"If Xiaomi does not have the courage and determination to benchmark iPhone , how can we make high-end phones well? Therefore, comprehensive benchmarking of iPhone is to learn from iPhone and have the opportunity to surpass iPhone in the future. Therefore, regardless of software and hardware, we must seriously benchmark iPhone."
On the evening of December 11, Lei Jun said this at the press conference of Xiaomi 13 series. Three years after
proposed the high-end strategy, Xiaomi 13 became Xiaomi's "submission work". This answer sheet Lei Jun used three "special" to describe the Xiaomi 13 series: "The pile of materials is particularly strong, the performance is particularly strong, and the experience is particularly excellent." So much so that Lei Jun used a 9-grid method to publish a total of 9 long articles about this press conference and Xiaomi 13 to introduce the comprehensive upgrade of the Xiaomi digital flagship series this time.
So, is Xiaomi ready to truly "high-end"?
1, a set of combination punches
Xiaomi first proposed a high-end strategy, and it started when it announced in early 2019 that it would use Redmi as an independent operating brand Redmi. Redmi is responsible for continuing Xiaomi's "cost-performance ratio" image, while Xiaomi focuses on the mid-to-high-end market and the new retail market.
In February 2020, the Xiaomi 10 series hit the original market share of in the name of high-end, and finally made a good start with the good result of "breaking 200 million sales in one minute"; in 2021, the Xiaomi 11 series "universe" was launched, and the change from craftsmanship to design aesthetics was achieved; in 2022, the Xiaomi 12 series underwent two iterations, and the core product concept of "from performance leading to experience priority" was implemented, and "comprehensive learning and benchmarking against iPhone" was also proposed from this moment.
After clarifying the strategic goal of high-endization, Xiaomi launched a series of combined punches to help this goal. In terms of R&D, Xiaomi is expected to invest 17 billion yuan in R&D, and the R&D investment is expected to reach 100 billion yuan in the next five years; in terms of patents, as of September 30, 2022, the number of global patent authorizations of Xiaomi Group has exceeded 29,000, and the number of global patent applications has exceeded 59,000.
product, Xiaomi announced in July this year that it launched a strategic cooperation with Leica , including the Xiaomi 12S Ultra and the Xiaomi 13 series, Leica tags have been printed, thus opening a new era of mobile images belonging to Xiaomi.
product strategy , the way of stacking hardware and parameters has gradually been faded after Xiaomi 10, and instead pays more attention to soft power such as deep software and hardware coordination, grip experience, and image style.
software, Xiaomi MIUI team has merged into the mobile phone department in 2022, merged with the BSP system software department, and then merged the AIoTh system department and the interconnection software department, forming a system software platform team that penetrates vertically into the underlying hardware layer and horizontally integrates all Xiaomi's businesses.
production capacity part, Xiaomi's smart factory was not a "gimmick" from the beginning, but a "backup" that can really provide great help to Xiaomi series products. In fact, from Xiaomi 10 to Xiaomi 13 series, you can already see the huge role played by Xiaomi smart factory. It is reported that Xiaomi's second phase smart factory production capacity is 10 million high-end mobile phones!
2, a surprise
latest financial report shows that Xiaomi's smartphone shipments in Q3 2022 were 40.2 million units, down 8.4% from the same period last year; ASP (average selling price) was 1,058 yuan, down 2.9% year-on-year; smartphone gross profit margin fell from 12.8% to 8.9%. On the surface of the data, this data actually performed not well, but from the perspective of the overall environment and the upstream industrial chain , Xiaomi's situation is actually the same as other competitors. In addition, Xiaomi has conducted significant promotions in overseas markets to reduce inventory, which has affected the overall gross profit margin.
Xiaomi Group Partner and President Wang Xiang Explained this: Xiaomi’s high-end strategy does not intend to adopt a quick victory approach, nor does it expect to stabilize the high-end market through just one or two products.
Although the financial report data is not ideal, Xiaomi "returned a game" at another level: the first month of the Xiaomi 12S series and Xiaomi folding screen mobile phone Xiaomi MIX FOLD 2 both received more than 98% in the e-commerce platform; the strong imaging strength of Xiaomi 12S series has also been highly recognized by a number of professional photographers and photography enthusiasts, which means that Xiaomi's high-end products are gradually getting better, and "breaking" a gap in the inherent high-end market.
The just-released Xiaomi 13 series also brings "good news". The entire Xiaomi 13 series is equipped with the latest Snapdragon processor second-generation Snapdragon 8 mobile platform. Its CPU multi-core performance is improved by 37%, and its GPU performance is improved by 42% for the first time, surpassing , Apple 's current strongest A16 chip, and its gaming experience is far beyond A16. Although it has not achieved a complete surpass, it is infinitely close to the goal of benchmarking iPhone.
