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source: lei technology ai hardware group | editor: tsknight | layout: jay

on september 10, the iphone 16 series was officially released. however, compared with previous years, apple's popularity this year is lower. the cheaper airpods 4 and the full-series a18 chip are rare highlights.but they are all "old wine in new bottles", there is nothing new.

if the only change this year can be called a new thing, it is probably the "camera button". although from the operation demonstration, apple has indeed made something different, but for friends who don't take photos often, this new button naturally doesn't make much sense.

image source: apple

however, the launch of the iphone 16 series still brought unexpected impacts. for example, starting from the 10th, various exposure information of the next-generation android flagship suddenly surged. considering that the launch time of android flagships this year is mostly advanced to around october, it is almost the closest time for android flagships to be released to the iphone, so everyone understands.

faced with the provocation of android flagships, apple actually does not have a very good response. the mobile phone market share in 2023 and the first half of 2024 shows that with the rise of domestic mobile phones in the high-end market, the iphone's market share is shrinking significantly, and even in the second quarter of 2024, it rarely fell out of the top five in the mobile phone shipment list.

but compared with previous years, the pressure on domestic mobile phones will be greater this time.

domestic flagships collectively put pressure on apple

in the past two days, a lot of information about the next generation of flagship phones has been exposed. the most critical one is the actual running score of snapdragon 8 gen4. unlike previous test scores, the actual running score is more representative and closer to actual performance.

the geekbench 6 score of oneplus 13 was exposed this time.it uses the snapdragon 8 gen4 chip. the database shows that the single-core score is 3236 and the multi-core score is as high as 10049.after the iphone 16 series was officially released,the geekbench 6 running score of a18 pro has also been updated, with the latest results being 3409 for single-core and 8492 for multi-core.

image source: geekbench

judging from the test scores, although the single-core performance of snapdragon 8 gen4 is about 5% lower, its multi-core performance is nearly 20% higher. although the increase in the single-core test performance of a18 pro is somewhat surprising, this does not prevent snapdragon 8 gen4 from gaining an advantage over a18 pro.

fortunately, this year's iphone 16 and iphone 16 pro both use a18 series chips. although the gpu performance is different, the cpu performance is basically the same. this at least gives some comfort to friends who plan to buy iphone 16.

in fact, starting from snapdragon 8 gen3, qualcomm and apple's flagship chips have been very close in multi-core performance, but there is still a big gap in single-core performance.after snapdragon 8 gen4 adopted a new architecture, the single-core performance gap was directly reduced from nearly 30% to only 5%, and the multi-core performance even surpassed and took the lead. the situation began to reverse from then on.

image source: weibo

and considering that oneplus 13 is still at least a month away from its official launch, the snapdragon 8 gen4's running score still has room for improvement. it is also possible that the single-core performance will be equal to or even surpass the a18 chip after tuning.

there are many known snapdragon 8 gen4 phones, including the xiaomi 15 series, iqoo 13 series, and find x8 ultra. the performance of the above phones is no less than that of the iphone. in addition, mtk's dimensity 9400 is said to be comparable to that of the snapdragon 8 gen4, which means that flagship phones such as the vivo x200 series that use dimensity chips can also compete with the iphone in terms of performance.

as the saying goes, two fists are no match for four hands. i'm afraid the iphone will not feel good when facing the siege of a number of domestic flagship phones.

in addition to the sharp increase in performance, this year's domestic flagship mobile phones continue to roll in in terms of screens, images, etc. according to the information revealed by digital chat station, the xiaomi 15 series will adopt an imaging configuration of a full-series super-large bottom main camera + a full-series telephoto macro, which means that even the standard version will have good performance in imaging performance.

image source: weibo

vivo has also brought out a lot of new things. the vivo x200 series will be equipped with an ultra-large custom blueprint sensor and blueprint imaging chip. it will be the first mobile phone to support true-tcg hdr. friends who have read our vivo x100 ultra review are probably looking forward to it.

