【【【Preface: Some mobile phones, purely for games】】】
As early as the beginning of 2021, we pointed out that the subdivision of "game phones" has seen a very interesting differentiation in product form in the process of development.
On the one hand, the boom of gaming mobile phones and high-quality mobile games has prompted more and more brands to enter this market segment. In order to take care of the psychology of mainstream user groups that "both want to play games and are not willing to be labeled", most brands often choose to strengthen heat dissipation and use better master control on the basis of ordinary models, but at the same time, they will weaken the "game" elements in appearance.
But on the other hand, for some other brands, they have a completely different philosophy. In order to bring better heat dissipation, performance release, and control feel, this kind of "gaming phone" has greatly innovated the product from the internal structure to the appearance. And their shape is often separated from the ordinary user's cognition of "mobile phone", and the essence of their "game device" can be seen at a glance.
So which of the above two types of "game phones" do you prefer? But it is undeniable that both have a meaning of existence. But if you look at the pure performance level and gaming experience, the latter is obviously more pure, more game-oriented device, it will obviously be more likely to impress. For example, the savior Y90 we are reviewing today is Lenovo's latest generation, pure gaming mobile phone product.
【【Appearance: Iconic mid-frame, making it closer to the "game console"】】
I have to say that in the current game mobile phone segment, Lenovo's saviors may be the most unique series in various senses.
The original Savior Esports Phone Pro
Why do we say that? Because since the first generation of products two years ago, the Rescuer Esports mobile phone has been using a completely different "ATA mid-architecture" from ordinary models.
As you can see, this is a design that moves the main heating parts to the middle of the fuselage and places two batteries at both ends of the fuselage. The biggest advantage is that no matter how much heat is in the middle part, it will theoretically not have much impact on the player's grip part. At the same time, this also makes the Savior e-sports mobile phone, whether vertical or horizontal screen, there will be no "top-heavy" feeling.
Last year's Savior Esports Phone 2 Pro
Of course, this design also brings some very significant appearance features to the rescuer esports phone. For example, there must be a bulge in the middle of the back cover, such as a huge Y-type RGB atmosphere lamp, or for example, its rear camera position is also obviously different, located in the corner of the middle of the fuselage, and the number of cameras has not been much, only a main camera and an ultra-wide-angle secondary camera.
Fortunately, when the savior esports mobile phone evolved to the third generation, Lenovo's engineers obviously reflected on and improved the previous design. On the one hand, the Rescuer Y90 continues the previous iconic ATA mid-mounted architecture, but through structural optimization, the bulge in the middle of the fuselage has become less obvious, and the thickness of the entire fuselage is also 13% lower than that of the previous model.
On the other hand, in the iconic built-in dual cooling fan system, the inlet and outlet ports of the Rescuer Y90 have been enlarged, while the shape has also been greatly changed. According to the official information, the built-in fan intake volume of the rescuer Y90 is as much as 300% higher than that of the previous generation.
Not only that, the Savior Y90 also eliminated the touch key located in the back part of the previous model, but at the same time greatly enhanced the related functions of the shoulder button. It can be seen that it can set two trigger positions on each side of the shoulder key, which is equivalent to two shoulder keys on the left and right sides. Coupled with the design of the main horizontal screen grip itself, does it feel closer to the gamepad in terms of operation logic?
【【Appearance: high brush super screen, there are various "double" configurations】】
In fact, just from the appearance, the Savior Y90 has made many key improvements in appearance, structure and handling compared to the previous two generations. But in addition, this model also continues some of the previous excellent design ideas.
For example, it still has dual USB Type-C ports on the bottom and sides of the fuselage. Coupled with the new 68W fast charging scheme, it is no longer necessary to plug in two interfaces at the same time to achieve the highest power, which allows players to choose the interface with the smallest shade according to the grip direction when they use it; to achieve "charging while playing".
For example, as a professional e-sports device, the Rescuer Y90 naturally uses a complete, unobstructed 6.92-inch large-size screen. And this screen uses Samsung E4 AMOLED material, which supports 144Hz refresh rate and 720Hz multi-finger touch sampling rate.
But what is more satisfactory to us is that the Savior Y90 also uses a stereo dual speaker design with positive sound. And in terms of actual listening, these two dolby atmos-enabled ultra-linear speakers can indeed provide a considerable sense of surround sound when playing and watching movies, which is difficult to compare with the current asymmetric double booms anyway.
Not only that, but in the Rescuer Y90, a dual X-axis linear vibration motor was also "stuffed" into the left and right. And thanks to the "innate" symmetrical counterweight and internal characteristics of the ATA central architecture, these two motors can not only bring a stronger vibration sense, but also simulate a vibration experience with directivity. I have to say that it is really magical to achieve such a feeling on a mobile phone.