3, two comprehensive
Xiaomi 13 series have released two models: Xiaomi 13 and Xiaomi 13 Pro. Lei Jun explained: "At the same time, the two-size and dual-high-end mobile phone manufacturers are only Apple and Xiaomi, because it is equivalent to developing two completely different high-end models, which is twice the R&D investment." Taking the screen as an example, since the screens of flagship models need to be customized, dual-size means that two screens need to be customized twice the cost. In terms of the design of
, the Xiaomi 13 series adopts a straight-screen vertical edge design and realizes the "visual four equal edge" design in the Android camp for the first time. Although it is considered to be "borrowing" the design of iPhone 14, it is indeed more recognizable in visual effects and maintains a certain sense of simplicity. Among them, Xiaomi 13 has a straight screen + upright border design, while Xiaomi 13 Pro is a hyperbolic design of "Lilac Ceramics", with obviously different styles. The difference between
is also the screen parameters of the two phones. Xiaomi 13 is mainly "small" - it is equipped with a 6.36-inch full-screen design, with a bezel controlled at 1.61mm, with a screen-to-body ratio of up to 93.3%. It uses the latest generation of E6 luminescent material, with a 2400x1080 resolution, supports P3 color gamut and 120Hz refresh rate, and supports full DC dimming; Xiaomi 13 Pro is mainly "full-fit" - it is equipped with another 6.73-inch hyperbolic screen, and is also equipped with the latest E6 luminescent material, with 3200x1440 resolution, P3 color gamut and 120Hz LTPO dynamic refresh rate support and 1920Hz PWM eye protection dimming, etc., the screens of both phones are excellent and the feel is very suitable for user needs. Users can choose according to their respective needs. In terms of core hardware of
, the two phones remain the same in terms of the three main components: they are equipped with 4nm Snapdragon 8Gen2 processor and are equipped with a full-blooded version of LPDDR5X+UFS 4.0 memory. The combination of the three has become the standard of the new generation of "Iron Triangle" flagships, and both the efficiency of loading applications/games or the sequential reading ability have been comprehensively improved.
two mobile phones fully undertake the first Leica images on Xiaomi 12S: the entire series of Xiaomi 13 is equipped with 75mm Leica telephoto lens , and the entire series is upgraded to the Leica super color imaging system. The difference is that the Xiaomi 13 Pro is more flagship in the main camera specifications and telephoto end lens module!
Xiaomi 13 is equipped with a 32-megapixel front camera, and the rear is a 54-megapixel main camera with a 12-megapixel ultra-wide angle + a 10-megapixel telephoto lens to form a rear triple camera system; Xiaomi 13 Pro arranges a one-inch 50-megapixel Sony IMX 989 as the main camera sensor, and a 50-megapixel ultra-wide angle lens + a 50-megapixel telephoto lens to form the actual triple camera system. Its telephoto lens adopts the design of a "floating focus mirror group" - it can achieve a 70-fold hybrid zoom and the last 10cm focus shooting effect, so it is also called the "floating mirror group design" at the SLR level.Such a luxurious combination of
As expected, Xiaomi 13 Pro performs outstandingly in imaging quality, photosensitive effects, etc.! Judging from the official sample, the larger photosensitive area, better performance, and better shooting resolution allow Xiaomi 13 Pro to easily cope with any scene; the super large aperture allows Xiaomi 13 Pro to obtain a professional SLR-like blur effect when shooting portraits, and the details, colors, etc. are clearly restored. You can even use the Xiaomi 13 Pro, which uses a "floating lens module" to "shoot birds" and capture the rare side of creatures that can be seen everywhere in nature!
4, three-knife self-cut
In addition to comprehensive hardware accumulation, if you want to achieve high-end without shortcomings and truly achieve the "qualification" of benchmarking iPhone, the experience and deep coordination of software and hardware must also keep up. Xiaomi also attaches enough importance to this. For example, at the Xiaomi 13 press conference, the new MIUI 14 appearance order was arranged at the forefront! The first step to achieve high-end development of
MIUI is to implement the "Razor Plan", which will make MIUI 14 bid farewell to the past bloated, imperfect and high energy consumption by self-cutting. The data can prove the harshness of this "Razor Plan": compared with MIUI 13, the system space occupancy of MIUI 14 is reduced by 1.5GB, the system memory occupancy has been reduced to only 3.3GB, and the number of self-start processes on the power-on is reduced by 12%. There are only 8 applications that cannot be uninstalled in the system.
system underlying the system, MIUI 14's new photon engine will be able to greatly optimize the architecture and scheduling mechanism, so that the system will be smoother. Xiaomi will also open its capabilities to three-party applications, thereby creating a smooth experience for the entire link; in terms of privacy and security, new security functions such as flares, interceptor networks, and concealing masks have further strengthened MIUI's "end-side privacy" capabilities, greatly reducing the risk of private data leakage.
has updated and changes in interconnection and the accompanying 5 new AIoT products to a certain extent, and has further improved Xiaomi's technology ecosystem to achieve a better service experience for users.
With the help of better hardware and the deeper software and hardware collaboration brought by MIUI 14, the Xiaomi 13 series will have a 360-degree high-end experience in screen, performance, imaging and battery life. There is no doubt that the high-end strategy in the past three years has profoundly affected the direction of Xiaomi’s smartphones and has also changed Xiaomi all the time.
Lei Jun: Starting from the release of Xiaomi 13 and MIUI 14, a brand new Xiaomi has begun!
