Redmi Leads the Charge in Domestic 2K Flagship Screens: 10 Million Units Shipped, a Perfect Blend of Technological Innovation and User Experience

Redmi Leads the Charge in Domestic 2K Flagship Screens: 10 Million Units Shipped, a Perfect Blend of Technological Innovation and User ExperienceUnbeknownst to many, Redmi has become a vanguard in the popularization of domestic flagship screens. At the Redmi K80 series launch event, the official figures were striking: Redmi's shipments of domestically produced 2K screens have exceeded 10 million units, capturing nearly 70% of the market share

Redmi Leads the Charge in Domestic 2K Flagship Screens: 10 Million Units Shipped, a Perfect Blend of Technological Innovation and User Experience

Unbeknownst to many, Redmi has become a vanguard in the popularization of domestic flagship screens. At the Redmi K80 series launch event, the official figures were striking: Redmi's shipments of domestically produced 2K screens have exceeded 10 million units, capturing nearly 70% of the market share. Including Xiaomi, this share surpasses 90%. It's safe to say that the Xiaomi ecosystem has almost monopolized the domestic 2K flagship screen market. For devices like smartphones, the screen is one of the most crucial components. High-quality 2K phone screens were long monopolized by Japanese and Korean manufacturers, with high costs limiting their use to top-tier flagship models. In recent years, with the rise of the domestic mobile phone supply chain, domestic screens have caught up and even surpassed their international counterparts in specifications and quality. Leveraging cost advantages, they've brought high-specification flagship screens to more mid-range products, ultimately benefiting consumers. Redmi's K series has consistently been at the forefront of this trend.

01 Redmi First Ushered in the "Popularization of 2K Screens" Slogan

Redmi was early to advocate for the popularization of 2K screens. With the launch of the Redmi K50 series in Spring 2022, Redmi announced its commitment to "fully promoting the popularization of 2K screens." At the time, Redmi spared no expense, equipping the K50 series with a high-quality 2K AMOLED screen from Samsung. This screen's overall quality was comparable to flagship screens of the time, earning a DisplayMate A+ rating and 16 screen records that year. The K50 series largely ignited an industry-wide competition in screen quality, allowing many mid-range users with budgets of only two to three thousand yuan to enjoy screens comparable to flagship models costing four to five thousand yuan or more.

Little known is that, prior to the K50 series launch, Redmi had already begun technical pre-research on domestic 2K screens. At that time, Xiaomi's partner was a well-known domestic screen manufacturerTCL Huaxing Optoelectronics. To create a truly domestic flagship screen, both parties invested heavily in manpower and resources. After five rounds of verification, over 60 design validations, and tens of thousands of system driver debugging sessions, they finally achieved mass production of a "higher-end 2K Chinese screen."

This new domestic 2K screen was featured in the K60 series launched at the end of 2022. It uses a diamond-like pixel arrangement, boasts a 2K resolution, a peak brightness of up to 1400 nits, and supports 12-bit color, P3 color gamut, HDR10+, 1920Hz high-frequency PWM dimming, and hardware-level low blue light certification for reduced eye strain. Its impressive screen quality led many to hail it as the "light of domestic screens."

After achieving mass production breakthroughs with the domestic 2K screen, Redmi didn't rest on its laurels. A year later, with the K70 series, Redmi introduced a new generation of domestic 2K screens. This high-specification flagship screen, also jointly developed by Redmi and TCL Huaxing, uses the latest C8 luminous material, achieving an astonishing 4000-nit peak brightness and 3840Hz PWM dimming. If the K60 series' domestic 2K screen caught up to the performance of international flagship screens, then the K70's screen's overall quality is fully comparable to leading international flagship products. It not only boasts extremely high brightness, display precision, and color accuracy, but also achieves lower power consumption and a more comprehensive eye protection solution. This screen made many people realize: domestic screens have truly "stood up!"

