Kevis's Note

What a Phone Taught Me About My Needs

Sun, 05 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

These past couple of days, the urge to replace my iPhone Air with a small-screen phone as my main device has been exceptionally strong.

In September 2025, drawn by the iPhone Air’s exquisite industrial design, I weighed my options and chose the Air over the iPhone 17. Looking back now, that decision wasn’t just because the Air was beautiful and lightweight. More importantly, I had an unanswered question: Do I truly prefer a small screen, or thinness and lightness? The Air happened to introduce a variable that had never existed before: it was a large-screen phone that achieved extreme thinness and lightness. So, I decided to test this question myself, rather than relying on imagination or others’ experiences.

Before the iPhone Air, I had actually tried large-screen phones many times. In 2020, I bought a Redmi K30 Pro and sold it after two months; in 2023, I bought a vivo X Note and kept it for three months; later that year, I got a vivo X90S, which I held onto for eight months. While each phone had its merits, they all ended up with the same outcome. So, when the Air appeared, I began to wonder if what I truly disliked was the large screen, or the bulkiness. If a phone was thin and light enough, would I change my preference?

A year later, that experiment now has an answer.

The Air’s thin and light body truly delighted me; every time I picked it up, it put me in a good mood, and that hasn’t changed to this day. But feelings don’t lie. Throughout this year, its wide body has consistently accompanied my daily use. Especially when walking outside, many operations that could originally be done with one hand now require two. While it’s much more comfortable than those bulky large-screen phones of the past, this change in operating method persists and hasn’t disappeared due to its lightness.

What truly made me realize this was actually the other phone at home, an iPhone 13 mini. When I’m at home with no restrictions, I can grab any phone I want, and many times I would still subconsciously pick up the 13 mini instead of the Air. This behavior is more authentic than any subjective evaluation, because in that scenario, there’s no influence from battery life, camera, or work needs; picking up a phone is almost always my most natural choice. I later realized that the Air’s thinness provides a sense of pleasure, while the small screen offers the one-handed usability I rely on daily. Both are important, but they aren’t on the same level in terms of my needs.

This reminded me of my past experience choosing an iPad. I once owned two iPad Pros, but eventually sold them both, keeping only the iPad mini. This might seem like a confusing choice; the Pro clearly has a better screen, stronger performance, and superior speakers. However, in my usage scenario, a tool’s value first comes from its high utilization rate, from people being willing to use it consistently. If its size or weight makes you increasingly reluctant to pick it up, then its configuration advantages are difficult to truly translate into practical value. Looking back now, the same principle applies to phones: the iPhone Air’s thinness is an advantage, but the operational cost imposed by its size is a fundamental aspect of the user experience. When there’s persistent friction in the basic experience, no amount of extra features can fully compensate.

So, the biggest takeaway from this year isn’t actually the iPhone Air itself, but rather that I can finally prioritize my needs. Previously, I always felt I liked both small screens and thinness, but after a year of use, I can now state very clearly: my true need is a small screen, and thinness comes second. This reordering might seem like just a change in the position of two words, but it alters how I will choose phones in the future.

Yesterday, I stood for a long time in front of the shelves at a used electronics store called SofMap. I looked from the iPhone 13 mini to the iPhone 15 Pro, and then from the 15 Pro to the 17 Pro. The 13 mini is the product I’m most familiar with and that best fits my size preference; the 15 Pro is the lightest Pro generation in recent years, with a 70.6mm body width, 187g weight, 3x telephoto lens, and titanium frame, all of which align with my preferences; the 17 Pro, on the other hand, boasts a newer platform and a longer lifecycle. Previously, standing here, I would mostly hesitate between different products; this time, I wasn’t nearly as conflicted, because this year with the Air had already helped me accomplish the most important thing: it taught me that when choosing a phone in the future, size should be prioritized above all other factors.

Later, I also pondered an interesting question. If I could travel back a year and tell my past self about this year’s usage experience, I would most likely not buy the Air again, but would instead directly choose the iPhone 17. This is because the Air’s biggest appeal to me last year wasn’t just its thinness, but its ability to answer that previously unanswered question. Once the experimental conclusion is known, its exploratory value ceases to exist.

However, such a hypothetical is ultimately just a parallel universe. In the real world, no one can skip the experiment and directly get the answer. If I had been told the final conclusion directly last year, I certainly could have avoided some detours, but that conclusion would have always been something someone else told me, not something I had truly verified myself. It was this year of real-world experience that allowed me to systematically rule out all other possibilities: a bulky large screen wasn’t the answer, an ultra-large screen wasn’t the answer, a regular large screen wasn’t the answer, and even an extremely thin and light large screen wasn’t the answer. Once all variables were eliminated, what remained was my own true need.

There’s a Chinese analogy: You can’t just start with the sixth bun. Imagine someone says the sixth bun made them full. That’s misleading—they only became full because they had already eaten the first five.

So, looking back now, I don’t regret buying the Air.

It didn’t become the phone I ultimately wanted to keep, but it taught me what kind of phone I should keep in the future, allowing me to truly understand my own needs. And the value of that understanding far exceeds that of a phone itself.

A Company's Character Shapes Its Audience

Sat, 04 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Over the years, I’ve increasingly come to believe in one idea: a company’s core identity determines the kind of users it ultimately attracts.

Many people discussing cars or phones like to attribute brand preference to product strength, specifications, price, or even marketing prowess. But for me, what truly influences consumer decisions has never been a specific generation of products, but rather the product philosophy a company has cultivated over decades, and the values it represents.

I’ve always believed that in a consumerist society, every consumption choice is a vote for the part of the world you wish to see.

Buying a car or a phone isn’t just acquiring a tool; it’s also deciding which companies receive more resources, which product philosophies continue to evolve, and which R&D directions deserve market reward. The money I spend doesn’t just get me a commodity; it’s a vote for a world I endorse.

For this reason, I never evaluate a single generation of products in isolation. What I care more about is why this company made such a product, how it thinks about products, and what kind of company it aspires to be.

What’s Truly Hard for a Company to Change is Its Core Identity

Can a company, by continuously improving, eventually become anything it wants to be? I don’t think so. What’s truly hardest for a company to change is never a specific technology, but rather its long-accumulated organizational capabilities and product philosophy.

A company’s experiences over decades determine how it defines products, allocates R&D resources, evaluates success, and confronts competition. These collectively form the company’s core identity.

Business performance can fluctuate, products can succeed or fail, CEOs can change, but what truly determines a company’s long-term character often transcends many eras.

Apple and Microsoft are excellent examples.

Apple in the nineties was very chaotic operationally, but this was a management issue, not a product philosophy issue. From the Macintosh to the Newton, and later the iMac and iPhone, what Apple has truly adhered to for decades is the same mindset: product definition first, experience first, hardware-software integration, and industrial design serving the overall experience. This underlying logic has barely changed.

Microsoft, on the other hand, is completely different. Decades of accumulation have led Microsoft to cultivate a different skill tree: platforms, developer ecosystems, enterprise software, and global cloud infrastructure. This is why I’ve always believed that Microsoft couldn’t make an iPhone, and Apple likewise couldn’t make Azure. It’s not about one company being more capable than the other, but because they developed in different directions from their inception, ultimately forming distinct organizational capabilities.

The Same Goes for Car Brands

Regarding car manufacturers, I’ve long resonated with Nio, not because every generation of its products is leading, nor because of specific selling points like service or battery swapping, but because I identify with the development path it represents.

In my view, Nio has consistently focused on building systemic capabilities. From vehicle platforms, electrical and electronic architecture, and software systems, to its battery swap network, charging infrastructure, user services, and brand expression, it aims to construct a complete, integrated capability system, rather than just a single point of advantage. This kind of capability building often requires massive investment and yields slow returns, sometimes failing to directly translate into sales for a considerable period, yet it forms truly long-term competitive barriers. I particularly appreciate its restraint and consistency in design, and its persistent international product aesthetic, rather than deliberately catering to market sentiment.

In contrast, Li Auto and Xiaomi represent a different corporate philosophy. They are more adept at adapting to trends, quickly integrating resources with extremely high execution efficiency after market demand has been validated, and refining existing mature solutions to better meet mass market needs. This is a typical efficiency-driven competition, pursuing faster product iterations, more precise market judgment, and higher business efficiency. From a business perspective, this is undoubtedly a very successful development model and a key reason for their rapid rise.

But if I had to choose, I would still prefer the former.

I consistently admire companies willing to spend a decade building systems, establishing standards, and cultivating long-term capabilities, rather than constantly optimizing efficiency within existing tracks. I prefer systemic innovation from 0 to 1 over efficiency-driven competition from 1 to N. The former creates a new capability, while the latter optimizes an existing one; the former defines the future, the latter adapts to the present. Both are worthy of respect, but my values consistently lean towards the former.

Therefore, even if Li Auto’s chassis becomes industry-leading in the future, or Xiaomi builds the electric car with the strongest overall qualities, I might still not become their user. Because what truly matters to me has never been a specific product capability, but rather the long-term character demonstrated by the company.

This character is reflected in its product language, its brand expression, and even more so in how the company handles competition, faces the market, and communicates with users.

Some companies consistently maintain restraint, while others are always keen on generating buzz; some are willing to slowly accumulate through long-term R&D, while others emphasize quickly responding to market demands; some hope their products become the expression itself, while others are more accustomed to letting marketing lead the product.

These things don’t suddenly disappear just because one generation of products succeeds.

Products May Change, But Product Definition May Not

This is also why I’ve always believed that what’s truly hard for a company to change isn’t technology, but its method of defining products.

Taking the phone industry as an example, I’ve often said in the past that Xiaomi’s product definition always revolves around cost and price point. This isn’t a criticism, but an observation. When a company is long accustomed to first determining cost and then figuring out how to allocate specifications, the capability it cultivates naturally becomes how to make the on-paper specs look best.

Apple’s approach, conversely, tends to first answer “What should this product be?” and then decide what hardware is needed to achieve it.

Consequently, when both companies set out to make a compact flagship, the resulting products will be entirely different.

In my view, the greatest value of a compact product lies in portability and balance, not in cramming all flagship specifications into it. Therefore, when a small-screen phone, in pursuit of stronger specs, continuously increases in weight, expands its camera module, and sacrifices the grip experience, I feel it has begun to deviate from its own product definition. This isn’t a lack of engineering capability, but a clash of product philosophies.

A Company’s Core Identity Filters Its Users

Thus, I increasingly agree with the statement: a company’s core identity determines the kind of people it ultimately attracts.

Brands and consumers are, in fact, engaged in a two-way selection. The values a company consistently upholds will gradually attract people who resonate with those values, and these users, in turn, further reinforce the brand culture.

Of course, this doesn’t mean every user possesses the same character. Any brand with millions of users will certainly have a diverse range of people. However, the core users who truly stay long-term often develop similar value orientations, because they identify not just with the product itself, but with the methodology the company adheres to.

This is also why I find it increasingly difficult to change my overall assessment of a company simply because one generation of its products performs well.

Products can be improved, technology can be caught up, design can be reshaped, but a company’s long-established organizational culture, product philosophy, and brand identity are not things that can be changed in just a year or two.

Therefore, what I consume has never been just the product itself.

What I choose and purchase is a company’s long-held methodology, a product philosophy I wish to see continue, and an industry direction that can sustain future development.

Because I consistently believe that a company’s core identity determines its products, products determine their audience, and every act of consumption is ultimately a choice for the part of the world you wish to see.

The Right Path and the Besieged City: A Former NIO Employee's Observations on the New-Energy Vehicle Industry

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

As a former NIO employee who regretfully left after less than three years, I’ve never stopped paying attention to this company and this industry. Over the years I’ve scattered a lot of fragmented comments and opinions across various places; here I’m trying to weave them into a complete piece, to lay out systematically how I see NIO, the new-energy vehicle (NEV) industry, and the consumer market.

I may not be right—but this is what I genuinely think.

I. What Actually Constitutes a Moat

There’s a point I keep coming back to: innovation at the framework level is very hard to dethrone.

Look across the industry’s giants and you’ll find they all defined some paradigm, while the competitors within the industry mostly compete on single-point differentiation inside that paradigm. Tesla defined what an electric car should be; Apple defined what a smartphone should be. Within their frameworks, competing by piling on specs and configurations rarely breaks the siege. This is precisely why these two companies have been declared doomed countless times online, yet remain evergreen in the real consumer market—not until a new innovator breaks the besieged city do new rules and a new order get established.

Conversely, any single-feature experiential advantage, if it can’t be folded into a sufficiently stable and sustainable system, is fragile and limited in value. Consumers aren’t fools. Flashy specs can attract people for a moment, but what truly retains consumers and builds reputation is always the experience. And specs do not equal experience—the completeness and forward-looking design of hardware and software, paired with continuously upgradeable ecosystem capabilities and an extremely long usable lifespan, together constitute the experience that actually matters.

What NIO is doing, fundamentally, is trying to become the definer of the next framework.

II. NIO’s Experience Commitment

Many people say NIO is expensive. NIO is indeed expensive, but it’s expensive in experience—and experience is grounded in how the product itself is defined.

An analogy: if you buy a phone and only look at core specs—flagship chip, big battery, fast charging—you can get that for a little over two thousand yuan. But if you also want quality, design, and ecosystem experience, you need at least a five-thousand-plus flagship. The two-thousand-yuan phone’s specs might not lose to the five-thousand one, but specs are not a commitment to experience. These are two different things.

The iPhone is the best illustration. The iPhone 12 series, five years ago, already defined UWB and MagSafe, and to this day it can enjoy the entire Find My ecosystem and the MagSafe ecosystem on equal footing with the latest iPhones—that is a high commitment to experience. Apple achieved a long maintenance cycle for system software and treats old and new models equally in ecosystem capability. Few people question whether the growing number of iPhone models will become hard to maintain, because the complexity is hidden from the user.

