Heifeng Lu stood onstage, took in the audience's slightly confused looks, and raised the microphone. "This is what our competitors are using. Since everyone loves numbers, let's put them side by side and compare."
He had expected this reaction. If he only listed specs for Huaxing's panel by itself, most buyers would not feel how strong it was. So he brought up two direct reference points: Xiaomi's new flagship line and Samsung's Galaxy Note5.
Once the big screen showed the side-by-side comparison, both the in-person crowd and the livestream finally understood what Heifeng was driving at. Aside from resolution, Huaxing's display beat the Note5 across the board, which pushed them to the same practical conclusion: overall display quality was effectively on the same tier as Samsung's.
Xiaomi's new flagship, by contrast, looked like a supporting actor in the wrong movie. On that comparison, it existed mainly to make the Harmony X3's screen look even more dominant.
Seeing the excitement in the room, Heifeng smiled. "You've all seen the display. But I know a screen alone doesn't prove everything."
"So next, I'll walk you through the third-generation Harmony X's performance, camera, and battery life."
He pivoted smoothly because, for most people, a phone's strength still starts with the chipset.
"This time, we're still using our graphics-forward Kunpeng A-series processor," Heifeng said, "but now it's built on an all-new 12 nm process."
At the moment, 12 nm was the best process Huaxing Semiconductor was shipping at scale. According to Heifeng, the company had already fully mastered 10 nm and was still pushing toward 7 nm.
As he finished, a performance comparison appeared behind him.
This year's Kunpeng A3 was roughly 20% ahead of the Snapdragon 900 in CPU performance, while holding its own in the other categories. On the live test results, the Harmony X3 equipped with Kunpeng A3 posted an AnTuTu score of 281,234, beating the Mi 5's 262,224.
It was also only a few thousand points behind the customized Snapdragon 901 used in the Xiaomi MIX.
That single number did what numbers always do. It made the argument concrete. The Kunpeng A3 was clearly a top-tier chip, and it meant the third-generation Harmony X was already sitting at the top end of flagship performance.
The audience liked what they had seen so far. Between the screen and the processor results, the third-generation Harmony X looked competitive with any flagship currently on the market. If the camera and battery held up, it would land as an actual all-around premium device.
Heifeng moved on immediately. "This time, we're using a 48 MP main camera for the first time," he said. "For photography, it won't lose to any flagship."
In his view, the camera would be the third-generation Harmony X's sharpest weapon. At this point in the market, a 48 MP primary sensor was ahead of its time, and it was a selling point that grabbed attention instantly.
Other manufacturers watching the launch had more complicated reactions.
They understood that photography quality is not decided by megapixels alone. Sensor quality, lens design, image processing, focusing system, stabilization, and each company's own imaging algorithms all mattered. It was a full pipeline, not a single spec line.
Apple was the classic example. Its megapixel count was not always the highest, yet its photos could still beat a lot of competitors because of sensor quality and the chip's image-processing pipeline.
But everyone also knew Huaxing's imaging algorithms were considered industry-leading, and Huaxing's A-series processors were strong in the exact place that matters for computational photography. If you paired that software and silicon with a high-end camera module, the results would not be subtle.
Heifeng did not hide the module details.
The rear system used Sony's IMX266 sensor, which meant it was working from the mainstream Android flagship baseline for the year. The core stack was a 48 MP ultra-clear primary camera plus a 12 MP wide-angle lens, already pushing beyond most competing flagships on paper.
This generation also adopted a new optical image stabilization system and an updated hybrid focusing technology to lock focus quickly for mobile shooting. For Zoom, it supported 5x optical zoom and up to 20x hybrid zoom, keeping its long-range shooting in the flagship tier.
The front camera setup was also upgraded. Because of the new pop-up design, the phone now carries two selfie cameras: a 20 MP portrait camera and an 8 MP wide-angle lens.
The crowd's reaction was immediate.
"No way. That's serious."
"Huaxing's photography is always reliable."
"These camera specs are crazy. I want to see the real photos."
"With numbers like that, how bad could it possibly be?"
"I'm done thinking about it. I'm buying it first. This has to be top-tier photography for this year's flagships."
Once those camera specs hit the screen, a lot of viewers decided the third-generation Harmony X had reached the top level. Even people who typically dismissed spec talk had to admit the module looked like the most aggressive offering among Android flagships this year.
Heifeng was still worried that raw parameters would not fully translate into confidence, so he gave them something easier to judge.
"Come on," he said. "Let's watch a short film shot on the third-generation Harmony X."
He sounded entirely sure. In his mind, across the entire phone market, only Apple could really go toe-to-toe with Huaxing on photo and video.