On the third day after returning to Beijing, Heifeng Lu went straight to Huaxing Technology. August was ending, and the industry's knife-fight season was almost here. Once September hit, the smartphone market would enter that special stretch when everyone swung for the fences.
Apple and Samsung traditionally chose September for new flagship debuts, and neither brand ever showed up unprepared. At home, Huawei and Xiaomi were lining up their own fall launches, and the timing this year would be tight.
Last year was different. The Hongmeng X series had been so strong that even Samsung stumbled, and most domestic brands had quietly drifted toward year-end windows to dodge the blast zone. That trick would not work this time. Xiaomi meant to punch into the high end, Huawei had clearly banked fresh tech, and both had spent months sharpening their hardware.
Huaxing's third-generation Hongmeng X would be squeezed between foreign flagships and domestic climbers. If the product could not convince on sight and on spec, the top spot would wobble.
Heifeng sat in the main conference room for a final pass on the X3 proposal. Jianyu Liu, the series owner, had been grinding on this device since May, building toward a fall showdown. Everyone in the room knew the pattern.
Samsung and Apple set the tone for the cycle, and for years, domestic makers chased those silhouettes. In the last two seasons, though, Huawei, Xiaomi, vivo, and OPPO had each pushed their own strengths and were now willing to pile serious money into parts and features. In that crowd, a "solid upgrade" would vanish.
On paper, the X3 already leaned on Huaxing Semiconductor, which helped, but leaning was not the same as leading. Without real innovation, it would be hard to stand out.
Heifeng flipped through slides while the team walked him through changes. He did not soften the feedback. "This speaker won't do. The market is full of so-called Hi-Fi setups now, so our baseline has to move. Change it." He pointed at the display stack. "The OLED panel sealing still needs work. The bezels are a touch thick."
He tapped the charging page. "Go bother fast-charge R&D again. We need a higher ceiling. Thirty-five watts is the floor for this phone."
As Huaxing's flagship for the year, the X3 had to hit the top tier across the board and still offer at least a couple of obvious edges. Only that earns a buyer's second look.
Across the table, Jianyu's back was damp. This was the sixth version Heifeng had knocked down since spring. "President Lu, time is tight," he said, rubbing his temple.
"Apple is early September, Samsung is late September. We aim for early October. That means we must start production and build inventory by mid-month."
He was not wrong about the clock. And it was true that the X3 had progressed in concrete ways. The screen had moved to a richer OLED with a wider gamut. The camera system was a clear step up, to the point that the X3's imaging could sit with the best in the world.
Battery, endurance, speakers, the rest of the spec sheet read solid rather than flashy, but each line matched or beat peers.
They argued that they looped for fifteen minutes without discovering anything new. Heifeng broke the stalemate. "Jianyu, stay. Everyone else, get back to work."
After the room cleared, he took in Jianyu's pinched look. The pressure he was applying was not a secret. He also knew why he could not let up. This year, every domestic flagship would show up with a point to prove, and the X3 had to widen the gap, not hug it.
"What worries me most is Xiaomi and Huawei," Heifeng said. "Xiaomi's integration muscle is the strongest in China. If they decide to go truly high-end, they can assemble a monster from the best parts on the market.
Huawei's research depth is real, and their imaging pipeline is tight. With Leica in the loop, they might spring a surprise."
Huaxing was not afraid of a straight fight, but it would be foolish to pretend those two were not coming. That was why he had kept Jianyu back, to decide where to push and what to trade.
He laid out his thinking. The X3 had to be comprehensively excellent, but it also needed deliberate bias. In one or two categories, Huaxing had to go past "very good" and hit unmistakable. Only then would the difference be visible at a glance and audible in the way people talked about the phone.
Jianyu listened, then hesitated. "President Lu, can we really do that. If we push that hard, users may object to what we give up."
"If you do not do this, what else do you have?" Heifeng asked. "Sometimes to take one capability to its limit, you must sacrifice something else." He added, almost casually, "I also have a tip that Apple will do the same this year."
Jianyu started to protest and stopped. "But…"
"No but," Heifeng said, voice flat. "Follow the best practice in the market on battery and thermal design, and stretch battery life as far as we can within those constraints."
They skipped lunch. The two of them sat in the room until evening, argued through the stack again, then called an emergency meeting to lock the X3's baseline configuration and plan. Even the executives who had expected hard calls felt the jolt.
To elevate the phone's defining traits, Heifeng had agreed to real tradeoffs in other areas. When the device finally appeared, it would trigger debate. He counted on that. If no one argued, it meant the choices had not mattered.
From management's vantage point, the third-generation Hongmeng X finally looked like the thing they had been chasing all summer, a high-end statement piece that gathered Huaxing's best work of recent years into one product. Everything the company could give, it gave to the X3.
What lingered after the meeting was not anxiety but a taut, competitive calm. September would bring Apple and Samsung first, and the domestic flagships would crowd October. That was fine. Let the cycle roll the way it always did.
When the X3 walked on stage, either the room would feel the difference immediately, or Huaxing would deserve the bruises that came next.