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As the mid-range mobile phone war in July came to an end, the performance flagship, imaging flagship and cost-effective models of this generation of Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 have basically completed the iteration of various product lines. According to wccftech, Qualcomm's new generation flagship processor Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 has entered the final testing stage and is expected to be released at the Snapdragon Summit in October this year. With the arrival of Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, a new round of flagship war will be staged again.

(Photo source: Gizchina)

At present, the new generation of flagship models of domestic and foreign mobile phone brands such as Xiaomi, OnePlus, Realme, and Samsung have entered the testing phase. According to the Digital Chat Station, the Xiaomi 15 series will be released within half a month after the Snapdragon Summit, which is faster than the previous generation.This also means that most mobile phone brands will complete the update and iteration of their flagship "medium cup" and "large cup" models this year.

Of course, chip upgrades and iterations have a great impact on the pace of new product launches by mobile phone brands, but users' expectations for these products go far beyond pure performance improvements. So what "big moves" will the players bring to this year's flagship war?

iQOO 13 takes on two, how will Xiaomi 15 series respond?

Speaking of the flagship war at the end of last year, what impressed Xiao Lei the most was the head-on confrontation between the iQOO 12 series and the Xiaomi 14 series. It was also a collision of straight screens in the standard version and a competition of "cross-level" performance of the Pro. It can be said that both sides collided with the same market direction and product positioning in all aspects.

However, iQOO chose to abandon the "Pro" model in this generation and concentrate on polishing the standard version. It seems that it is going to stage a 1V2 showdown.

iQOO 13 maintains the well-received straight-screen design of its predecessor, with the resolution upgraded from 1.5K to 2K. The panel supplier is preliminarily determined to be BOE, and it is estimated to be a new generation of 8T OLED panel, but the specific model is unknown.In addition, iQOO 13 will also use a single-point ultrasonic fingerprint solution, which is the same solution on iQOO Neo9S Pro+.

In terms of peripheral configuration, iQOO 13 uses a 6000mAh blue ocean battery, supplemented by 100W fast charging, but does not support wireless charging. The vibration motor has also been upgraded to AAC ESA1016, which is mainly an upgrade to match iQOO's e-sports attributes.

(Image source: iQOO)

In terms of imaging, the iQOO 13 retains the triple-camera imaging solution of the previous generation, which is a combination of 50-megapixel main camera + 3x periscope telephoto + ultra-wide angle.

Of course, the upgrade points of the Xiaomi 15 series can be said to be very substantial, filling all the gaps of the previous generation at one time.

The main focus of the Mi 15 Standard Edition is on battery life. After all, the previous Mi 14 failed to use a large-capacity battery in order to maintain a "slim body" of 6.36 inches, which is a bit regrettable. The Mi 15 will be upgraded to a 5,100 mAh large battery, supporting 90W wired charging and 50W wireless charging.Like iQOO 13, both models in the Xiaomi 15 series will choose a single-point ultrasonic fingerprint solution.

The biggest difference between Xiaomi 15 Pro and Xiaomi 15 lies in the screen and image. The former maintains four-curved surfaces with equal depth, while the latter is a pure flat surface.Xiaomi 15 Pro also has a 3.2X periscope telephoto lens, model number is IMX882.

(Photo source: Xiaomi)

It has to be said that the upgrade directions of iQOO 13 and Xiaomi 15 series are quite similar, but iQOO cancelled the Pro model, making it more comprehensive as a whole, such as large battery, periscope telephoto, etc.; while Xiaomi 15 series maintains the route of "each doing its own job", the standard version focuses on small screen experience, and Pro focuses on high-end experience. It is worth mentioning that the Xiaomi 15 standard version will definitely not have an 8GB version, the starting price is 12GB, and the price will also be slightly increased.

OnePlus, Realme, and Redmi are fighting each other, who can stand out?

As "connected customers" of black factories, the reputations of OnePlus 12 and Realme GT5 Pro are polarized. The former has a long pre-promotion, which makes consumers feel disappointed with its actual performance, while Realme has achieved the best cost-effectiveness and has a very good reputation. But in any case, OnePlus and Realme have grasped the essence of the market trend, such as large batteries, periscope telephoto, etc., which also makes us have greater expectations for their iterative models.

