December 23rd, Thursday.
Chang You approached Mr. Pei’s office door with some anxiety.
The last time he came was two weeks ago.
Back then, Chang You had arrived with his confidently developed Otto OS, but it unexpectedly manifested a multitude of bugs, resulting in what could only be described as a disastrous report.
Mr. Pei had also criticized the system’s stability, requiring Chang You to prioritize stability above all else and avoid implementing too many flashy features.
This time, Chang You was mainly presenting two things to Mr. Pei.
First was the optimized Otto OS. Its functionality remained identical to before, with nothing changed. In fact, for stability’s sake, a small portion of less practical features had been cut.
The goal was to ensure the system remained stable and reliable during this report, producing no bugs or at least very few.
The second was to showcase OTTO Technology’s prototype device.
Nearly two months had passed since OTTO Technology’s establishment. Being one of China’s top-tier contract manufacturers, they were quite efficient, having already produced a prototype.
However, holding this prototype in his hands, Chang You felt particularly anxious.
Very unconfident.
Though he felt somewhat embarrassed to present it, since the device had already been made, he certainly needed to show it to Mr. Pei.
If Mr. Pei wasn’t satisfied, they could always make modifications later.
Before entering, Chang You first closed his eyes in prayer, hoping heaven would favor him and fewer bugs would appear, then gently knocked on the door.
After hearing “Come in,” Chang You pushed the door open and explained his purpose to Mr. Pei.
Pei Qian nodded happily: “Good, let me see it.”
Pei Qian was quite interested in this phone.
After all, this was Tenda’s first physical product development.
Although they had previously developed many games, games were ultimately virtual, only running on computers or game consoles, with no tangible form to hold and play with.
ROF, as a custom PC brand, didn’t differ much from DIY computers.
But this new phone was different. Though contract-manufactured, phones were highly integrated technological products, and a custom-designed phone would be unique.
Then Pei Qian watched as Chang You placed a “brick” in his hand.
…So heavy!
Pei Qian felt the pressure on his wrist.
“How much does this phone weigh?”
Chang You answered somewhat embarrassedly: “247 grams.”
Pei Qian: “…”
Not knowing what to say, he could only utter “Impressive!”
What did this weight mean in practical terms?
Currently popular phones on the market were mainly small-screen models. For instance, Pineapple Phone’s flagship models generally weighed around 140 grams, with larger screen versions reaching about 190 grams.
When phones reached 200 grams, they were already slightly heavy for many slender women.
At nearly “half a jin” (250 grams), this was undoubtedly essential equipment for martial artists.
Pei Qian weighed it in his hand.
Yes, it would feel satisfying to hit someone with this!
Chang You clearly knew this prototype was too heavy and somewhat embarrassedly said: “Mr. Pei, we had no choice, our phone contains too many components.”
“High refresh rate screen, 5800mAh large battery, flagship processor, custom cooling system, horizontal linear motor…”
“These are all… quite heavy.”
Pei Qian nodded.
To stack components and raise the price to the expected 8,000 yuan tier, this was indeed the only approach.
If they didn’t stack components aggressively enough, and the phone’s value fell far short of 8,000 yuan, the system wouldn’t allow such inflated pricing.
But stacking components this aggressively inevitably resulted in an excessively heavy phone.
After all, other phones used 2,000 or 3,000mAh batteries, while this phone directly pushed to nearly 6,000mAh—it would be strange if it wasn’t heavy.
For Pei Qian, heavier was better. Ideally, people would ridicule this phone as a “half-jin phone” or “intelligence tax,” refusing to buy it, leaving inventory to pile up—that would be perfect!
Of course, Pei Qian recalled some phone manufacturers who had gone this route, such as certain gaming phones.
But the current market environment differed significantly from when gaming phones first appeared.
First, gaming phones remained a niche market.
Phones differed from computers in being highly integrated technological products.
Computers could be configured based on needs, with gaming laptops and ultrabooks having vastly different forms that were difficult to substitute for each other.
But gaming phones and regular phones didn’t differ as significantly in form.
Simultaneously, phones integrated too many functions, such as photography and video recording. For most phone users, the more important functions were everyday use: watching videos, chatting, taking photos and videos, with gaming being just one function among many.
For the same price, sacrificing photography, videography, and slim portability for better gaming experience wasn’t worth it for most people.
Of course, for hardcore mobile gamers, gaming phones might be a good choice.
But then came the second issue:
In this world, the current mobile gaming market wasn’t well-developed.
