Vivo launches industry's first "AI smartphone"
Vivo also kicked off its "Blue" sub-brands for the artificial intelligence era.
Vivo launched the X100 smartphone, with on-device generative artificial intelligence capabilities and features, making it the first commercial "AI smartphone" among major brands.
The new phone's launch in Beijing on Monday night also meant the Chinese telecom giant unveiled its AI sub-brands for the first time, covering AI chip, battery, large language model (LLM) and image chip.
The new X100 and X100 Pro models feature on-device LLM with 7.0 billion data, the highest among all mobile devices. Vivo's LLM, with peak 13 billion data with online connections, offers users ChatGPT-like services in mobile ends, covering smart assistant, generative content production and image generation.
ChatGPT, or chat generative pre-trained transformer, is an LLM-based chatbot developed by OpenAI.
AI has brought the whole smartphone industry into a "new era," according to Huang Tao, product vice president of Vivo.
Vivo, with more than 500 million users globally, is among the top five brands in China. Its bet on AI will bring deep market influence in the future, industry insiders said.
The Vivo X100 phone release also marked the commercial debut of MediaTek's new AI-oriented processor, which was released recently.
The new phone is powered by Dimensity 9300, a mobile processor by MediaTek. Vivo's X100 also marks the debut of the processor, which is defined as the next-generation (mobile) AI chip.
"It promotes the popularization of generative AI innovation applications, so that cutting-edge technology benefits a wider range of people and empowers thousands of industries," said Chen Guanzhou, general manager of MediaTek.
Dimensity 9300 is designed for generative AI, delivering up to two times the performance of previous generation integer and floating-point operations, with up to 45 percent lower power consumption. It has a built-in hardware-grade generative AI engine for faster and safer edge AI computation, according to MediaTek, a Taiwanese semiconductor company.
Another mobile chip designer Qualcomm, of the United States, has also bet on generative AI development, such as showing demos of Stable Diffusion in mobile devices. But its final consumer products are not yet available in the market.
BlueLM, Vivo's new AI LLM, will change the smart technology ecosystem, lead the industry's development pattern, enhance user experience and open up new tracks with more powerful AI, the company said.
Insiders believe the timing of the new "AI smartphone" debut and possible follow-ups is propitious, with the market expected to rebound.
The Chinese smartphone market saw modest decline in the third quarter this year, but it is expected to bottom out in 2023, and rebound soon, researcher International Data Corp said last month.
It's also noteworthy that Vivo's new phone features ZEISS technology after both sides announced upgraded cooperation at the just-concluded 6th China International Import Expo in Shanghai.
The X100 features the German manufacturer's advanced lens, which enhances the smartphone's photography feature in chromatic aberration control and color correction, making it closer to professional camera level, both sides said at the CIIE.
It's also the latest example of the spillover effect of the CIIE, quickly concluding the "exhibition to products" process in China.
Vivo X100 and X100 Pro will start sales on November 21, with the price ranging between 3,999 yuan (US$555) and 5,999 yuan.
Vivo's new "AI smartphones" are seen in Beijing.
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