For Huawei, which has gradually taken the top spot in domestic smart phones, P series and Mate series have gained a firm foothold in the high-end market. According to the survey data of Rising Sun Big Data, Huawei's main shipments are below 1.500 yuan and above 3,000 yuan, with shipments in the price range of 2000-3,000 yuan accounting for the least. It happens that this price segment is the main shipping segment of OPPO and vivo. This is also the case. Huawei's next force point is naturally concentrated in the middle price.
It is these two reasons that make Huawei's nova series even more important. This new series launched by Huawei 20 16 was delivered in just over two years with an excellent report card with a cumulative shipment of more than 40 million units. After completing the initial image and user accumulation of nova series, in nova3, the product strength of the product itself was further enhanced by comprehensively upgrading the configuration and replacing the global spokesperson, creating a younger product image, and more than 2 million units were shipped domestically within one month. Therefore, Huawei also launched nova4 while the iron was hot six months after the launch of nova3 to further seize the market.
On the one hand, for a mature series, the product update cycle is between six months and one year, while it is rare for nova4 to change every six months. On the other hand, consumers are more sensitive to the changes in the product iteration process at the mid-range price with fierce competition. So what kind of product is nova4? Let's take a look at the evaluation.
On the polar full screen
As the most direct interaction level between smart phones and users, the change of screen shape leads the continuous development of mobile phones. From the proportion of elongated screen to 18:9, from 18:9 to the irregular full-face screen with more complicated cutting process. The screen size is getting bigger and bigger, and the proportion of the screen in a certain size range is getting bigger and bigger. Through the improvement of screen technology, "full screen on the front" is approaching. On nova4, Huawei's first extreme full screen once again launched an impact on this goal.
In fact, unlike the transition from ordinary 18:9 screen to Liu Haiping, the blind hole drilling scheme adopted by Huawei nova4 is more complicated in process realization. As we know, even the so-called "Liu Haiping" or "beauty technique" will cut a space on the screen to make room for components such as the receiver and the front camera. The biggest challenge comes from the yield of screen cutting and the optimization of backlight module, and more lies in the test of screen technology. The blind hole drilling scheme on Huawei nova4 not only needs to challenge the limit of screen technology, but also needs to redesign a whole set of systems such as camera, speaker and various sensors.
First of all, Huawei nova4' s blind hole solution for perforated screen is not as simple as many people think to "dig holes" on the screen. Mobile phone screen is generally composed of three main structures: glass cover, LCD panel and backlight layer. However, Huawei nova4 put the camera under the backlight layer in the screen, and dug a small hole with a diameter of 4.5mm on the screen by punching and polishing, which did not penetrate the entire LCD layer. This is also the level close to the limit in the first batch of digging screens.
The problem of screen punching is solved, and the next step is how to put a front camera in the hole. To this end, in this 4.5mm hole, Huawei also customized a camera with a diameter of 3.05mm for nova4. When placing the camera, CCD visual alignment technology is used to reduce the alignment tolerance between the camera and the hole center to 0. 1mm, and double-layer stress buffer bracket is installed on the camera to keep the camera stable.
It solves the structural problem. If we want to adopt the solution of off-screen camera, we also need to solve the optical problem of taking pictures. Because for the front camera in the screen, the color cast brought by the LCD screen and the influence brought by the light transmittance of each layer of the screen. To this end, nova4 uses some glue in the gap around the camera to isolate the influence of light.
In addition, Huawei nova4 innovatively adopted the patented design of the ejection distance sensor, and moved the distance sensor to the top of the middle frame, which can also detect the approaching of objects from the "parallel" direction, thus realizing the function of calling off the screen. A micro-slit ambient light sensor and a micro-slit earpiece are also used, and a hidden LED light is also designed in the earpiece, which lights up when charging or message reminding.
Challenge the ultimate screen technology, solve optical problems, and design a set of complex components, just to take another step towards the ultimate simplicity.
In addition, the position of this camera was placed in the upper left corner, which also caused discussion. Some people think that it will not be symmetrical in the upper left corner, and digging a black hole on the screen will not affect the experience. First, think about it carefully. In fact, most mobile phone cameras are not in the middle of the screen, but on both sides of the receiver. On the right side, it is also easier to be ignored by users, which ensures the overall sense of the screen to the greatest extent.
