In the Q1 2024 smartphone market, there's a palpable sense of revival, a rekindling of the excitement and fervor rarely seen in recent years. The advent of AI has provided smartphone manufacturers, exhausted from the relentless pursuit of performance, imaging, system, and ecosystem, with a new path for development.
Of course, as one of the rare industry milestones in recent years that truly brings a groundbreaking evolution to the smartphone realm, the peak of AI will inevitably attract a swarm of competitors vying for dominance. Yet, at present, everyone is still in the ascent phase, leaving us all eagerly anticipating who will ultimately plant their flag at the summit.
Moreover, the overall distribution of terminals on the Q1 list is essentially a showdown between Snapdragon 8 Gen3 and Dimensity 9300. The variables are more pronounced in the smoothness rankings of solo operation, system performance, and long-term usage. Undoubtedly, some of the final data will come as a surprise to many.
In the performance rankings, the ROG 8 Pro stands tall with unwavering faith, while the Snapdragon 8 Gen3 continues to assert its dominance. It goes without saying that in the fiercely competitive performance rankings, achieving a top position without the backing of a full set of top-tier hardware specifications is almost impossible.
Hence, it's evident that the terminals entering the top ten of the Q1 2024 performance rankings are unsurprisingly equipped with the Snapdragon 8 Gen3 and Dimensity 9300, the two flagship chip products.
Furthermore, as today's top flagship devices are all about delivering a comprehensive, all-scenario experience, to maintain stable performance, even when pushing the specs to the limit, the actual performance release strategy tends to be more conservative. Under such circumstances, the battle for the top spot on performance charts inevitably focuses on the category of professional gaming smartphones that challenge the limits of performance release.
Unsurprisingly, the top three spots on this performance chart are all occupied by gaming smartphones dedicated to delivering an exceptional gaming experience, with each scoring over 1.6 million points. Among them, the ROG 8 Pro lives up to its reputation, clinching the top spot on the performance chart with a score of 1,630,111 points.
The ROG 8 Pro is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen3+ processor coupled with LPDDR5X 8533MHz RAM and UFS 4.0 flash storage. It pushes the boundaries of performance while meticulously managing power consumption and heat generation. As a hardcore gaming phone, it boasts robust performance, efficient heat dissipation, and rapid charging capabilities. Additionally, it introduces IP68 water and dust resistance, wireless charging, and a telephoto lens for enhanced practicality in daily use. Overall, the ROG 8 Pro is a flagship device that excels in meeting all the demands of everyday usage. Surely, its performance prowess is set to remain unmatched for quite some time.
Among the top ten products, two devices featuring the Dimensity 9300 chip made it to the list: the iQOO Neo9 Pro and the vivo X100 Pro. While these two devices scored closely, they seem to struggle compared to the flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen3.
It's worth noting that the vivo X Fold3 Pro, as the first foldable product with Snapdragon 8 Gen3, squeezed into the top ten performance list shortly after its release, indicating its competitive edge in performance among foldable screen products.
Chip Rankings: Dimensity 9300 Reigns Supreme in Chip Performance, Snapdragon 8+ Finally Finds Successor
Compared to overall device performance rankings, the performance of smartphone chips is a purer form of competition, with chip architecture and frequency being the decisive factors for benchmark scores. Of course, as a refined test that removes conditions such as power consumption and heat, the scores and rankings on the smartphone chip performance list are more genuine and sharp.
In terms of final scores, the Snapdragon 8 Gen3 and Dimensity 9300, both flagship contenders of the year, ruthlessly outperformed the younger generation. When it comes to pure CPU performance, the Dimensity 9300's full big core architecture clearly takes the lead. After all, with the same architecture, the Dimensity 9300 has more and higher-frequency big cores. In a pure chip-to-chip showdown without power consumption and heating restrictions, the Dimensity 9300 still holds a slight edge.
Sure, if the race for the top spot seems pretty much settled, why not take a look at the latest contender that's been making waves—the Snapdragon 7+ Gen3.
The freshly debuted OnePlus Ace 3V comes equipped with a brand-new chip, inheriting much of its overall specs and design philosophy from the current Android flagship chip, the Snapdragon 8 Gen3.
In terms of the CPU, the Snapdragon 7+ Gen3 boasts an identical 8-core setup to the Snapdragon 8 Gen3, albeit with one less performance core and an additional efficiency core. Moreover, it features a large X4 architecture core clocked at 2.8GHz, housing all eight cores utilizing Qualcomm's highly optimized Kryo architecture, coupled with an integrated Adreno 732 GPU. Aside from slight frequency variations, it's essentially a mildly underclocked version of the Snapdragon 8 Gen3.