02 Popularizing 2K Isn't Just a "Cost-Effective" Move

For Redmi, popularizing 2K screens in the K series wasn't a highly "cost-effective" endeavor. As a high-specification flagship screen, the biggest problem with 2K screens is cost. Lu Weibing previously publicly stated that the cost of a 2K screen is far higher than that of a regular phone screen: "The cost of one 2K screen is higher than the cost of two FHD screens."

Beyond resolution, consumer demands for phone screens have become increasingly stringent. For example, peak brightness, an area where manufacturers are fiercely competing, requires upgrades in screen luminous materials. Simply increasing peak brightness isn't enough; users also demand no compromise on battery life, forcing manufacturers to resolve the conflict between "high brightness and long battery life."

Even more challenging is the fact that a phone is a system-level engineering project. Improving the screen's quality alone doesn't solve all problems; it requires compatibility with the phone's other hardware and software systems. For example, 2K screens require the phone to have more powerful drive performance and higher graphics processing capabilities. Simultaneously, requirements for high color gamut and low power consumption further increase the difficulty of screen calibration and lower production yields. The direct consequence is a significant increase in the additional cost of 2K screens, posing a serious challenge for products like the K series. This is the main reason why most comparable products on the market currently use 1.5K screens.

In the newly released Redmi K80 series, Redmi has ushered in a "new era of domestic screens." This screen maintains high-specification display quality. Through a newly customized M9 luminous material jointly developed with TCL Huaxing, it achieves a narrower bezel screen form factor, while improving brightness and offering better power consumption. Most impressive is its eye protection features. The K80 series screen uses full-brightness DC dimming and circularly polarized light technology, the industry's first 2K screen to achieve both. Full-brightness DC dimming effectively solves screen flickering issues, while circularly polarized light technology makes the screen light closer to natural light.

To create this "grand slam 2K screen," Redmi's engineering team made significant efforts. For instance, achieving full-brightness DC dimming on a 2K screen requires innovation in materials, algorithms, and engineering implementation. This is because DC dimming at low brightness can easily lead to uneven color and increased screen noise, affecting display quality. Maintaining screen quality while implementing DC dimming increases both technical difficulty and cost. However, DC dimming inherently offers a near "zero flicker" advantage in terms of eye protection, leading Redmi's product team to make the necessary choice.

03 Redmi Takes the Lead in Driving Domestic Screen Innovation

Frankly, the K80 series' significant investment in eye protection may seem "effort-intensive and unrewarding" to some. Compared with eye protection, improving screen parameters is obviously more conducive to marketing and promotion. The K80 series' 2K screen, in contrast, involved significant cost and effort in eye protection, much of which isn't reflected in the specifications table. However, eye protection is directly related to every user's well-being. Many of the K80 screen's eye protection features are unique in the current market and can effectively address prevalent issues like dry eye and eye fatigue.

Recognizing this, Redmi ultimately spared no expense in creating this "new domestic screen." This also highlights a shift in Redmi's product definition strategy: the K80 series breaks away from the parameter-driven competition, defining products based on real user scenarios. As Wang Teng stated at the K80 series screen technology communication meeting: Redmi has been committed to promoting the popularization of 2K domestic screens. Rather than focusing on competing in screen technology through single-parameter dimensions, we hope to start from real user scenarios, connect the upstream and downstream industries, collaborate with screen manufacturers and research institutions, and achieve integrated delivery of comprehensive screen experience.

Perhaps only a national brand like Redmi and a flagship model like the K80 series can truly drive and lead technological innovation in domestic screens. Any advanced technological solutions and achievements can only further achieve technological iteration and upgrading when introduced to a wider market and more widespread user base. From a cost perspective, the large-scale application and popularization of advanced solutions can leverage economies of scale to reduce the original cost of technology and solutions. Cost reduction, in turn, enables these new technologies and solutions to benefit more people, creating a virtuous cycle.

From this perspective, the development of domestic screens, especially top-specification domestic flagship screens, requires blockbuster products like the Redmi K80 series to drive progress. This underscores the significance of Redmi's over 10 million 2K screen shipments and nearly 70% market share. In promoting the progress of the upstream and downstream industries of high-quality domestic screens and benefiting more consumers, Redmi and the K series are truly "indispensable."