Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Because smartphone brands usually launch Qualcomm Snapdragon's new processors every year in the first half of the year, 618 is usually a hot time for domestic consumers to buy new phones. Xiao Lei, who focuses on stepping on Samsung and Sony every year, is no exception. He pre-ordered a new generation of Sony's flagship mobile phone Xperia 1V early.

However, in the subsequent release of the sales list of JD.com 618, Xiao Lei found that he was a little unconvinced. Although Sony's mobile phone sales belong to the "ticketing" level in the United States, Europe and China, it is a companion to make up the numbers. But in this year's list, Sony is not even qualified to run with it in the top 10.

We should know that there are less than 10 popular smartphone brands in China, and Sony is not even qualified to make up the numbers this time, which somewhat hurts the self-esteem of "Suofen". What is even more surprising to Xiao Lei is that it is not even the brands of the smartphone era that have replaced Sony's "counting" position, but the colorful Tianyu and Newman in the history of the development of mobile phones in China.

Out of curiosity and unconvinced, Xiao Lei spent a lot of money on Tianyu and the two most representative phones in Newman's store: Tianyu T2 and Newman N99. As a reference, Xiao Lei also bought a Nokia 105, three mobile phones cost a total of 284 yuan.

Interesting designs don't care about screen percentage. in terms of appearance, the three phones can be said to represent three different design concepts of functional phones: the Newman N99 uses an extremely grandiose three-defense outdoor design. Although the screen size is 2.4 inches like Tianyu, the overall size of the phone is the largest of the three phones. In order to highlight the outdoor characteristics of the mobile phone, N99 also designed electroplated decorative strips on both sides of the mobile phone, and even designed two decorative fixed screws on the decorative strips. At the same time, anti-skid lines were added in the middle of the electroplated strips, which made it feel very solid.

By contrast, Nokia 105 is obviously extremely portable and lightweight. As the smallest of the three phones, it has a 1.77-inch screen and a battery capacity of only 800mAh, making it the smallest of the three phones.

Tianyu T2 seems to have found a balance between the two phones: T2 and N99 use the same size screen, but the smaller body size and relatively more "balanced" line design also make T2 a "better-looking" choice among the three functional phones: Xiao Lei asked many colleagues around him to choose the best-looking of the three phones. T2 can be said to be well received.

Although the N99 and T2 are quite different in appearance, the similar desktop layout and system operation logic after boot confirms Xiao Lei's bold conjecture that these brands of "functional phones" are actually so-called "public model machines".

For example, N99 and T2 are highly similar in home screen layout and main menu functions, with a huge digital time display at the top, operators with two SIM cards in the middle, and functional operations below. The two are so similar that their notification bars and power icons are surprisingly identical. The difference is that N99 turns on Voice King by default when it is first turned on.

The hardware of these male model phones obviously cannot support such a complex function-the built-in "Voice King" of N99 and T2 is actually a voice broadcast function. When turned on, the phone will broadcast the current functional options or dial digits at 100% volume. During the experience of these phones, Xiao Lei can even hear the sound of "666" when T2 or N99 is pressed in the bag, and the "social death index" is directly full if used in public.

However, from another point of view, this function of loud voice broadcasting actually has its rationality. Because the screen resolution is too low, and the T2 and N99 systems use serif fonts as the main display fonts, mobile phones can not fully display fonts when displaying dense text. In addition, the three mobile phones introduced this time all mentioned on the introduction page of the e-commerce platform that they are the so-called "elderly mobile phones". If buyers really buy them for the elderly, voice broadcasting will indeed be more practical than text display.

If the voice broadcasting functions of T2 and N99 can to some extent enable the elderly with poor eyesight to "hear" their mobile phones, then Nokia 105 is the other extreme. 105 not only has the smallest screen size of the three phones, but also has the lowest resolution of the three phones, which makes it very difficult for 105 to display text, especially Chinese characters.

Not to mention the elderly with poor eyesight, even young people with normal eyesight find it difficult to read text messages. In addition, the 105 has the smallest size of the three phones, and 105's buttons are also the smallest, which makes the already inconvenient text input even worse.

