NIO Phone is really here, founder Li Bin wants to seamlessly connect with the car

Image source: NIO

On September 21, the long-rumored NIO phone finally appeared. At the NIO IN 2023 NIO Innovation and Technology Day, founder Li Bin officially released the flagship smartphone NIO Phone to the outside world.

At the beginning of the mobile phone launch session, Li Bin responded to the long-curious question of the outside world to everyone present – why does NIO make mobile phones?

"This is definitely not because mobile phone companies are building cars, nor is it because NIO doesn’t make money from cars now, but relies on mobile phones to make profits," Li Bin said. "Our reason is actually very simple and well-considered – because users need a mobile phone that is seamlessly connected to NIO, and we want to make NIO products better."

He showed how the phone can be seamlessly integrated into the car, both in terms of hardware and software.

First of all, the hardware configuration of the NIO Phone is basically the same as the flagship mobile phone on the market. In terms of chips, the phone is equipped with Qualcomm’s second-generation Snapdragon 8 leading version. The storage solution is based on 12GB + 512GB, and the maximum optional 16GB + 1T. It is equipped with a 6.81-inch curved screen with 2K resolution and supports a variable refresh rate of 1-120Hz. In terms of images, its main camera, ultra-wide-angle and periscope telephoto are all 50 million pixels. In terms of battery life, the NIO Phone is equipped with a 5200mAh battery and supports 66W wired and 50W wireless flash charging. At the same time, the special project matches the NIO wireless car charging.

In terms of appearance design, NIO Phone refers to the skyline elements of the NIO brand, using nano-microcrystalline ceramics and environmentally friendly leather stitching on the material. In addition, a special version of EPedition has been launched, with red elements interspersed in the fuselage, which is different from the ordinary version in design language.

Image source: NIO

As an important medium for human-vehicle interaction, NIO has injected many software-level interaction shortcuts into NIO Phone.

According to reports, the NIO Phone integrates mobile phones and smart electric vehicles through NIO Link NIO panoramic interconnection technology. The phone is equipped with UWB ultra-wideband technology, which can replace car keys and support unlocking without electricity within 48 hours.

On the left side of the fuselage, NIO Phone sets a NIO Link car control key, which can be just a click away 30 driver interconnection functions, including quick view of vehicle status, parking position, complete vehicle unlocking lock, window lift, trunk opening, air conditioning remote adjustment, etc., in the case of mobile phone without network, it can also realize unlocking, flashing horn, vehicle summoning, remote parking and other functions.

In terms of in-car control, Li Bin mentioned that the NIO Phone can be combined with in-car sensors to identify the user’s location and present a car control card interface with different functions based on the driver’s seat, passenger seat, or rear seat.

Li Bin believes that this reflects the original intention of NIO Phone’s design. "In addition to these functions that can be perceived more quickly, it is more about the seamless information flow and relay at the bottom of the software."

For example, NIO Phone has a more detailed understanding of human-vehicle interaction, such as the navigation route relay, which allows users to set a destination and choose a driving route on their mobile phone. After getting on the bus, it will automatically switch to the car-side navigation, and there is no need to perform additional operations on the car. For example, the navigation clipboard relay can automatically pop up and push on the car’s central control screen according to the location text copied by the user on the mobile phone, and the user can enter the navigation after clicking. It should be pointed out that these operations will not go to the cloud, ensuring the privacy and security of user data.

The Inter-App communications application of the mobile phone and the smart cockpit is the key breakthrough direction of this mobile phone. In addition to the aforementioned functions, the NIO Phone currently also has a panoramic application function, namely "Sky Window". After this function is turned on, a separate phone will run on the central control screen of the vehicle, supporting the parallel operation of the central control screen and the mobile phone dual applications. "Windows is not a simple screen projection, these two screens can run different programs in parallel, which is very different," Li Bin said.

For business scenarios, when users use the super conference, they can automatically transfer to the car after boarding the car, and can also call the in-car hardware (such as cameras). In terms of entertainment scenarios, NIO Link games can also be synchronized to the central control large screen to play.

For more systematic privacy and security issues, NIO said that the NIO Phone’s NIO self-developed SkyUI system provides 0 system advertisements, 0 commercial pre-installation, and only local processing of sensitive data. On cloud data protection, NIO Phone adopts multi-key encryption protection, and data and keys are stored separately.

According to reports, the 12GB + 512GB version of the mobile phone is priced at 6499 yuan, the 12GB + 1TB version is priced at 6899 yuan, and the EPedition 16GB + 1TB version is priced at 7499 yuan. It is currently only available in the NIO App Mall.