Of course, having said all this, for a game phone with a nearly 7-inch large screen, built-in dual speakers, dual batteries, dual vibration motors, dual pressure sense, double shoulder keys, dual built-in fans, and a relatively special fuselage structure, the price is still there. That is its body thickness of more than 1 cm, and more than half a pound (250g) of weight. However, if you think about it, the controllers of several major game consoles today basically weigh more than half a pound, so for enthusiast-level players, such a feel may feel very kind.
【【Performance: 18GB memory + disk array, performance release is very top】】】
After watching the exterior design of the Savior Y90, I believe that there are only two things left that everyone is curious about, that is, how its actual performance is, and how it performs in the game.
This time, we got the top version of the Savior Y90, which is equipped with up to 18GB of memory, while also supporting 4GB of expanded memory. Such a configuration undoubtedly makes the memory of the Y90 reach the current top level.
In terms of flash memory, the top version of the Rescuer Y90 also uses a very special SSD RAID 0 dual flash disk array design. Its total storage capacity is 640GB, and the official claim can achieve the effect of "40% increase in sequential reading and 30% increase in sequential writing; 11% increase in random reading and 50% increase in random writing". From our actual measurement results, the most obvious part of the improvement is indeed the random read and write performance, which is basically more than 40% faster than similar models.
What is this concept? To put it simply, when you usually use a mobile phone, the installation of various software and the download of data packages (including games, online videos, listening to songs, and even web browsing and other scenarios) actually involve random writing to flash memory. Therefore, the design of the Rescuer Y90, which significantly improves random write performance, has a very practical significance for both daily experience and games.
In the further ANtutu evaluation CPU and GPU test scenarios, the rescuer Y90 also unexpectedly got very bright results.
The comprehensive score of more than 1.05 million points achieved by the rescuer Y90 in the evaluation of Antutu has basically represented the highest level that consumers can actually run out of the new Snapdragon 8 model.
Similarly, for a game phone with a built-in dual fan and an "unusual" thermal layout, it is obviously not so strange to be able to achieve a super core without downscaling and a battery temperature of no more than 30 degrees Celsius throughout the 45-minute full load test measured by Antutu.
Of course, such a level of heat dissipation and performance release is unattainable for other mobile phones. To some extent, this is indeed the treatment that only "professional equipment" can allow players to enjoy.
【【【【Game: The interface of the Savior Realm is gorgeous and the functions are also very rich】】】
Next, let's talk about the game test performance of the Savior Y90. First, there's the experience with its built-in game management features.
Same as similar gaming phones. The Savior Y90 has a built-in interface dedicated to managing the game and the gaming experience, officially calling it the "Savior Realm.". As you can see, after the Savior Realm is launched, it first displays the cover of the installed game in the form of a card.
And it is worth mentioning that not all of the games we installed in the test came from the official app store, and some of them were non-channel service installation packages downloaded from the game's official website. The "Savior Realm" can automatically identify them all and adapt to the corresponding cover information.
Once the Rescuer Realm is activated, the collection of features called "Rescuer Helper" can be brought up by pulling down from the top of the screen. Here you can view the frequency of the CPU and GPU in real time, the latency information of the current network, the temperature inside the fuselage, the refresh rate of the screen, and the drawing frame rate of the GPU. In addition to this, the adjustment of the performance level and fan speed of the Rescuer Y90 can also be made here.
And in the "Savior Realm" settings, you can also find adjustment functions that include shoulder button working mode, vibration feel, and game flashbacks for a series of game-related experiences.
Setting of the RGB lamp on the back of the machine
The phone displays optimization-related features
Game duration limit feature
【【【Game: Heavy load measurement is very stable, long time play is not hot】】】
Next, we will enter the game testing session.
The first to appear is the familiar "Original God". Of course, it is still the same manual highest quality as always. This time, we tested two different scenarios, one starting with a quest challenge in a relatively small space, mainly because the skills and screen effects are more complex, and the second half of the game was a continuous run map on the open map to test the phone's ability to withstand large depth of field and multi-faceted scenes.
As can be seen from the actual measurement results, in the copy with intense action and rich effects, the Savior Y90 can easily stabilize the highest special effect of "Original God" at a full frame rate of 60 frames. In the open map test, which required fast loading and rendering of a large number of maps, the frame rate fluctuated very slightly. But overall, among the many new machines that have been released in 2022, the rescuer Y90 has reached the top level in "Original God".
Next, we also tested Ace Warrior, which consistently supports high frame rate devices. Not surprisingly, the game is set at the highest image quality and frame rate, and the Rescuer Y90 can run to 144FPS. And in addition to the death replay will drop half the frame rate, in most of the time, the Savior Y90 can maintain the frame rate of "Ace Warrior" at the level of 120-144 frames.