In addition, 105 does not use the same split five-way keys as T2 and N99, resulting in 105 having the worst input experience of the three mobile phones. Very often, it obviously wants to press the middle button to select words, but it becomes the direction key. I want to press the button below to adjust the direction of the gluttonous snake, but accidentally point to the middle pause.

Yes, although Nokia 105 has the smallest screen and the worst button feel of the three phones, it is also the only model of the three phones with built-in games. It's just that in this not-so-good small screen and poor keystroke feedback, even Xiao Lei, who stopped using his smartphone for a weekend, has no intention of using it to ease his Internet addiction. In addition, Xiao Lei tried his best to make the java software run successfully on these phones, not to mention the Internet App, which is inseparable from modern people.

Some people may think that these mobile phones are suitable for students, the elderly and other elders to use. In fact, these mobile phones do put the label of "student mobile phone" and "elderly mobile phone" in the title of their own products. but apart from the elders we just discussed, are the pure offline phones that are out of touch with the modern Internet really in line with the current use of students?

Let's not talk about whether it is necessary for students to use Wechat to chat, the lack of online payment function alone has been unable to meet the daily needs of students. Even when Xiao Lei used these phones, he thought more than once that "it would be convenient to support Alipay."

So are there any feature phones that support Alipay? When Xiao Lei searched it, he did.

When the Internet was also available in Nokia's JD.com store, Xiao Lei found a Nokia feature phone 2660 Flip that advertised support for Alipay, priced at 449 yuan. I have to admit that even if these phones are functional phones, 449 yuan and 78 yuan phones can still reflect a sufficient gap in workmanship. Even though the 2660 Flip hinge is still as loose as the flip phone 20 years ago, the 2660 Flip is far better than the three phones just introduced in terms of shape, body material and button feel.

Due to the increase in screen size from 1.7in to 2.8in, the system interface of 2660 Flip is much looser than 105. the distortion of the Chinese display has also improved, at least it does not need to be switched to English to display correctly. In addition, the keyboard input experience of 2660 Flip has also been significantly improved, and the phenomenon of mistouch is almost non-existent.

But obviously, people are not very interested in the operating experience of functional phones, and they are mainly concerned about the "software ecology" of these functional machines, and whether these functional machines with networking capabilities can maintain the most basic "network life" in the Internet era.

On the promotional page, 2660 Flip put mobile support Alipay in the C position, promoting it as the main function. 2660 Flip is indeed built-in Alipay function, we can even assign him a physical shortcut key, press directly to open App. But it is obvious that this kind of functional platform can not stand the full-function Alipay in smartphones. According to the query, the international model 2760 Flip RAM of 2660 Flip has only a small 512MB space, and there is little space left after the planing system is occupied.

In order to solve Alipay's problem, 2660 Flip adopted the "curve to save the nation" solution-2660 Flip was added to Alipay's payment channel as a smartwatch, so that 2660 Flip displayed a stripped-down version of the payment and receipt QR code like a smartwatch.

Just like logging in to Alipay on a children's watch, logging in on 2660 Flip requires scanning the QR code displayed on the 2660 Flip screen with the full version of Alipay of a smartphone. After adding payment authorization and setting the amount of payment, you can directly display the payment code and collection code of the account on 2660 Flip. At the same time, 2660 Flip will also appear in the smart device list of smartphone Alipay App. You can set a trading limit like a smartwatch.

Although this "curve-saving" approach makes it impossible for 2660 Flip to scan the code as usual using Alipay, it at least solves the urgent need of not being able to pay, so that feature phones can also enjoy certain Internet services. Is it?

Unfortunately, the answer is no.

According to Xiao Lei's measurements, the 2660 Flip payment code cannot be used on most mainstream cash register devices, whether it's a self-service cash register in a convenience store or a hand-held code sweep gun at a gas station, or even if the boss scans the QR code directly with his mobile phone, it will prompt the payment failure and report a different error code. At that time, Xiao Lei experienced the dilemma of having a meal but could not scan the code to pay. fortunately, he still had a bank card with him, otherwise he could only call or send a text message to ask a friend to come over to "redeem".

In addition to not being able to pay, the collection function of 2660 Flip Alipay will also indicate that the collection failed. According to Xiao Lei's guess, it is likely that Nokia or Alipay modified the payment logic or protocol of smart devices, causing these new generation of payment devices to fail to recognize the old Alipay QR code.

