Author: Hao Junhui Source: IT Times
Just after the Spring Festival in 2022, Xiaomi's opening work has come.
On February 16, Xiaomi's Redmi officially released the Redmi K50 e-sports version of the mobile phone. For this e-sports phone, the advertising slogan given by Xiaomi is "the cold-blooded flagship with the whole line pulled up". Top Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, full power 120W second charge, dual VC liquid cooling heat dissipation, 120Hz high brush A+ grade OLED e-sports direct screen, the third generation of ultra-broadband X-axis motor... From the perspective of hardware stacking, the price starting from 3299 yuan can be regarded as a "conscience price".
This is the first time xiaomi has used the e-sports version as the first model of the flagship series, in 2021, the K40, which Lu Weibing called the "flagship welding doorman", was first launched with the "super cup" as a gimmick, and the game enhancement version was launched 2 months after the first launch of the K40.
E-sports mobile phones were originally only a niche demand, before the Red Devil, Black Shark, Rescuer and other small brands, although in the game experience is better than the ordinary flagship machine, but from the perspective of shipments, it can only meet the "food and clothing". Why did Xiaomi hand over the launch of the "welding the door of the flagship machine" to the e-sports version?
The cheapest Snapdragon 8 esports phone
From the configuration point of view, Redmi's K50 esports edition is sincere to gamers. The processor chose Qualcomm's current top Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, because the use of Snapdragon 8 mobile phones on the market is not too much, and most of them are flagship standard machines, there are reviews that the K50 e-sports version can be regarded as the cheapest Snapdragon 8 e-sports mobile phone.
The main problem of playing mobile games is heat dissipation, the so-called e-sports version of the mobile phone, in the heat dissipation has a unique cheats. Redmi K50 gaming edition adopts the "dual VC (Vapor Chamber) liquid cooling heat dissipation" method, 8.5mm thin fuselage, innovative design of "dual heat source separation" structure, so that the processor heat source and charging heat source separate, and the use of partition temperature control, to avoid mutual interference. The main heat dissipation material is a large area of double VC liquid cooling heat dissipation, with a total area of up to 4860mm?, which is currently the largest VC heat dissipation system in the industry. The main VC adopts a new generation of ultra-thin stainless steel + 300 mesh ultra-dense capillary structure, which increases the thermal conductivity by 40%; the sub-VC adopts the innovative ladder three-dimensional VC process; the thermal conductive copper heat sink replaces the traditional gel, and the thermal conductivity is increased by 3.5 times.
Xiaomi's official data is that "Glory of the King" runs in full frame for 30 minutes, and the temperature is 43.5 ° C. Some netizens started to play two hours of "Glory of the King" with 120 frames, saying that the frame rate is relatively stable, and it will fall to about 112 when the team fights, the back cover temperature is 37.9 ° C, the front temperature is 39.3 ° C, and the feel is warm. However, some netizens said that when charging while playing, the maximum temperature of the back cover can reach 44.7 ° C. The evaluation conclusion is basically similar to the official statement, or it is relatively tested.
Charge while playing, "roll" up!
In addition to temperature control, the charging speed is also the direction of the "inner volume" of e-sports mobile phones. Since the advertising slogan of "5 minutes of talk, two hours of charging" of friends has made consumers gradually accustomed to fast charging, domestic mobile phones have ridden the dust in charging speed, but it has also made it more and more difficult for many brands to highlight obvious differences in this dimension.
Redmi K50 esports edition chose a new scenario: play while charging, and with the slogan "May be the fastest mobile phone to play and charge at present", consumers can form an intuitive understanding of it. At the press conference, because of the separate partition heat dissipation design for the charging heat source, the K50 e-sports version has achieved a new breakthrough in charging speed, 120W seconds to charge a 4700mAh large battery only takes 17 minutes, if you play while charging, "Glory of the King" can be fully charged in only 37 minutes.
