This week turned out to be extremely hot, especially in China, where there were many interesting announcements. Unfortunately, it was hot here only in a figurative sense, the weather was just disgusting all week, it was raining like a bucket. But let's not talk about sad things.
Foreword
Perhaps, it is difficult to come up with two companies that are equally different, but at the same time and somewhat subtly similar to each other, like Motorola and OnePlus . Motorola – once a great company with a huge history. An aristocrat from a noble but impoverished family. OnePlus is an audacious newcomer with no clan or tribe that nobody took seriously a year ago. He started his way from the very bottom, among hundreds of the same unknown Chinese manufacturers, in spite of everything, snatching victory from the tenacious clutches of fate. Motorola left the markets of many countries many years ago, tired of endless struggle, but now plans to return there again. Initially, OnePlus did not have any representative offices around the world, but the company clearly has Napoleonic plans to capture the market. This young manufacturer is full of energy and is never going to give up, under any circumstances. Motorola has been building its business according to years of experience, focusing on cooperation with operators. At OnePlus, they placed their bets on online sales by going Xiaomi. Nevertheless, for our country, all this is of little importance – and so it will have to buy either from dealers or in foreign online stores. However, both companies are going to get to our country in the near future. But it is not yet clear when they will finally move from words to deeds.
Fans Motorola are still arguing whether this company should be considered Chinese or American, whether it has turned into one of the masks Lenovo, or has remained itself in spite of everything. With OnePlus, everything is completely different – this company was founded by immigrants from Oppo, who decided to go their own way, burned all the bridges behind them, and now no one decides for them … at least in words. In fact, sometimes there is a suspicion that it competes with Oppo in much the same way as the right hand competes with the left.
OnePlus initially decided that uncompromising power and affordable price were the keys to victory. Motorola felt that emotions are more important than technical characteristics. OnePlus relied on CyanogenMod and then developed its own skin. In Motorola, on the other hand, they gradually come to understand that 'clean' Android is not bad either. Presentations of these two companies took place almost simultaneously, articles about announcements appeared on MR on the same day. And both attracted the attention of readers, although formally we are talking only about the next “Chinese”, which we cannot even officially buy from us.
OnePlus
I have already said that it always surprises me when this or that product is positioned as a 'killer of something-there'. It's not just about smartphones, a similar approach can be found in many places, for example, in the same computer games. Killing one idea with another with exactly the same idea is generally dubious. This is not a sport where the main thing is to jump higher than everyone else or run the distance faster than everyone else. Everything is completely different here – you have a white sheet of paper and a set of pencils that you can use as you like. You can draw something, you can write something, or you can fold origami from a sheet of paper. There are no uniform assessment criteria here, and how much others will like the result of your work, often it is impossible to guess at all. The goal of writing more words than a competitor, or using more colors than a neighboring artist, may be fine for a student, but he will never become a master with this approach.
OnePlus thinks differently, trying to beat all the flagships at once for a year. The way is simple – to write your 'War and Peace', where as many as five volumes, twice as many heroes, a pair of replaceable dust jackets, but at the same time the price is one and a half times lower. At first, we decided to take as co-authors an experienced and widely known writer – CyanogenMod. The move was very successful, powerful hardware received no less powerful software, immediately became popular among geeks and those wishing to join their ideas, received a warm welcome from journalists. This is not to say that a bestseller came out – but it turned out very well for a novice writer, already at the moment OnePlus One has sold 1.5 million devices.
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And then OnePlus and CyanogenMod had some kind of spat. You can argue for a long time what exactly happened there and who is to blame, but the result in any case cannot be changed – on the next part of its masterpiece, OnePlus had to work in splendid isolation. Perhaps that is why the result turned out to be very ambiguous.
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OnePlus 2. Flagship 'killer' |
Iron. In pursuit of the best, the company decided to choose Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 as the processor. Everyone who is somehow interested in mobile technology already knows about the problems of this chipset, and the company itself added fuel to the fire by starting to invent stories about some secret shipments of an exclusive version of the processor.