In contrast, another high-frame rate game, QQ Speed, is not so much pressure on the device. Although the map changes faster, the Savior Y90 can completely achieve a stable 120 frames throughout the game without pressure, with a super high 720Hz multi-finger touch sampling rate, a variety of drift and acceleration operations are also very smooth.
However, compared to the frame count in the game, the Rescuer Y90 surprised us with the temperature control performance this time. It can be seen that after measuring three games in a row, the temperature of the touch areas on both sides of the front of the fuselage is significantly lower than the center. And even in the central area, the surface temperature did not exceed 29 degrees Celsius.
On the back of the fuselage, it can be seen that the temperature of the hand holding parts on both sides of the Rescuer Y90 is significantly lower than that in the middle. At the same time, the hottest part of the fuselage is obviously the inlet and outlet of the fan. In other words, this is a direct proof of the continuation of the ATA mid-architecture and the cooling effect of the upgraded built-in fan.
【【Experience: It is more suitable as a tablet that can make phone calls】】
Finally, let's talk about the experience of the Savior Y90 outside the game app.
First of all, as mentioned earlier, the Savior Y90 is a very large device, and has a larger screen than most current smartphone products, as well as a heavier body. Coupled with the special central structure, these also make the Y90 in daily use, rather than being used as a "large-screen mobile phone" one-handed vertical holding, it is better to simply treat it as a "high-performance small tablet" horizontal screen use, to be more comfortable.
Perhaps Lenovo engineers also understand this, in the rescuer Y90 system, we can clearly see that it has made many optimizations for the daily use of horizontal screens. For example, its desktop and negative screen actually support the display of landscape mode.
And most of the built-in applications in the system are also adapted to the horizontal screen interface, and also provide a split screen mode that is very suitable for horizontal screen use. With this mode, some third-party apps that do not support horizontal screen can also be displayed normally when horizontal screen.
Even the setting interface will automatically change into a structure of left and right columns when the horizontal screen is screened. Whether it is the feel of holding it or the ease of control, it is better than when it is vertically screened.
Prototyping: Step (ultra-wide angle) ISO100 f2.2 0.0069s
Sample: Step (wide angle) ISO100 f1.79 0.0097s
Sample: Step (2x zoom) ISO100 f1.79 0.0033s
And interestingly, because the rear camera module position of the Rescuer Y90 is located in the middle of the fuselage, its viewing angle is actually quite different from the ordinary model, and the center point of the scene seen from the screen is basically close to coinciding with the center point of the fuselage.
I have to say that this actually makes the horizontal screen photo experience of the Rescuer Y90 more like a traditional camera. Of course, considering the weight of the fuselage and the position of the lens, we strongly recommend using this model to shoot in a vertical screen position.
Sample: Railway station (2x zoom) ISO100 f1.79 0.0007s
Sample: Phone booth ISO100 f1.79 0.0066s
Sample: Architectural (Ultra Wide Angle) ISO100 f2.2 0.0074s
Sample: Signboard (Night Mode) ISO359 f1.79 0.04s
From the perspective of the real-time sample, although the Rescuer Y90 only has a rear dual-camera configuration, the actual feeling of use is actually good.
On the one hand, the colors of both the main camera and the ultra-wide angle are very natural, and there is no excessive "AI beautification". On the other hand, the 13-megapixel ultra-wide angle equipped with the Rescuer Y90 is actually higher in distortion control and picture resolution than the 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle scheme used by many non-game phones.
At the same time, although the main camera resolution of this model is not as good as those specialized "camera phones", the performance of the algorithm is also reliable in both daytime and nighttime environments, and some of the overexposure suppression, HDR are reflected, and the white balance is unexpectedly accurate. For a professional gaming device, it is obviously a commendable thing to be able to achieve this level of image performance.
【【【Summary: There is a specialization in the art, and the rescuer proves himself with persistence】】】
If Lenovo's attitude towards the first and second generation of rescuers esports mobile phones in 2020 and 2021 is surprising, then the rescuer Y90 that debuted in 2022 is enough to impress everyone.
On the one hand, Lenovo insisted on improving the "ATA mid-architecture" of three generations, and this time played an amazing heat dissipation and performance advantage on the rescuer Y90, especially in the comfort of horizontal screen games, which brought the grip feel and the low temperature performance of the touch zone, which is difficult to achieve with other designs.
On the other hand, the internal sufficient amount of "heaping" gives the rescuer Y90 to jump out of traditional equipment in display, control, vibration and other aspects, and is closer to the experience of "handheld game console". Coupled with lenovo's obvious encouragement of users to use in horizontal mode every day, this makes its overall feeling itself different from traditional mobile phones, but more like a pure game device.
Of course, such a design dooms the savior Y90 to be difficult to get the favor of all players. But it is precisely because of this that for those who really only care about the game experience and only pay attention to the feel and winning factors in the competition, this model will inevitably be the most suitable top mobile e-sports terminal at present.