Why are more and more flagship phones adopting family designs?

       If you were only shown a corner of the phone, could you guess the brand and model of these two phones?

　　I believe many people can tell at first glance that these two mobile phones are OPPO Find X3 and HUAWEI Mate 40. Even consumers who are not interested in trendy electronics can guess their brands from these iconic appearances.

　　It's a magic of design that allows consumers to identify a very specific brand without a 'badge', not just in mobile phones but even more so in the more industrially mature automotive industry.

　　When a car is speeding on the road, the logo icon on the front or rear of the car is not always easy to identify, but people who know cars can take a glance and tell from the double kidneys and hook-shaped running lights on the front of the car whether it is a BMW or a Lexus that just whizzed past.

　　What’s interesting is that although the history of smartphones is not as long as that of cars, due to the much shorter product update cycle of mobile phones, the mobile phone industry has also begun to see some design elements like the "Hoffman curve" that can evoke users' brand identification. You will find that the flagship series of various mobile phone brands are beginning to look more and more similar.

　　'Why don't designers go to work?'

　　What keywords come to mind when you mention Apple? The emphasis on simplicity, technology, or ease of use?

　　These impressions may come from the iPhone 4, or earlier iPods and Macintosh computers.

　　Compared to other products of the same era, Apple always plays a radical role, using new technologies to achieve unique interactions in order to simplify its products.

　　The iPhone killed off other mobile phones that were full of buttons and redefined the sense of technology with touch. The simple technological beauty was interpreted by Apple with a whole piece of glass and metal frame.

　　This impression has continued to this day, because looking back at the design history of the iPhone, we will find that these designs that first evoke people's imagination of technology have never been missing and have become one of the most representative elements of the iPhone. Even though the trend of large glass on the front has already swept the mobile phone industry, you can still recognize it from the vast sea of ​​machines.

　　When a product leaves a deep impression on consumers and creates a certain sense of product identity, the design of this product will form a certain pattern, just like when a Porsche fan buys a 911, he will not want a '911' that deviates from his definition in his mind. What determines these patterns can be called family design.

　　This design element that can evoke a strong sense of identity in users is one of the most valuable assets of a brand. As the number of brands on the market increases, the interaction between brands and users will become more and more precious. In order to establish a more stable emotional bond with users, more and more brands tend to create family-style designs.

　　As Jony Ive, then Apple's chief designer, mentioned in the promotional video for iPhone 5, mobile phones have become the most commonly used item in people's lives. Due to this special relationship, Apple is very cautious about changing the appearance of the iPhone.

　　Even though the iPhone has undergone appearance modifications such as removing the headphone jack, promoting full-screen, and rounding and then smoothing the borders, you can always find some design continuations between the two generations of phones in each iteration. This small-scale, progressive evolution has formed the brand's unique family design language.

　　Behind the familiarity

　　There are many factors that can evoke your impression of a product family. It may be the ID design on the front of the phone, the layout of the camera, or the texture you feel in the palm of your hand.

　　Taking the HUAWEI P series as an example, HUAWEI proposed the concept of fluid design in the P40 series. The body adopts a four-curved display design, which not only provides a full visual experience, but also achieves a smooth transition in holding.

　　In the P50 series, roundness was brought to the camera. The Vientiane double-ring rear camera combination increased the recognition of the P50 series, and was later moved to HUAWEI's first vertical folding screen mobile phone P50 Pocket.

　　With the release of more and more new phones, you will find that the continuation of design between flagship new phones is becoming common in the mobile phone industry.

　　The Galaxy S22 series released by Samsung this month maintains a similar four-sided equal-width screen and a spliced ​​camera module design as the previous generation. Samsung said this is to make the S22 look more stylish and simple while maintaining the design recognition of the S series.

　　Compared with the S series, the family design of Note is more obvious. The design concept of Note has always been to cram in as large a screen as possible within an acceptable range. From the first generation Note to Note 9, the large screen has been passed down.

　　When people's palms finally could not accommodate a larger screen, Note changed from pursuing a larger screen-to-body ratio to a larger screen-to-body ratio. The originally round body became square, so that the large screen could fill the entire front as much as possible. The ultimate pursuit of screen-to-body ratio also coincides with the concept of "maximizing efficiency" represented by Note.

　　This is also why, even if the S22 Ultra equipped with S Pen is no longer named Note, Samsung fans will subconsciously define it as the sequel to Note - the S22 Ultra has too many traces of Note family design.

　　This kind of trace is difficult to be summarized into fixed rules and regulations. It should be fluid and constantly evolving.