Zhi DongXi (public number: zhidxcom)
Author | Yunpeng
Edit | Heart edge
Zhidong January 4 news, just now, realme released the first Snapdragon 8 flagship smartphone in 2022 True Self GT2 series, of which the True Self GT2 Pro is equipped with the Snapdragon 8 processor, and the True Self GT2 is equipped with the previous generation of flagship processor Snapdragon 888.
Zhi Dong got the Real Self GT2 in advance and conducted a few days of in-depth experience. Realme particularly emphasized at the press conference that after a year of tuning, this 888 has been successfully "tamed" by them. As a result, the gaming experience around performance release and thermal control has become my focus.
In addition, the True Self GT2 uses a backplane made of "bio-based materials", which also brings a relatively fresh experience from the form and touch.
Can the Snapdragon 888 processor, which is widely known as the "Dragon" by consumers, take into account both performance and power consumption control under good tuning? Realme, a mid-range flagship, represents how they think about product design, and we'll try to give the answer.
First, the straight screen also has a narrow border and E4 material, how does the bio-based material back panel feel?
Mobile phone to do "straight screen" or "curved screen", has been a problem that manufacturers are more entangled, in the past two years, high-end flagship smart phones generally use curved screens, this aspect is also because the supply chain side to increase the proportion of high-end flexible AMOLED screen production capacity, flexible AMOLED screen technology continues to mature.
Because of this, traditional direct-screen mobile phones seem to represent the "low-end". But in fact, there are many consumers who have a strong demand for straight screens, such as heavy game users and users who are sensitive to the edge reflection of curved screens.
This means that mobile phone manufacturers still need to make smart phones with high-quality direct screens.
Realme at the beginning of the start, the main price, but also pay more attention to the game experience, and realme users are also mainly young groups, so realme in the direct screen design has always had its own insistence. This time, they once again applied the direct screen design to the flagship series.
The overall look and feel of the screen of the True Self GT2 has made significant progress compared to the traditional direct-screen mobile phone, due to the use of Samsung E4 screen material, the peak brightness and color performance of the screen are better, and the power consumption is also lower.
In the display settings, there is also a natural mode similar to the "primary color mode", after opening, the picture for the restoration of color is more realistic, the screen does not have the traditional straight screen mobile phone common picture is too gorgeous, the problem of over-saturation. The overall look and feel is more comfortable.
There is also a big challenge for the straight screen, that is, the control of the border, which is also one of the reasons why many manufacturers generally use curved screens on flagship mobile phones, that is, the curved screen can reduce the screen border from the visual perception.
This time, the border control of the real me GT2 has been improved, the width of the upper border and the left and right borders is only a little more than 1mm, and the width of the bottom border is only slightly wider, but there is no obvious visual effect of the "wide chin" of the traditional straight-screen mobile phone.
However, in the screen packaging method, the edge of the screen of the True Self GT2 still retains the bracket, resulting in a certain thickness and distance between the screen and the middle frame, which increases the width of the mobile phone border visually. Of course, the use of a fully fitted AMOLED screen solution will also increase in the cost of screen modules.
▲The blue arrow points to the screen bracket
It can be seen that realme, on the basis of adhering to the design of the straight screen, hopes to strive to make up for the "short board" of the straight screen, so as to bring a better visual experience and control experience, which is worth affirming.
In terms of appearance design, in addition to the front screen, the back panel of the Real Me GT2 brings me a strong sense of freshness. This freshness comes mainly from both material and texture.
In terms of material, this time the true self GT2 uses a bio-based material, according to the introduction of the press conference, this material comes from recyclable paper, which can be said to be "homologous to paper".
Realme also adds a fine "weave" texture to the back plate on the basis of this material, like a bamboo mat weaving texture that has been reduced several times, which can also bring a little "natural" feeling on the side.
Rough look, the back plate of the real me GT2 is somewhat similar to the plain leather material, and the feel of the touch is also somewhat similar to the plain leather, the friction resistance is relatively large, which can prevent the phone from slipping off. At the same time, it is winter, this bio-based material is warmer than glass, and it will not have a "cold" feeling when used outdoors.
▲ Several mainstream mobile phone backplane material comparison, from left to right: AG glass, bio-based materials, plain leather
In fact, this bio-based material is harder than the traditional plain leather material, which also makes me worry about its durability, will it be as easy to scratch as paper?
