Nut Pro 2: The Smartisan smartphone may not get a perfect score, but it is still enough to teach fellow manufacturers a lesson

Nut Pro is not only the best-selling product in the history of Smartisan smartphones, but also the key to helping Smartisan Technology revive in adversity.

At the press conference on November 7, Mr. Luo even added an extra special effect for the one million sales figure of Nut Pro, "Duang", unable to hide his joy.

Frankly speaking, compared to the previous Nut Pro at the spring launch conference, which only revealed its true appearance at the very end, the new Nut Pro 2 is no longer surprising.

This phone covers an extremely exaggerated price range from 1,799 yuan to 3,299 yuan. From many aspects, it is not a Hammer phone that can get full marks. However, because Mr. Luo persists in adding new things to the product in an era of highly homogenized mobile phones, the Nut Pro 2 still has the ability to teach almost all friendly companies how to make good products.

Brands with excess industrial design capabilities have created mobile phones with interesting details

The fact that Nut Pro 2 uses the popular full-screen design does not, to a large extent, mean that Hammer's ideas have begun to follow the crowd, but rather that there will always be a few new ideas in the mobile phone industry that coincide with Mr. Luo's aesthetics.

At present, Hammer naturally does not have the ability to build or customize its own screens, so the Nut Pro 2 is based on the most common full-screen solution in the industry and tries its best to make the design the best.

Mr. Luo honestly defines his product as "Almost Full Screen". The four corners of the 18:9 display on the Nut Pro 2 are rounded at the same time, which better matches the outline of the phone. In addition, the only visible front camera at the top of the front and the hidden earpiece integrated into the edge of the frame emphasize the ultimate beauty of simplicity.

Of course, Mr. Luo's pride may come from the back design of the Nut Pro 2. At the press conference, he did not take domestic coarse grains and pesticides seriously at all, but directly compared them with Apple, Samsung and LG, which is busy giving birth to a son for Google.

The back of the Nut Pro 2 further highlights the design concept of "less is more". One of the reasons is that the depth of field camera in the dual camera is made the same size as the flash, making it a hidden dual camera.

The second is that the fingerprint recognition and the circle of the T-logo are combined into one without adding any additional design. This makes the Nut Pro 2 not much different from other Hammer phones when viewed from the back, but you can really unlock the phone by touching the logo.

However, these two design ideas behind the Nut Pro 2 do not always bring positive changes.

First of all, the fingerprint has been moved from the front to the back, which has reduced the interest of Hammer's target users, represented by Apple fans, in "upgrading" from Apple iPhone to Hammer products. The rear fingerprint is more like a helpless choice for Android phones that want to combine full-screen design and fingerprint function. It is by no means the best way to experience fingerprint recognition. For example, Apple radically canceled the fingerprint and used Face ID on the iPhone X. As for Luo Yonghao, there seems to be no better solution.

Secondly, the main camera of the rear dual-camera of Nut Pro 2 is raised. A reasonable explanation for this is probably to promote protective cases (after all, mobile phones do not make money).

Talking about the side of the phone, the "gold line" that is like the finishing touch is a controversial design. At the press conference, Mr. Luo cited a large number of industrial design benchmark products to explain the reason for doing so. However, many onlookers later felt that the addition of the "gold line" made the overall design of the machine less concise.

However, taking the carbon black, that is, the thin red line version of the Nut Pro 2 in our hands as an example, this "gold line" has found a better place for the thin red line that was originally only applied at the corners of the Nut Pro. From the perspective of the entire phone, the existence of the "gold line" also makes the Nut Pro 2 look more unique in design, rather than just a single color.

However, this sunken "gold line" will inevitably become a hiding place for the grease on your hands. After using it for a long time, your Nut Pro 2 will be like the gap in the shell of the PS4 game console controller, and the dirt needs to be cleaned regularly.

In addition, another major change is the grip feel. The Nut Pro 2, which is nearly 6 inches in size and has a full screen, is not only light in weight at just over 150g, but also has no sharp edges.

Especially if you compare it with Apple iPhone 8 Plus or other similar products, you will find that the Nut Pro 2 has a wider display area, a lighter body, an unconventional design, and is more comfortable to hold than its predecessor. This phone, which can be bought for less than 2,000 yuan, really has many highlights that surpass flagship phones.

The performance is not inferior to the flagship of the same brand, Smartisan OS + physical buttons bring "magic operation"

Although the Hammer phones named after Nuts have never emphasized performance, the Nut Pro 2 uses the Snapdragon 660 processor, which is a significant improvement over the first-generation Nut Pro.

