Challenging the impossible, revealing the reason behind Huawei's best-selling folding screen phone Mate X3

According to data from market research firm Canalys, domestic smartphone market sales in Q1 2023 fell 13% compared to the same period in 2022. While sales declined among many cell phone brands, Huawei's shipments in China grew by 41% against the trend and its market share climbed to 9.2%, making it the only brand in China's smartphone market to gain significant growth.

In the just concluded technical communication meeting, Huawei terminal BG CTO Li Xiaolong said that the folding screen phone Mate X3 and P60 released at the beginning of this year has won the praise of consumers, some data show that Huawei Mate X3 listed, soon became the first domestic folding screen phone sales ranking, apparently Huawei's dual flagship strategy has been recognized by consumers.

In fact, in today's "in-volume" cell phone market, the folding screen phone track ushered in a major explosion. According to CINNO Research data show that in 2022 the Chinese market folding screen phone sales reached 2.83 million, a significant increase of 144.4% year-on-year, domestic folding phone sales have been nine consecutive quarters of positive year-on-year growth. Among them, Huawei folded phone sales in 2022 about 1.44 million, an increase of 132% year-on-year, with a market share of 51%, ranking first in the domestic folding machine market sales.

Folding screen cell phones as the representative achievements of innovative technology in the cell phone industry, but also the killer app of each brand impact high-end, the number of releases, the shape of different. It is worth noting that Huawei is the only cell phone brand to launch a cell phone folding form containing internal folding, external folding, vertical folding, it can be said that Huawei folding screen with the most comprehensive product form, mature technology and continued strategic high R & D investment, has a leading position in the folding screen market.

In this communication meeting, Li Xiaolong unveiled the innovative technology on the Mate X3 from several aspects: "thin and light", "immersive large screen" and "rhinoceros communication", which is also The Mate X3 is the reason for consumer recognition.

Light and thin, weight reduction, as the most important development goals

Unlike other cell phone brands to improve hardware performance as the main direction of folding screen phone research and development, Li Xiaolong said, Huawei Mate X3 in the beginning of the development of the goal is quite clear, to do thin and light large screen, to break through the limits of weight and thickness as the most important goal of product development, which is also the most concerned about the pain points of the user folding screen phone.

And to achieve thin and light weight reduction, it requires a comprehensive breakthrough in design, materials and processes.

According to Hispider's experience, simulation design is used in the design phase of cell phones. The traditional simulation design takes at least ten hours to produce the results and then iterate to modify them. In the past, the traditional simulation was slow and not accurate enough, and the simulation results and the actual test results did not always match. Huawei can display the simulation results in real time, and the engineer can input the design plan synchronously, and then see the effect of the simulation results in a few seconds, which brings the benefit that, for example, the original design of four reinforcement bars to improve the strength of the product, through the simulation design, the designer can remove several of the reinforcement bars in real time, and check whether there is a change in the stress performance, so that the redundant design is removed, bringing weight reduction. .

When it comes to thinning the whole machine, the biggest obstacle is undoubtedly the Type-C charging port, and the Mate X3's charging port is only 1.96mm, as thin as the thickness of a dollar coin. This is done by replacing the enhanced structural components in the Type-C with the phone's mid-frame, which is used to enhance the strength of the charging head connector, while requiring an order of magnitude increase in manufacturing precision, posing a higher challenge to process production.

Hispider was informed that Huawei's pursuit of the ultimate goes far beyond that, as they also wanted the whole machine to balance light weight, drop resistance, and bending resistance. But for ordinary materials, it is difficult to have the above three points at the same time, such as aluminum alloy, it is very small density, magnesium alloy is very light, but the yield resistance is very poor. In order to take into account the light weight, anti-drop, anti-bending three seemingly non-intersecting three characteristics, Huawei's R & D engineers from the material, the traditional high-strength aluminum alloy in the introduction of particle-reinforced aluminum-based composite process, adding some micro-particles, the first "diamond aluminum" material, so that its compressive strength has been greatly enhanced, while compared to Compared with titanium alloy, the density is 38% smaller and the yield strength is 33% higher, achieving an impossible perfect performance triangle.

With the material for support, engineers still do not miss any 0.1 grams can reduce the weight of the technical points, such as: the middle of the shield replaced with aluminum, copper and aluminum composite metal to press it into a new barrier to achieve a weight reduction of 0.7 grams. Little by little accumulation, the reduction in weight is very considerable, which also makes the Mate X3 light weight to 239 grams, the first time to achieve a large fold than some straight flagship is lighter.

The Mate X3 is Huawei's first folding screen phone to include a wireless charging module, the thickness of the previous wireless charging module is not good control, will cause the body thicker, the Mate X3 on the use of a variety of programs than the traditional design to reduce the thickness of 36%. the Mate X3 also uses a new material of highly saturated nanocrystals, nanomaterials from 2000 to 5000 magnetic permeability, thereby having the conditions to thin the thickness of the nanocrystals. It also uses ultra-high thermal conductivity graphene, which increases the efficiency by 80%, allowing for both thinner thickness and better heat dissipation, resulting in a paper-thin 50W super wireless fast charge.

Extreme hand feeling peace of mind large screen for folding experience

To achieve ultra-thin and light, but at the same time to have a pure folding screen experience. Huawei is again facing unprecedented challenges.

But for Huawei, there seems to be an iron rule, that is, "if there is no road, then create a road out", first of all, Huawei redefines the opening and closing feel of the folding screen phone.