The biggest upgrade of OnePlus 13 is the battery. According to Digital Chat Station,The most conservative option for this generation of OnePlus is a 6,600 mAh battery, and there was even a 7,000 mAh option during the testing phase.Indeed, after OnePlus 12 brought the super-large battery to the sub-flagship level last year, all companies began to pay attention to long battery life. It seems that OnePlus 13 will continue to focus on this, which is actually a strategy to strengthen the product's market image.

(Image source: 9to5google)

As for peripheral configuration, OnePlus 13 is expected to continue to use the previous generation's super-large linear motor, the three-camera system with the famous Kazakhstan, the super-large VC cooling solution, etc. It is worth noting that since OV64B has been discontinued, this generation of flagships will most likely be replaced with Sony's IMX882 or OV50M, two sensors suitable for periscope telephoto. As for which one will be finalized, it is not clear yet.

Realme GT6 Pro continues the focus of last year on imaging. The main camera is still Sony LYT-808, the telephoto is IMX890, and the ultra-wide angle is IMX355, but the Deco lens group has been changed from circular to rectangular.In addition, the realme GT6 Pro has also been updated with a four-curved screen and ultrasonic fingerprint, supports IP68 dust and water resistance, and an ultra-large capacity battery of over 6000 mAh.

(Photo source: True Me)

In fact, the previous flagships of Realme and OnePlus are already quite balanced, especially OnePlus, which can be said to be the best among the competitors in the same price range in terms of imaging, battery, motor and screen. However, the Redmi K series, a strong rival in the same price range, seems to know how to please users better.

If nothing unexpected happens, the Redmi K80 Pro should be the first model in the series equipped with Snapdragon 8 Gen 4. Compared with the previous generation, the biggest upgrade lies in the battery capacity, which is expected to be upgraded to a large-capacity 6000mAh battery and support 120W fast charging.

Redmi K80 Pro continues to be equipped with the Light Hunter main camera.The telephoto lens is upgraded from a 2x portrait lens to a 3X upright telephoto lens.This is an epic improvement for Redmi.

(Photo source: Xiaomi)

Indeed, the Redmi K70 Pro is actually a fairly balanced sub-flagship model, but compared with competing products such as Realme and OnePlus, the biggest regret is the lack of a telephoto lens. Now that Redmi has started to use a vertical telephoto lens, it can be regarded as a supplement to the imaging aspect. In this way, Realme, OnePlus, and Redmi are basically competing on the same starting line.

Objectively speaking, the progress of flagship series in the past two years is quite significant. If you don’t pursue extreme imaging, the iterative products of each company have reached a perfect level. This also means that the mobile phone market has entered the era of algorithms from pure hardware competition. Whoever optimizes the system well will become the biggest trump card. In this regard, Redmi seems to have to continue to work hard to reverse its reputation.

Designed by former Mercedes-Benz designer, Galaxy S25 series has been significantly upgraded

As early as the beginning of 2023, Samsung's mobile division announced the arrival of a new head, Hubert H. Lee, who was one of the designers of Mercedes-Benz and promoted the cooperation between the Galaxy S22 series and the Mercedes-Benz joint gift box. However, Hubert H. Lee failed to catch up with the design cycle of the S24 series after taking office, so his real leading work will be the Galaxy S25 series.

Android authority revealed that the Galaxy S25 series will have a brand new design, but only the S25 Ultra. This generation of "super cup" may return to the rounded design of the Galaxy NOTE 7, and imitate the streamlined design of Mercedes-Benz in terms of shape, making the whole machine look futuristic.

But in terms of hardware, Samsung is still conservative. The Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus will retain the original design, but the frame will be upgraded to titanium alloy. It is worth noting that Samsung chose grade 2 titanium alloy material, which is softer than that on the iPhone 15 Pro.The Galaxy S25 will retain the 8GB memory version to ensure that the starting price remains similar to the previous generation.