Mr. Luo is right. Today, the comprehensive performance of Snapdragon 660 is comparable to the previous flagship chips Snapdragon 820/821. This means that the performance of Nut Pro 2 is not inferior to Hammer's last flagship phones M1 and M1L. With up to 6GB of LPDDR4X memory and a 3500mAh battery to ensure long-term battery life, there is obviously no problem in playing games on the first full-screen Hammer phone.

With sufficient performance and the more comfortable grip mentioned above, the actual operation of Nut Pro 2 also brings significant changes compared to Nut Pro.

Not only has the fingerprint recognition been moved to the back, the full-screen design also turns the Nut Pro 2 into a phone with Android's iconic virtual button bottom bar. Although it is not much different from other virtual button phones in use, the virtual button bottom bar at the bottom of the Nut Pro 2 screen is designed to be extremely narrow, which seems to indicate that Mr. Luo himself does not like the buttons to occupy the visible space of the screen.

In addition, after Smartisan's Smartisan OS system has gradually added a series of killer features such as Big Bang, One Step and Idea Pills in recent years, the Nut Pro 2 did not bring more surprises to users. Instead, it provided a different user experience with the newly added side physical buttons to trigger the Idea Pills.

Mr. Luo, the "physical button maniac", naturally has more experience in making physical buttons than other manufacturers. The four physical buttons on the side of Nut Pro 2, "one on the left and three on the right", are completely based on the classic design of iPhone 4/5, with first-class workmanship and key feel.

The first function of the physical button on the side is that you can directly press and hold the flash capsule button on one side to turn on the flash capsule function to record voice messages. Because this way of "pinching" the phone is more stable, the actual experience is even better than pressing and holding the HOME button on the front of the first generation of Nut Pro.

It is also worth mentioning that today's Hammer phones are not only focused on the phone itself in order to improve efficiency. For example, Handshaker, which you can install on PC and Mac, expands the flash capsule from the phone to the computer.

The second function of the physical buttons on the side is to quickly activate a function through the left and right combination of the flash capsule key and the volume down key.

Previously, a function could only be triggered by sliding down the upper left or upper right corner of the screen, which could be said to be a very "unbelievable" operation in the era of large-screen mobile phones. Although the combination key method of Nut Pro 2 has basically bid farewell to one-handed use, the whole process is more intuitive, and there is no problem of trigger failure due to inadequate sliding.

And you can decide whether the sidebar of the one-step function stays on the screen for a long time or a short time by pressing the combination key once or long pressing. This further improves the original purpose of the one-step function to improve the efficiency of transferring application files and information.

Finally, I have to mention that if you, like many Apple fans, cannot accept the rear fingerprint design that is popular in the Android phone industry, the Nut Pro 2 also provides facial recognition function in the system.

However, the facial recognition solution of Nut Pro 2 from Face++ is based on 1024 2D feature dimensions obtained by the front camera. The recognition efficiency often requires the prototype face logo at the top of the screen to circle around before the screen can be unlocked. Compared with the 0.17-second fingerprint recognition on the back of the phone, which can not only unlock but also realize the payment function, the addition of this feature seems more like Luo Yonghao wants to take advantage of the current industry hotspot.

The full-screen evolution of Nut Pro continues to create the most unique mobile phone

I still remember when I first got the Nut Pro half a year ago, many people said that the sentiment that was completely different from the entire industry was enough to make people ignore the sharp feel of the sharp hand. Although the Nut Pro 2 in front of us no longer cuts your hands, just like the change from Hammer T1 to Hammer T2, the sentiment is indeed not that strong.

On the Nut Pro 2, you can see the changes that Luo has made to adapt to the trend: after using a full screen, the fingerprint is placed on the back, virtual buttons are added on the screen, and it even has a not-so-mature face recognition solution.

Fortunately, Nut Pro 2 can still make some of these things unique and different from other products on the market. For example, even if you are unwilling to accept the practice of putting fingerprints on the back of the phone, this first attempt of Hammer is the best-looking one in the industry, even compared with flagship phones that are several times more valuable than itself.

In essence, the Nut Pro 2 is a full-screen evolution of the previous generation Nut Pro. The result of this evolution is still a hotly discussed and unique mobile phone. For a product that plays a role in boosting sales and occupying the market within a brand, this is enough to make other brands think carefully about how to "make phones" next.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.