For gamers, charging while playing is indeed a necessity. Lu Weibing, president of Xiaomi Group China and general manager of the Redmi brand, launched a poll before the release of the K50 e-sports version, asking "which function of the K50 e-sports version is most favorite in everyone's hearts" and "120W Immortal Second Charge" the number of votes obtained was overwhelming. According to a netizen boot test, in the case of 19% of the power left, while playing "Glory of the King" while charging, the power rushed from 19% to 48% within 5 minutes, and charged to 100% after 22 minutes.
Full of shock 200 "eat chicken" effects
Players who are accustomed to playing console games can't stop being fascinated by the motor of the gamepad. Therefore, in the past two years, domestic mobile phone manufacturers have begun to make articles on the motor in order to let players experience a more immersive game experience on mobile phones.
Some niche brands that focus on games are even more sparing money on the motor, and there have been e-sports mobile phones that use dual X-axis linear motors, which can achieve a touch similar to the physical buttons on both the left and right screens.
The Redmi K50 esports Edition selects the world's first Android largest size, third-generation ultra-broadband X-axis motor 1016, which is known to have a vibration effect comparable to that of the iPhone 13. At the same time, around the game scene adaptation effect, for example, in "Peace Elite", it provides more than 200 vibration effects according to different vehicles and different firearms.
In addition, the K50 esports edition has upgraded the second generation of magnetic power pop-up shoulder button 2.0, and the real physical button brings a sense of pressure that the shoulder button cannot match, just like holding a gamepad. For the first time, the JBL broadband four-unit speaker can better listen to the voice in the game and have a full sense of presence.
From the actual experience of netizens, the shock sensation is indeed better than the general Android mobile phone, and even some netizens "remind", "It is best to only open half, otherwise other mobile phones will be 'no feeling'".
The "business" of young people
On February 18, the Redmi K50 esports edition was released, and the official war report showed that it achieved 280 million sales across all channels in just one minute. At the price of 3299 yuan per machine, within 1 minute, the K50 e-sports version sold nearly 85,000 units.
Lu Weibing released the Redmi K40 series a year ago, the cumulative sales of the year exceeded 10 million units, in the price range of 2000 to 3000 yuan, not only the 618, double 11 promotion period of the Jingdong / Tmall single product champion, but also the first online share of the price segment, Lu Weibing called it the "flagship welder" in 2021, intending not to leave room for other friendly flagship machines.
Obviously, Xiaomi hopes that the K50 series can replicate the success of the K40. Because, Xiaomi has "no ambition here". At the first important meeting of the year of the tiger, Lei Jun made it clear that the high-end road is the only way for Xiaomi to grow, and it is also a life-and-death battle for Xiaomi's development, and it is necessary to win the first place in the market share of domestic high-end mobile phones within three years.
If the Xiaomi series, which started with "young people's first mobile phone", goes to the high-end market, Redmi, which originally pursued "cost performance", must be able to catch the empty "young people's market". But to put it bluntly, Redmi's low price of about a thousand yuan in the early years makes it more like "the first mobile phone for the elderly", and now, how does it hold the hearts of young people?
Esports is a good entry point. According to the "2021 China Game Industry Report" released by the Game Working Committee of the China Music and Digital Association and the China Game Industry Research Institute, the scale of mobile game users will reach 656 million in 2021. Another "2021 China Mobile Game Life Cycle and Player Insights" pointed out that from the perspective of the age distribution of mobile gamers, young and middle-aged players aged 18 to 39 accounted for 69.9%, which is the main player group of mobile games.
More importantly, the willingness of Chinese gamers to pay is gradually forming, the actual sales revenue of China's mobile game market is 225.538 billion yuan, and the per capita expenditure is 344 yuan, which can be seen that this part of the group is willing to pay higher fees for the game experience.
However, this part of the high-quality users is not only seen by Xiaomi. In the past year, the major manufacturers have launched the game version of the flagship machine, in the case of "before there are wolves and then there are tigers", whether the K50 e-sports version can become a "welder of e-sports mobile phones", the brands may still have to live a good move.