(Photo source: Samsung)

The Galaxy S25 Ultra will adopt a new imaging strategy. Both telephoto lenses use the new generation of iOS cell sensors, which are larger, more responsive, and have significantly improved low-light strategies. However, the Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus do not have many changes.

Of course, Qualcomm will still prepare a "special edition" SoC for Samsung, which is the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 For Galaxy. According to previous changes, it should only have a higher clock frequency than the regular version. Another document shows that the entire Samsung Galaxy S25 series will use the new UFS 4.0 4-lane flash memory, which has a read/write speed far exceeding UFS 4.0.

Compared with domestic brands, Samsung still does not pay much attention to hardware internal circulation. The Galaxy S25 series mainly focuses on changes in appearance and optimization of user experience. Among them, the most anticipated should be OneUI 7. This generation of UI not only adds more continuous motion effects and interruption animations, but also has a deep integration of Galaxy AI. These are the main directions that Samsung will focus on in the future.

New flagship trend: Super long battery life, super large bottom and long focal length

On the whole, this year's first batch of flagship/sub-flagship equipped with Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 are basically expanding in two directions: one is the ultra-large capacity battery, and the other is the large-bottom telephoto.

In fact, since last year, many mobile phone brands have begun to pay attention to ultra-large capacity batteries. For example, OnePlus 12 uses a 5400 mAh battery to achieve the longest battery life among flagship mobile phones. With the continuous development of ultra-thin battery technology, high-density batteries have been gradually rolled out this year, and we have also begun to see various thin and light mobile phones with large capacity, such as Xiaomi's MIX Fold 4 and Honor Magic V3.

(Image source: OnePlus)

According to the information leaked by Digital Chat Station, the test plans for this batch of Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 flagship/sub-flagship basically set a target of more than 5500 mAh.OnePlus and Realme both have over 6000 mAh.In order to stick to the small screen size, Xiaomi 15 can only be increased to 5000 to 5100 mAh.

The other direction is telephoto. Most flagships/sub-flagships choose Sony IMX882 as the periscope solution. Although its paper parameters are not as good as this year's popular OmniVision OV64B, it still has many advantages in technology.In addition to IMX882, OV50M will also become a hot choice.But considering that the sensor size is only 1/2.88 inches, there seems to be no need for a periscope solution.

(Image source: iQOO)

Xiaolei has always believed that the market feedback for flagship phones to improve telephoto performance will be more direct than improving the main camera. The main reason is that the focal length of the main camera of current mobile phones is usually around 24mm. It is still a bit difficult for ordinary consumers to take good-looking photos with this focal length. The telephoto of over 50mm is a good focal length for both humanistic photography and daily scenery. The fact that this batch of Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 flagships can choose to improve the hardware quality of telephoto is still commendable.

In any case, this round of flagship wars at the end of 2024 will be more intense than the previous two years: mobile phone brands have reached a consensus, and the direction of involution is almost the same, which leads to the positioning of products being squeezed on the same track. But in addition to hardware, users actually pay more attention to the user experience of the mobile phone itself, such as the smoothness of the UI, the richness of functions, and whether AI can be combined with the system to bring different experiences. Therefore, Xiao Lei predicts that this round of flagship wars will not only be a competition about hardware and pricing, but also a war to compete for the "soft power" of each company.

In the first half of 2024, the technology circle is surging.
Big models are being put into practice at an accelerated pace, with AI applications emerging in an endless stream, including AI mobile phones, AI PCs, AI home appliances, AI search, and AI e-commerce.
Vision Pro is now available in China, setting off a new wave of XR spatial computing;
HarmonyOS NEXT is officially released, and the mobile OS ecosystem has changed;
Automobiles have fully entered the "second half", and intelligence has become a top priority;
Competition in e-commerce is increasingly fierce, with low prices and even lower services;
The wave of going overseas is surging, and Chinese brands are embarking on the journey of globalization;

In the hottest month of July, Lei Technology's mid-year review is launched, summarizing the brands, technologies and products worth recording in the first half of 2024 in the technology industry, recording the past and looking forward to the future. Please pay attention.