To this end, I used the common metal card needle in the mobile phone packaging for a moderate-intensity scratch, found that there is no trace, it can be said that on the basis of environmental protection, this bio-based material also meets the durability of the general mobile phone backplane, and does not give up the essential functionality for innovation.
In the mobile phone industry, Apple should have proposed the concept of environmental protection earlier, but Apple's environmental protection is most obvious on the product side is to cancel the charger that comes with it and reduce the volume of the package. But in fact, this is somewhat contradictory, Apple's official charger and the sale of three-party chargers, there will also be packaging, and there is no significant saving of resources, more is to save the cost of manufacturers.
This time, realme's thinking is obviously more traceable to the source, starting from the mobile phone body materials, so that the use of mobile phone raw materials becomes more environmentally friendly.
There is no doubt that such a general direction is definitely correct, and low carbon and carbon reduction are also the goals that all walks of life in China are pursuing. Whether there will be more manufacturers to follow up in the future, and whether realme will further achieve breakthroughs in environmentally friendly materials on the basis of bio-based, are all expected.
Second, the diamond blessing heat dissipation, the mainstream mobile game temperature control is excellent, and the peak performance scheduling is conservative
In addition to the innovation in screen and backplane materials, the most important upgrade of the True Self GT2 this time is the processor and thermal system.
True self GT2 this time equipped with flagship Snapdragon 888 processor, and the use of self-developed "diamond ice core heat dissipation system", the name is very domineering, but we simply understand, mainly using diamond this material. So what is the actual performance?
This time, I chose two more representative games, one is "League of Legends Mobile Game" and the other is "Original God".
At present, the mobile games on the market are mainly divided into two categories, one is the mobile phone load, more "civilian" games, such as "Glory of the King", "League of Legends mobile game" such as MOBA mobile games and "Call of Duty", "Peace Elite" F and other shooting mobile games, the performance of these games is generally relatively similar, so choose one.
Another big category is heavy load games, even if the top flagship chip faces such games, it will often produce overheating and downconscence, frame drop and other phenomena, such as "Original God", "Bright Mountains" and so on. This time I chose "Original God" in it.
In the "League of Legends Mobile Game", the real me GT2 can basically be said to be more "easy", in the default 60FPS high quality setting, basically can maintain 60 frames full frame running throughout the game. And in the fierce team battle, there is also a phenomenon of stuttering.
▲ "League of Legends Mobile Game" frame rate monitoring
What surprised me was that the temperature of the real GT2 at this time was almost "insensible", and there was basically no obvious difference from the temperature of the usual daily use, and there was even no "warm" feeling, but the room temperature was slightly higher. In other words, under the premise of stabilizing the high frame rate, the True Self GT2 also achieves better temperature control.
Since the monitoring software PerfDog reads the core temperature of the processor, it is not the body temperature that we actually touch, so it is not referenced. Actual temperature is not easy to understand by saying numbers, so I describe it more intuitively through actual experience.
Next, I tested the "Original God" with a very high load on the processor, before testing, I turned on the "GT mode" that comes with the real gt2, which is what we often call the performance mode, and after turning it on, the performance release of the phone will be more full.
In the Game of Protoss, I directly set the image quality to the highest, turned on the 60-frame mode and turned off the motion blur, and turning off the motion blur can also more intuitively see whether the screen is stuck.
However, the real-me GT2 has not been able to maintain 60 frames, from the beginning of the game, except for a few seconds of short 60 frames, basically running around 45 frames, which should have something to do with realme's scheduling control strategy.
Although it did not run at 60 frames, the 45 frames of the True Self GT2 ran very stably, and even after 20 minutes of the game, it still remained around 45 frames, and the frame rate fluctuations were small. The frame rate curve of the True Self GT2 is basically a straight line.
▲ "Original God" frame rate monitoring
On the mobile game side, the frame rate increased from 30 frames to 60 frames generally has a qualitative change, and 45 frames is equivalent to choosing a compromise position, and the picture fluency is improved compared to 30 frames, but there is also a visible gap compared to the full frame experience of 60 frames.
However, stability is also very important, compared to some manufacturers' flagship models running "Original God" when the frame rate fluctuates between 40-60 frames, the visual perception of stable 45 frames is obviously better.
The reason why users feel "stuttering" is often caused by the "fluctuation" of the frame rate, even if the game is maintained at the level of 30 frames for a long time, after watching for a period of time, the human eye can adapt.
