Smartphone firms flex their muscles at MWC
Chinese smartphone vendors flexed their muscles, covering new-tech screens, patents, business expansion and high sales growth, during the MWC Shanghai 2021 event which opened on Tuesday.
Products included Huawei’s latest foldable model, Oppo’s flash charging technology and phones featuring artificial intelligence features and the latest chips.
Huawei displayed its latest Mate X2 foldable model with a dual-screen and optimized design. The debut of the high-end model, which costs more than US$2,000, shows Huawei’s ambition to develop its smartphone business even under strict US tech bans.
Huawei's latest foldable phone
Oppo launched its flash charging ecosystem, including the debut of a 125W flash charger which can fully charge a smartphone in just 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, it has joined over 40 firms, including NXP and Anker, to adopt charging technologies in various industries, including smartphone, consumer electronic, automotive and the Internet of Things industries. Oppo and chip designer NXP have cooperated in in-vehicle wireless charging services.
The company also displayed a concept phone with scrolled screen with also supports wireless charging at its booth.
Oppo's concept phone featuring scrolled screen and wireless charging.
Realme, which has more than 70 million users, sold more than 42.4 million smartphones last year with a 65 percent growth year on year, the only major smartphone brand with over 50 percent growth rate in the year of the pandemic.
The company aims to expand into high-end markets with its Realme GT product line in 2021, a year that is “full of hope and change (on the market landscape),” Xu Qi, Realme’s vice president, said.
ZTE, China Unicom and Unisoc, a Chinese mobile chip designer, also displayed their latest products in the booth.
Shanghai-based Unisoc, which is preparing to list on the Shanghai STAR Market, displayed smartphones with its latest 5G chip from brands such as Hisense, China Telecom and ZTE. Some chips feature 5G and AI innovations like “bone recognition” features, which can be used in motion capture, smart driving and picture automatic optimization for curves.
Unisoc displayed an AI feature called "bone recognition."