However, the processor is half the trouble. After all, OnePlus is far from the only company to step on this rake. Much more interesting is the lack of 'fast' charging, NFC module and other little things, which, in my opinion, cannot be explained at all. For example, talking about the lack of NFC, the company said that this module is simply not popular enough. Needless to say, the argument is universal. I believe that it was under this slogan that smartphones at one time almost got rid of the keys for launching the camera, memory cards and removable batteries. The trouble is that OnePlus smartphones are initially aimed at technically advanced users, technology enthusiasts, people who were not afraid to try something new. The slogan Apple 'they don't need it' doesn't work here. Our killer, who has been hunting for flagships of other companies for the second year, lost part of the cartridges, a pistol holster and a lace from his left boot during the chase. Not that it was fatal, but, shall we say, somewhat strange. Killers don't act like that.
Software. Iron is good, but without software it means nothing. A weak smartphone with a well-thought-out shell can be convenient. After all, the power of modern flagships has long been redundant. But a fancy device with disgusting software – no. I don't know what the proprietary OxygenOS shell is, maybe it's quite good, but abandoning CyanogenMod is a big step back anyway. It was a very striking detail and an important competitive advantage, thanks in large part to CyanogenMod OnePlus One, and gained fame. Of course, the light on CyanogenMod did not converge like a wedge, moreover, the overwhelming majority of users Android of devices have never heard of it at all. But from a unique smartphone, a kind of geek's dream, the device is gradually turning into another “Chinese” capable of surprising with only one price. And then, only before the start of official deliveries to the Russian Federation.
Design. I don’t want to judge only by one photo, but the device looks somewhat controversial. Yes, OnePlus decided to adopt the experience Motorola and once again promised to release several replacement covers for the smartphone from different materials. But it’s just not very likely that with them the smartphone will make any other impression. Design is much more than a choice of materials. Even if you add a solid gold cover to your phone, it won't become a style icon.
By the way, attempts to 'fix' the unsuccessful design of the device with the help of premium body materials in the history Android of smartphones have happened several times, one of such examples is the fashionable Galaxy R. And in most cases they ended in nothing.
Design isn't the only reason to buy a smartphone. You can generally close your eyes to the appearance of the device, the sales of Samsung Galaxy S3 are excellent proof of this. But then customers need to offer something different, and this 'something' on the OnePlus 2 is not particularly visible. Yes, in terms of price / quality ratio, the smartphone will clearly be at its best, but if you just need a 'workhorse' that you are not afraid to order from China, then you can opt for much cheaper options. Fortunately, the Chinese have no problems with this, and there is almost no practical benefit from the next gigabyte of RAM.
I don’t know how things will go for this company further, but if a year ago it seemed that it could repeat the dizzying takeoff HTC and break the prevailing stereotypes about 'geeky' smartphones, now it becomes clear that a miracle will not happen.
Motorola
I have never been a fan of this brand, in my entire life I have only had one Moto smartphone – e398. Nevertheless, what this company has done and is doing is truly sympathetic to me. And it is a pity that at one time she left our market.
Motorola have always gone their own way, their smartphones have always been original and interesting. Whether it was a thick candy bar with stereo speakers and iTunes support or an ultra-thin image clamshell, the corporate identity Motorola was always felt there.
Even in the era Android, when things were already going badly for the company, they still tried not to give up and remain themselves until the last day. And maybe even after this last day, when the company as such practically disappeared. You can think of a variety of things, for example, a unique branded shell or the same Moto Maker service, but in my opinion, the company's most important achievement lies elsewhere. At a time when the 'budget smartphone' was understood as a pale copy of the flagship, from which no one really tried to achieve comfortable work, in Motorola they were able to prove that a budget device can also be interesting. And it makes sense to follow the announcements even for those who are not ready to pay 60,000 rubles for a mobile phone.
It is no coincidence that, in addition to the updated version of Moto X, we were also shown Moto G, to some extent the announcement of a budget device is no less important here than the announcement of the flagship.
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Presentation of new smartphones Motorola |
Again, it is impossible to draw final conclusions from the photos and the list of characteristics, but it seems to me that the smartphone is clearly a success. In fact, it has everything that we love smartphones for – a decent processor, enough RAM and a perfectly optimized shell, which together provide a really smooth interface (judging by the original Moto G). Waterproof and drop resistant. A normal battery, on which they did not try to save for the sake of thickness (in comparison with the previous model, the smartphone became even slightly thicker). LTE support, including Russian frequencies. Nice design and a whole scattering of replaceable panels. Most likely, there will also be updates in the future, which is a rarity for a 'state employee' today.
