The Design Delta设计三角洲

Field guide · 2026 · Pearl River Delta · 珠三角

Who designs
what.谁来设计

China doesn't design everywhere. It designs somewhere specific.

Most hardware isn't drawn from scratch. You go to a house that already owns the reference platform and the factory relationships, and you bring the brand. This is a practical field guide to those houses across the Pearl River Delta, who designs what, product by product, where they cluster, and how to reach them.

01 / The products

The products

Every product here opens to the industry behind it and the houses that own the design, in detail, with direct contacts.

HRM
Heart Rate Monitors 心率监测

The sensor behind the strap. ECG chest belts and optical armbands, ANT+ and BLE, a tight Bao'an sub-cluster in Shenzhen.

3 houses · Shenzhen
AUD
Earbuds & Headphones 耳机音频

The chipset is the reference design. TWS, ANC and gaming headsets across the Shenzhen-Dongguan-Huizhou audio corridor.

4 houses · SZ · DG · HZ
SPK
Bluetooth Speakers 蓝牙音箱

A driver, an amp and a box around the same audio chipset. Outdoor boomboxes, party trolleys and pool floaters, the layer beneath JBL and Soundcore.

4 houses · Guangzhou · SZ
MIC
Microphones 麦克风

A capsule plus a chain to carry what it hears. USB studio mics, 2.4G wireless lavaliers and UHF stage systems, where Enping and Shenzhen design for everyone.

4 houses · Enping · SZ
SWT
Smartwatches 智能手表

RTOS and Android, PPG and GPS and ECG. From kids GPS watches to medical-grade rings, the wearable layer beneath the brands.

4 houses · Shenzhen
PWR
Power Banks & GaN Chargers 充电与电源

The cell plus the power IC, and for GaN the power transistor. Tiny high-watt chargers and wireless banks, the layer beneath Anker and UGREEN.

4 houses · SZ · Foshan
LCK
Smart Locks 智能门锁

Mechatronics plus credentials plus a cloud, on one door. Fingerprint, 3D face and RFID on Tuya or TTLock, the layer beneath Kaadas and Dessmann.

4 houses · Zhongshan · SZ · Foshan
SEC
Video Doorbells & Home Security 门铃安防

A camera, a radio and someone else’s cloud. The SoC-sensor-cloud stack beneath Ring and eufy, where GDPR is the real gate.

4 houses · SZ · Guangzhou
PAY
Payment Terminals 支付终端

SmartPOS, PIN pads and EFT-POS. Home to two of the world's largest terminal makers, the moat is the certified secure platform, not the plastic.

3 houses · Shenzhen · Foshan
ETB
Electric Toothbrushes 电动牙刷

Sonic and maglev drives, IPX7, induction charging. The manual brush belongs to Yangzhou, the electric one is designed in Shenzhen.

4 houses · Shenzhen
MKS
Mechanical Keyboard Switches 机械轴

Four parts around the Cherry MX cross-stem, free since Cherry's patent lapsed. Linears, tactiles and magnetic rapid-trigger, the layer beneath Cherry and Keychron.

4 houses · Dongguan · Huizhou
KBD
Mechanical Keyboards 机械键盘

Switches dropped into a PCB, plate and case. Gasket customs, hot-swap gaming boards and magnetic rapid-trigger, from Akko and RK down to white-label OEMs.

4 houses · Dongguan · SZ
MSE
Computer Mice 鼠标

Built around a PixArt sensor, raced on grams and hertz. 8K-polling ultralights and office combos, the layer beneath Logitech and Razer.

4 houses · SZ · Dongguan · Guangzhou
ACAM
Action Cameras 运动相机

A Sony sensor and an ISP, in a waterproof shell. Budget GoPro alternatives and body cams, the layer beneath DJI, Insta360 and GoPro.

4 houses · Shenzhen
DRONE
Drones 无人机

A flight stack, a gimbal and a radio link around one airframe. FPV, agriculture and survey, the niches DJI's shadow doesn't cover.

4 houses · SZ · Guangzhou
HUM
Humanoid Robots 人形机器人

Forty joints, two computers and nothing to badge. The one product here with no reference design to buy, where the delta sells actuators and hands instead.

6 houses · SZ · GZ · Foshan
TOY
Smart Plush Toys 智能毛绒玩具

A mic, a speaker and somebody else's language model, wrapped in fur. Zhuhai silicon, Dongguan soft goods, and a child-safety gate that can switch your product off overnight.

5 houses · SZ · Zhuhai · Dongguan
WCAM
AI Wearable Cameras AI 穿戴相机

Pendants and camera glasses that log a life for an agent to answer questions about. The platform is Qualcomm's and the brands are San Francisco's; the delta owns the optics and the build.

4 houses · SZ · Dongguan
CBL
USB-C Cables & Connectors 数据线与连接器

An IC costing cents, copper costing pennies and a certificate. The one product here with nothing to badge, which is exactly why it is the most substituted line on any BOM.

4 houses · Shenzhen
RING
Smart Rings 智能戒指

A watch with the screen deleted and the volume cut by ninety percent. The battery sets the design and Oura's patents set the market, as an ITC exclusion order proved.

4 houses · Shenzhen
TAB
Android Tablets 安卓平板

The turnkey model in its purest surviving form, and the last computer you can still badge. Zhuhai silicon, Shenzhen glass, and Google's licence as the only real gate.

