2020 flagship mobile phone disassembly inventory: single supply chain, creating differentiation is difficult

This year, Jiwei.com disassembled 6 flagship phones from different brands. iQOO 3, Xiaomi 10, Red Magic 5G, Huawei P40, Lenovo Legion Gaming Phone Pro, Samsung Note 20, Red Magic 5G and Lenovo Legion Gaming Phone Pro are positioned as gaming phones. Huawei P40 focuses on imaging functions; Xiaomi 10 is a well-balanced bucket phone; Samsung Note 20 is the standard version of the flagship phone. Different positioning leads to a big difference in the hardware configuration of these phones. Today, we compare these flagship phones to get a glimpse of the phones and see the ideas of different mobile phone manufacturers in making flagship products.

Main control part: Qualcomm takes the lead

The supplier selection of the control part of flagship mobile phones is very limited. The iQOO 3, Xiaomi 10 and Red Magic 5G released in the first half of the year are all equipped with Snapdragon 865 chips, the Huawei P40 is equipped with Kirin 990 5G processor, and the Samsung Note 20 and Lenovo Legion Gaming Phone Pro released in the second half of the year are equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Plus processor. Judging from the BOM table, the main control part of mobile phones equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 series chips is mostly Qualcomm components, and the front-end module, Wi-Fi Bluetooth chip and memory flash memory have different suppliers. Huawei P40 is equipped with Kirin 990 5G chip, the main control part is mostly provided by HiSilicon, and the front-end module is jointly supplied.

Lenovo Legion Gaming Phone Pro and Red Magic 5G are positioned as gaming phones, iQOO 3 is also positioned as a gaming phone, Samsung Note 20, Huawei P40 and Xiaomi 10 are standard versions of flagship phones, and different positioning also means different selection of materials. Gaming phones focus on phone performance, the top processor, and the fastest storage and reading speed, so Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 and Samsung's memory + flash memory are selected. The standard version of the flagship phone has a lower configuration than the high-end version. Although it is also equipped with a flagship processor, the mobile phone manufacturer will castrate in invisible places such as memory, flash memory, camera module or charging power to save costs.

Huawei has its own chips, but other Android phone manufacturers have the best choice for flagship phones, the Qualcomm 8 series chips. Every year, when the Qualcomm 8 series is released, there will be a rush of products on the market, making it difficult to differentiate. If a brand grabs the first launch, the release time of other brands' products will be pushed back, and they are restricted everywhere.

Camera: Diversified image sensor options

Unlike the main control part, mobile phone manufacturers have diversified choices in camera sensors. iQOO 3 uses a 48-megapixel quad-camera, only the main camera is a Sony lens, the wide-angle and portrait lenses are provided by Samsung, and the depth of field is provided by domestic manufacturer GalaxyCore.

Xiaomi Mi 10 uses a 100-megapixel quad-camera, the main camera is from Samsung, the wide-angle camera is provided by OmniVision Technology, and the depth of field and macro are not recognized.

The Red Magic 5G uses a 64-megapixel triple camera, the main camera is from Sony, the wide-angle camera is provided by SK Hynix, and the macro camera is provided by Sipix.

Huawei P40 uses a 50-megapixel triple camera. The main camera is Sony's customized RYYB arrangement super-sensitive sensor. The wide-angle camera is also provided by Sony, and the portrait camera is provided by OmniVision.

The Samsung Note 20 main camera also uses Sony, while the ultra-wide-angle and telephoto cameras use its own sensors.

The camera configuration of Lenovo Legion Pro gaming phone is relatively simple, using 64-megapixel dual cameras, with the main camera provided by Samsung and the ultra-wide-angle camera supplied by OmniVision Technologies.

Mobile phones that focus on photography put more effort into choosing camera sensors. Xiaomi Mi 10 has a lot of pixels, and Huawei P40 has a custom sensor. But for gaming phones, taking photos is not that important. As long as the main camera is not too bad, the pixels and number of the secondary cameras can be reduced. The main camera of iQOO 3 is only 48 million pixels, and Lenovo Legion Gaming Phone Pro only has dual cameras on the back.

Sony and Samsung are no longer the only ones in the selection of camera sensors for flagship phones. Domestic suppliers such as OmniVision Technologies, GalaxyCore, and SuperPix have all entered the supply chain of mobile phone manufacturers. It is worth noting that OmniVision Technologies has successfully entered the supply chains of many mobile phone manufacturers. In the second half of the year, Xiaomi launched the Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra Commemorative Edition, which uses OmniVision's image sensor in the main camera, proving the strength of domestic suppliers.

Screen part: domestic suppliers are gradually rising

In terms of screens, domestic manufacturers are gradually rising and becoming a new choice for flagship phones. As a flagship phone, Xiaomi 10 uses Samsung's hyperbolic AMOLED screen, supports a 90Hz refresh rate, increases the texture of the phone, and the screen cost is $61.

iQOO 3 is positioned as a gaming phone, and chooses a Samsung Super AMOLED straight screen that is more suitable for gaming. It supports a 180Hz touch sampling rate, but only supports a 60Hz refresh rate. The screen cost is US$35.

The Red Magic 5G chooses Visionox's AMOLED full screen, which supports 144Hz refresh rate and 180Hz touch sampling rate. It runs smoothly, has strong hand tracking, has no holes, and is more suitable for gaming phones. The screen cost is US$31.5.

Huawei P40 uses BOE's OLED screen, which does not support high refresh rate and has a lower cost of only US$23.

Samsung Note 20 uses its top-of-the-line Super AMOLED Plus screen, which supports a 120Hz refresh rate and costs more than the processor, at $65.

Lenovo Legion Gaming Phone Pro uses Visionox AMOLED full screen, supports 144Hz refresh rate, and uses a pop-up front camera, providing a better gaming experience on the entire screen. It costs $32.

The part with the largest cost difference among flagship phones is the screen. For the same AMOLED screen, whether it is a hyperbolic screen or not, and whether it supports a high refresh rate all determine the cost of the screen. The cost difference between a good screen and a general screen is more than 2 times. The standard version of many flagship phones will lower the standards in terms of screen, charging, etc. Gaming phones have relatively high requirements for screen refresh rate and touch sampling rate, and straight screens are more suitable for playing games. The requirements for other parameters are not high, and the overall cost is not high.

Huawei supports BOE, and most of its products use BOE screens. Now BOE has entered Apple's supply chain; the gaming phones Red Magic 5G and Lenovo Legion Pro, which pursue extreme performance, both choose Visionox screens; the screen of the Xiaomi 10 Extreme Commemorative Edition released in the second half of the year is replaced with an AMOLED screen from CSOT; in recent years, domestic manufacturers have gradually risen and become a new choice for flagship mobile phone suppliers.

Sales cost ratio: flagships have no cost-effectiveness, only premiums

Whether a mobile phone is cost-effective or not cannot be judged only by the configuration and price. It is necessary to calculate the sales cost ratio of the mobile phone. The higher this number, the higher the profit of the mobile phone, and the worse the cost-effectiveness. When it was released, the same version of iQOO 3 was priced about 200 yuan lower than Xiaomi 10. Many people think that iQOO 3 is more cost-effective, but from a cost perspective, Xiaomi 10's screen and rear camera module are actually 2-3 times that of iQOO 3, and the sales cost ratio is also lower than Xiaomi 10.