NIO is doing the same thing. The first-generation ES8 has been delivered for over seven years now, the first-generation ES6 for six, and they’re still running on the road today with fresh batteries, with software continuously maintained—I have no doubt they’ll last more than ten years. The first-generation platform still has a sizable installed base overall, while same-era pure-electric models from other new-energy brands have nearly vanished. From what I’ve seen, the NEVs delivered more than five years ago that still have a meaningful installed base can be counted on one hand—Tesla Model S, Model 3, NIO’s first-gen ES8 and ES6, basically that’s it.

When hardware isn’t the weak link, software matters far more than hardware. NIO’s entire energy-replenishment service system and its continuously upgraded, maintained software are its experiential moat, and the foundation of its models’ long lifecycle. NIO’s design level, materials, and safety standards were aimed at a service life of more than ten years from the start. Time will force every model built on gimmicks and low prices to expose enough quality problems. A car that can still take to the road in good condition ten years after delivery is the one with real foresight.

For models within the battery-swap system, whether some spec is the very best available right now matters far less than many assume. Just as the iPhone 13’s 5nm chip is inferior to the iPhone 17’s 3nm, under Apple’s ecosystem capabilities the experience gap is nowhere near as large as the spec gap, because the product definition itself is sufficiently forward-looking and the product roadmap is planned for the long term. This is vividly reflected in NIO’s models as well.

III. Battery Swap: The Art of Hiding Complexity

The most absurd criticism leveled at NIO is the demand that all batteries share a universal physical spec, regardless of model.

This is imagining physical structures out of thin air—a shallow understanding of automotive manufacturing and even less understanding of the swap system. The “unified battery” many netizens imagine is a false proposition. Swap technology has never pursued “one battery universal to all models,” but rather “limited unification” according to model and platform. Insisting everything must have one grand unified standard is unrealistic; standardization has boundaries, and in industry you have to distinguish operating conditions.

Even dry-cell batteries come in roughly ten physical specifications. Fantasizing that the ES8 and the Firefly share one battery is like expecting the AA in your mouse, the AAA in your remote, and the button cell in your watch to all be unified—not theoretically impossible, but pointless. That’s not the right answer.

What has already been unified is the protocol, not the physical dimensions. Multiple battery types are exactly what allow flexible adaptation to different brands and models, and the swap station hides the complexity—the owner doesn’t need to worry about battery scheduling, they just place an order and swap. It’s like swiping a card: you don’t need to know how many card types the POS terminal supports, you just need it to accept the UnionPay card in your hand.

I think the public’s skepticism toward NIO’s swap system is, at its core, a trust problem. We’ve developed too fast; we’ve never tried trusting a complex, long-term engineering system that comes out of a Chinese company. On top of that, experience from the planned economy and from national projects like high-speed rail biases our engineering intuition toward “grand unification.” But systematization is precisely not grand unification—it’s maintaining a consistent experience across diversity. iPhone models keep proliferating, with growing differences in screen size and memory, yet Apple pushes system updates to all models in unison, the complexity hidden from the user—unlike Android, which offloads part of the system-maintenance complexity onto the user. NIO is doing the same thing—as long as it can keep operating over the long term, it will earn the trust of more and more consumers, and by then how many battery types there are won’t matter.

And what battery swap actually solves at its core is this: the battery, the durability weak point among an EV’s components, is backstopped for the user by NIO’s swap system. The battery inspection and repair items that a non-swap car has to return to the factory for are, for a swap car, completed automatically with every swap. Battery swap is not the opposite of pure-electric; it’s a systematized solution built on top of pure-electric.

IV. The Endgame for Range-Extenders: A Transitional Product Shouldn’t Be a Cash Cow

Range-extenders (EREVs) are, for now, the meta answer—but the endgame of range-extension is definitely pure-electric.

The underlying logic of this judgment is simple: a transitional technology path can only compensate for a new technology’s immaturity during its development stage and ease anxiety while user perception hasn’t caught up. Once the information gap is closed and the new technology matures, the transitional path gets eliminated outright. In the era of full touchscreen phones, only on full touchscreen phones could the functional and interaction revolution of phones be driven forward; you can’t, just because users were used to keyboard phones, go and push a slide-out-keyboard touchscreen phone as a transitional product.

The qualitative leap for pure-electric is coming. The information gap is gradually turning into a generational technology gap—through step-by-step mass-production iteration, pure-electric’s high-integration advantage is already something range-extenders can’t catch up to or paper over by other technical means. In experiential terms: pure-electric cars are lighter and smaller than range-extenders yet have more space, more advanced electrical architecture, lower whole-vehicle system latency, and higher performance floors and ceilings across cockpit, powertrain, and chassis. Range-extenders, meanwhile, carry too heavy a dual-system burden—a small battery that needs frequent charging, plus the user having to worry about battery, fuel tank, and engine all at once. They’ve collected the downsides of both EVs and gas cars.

A large fraction of EREV users, frankly, never figured out their own needs. They pin the “just-in-case anxiety” their minds conjured onto a generator, only to find that in daily life they’re both reluctant to burn fuel and that the “just-in-case” never materializes—they’re just hauling a fuel tank around, charging a small battery, using it, charging it again.

Today’s big-battery range-extender is, fundamentally, tactical diligence (piling on batteries) papering over strategic laziness (the absence of an energy-replenishment system). To solve the extreme refueling scenarios that make up a vanishingly small share of the year, you make the user haul hundreds of kilograms of generator and fuel tank around empty across all their usage scenarios—in engineering terms that’s inefficiency and waste. The sense of security the fuel tank provides is only temporary psychological comfort; an efficient pure-electric charging network is the endgame.

NIO’s Shen Fei is completely right: rolling out a big-battery range-extender product is exploiting user habits—skimming one more round of profit in the twilight of the range-extender era—which only hinders the industry’s progress and slows product revolution. Consumer perception lags, and habits are hard to change; this is not the consumer’s fault. But if a major industry player only exploits the information gap to pander to short-sighted consumers and make quick money, it’s straight-up doing harm.

My judgment—and I may be wrong—is that the qualitative turning point arrives within three years. The manufacturers that tilt their limited resources heavily toward range-extenders for more short-term profit, while underinvesting in pure-electric, not only slow the pace of pure-electric technology iteration but artificially prolong the transition period, ultimately leaving consumers with fewer good options. The brands pushing range-extenders for quick money are going to get washed up on the beach soon.

One more factual note: NIO happens to be one of the carmakers in the Chinese market that has opened the most charging stalls to outside brands—over 80% of its charging stalls serve non-NIO EVs. Anyone who claims NIO only cares about swapping and ignores charging should check the facts first.

V. The Price War: Consumers Can’t Stand Apart From It

I voiced the view early on that consumers should be wary of the NEV price war. Sadly, many people just delight in watching manufacturers drive prices down, without realizing the cost behind it.

“What I least want to see is a price war that ends in terrible quality.” Even this point eludes a lot of people—they don’t even think of it when buying a car, waving the flag for the price war and feeling smug about scoring “value for money” at the expense of quality.

The essence of a price war is low quality at low prices. Don’t assume that as a consumer, cheering for the price war means you come out ahead—it’s a vicious cycle: carmakers and the supply chain can’t make money, industry development is constrained, product quality keeps breaking through to the downside, and consumers lose access to good products. Cutting prices is easy—just cut configurations. Do you really think “value for money” is a good thing? Safety standards and quality control are hard-cost domains. Some products look like great value but are really just a cost-allocation scheme: dazzling specs and an affordable price inevitably come with hidden compromises.

For some models the battery isn’t even the durability weak point—other components fail before the battery does. These models were never designed for a service life beyond ten years; whether they make it five years without a major problem is anyone’s guess.

The kind of consumers you have determines the kind of products you get; consumers can’t stand apart from it. If most consumers only stare at price, the market will fill up with low-quality, low-price products. This market doesn’t lack value-for-money offerings, and value-for-money isn’t the only viable business logic in the world. Demand is diverse, and a market this large can accommodate all kinds of products. The quality NIO insists on building is something other brands haven’t taken it upon themselves to do.

Innovation inevitably comes with heavy investment. The companies that stay in their comfort zone doing low-level redundant construction by riding the trend, and the companies that wage price wars by cutting cost and quality without limit—those are the ones wasting society’s resources. When such companies thrive, the industry pays a painful price.

VI. The Value of Design and the Choices Consumers Make

“Taste” alone makes it hard for me to choose Xiaomi. Xiaomi may fit the public’s demand for practical products better, but I can’t overlook its shortcomings in design. I’m willing to pay for the value of design—I’d rather spend more than compromise.

Why does the public find the SU7 handsome yet not particularly mind the copied design? Because what the public wants is merely “a sense of luxury,” not “real luxury.” Names like Porsche, McLaren, Ferrari are meant as compliments, not insults—getting a similar design at a lower price is satisfaction enough. Design itself is part of the cost, and at this stage of a market dominated by practicality, many consumers are unwilling to pay a premium for design itself: it’s not that people don’t know original design is good, they just feel it’s nice-to-have but unnecessary—design can be a bit worse as long as it’s cheap and plentiful.

The same logic explains why some people use “bare-shell apartment” to disparage Tesla’s design—consumers with insufficient aesthetic sense judge a design language that exceeds their framework using their own limited aesthetic framework, and can only arrive at the conclusion that it’s “ugly.”

Pragmatism and efficiency produce affordable products; heavy investment and innovation produce industry paradigms. The public chose the former and curses the latter. So in a market dominated by practicality and value-for-money, stop asking why there’s no premium or originality—where would all this wanting-it-both-ways come from? Wanting it cheap and with design character. Dream on.

VII. CarPlay: An Overrated Patch

Demanding that EVs support CarPlay is like demanding a laptop come with an optical drive.

The reason traditional CarPlay exists is simple: traditional carmakers can’t get the in-car system experience right, and CarPlay is a third-party patch that brings a qualitative leap to that experience. But the new-energy players don’t have this weak point—their in-car systems are functionally and experientially complete, deeply coupled with the smart cockpit. CarPlay is merely an external multimedia-navigation system projected onto the screen, entirely unrelated to the smart cockpit itself. Plenty of Japanese-brand laptops still have built-in optical drives—does that mean the laptop has a good experience because it has an optical drive?

CarPlay 2 tries to partner with carmakers to gain capabilities coupled to the cockpit, but that’s a lovely fantasy—carmakers won’t outsource core functions to Apple. Apple lacks automotive engineering experience and doesn’t have the ability to do it well, much as Kingsoft, a maker of application-layer software, crossing over to develop HyperOS for Xiaomi phones would.

VIII. Hollowed-Out Technology: The Tide Will Go Out

For a carmaker, true integrity and pragmatism mean settling down and carefully honing the driving experience and the safety and quality, iterating steadily rather than fast—not maintaining surface-level prosperity through marketing packaging and cost-and-quality cutting. Wrapping outdated technology in an “intelligent” shell and then going all-out on promotion is naturally a false prosperity—it looks like you’ve captured the consumer’s mind, but in the end you’re sure to hurt others and yourself. When the tide goes out, the result won’t play along with your act.

A car is not a phone. A phone can aggressively force-push silicon-carbon batteries at the cost of battery lifespan to satisfy consumers’ craving for big batteries—worst case, you handle the defects through after-sales. A car is bound tightly to people’s lives. The short-term gains from aggressiveness—autonomous driving, for instance—carry enormous risk.

The new-energy carmakers that stick to genuine forward R&D are the ones whose foundation gets seen when the tide goes out. The carmakers chasing crowd-pleasing gimmicks will, like Smartisan, exit the stage in a sudden death after doing one-shot business. As for which carmakers have long-term aspirations and which are short-term dabblers—let’s wait and see.

IX. NIO’s Three Brands: From Premium to Refined

NIO’s three brands each have a clear positioning. NIO itself is New Money—new luxury, leading with design and taste. Onvo (Ledao) is aimed at families, inheriting NIO’s advanced electrical architecture and emphasizing engineering tuning, delivering an excellent ride without deliberately piling on materials. Firefly is a refined small car built on a high-standard subtractive philosophy, inheriting NIO’s top-tier aesthetics and refined design, with class-leading safety and a sense of quality in its price segment.

Anyone who’s touched a real Firefly knows the car was designed to a high standard—from the paint texture and interior detailing to the top-tier aesthetics of its UI & UX, to its safety configuration and spatial layout, it leads its price segment outright. It’s the result of subtraction starting from the standard of a sweet-spot price model—like a “2,000-yuan iPhone 16e,” whose chip, software, and industrial design are built to flagship quality. A “2,000-yuan Redmi” like the ID.3, or a “1,500-yuan Redmi” like the Dolphin, simply doesn’t have this quality—it’s an entirely different thing.

NIO’s initial service style was closer to that of a traditional luxury carmaker, serving a top-down clientele, so being out of touch with the grassroots was inevitable. The style should have shifted once Onvo launched; only after Shen Fei took over did it gradually adapt to the market’s rhythm.

Conclusion

NIO—a high-value-added new-energy brand trying to keep cultivating technology and design deeply—being hated by its own countrymen is rather remarkable. There are plenty of “clever people,” which is why NIO is unpopular in public opinion and “goes bankrupt” every year. But if every new-energy player did only what netizens wish for—value-for-money and practical products—and earned itself the label of “pragmatic” or “listens to advice,” that would look like praise but is in fact short-sighted, and the market would fill up with homogeneous brands doing low-level redundant construction.