Moreover, this time, Huawei nova4 designed a screen with a screen ratio of 19.25:9, which is only slightly different from the conventional 19:9 screen, but only leaves a space for the camera, so that EMUI can continue to make special optimization for the ultimate comprehensive screen in the UI in the future. When watching videos, whether it's Youku, Iqiyi or Didi, most of the videos are traditional 16:9, which won't be ugly.
When playing games, we usually hold the mobile phone sideways and put the volume button on the table. In this way, the position of the front camera will just fall outside the operation area and be blocked by fingers, which will not affect the operation and experience of the game.
Design:
Thanks to the ultimate comprehensive screen design, Huawei nova4 not only increased the screen size, but also increased the screen ratio from 83.4% to 86.3% when the overall length and width were almost the same as those of nova3. Huawei nova4 adopts LTPS IPS screen with resolution of 23 10* 1080, which makes the appearance more delicate and transparent.
In addition, the border color of Huawei nova4' s screen panel is all adjusted to black to ensure "zero color difference" with the screen when it is off-screen, which brings "interesting screen aesthetics". And the curve radian of the four corners of the screen is consistent with the radian of the R corner of the frame, so that the visual experience is smoother.
Huawei nova4 has a good grasp of the width of the border as a whole, and the upper border is only 1.85mm, which is "narrow" enough in visual perception. Moreover, for nova4, Huawei also innovatively designed the "ejection" distance sensor.
Huawei nova4 adopts double-sided glass design, bringing four colors: bright black, Fritillaria white, Yin Sulan and Mi Yuhong. For a long time, as a product that focuses on young people, Huawei nova series has adopted bold and avant-garde colors in color matching. This time, the main honey-red color matching adopts double-layer coating technology and nano-texture technology, which not only has a dazzling effect on the whole back, but also the colorful lines in details are more in line with the side that young people want to highlight their personality.
The overall design of the back of the fuselage still adopts Huawei's very popular horizontal design this year. The rear adopts 48 million pixels wide-angle three shots, and the aperture of three lenses is written next to it, which shows a sense of technology in fashion. When users take photos with their mobile phones horizontally, they feel like a card machine.
In general, Huawei nova4 continues the fashion DNA of nova series, with high saturation color matching and exquisite details. In this era when Yan value is justice, it is attractive enough for young users at first sight. And the ultimate comprehensive screen of innovation, without losing the sense of technology.
Poster-level AI micro-plastic beauty
Photographing has always been the gene of nova products. For today's young users, selfie is undoubtedly one of the most important functions in mobile phones. The slogan of poster-level selfie was played on nova3, which can directly output 24 million pixels of high-definition movies, and each pixel is generated by real light. Further upgrade on nova4, using 25 megapixel IMX576 sensor, F 2.0 aperture, with hardware-level HDR Pro function. While still supporting "poster-level" clarity, the beauty algorithm is further upgraded, and combined with the independent NPU of Kirin 970, it brings "AI micro-plastic beauty".
In the latest beauty algorithm, we learned a lot of selfie data through AI. Firstly, we established the golden ratio parameter models of seven typical Asian faces. When users take photos, they quickly convert 2D plane images into 3D face models, match the 3D face models that are most suitable for users according to their facial features such as face shape, fatness and thinness, find the differences between the two 3D models, carry out micro-shaping, and finally turn back to 2D photos to realize the "customized" contours that are most suitable for users.
In terms of post-photographing, nova4 (High Edition) adopts a 48-megapixel main camera+1 6 million super wide-angle camera+2 million depth-of-field camera with an aperture of f 1.8+f 2.2+f 2.4, which supports a 4-in 1.6 micron. In professional SLR wide-angle lenses, the definition of "super wide-angle lens" is that the focal length is 20- 13mm and the viewing angle is 94- 1 18 degrees. This super wide-angle lens on nova4 almost reaches the limit shooting angle on a smartphone. What is the actual photo effect? Let's take a look at the proofs.
