2024 Offline Mid-Range Smartphone Market Annual Review: Seven Leading Models and Innovative Features Drive Trends

2024 Offline Mid-Range Smartphone Market Annual Review: Seven Leading Models and Innovative Features Drive TrendsAs 2024 draws to a close, a review of the year's changes in the smartphone market reveals a clear trend: larger battery capacities, more powerful imaging capabilities, increasingly fashionable designs, and a plethora of innovative features. If one segment deserves recognition for its vibrant innovation, it's the offline mid-range smartphone market

2024 Offline Mid-Range Smartphone Market Annual Review: Seven Leading Models and Innovative Features Drive Trends

As 2024 draws to a close, a review of the year's changes in the smartphone market reveals a clear trend: larger battery capacities, more powerful imaging capabilities, increasingly fashionable designs, and a plethora of innovative features. If one segment deserves recognition for its vibrant innovation, it's the offline mid-range smartphone market. This sector consistently delivers the highest shipment volumes for major manufacturers, but what is its allure? This article reviews seven outstanding offline mid-range smartphones of 2024, delving into their design, specifications, imaging features, system experience, and the secrets of their success.

I. OPPO Reno12: The Pioneer of Android Live Photo

Two key features defining 2024's offline mid-range smartphones Live Photo and a "fruity" design aesthetic both originated with the OPPO Reno12 series. The standard Reno12, marketed as a "stylish small straight screen," clearly targeted a specific demographic.

The Reno12 boasts a minimalist design, abandoning the previous circular camera module for a rectangular arrangement, creating a cleaner visual appeal. More importantly, it pioneered Live Photo capture and sharing on Android. Suddenly, smartphones lacking Live Photo seemed less "fashionable."

Beyond its symbolic significance, the Reno12 is a strong phone in its own right. It debuted the Dimensity 8250 Star Speed Edition processor, featured a DSLR-level triple-camera system for portraits, and incorporated a Y2K-inspired bright silver design, successfully attracting many young consumers.

II. Xiaomi Civi 4 Pro: Ultimate Thinness and Leica Imaging

The intense competition in the 2024 offline smartphone market is evident in the Xiaomi Civi 4 Pro. To enhance its imaging capabilities, Xiaomi integrated its flagship Leica imaging system into the Civi 4 Pro, even preceding the Xiaomi 14 and Xiaomi 14 Pro in adopting the AISP large-model algorithm, earning it the moniker "the eldest princess of the Xiaomi family."

The Civi 4 Pro's greatest strength lies in its balance. Among many models focusing on aesthetics, fashion, and the offline market, it was the first to feature the Snapdragon 8s Gen3 mobile platform and a 1.5K resolution Huaxing Optoelectronics C8 display material, similar to its digital series counterparts, offering a blend of performance and style.

However, the Civi 4 Pro's extremely thin design resulted in compromises. It struggles to effectively manage the flagship chip's power consumption, and its 4700mAh battery capacity also felt insufficient this year. Furthermore, the original Civi series product manager transitioned to Redmi, suggesting potential future adjustments for the series. We anticipate a more refined Xiaomi Civi product next year.

III. Huawei nova 12 Ultra: The Most Stylish HarmonyOS Mid-Ranger

As the flagship of the Huawei nova series, the nova 12 Ultra boasts many flagship-level features, such as enhanced communication networks and Kunlun Glass, similar to the Mate series. The nova series has always been known for its stylish designs, and the nova 12 Ultra is one of the few offline mid-range phones this year to retain a vegan leather back cover, offering excellent grip and texture.

In the latest HarmonyOS NEXT upgrade plan, the nova 12 Ultra became the first nova series phone to support upgrading to pure-blood HarmonyOS, providing the ideal option for consumers who want the HarmonyOS NEXT experience but prefer a style other than the business-oriented Mate series.

However, due to its mid-range positioning, the nova 12 Ultra exhibits minor performance differences compared to the Mate and P series under extreme conditions. For instance, it only features a 4600mAh battery and lacks wireless charging. The nova 12 series' success lies in its excellent HarmonyOS experience, relatively balanced configuration, and just the right amount of style.

IV. realme 13 Pro+: Unbeatable Thousand-Yuan Periscope Telephoto

Many consumers perceive realme as an online-focused brand. However, realme officially announced its offline store plans this year, primarily focusing on university towns. Considering the update frequency and specifications of this year's realme numbered series, entering the offline mid-range market appears to be one of its goals for next year.