Pragmatism and efficiency can produce affordable products; heavy investment and innovation can produce industry paradigms. NIO belongs to the latter, and being doubted in today’s market—one that chases practicality and value-for-money—is inevitable.

I’ve always believed NIO walks the right path, doing the hard but correct thing. Among NEV companies it’s one of the few with vision and persistence, with the temperament and potential to become a world-class company. Not until a new innovator breaks the besieged city of the previous innovator do new rules and a new order get established.

I believe NIO will be the next successful innovator.

Product Philosophy, Cognitive Boundaries, and True Needs – Reflections from the MacBook Neo Controversy

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

I. Cognitive Flaws in the Tech Community: Parameter Worship and Identity Performance

A common phenomenon in the tech community is taking pride in mastering specifications, using this to establish superiority, and stigmatizing “non-technical users.” The essence of this phenomenon is not professionalism, but rather replacing genuinely difficult product judgment with low-threshold, memorizable knowledge.

Parameters are objective and have standard answers, allowing for quick establishment of authority in discussions. True product understanding—scenario fit, trade-off logic, user needs modeling—has no standard answers and cannot be rushed. Thus, many choose the path of least resistance: memorizing specs, labeling, and looking down on “those who don’t understand.”

More ironically, this arrogance often lacks output support. The value of a device is never determined by its parameters, but by the output of its user. Those who disdain “liberal arts female college students” may not be able to utilize their devices to create value more effectively than them.

II. “If capability is not complete, it is completely incapable”

This is a core cognitive fallacy prevalent in tech community evaluations, and it also exists among professionals.

A programmer completely dismisses the value of autonomous driving on the grounds that “software inevitably has bugs.” This seemingly rigorous argument actually makes a fundamental mistake: treating reliability as a binary switch rather than a continuous variable. The foundation of all engineering civilization is “providing sufficiently reliable output within acceptable error margins,” not “only zero error counts as qualified.”

The correct cognitive framework is to identify the product’s boundaries and utilize it within those boundaries. Voice assistants may not achieve the general intelligence seen in sci-fi movies, but they are already a foundational experience in smart home scenarios. The MacBook Neo may not be suitable for heavy productivity tasks, but it can excel in the scenarios it truly serves.

Completely negating a tech product based on an ideal future that has not yet been achieved is intellectual laziness, not rigor.

III. The Essence of Product Definition is Trade-off

“100 points covering 100% of scenarios” is a common consumer illusion. The true product logic is:

A solution that scores 80 points and covers 95% of scenarios often creates more value than one that scores 100 points but covers only 60% of scenarios.

Pursuing comprehensiveness inevitably leads to a loss in niche experiences. A product that tries to serve everyone ends up not being good enough for anyone—it becomes a suboptimal choice in every specific scenario.

The cost of trade-offs is implicit, while the benefits are explicit. Every “missing” feature in a subtractive product is visible, nameable, and criticizable; whereas the costs of redundant features in an additive product—thicker body, shorter battery life, complex interface—are distributed across each use, fragmented and unattributionable, so they don’t trigger the realization “I paid for something I don’t need.”

A truly product-oriented evaluation’s first question is not “Does it have feature X?”, but “What usage logic do its trade-offs serve?”

IV. The Ability to Build Demand Models for Others

One of the core capabilities of product thinking is being able to establish a reasonable evaluation framework for products for which you are not the target user. Being able to do this indicates that you understand product logic itself; failing to do so indicates that you only understand “products I like.”

The MacBook Neo thus becomes an effective testing tool—it forces commentators to reveal their true cognitive frameworks. How one talks about this machine is essentially a public confession of their product philosophy.

This ability also has practical value for ordinary consumers:

Improve decision accuracy: Modeling others’ needs forces self-reflection on one’s own needs, identifying the gap between “what I think I need” and “what I truly use frequently.”
Resist marketing manipulation: Marketing activates imagination of ideal scenarios, not real ones. Those with demand modeling ability can automatically assess “how much of this scenario is my real scenario.”
Cognitive noise reduction: Quickly identify if the demand structure behind comments aligns with your own, filter out irrelevant information, and shorten the decision path.

V. True Self-Needs Require Detours to Reach

People who only focus on their own needs are easily indoctrinated by commercial propaganda without realizing it. The reason is that this thinking is linear—only wanting “the best.” However, the concept of “best” requires an axis to be valid. When a person has never examined who defined the axis, they can only accept the existing one—which happens to be the one constructed by brands and media in collusion.

The more strongly their “self-needs” are expressed, the more it indicates how thoroughly they have been shaped, because they have already adopted externally implanted desire structures as their inner voice, unable to perceive the gap between the two.

The path to breaking this dilemma is not to introspect harder, but to first broaden one’s perspective:

Only by breaking out of linear thinking and seeing global, other, and diverse needs can one gain enough reference points to then identify true self-needs.

When you have multiple different axes in hand, and then look back at yourself, you will often find that your truly high-frequency core needs are not what you thought they were.

Conclusion

Starting from the MacBook Neo controversy, we ultimately arrive at a universal proposition: the essence of linear thinking is adopting an externally imposed objective function as one’s own. Whether in consumer decisions, career judgments, or self-cognition, true autonomy requires first an expansion of perspective to find one’s true self within a broader coordinate system.

Parameter enthusiasts and consumers who only pursue “the best” are structurally isomorphic in this sense—the former fills identity anxiety with benchmarks, the latter fills identity anxiety with brands, neither having truly asked themselves: What are my real scenarios, and what trade-offs are most cost-effective for me?

OpenClaw and the AI Agent Era: Research Notes

Sun, 08 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Covers: OpenClaw’s Technical Positioning / Systemic Issues with Agents / Ecosystem Competition Among Chinese Tech Giants / Trends in IT Job Evolution

1. What is OpenClaw?

The Essence of its Technical Architecture

OpenClaw is an application-layer Agent platform, essentially middleware:

User (via IM: WhatsApp / Telegram / Slack)
        ↓
  OpenClaw Core Layer
  ├── Memory Module (cross-session persistence)
  ├── Heartbeat Scheduler (proactively triggered every 30 minutes)
  └── Tool Registry (dynamically writable)
        ↓
  LLM Inference Layer
        ↓
  Execution Layer (OS API / Software API / Web / Code Execution)

Key Features

Cross-session persistent memory: Stores conversation summaries, retains user preferences, ongoing tasks, and communication style, solving the problem of “starting from a blank slate every time.”
Proactive heartbeat mechanism: Scans files every 30 minutes to determine if there’s anything to proactively execute for the user, without waiting for user queries.
Dynamic tool extension: Create new tools by writing code and persist them, allowing the toolset itself to grow.
Multi-IM access: Interacts within the user’s existing apps, reducing friction.

OpenClaw vs. Cursor: Differences in Self-Extension

	Cursor	OpenClaw
Extension Method	Infers and extends within a fixed toolset	Toolset itself grows dynamically
Capability Boundary	Preset tools (read files/execute code/search)	Creates and persists new tools by writing code
Essential Difference	Strength of inference capability	Whether the toolset boundary is fixed

Conclusion: This distinction is not that revolutionary. Cursor + Claude Code + MCP can achieve similar effects.

Accurate Positioning

OpenClaw is a personal Agent scaffold for non-technical users, productizing what technical people would build themselves. Its innovation lies in integration and user experience; no single module is new (LangChain, AutoGPT have long existed). The initial description of it as “approaching AGI, a paradigm shift” contained clear marketing elements.

2. Systemic Issues with AI Agents

Agent Technical Side

1. Reliability of Results (The Most Fundamental Bottleneck)

LLM inference itself is probabilistic, and errors accumulate in multi-step agent tasks.
Agents lack self-awareness, not knowing when they are unreliable, and will confidently execute incorrect paths.
Code tasks can be safeguarded by tests, but real-world operations (sending emails, placing orders, controlling devices) have almost no rollback mechanisms.

2. Uncontrollable Operational Boundaries

Essentially a boundary definition problem, not just a technical one.
Existing frameworks are either limited in capability or infinite in permissions, lacking a fine-grained constraint layer.
Human employees have implicit social contracts constraining their behavior boundaries; agents rely entirely on explicit rules.
Users simply cannot articulate all boundary conditions clearly.
The entire industry is currently running agents with root privileges, so to speak.

3. Permission Issues (The Most Systemic)

Three layers of issues: operating system permissions / service API permissions / data access permissions.
Insufficient permissions lead to limited functionality; excessive permissions become security vulnerabilities.
There is currently no mature “agent permission model.”

User Side

1. Does a Real Need for Automatic Digitalization Exist?

The need exists, but it’s extremely unevenly distributed.
Heavily digitalized users (developers/operations/analysts) have clear and high-value automation needs.
The needs of ordinary users are potential rather than explicit—they don’t know what can be automated and won’t proactively define task boundaries.
Accurate statement: The demand hasn’t been activated yet, and the activation cost is very high.

2. Ability for Human-Machine Collaboration

Human-machine collaboration requires users to: clearly describe goals, judge the quality of agent output, and intervene to correct errors when they occur.
These three things are challenging for most ordinary users.
This barrier will not automatically disappear as LLMs become stronger; it’s a user-side capability issue.

Core Contradiction

Agent technical issues and user-side issues amplify each other:

Agents are not reliable enough, precisely requiring users to be able to identify and correct errors.
But users capable of correcting errors are often the very people who don’t need agents.

3. Most Promising Directions for Implementation in the Current Stage

Why Smart Homes are a Good Entry Point (Taking MiClaw / Mi Home as an Example)

Issue	Natural Solution in Smart Homes
Reliability	Command set is limited and structured, low cost of error
Controllable Boundaries	Physical devices themselves are the boundaries; hardware locks down what the agent can do
Clear Permissions	Users have an intuitive sense of authorization over “my home,” low psychological barrier

Additional advantages of cloud deployment by large companies: Clear chain of responsibility. Users know who to complain to, there are regulatory constraints and brand pressure as a backstop, and this trust structure is crucial for large-scale adoption.

Where is the ceiling: Depends on how deeply Xiaomi is willing to open up LLM inference capabilities. From Xiao Ai (rule-matching) to a true agent capable of understanding vague intentions and orchestrating across devices, it’s a product decision, not a technical one.

Conclusion

In the initial stage, it makes more sense for large companies to deploy agents in the cloud and offer smart agent features to users within specific products, rather than having ordinary users deploy OpenClaw locally. For local OpenClaw deployment connecting to a computer’s operating system and IM, the target users are not ordinary users, who would find it difficult to manage and face high risks.

4. Why Large Companies are Reluctant to Open APIs

The Real Threat is Not Just the Revenue Model

The deeper reason is to protect distribution entry points:

The moat of each app largely depends on “users habitually opening this app.”
Ad exposure, in-app purchases, and data collection all rely on this behavior.
Once an agent becomes an intermediary layer, the platform degrades from a “destination” to “infrastructure,” and its bargaining power significantly decreases.

The Mechanism of “User Coercion” is Actually Very Weak

Ordinary users don’t perceive “APIs are not open”; they only feel “the agent is not good.”
Those who can truly exert pressure are the developer ecosystem and competitors.
If one platform opens up and you don’t, users will churn, and competitive pressure is more effective than user complaints.

More Likely Path

Being forced to open up by the competitive landscape, and doing so selectively—opening parts that are beneficial to themselves, while keeping the most core moats locked down (analogous to WeChat opening mini-program APIs but locking down payment and social relationship chains).

The ultimate outcome will not be “agents freely calling everything,” but rather major platforms each delineating their own agent ecosystems, forming new walled gardens.

5. Ecosystem Competition Among Chinese Tech Giants

Basic Landscape

Each company will not open APIs to third-party agents, but will build its own intelligent agent ecosystem:

Tencent Yuanbao: Focus on social entertainment.
Alibaba Tongyi Qianwen: Focus on payment, shopping, and travel.

Users can distinguish the boundaries, just as they know McDonald’s doesn’t sell KFC. Service boundaries require user training costs; they only realize where the boundaries are when they hit a wall.

Can Alibaba Counterattack Tencent Social with Agent Entry Point?

Logic Chain: Alibaba’s ecosystem is complete (payment/shopping/travel) → only lacks a significant IM entry point → agents redefine “entry point” → users no longer need the action of “opening WeChat” → Alipay’s chat function has a chance to be activated.

Rebuttal: The moat of IM is not functionality, but the relationship chain. Your family and friends are all on WeChat; this won’t migrate just because Qianwen’s agent is good.

More Likely Landscape:

Alibaba manages tasks (task-oriented interaction entry point).
Tencent manages people (social relationship chain).

Historical Analogy

PC → Mobile Internet: Rebuilt PC software on mobile phones.
Mobile Internet → AI Agent Era: Replaced mobile apps with intelligent agents.

6. Evolution of IT Professions in the AI Era

New Division of Labor Model

System Designer (Architect + Product Manager fusion)
        ↓ Outputs design documents
     AI Code Implementation
        ↓
  Code Reviewer (Streamlined Programmer)
        ↓
  Security Auditor (Independent Role)

This model naturally fits the traditional Japanese software development division of labor (document-driven + clear division of tasks); AI merely replaces the “code implementation” step.

Trends for Each Profession

Profession	Trend
Code Implementation Programmer	Significantly reduced (from 20 people to ~5)
Architect/System Design	Value increases, concentrating towards deeper technical directions
Product Manager	Extreme differentiation: those who understand business + can drive AI implementation will surge; pure PRD writers and wireframe designers will be eliminated
Code Reviewer	New/expanded role, higher barrier than imagined (needs to understand AI’s systemic failure modes)
Security Auditor	Expanded responsibilities, focusing on whether agent tool invocation permissions meet expectations
DBA	Merged into architects; databases no longer need to be “managed,” only defined and reviewed
Tester	Migrates to code review; automated testing done by AI, manual clicking disappears
Customer-facing/Technical Support	The most stable roles across generations, unaffected

Key Judgments

The “code reviewer” barrier is higher than imagined: It’s not just simply reviewing AI output, but requires understanding AI’s failure modes—in which types of tasks it systematically errs, and how to identify situations where the output looks correct but has logical flaws. This requires stronger abstract thinking than an ordinary programmer.