The more popular mobile games on the market were all card battle types. Games like “Hot-Blooded Battle Song,” a national war-type mobile game, were already considered very hardcore and rare.
Such lightweight mobile games didn’t require high refresh rate screens or large batteries.
So, from an average consumer’s perspective, this phone was rather… peculiar.
An unknown brand that felt extremely heavy in hand—just these two points were enough to discourage many consumers at first impression.
Seeing Mr. Pei lost in thought, Chang You thought he was dissatisfied with the prototype and quickly said: “Mr. Pei, this is just a prototype, not in mass production yet.”
“If you think it’s too heavy, we can try other approaches, like reducing the battery capacity to around 4,000mAh, which should significantly cut the weight to just over 200 grams…”
Pei Qian quickly raised his hand: “No, it’s perfect as it is!”
“No matter how high a phone’s specifications are, once the battery dies, it’s just a brick that can’t do anything. We must ensure our phone always has abundant power, eliminating battery anxiety for everyone!”
“The current battery capacity is excellent—this is our phone’s highlight and must be preserved, understand?”
“In short, I’m very satisfied with this prototype. This is exactly how I imagined an ideal phone!”
“The hardware is about right. Let me experience the system now.”
This was Pei Qian’s second time experiencing Otto OS.
Chang You had been nervous, but seeing Mr. Pei’s reaction, was unexpectedly satisfied.
He quickly said, “Yes, Mr. Pei. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to share them.”
“Also, we’re currently customizing the appearance, including the phone’s back cover color and logo, trying to make the phone more attractive to consumers…”
Pei Qian shook his head while scrolling through the phone: “Back cover color?”
“Don’t make it too flashy, just use a solid color.”
“If you think it’s ugly, just put the logo on it.”
“Isn’t that what Pineapple does?”
Chang You was confused: “What if… It’s still ugly?”
Pei Qian looked up at him: “Then make the logo bigger to cover it up.”
Chang You: “…”
What the hell, make the logo bigger? Does he mean that if the logo is bigger, people will only focus on the logo and not the back cover color?
Currently, many flagship phones offered various colored back covers, giving these colors very poetic names—a popular trend in the domestic phone market.
But Mr. Pei’s taste was distinctive, not allowing such colors, only solid colors…
Solid colors were one thing, but placing a large logo on it was another.
Currently, the only brand selling well with a large logo on the back cover is Pineapple Phone.
Such large logos reflected strong confidence in one’s brand.
For an unknown brand, if the logo is too large, consumers might face embarrassing questions like “Hey, what brand is your phone?” when taking it out.
So most domestic phone brands placed their logos in relatively discreet positions, paired with colorful back covers, clearly differentiating themselves from Pineapple phones.
Otherwise, they risked being criticized as copycats.
If left to Chang You’s decision, he would likely have chosen the approach of most domestic phones: a discreet logo with a colorful back cover.
But now, with Mr. Pei’s clear instructions, Chang You could only rack his brains to fulfill Mr. Pei’s requirements.
Pei Qian continued playing with this “half-jin phone,” feeling extremely surprised.
This time, there weren’t many bugs!
It seemed Chang You’s team had truly put in effort, fixing all the previous bugs and greatly enhancing system stability.
After ten minutes of use, he only found three or four bugs, all minor ones that didn’t affect usage.
Chang You’s posture noticeably straightened.
Not easy!
Last time, finding so many bugs was embarrassing.
This time, Chang You and his team had worked diligently, finally fixing most bugs. To prepare for this report, they had intensively tested for several days, only coming over confidently when they couldn’t find any more bugs.
Even so, Mr. Pei still found three small bugs, which shocked Chang You.
Did Mr. Pei naturally trigger bugs?
Nevertheless, this report was a success.
After careful consideration, Chang You asked: “Mr. Pei, the system’s stability is sufficient now. Can we start implementing those new system features?”
Pei Qian: “…”
Still not giving up!
Pei Qian’s expression darkened as he said sternly: “Aiming too high is unwise!”
“We’re nowhere near done! The original Android system has so many areas for optimization. Just fixing a few bugs and you’re already satisfied?”
“Go back and continue improving—the detailed optimizations are far from sufficient!”
Chang You confusedly took back the phone.
Detailed optimizations not enough? They had already caught up with most domestic brands—how could it not be enough?
But he dared not ask further, silently accepting the phone, planning to figure it out on his own.
Once again, he hadn’t managed to advance the system development to the next stage.
Although this phone’s product form was becoming clearer, Chang You felt it was increasingly diverging from his expectations…