More than two months ago, when Apple just launched the first iPad Pro equipped with the M1 chip, the opinions of the public can basically be divided into two directions. Some people lamented that Apple can put chips from PCs into tablets, which shows that its technical strength is really strong; but at the same time, some people lamented that the entire Android tablet camp is simply unable to compete in the face of the new iPad Pro, and are worried about future flagship tablets The market is likely to be dominated by Apple.

In the field of high-end tablet computers, we cannot tell whether there can be a product that competes head-on with the iPad Pro in the Android ecosystem. But consciously, after many years of silence, many Android device manufacturers seem to have suddenly sparked a collective interest in mid-to-high-end tablet products in recent years.

Lenovo is the first to make an effort. Not long ago, they launched the YogaPad 13, a 13-inch 2.5K resolution phone equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 controller and built-in up to four high-quality speakers. Tablet products. The unique appearance and specially designed bracket for "wall hanging use" really make it stand out.

Not long after, Huawei released a number of new tablet products including the new MatePad Pro and MatePad 11. It is worth mentioning that these new tablets all use Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 and Snapdragon 865 flagship main control solutions. At the same time, the price is also quite cost-effective, which has attracted a lot of attention for a while.

However, this is not over yet. Xiaomi’s tablet product line, which has been dormant for a long time, has also received a large number of new product exposures. It is said that this new product may belong to the "Xiaomi Tablet 5" series. It will not only be equipped with a Snapdragon 870 main control, but also have a newly designed system and appearance. It is also expected to become the first Xiaomi tablet to support pressure-sensitive pens. product.

Not only that, on June 15 this year, realme also released a partial product picture of the “realme Pad”. On June 28, a source exposed a suspected CAD design drawing of vivo’s first tablet computer product. On July 5, the European Union Intellectual Property Office also announced the trademark information of "ONEPLUS PAD", which almost made it clear that OnePlus is about to launch tablet products.

Said to be a CAD model of a vivo tablet

As we all know, the entire Android tablet camp suffered a serious recession a few years ago. At that time, not to mention that mainstream brands did not make tablet products, even many unknown manufacturers gave up this product line and turned to producing low-priced laptops or Windows convertibles. Compared with the iPad, the weak performance of Android tablets, poor software ecology, and the fact that cheap and small-sized tablets were squeezed by smartphones in terms of entertainment were also considered to be the main reasons for the decline of the Android tablet market at that time. So why is it starting to work again now?

First of all, compared to smartphones, although tablets appear to have a larger screen size, their internal design integration is actually much lower than that of smartphones. Coupled with the factors of screen material (mostly LCD rather than OLED) and camera configuration (the cameras of tablets are generally much worse than those of mobile phones of the same period), the hardware cost of mid-to-high-end tablet products is significantly lower when using the same main control. On the contrary, it is not necessarily higher than mid-to-high-end mobile phones. Especially in today's era of rising costs, launching tablet products with good performance but lower prices will obviously help manufacturers seize consumers' "cheap" mentality and seize as many users as possible .

Secondly, thanks to the foundation laid by folding screen models in the past two years, Google has now strengthened the application's interface adaptability to "big screens" in Android's official development tools. Although this was originally intended to ensure the experience of folding screen models, for tablets, it actually improves the problem of application adaptation in disguise, so that many popular mobile apps no longer need to launch special "HD" for tablets. "version also lays the foundation for improving the experience of using Android tablets.

In addition, if you have used high-end tablet products on the market in recent years, you will find that they are generally equipped with an "array far-field microphone" function. That is to take advantage of the size of the tablet itself and place more microphones on the frame of the body. What can this function do? It is mainly used for far-field voice wake-up.

You know, it is actually a very common scenario nowadays to put a tablet computer at home as an online class tool or a large-size entertainment terminal. Under such circumstances, tablets, which can achieve better speech recognition effects than mobile phones due to their size advantages, have actually become a powerful link for major manufacturers to further improve the AIoT system.

Finally, we have to mention that there is actually the "drainage" effect brought by iPad Pro. After all, Apple’s self-developed M1 chip has indeed brought unprecedented attention to the new iPad Pro. But after all, the iPad Pro is positioned as a creative tool for professionals, and its price is destined to “dissuade” many users who pay attention to this product just out of curiosity.

At this time, the hardware configuration is generally upgraded, the shape generally looks similar to the iPad Pro, and the price is not too expensive. The high-end tablet computer products of the Android camp have actually become the iPad Pro. The direct beneficiary of the "drainage" effect. This is just like when the MacBook Air was released, PC manufacturers all rushed to make ultra-thin laptops with metal shells. With Apple’s “enlightenment” of consumer demand at the forefront, other brands only need to follow.

The pictures in this article come from the Internet