Although a lot of companies use the Antutu benchmark test, many in the industry have doubts about the way it tests the companies’ devices, and they have good reason to. It turns out that one of the legal representatives and executive directors of Antutu is the CEO of Xiaomi, Lei Jun. Before starting Xiaomi, Lei Jun was a high-profile investor in China and invested in many companies like the video review team, Zealer. He is also the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Kingsoft which, last year, invested money in Antutu.

There is nothing unusual about this but according to Antutu’s entry in http://qyxy.baic.gov.cn/, not only does Lei Jun serve as a legal representative of Antutu but also as an executive director. Is it surprising that Xiaomi’s phones always seem to get very high scores in Antutu’s benchmark test?

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Huawei is a big enterprise with access to powerful technology while Xiaomi is better at marketing with a long and amazing background. Both are successful companies that have received lots of praise unlike ZTE, Coolpad, and Lenovo. The problem with ZTE is that it does not know how to market their products while Coolpad only makes low-end products and Lenovo is full of itself. Huawei’s strength lies in their ability to make great designs and strong processors, while Xiaomi’s lies in their ability to surprise everyone and have people flocking to them. Huawei uses sophisticated technology and produces devices with good craftsmanship, while Xiaomi only knows how to advertise to consumers. Their products are not actually built well. They also control the Antutu benchmark sites and the tech news media which they use to publish reports that are biased towards their products. If there is a Chinese brand that can conquer the international market, it’s Huawei.

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This week, everyone is at home watching the World Cup Series. Weibo is filled with World Cup tags. But Xiaomi has been unwilling to stay out of the limelight. They lowered the price of the Mi 3 from 1699 RMB (273 USD) by two 200 RMB (32.14 USD) in a promotional sale and there’s no need for anyone to rush into stores.

Why would Xiaomi avoid the attention given to the World Cup and choose this moment for their sale? Here is our analysis.

I.                   Behind Xiaomi’s price drop

Xiaomi usually releases a new device about every August, but the device they’re releasing this time is just the beginning. For some devices being developed, we can only wait for about a month before they can start small-scale tests, and wait until the end of the year for large-scale ones. The reason for the delay of the Mi 3 China Unicom version is because of Qualcomm’s supply of goods.

Around every April is Xiaomi’s golden week. There are no problems with supply and production at this time. Costs for hardware are relatively much lower than the rest of the year. Sales are high and so is the profit made.

It was usually at this time when the competition heated up. Back then, the Mi 1 was challenged by 360 warships. Timid and nervous, the Mi 1 did everything it could to fight.

Xiaomi also lowered the price of the Mi 2, releasing the Mi 2A and Mi 2S.

In June, just two months before they release their new devices, Xiaomi lowered the price of all their devices in stock. So, it should not be surprising that they lowered the price of the Mi 3 from 1699 RMB to 1499 RMB (240.78 USD) at this time.

II.                The competition behind Xiaomi’s promotional sale

It should be said that unlike before, the 1499 RMB price is the Mi 3’s price in Xiaomi’s official online store which has an unlimited number of them. Before, whether they cost 1799 RMB or 1299 RMB, people had to rush to buy them.

Not letting customers fight each other for Mi’s phones meant that competition was fierce and that they had a lot in stock. Xiaomi can no longer practice double pricing to make a bigger profit.

Actually, ever since the Mi 1, there has always been competition. First, there was the arrival of Zhong Hongyi. When Xiaomi released the Mi 2, they had to compete with Huawei’s Honor 2 and Lenovo’s K860.

Xiaomi’s true challenge came when they released the Mi 3. The Nubia z5s beat Xiaomi by installing the Qualcomm 800. More rivals have appeared non-stop. The seriousness of the problem is due to the fact that their rivals studied Xiaomi’s policies in double pricing and letting buyers compete with each other.

The ZTE Grand S II costs 1699 RMB (272.64 USD) while the Oneplus costs 1999 RMB (321.21 USD). The Xiaomi’s so-called advantage in price advantage is no longer obvious.

