Due to the recovery of terminal demand, the mobile phone industry has been much livelier than usual in the second half of this year.
If September was a “duel” between Huawei and Apple, then October has become a “gathering of heroes” for mainstream manufacturers such as OPPO, vivo, Xiaomi, and Honor. Behind the fierce competition in brand phone sales is an ultimate competition of various new technologies and features.
In these two rounds of technology contests, pressure-sensitive applications have become hot topics.
On October 24, the long-anticipated OPPO Find X8 was released as scheduled, and its virtual button design has become a hot topic in the mobile phone industry.
Liu Zuohu, OPPO’s Chief Product Officer, highlighted that the Find X8 series is equipped with a brand-new “quick capture key”. Ordinary users only need to lift their hand and press the shutter to achieve a camera start as fast as 0.4s on any interface, easily capturing moments, recording emotions, and taking photos full of atmosphere.
It is worth noting that the camera control key of the newly released Apple iPhone 16 uses a dual-chip design of capacitive + pressure-sensitive, mainly for photo and video control. Bloggers who have actually reviewed the iPhone 16 and OPPO Find X8 believe that the latter’s pure pressure-sensitive design provides a better operational experience.
Chaodian learned that several mobile phone manufacturers have followed the technology, and by the first half of next year at the latest, there may be several new mid-to-high-end models equipped with pressure-sensitive buttons on the market.
Small Applications, Big Progress
According to experts in the touch field, Chinese consumer electronics manufacturers and supply chain companies have long been laying out the design of virtual pressure-sensitive buttons, including wireless earphones replacing the headphone jack, screen sound replacing speakers, touch pressure frames replacing body buttons, wireless charging replacing charging ports, etc.
In the mobile phone field, brands such as realme and iQOO have also carried pressure-sensitive chip mass production, but more are used to improve the gaming experience and have not become the mainstream market.
It was not until Apple, the leader in human-computer interaction, entered and injected new vitality into the somewhat dull mobile phone imaging field that the pressure-sensitive small technology also ushered in a broader growth prospect.
From the actual application point of view, the common feature of Apple and OPPO’s pressure-sensitive button design is that users do not need to wake up the whole machine when using the photo function, the operation is more convenient and flexible, and the power consumption is greatly reduced.
Regarding the behind-the-scenes story of mobile phone pressure-sensitive buttons and smart imaging, there are many different versions in the industry, and the following may be the most authentic one.
Since the advent of smartphones, Apple has been committed to reducing physical buttons and turning to virtual buttons. As early as two years ago, there were rumors that the iPhone 15 would use virtual pressure-sensitive buttons to replace physical volume buttons, and other mobile phone manufacturers were watching and making related preparations at that time. Finally, due to factors such as insufficient technology and production preparation, the pressure-sensitive application of the iPhone 15 was not realized.
Unexpectedly, Apple took another path in just one year, combining pressure sensitivity with the most direct user experience of imaging on the iPhone 16. This clever and subversive innovative design has sparked the collective interest of the Android camp.
Can it become a new standard configuration for mobile phones?
With an annual terminal shipment of billions of levels, the smartphone market is always affecting the nerves of the supply chain.
Wei Liang (pseudonym), an industry chain expert who has experienced the changes of the smartphone era, said, “There are certain shortcomings and even defects in the pressure-sensitive scheme of the Apple iPhone 16, such as the need to press hard to take photos, long press for video recording, and inability to use underwater, etc., but it does indeed hit the pain points of traditional applications. This time, other mobile phone brands may choose to follow on a large scale.”
Wei Liang also emphasized that under the big environment of minimal innovation in smartphones,from the perspective of industry chain technology resources, Android phones have now fully surpassed Apple in the practical application of pressure sensitivity.
Chaodian learned from the mobile phone supply chain that the OPPO Find X8 uses the latest pure pressure-sensitive chip product from CHIPSEA Technology, which has the characteristics of high precision and low power consumption, and can easily achieve precise operation in special scenes such as underwater or wearing gloves.
From 2016 to now, based on its own high-performance ADC and high-reliability MCU dual-platform drive advantage, CHIPSEA Technology’s “pressure-sensitive SoC” series of chips have been updated to the fourth generation. There are three solutions for mobile phone side pressure-sensitive + sliding keys (non-punch pressure-sensitive, punch pressure-sensitive, capacitive + pressure-sensitive), which are used in mobile phones such as Xiaomi, Honor, OPPO, vivo, iQOO, Realme, Nubia, Meizu, Black Shark, and 8848, as well as smart wearables, tablets, notebooks, cars, and other consumer electronic terminals.
However, Chaodian rationally believes that it is too early to conclude that pressure sensitivity will become a new standard configuration for mobile phones. How the highlights of new applications can be converted into selling points still needs to be inspected and fed back by the consumer market, which is also a key consideration for other major mobile phone manufacturers before fully entering.