The hinge is a very important factor in the design of the opening and closing feel of the folding machine, the hinge needs to have friction, magnet suction, each force to achieve precise control. At the same time, we need to do human factors analysis, force decomposition, and insight into what kind of curve is the best opening and closing force curve for users, including the feeling of holding and the way of opening. This time, Mate X3's spindle adopts a new dual-track direct-drive unit to make the movement track more accurate, and the high-precision cam design ensures that the opening and closing feel is consistent throughout the life cycle.

In addition to the opening and closing feel, users also place great importance on the reliability of the inner screen of the folding screen phone, how to create a super-reliable large screen is another issue for Huawei in the design of the Mate X3.

Hispider knows that for the foldable screen, the need to maintain the foldable form, it is necessary to take into account a certain degree of flexibility in the material, and since the ancient strength and flexibility are two opposites, how to ensure that the thin and light at the same time, to solve this industry problem, has become the mission of Huawei's R & D engineers and R & D drive. Inspired by "non-Newtonian fluid", Huawei created the first "impact-resistant non-Newtonian fluid" protective film. It can be strong when it encounters strong, soft when it encounters soft, and the material can resist the external impact when it encounters high-speed external impact.

However, if this kind of protective film wants to be applied to the screen, it must first solve the three inherent defects such as opaque, poor adhesion and easy deformation. After making more than 100 options, Huawei's R&D staff finally found a material that can meet the screen's optical grade requirements, a high-transmittance polysiloxane material that makes light transmission more than 92% and haze less than 1%; at the same time, the innovative formula and process solves the bonding problem for the first time; the innovative polysiloxane cage structure achieves creep resistance at the molecular level for the first time. From a user perspective, the improved impact resistance of the inner screen provides a pure folding experience for users, and from an enabling industry perspective, Huawei has opened the door to the last obstacle limiting the application of non-Newtonian fluids in industrial scale.

Huawei Mate X3 is the first time to achieve IPX8 level of water resistance on top of the ultra-thin large screen folding, which is more difficult to achieve compared to a straight panel machine. The difficulty in design is that the shape of the waterproof control area and the prohibited area is not standardized, which is a huge challenge for designers. There are four times more straight board machines that need to be waterproofed in spots. Any place where the spotting or waterproofing is not done, this whole machine is a substandard product.

In the design, Huawei R & D engineers, the body is divided into waterproof control area and waterproof prohibited area. Waterproof control area allows water to enter, but also out, inside the polymer and metal materials are also waterproof, will not react with water. And waterproof prohibited area, the circuit part is strictly forbidden to have water to enter, in the maximum cost savings at the same time, to achieve the maximum density of waterproof engineering.

Spiritual rhinoceros antenna: better signal and faster download speed

What's more, Huawei Mate X3 is not because of thin and light, but also give up on the experience of communication technology to ensure that the same leap forward in communication technology innovation. For the signal stability in the folded state, Huawei Mate X3 adopts the rhinoceros antenna technology, the phone in the folded state antenna signal than the iPhone 14 Pro Max to improve 2.1dB, which is a very big improvement. Huawei designers through parasitic antenna optimization design, the top cover to make a separate parasitic antenna, unfolded when not affected, closed not only does not affect, but also amplify the signal.

In order to prevent users in use, the "death grip" will grip the antenna to death, Mate X3 using a dual-link design, no matter how to grip, the antenna there is another arm can have a signal, to ensure that the signal does not fade.

The Mate X3 also applies the LingRhin dual Wi-Fi intelligent acceleration feature, which is supported by all applications and determines whether the user needs a shorter latency or a higher download rate based on the characteristics of the data packet, and flexibly implements a strategy for each rate packet.

For example, playing games, need low latency, not sensitive to the amount of data instead, then through the 2.4GHz and 5GHz two channels go data at the same time, which side of the data first, use first, to ensure a low latency.

For example, if you are downloading a movie and need a high download rate, then use the aggregation mode, where each of the two channels, 2.4GHz and 5GHz, go halfway and then converge into a complete packet at the router end to maximize the use of bandwidth.

Through the Ling rhinoceros dual Wi-Fi intelligent acceleration, to achieve a 77% reduction in latency in concurrent mode, when high traffic is required, the download rate increased by 92%, this innovative idea of black technology, completely from the user application scenario needs, to effectively solve the user pain points.

Summary: break the impossible, to do the most user-friendly folding screen phone

From the Mate X3 many innovations above, it is easy to see that Huawei's technological innovation rooted in user pain points, from the design, materials, processes and other aspects of the breakthrough, a ring of innovation converged on the Mate X3, making this folding screen phone than the straight board machine is also thin and light.

Of course, Li Xiaolong also said that in the pursuit of thin and light outside, better picture quality, stronger battery life, faster charging is also the goal to be achieved by the Mate X3, two-way Beidou satellite message, Kunlun glass, rhinoceros communication, Huawei image XMAGE, etc. are already achieved Huawei innovative black technology.

Hispider from the past development of folding screen can be seen, relying only on hardware stacking can not do the flagship, and can not climb the high-end. Huawei's thinking is different, as we can see from the development of the Mate X3 process, Huawei from the user's point of view, relying on long-term and cutting-edge insight into user requirements, with the material research and development, technological innovation enthusiasm and thinking, to create a product of real value and significance to the industry, users and the market. This is the Huawei we know, and this is also an important reason why Huawei can get the first domestic folding screen phone market.

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