A similar situation actually occurs in other Internet App built-in in 2660 Flip: to enrich the user experience, 2660 Flip has built-in "modern" services such as Migu Music and Himalayas, but still uses a basic version of App developed for functional phone systems. These App are not only seriously lack of features, such as Migu Music can not search for music through text, but also relatively behind the update date of content resources, not to mention the compatibility of synchronization and paid content on member platforms.

In addition, just like Alipay, because there is no concept of AppStore in 2660 Flip, there is absolutely no possibility for these built-in App to be updated independently, and can only follow the overall OTA of the system like some cars. It's just that the systems of these functional machines may not be updated once a year, so how can they catch up with the Internet service of "Weekly shift"?

However, just as Xiao Lei was nearing the end of this "functional machine challenge," Xiao Lei discovered that functional phones like 2660 Flip do not run some unknown operating systems, but KaiOS, which is "famous" in the field of functional phones and brings the light of the Internet to the poor in India and other third world countries. 2660 Flip's "overseas relatives" 2760 Flip runs KaiOS 3.1 and is free to download App.

So after a brief hesitation, Xiao Lei bought the fifth "function phone"-Nokia 800.

What problem does the networking function solve? In fact, for mobile phones running KaiOS 3.0, it is no longer appropriate to call them "functional phones". We generally think that phones equipped with Android, iOS and other systems are smartphones, but in fact, smartphones have a more important indicator than the system name: whether they have an independent operating system and can install App developed by third parties themselves.

From this point of view, there is no doubt that the KaiOS can be regarded as a smartphone, and Xiao Lei's Nokia 800s do retain many of the smartphone's operating habits, such as a "T-shaped" two-axis menu, a notification center, quick control, and the core KaiStore app store.

It may be that the main market of KaiOS is not in China. There are not many App from China or for Chinese users in KaiOS's app store. Xiao Lei simply flipped through it and found only UC browser, which has a little relationship with domestic users. Naturally, there is no more about Alipay. But if you look at the needs of overseas users, the emergence of KaiOS can indeed solve some substantive problems.

In the KaiOS store, we can find a stripped-down version of WhatsApp developed specifically for KaiOS devices, and even cheap phones that sell for less than $50 can have the most basic online communication capabilities. In addition, services such as Google, FaceBook, and even YouTube, which are highly dependent on high-speed Internet, also provide KaiOS clients to provide the most basic information coverage for low-income groups.

In fact, providing basic Internet services for low-income people is in itself the meaning of KaiOS and the existence of "networking machines" before that. For users, feature phones and smartphones that are out of touch with the Internet have little in common except that they can make phone calls. Not to mention whether anyone will specially use SMS to contact me with WhatsApp, Wechat and other IM tools, choosing a feature phone means that users can no longer use their mobile phone to order in advance, to take a taxi, to order online, to order takeout, or even to sign in or check in.

This may not be common for Chinese mobile phone users, after all, the ever-expanding Chinese smartphone market has pushed the price of Android-powered smartphones down to $60. This also explains from another perspective why China does not need phones such as "Internet-enabled phones" or KaiOS: even if the budget is limited, consumers in the Chinese market still have a better choice.

As for who bought non-smartphones during 618 in 2023? We have already hinted at this question before-the built-in "Voice King" function of Tianyu T2 and Newman N99 allows old people to make calls from their mobile phones when they can't see the screen clearly. Take Tianyu T2 as an example, the first 20 comments under the default ranking of JD.com 's comments all highlight the voice broadcasting function of the mobile phone. For the older generation of users who have no contact with the Internet at all, the function machine that charges once a week is really a good choice.

However, almost all of these feature phones only support the most basic 2G network in order to keep costs down, and some phones do not even support telecom mobile phone cards. Take Xiao Lei's purchase of five "non-smart" phones as an example, only Nokia 2660 Flip and Nokia 800s have realized the basic functions of telecom mobile phone cards in the form of 4G VoLTE.

Admittedly, these feature phones can continue to "live" in the era of 2G withdrawal by adding 4G network support. However, when the network service completely replaces the basic communication services such as telephone and short message, the functional mobile phone will really usher in the end of its own life.

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: Lei Technology (ID:leitech), author: Lei Tech Digital 3C Group

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