The True Self GT2 chose such a strategy for a reason, which is very obvious in temperature control. Even in the Game of Protos, the temperature is well controlled, and in the first 10 minutes of the game, the fuselage basically only has a "warm" feeling.
This time my test duration is 20 minutes, after the game entered 15 minutes, the temperature began to increase slightly, to the last 20 minutes or so, the fuselage began to have some "hot" feeling, the hand held in a position for a long time will be a little uncomfortable, but has not yet reached the "hot" level.
Although the temperature monitoring software shows that the core temperature is not the actual body temperature, not referenced, but the temperature increase we can see, the game from the beginning to the 20th minute, the core temperature from 45 degrees to 57 degrees, a total increase of about 12 degrees, it can be said that the real me GT2 in the "original god" temperature rise curve is relatively "smooth".
Overall, the performance of the True Self GT2 in mainstream mobile games is remarkable, but there is also some room for improvement. Temperature control is the strength of the True Self GT2, the "hot hand" situation does not occur even in the heavy load of the game, the diamond material support of the heat dissipation system and performance scheduling strategy have played a more obvious role.
However, in terms of peak performance release, the True Self GT2 is still somewhat conservative. Of course, if the frame rate is further opened online and the ultimate performance of the Snapdragon 888 is explored, the test of heat dissipation and thread scheduling strategy will be higher.
Of course, since I'm not getting the official production version, relame may still be optimized in terms of software. Just last weekend, Realme released an official system upgrade package, after which the scheduling strategy of the Original God game should be adjusted.
The average frame rate of "Original God" has increased from 45 frames to about 50 frames, and the smoothness of the picture has improved to a certain extent, but the caton phenomenon still exists.
▲The frame rate monitoring of "Original God" after the temporary update of the system
In terms of temperature, the maximum core temperature is about 6 degrees higher than the previous version, and the feel is still relatively obvious. In about 15 minutes of the game, the fingers in the higher areas of the screen with heat can already feel obvious "discomfort", and the fever is more obvious.
It can be seen that the price to be paid for performance improvement and game frame rate improvement is a significant increase in temperature, and whether such a trade-off is worth it is also a problem that has been facing manufacturers.
It is hoped that realme can continue to optimize the system scheduling strategy in the future, and give a better answer to this question in the official mass production version.
Third, recharge for 10 minutes, can play 1 hour game, or watch 3 and a half hours of movies
The battery life experience of the true self GT2 is also a point that I am more concerned about, first of all, from the hardware specification level, the real me GT2 is equipped with a 5000mAh battery, the screen resolution is 1080P, plus the optimized performance scheduling and power optimization, I am looking forward to its endurance performance.
According to my actual experience, in the heavily loaded "Original God" game, under the automatic brightness of the lights in the office, after 30 minutes, the mobile phone power consumption is only about 10%. In a 30-minute video viewing, the power consumption is only about 3%.
▲ "Original God" half an hour of power consumption
▲Watching a movie for half an hour consumes electricity
Combined with the charging speed of the True Self GT2, such endurance may be more meaningful. From 70% charge to 90%, the real me GT2 takes only 10 minutes, that is, charging for 10 minutes, you can play for 1 hour, or watch 3 and a half hours of video.
Such an experience can basically alleviate most of the "battery anxiety disorder".
It has to be said that the performance improvement of snapdragon 888 is combined with the endurance improvement brought by 5000mAh power and software tuning, so that the basic experience of the mobile phone has been effectively guaranteed.
Conclusion: Realme hits the flagship market and seeks progress in stability
This time, the true self GT2 series, on the basis of continuing the tradition of realme's high cost performance, the price has further explored, boldly adopted the flagship Snapdragon 888 processor and achieved a basic balance of performance and heat generation through heat dissipation and tuning, but there is still room for optimization in software tuning.
After two years of growth, for realme, impacting the flagship market is what realme must do and must do, and doing high-end also needs to have its own "unique things". In addition to performance, realme is also exploring its own new boundaries through the trial of new materials and the upgrading of imaging technology.
Realme is undoubtedly a dark horse in the smartphone market, from "0" to the fifth place in China's smartphone market share in just over two years. Whether realme can successfully enter the high-end flagship machine market, the market performance of the True Self GT2 series will be crucial.