Actually, the Mi 1 was really powerful. It had great hardware and UI. Other than the way it looked and the camera, there was no competition．

By the time the Mi 3 came out, its rivals were already very powerful. For example, there was no way Xiaomi could compete with the Snapdragon 800 and Snapdragon 801, their 2 GB or 3 GB memory, 16 GB to 64 GB flash memory, 13mP IMX214, and 1080P display screens.

At the same time, Gionee, Vivo, and Oppo’s had customized cameras, HiFi, and HTC, which Xiaomi did not have.

As for software, the miui is still in progress but its rivals are already being developed at a faster rate. OPPO’s Color OS and its features are amazing. I won’t review ZTE’s Shenmei but ZTE has very careful with its performance. Vivo, Gionee, Huawei, and Coolpad all have perfect UIs.

When it comes appearance and workmanship, Xiaomi always believed that the best way to design is to have no design. Later, it will be changed to “the best designs are other people’s designs.” This is will happen when their weaknesses appear in their hardware and software.

III.             Xiaomi’s future

The number of phones created by Xiaomi has grown rapidly over the last several years. It has become a king in the smart phone industry. However, the smart phone industry is starting to come of age.

It’s the beginning of homogenization for smart phones. Other than its first two years, Xiaomi has not had great competitive strength.

Xiaomi will probably make cell phones at a slower rate. If they don’t release a winner into the market, then they will have to find another way to grow. They could try selling their products in the international market.

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As the table below shows, because their newest chips have faster speed, the rate at which Qualcomm develops their processors has changed as well. They would usually modify the framework provided by ARM to get the best results. This is what they have always done from the 8260 to the Snapdragon 800, and the end results have been impressive.

Things changed when MTK released the MTK6589. Qualcomm caused noise with their release of the 8225Q. They, then, continued to walk to the dark side.

There has not been any changes made for the 410 series other than upgrading the CPU to the A53 (A7 enhanced). Qualcomm just limited its memory frequency. The difference in the performance of the 410 series with that of the 610 series is great. The A53 framework was only a little offset by the decrease in main frequency.

The 6xx series will be the worst and most disgusting product in this era of bad taste marketing.

The difference in the 610 and 410 lies in memory support. One supports 533 while the other supports 800. Then? It’s off to the grave, but the name will change.

The writer predicts that the 615 and 610 will score higher in their benchmark tests than the 600, but it probably won’t be as practical and useful as the 600. After all, the 600 is on the same level as the quad-core A9.

So, why should A53 cores be used? ARM gives us the answer below.

The Cortex-A53 is designed 40% smaller than the A9. So where could such a small chip go?

According to ARM, the reason for the A53’s small size is because Qualcomm reduced the cache size and data structure size. At the same time, they also improved its efficiency.

The octa-core 6xx series is not only much better than the 400 but half its price as well.

If they don’t have Apple’s fate, then they’ll have Apple’s problems. This is the Fleurs Du Mal for Chinese low-end machines.

But Qualcomm shows us what they have accomplished.

Qualcomm knows the problems they face. The high-end 810’s memory supports DDR4 1600 and 25.6Gbps bandwidth. The 808 also supports DDR3 933 which has a bandwidth of 14.9Gbps.

Qualcomm also provided their two CPU chips with ISPs to solve their camera-related problems. The 808 uses a dual-core 12bit ISP while the 810 uses a dual-core 14bit ISP, which at most, can take photos up to 55mP.

Even though Qualcomm’s next generation CPUs look perfect, power consumption is its biggest obstacle. According to the amd circuit diagram, the TDP of 8 a57 cores is 30w, and for four cores, 15w. This kind of TMB may become off the charts. As for power consumption, as the Lineup presentation shows, the 810/808 will use 20nm craftsmanship which can consume less energy. But it’s been reported that Apple has already reserved of TSMC’s 20nm process in 2014.

By the end of the year, we will see quad-core and octa-core cellphones that use the 6xx series, but they probably won’t be as good as the first generation which is definitely very sad.

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