Only the Paranoid Survive--Smartisan T1_Hardware
This is the first time I write an article using English,aiming to record the user experience of Smartisan T1 for the past 2 month.I will not judge CEO of Smartisan or simply draw a conclusion that it's a good phone or bad phone.Because even for a small phone,it mixes up a lot of aspects and most of us are not able to think about all of them.So I just list serval points(both hardware and software) as my personal view to this phone.
Hardware Part:
1.Industrial Design
The appearance is neat and every part is symmetrically placed.The beauty comes from Smartisan's unique pursuing to excellence.I think lots of people will be attracted once they see the real phone.It‘s one of the spotlight and easy to lead people who value design very much to buy the phone.
But here is the question,appearance is not the only way to evaluate industrial design.I'd like to give example of iPhone6.When APPLE lauched iPhone6 in September,it has very big screen and arc-shaped cover.Also their power key is put in the right side instead of top of the phone.At first,I simply think iPhone6 is so ugly and what's wrong with APPLE's design team.But after seeing most of the big screen phones in the market,which all have same design style,I realize that it's APPLE's compromise to the big-screen era.If iPhone6 still use the same design style starting from iPhone4 era, it will not give people good hand feeling when holding the phone.
Smartisan T1 choose to follow the sandwich-style like iPhone4,it's brave and like a salute to the classic industrial design of smartphone.For me,the reality is after holding Smartisan T1 for more than 10 mins with same position,my hand will hurt because of the sharp edge and 167g weight of the phone.But my hands are very small,so it may not be a problem for people with big hands.^_^
2.Light Sensor and Proximity Sensor Put in the Same Hole
In my point of view,such a design let the front panel have minimum quantity of holes,which makes the phone much more graceful.Also the white version must have a better looking with this gentle ordered structure.
3.Three Physical Keys
I got my phone at the end of August,the physical keys don't have manufacturing defect like the phone manufactured in the first batch.The key is soft and the feedback after pressing is very accurate.I got used to it after couple of days.There's no big difference between virtual key and physical key,but with the physical,I don't have to worry about miss pressing the virtual key when I'm seeing a video.
4.Specific Brightness Key
I spent some time to get used to it,because at first I kept to the habbit of sliding the brightness bar in pull-down menu to adjust the brightness.After using the brightness key for several times,I love this design very much.I only need to use one hand with one step to adjust brightness other than two hands with two steps(pull down and slide).
What's more,together with the volume key,it will enable fast screen-shot,new recording,screen lock,etc.Fast screen-shot function also frees one of my hands and raise the accuracy when capturing the screen.Previously when capturing the screen,some times the screen-shot has irrelevant volume adjust interface due to desynchronizing hands operation.
I don't agree to the judgement that this specific brightness key is useless or just want to obey the sysmetrical design style.It's absolutely new view to the phone hardware and software design.
5.Power Key at the Top
It's too small and almost useless when operating the phone with one hand.So Smartisan team enable long-pressing-home-key-locking-screen function.Even CEO of Smartisan also said they were considering to remove the power key in Smartisan T2.I am looking forwarding to seeing what solution Smartisan team will offer in their second phone.
6.Cover
The Smartisan logo in the cover is gorgeous and if the friction of the logo becomes slightly stronger,hand feeling will be better.
At the beginning,I can hardly open the cover.It fits to the back very well and there’s no need to use the screws to fix the cover.Now the cover is a little bit loose.I will open and put back the cover when I feel anxious.
Software part will come later…...
Hardware Part:
1.Industrial Design
The appearance is neat and every part is symmetrically placed.The beauty comes from Smartisan's unique pursuing to excellence.I think lots of people will be attracted once they see the real phone.It‘s one of the spotlight and easy to lead people who value design very much to buy the phone.
But here is the question,appearance is not the only way to evaluate industrial design.I'd like to give example of iPhone6.When APPLE lauched iPhone6 in September,it has very big screen and arc-shaped cover.Also their power key is put in the right side instead of top of the phone.At first,I simply think iPhone6 is so ugly and what's wrong with APPLE's design team.But after seeing most of the big screen phones in the market,which all have same design style,I realize that it's APPLE's compromise to the big-screen era.If iPhone6 still use the same design style starting from iPhone4 era, it will not give people good hand feeling when holding the phone.
Smartisan T1 choose to follow the sandwich-style like iPhone4,it's brave and like a salute to the classic industrial design of smartphone.For me,the reality is after holding Smartisan T1 for more than 10 mins with same position,my hand will hurt because of the sharp edge and 167g weight of the phone.But my hands are very small,so it may not be a problem for people with big hands.^_^
2.Light Sensor and Proximity Sensor Put in the Same Hole
In my point of view,such a design let the front panel have minimum quantity of holes,which makes the phone much more graceful.Also the white version must have a better looking with this gentle ordered structure.
3.Three Physical Keys
I got my phone at the end of August,the physical keys don't have manufacturing defect like the phone manufactured in the first batch.The key is soft and the feedback after pressing is very accurate.I got used to it after couple of days.There's no big difference between virtual key and physical key,but with the physical,I don't have to worry about miss pressing the virtual key when I'm seeing a video.
4.Specific Brightness Key
I spent some time to get used to it,because at first I kept to the habbit of sliding the brightness bar in pull-down menu to adjust the brightness.After using the brightness key for several times,I love this design very much.I only need to use one hand with one step to adjust brightness other than two hands with two steps(pull down and slide).
What's more,together with the volume key,it will enable fast screen-shot,new recording,screen lock,etc.Fast screen-shot function also frees one of my hands and raise the accuracy when capturing the screen.Previously when capturing the screen,some times the screen-shot has irrelevant volume adjust interface due to desynchronizing hands operation.
I don't agree to the judgement that this specific brightness key is useless or just want to obey the sysmetrical design style.It's absolutely new view to the phone hardware and software design.
5.Power Key at the Top
It's too small and almost useless when operating the phone with one hand.So Smartisan team enable long-pressing-home-key-locking-screen function.Even CEO of Smartisan also said they were considering to remove the power key in Smartisan T2.I am looking forwarding to seeing what solution Smartisan team will offer in their second phone.
6.Cover
The Smartisan logo in the cover is gorgeous and if the friction of the logo becomes slightly stronger,hand feeling will be better.
At the beginning,I can hardly open the cover.It fits to the back very well and there’s no need to use the screws to fix the cover.Now the cover is a little bit loose.I will open and put back the cover when I feel anxious.
Software part will come later…...
