At the recent press conference, vivo officially launched the latest generation of tablets, TWS headphones and foldable screen series. There is no doubt that the vivo X Fold 3 series foldable screen is the most popular product this time, especially this time the X Fold series is divided into standard version and Pro version, which is unprecedented in the past large foldable screen products.
Giving users more choices or being the first to make a Pro version are both reasons, but in my opinion, it can also be understood from another perspective, that is, thinness and lightness cannot be achieved at the same time as a truly all-around flagship. This is not only true for vivo, but also for other friendly products that continue to refresh the thinness and lightness records of folding screens. If you want to be absolutely thin and light, you are bound to give up some functions or experiences.
Of course, there are still many questions that netizens and media are concerned about the vivo X Fold3 series. After the meeting, Huang Tao, vice president of vivo products, and Hong Yi, general manager of vivo product line, also accepted interviews. I sorted out the questions and summarized and retained the content that I think is more valuable.
In the first part, let’s take a look at the folding screen series itself. The first question is about weight. We all know that the vivo X Fold 2 is indeed a “heavyweight” player among the folding screen products last year, just as it was said at the press conference. So how did vivo manage to reduce weight in such a short period of time from the 2nd generation to the 3rd generation?
Huang Tao said that although the time of one year for two generations of products may seem short, “Blue Factory does not just focus on what it can do in this one-year cycle. For many things, it has started to have relevant technical layouts a long time ago.” In other words, in vivo’s product line planning, this generation of products itself uses various new materials and new technologies to make large foldable products thinner.
Huang Tao also said that the total amount of foldable screens is not very large at present, but it is a carrier of very advanced technology in the current mobile phone industry, so the speed of advancement and the final landing are more difficult in this process. “I have been making products for nearly 20 years. In my past experience, as long as the product process is very tortuous, the results are often very good. If this product is very smooth from product planning and definition to the final implementation, I will definitely be worried, and the result is often not very good.”
Huang Tao, Vice President of Product at vivo
The second question was actually mentioned at the beginning. Does the launch of the standard version and the Pro version mean that under the current technical conditions, it is not possible to achieve both lightness and versatility on a large folding screen?
Huang Tao believes that “some things are technical issues, but some things may be market strategy issues.” The X Fold 3 series is divided into two versions to consider actual user needs and meet the expectations of different users. In previous market research, users who buy large foldables are mostly business-oriented men and those over 30 years old. This type of consumer does not have such a high demand for taking pictures, but they attach great importance to thinness and battery life, so we need to make such a product to meet the needs of this type of users; another group of people not only value battery life, but are also photography enthusiasts, so “we also have to prepare a product that is also very good at taking pictures. This is the main reason.”
The second part is about topics related to the vivo X Fold3 series and some past product ID designs. I believe this part is also what many netizens are most concerned about and curious about. There are actually three questions at the beginning of this part, from three different media, but they can actually be summarized as progressive questions, so I put them together. The design of the X Fold3 series is younger than the previous generation. What are the considerations? Will the design language continue? Will there be other new colors besides black and white?
First of all, Hong Yi said, “For X Fold3, why do people feel younger? This really proves that what we are doing is right.” Because when the price range starts to drop, more young users will choose large foldables, including some consumer groups who are willing to try new things.
Regarding the continuity of ID design, Hong Yi said, “Under the X series, whether it is the X100 straight-screen phone or the X Fold3 folding phone, our overall design language direction is consistent, or the most important elements are consistent.” These models all use the “circle” element and are constantly optimized so that this element can reflect different characteristics in different products to meet the needs of different types of users. “I don’t know whether the next generation of vivo X200 and X Fold4 will change, but we will maintain the characteristics of vivo. I think this should be in the same vein and will definitely continue to do it. It has the characteristics of vivo, and everyone knows that this is a vivo phone at a glance.” This answer actually confirms that the next generation of the X100 series is likely to be named the X200 series. In terms of color matching, Hong Yi clearly stated that “everyone can look forward to it”, but did not give a specific time point. However, from this answer, it can be seen that some special editions, limited editions and other color matching will be launched at some time nodes or special time points in the future.
Hong Yi, General Manager of vivo Product Line
The next question is actually also related to the color scheme, but it is not about the new color scheme, but why the red color scheme is gone? Why is the plain leather that vivo has always liked gone too?
Hong Yi said that the red color of vivo X Fold+ received very good feedback when it came out, and it happened to coincide with the National Day. The reason why it was not available this time is that users will be aesthetically fatigued and the same color will not feel fresh. On the other hand, as mentioned earlier, after the overall price range has dropped, vivo’s goal is to let more people choose large folding products. There will be more and more young users, who are more willing to choose some colors that suit them and the colors they like. This is also the conclusion obtained after in-depth user research.
As for the plain leather, first of all, the X Fold3 series uses cloud fiber + UPE fiber materials. If plain leather is used, it will not be lighter than the current one. “In order to achieve the ultimate lightness and reliability, we have to use this material, and of course it has to look good. The cloud fiber + UPE fiber back cover we currently choose is the most suitable one that can take into account the ultimate lightness, good looks, and sufficient durability, and can meet the user’s needs in these three aspects.”
The next question is very interesting. Friends who are familiar with vivo should know that starting from the X90 series, the words “xtreme Imagination” have been permanently on the back of the fuselage. Why must this line of words be engraved?
“I think this is the gene of vivo, or whether it is vivo or other brands. I believe that everyone can feel the imaging ability of the product on the X100 standard version or Pro. The most important ability of the entire vivo X series, represented by the X Fold series, is the imaging ability. We hope that this product will eventually exceed your expectations and imagination.” Regarding this answer, I directly quoted Hong Yi’s answer in full, and there is no room for other interpretation.
Then comes the third part of the questions I summarized. These questions are all focused on the next product planning or long-term product strategy. In this part, I will try to simplify the core content that the two guests want to express. The first question is, is it possible for the price of the large folding product to continue to drop from 6,999 yuan?
Huang Tao gave a negative answer, “If we don’t stick to the product experience, we can go down, but Blue Factory will not do that. When making foldable products, we always insist on ‘flagship first, foldable later’.” He also said that he actually wanted to share something with everyone at the press conference, but he didn’t say it in the end, that is, vivo has been making foldable screens at a loss, “in the end it will probably lose a lot of money”, “we are making products at a loss, the cost performance must be very high.”
For the new TWS earphones launched at this conference, users who are familiar with vivo will know that the previous generation was divided into vivo TWS 3 and vivo TWS 3 Pro. Will TWS 4 launch a Pro version later this time?
Hong Yi said that the reason why we divided it into regular and Hi-Fi versions this time is because “the price of the previous generation 3 Pro was indeed too high, resulting in a small scale in the end”. Vivo hopes to truly popularize Hi-Fi, but if the price is too high, the popularization effect will definitely not be good, so this time we chose a relatively low-priced Hi-Fi version. “Unless the purchasing power of the entire TWS increases significantly in the future, we may still make some more extreme niche products.”
The last question is an easter egg. Will vivo continue to update its small folding products? Hong Yi’s answer is actually quite clever. At the beginning, he expressed that the small folding product form has its unique market value and significance. He also thought deeply about what kind of experience this form of product can bring to users and what is its real value? How can we make users continue to use it? And repurchase and reuse it. Then he changed the subject and said, “In the future, vivo will continue to launch small folding products at an appropriate time.”
To sum it up in one sentence, there is a possibility that vivo will launch small folding products in the future, but for now it will not update the small folding product line.