4 houses · Zhuhai · Shenzhen
FAN
Handheld Fans 手持风扇

A motor, a cell and a moulding, sold by the tens of millions. The driver chip decides noise and runtime, and a 2027 EU rule ends the glued shell.

4 houses · Shenzhen
VAPE
Vapes 电子烟

Ceramic atomisation, made in Bao'an for the world. The one category where the ODM outweighs its own customers, and where legislation decides everything.

4 houses · SZ · Bao'an
IVI
Car Head Units 车机

The two-DIN DVD player became a cockpit platform. Two industries share this dashboard, the Huizhou tier ones and the Guangzhou aftermarket, and they barely touch.

4 houses · Huizhou · SZ · GZ
3DP
3D Printers 3D 打印机

Four Shenzhen houses hold over ninety percent of the world's entry-level machines. An open-source category, industrialised and then closed, now fought over in court.

4 houses · Shenzhen
NET
WiFi Routers 路由器

Foreign silicon, Shenzhen everything else, and a vast carrier CPE trade behind the brands. In March 2026 the US barred foreign-produced routers on where they are designed.

5 houses · Shenzhen
WHT
White Goods 白色家电

The world's largest appliance base, concentrated in Shunde and Zhuhai. The compressor decides the product, and from 2027 the refrigerant forces it to be redesigned.

4 houses · Foshan · Zhuhai
ESS
Home Energy Storage 家庭储能

Portable boxes and wall batteries share a bill of materials and nothing else. The cell is a commodity, the hybrid inverter is the product, and every country's grid code is a separate door.

4 houses · Shenzhen
GAME
Handheld Consoles 掌上游戏机

Nobody outside Shenzhen builds the emulation handheld as a product class. The hardware is legal, the library is the exposure, and a tariff line decides whether it ships.

4 houses · Shenzhen
DCAM
Dashcams 行车记录仪

A supercapacitor decides whether it survives a windscreen, and a far larger fleet telematics trade sits behind the retail camera. The one product whose legality changes at the border.

4 houses · Shenzhen
LED
LED Lighting LED 照明

Guzhen in Zhongshan makes about half the world's lighting. The driver decides whether a lamp is any good, and EU flicker limits tightened in September 2024.

4 houses · Zhongshan · Foshan · Huizhou
MED
Medical Devices 医疗器械

The one category where the platform is a quality system rather than a chipset, and the only one you cannot badge and ship. Mindray competes in the global top three.

4 houses · Shenzhen
SHV
Electric Shavers 电动剃须刀

A blade behind a foil or inside a rotary head, and thirty years of expired patents. The cluster is not in the delta; it is in Wenzhou and Ningbo, Zhejiang.

5 houses · Wenzhou · Ningbo
RVC
Robot Vacuums 扫地机器人

A spinning LiDAR, a brushless motor, a mop pad, and a dock that empties itself. The SLAM algorithm is the product, and Shenzhen-Dongguan owns the reference platforms behind the brands.

5 houses · SZ · Dongguan
PRJ
Portable Projectors 便携投影仪

A light engine, a DMD chip or LCD panel, an LED or laser, in a box you can carry. TI DLP and LCD compete for the socket, with laser engines from Appotronics lighting the premium tier.

5 houses · Shenzhen
GMB
Gimbals & Stabilizers 云台稳定器

Three brushless motors, one IMU, and a control loop that holds the horizon. Camera, phone and action-cam stabilisers from a Shenzhen-Guilin axis that set the reference for the category.

5 houses · SZ · Guilin
BTY
Beauty Tech Devices 美容仪器

A flash of light, a pulse of current, a wave of radio frequency, against the skin. IPL hair removal and LED therapy devices, the layer beneath the Japanese and Korean beauty brands.

5 houses · SZ · Guangzhou
MSG
Massage Guns 筋膜枪

A brushless motor, a percussion mechanism, and a stall force rated in pounds. The motor decides everything, and Shenzhen owns the fascia-gun reference design.

5 houses · SZ · Dongguan
PET
Smart Pet Tech 智能宠物

A feeder, a tracker, a camera, a litter box — connected. WiFi and BLE pet devices on Tuya, built across the Shenzhen-Dongguan corridor for every brand from Chewy down.

5 houses · SZ · Dongguan
WBC
Webcams 网络摄像头

A sensor, a lens, an ISP, framed in USB-C. Sony IMX and OmniVision sensor modules, PTZ conference cameras and USB streaming cams, the layer beneath Logitech and Poly.

5 houses · SZ · Dongguan
APR
Air Purifiers 空气净化器

A fan, a HEPA filter, a carbon bed, and clean air. Shenzhen, Foshan and Guangzhou share the stack, with decades of OEM work for Philips, Honeywell and Haier.

5 houses · SZ · Foshan · GZ
SCL
Smart Scales 智能体秤

Four load cells, an impedance circuit, and a Bluetooth radio. Zhongshan’s weighing heritage meets Shenzhen’s BIA electronics, the layer beneath Withings and Renpho.

5 houses · Zhongshan · SZ
TRK
Asset Tracking Tags 追踪标签

A coin cell, a BLE radio, a speaker, and a network of billions. Apple Find My and Google Find My Device tags, MFi-licensed, UWB-ready, from Shenzhen’s BLE beacon cluster.

5 houses · Shenzhen

More products to follow. Each is added the same way: a specific product, the houses that own its design, verified, located and contactable.