Currently, the Snapdragon 7 series has quite an extensive and diverse product lineup, essentially branching out into three distinct series. Positioned within the Snapdragon 7+ series, the Snapdragon 7+ Gen3 essentially takes a slight trim on the frequencies and other minor specifications of the older flagship chips.
In terms of final performance rankings, the Snapdragon 7+ Gen3, positioned as a chip product for the mid-range market, finally managed to surpass the classic flagship Snapdragon 8+ by around 2.4%. As for its sibling, the Snapdragon 8S Gen3, since there have been no terminal releases yet, the comparison between them in terms of strength, weakness, and power consumption may only become clear in the next quarter.
Long-term smoothness rankings: OnePlus 12 delivers stable performance, ColorOS 14 sets a benchmark for long-term use.
It can be said that the long-term smoothness ranking is the most fitting list for consumer purchasing and usage scenarios among the Q1 smartphone rankings. The models listed this time have all demonstrated outstanding performance in production smartphones after undergoing the "long-term smoothness test" conducted by the Master Lu Laboratory. These products represent the benchmark for products that can remain smooth after long-term use.
And the winner of the Q1 long-term smoothness ranking for the 24th consecutive year is the OnePlus 12.
In the Q1 Long-Term Fluency Test, the OnePlus 12 stands out with an impressive score of 14927.11, surpassing its competitors in various performance metrics including average response latency (ms), response latency standard deviation (ms), comprehensive extreme frame drop rate, comprehensive basic frame drop rate, average completion latency (ms), completion latency standard deviation (ms), and comprehensive extreme completion latency.
Coming in second is the vivo X100 Pro featuring the Dimensity 9300 processor, largely attributed to the innovative kernel-level upgrade in OriginOS 4.
The combination of virtual graphics cards, exclusive Unfair Scheduler 2.0, and Memory Fusion 4.0 technologies has rewritten the underlying code and core mechanisms of Android, reallocating computing power to make animations smoother and more responsive, foreground applications faster and more fluid, and background applications better at staying active. Through optimized memory management, the background activity retention rate has been improved, further enhancing the smoothness of smartphones.
The Xiaomi 14 Pro and Xiaomi 14 siblings claimed the third and fourth spots in the third phase of long-term smoothness testing. Despite the upgrade to ColorOS 14, OPPO's former imaging flagship, the OPPO Find X6 Pro, remains competitive, securing the fifth spot on the list with a score of 14268.44.
Smoothness Rankings: Marginal differences among the top four, with the performance of blue factories overly prominent
The smoothness of a mobile phone in standalone scenarios tests the stability of the system's resource utilization and instruction execution when facing complex usage scenarios. It is not just about hardware or software but rather the ultimate result of hardware support and software collaboration. Once there is an error in scheduling instructions, instruction accumulation and subsequent stuttering occur.
Looking at the standalone smoothness rankings for Q1, the difference among the top four is very small, with the gap not exceeding 1 point. The common feature among these four phones is that they all have top-of-the-line flagship processors and more maturely optimized operating systems, which also proves the inherent characteristics of standalone smoothness.
The iQOO Neo9 Pro, powered by the Dimensity 9300 chipset and running OriginOS 4, clinched a narrow lead to secure the top spot in the Q1 2024 solo smoothness rankings. Following closely behind is this year's OPPO flagship for photography enthusiasts, the OPPO Find X7 Ultra, trailed by the Meizu 21 Pro and the OnePlus 12.
It's evident that the top ten spots on the list are dominated by brands under vivo and OPPO, and the reason behind this is largely attributed to the generous and timely hardware support and software updates provided by these two manufacturers to their respective devices. This goes to show that the experience of lag on today's Android flagship devices has become almost non-existent.
In the Smoothness Ranking, OV firmly holds the top spot, while Xiaomi and Meizu are catching up rapidly.
In fact, compared to the relatively transparent hardware specifications, the software part of the system, including its software components, is where hidden technologies are more easily "concealed". How to have a precise scheduling strategy, achieve efficient instruction processing, maximize the potential of the hardware, and control heating and power consumption by selecting the appropriate performance output mode at the right time—these are all the details that the system needs to work on diligently in places where users "can't see or touch".