The realme 13 Pro+'s most surprising feature is its IMX882 periscope telephoto lens at a price under two thousand yuan. This lens is the same as the one found in the OPPO Find X8, yet the price difference between the two phones is almost double. However, for a mid-range phone, each flagship-level feature comes at the expense of other hardware. The realme 13 Pro+'s only significant drawback is its relatively weaker processor.

From a market perspective, the realme 13 Pro+ successfully popularized low-priced telephoto lenses. Subsequently, brands like OPPO, vivo, and Honor also incorporated periscope telephoto designs into their mid-range phones, which is undoubtedly beneficial for consumers.

V. vivo S20 Pro: Flagship-Level Specs, Class-Leading Performance

Starting with the S18 series, vivo found a winning formula for its S series: utilizing flagship-level components to out-compete rivals.

The vivo S20 Pro features the Dimensity 9300+ mobile platform, and its main and telephoto cameras employ the same X200 series sensors, particularly the telephoto lens, which is the first in the S series to feature a periscope design with an 85mm equivalent focal length. Furthermore, it boasts the "Stage Telephoto" mode from the X200 Pro, offering the most comprehensive configuration among competitors in its class.

The S20 Pro also introduces the "One-Click Capture" mode, new film filters, high-definition Live Photo, and ultra-clear portrait features. Importantly, unlike OPPO's "fruity" design, the vivo S series consistently embraces Chinese aesthetics. This year's Phoenix Feather Gold and Purple Qi Donglai color schemes showcase distinct oriental elegance.

VI. Honor 300 Ultra: Maximum External Configuration

After several years, Honor once again introduced an Ultra model in its numbered series. Unlike the previous Honor 70 Pro+, the Honor 300 Ultra directly targets the "Ultra" level, boasting luxurious specifications and performance.

The Honor 300 Ultra might be the most balanced offline mid-range phone in terms of overall configuration this year. It features the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 mobile platform, supports BeiDou satellite communication and Wi-Fi 7 high-speed wireless networks, and includes 3D ultrasonic fingerprint technology, a natural light Oasis eye-protection screen, and hardware-level circular polarization technology.

The Honor 300 series' approach is somewhat similar to the vivo S20 series, but the Ultra model adopts more of the latest flagship technologies, allowing consumers to enjoy a superior experience at a lower price. However, considering its price of 4199 yuan, the Honor 300 Ultra approaches the starting price of the Magic7, blurring the lines between the two phones.

VII. moto S50: The Most Vibrant Small-Screen Mid-Ranger

Surprisingly, this year's first small-screen mid-range phone came from moto.

The moto S50's main selling point is its 6.3-inch small straight screen, using the latest Pantone colors of 2024: Latte, Floral Blue, and Good Persimmon Orange. Its visual appeal and grip are excellent. The S50's overall configuration is also balanced, featuring 15W wireless charging, a Dimensity 7300 mobile platform, and a 10-megapixel 3X telephoto lens, aligning its performance, charging, and imaging capabilities with its mid-range positioning.

In recent years, moto has attracted attention for its foldable phone lineup. However, in 2024, moto also began to focus on the mid-range market. The moto S50, being compact, stylish, and well-balanced, along with its price of around 2000 yuan, has virtually no competitors in its segment.

Innovation Leads the Offline Smartphone Battle

Offline mid-range phones were once considered undesirable, often utilizing outdated flagship technologies, mediocre processors, and uninspired imaging features. However, this year, these phones have unexpectedly shaped market directions.

The advent of Live Photo introduced new possibilities and directions for mobile imaging. OPPO debuted Live Photo capture and sharing on Android with its Reno12 series early in the year, followed by flagship models like the OPPO Find X8 series, vivo X200 series, and Honor Magic7 series.

OPPO further innovated with the Reno13 series, launching 2K high-definition Live Photo capture and 1.5-second recording before and after, alongside AI high-definition cover reconstruction, offering users a completely new shooting experience.

High-capacity batteries provided offline consumers with more choices and influenced the flagship phone market, encouraging manufacturers to develop silicon anode and solid-state batteries.

The offline mid-range smartphone market also began to prioritize "durability." The Honor X50's ten-sided drop resistance gained considerable consumer support, exceeding 15 million units sold. Subsequently, brands like vivo and OPPO