also put a lot of effort into the Exynos 9610. First of all, the process used by the Exynos 9610 is exactly the same as the high-end Exynos 9810. It is both a new second-generation 10nm FinFET process, which performs better in terms of power consumption and performance. Secondly, Exynos 9610 uses a 4-core Cortex-A73 with 4-core Cortex-A53 to form the eight-core architecture of big.LITTLE, which is also the mainstream choice. In terms of frequency, the maximum core is 2.3GHz and the maximum core is 1.6GHz. In terms of GPU, the Mali-G72MP3 is reduced a lot compared to the previous MP18 of Exynos 9810. The corresponding frequency should be improved, and the overall 3D performance has been weakened, which is slightly insufficient.
In addition, Exynos 9610 has also strengthened its AI, inheriting the advantages of Exynos 9810 and has obvious advantages in facial recognition and image retrieval. In terms of network capabilities, Exynos 9610 supports the highest CAT.12, has a downlink speed of 600Mbps and a uplink speed of 150Mbps, which is also considered the mainstream specification now.
Judging from the action of Samsung launching the Exynos 9610, Samsung's domestic sales have continued to decline in recent years. The high-end market has been severely squeezed by manufacturers such as Xiaomi and Huawei. The mid-range market is challenged by OV companies. Therefore, Samsung needs a brand new processor to redefine the entire series of mid-range products. Exynos 9610 is a product launched in accordance with this market trend. It can be expected that the mid-to-high-end market may usher in a bloody storm this year.
MediaTek: Xili P60 is fighting against the mainstream market again
MediaTek seemed relatively lonely in 2017. Due to the strength of Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 series, MediaTek's products face great competitive pressure. Only a few mobile phones are used in the terminal market, and the market response is not as hot as before. MediaTek needs to regroup and fight again in 2018. The first answer is the brand new Xili P60 processor. Xili P60 is MediaTek's first product that uses 12nm process and has been manufactured at TSMC.
Traditionally, in order to better control costs, MediaTek often uses a generation of processes that are later than the current mainstream processes in products that focus on cost-effectiveness. However, MediaTek changed its previous approach this time and enabled the latest 12nm process on the P60, hoping to make breakthroughs in performance and power consumption. In addition to the process, MediaTek has also added its own unique CorePilot power saving technology, claiming that it has a 30% reduction in power consumption under heavy load compared to the previous generation P30 products and a 12% reduction in overall power consumption.
▲Basic parameters of MediaTek Helio P60
After adopting the new process, MediaTek can boldly start stacking scale. In terms of architecture, the Helio P60 finally no longer uses MediaTek's unique three-cluster and ten-core design, but instead uses the industry's most mainstream four-core Cortex-A73 with four-core Cortex-A53's big.LITTLE solution. The L2 cache is 1MB+1MB. The maximum frequency of all cores is 2.0GHz in terms of frequency. MediaTek claims that it can better balance the power consumption and performance of multiple cores.In terms of GPU, due to its mid-range positioning, MediaTek has designed Mali-G72MP3 for it, with a core frequency of 800MHz, which is also the most mainstream
choice in the industry.
▲Mediatko Helio P60 has made significant progress in imaging.
MediaTek Heli o P60 has also made certain achievements in AI. MediaTek claims that Helio P60 has designed two AI Process Units (APUs for short). When one APU performs face recognition, picture segmentation, and background blurring, the other AP U can perform R AW HDR shooting and perform multi-frame synthesis at the same time. This design makes AI smarter and faster under actual application conditions. In addition, the APU has a higher energy consumption ratio when processing tasks such as pictures, and can also extend battery life.
▲MediaTek Helio P60 strengthens AI and supports more architectures.
Overall, MediaTek Helio P60 has a lot of changes in process, architecture and functions compared with the previous generation of P30. Its energy consumption ratio control should perform well under the new process. In addition to the addition of the AI engine, the overall performance should be very worth looking forward to.
It is worth mentioning that in order to meet the usage needs of domestic users, MediaTek has also specially added dual-slot dual standby technology. A single chip can support dual-slot dual VoLTE, realizing 4G signal standby, communication, etc., which is quite practical. Currently, the Helio P60 has been sold on OPPO's latest R15 phone, and its performance is equal to that of Snapdragon 660. I believe that with Helio P60 and a number of subsequent products, MediaTek will be able to regain lost ground in the mid-range market this year and continue to grow. In terms of communication, although MTK P60 is not as strong as Qualcomm, it is completely enough for the market it faces.
▲OPPO R15 uses MediaTek P60 and Snapdragon 660 to compete on the same stage, which is also a recognition of this product.
Huawei: AI continues to support it, Kirin 670 appears
Huawei has been conquering cities and land in the global market in recent years with its research and development on mobile SoCs. The latest Huawei P20 family has become popular again with its powerful photography capabilities, which shows the terribleness of a manufacturer with a vertical ecosystem. The high-end is so powerful, what about the mid-range market? In terms of model, Huawei and Qualcomm are similar to that of Qualcomm, and also named the product with three digits as the model. Huawei's high-end products use the Kirin 900 series, while the mid-range products are the Kirin 600 series. In the weak link in the mid-range, rumors in the industry began to rumor that Huawei will soon launch a brand new SoC chip to strengthen the front, which is the Kirin 670.
Since Kirin 670 has not been officially released yet, there is no very certain news about its specifications. Judging from the current situation, Kirin 670 is basically a streamlined version of Kirin 970. For example, in terms of CPU, it has been streamlined from the previous 8 cores to 6, using 2 Cortex-A73 cores and 4 Cortex-A53 to form big.LITTLE technology, and in terms of GPU, it uses Mali-G72 MP4, which is also the mainstream level in this level of products.
▲There is very little news about Kirin 670, so we can only make some speculations on it through the latest Kirin 970.
However, what is most interesting is that many news currently show that Huawei is going to directly lower the NPU used in the high-end Kirin 970 to the Kirin 670, so that Kirin 670 can obtain complete AI computing power, thereby realizing the advantages of Kirin 670 related products in image recognition, voice recognition, and user behavior learning.
▲Full AI computing power will be a powerful tool for Kirin 670 to compete for the mainstream market.
Since Kirin 670 has not been released yet, most of the current news is speculation. But judging from the current news, if Kirin 670 can really achieve the above specifications, it will undoubtedly be a stance in the mid-range market and strengthen the competitiveness of Huawei's 1,000-yuan product.
flagship Qu Gao and Wu, mid-range fierce fighting
This article introduces the new products of the four major manufacturers this year, and it has come to an end here. Judging from the information given in this article, the battle between flagships and top markets is not very fierce. Now only Samsung has launched Exynos 9810 against Snapdragon 845. Huawei's flagship processor ( Kirin 980?) may be released in the second half of the year and is still in the confidentiality stage.At the same time, as smartphone prices rise, consumers have to pay more and more to get to the top SoCs.
Under this situation, the mid-to-high-end market, which was already fiercely competitive, has already gathered four new products from Qualcomm, Samsung, Huawei and MediaTek. This year's mid-range battle seems inevitable. What is more worth thinking about is that no matter the Snapdragon 600, Snapdragon 700, Samsung Exynos 9610, Huawei Kirin 670 and MediaTek P60, they all have AI factors in mind. It seems that after a long period of development, AI technology has extended and transferred from the desktop and cloud to the mobile terminal. At present, it is only used more in photography, photography, and voice recognition, but there is no doubt that the application of AI on mobile has just begun, and there are still many updated application experiences that have not yet appeared. As consumers, we have reason to look forward to more in 2018.
