For now, Huaxing Technology stayed disciplined around its core, phones first, no scattered ecosystem for the sake of a pretty slide. Even so, Heifeng Lu had already drawn the map. By year's end, he would stand up a voice-driven AI layer and, alongside the handset, begin preparing three secondary product lines.
If all went to plan, three categories would reach market next year, the beginnings of a real phone-centered ecosystem. That could wait until the flagship dogfight was over.
After the Apple Watch segment, Tim Cook moved to the main act, the iPhone. From the day he founded Huaxing, Heifeng's private vow had been simple: beat the international giants on their own field.
He watched the stream with a cool stare. Rumor from Foxconn's side said Apple would unveil two phones that were not the same model, more than a small-and-large routine. The first reveal proved the chatter right.
Cook's opener clearly belonged to the same line as last year's iPhone 6S. Shape and language carried over, a 5.15-inch display, a 1,700 mAh battery, and a 16-megapixel rear camera. On paper, it was a member of the 6S family, yet Apple had quietly pushed a few fundamentals.
The chip was billed as an A9X rather than the 6S's A9, similar CPU architecture but, per Cook's pitch, built on a more advanced 12-nanometer process instead of 14-nanometer. Performance up sixty percent, power draw down ten percent, that was the promise. Against domestic benchmark charts, it would land around 250,000 points, second only to the Snapdragon 900 that had been announced.
With lower consumption, battery life would be better than the 6S as well. The primary camera sensor also took a clear step up. If Cook had not insisted that this phone sat with the 6S series, plenty of viewers would have assumed it was the iPhone 7.
Apple's naming games drew the usual ribbing. Other brands turn a small cup into a medium, a medium into a large, a large into an extra large. Apple, people joked, can turn medium back into small and call it a day. Some even said the "regular" iPhone 7 had been demoted and rebadged as this 6X.
Cook closed the segment with prices and storage tiers. Four SKUs this round, 2 GB + 32 GB at $599, 2 GB + 64 GB at $699, 3 GB + 64 GB at $799, and 3 GB + 128 GB at $899. In China, after duties, the four versions were listed at ¥4,999, ¥5,599, ¥6,299, and ¥6,999 (≈ $714, $800, $900, $1,000).
Because iOS manages memory differently from Android, the RAM requirements are lower; 2 GB is entirely serviceable, and 3 GB already feels generous. Against Apple's own history, this 6X was priced relatively gently, which meant ordinary buyers paid attention, and rival product teams did too. Whatever its place in the lineup, the cost-performance looked strong.
Even so, manufacturers watching the keynote barely spared the 6X a glance. Everyone cared about the unrevealed phone, the actual iPhone 7. In this industry's Spring Festival Gala, whatever Apple shows becomes the reference design others have to measure against.
Heifeng cared as well. When the seven finally filled the big screen, Apple's confidence and aggression were plain enough to make him sit forward. The iPhone 7's exterior threw out the old template.
Apple dropped the home button that had served as its visual signature and went with the hot, full-screen look, complete with a display notch. No home button, a wall-to-wall screen, the change jolted anyone used to the old face of the iPhone.
Few had expected Apple to bend to the market's screen-to-body obsession. In truth, Cook had little choice. If you want more screen in a given footprint and more room inside the housing, something has to give.
Removing the home key frees valuable space for other modules and lets the panel push closer to the frame. The sensory payoff is immediate: a cleaner front and a more immersive look.
This time Apple stretched the iPhone 7's display to 5.5 inches, a friendlier canvas than the 6X.
Then came the line designed to trend. "To deliver better sound,"
Cook said, "we removed the 3.5 mm headphone jack and went with a dual-speaker design."
The hall stirred. Online, the comments exploded. Apple had just yanked out a port that had survived every fashion in mobile, then promised to make up for it with stereo speakers and the rest of the ecosystem.
Heifeng watched without flinching. Price games aside, Apple still knew how to reset the table.