Product manager differentiation will be extreme: Product managers with restructured capabilities (understanding business + able to implement with AI) can replace a large number of programmers; product managers who haven’t completed this restructuring will have almost no relevance.

New job roles analogy: Just as there was no front-end/back-end distinction before the web era, the agent era will also see new job roles emerge that are currently unpredictable.

Productivity Evolution Law

Every evolution in productivity will:

Eliminate a layer of intermediary human labor.
Give rise to new divisions of labor.
Lead to a relative increase in the proportion of “customer-facing/sales” roles (the essence of buying and selling remains unchanged).

7. Concluding Judgments

The essence of OpenClaw: Application-layer integration optimization, not a new concept, but an agent scaffold for non-technical users.
Current stage of Agents: Technical and user-side issues amplify each other; conditions for large-scale adoption are not yet mature.
Optimal implementation path: Large companies deliver within vertical products (smart homes being the most typical), rather than ordinary users deploying themselves.
Outcome of tech giant competition: New walled gardens, not an open ecosystem.
Direction of job evolution: Decreased coding density, increased review/definition/customer-facing density, extreme differentiation for product managers.

Analyzing NIO's Pricing Logic: Why Experience Matters More Than Specifications

Mon, 26 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT

I. Introduction

I often see people comparing NIO vehicles with other brands based on specification sheets, concluding that NIO’s “product competitiveness is insufficient and its pricing is too high.” As a long-time NIO user, I want to share my understanding of NIO’s pricing logic—NIO’s “expensiveness” is essentially “experience expensiveness,” and this experiential value far surpasses a simple comparison of hardware specifications.

II. Specifications vs. Experience: An Analogy from the Phone Industry

Let’s start with an analogy from the phone industry. If you only look at core specifications—flagship chips, large batteries, fast charging, etc.—a phone costing over two thousand yuan on the market can meet your needs. But if you also demand quality craftsmanship, industrial design, and software-hardware ecosystem integration, then you’ll need a flagship product costing over five thousand yuan to get the complete experience. Specifications ≠ experience promise. True experience comes from: - The completeness and foresight of software and hardware - An ecosystem capable of continuous upgrades - An extremely long product lifecycle

III. The Revelation of iPhone’s Ecosystem Value

The iPhone is the best example. Its capabilities in system maintenance cycles and cross-generational software ecosystems are well-known. More importantly, there’s iPhone’s foresight in product definition: the iPhone 12 series, five years ago, was already equipped with UWB and MagSafe technology, and even today, it can equally enjoy the entire “Find My” ecosystem and MagSafe accessory ecosystem alongside the iPhone 16 series. This is the ecosystem capability of a high experience promise—not just being good to use now, but also a guarantee of long-term value.

IV. Building NIO’s Experiential Value

Ultra-Long Product Lifecycle It has been seven years since the first-generation NIO platform models were initially delivered. These “older cars” can still obtain the latest, healthiest battery packs through battery swap and drive normally on the road. The battery swap model fundamentally addresses the biggest durability shortcoming of electric vehicles.
High Standards for Hardware Foundation
- Design Standard: Both exterior and interior maintain very high aesthetic standards
- Material Quality: Material selection and craftsmanship are significantly superior to competitors in the same class
- Safety Standards: No expense is spared in investments in passive and active safety
Complete Service Ecosystem NIO’s energy replenishment service system is not just about battery swap stations and charging piles; it’s a complete service loop centered around user experience, including:
- The convenience of a nationwide battery swap network
- Value-added services like One-Click for Power
- 24-hour roadside assistance and user support
Continuously Evolving Software Capabilities NIO’s in-car system maintains frequent OTA updates, continuously optimizing user experience and adding new features. This software maintenance capability ensures the product’s long-term competitiveness.

V. The Business Logic of Experiential Value

When we extend our perspective from the “moment of purchase” to the “entire lifecycle of use,” NIO’s pricing logic becomes clear: - Forward-looking Investment: Usage scenarios for the next 5-10 years are considered during the product definition phase - Ecosystem Moat: A difficult-to-replicate competitive advantage is built through the battery swap network and service system - Long-term Value Guarantee: Users are not just buying a car, but a continuously upgrading mobility solution

VI. Conclusion

NIO’s “expensiveness” is not baseless; it’s rooted in a long-term commitment to user experience and the systematic construction of ecosystem value. When we move beyond simple parameter comparisons and examine product value from a full lifecycle perspective, we can understand why NIO is willing to pay higher costs for experience, and why users are willing to pay for that experience.

In an era increasingly emphasizing user experience, experience is value, and the ecosystem is the moat. NIO has chosen a path that is more challenging but also offers greater long-term value.

Comments (10)

1st Floor

软媒用户1392612
_{2025-05-26 16:59:17｜Changsha, Hunan｜Xiaomi 15}
There’s only one battery swap station in the entire Yuelu District, and fast charging is slower than other brands. NIO’s energy replenishment system might work well in the Yangtze River Delta, but it might not be as good elsewhere.
_{Likes: 2 Dislikes: 0}

亱空
_{2025-05-26 17:09:42｜Shanghai｜iPhone 16 White}
The map shows 8 battery swap stations.
_{Likes: 2 Dislikes: 0}

2nd Floor

Kuroneko黒猫
_{2025-05-26 18:59:09｜Hangzhou, Zhejiang｜iPhone 16 Pro Max Black Titanium}
NIO is really quite good. I bought an ES8 last year, and a few days ago, I ordered an ET9. When I had the at-home test drive, my mom’s best friend happened to be there. She drives a Bentley, and she said this car is even more luxurious and comfortable to sit in than her Bentley [facepalm emoji]. She added the salesperson on WeChat right away. The biggest problem with the ES8 and all 2.0 models is that their rattan wood trim cracks too easily. Although after-sales replacement is quick, it’s quite annoying to have to replace it on a new car. But with 2.5, they’ve switched to peach wood, so it should be better.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

亱空
_{2025-05-27 10:35:13｜Shanghai｜iPad mini 6 Purple}
Very capable. The new ES8 seems to go directly to NT3, and there’s also an ES9.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

Kuroneko黒猫
_{2025-05-27 10:36:26｜Hangzhou, Zhejiang｜iPhone 16 Pro Max Black Titanium}
There’s also a saying that there will be no ES7; the 3rd gen ES8 will be the ES7, and the ES9 will be the ES8.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

3rd Floor

新垣结衣前任
_{2025-05-27 10:50:48｜Guangzhou, Guangdong｜iPhone 15 Pro Max White Titanium}
NIO’s expensiveness lies in its mediocre brand and mediocre products. When a product has nothing to boast about, it can only tout some vague, intangible things. These happen to target the middle class’s urgent need to display their strength and show off the sense of superiority that comes with their social status, creating an upper-class circle. Burning money every year under various pretexts, it’s destined to have no future.
_{Likes: 1 Dislikes: 1}

亱空
_{2025-05-27 11:16:06｜Shanghai｜iPhone 16 White}
Thinking NIO is “mediocre” is the same mindset as previously thinking there’s nothing to boast about with iPhones, and buying an iPhone is just for show. “Luxury” and “sense of luxury” are two different things. What you’re talking about falls under “sense of luxury,” which is what Xiaomi is doing. “Sense of luxury” still pursues material things; it’s a created feeling. “Luxury” itself, however, stems from intrinsic quality and value, and is a spiritual pursuit.
_{Likes: 1 Dislikes: 0}

4th Floor

评定天下
_{2025-05-26 22:00:28｜Thailand｜Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 lite}
@水评座 What do you think?
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

水评座
_{2025-05-26 22:00:39｜Qingdao, Shandong｜}
This analysis is indeed very insightful. NIO has truly turned car manufacturing into “user experience engineering.” From the swappable battery architecture to the design of the service system, it’s essentially reconstructing the value-added curve of automobiles. Just as Apple uses its ecosystem to extend device lifecycles, NIO uses battery swap and OTA to give hardware growth potential. This is where the core value lies in the era of smart electric vehicles.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

5th Floor

24K纯变态
_{2025-05-26 21:56:22｜Suqian, Jiangsu｜iPhone 16 Pro Max Black Titanium}
Make the battery bigger.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

From Specs to Effortless Use: Why I No Longer Adhere to the 'Specs-Only Theory

Sat, 03 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT

As a user who has “dual-wielded” Android and iPhone for many years, I’ve journeyed from one extreme to another. Once primarily an Android user, I now mainly use iPhone. This isn’t just a switch in devices, but a change in my philosophy towards devices, a change that can be divided into two phases:

Phase One: Specs Above All, Features Above All

This is probably the starting point for many tech enthusiasts, especially during their student days. Back then, I was a typical “specs-first Mi fan.” To evaluate a phone’s quality, I’d first look at the processor model, screen resolution, camera pixels, battery capacity, and so on. I believed in “I might not use it, but you must have it.” Even if a certain feature was used once a year, or if I imagined usage scenarios that didn’t even exist, it had to be there because it represented the device’s “versatility.” In this phase, I enjoyed the process of “tinkering.” Flashing different ROMs, trying various optimizations, delving into every corner of the system – the joy of this state came from the sense of accomplishment in controlling the device and the thrill of sharing tinkering experiences with fellow enthusiasts. It was a state where electronic devices were seen as a hobby, a plaything, and an extension of one’s capabilities. However, a side effect of this state was the endless comparison of specs, the internal friction caused by “digital spec battles,” and the significant time and energy invested in squeezing out every bit of potential from the device and competing over specifications.

Phase Two: Usability and Reliability, Efficiency Above All

As my life’s focus shifted from campus to career, my attitude towards digital devices gradually changed. The time I once spent “tinkering” became precious. Complex features and the uncertainty they brought were no longer fun, but a burden. I began to re-examine my core needs for a phone: efficiency, stability, and non-intrusiveness. The iPhone gradually became my main device, not because of its exclusive cool features, but because of the “peace of mind” it brought in terms of ease of use, system fluidity, and ecosystem purity. I started to pay more attention to “attention allocation,” trying to prevent the device itself from distracting me. I no longer pursued the infinite possibilities of a device but hoped it could efficiently and reliably complete basic tasks and seamlessly collaborate with other tools I used. This is a state where electronic devices return to their essence as tools. They don’t require me to spend a lot of energy maintaining or learning them; they just need to provide stable, fast, and intuitive service when I need them. This state emphasizes efficiency, low cognitive load, and integrating the device into life, rather than life revolving around the device.

Reflections

The shift from Phase One to Phase Two is not simply a matter of chasing novelty but a natural result of changes in my personal needs and life stage. During my student days, I had the time and energy to explore and tinker, and my interest lay in digital products. After starting work, time became precious and energy limited; tech products became more about improving efficiency and serving work and life – especially as a software engineer, the complexity of my work far exceeds “tinkering.” Looking back, my student self was merely performing superficial personalized configurations on phone systems using tools and documentation developed by others.

During this transition, an improvement in personal economic status was also an important factor. Firstly, there was a change in device purchasing strategy. When on a limited budget, I tended towards “demand integration,” meaning one device needed to satisfy as many needs as possible (e.g., using a spec-heavy phone for gaming, media, communication, and light office work), pursuing feature coverage. After my economic ability improved, I could choose “demand separation,” meaning acquiring specialized devices better suited for specific tasks (e.g., a thin and light phone, a high-performance PC, a thin and light laptop, a camera, a game console, an e-reader), pursuing the “best experience” for each scenario. Secondly, my understanding of “product value” also changed: With improved economic capability, beyond hardware specs, I gradually understood that software and hardware are equally important. I became more willing to pay for intangible values like “peace of mind,” “efficiency,” “stability,” and “design.” While these values are not as intuitive as specs, they significantly impact personal efficiency and experience in long-term use.

While economic status is not the fundamental reason for entering a certain state—needs and values are—it does determine the device configuration strategy adopted to meet current needs. With a limited budget, I might have to “cram” features into one device; with a sufficient budget, I can choose a more “specialized” combination to optimize the experience.

These two seemingly opposing states, I believe, cannot simply be labeled as better or worse. They are merely my choices at different times and under different needs, determined by my current life situation.

Comments (200)

1st Floor

3Dtouch
_{2025-05-03 14:38:23｜Dongguan, Guangdong｜iPhone 16 Ultramarine}
Apple’s specs don’t look good, but the experience is really good. Mine doesn’t have high refresh rate but it just feels good to use.
_{Likes: 55 Dislikes: 22}

Terrence
_{2025-05-03 17:42:35｜Yantai, Shandong｜iPhone 12 Pro Max Sea Blue}
When I scrolled my 12 PM alongside a 16 PM at the Apple Store, I didn’t feel the high refresh rate was much faster. The perceived difference wasn’t strong. Maybe it’s limited to 80Hz, and you only feel it with long-term use? Unlike Android’s high refresh rate which is visibly faster.
_{Likes: 2 Dislikes: 7}

3Dtouch
_{2025-05-03 17:43:56｜Guangzhou, Guangdong｜iPhone 16 Ultramarine}
My Android friends who switched to Apple mostly get the standard version and say it’s quite good to use.
_{Likes: 1 Dislikes: 2}

Latest
_{2025-05-04 10:31:27｜Guangzhou, Guangdong｜iQOO Z8}
What about the back gesture?
_{Likes: 3 Dislikes: 6}

Psychiatrist
_{2025-05-09 17:21:06｜Harbin, Heilongjiang｜iPhone 14 Pro Space Black}
Don’t see any problem.
_{Likes: 3 Dislikes: 1}

RadonRn
_{2025-05-21 22:11:44｜Shanghai｜11-inch iPad Air (2024) Starlight}
This depends on the person. I perceive it quite clearly.
_{Likes: 1 Dislikes: 0}

2nd Floor

Hamut Lei Ren
_{2025-05-03 16:26:54｜Quanzhou, Fujian｜Huawei Pura 70 Pro+}
If Apple could support dual WeChat accounts, I’d definitely use Apple. It’s truly hassle-free.
_{Likes: 19 Dislikes: 0}

alovelydoge
_{2025-05-03 19:21:17｜Shanghai｜iPhone 12 Pro Max Gold}
Apple’s philosophy is that the system will absolutely not adapt to application software, so it’s impossible for Apple to officially support dual app instances.