oppo even put the words "attract apple fans" on the public screen. in addition to the dual periscope and super-large main camera,the oppo find x8 series also has several new features such as magnetic wireless charging, virtual camera button press and "smart island" notification, providing the peripheral function experience closest to the iphone.

from imaging to performance, domestic flagship phones can be said to have launched an all-out attack, raiding the iphone's past advantages and making the iphone's situation in the domestic market even more precarious.

as one rises, so another falls.

can domestic flagships beat the iphone?

the battle between chinese flagships and iphone has always been a popular topic, and it is discussed almost every year after the release of a new iphone. however, the results of previous discussions always end up being a debate of "iphone has better performance and a better system", with almost no second answer.

but this year is different. this year's domestic flagships are not only as good as the iphone 16 in performance, but also have advantages in the system. taking the most popular ai function as an example, it is currently certain that the first mobile phones equipped with ai services will include the xiaomi 15 series and vivo x200 series. the ai ​​function of the iphone 16 series will not be able to enter the country until next year at the earliest. the time difference of at least 3 months is enough to change many things.

moreover, after the next generation of domestic flagships adopted a combination of large and small screens, the small screen advantages of iphone 16 and iphone 16 pro disappeared, snatching away many users who originally chose apple because of the size of the phone.

what's more, the experience provided by domestic mobile phones in localized services is getting better and better, and even many users who tried to return to iphone after switching to android still chose android after experiencing the latest ios system. as a dual-user of android and iphone, my main phone has long become android. the localized system provides a series of active functions such as food delivery, travel, and weather, which are much better than the third-party functions of ios.

besides,the fast wired/wireless charging of domestic flagships is also an important reason for me to stay.to be honest, i really don’t want to find out that my phone is out of battery before going out, and then have to make the decision to "grab a power bank" or "postpone going out".

so does the iphone really have no advantages? of course not. even though the iphone has been criticized for its lack of innovation in recent years, it still lacks competitors in some aspects, such as video shooting. the iphone is still the phone with the best experience.

image source: apple

whether it is live streaming or shooting video footage, the iphone experience is quite good. the prores video format, which has been supported since the iphone 13 pro, can be easily used with a macbook to complete high-quality video editing in mobile scenes. this is an experience that other mobile phones cannot provide for the time being.

in addition to video, the ios ecosystem is indeed difficult to break away from, especially for some old apple fans.holding airpods, ipad, macbook, iphone and apple watch, the experience brought by this self-contained ecosystem is currently unavailable from any other brand.

although other brands have made great progress in the smart ecosystem in recent years, there is no other brand that can provide the best products in different fields such as smart wearables, pcs, and mobile phones. in other words, if you want the best full-set smart experience, apple is still the best choice at present, but the purchase cost is not acceptable to ordinary people.

in my opinion, the advantages of iphone are actually few and far between. one is video shooting, and the other is smart ecology. the former requires a pro version of iphone to enjoy, while the latter requires the purchase of a large number of apple products. the high threshold also discourages many consumers. this is why iphone is becoming less and less popular in china, and it needs to be stimulated by price cuts and promotions.

however, as the layout of domestic mobile phones in the smart ecosystem gradually matures, apple's remaining advantages are gradually shrinking, bringing unprecedented challenges to apple.the future competitive landscape will no longer be the previous situation of "apple leading the trend and android following closely behind", but domestic mobile phones will surpass apple in many aspects.

of course, i still hope that apple can come up with more innovative features and designs under pressure, but judging from the current situation, it may be difficult to achieve. so how long apple can persist in this tug-of-war may really be a question mark.

in any case, the iphone 16 series "increase in quantity without price increase" will still attract many apple users to upgrade, and many users' wallets are ready. xiao lei heard that many platforms are scrambling for the first launch of the iphone 16 series this year. for example, ele.me will support the pre-sale and spot sale of new iphone 16 this year, and now accepts advance full payment reservations. on the first day of the new phone's spot launch (september 20), ele.me consumers can get the new phone in as fast as half an hour, and it also supports customized services such as installment payment, sealed packaging, and special delivery. friends who want to get the new phone as soon as possible may wish to pay attention.