And here again it becomes very offensive that the company is not represented in our market at all. We hear promises to return quite regularly, but here's another announcement – and again past us. But the same updated Moto G could well become a real bestseller in our country, especially against the background of faceless competitors in the form of Samsung devices. And the moment of returning to the market would be very successful – if you believe the 'Sofa Analytics', then Lenovo now have all the trump cards in their hands.
Moto X looks no less interesting, just the presence of a version with a 'clean' Android is worth it. Probably, it was about such a development of events that Google dreamed about, going to abandon the Nexus series. And the design, judging by the photographs, is traditionally pleasant.
In recent years Motorola has gone through fire, water and copper pipes. I got rid of many childhood illusions that are still inherent in many other players, I realized what exactly needs to be emphasized. Yes, in the end it did not save the company itself – but this is more likely to blame the managers who made very controversial decisions like leaving most markets than the engineers.
When looking at the new Moto X smartphones, this is very noticeable. No race for the best, which only brings harm. No attempt to install any module or component just because it is 'cooler' than the competition. No going to extremes, no crazy fashion pursuits and obsessions. Iron is perceived here as a means, and not as an end. Some young artists take their breath away at the sight of bright paint with sparkles, and they immediately start thinking how to use it in a new painting. But their more experienced comrades first think what they want to portray, and only then they choose suitable paints, brushes and canvas. Such things come only with experience, Motorola has this experience. Now the main thing is that the colors do not run out and health does not disappoint.
Meizu
Another interesting company that is also trying to go its own way. And I must admit that she succeeds – she is gradually becoming known even on the Russian market, where the attitude towards traditional “Chinese” is still wary, and the price of the “white” devices is far from being as pleasant as that of their “gray” versions. .
Alas, the competition in the Chinese market has noticeably intensified lately, for which we should first of all thank Xiaomi. Meizu also has a hard time, the company is forced to react to the actions of a competitor, develop response models for a particular price segment. In some ways, this is reminiscent of fencing with swords or foils – attack, parry, counterattack, leave the line of attack, lunge back. Maybe it would be even more convenient to use a club, but the rivals have no goal to kill each other, but rather to wear them out, push them out of a comfortable position, and prove their superiority.
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Meizu m2 min2i. First glance |
I have used several smartphones of this company, they all left a pleasant impression. For my taste, the shell is a bit rustic, but for many it will only be a plus. This simplicity is the result of thoughtful and painstaking work. It is somewhat reminiscent of traditional Japanese poetry like haiku. Only three short lines – but the master can fit the whole world in them, and there will still be room.
What gives me a little bewilderment is the physical button under the screen, which is becoming traditional. In Meizu, they did a good job on it, turning it into a kind of 'smart-button', but still, this element seems to me definitely superfluous. The physical keys are great, but only when you actually control them. Otherwise, it turns out something completely indistinct, when you need to accept a call by pressing, and reject it by touching, return to the home screen using a physical key, and go back using a touch key, and so on. Although this is, of course, a matter of taste, the same Samsung has been using the physical 'home' key for many years now and is clearly not going to abandon it. I'm not talking about iPhone, there is another OS, initially 'sharpened' for the presence of one control key.
According to rumors, in September we are waiting for the announcement of another device Meizu – Meizu MX5 Pro with a six-inch QHD display. Moreover, the characteristics and price look so that even OnePlus 2 will have something to envy.
According to rumors, the smartphone will receive a ten-core processor MediaTek Helio X20, 4 GB of RAM, a 4,000 mAh battery, a 20 MP camera with an optical stabilization system, a proprietary multifunction key with a fingerprint scanner, Hi-Fi acoustics. According to unconfirmed inside information, the price of the device will be about $ 402.
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The symmetric response from Xiaomi will not be long in coming either, the announcement of Xiaomi Mi 5 is also expected in the fall. True, very little is known about him at the moment. It is assumed that its characteristics will approximately correspond to the flagship OnePlus, including the long-suffering Snapdragon 810. All this is gradually beginning to resemble an old anecdote about mice that cried, pricked, but continued to eat a cactus. And the fact that our 'mice' do it for financial reasons doesn't change anything. Digging a hole for yourself just because you are offered to fit a shovel for free is somewhat strange.
Perhaps the smartphone will be made in the now fashionable 'frameless' style, according to the available photographs of the prototype, this is not really understood.
Let me remind you once again that while we are talking only about rumors, in practice everything may turn out to be completely different.
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