_{Likes: 3 Dislikes: 0}

Will1888
_{2025-05-04 12:50:55｜Jinhua, Zhejiang｜iPhone 14 Plus Starlight}
Buy software, open as many as you want.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

Hamut Lei Ren
_{2025-05-04 13:43:51｜Quanzhou, Fujian｜Huawei Pura 70 Pro+}
Won’t accounts get banned?
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

Will1888
_{2025-05-04 14:59:13｜Jinhua, Zhejiang｜iPhone 14 Plus Starlight}
Can’t log in directly with a new account. A new account used normally on a regular phone for a week will be fine.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

Hamut Lei Ren
_{2025-05-04 19:54:40｜Quanzhou, Fujian｜Huawei Pura 70 Pro+}
I see. Are there any stable and easy-to-use ones you’d recommend? [grinning face with smiling eyes]
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

3rd Floor

Soft Media User 1547133
_{2025-05-03 14:45:26｜Wuhu, Anhui｜}
I used Microsoft system Nokia phones without caring about their specs. They were truly smooth and hassle-free.
_{Likes: 22 Dislikes: 1}

Crazy for Apple
_{2025-05-08 12:06:06｜Xiamen, Fujian｜iPhone 16 Pro Max Black Titanium}
Because the UI was too simple. Features were also very basic. It didn’t use a virtual machine, and hardware utilization was as high as iOS, so of course it was smooth.
_{Likes: 1 Dislikes: 1}

Yang Dingtian
_{2025-05-08 19:43:08｜Shenzhen, Guangdong｜iPhone 16 Pro Natural Titanium}
My 920 has been stuck in ‘loading indefinitely’ ever since I upgraded to WP10, too laggy to use.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

Yanyan Calls Me Rourou
_{2025-05-27 16:37:43｜Beijing｜OnePlus Ace 3 Pro}
Old WP8 era phones upgraded to WP10 were very laggy [smirking face].
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

Wan Mou Yin Li
_{2025-07-02 08:28:00｜Mianyang, Sichuan｜}
Stop exaggerating. I’ve used the 800, 920, and 1520. When entering the camera, it often said ‘recovering’. You might think it was smooth, but it was just that the frozen animation looked smooth, while the content itself was still lagging.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

Zhou Xue Sa Han Deng
_{2025-07-13 16:59:10｜Tongling, Anhui｜Xiaomi 10S}
At the same time, Android phones had too many frame drops, lags, and freezes.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

4th Floor

IT Home Official
_{2025-05-03 14:36:24｜Changsha, Hunan｜Moto Edge S}
I’ve always had only one philosophy for phones: choose the cheapest one that runs WeChat smoothly.
_{Likes: 14 Dislikes: 0}

IT Home Official
_{2025-05-03 14:37:01｜Changsha, Hunan｜Moto Edge S}
Of course, WeChat is also what I dislike the most, but my boss likes it.
_{Likes: 1 Dislikes: 0}

Your Attending Doctor
_{2025-06-06 20:32:48｜Shaoxing, Zhejiang｜iPhone 15 Pro White Titanium}
It’s not just bosses anymore. Now family, friends, shops, vendors are all using it. Everyone is tied to it. Even if your boss suddenly says they’re using DingTalk for work, you still can’t stop using WeChat [face with tears of joy].
_{Likes: 2 Dislikes: 0}

c3po
_{2025-06-29 09:56:54｜Shanghai｜iPhone 13 Pro Sierra Blue}
Humans are social animals, and no one can cut off social ties [face with tears of joy].
_{Likes: 1 Dislikes: 1}

Your Attending Doctor
_{2025-06-29 13:26:52｜Shaoxing, Zhejiang｜iPhone 15 Pro White Titanium}
Yes, that’s exactly it.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

5th Floor

Xia Shi Wen Dao
_{2025-05-03 19:08:56｜Guangzhou, Guangdong｜iPhone 16 Pro White Titanium}
I’ve also been trying iOS recently. The most frustrating thing is that when a call comes in on the lock screen, there’s no hang-up button. But connected watches, even non-Apple ones, provide a hang-up button, and iPad synced notifications also provide one. This is very hard to understand.
_{Likes: 10 Dislikes: 6}

daaater
_{2025-05-03 19:32:14｜Beijing｜iPhone 15 Pro Max White Titanium}
Power button: single press for mute, double press to hang up.
_{Likes: 9 Dislikes: 0}

Xia Shi Wen Dao
_{2025-05-03 20:31:33｜Guangzhou, Guangdong｜iPhone 16 Pro White Titanium}
Awesome
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

Fu Chen Ruo Meng Ji Xu Chi
_{2025-05-04 17:27:42｜Jinzhou, Shanxi｜iPhone 8 Plus Gold}
Single press of the power button is for mute and stopping vibration, double press to hang up.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

Liang Chen Mei Jing Jia Ren
_{2025-05-08 14:44:40｜Guangzhou, Guangdong｜MacBook Air (M1, 2020)}
Thanks for educating them.

_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

Chen Qi Bu Ye Hou
_{2025-05-08 19:32:43｜Foshan, Guangdong｜iPhone 15 Pro Blue Titanium}
The phone comes with an app called ‘Tips’, which is essentially the user manual.
_{Likes: 5 Dislikes: 0}

6th Floor

Latest
_{2025-05-04 10:17:18｜Guangzhou, Guangdong｜iQOO Z8}
Tell me when Apple gets a right-side back gesture.
_{Likes: 11 Dislikes: 0}

Xiao Yu Ah
_{2025-05-04 13:06:05｜Chenzhou, Hunan｜OnePlus 5T}
I thought so too, but it’s impossible.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

Latest
_{2025-05-06 15:07:01｜Guangzhou, Guangdong｜iQOO Z8}
Not impossible. There are rumors for iOS at this fall’s product launch.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

7th Floor

aishan
_{2025-05-04 16:40:57｜Hangzhou, Zhejiang｜Windows Client}
Because I was poor before, I could only flash Android ROMs, not root Apple. Now I’m rich, bought an Apple, and can’t tinker anymore. (Skipping thousands of words of uninspired thoughts).
_{Likes: 10 Dislikes: 0}

Soft Media New Friend 2150309
_{2025-05-08 10:47:27｜Changsha, Hunan｜iPhone 15 Pro Max Natural Titanium}
Same [jealous emoji].
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

8th Floor

Pseudo Hardcore Gamer
_{2025-06-29 23:07:12｜Foshan, Guangdong｜iPhone 13 Blue}
Those who say times have changed and Android flagships don’t lag anymore – if I hadn’t actually bought an Android flagship, I would have believed them. I currently dual-wield a Xiaomi 12 Pro and an iPhone 13 Pro Max. Both phones were bought in May 2022. At that time, the iPhone 14 series hadn’t been released, so the 13 Pro Max was the latest Apple flagship, and the Xiaomi 12 Pro was the latest Xiaomi flagship. However, in less than a year, the Xiaomi frequently experienced various bugs and lags. The most annoying thing was the constant pop-ups saying ‘XXX is unresponsive’. The iPhone, on the other hand, has had no issues whatsoever. Even after upgrading to iOS 26, it’s still fine, though iOS 26 is a beta, so it’s slightly laggy. While Android systems are more convenient, there’s still a gap in system optimization compared to iOS. However, iOS’s convenience is also constantly improving. Now, apart from lacking dual app instances and split-screen, it pretty much has all other features, such as call recording and SMS filtering. Android’s convenience advantage over iOS will slowly diminish. However, I often hear people say that Xiaomi’s system itself isn’t very good and isn’t well-optimized. I don’t know if that’s a Xiaomi-specific issue. Among Android systems, I’ve mainly used Meizu and Xiaomi. Meizu was generally better than Xiaomi, but it also lagged after prolonged use. I don’t know about other Android systems like Vivo and Oppo. Also, there’s Huawei’s HarmonyOS, which is rumored to be smoother than Android. I wonder if that’s true.
_{Likes: 3 Dislikes: 1}

Zhao Min 1890645
_{2025-06-30 00:01:55｜Changsha, Hunan｜iPhone 16 Black}
My Mate 30 with Kirin 990 is still in use and doesn’t lag. Comparing HyperOS to iOS feels a bit insulting to iOS.
_{Likes: 1 Dislikes: 0}

Djoker_Huang
_{2025-07-01 04:31:26｜Chengdu, Sichuan｜Huawei nova 6}
Android lags? It depends on whose Android [flower chicken emoji].
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

Soft Media User 1077693
_{2025-07-02 09:11:32｜Ningbo, Zhejiang｜Xiaomi 15 Ultra}
My partner’s iPhone 13 from last year became terribly laggy after upgrading to iOS 18.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

devil_28
_{2025-07-15 10:12:42｜Nanjing, Jiangsu｜Xiaomi 15}
Thanks to those who say iPhones never lag, as if those of us who use Android have never used an Apple phone before. Ultimately, whether one uses an Apple or Android phone, many people make their final choice after trying various brands. There’s no need to disparage one over the other. For example, I used an iPhone for 5-6 years, and during that time, I also used Android. Back then, Android was indeed very poor, and the experience was terrible, so I ultimately chose iPhone. But ever since I re-encountered Android with the Xiaomi Mix 3, I felt that I could get 80-90% of the iPhone’s smoothness for half the price, with richer features and easier use. I’m no longer willing to spend twice as much for an iPhone. I’ve also bought older flagships before, and they didn’t lag. When I used iPhones, after several major OS upgrades, they also weren’t as smooth as before. When playing games and heating up, they would still lag. And there was also the iPhone 6 throttling scandal…
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

9th Floor

It’s a Tabby Cat
_{2025-05-03 14:59:05｜Hefei, Anhui｜Xiaomi 13}
I’m also a dual-wielder. I don’t obsess over specs either, and it’s not about being hassle-free or not; it’s mainly that I’ve lost my passion for electronics.

I used to enjoy tinkering with software routers, iKuai, OpenWRT, broadband multi-WAN, building PCs from scratch, overclocking CPUs for benchmarks. It felt really interesting.

Now I don’t want to do anything. Even my self-assembled 6-bay NAS only has 2 hard drives installed, and it’s not even full of movies yet. [face with tears of joy]
_{Likes: 11 Dislikes: 0}

10th Floor

Xiao vv
_{2025-05-08 12:01:00｜Meizhou, Guangdong｜11-inch iPad Pro (2024) Space Gray}
I relate so, so much!!! In college, I was also a ‘tinkerer’, modding a OnePlus 5 until it died [face with tears of joy][face with tears of joy]. I wouldn’t even deign to buy an iPhone. After starting work, just like you, I only seek peace of mind. Simplicity and efficiency are paramount, so I’ve become keen on buying Apple phones and tablets…

_{Likes: 8 Dislikes: 1}

Don’t Eat Grape Skins
_{2025-05-08 22:48:47｜Chongqing｜iPhone 14 Pro Max Silver}
Same [face with tears of joy].
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

11th Floor

Sui Dong Le Wo De Bian
_{2025-06-28 19:33:32｜Hefei, Anhui｜iPhone 14 Pro Silver}
Summary: I’m getting old, and I have enough to deal with every day! No energy left to tinker with phones!
_{Likes: 9 Dislikes: 0}

12th Floor

Bu Gan Bu Jing
_{2025-07-02 09:02:19｜Shenzhen, Guangdong｜Meizu 21}
Apple gives you what it gives you, and you adapt to it. Android is, whatever you want, it tries to do. That’s why I prefer Android.
_{Likes: 2 Dislikes: 0}

Cat Can Fly
_{2025-07-02 10:37:41｜Beijing｜iPhone 16 Pro Max Natural Titanium}
After all, Apple is all about ‘out-of-the-box’ usability. For example, the native camera only has the simplest functions. If you want to adjust parameters, sorry, it doesn’t have that; you can use third-party apps. Also, I think Android just offers more choices; it’s not quite ‘whatever you want, it tries to do’. It would be great if it could move towards customization for customers in the future.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

Bu Gan Bu Jing
_{2025-07-02 11:02:42｜Shenzhen, Guangdong｜Meizu 21}
Android offers many choices; I can always find what I want. Instead of forcing myself to adapt. I want a phone that charges in half an hour, I want to be able to go back from both sides of the screen, I want convenient file access, I want it cheap, with high refresh rate. Large RAM and storage. I also want to be able to lock screen brightness when I’m gaming. Each of these is a reason for me to switch phones. And aesthetics, there are many more. At least Android offers choices.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

