[News] A Comparison between Apple iPhone 16 and Huawei Mate XT

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On September 10, two major smartphone manufacturers, Apple and Huawei, held new product launch events simultaneously. Apple’s iPhone 16 is powered by the A18 series Bionic chip, which is said to make it the first truly native AI smartphone.

Meanwhile, Huawei’s Mate XT, the world’s first triple-foldable phone, redefines the future standard for foldable devices.

• iPhone 16 Hit the Market, Backed by a Powerful Chip

On September 9, Apple held its product launch event, introducing the iPhone 16 series, including the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max. All models in the new series are equipped with the new 3nm A18 series processor, with the standard iPhone 16 featuring A18 chip, and the flagship iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max powered by A18 Pro chip.

Compared to A16 Bionic chip used in the iPhone 15, iPhone 16’s processor makes a leap forward by two generations, offering a gaming experience on par with console-level performance.

The A18 and A18 Pro chips in the iPhone 16 series use the world’s first second-generation 3nm process and the latest Armv9 instruction set architecture. They have a built-in 16-core neural engine, with smaller transistors that increase speed and efficiency.

The memory subsystem has been uniformly upgraded, increasing total system memory bandwidth by 17%.

The A18 chip in the standard iPhone 16 features a 6-core CPU (2 performance cores + 4 efficiency cores), which is 30% faster than the A16 Bionic in the iPhone 15 and 60% faster than the A14 chip in the iPhone 12.

Its GPU is more efficient, consuming 35% less power for the same performance. A18 chip adopts Apple’s latest desktop-class GPU architecture, with a 5-core GPU that supports key functions like Apple Intelligence, photography, and graphically intensive games. It’s 40% faster than the A16’s GPU and twice as fast as the A14’s GPU.

The A18 Pro chip, debuting in the iPhone 16 Pro series, delivers up to 15% faster performance and 20% less power consumption compared to the A17 Pro when running the same workloads.

Additionally, Apple Intelligence’s running speed improves by 15%. Fitted with brand new 6-core GPU, A18 Pro optimizes graphics performance, features a GPU speed of up to 20% at the fastest and supports hardware ray tracing.

A18 Pro also supports faster USB 3 and ProRes video recording, along with a new video encoder and image signal processor, which double data throughput, boosting encoding speed and video processing efficiency.

Apple emphasized that the iPhone 16 series will introduce new generative AI features centered around Apple Intelligence for the first time. Apple Intelligence is set to launch in beta this fall as part of the iOS 18 update on all iPhone 16 models, as well as the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, with Siri and the device language initially set to U.S. English. Some functions and additional languages will be rolled out next year.

TrendForce previously noted that Apple Intelligence is a major highlight of the iPhone 16 series this year. While the LLM parameters on Apple’s devices are not as extensive as those on Android phones, Apple is expected to achieve superior system integration thanks to its closed ecosystem, self-developed processors, and strong control over app development.

The company is also focusing on improving Siri’s accuracy and has partnered with ChatGPT to boost AI performance. TrendForce points out that Apple Intelligence will gradually roll out more features and support for additional languages.

However, its functionality in China remains unclear, and the lack of significant AI-centric applications could potentially impact sales of the iPhone 16 series this year. 

From a production perspective, TrendForce’s research on September 6 pointed out that the excitement around Apple Intelligence has been building since WWDC24, and with a relatively low base in 2023, Apple’s four new models are expected to have a combined production volume of 86.7 million units in the second half of 2024, marking an 8% year-on-year increase.

Looking at total production for 2024, Apple is currently close to Samsung, the market leader, and could potentially surpass Samsung by the end of the year to become the top smartphone manufacturer by market share for the first time.

• Huawei’s World-First Triple-Fold Design Sets a New Standard

At the Huawei Extraordinary Brand Event and HarmonyOS Product Launch, Huawei officially unveiled the world’s first mass-produced triple-fold smartphone, the Mate XT. Prior to Huawei, companies like Samsung, TCL, and even Africa’s smartphone leader Transsion had already showcased triple-fold “concept phones.”

According to official reports, Huawei Mate XT measures 156.7mm in length. When unfolded, its width is 73.5mm in single-screen mode, 143mm in dual-screen mode, and 219mm in triple-screen mode.

When folded, the device is just 12.8mm thick and weighs approximately 298g. Mate XT boasts the world’s largest foldable screen at 10.2 inches, with a high resolution of 2200 x 2480. With a thickness of just 3.6mm, the Mate XT offers a user experience rivaling that of a small tablet, while still being compact enough to fit in a pocket when folded.

TrendForce reports that shipments of foldable phones are expected to reach 17.8 million units in 2024, making up only 1.5% of the smartphone market. Despite high repair rates and costs, market penetration is projected to climb to 4.8% by 2028.  

Samsung, which held a dominant 60% market share in foldable phones between 2023 and 2024, is facing more intensive competition from multiple smartphone brands, pushing its market share down to 50%, and Huawei has become its fiercest competitor.

The launch of Huawei’s 4G foldable Pocket S in 2023 performed exceptionally well in the market, driving Huawei to break into double digits for the first time in foldable phone market share, reaching 12%.

In 2023, Huawei also introduced upgraded 5G foldable phones, including the Mate X5 and Pocket 2. With the recent release of the Mate XT, Huawei’s foldable phone market share is expected to approach 30% by the end of this year.

Read more

• [News] Huawei’s Tri-Fold Phone Revealed Hours after Apple, with Pre-Orders Reportedly Exceeding 4 Million
• [News] Fuelled by AI Features, Apple’s iPhone 16 Shipments Reportedly to Increase by 10%

(Photo credit: Apple)