In the battle for the top spots in the Smoothness Ranking for the Q1 quarter, I believe everyone has already seen that it's a story between OriginOS and ColorOS, the two top domestic systems for smooth user experiences. This result isn't particularly surprising, as these two systems have their own technologies and achievements in improving smoothness.
Especially with the latest system versions, OriginOS 4 and ColorOS 14, each boasting a myriad of exclusive technologies, the battle for top-tier system fluidity is poised to unfold between the two giants.
OriginOS 4, reigning at the top, needs little introduction. Built upon deep customization and optimization of the Android 14 underlying framework, this system injects numerous new technologies into the core kernel architecture. One such innovation is the "Virtual GPU," aimed at restructuring the Android animation rendering process. Its role is to enhance the smoothness of app opening and closing animations, thereby reducing frame drops and stuttering issues.
In addition, there's the Unfair Scheduler 2.0, which first revises the Android system's underlying Linux kernel for uniform allocation of computational resources among programs, and then implements thread-level unfair scheduling. Subcategories have increased network, memory, and IO resources, with a more refined scheduling algorithm that better addresses the phenomenon of foreground resource deficiency leading to lag during multitasking.
Moreover, there's Memory Fusion 4.0 with higher background retention rates, an intelligent scheduling processor reducing power consumption in heterogeneous computing spaces, and system lightweighting. These new features bring a significant upgrade in smooth user experience during everyday usage.
The second-place ColorOS 14 and the chart-topper OriginOS 4 are neck and neck, with hardly any difference between them. ColorOS 14 enhances user experience in six key areas: startup, switching, scrolling, loading, transferring, and displaying. Thanks to the ColorOS supercomputing platform, ColorOS 14 not only achieves comprehensive smoothness but also optimizes high-frequency scenarios such as application retention, cold and hot application startups, battery life, and storage space.
After upgrading to ColorOS 14, the OPPO Find X6 Pro can maintain common applications for 72 hours, with a 6% improvement in startup speed for the top 20 apps, a 90% hot startup rate for the top 50 apps, and up to a 20GB optimization in storage space for the 256GB version of the phone.
Of course, with ColorOS 14 and OriginOS 4 now in the spotlight, both have integrated their own Pantanal and Blue Heart large models. With the support of these AI behemoths, it's expected that the scheduling and smoothness of these two systems will become even more refined.
It's worth mentioning that Xiaomi's HyperOS, which struggled with smoothness in earlier tests, has caught up in the Q1 tests. As a revitalized ecosystem, after several rounds of polishing, HyperOS's smooth performance on mobile phones is now among the top three. This progress also reflects Xiaomi's advancements in the realm of system experience.
AI Ranking: A Complete Victory for Snapdragon 8 Gen3
For smartphones, the unstoppable wave of AI is sweeping through the industry at an immeasurable speed. Faced with this new "blue ocean," all manufacturers are responding eagerly, mobilizing all resources to vigorously push open the doors to the new AI world.
The models ranking in the top ten of the Q1 AI Performance List encompass a variety of large-scale models deployed by leading manufacturers in the market. These include vivo's Blue Core, Xiaomi's MiLM, Huawei's Pangu, OPPO's Andes, and Meizu's Flyme AI/Aicy AI models. It's worth noting that all these top-ranking models are equipped with the Snapdragon 8 Gen3 processor.
The AI engine of Snapdragon 8 Gen3 continues to employ a fusion-based AI acceleration architecture, but with significant internal upgrades. Particularly noteworthy is the upgrade of the Hexagon DSP to Hexagon NPU, which can coordinate the entire platform, harnessing the power of Kryo GPU, Adreno GPU, Hexagon DSP, Spectra ISP, scalar/vector/tensor accelerators, central sensor hub, along with two micro NPU units tailored for audio and sensor processing.
Not only does it consume less energy when processing AI data, but it also supports multiple model generative AI, including Meta Llama 2, capable of handling large model parameters exceeding 10 billion, executing up to 20 Tokens per second, and supporting personalized customization, with special attention to protecting users' personal privacy.
In terms of precision, it supports various integer and floating-point formats such as INT4, INT8, INT16, and FP16, as well as INT8+INT16 mixed precision.
So overall, in the Q1 phase of mobile AI, although MediaTek has also entered the field of AI in smartphones with the powerful independent APU computing power of the Tianji 9300, Qualcomm's devices with the Snapdragon 8 Gen3 dominate the AI performance leaderboard in Q1. This indicates that Qualcomm may be ahead of MediaTek in the AI field.