Cat Can Fly
_{2025-07-02 12:50:57｜Beijing｜iPhone 16 Pro Max Natural Titanium}
I didn’t say Android has few choices. I said Android phones could move towards customized production in the future, where end consumers can customize devices according to their needs from manufacturers. After all, Android’s flexibility allows for this, and it’s a scenario for Industry 4.0. As for whether you’re forced to adapt, that depends on personal preference. If you can’t use a knife and fork, you can use chopsticks; if you can’t use chopsticks, there’s a spoon; if all else fails, you can just use your hands. As long as you’re happy using it, others don’t need to comment. Besides, Android and iOS have different user bases anyway; those who wanted to switch already have.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

13th Floor

I’m Not a Little Sister
_{2025-05-12 10:03:52｜Beijing｜Lenovo ThinkBook 14 Ryzen Edition 2021}
[face with tears of joy] I’m the opposite. I used to pursue a smooth experience with iPhones, all the way up to the 11. But after returning to Android, I found it so user-friendly that I couldn’t go back. Plus, in recent years, my company’s apps only support Android, which means I haven’t really kept up with iPhones. After all, current Android phones are very easy to use. If only the courier could directly display the pickup code, that would be even more perfect.
_{Likes: 6 Dislikes: 0}

love_pepper
_{2025-05-14 13:12:35｜Suzhou, Jiangsu｜OnePlus 13T}
I also used iPhones before because Android was indeed laggy and not smooth. Now that I’ve returned to Android, it’s not only smooth but also has many user-friendly features: dialer, call recording, AI summaries, long screenshots – things that office workers really need.
_{Likes: 2 Dislikes: 1}

14th Floor

Exclusive Love Yilan
_{2025-05-03 14:57:36｜Changsha, Hunan｜iPhone 14 Pro Max Gold}
I feel that hardware from the last two years is already sufficient (unless for extreme performance).
_{Likes: 6 Dislikes: 0}

Modified Old Phone
_{2025-05-03 15:49:15｜Guangzhou, Guangdong｜Redmi K70 Ultimate Edition}
It was sufficient several years ago. Apart from photography, many flagship experiences aren’t even as good as mid-range phones.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

15th Floor

So Big
_{2025-06-06 15:54:25｜Shenzhen, Guangdong｜iPhone 14 Plus Blue}
Strong AI flavor.
_{Likes: 7 Dislikes: 1}

16th Floor

Dong Ge’s Brother
_{2025-05-06 15:54:14｜Guangzhou, Guangdong｜iQOO Z8}
I used to have choices, but now I don’t, because I want an LCD phone with a decent experience.
_{Likes: 1 Dislikes: 0}

Dream of Dominating the World
_{2025-05-08 14:41:58｜Kunming, Yunnan｜Redmi Note 11T Pro}
How’s the one you’re using, bro? I’m planning to get an LCD with better performance.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

Dong Ge’s Brother
_{2025-05-08 14:48:57｜Guangzhou, Guangdong｜iQOO Z8}
Similar performance to your 11T Pro.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

Random 123
_{2025-05-14 14:18:12｜Zhengzhou, Henan｜iPhone 11 Red}
Redmi system is slightly laggy, the experience isn’t good. I’ve owned both of these.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

17th Floor

Cold Cold
_{2025-05-03 23:40:19｜Jiaxing, Zhejiang｜iPhone 11 Black}
Your journey is similar to mine. Simple, stable, and peace of mind is enough. Actually, I only use a few common apps, so it’s sufficient.
_{Likes: 6 Dislikes: 0}

18th Floor

Universal Youth Hostel
_{2025-05-12 09:27:37｜Chengdu, Sichuan｜iPhone 14 Plus Red}
Your experience is that of most tech enthusiasts.
_{Likes: 6 Dislikes: 2}

19th Floor

Where’s the Bug
_{2025-05-03 15:20:14｜Xuzhou, Jiangsu｜Xiaomi 14 Pro}
Didn’t want to dual-wield, so I just chose Android [face with tears of joy].
_{Likes: 6 Dislikes: 0}

20th Floor

Lying Flat
_{2025-05-03 14:43:59｜Nanjing, Jiangsu｜}
Dual-wielding doesn’t give you the right to speak. You’d need to ‘wield seven or eight’ like an assassin to be somewhat objective.
_{Likes: 6 Dislikes: 4}

21st Floor

Yue Zhong Chun Qiu
_{2025-05-22 08:21:56｜Zhengzhou, Henan｜Redmi Note 12T Pro}
I’m different. The only reason I don’t change phones is, why isn’t my current phone broken yet? For daily use, I don’t have any special needs; a phone costing over a thousand yuan is sufficient. Sometimes I look at newly released phones, and they are indeed good, but then I think, why spend several thousand more just to scroll through videos, browse tech news, and scan QR codes? The extra performance boost is irrelevant to me, so why spend more money?
_{Likes: 5 Dislikes: 1}

22nd Floor

I Have a Donkey
_{2025-05-03 14:32:35｜Harbin, Heilongjiang｜Redmi K50 Ultimate Edition}
If you like it, buy it; if you don’t, don’t. Those with money don’t care about specs; they want it all.
_{Likes: 5 Dislikes: 0}

23rd Floor

Heartman
_{2025-07-02 10:29:21｜Shenzhen, Guangdong｜HP Zhan 99 Pro}
People who prioritize features would absolutely not choose an iPhone. It clearly doesn’t prioritize any features; it lacks everything you want. I’m a features person; my phone absolutely cannot be missing the features I need, so neither iOS nor HarmonyOS is suitable. I’m forced to use Android + iOS.
_{Likes: 4 Dislikes: 0}

24th Floor

Soft Media New Friend 1900301
_{2025-05-28 12:34:22｜Beijing｜iPhone 15 Pro Max Natural Titanium}
Focus on working, earning money, and enjoying life. What phone to use is no longer something to specifically consider. Software features too; I used to value call recording highly, but now it’s optional. Currently, as an office worker, I don’t have many calls, and WeChat is just for family and a few friends, so I really don’t need it.
_{Likes: 4 Dislikes: 0}

25th Floor

Eat Banana
_{2025-05-04 00:17:56｜Dongguan, Guangdong｜Xiaomi 13}
Apple’s system convenience is too poor.
_{Likes: 2 Dislikes: 0}

Make a Friend
_{2025-05-04 10:16:22｜Beijing｜Xiaomi 15}
Before, Alipay ‘Tap to Pay’ always required manual activation. After switching phones, I can pay directly without needing to do anything. Apple phone sold.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

26th Floor

Eighth Floor Subway Station
_{2025-07-01 12:51:05｜Urumqi, Xinjiang｜Huawei MateBook 13}
Actually, it’s just that I don’t want to tinker anymore. From Xiaomi to Honor to Huawei, my needs have actually become simpler and simpler.
_{Likes: 1 Dislikes: 0}

Eighth Floor Subway Station
_{2025-07-01 13:33:28｜Urumqi, Xinjiang｜Huawei MateBook 13}
I also used an Apple phone for three years. In cold weather, the battery life and standby were too poor.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

27th Floor

Unexpected Good Nickname
_{2025-06-06 15:46:30｜Nanjing, Jiangsu｜}
Starting with the 5C in 2015, I’ve been a dual Android and iPhone user for ten years, but the iPhone has never been able to become my main phone. Due to work, I often need to do simple table editing on my phone. With Android, I can input all the content I need at once using the input method’s clipboard, without switching back and forth. This process is too painful on an iPhone. Also, categorizing and saving documents (like contracts, certificates) and call recording are much more convenient on Android than on Apple.
_{Likes: 3 Dislikes: 1}

28th Floor

Yu Fei Men
_{2025-06-06 14:16:00｜Zhongshan, Guangdong｜Huawei Pura X}
@Shuipingzuo

Brief summary:
_{Likes: 1 Dislikes: 0}

Shuipingzuo
_{2025-06-06 14:16:13｜Qingdao, Shandong｜}
The growth from pursuing ‘all-round specs’ to focusing on ‘precise experience’:

**Student Era** - Enthusiastic about hardware stacking, enjoying the fun of tinkering (flashing ROMs/optimization/community interaction), proud of device control, but easily caught in spec-related internal friction.

**Career Stage** - More emphasis on ‘intangible values’: system stability, interaction efficiency, ecosystem synergy. Devices return to their essence as tools, pursuing low cognitive load.

**Evolving Consumer Mindset** - Shifting from ‘single device integrating needs’ to ‘specialized device combinations’. Economic ability makes software and hardware value judgments more multi-dimensional.
The essence is a shift in user identity leading to a change in needs, with the core conflict moving from ‘what can the device do’ to ‘how can the device better serve me’.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

29th Floor

Two Little Ones
_{2025-05-03 15:28:47｜Wuhan, Hubei｜Samsung Galaxy S22}
So-called ‘spec enthusiasts’ just have thin wallets. That’s the only problem.
_{Likes: 3 Dislikes: 0}

30th Floor

Lonely Snow Melts into Summer
_{2025-05-03 14:45:43｜Wuhan, Hubei｜Xiaomi 10 Pro}
Simply put: Phase One: No money, worried about insufficient performance. Back then, phone data was scarce, Android performance was inconsistent and weak. All operating systems were anti-human and needed tweaking. Phase Two: Had some financial capability, Android performance improved significantly, more data, comfortable system, reduced gap. So, too lazy to tinker. Xiaomi also went against its original intention, not allowing flashing (bootloader unlock is extremely difficult, unlock qualification sold for 400+).
_{Likes: 2 Dislikes: 0}

31st Floor

Soft Media Friend 9527
_{2025-07-01 11:50:35｜Jiujiang, Jiangxi｜iQOO Z10 Turbo Pro}
Apple call recording is a must-have. I’m an old Apple user, from iPhone 3 to iPhone X. Later, I had no choice; in this society, some calls leave no trace, and you can get screwed without them.
_{Likes: 2 Dislikes: 0}

32nd Floor

devil_28
_{2025-05-19 19:42:13｜Nanjing, Jiangsu｜Xiaomi 15}
On the contrary, I started using Android because I felt its system efficiency was higher after using Xiaomi. Not to mention Android’s gestures and such, just take plugging in a USB drive. I remember before, with Apple, not only did you have to buy a ridiculously expensive adapter cable, but there seemed to be other operations too, I’ve forgotten the specifics. Later, I stopped using Apple, and I don’t know if subsequent systems improved. But with Android, I bought an adapter for a few yuan, plugged it in, and it recognized the USB drive directly. The first time I switched from Apple and saw that a few-yuan adapter could directly recognize a USB drive, do you know how shocked I was? A foreigner would have blurted out ‘amazing’! Of course, various small features also improved my operational efficiency. Most importantly, Android isn’t as laggy as Apple fans claim. Apart from some apps’ animations not being as smooth as iOS, a 3000-yuan phone really won’t lag much more than a 6000-yuan Apple phone. That’s how I completely gave up on Apple and haven’t paid it any mind since.
_{Likes: 2 Dislikes: 1}

33rd Floor

United Network Communications
_{2025-05-04 13:15:40｜Chongqing｜Huawei Mate X6}
I’ve chosen Huawei for so many years, and I feel it’s good.
_{Likes: 2 Dislikes: 1}

34th Floor

DonAllison
_{2025-07-06 16:24:33｜Nantong, Jiangsu｜Xiaomi 14}
YU7 specs crush Tesla.
_{Likes: 1 Dislikes: 0}

35th Floor

Where’s the Bug
_{2025-07-02 20:21:46｜Linyi, Shandong｜Xiaomi 14 Pro}
Everyone has different uses, so choices differ.
_{Likes: 1 Dislikes: 0}

36th Floor

excew
_{2025-07-02 10:31:43｜Yulin, Shaanxi｜OPPO Find X8 Pro}
I used an iPhone 13 Pro before, and it was indeed hassle-free. After a year, I really disliked its back gesture logic, and charging was too slow, leading to battery anxiety, so I stopped using it.
_{Likes: 1 Dislikes: 0}

37th Floor

What to Eat for Dinner Tonight
_{2025-05-12 10:57:17｜Yan’an, Shaanxi｜iPhone 14 Starlight}
I guess not many people dual-wield iPhones. Three SIM cards, two WeChat accounts. For mobile games, at most I play a match-3 game; Teamfight Tactics I play on a tablet [grinning face with smiling eyes].