First of all, the super wide-angle lens can undoubtedly bring a wider picture and more information, especially in a wider building complex. You can only see a small part of the square with a single focal length, and you can see almost the whole store with a 0.6-fold super wide-angle lens.
It is precisely because the super wide-angle lens can shoot more scenes and has a longer focal length and depth of field that it can bring a stronger sense of depth when shooting. And thanks to the AI function of the independent NPU on Kirin 970, the distortion caused by the edge of wide-angle photos has also been obviously corrected.
During normal shooting, Huawei nova4 can intelligently identify 22 kinds of labels such as portraits, food, flowers and plants, and make targeted optimization. It can be seen that the photo of nova4 has high color saturation and transparency, and thanks to the 4-in 1 large pixel technology, the picture brightness is high.
Nova4 performs well in low light at night. The brightness of the picture is excellent and the purity of the background is high.
(The picture above shows the handheld super night scene without AIS turned on, and the handheld super night scene with AIS turned on in the afternoon. )
The more extreme scene is the display time of AIS handheld super night scene. Through the light detection, anti-shake processing and AI image of Zhang Hecheng with AIS hand-held super night scene, it can be clearly seen that after turning on AIS hand-held super night scene, more picture information will be obtained, and the noise control in the dark part is still excellent.
Summary: On the camera itself, Huawei nova4 has excellent camera ability. In addition to its own quality, AI imaging is very friendly to many ordinary white users, which not only provides more scene optimization, but also its own film color is pleasing to the eye, which is more conducive to social communication. 4-in-1 1 optical fusion technology, relaxing the limitation of taking pictures. On the other hand, due to the inherent internal volume of the mobile phone, the performance of the camera in other special scenes is incomparable to various lenses of professional cameras. With the addition of Huawei nova4 super wide-angle lens, mobile phone photography has expanded the diversity and interest of mobile phone photography beyond the conventional dimension.
EMUI 9: Lighter, Faster and Smarter
Huawei nova4 is eqUIpped with EMUI 9.0 and has made some adjustments on the ui. The icons on the desktop have been fine-tuned, with smaller rounded corners and more square icons. The setup interface has been streamlined, and the page is more concise and clear. Are more in line with the aesthetics of young people.
And the full-screen gestures added for full-screen are also very easy to use. Not only does it support sliding back to the desktop and hovering to enter multi-tasks, but it is also convenient to slide inward on both sides of the screen to complete the return. The whole over animation becomes more dynamic.
In addition, in EMUI 9.0, HiVision visual wisdom has been added. With the AI capability of independent NPU on Kirin 970, Huawei nova4 can not only identify food, but also display the calories of different foods, helping you manage your body better and burn calories. At the same time, it has the function of knowing things and shopping. As long as you aim at the screen, you can display your scanned object and give relevant e-commerce links.
Not only that, Huawei nova4 also supports AR full-screen translation and translation between Chinese, English, Japanese, French and Russian. It's convenient to go out, especially when ordering food.
Evaluation summary:
Back to the problem at the beginning of our evaluation, the nova series has been upgraded in the past six months alone. From the perspective of product strength, Huawei nova4 and nova3 have very different experiences. Whether it is the technological progress brought by the ultimate comprehensive screen or the freshness (attraction) that consumers see at first sight when buying, Huawei nova4 has obvious differentiation from the previous generation. Judging from the actual experience, Huawei nova4 is ready for the extreme full screen, regardless of the self-timer and game experience that young people are most concerned about now, and has not affected the actual experience of users for innovation.
For Huawei, the high-end market has been firmly established, and the low-end market has almost completely become a stock market. Want to continue to make a breakthrough, its force point is undoubtedly in the mid-end market. As a "latecomer", Huawei's nova series started from 16 and experienced two years of accumulation. Through various strategies such as changing spokespersons and giving products more cutting-edge elements, more attention is paid to young users born after 1995 and 00. Now they have a certain brand image among young users, conveying a completely different tonality from Mate series and P series. In terms of market recognition, especially the price of the secondary market, Huawei nova has also experienced a steady and continuous diving from the initial product area to the present, and has gradually been accepted by users, becoming an accelerant for Huawei's next growth.