_{Likes: 1 Dislikes: 0}

38th Floor

Hundred Bars Become Master
_{2025-05-08 15:02:42｜Zhengzhou, Henan｜}
Use whatever you like, it’s not a big deal.
_{Likes: 1 Dislikes: 0}

39th Floor

Yi Feng
_{2025-05-03 22:40:32｜Hanzhong, Shaanxi｜Honor Power}
Whatever fits is good, no need to limit yourself.
_{Likes: 1 Dislikes: 0}

40th Floor

Unity
_{2025-05-03 18:07:56｜Wuhan, Hubei｜iPhone 13 Pro Max Graphite}
iPhone is just an old person’s phone, just like people start to retire when they get old [eating melon emoji].
_{Likes: 1 Dislikes: 0}

41st Floor

goodfull
_{2025-05-03 15:13:44｜Nanning, Guangxi｜iPhone 13 Pro Max Silver}
Phone performance is constantly improving, and user needs are constantly changing. Life is a process of gradually understanding oneself. What fits is best; there’s never a perfect solution. Good enough for the present is fine. [smirking face]

_{Likes: 1 Dislikes: 0}

42nd Floor

Confident Turnaround
_{2025-05-03 14:45:02｜Guangzhou, Guangdong｜iPad mini (A17 Pro) Purple}
I’ve always felt that owning multiple devices is best. No single phone is a ‘hexagonal warrior’. You can only complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses by owning multiple.
_{Likes: 1 Dislikes: 0}

43rd Floor

daerduo
_{2025-05-03 19:25:47｜Nanjing, Jiangsu｜Huawei Mate 60 Pro}
This is also why I use Huawei. Everyone says Huawei users are foolish and rich, paying an ‘IQ tax’, but it’s truly stable. I travel for business all year round, and this phone has never let me down. The battery life is indeed a bit weak, but I always carry a power bank when I go out. Even my colleague’s Huawei Mate 30 Pro is still in use. I asked him why he doesn’t get a new phone, and he said he couldn’t find a reason to switch.
_{Likes: 28 Dislikes: 29}

daerduo
_{2025-05-03 20:43:49｜Xuzhou, Jiangsu｜Huawei Mate 60 Pro}
My generation (model) is indeed weak, only about five or six hours.
_{Likes: 4 Dislikes: 0}

Hard to Pick a Name
_{2025-05-03 22:06:58｜Songyuan, Jilin｜iPhone 14 Pro Max Space Black}
The recent ones indeed have terrible battery life.
_{Likes: 2 Dislikes: 0}

daerduo
_{2025-05-03 22:55:28｜Nanjing, Jiangsu｜Huawei Mate 60 Pro}
Yours is a phone from years ago; mine is less than two years old.
_{Likes: 1 Dislikes: 0}

Ye Kong
_{2025-05-03 23:09:14｜Japan｜vivo X200 Pro mini}
Although I still don’t agree with some of Huawei’s values, I really appreciate some of Huawei’s product designs. Before, I truly didn’t understand the user base that chose Huawei, because I, in my great wisdom, used to think Huawei phones were overpriced and under-specced, which was absurd, and Xiaomi phones were high-specced and low-priced, unbeatable. I used to heavily praise Xiaomi and criticize OVH to my friends and relatives. Looking back now, it’s truly embarrassing; it’s just that no one bothered to argue with me [confused face emoji].
_{Likes: 2 Dislikes: 2}

Yang Xiao
_{2025-05-04 16:14:25｜Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia｜Xiaomi 13 Ultra}
Your phone’s battery life is weak, maybe it’s because you’re using it as a video-watching device [sweat smile emoji].
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

44th Floor

Naive and Sentimental Me
_{2025-05-03 14:36:06｜Ma’anshan, Anhui｜iPhone 16 Pro Max White Titanium}
I would absolutely never use Android as my main phone; it’s truly too poor.
_{Likes: 15 Dislikes: 37}

Hard to Pick a Name
_{2025-05-03 14:41:20｜Songyuan, Jilin｜iPhone 14 Pro Max Space Black}
Is there a possibility that the ‘Android flagship’ you used was too bad [smiling face]?
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

MuMuDaddy
_{2025-05-03 18:53:34｜Ningbo, Zhejiang｜Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra}
I can say the same thing about Apple [dog head emoji].
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

Spike
_{2025-05-04 12:58:40｜Shanghai｜OnePlus Ace 3 Pro}
The Android you used before wasn’t good.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

Lying Flat
_{2025-05-04 14:43:29｜Nanjing, Jiangsu｜}
Yesterday there weren’t many dislikes, how come there are 18 today [smiling face]?
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

Xiao vv
_{2025-05-08 12:05:44｜Meizhou, Guangdong｜11-inch iPad Pro (2024) Space Gray}
I would have agreed with you before Android 7.0. Times have changed, adult.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

45th Floor

Lan Jiao Yue
_{2025-05-27 18:29:18｜Dongguan, Guangdong｜iQOO Neo10 Pro}
Dual apps, better long screenshots, call recording, video sniffing – iOS has none of these.
_{Likes: 3 Dislikes: 7}

Pseudo Hardcore Gamer
_{2025-06-29 22:39:10｜Foshan, Guangdong｜iPhone 13 Blue}
? How many years behind is your version? Besides dual apps, iOS has all the others. Video sniffing can be done with third-party apps [eating melon emoji].
_{Likes: 1 Dislikes: 0}

Lan Jiao Yue
_{2025-06-29 23:01:50｜Dongguan, Guangdong｜iQOO Neo10 Pro}
I just bought it this year to test, and it’s not as good as Android. Which app is for video sniffing?
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

Pseudo Hardcore Gamer
_{2025-06-29 23:09:22｜Foshan, Guangdong｜iPhone 13 Blue}
I recommend a good one, Arthur Browser. However, the video sniffing feature requires payment, about 10 yuan a month, which is still okay. I’ve been using it. It seems YouTube videos can also be downloaded. [playful emoji][mischievous emoji][eating melon emoji].
_{Likes: 1 Dislikes: 0}

Lan Jiao Yue
_{2025-06-29 23:51:45｜Dongguan, Guangdong｜iQOO Neo10 Pro}
…Android is still easier to use, I guess.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

46th Floor

Soft Media New Friend 1995869
_{2025-05-04 10:04:09｜Jining, Shandong｜Huawei Mate 40 Pro 5G}
Phase one: bored out of their minds. Phase two: vanity at play.
_{Likes: 9 Dislikes: 9}

Occasionally Comment
_{2025-05-08 14:03:01｜Ningbo, Zhejiang｜Honor Magic7}
Hahaha, the real Phase Two is not easily changing phones, as long as it works.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

47th Floor

Xuan Zhi
_{2025-07-02 09:29:40｜Shanghai｜iPhone 13 Pro Max Gold}
I have to say, Android’s ability to skip splash screen ads via ‘Li Tiaotiao’ is very useful. With Apple, some apps, when switched back from the background, show the splash screen ad again.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

melo
_{2025-07-02 09:43:44｜Foshan, Guangdong｜iPhone 14 Pro Max Deep Purple}
Get a ‘Quan X’ and you’ll discover a new world.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

Xuan Zhi
_{2025-07-02 10:24:11｜Shanghai｜OPPO Find X8}
Without a US App Store ID, buying this app online sometimes requires re-verifying the US App Store ID, which is a bit troublesome.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

Heartman
_{2025-07-02 11:10:57｜Shenzhen, Guangdong｜HP Zhan 99 Pro}
Anti-human region switching logic.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

melo
_{2025-07-02 19:49:23｜Foshan, Guangdong｜iPhone 14 Pro Max Deep Purple}
[smirking face] Set up the rules well, and it’s a permanent solution.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

Soft Media New Friend 2225018
_{2025-07-13 17:12:27｜Tangshan, Hebei｜}
How to do it, any recommendations?
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

48th Floor

Only This
_{2025-05-04 15:01:10｜Wuhan, Hubei｜Windows Client}
Let me put it this way: for Xiaomi, OPPO, and Vivo, after national subsidies, a phone around 1800 yuan can generally be used for a long time by family members. People near my home all had me help them buy iQOO phones. Then I’d go back and help them set up ad blocking, enable high refresh rates, and so on. Even for young people, the performance is basically sufficient.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

J monster
_{2025-05-04 17:00:52｜Shaoxing, Zhejiang｜Lenovo Legion Y700 2023}
Performance is enough, but the screen is really bad, and the camera too. iPhones have expensive memory. The 128GB 16 Pro is cheap but I wouldn’t buy it, and the 1TB price doubles. [smirking face][smirking face][smirking face]
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

Only This
_{2025-05-04 17:21:14｜Wuhan, Hubei｜Xiaomi 15 Ultra}
Long-time Apple user, only switched to Android this year. Anyway, they’re all pretty similar, I feel [face with tears of joy].
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

Feng Zhong Zhui Feng
_{2025-05-21 22:07:28｜Nantong, Jiangsu｜iPhone 13 Blue}
I also feel the screen isn’t comfortable, otherwise I’d also switch to Android.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

Only This
_{2025-05-21 22:10:33｜Wuhan, Hubei｜Xiaomi 15 Ultra}
Apple screens are clear, but after I switched to Android, I stopped crying [face with tears of joy].
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

Feng Zhong Zhui Feng
_{2025-05-21 22:23:04｜Nantong, Jiangsu｜iPhone 13 Blue}
I’ve checked out Android phones several times, the 15 Pro, OnePlus 13, and several others, but their screens always felt a bit lacking!
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

49th Floor

Cheng Zui Ting Xiao Gu
_{2025-05-04 10:35:44｜Nanjing, Jiangsu｜OnePlus Ace 3 Pro}
Apple’s system is truly difficult to use. I can operate Android with one hand easily. Apple requires two hands. And it lags too, typing isn’t smooth. I don’t know why so many people praise its smoothness and lack of lag.
_{Likes: 6 Dislikes: 6}

xiaoice_ms
_{2025-05-06 15:39:03｜Shenzhen, Guangdong｜vivo X200 Pro}
From the Symbian era until now, I’ve averaged one to two phones a year (iQOO 11 Pro is the longest I’ve used, for a year and a half). The worst, most laggy, and most overheating phone I’ve ever used was the iPhone 12.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

Bamboo Young Master
_{2025-06-05 22:48:40｜Weifang, Shandong｜iPhone 13 Pro Max Sierra Blue}
When the iPhone 12 first came out, I used it for two weeks and returned it. [smirking face] I’ve never seen such poor battery life. I was still using an 8 Plus at the time. [pop-up camera]
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

50th Floor

Just Behind You
_{2025-05-04 14:38:58｜Chengdu, Sichuan｜}
Apple not emphasizing specs doesn’t mean it has no specs, right…? Why do I feel like you’re portraying Apple as completely useless?
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

J monster
_{2025-05-04 17:02:55｜Shaoxing, Zhejiang｜Lenovo Legion Y700 2023}
Apple is the king of stacking specs, from body material, screen hardness, camera lenses. Except for the battery and charger, it would rather be thinner than give you battery life.
_{Likes: 2 Dislikes: 0}

Random 123
_{2025-05-14 14:19:14｜Zhengzhou, Henan｜iPhone 11 Red}
Yes, many people think Apple is low-specced, but it feels like, apart from RAM and storage, everything else is basically the best. Even the lowest configuration, the industrial design is like a work of art.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 1}

A Bag of Rice Carries Several Floors
_{2025-05-22 08:12:47｜Fuzhou, Fujian｜Black Shark Gaming Phone 4}
To the two above, battery, charging, flash storage, RAM are very ‘practical’ specs. If you prioritize aesthetics over practicality, then disregard what I said.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

Hubert
_{2025-05-22 10:27:49｜Shanghai｜iPhone 16 Pro Max Sand Titanium}
When people say Apple’s specs are low, they’re comparing it to phones at the same price point. The Pro Max models still have top-tier specs, and even battery life has improved.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

51st Floor

Little Crazy_6
_{2025-06-29 13:20:46｜Panjin, Liaoning｜Redmi K70 Ultimate Edition}
To pursue efficiency, one should tinker even more. Just ad blocking alone can save so much time every day. Other features like message anti-recall, automatically sending original images, voice message progress bars, etc., can all be called work essentials.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 4}

Ye Kong
_{2025-06-29 15:40:15｜Japan｜iPhone 13 mini Blue}
What you’re talking about are just basic, non-standard demands. Besides revolving around WeChat, it’s call recording for evidence. A modern office company should allocate Teams/Feishu, email, work phones/numbers (if the job strongly relies on a phone), etc.
_{Likes: 1 Dislikes: 0}

melo
_{2025-06-30 20:07:26｜Foshan, Guangdong｜iPhone 14 Pro Max Deep Purple}
With Apple and Quan X, all ads are gone.
_{Likes: 1 Dislikes: 0}

That Year’s Flower Viewing
_{2025-07-06 10:45:10｜Dongguan, Guangdong｜Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra}
Then tell me, how many modern office companies are there now?
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

52nd Floor

Anext
_{2025-05-19 18:51:16｜Shanghai｜iPhone 15 Pro Max Blue Titanium}
Bought an Android as a secondary phone, but it became my main phone. Planning to get a better Android and stop using iPhone.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

Feng Zhong Zhui Feng
_{2025-05-21 22:03:18｜Nantong, Jiangsu｜iPhone 13 Blue}
Android screens feel a bit lacking, otherwise I’d also want to switch.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

Who Is After Me
_{2025-06-05 23:27:51｜Liuzhou, Guangxi｜iPhone 13 Pro Sierra Blue}
Samsung [smirking face].
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

Breakfast
_{2025-06-06 12:07:01｜Haikou, Hainan｜iQOO Neo10 Pro}
Using Apple hurts my eyes 🥲.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

53rd Floor

Play Plus
_{2025-05-03 17:19:26｜Jiangmen, Guangdong｜OnePlus 12}
You’re right, but 60Hz is unbearable.
_{Likes: 2 Dislikes: 3}

Terrence
_{2025-05-03 17:38:48｜Yantai, Shandong｜iPhone 12 Pro Max Sea Blue}
Apple’s ProMotion isn’t that fast either. Android’s high refresh rate is visibly faster.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 1}

Fu Chen Ruo Meng Ji Xu Chi
_{2025-05-04 17:28:54｜Jinzhou, Shanxi｜iPhone 8 Plus Gold}
Indeed, Apple’s high refresh rate always feels a bit choppy when scrolling through feeds, while Android is very smooth.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 1}

54th Floor

ZDX
_{2025-06-29 13:23:12｜Zhuhai, Guangdong｜}
Crucially, the Apple experience is much worse than Android in many aspects, such as camera, charging, battery life, screen, signal. Secondary aspects like gaming and system intelligence also have significant gaps.
_{Likes: 1 Dislikes: 3}

melo
_{2025-06-30 20:06:46｜Foshan, Guangdong｜iPhone 14 Pro Max Deep Purple}
The Pro Max battery life isn’t that much worse, and neither is the screen. Also, game resolution seems higher than Android. Most importantly, installing apps from ad redirects often leads to automatic downloads on Android, which doesn’t happen on Apple.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 1}

ZDX
_{2025-07-01 03:10:13｜Zhuhai, Guangdong｜}
Battery life is indeed quite a bit worse, but Apple’s standby is excellent, that’s a plus. Resolutions are basically the same now. Some MediaTek flagships even have higher game resolutions than Qualcomm and Apple [face with tears of joy]. The main thing is that Android and Apple now have a generation gap in GPU performance. Ad redirects used to be an issue, but now, with all the software I use, accidentally triggering an ad no longer leads to direct downloads from a single tap. It either redirects to the official app store or requires entering a secondary page to provide a download button; it’s been rectified.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

55th Floor

Can’t Read Comments
_{2025-05-03 15:32:01｜Chongqing｜Samsung Galaxy S20 5G}
All said and done, it boils down to one sentence: as long as one’s adaptability is strong, there are no bad products.
_{Likes: 5 Dislikes: 9}

56th Floor

Singing a Different Tune
_{2025-07-01 13:49:15｜Dazhou, Sichuan｜OPPO Find X6 Pro}
Apple is indeed good, especially with CarPlay in gasoline cars. The iPhone 12’s signal is too poor; I keep losing network during calls, and after hanging up, I can’t use WeChat Pay.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

BrunoMao
_{2025-07-01 18:01:40｜Spain｜iQOO Z10 Turbo}
Actually, Vivo’s in-car system can be a direct replacement for CarPlay; anything that supports Carlife can use it.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

57th Floor

zj219748
_{2025-06-29 17:08:31｜Hangzhou, Zhejiang｜Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra}
It’s just a phone, depends on personal needs. Like me, I’d rather buy an Android Samsung than an Apple.
_{Likes: 2 Dislikes: 6}

58th Floor

Code Name Cipher
_{2025-06-05 23:35:42｜Shenzhen, Guangdong｜OPPO K10X}
Who asked you? Why so many words?
_{Likes: 2 Dislikes: 3}

59th Floor

Beigang Chu Qing
_{2025-05-19 19:58:22｜Zhongshan, Guangdong｜iPhone 16 Pro Natural Titanium}
For me, Apple phones just have text that’s too small. I can’t accept that. Font adjustment, including app font adjustment, also isn’t a good experience. Only Douyin (TikTok) is optimized relatively well. I can’t use an iPhone.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

ZENyi
_{2025-06-29 22:55:43｜Chengdu, Sichuan｜iPhone 16 Pro Max White Titanium}
I deeply agree with this point.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

60th Floor

Meng Yu丨Chun Yu Bing
_{2025-05-03 16:06:41｜Quanzhou, Fujian｜}
So many words, are you using an external keyboard? Otherwise, it’s hard to imagine typing this much on a phone [face with tears of joy].
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

Ye Kong
_{2025-05-03 18:00:53｜Japan｜iPhone 16 White}
Typed it on my laptop while bored on the plane [face with tears of joy].
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

61st Floor

Lang Liu
_{2025-06-29 13:39:38｜Shenyang, Liaoning｜Xiaomi 10}
Once iPhone, now and forever Android [smirking face][smirking face].
_{Likes: 1 Dislikes: 2}

62nd Floor

Someone Liu
_{2025-05-27 16:44:20｜Jingmen, Hubei｜iQOO Neo9S Pro+}
Bought 5s, 8 Plus, 11. Really, just couldn’t get used to them [face with tears of joy].
_{Likes: 1 Dislikes: 3}

63rd Floor

Shen Wu Tian Zun
_{2025-05-03 23:20:49｜Chengdu, Sichuan｜}
Who with money wouldn’t buy an Apple with good specs and a good system? It’s only due to budget constraints that one prioritizes specs more!
_{Likes: 1 Dislikes: 1}

64th Floor

Soft Media User 1077693
_{2025-07-02 09:05:43｜Ningbo, Zhejiang｜Xiaomi 15 Ultra}
You say you don’t obsess over specs, but Apple’s specs aren’t bad at all. Good hardware combined with good system software leads to a good experience. Even the standard 60Hz screen is a top-tier Samsung display.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

65th Floor

LittleLuck
_{2025-07-15 10:05:47｜Beijing｜ASUS U4000UQ}
My top priority for a phone is system stability; I don’t like to tinker [face with tears of joy].
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

66th Floor

SuperAdministrator
_{2025-07-15 09:57:48｜Jinan, Shandong｜Windows Client}
Apple was the first to stack specs and didn’t make low-end phones. It’s just that now it’s not doing well; its specs can’t compare, nor can its features. Low screen refresh rate, poor signal, slow charging, no small window mode, no split screen, no dual apps… Where’s the efficiency? Bugs are increasing, and stability is much worse than before.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

67th Floor

Risk Control Classmate
_{2025-07-15 09:01:25｜Chongqing｜}
I deeply resonate with this!
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

68th Floor

fy3090
_{2025-07-13 17:46:54｜Qingdao, Shandong｜}
Exactly, the ‘fandom culture’ phenomenon in the tech community is mainly concentrated among people in the first phase.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

69th Floor

Eat Banana
_{2025-07-06 23:27:07｜Dongguan, Guangdong｜Xiaomi 13}
I get tired of everything. I’ve used Apple, Huawei, Xiaomi. Price and feel are my purchasing criteria. My next phone form factor will be a large foldable screen.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

70th Floor

Luo Hong
_{2025-07-06 19:13:35｜Suzhou, Jiangsu｜}
But Apple can’t really be called efficient 😮‍💨. No small window, no split screen, poor localization, lacks various high-efficiency features found in domestic systems.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

71st Floor

Silver Four Strongest
_{2025-07-06 15:33:19｜Jinan, Shandong｜Redmi Note 14 Pro+}
I’ve used Huawei, Apple, and Xiaomi for relatively long periods. Huawei was the most hassle-free to use, rarely having bugs.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 3}

72nd Floor

Silver Fox White
_{2025-07-06 10:40:45｜Hangzhou, Zhejiang｜}
Bought a Xiaomi 14 Ultra during 618 this year. It has all the features it should. Although it’s last year’s flagship, it’s cheap! It won’t be outdated in 3 years.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

73rd Floor

Silver Fox White
_{2025-07-06 10:39:39｜Hangzhou, Zhejiang｜}
Specs are a foundation, not an absolute.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

74th Floor

Orange Sea
_{2025-06-05 21:52:02｜Guangzhou, Guangdong｜iPhone 15 Pro Max Natural Titanium}
Specs-for-price theory [mischievous emoji].
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

75th Floor

Enlight
_{2025-05-22 10:22:15｜Huai’an, Jiangsu｜iPhone 12 Pro Sea Blue}
Still dual-wielding here. The benefits of dual-wielding are obvious: if one breaks, the other takes over. But when it comes to usability, iPhone is undoubtedly superior. Security/privacy settings are also easy to control. Android phones often secretly install apps in the background… which is very dramatic.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 1}

76th Floor

Dian Mi
_{2025-05-19 20:12:29｜Shihezi, Xinjiang｜Windows Client}
Agreed. It’s like when I used WP, constantly upgrading and tinkering. At the time, I thought Apple didn’t even have a back button, and I’d never use it.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

77th Floor

Xiaozhi
_{2025-05-10 16:54:48｜Zhongshan, Guangdong｜Redmi K70 Ultimate Edition}
@Shuipingzuo Summarize it.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

78th Floor

Jia Yucun
_{2025-05-09 12:13:06｜Shenzhen, Guangdong｜REDMI Turbo 4 Pro}
If Apple could solve the signal issue, I’d be willing to use an Apple phone.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 1}

79th Floor

Fei Xu Luo Ye Xue
_{2025-05-08 19:25:01｜Anqing, Anhui｜Honor Magic7}
Two WeChat accounts are a must-have, so I can only use Android.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

80th Floor

New New Person
_{2025-05-08 12:53:48｜Yulin, Guangxi｜iPhone 16 Pro Max Sand Titanium}
I also dual-wield.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

81st Floor

0 Brother Shan 0
_{2025-05-08 12:15:24｜Chengdu, Sichuan｜Huawei Mate 30E Pro 5G}
Indeed. How many people are still ‘born for fever’ now? [husky emoji]
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

82nd Floor

Xiaozhi
_{2025-05-04 22:25:52｜Zhongshan, Guangdong｜Redmi K70 Ultimate Edition}
Indeed, specs and benchmarks are just references. No matter how high the benchmarks or specs, some actual experiences are still mediocre.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

83rd Floor

Qin Shou 8 Hao
_{2025-05-04 17:44:29｜Wuhan, Hubei｜iQOO Neo10}
Apple is completely unsuitable for me.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

84th Floor

G_K_L
_{2025-05-03 20:44:52｜Shanghai｜iQOO Neo10 Pro}
From Android to Apple, then back from Apple to Android. Used a 13 Pro Max for over half a year. Everything was good except the signal; the signal was truly rubbish.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

85th Floor

Ping Ding Tian Xia
_{2025-05-03 19:12:32｜Thailand｜Redmi Note 12 Turbo}
No money, just blindly go for Redmi [smirking face].
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

86th Floor

The Sad Beauty of What Was Gained
_{2025-05-03 18:32:16｜Yibin, Sichuan｜iPhone 14 Pro Max Silver}
This title has too strong a ‘flavor’ [grinning face with smiling eyes][grinning face with smiling eyes].
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

87th Floor

I Love Eating Egg Tarts
_{2025-05-03 17:20:36｜Taiyuan, Shanxi｜Redmi K70 Ultimate Edition}
For me, there’s no main or secondary device. All my data is in the cloud, so I can use any device [smirking face].
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

88th Floor

Arrow Soldier
_{2025-05-03 15:28:00｜Zhangzhou, Fujian｜iPhone 13 Pro Max Sierra Blue}
Apple’s gold-priced memory.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

89th Floor

Archer
_{2025-05-03 15:08:18｜Macau SAR｜Google Pixel 8}
Rooting is better.
_{Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0}

More Than Just Value: Understanding Two Product Design Philosophies Through NIO Firefly

Sat, 26 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Foreword

A test drive experience can sometimes give us a completely new understanding of a product.

A few days ago, a NIO salesperson invited me to test drive the Firefly, NIO’s “boutique compact car.” Despite much public debate surrounding it, its starting price of 119,800 yuan makes it at least accessible to the general public. I don’t want to share too much about the driving experience; what I want to share is my strong feeling about the Firefly in another aspect: its value goes far beyond mere “cost-effectiveness.” Behind it lie two fundamentally different product design and development philosophies.

Impressions

Upon first learning about the Firefly and its price point, many might compare it horizontally with other models in the same or even lower price range, such as the ID.3 and Dolphin. However, the Firefly gave me a feeling vastly different from some products I’ve experienced in the past (for example, models I personally felt were geared towards a “low-price entry point”).

The Firefly is built by “subtracting downwards” from a higher standard (perhaps comparable to the baseline quality of 200,000-yuan electric vehicles). It doesn’t start from scratch, merely stacking basic features to drive down the price. Instead, it’s more like a strategic streamlining and optimization process applied to a relatively mature, high-quality platform or design philosophy.

The results of this “subtraction” are evident in many details: the delicate texture of the car paint, the refinement of the interior finishes, NIO’s consistently top-tier aesthetic UI & UX design, comprehensive safety considerations, and the clever division of interior space. In these aspects, the Firefly’s demonstrated sense of quality is undoubtedly leading in its price segment. It makes you feel that this is a product with good genes “at its core,” retaining some key advantages brought by high standards even after cost control.

Two Product Design Philosophies

This brings us to the two product design philosophies we will delve into:

Philosophy One: The “Subtraction Strategy” Based on High Standards, Core is a “Flagship Foundation”

This approach starts with a relatively high technical platform, design language, or manufacturing standard, possibly even one used by the brand’s flagship or premium series. The product team first establishes a high-quality foundation. To serve a broader, more price-sensitive market, they then strategically “subtract” from this high standard: removing some expensive but non-core configurations, simplifying certain processes, and optimizing material costs. However, they strive to retain the core quality experience, design style, and platform advantages (such as safety, basic performance, software fluidity, etc.).

Its core philosophy is to “inherit quality genes and premiumize downwards.” Even users with limited budgets can experience the “solidity” and “premium feel” common to the brand’s high-end products. To illustrate with an analogy: an “iPhone 16e” is based on the iPhone 14 (flagship) platform, retaining top-tier chip performance and a smooth iOS ecosystem experience. It only makes trade-offs on non-core metrics like cameras, communication specifications, and MagSafe, ultimately selling at a more accessible price (around 3,000 yuan).

Philosophy Two: The “Addition Strategy” Based on Low Costs, Core is a “Cost Framework”

This approach starts with clear cost control objectives and a basic, low-cost platform or architecture. The product team first considers how to achieve the product’s basic functions at the lowest possible cost. Then, to enhance competitiveness or meet market demands for “specs,” they “add” to this low-cost foundation: stacking more features, higher parameters (such as larger screens, better assisted driving capabilities), or adding some eye-catching configurations.

Its core philosophy is “cost-first, feature stacking.” Product value is primarily reflected through a list of features and a competitive price. Quality is often achieved through later, localized optimizations or “piling on materials,” rather than stemming from a high-standard initial gene. This is like an Android phone (such as the Redmi K-series) also priced around 3,000 yuan but starting from a low standard. It might boast very high megapixels, an ultra-large battery, or extremely fast charging, but it could fall short in fundamental experiences like system fluidity, screen aesthetics, or body texture compared to a phone designed with the high-standard subtraction approach.

Target Audience and Consumer Profile

Different design philosophies correspond to different target audiences, and the consumer profiles attracted by these two strategies are distinctly different:

Target Audience for the “Subtraction Strategy”: They value quality, experience, design, and brand value more. Even with a limited budget, they demand intrinsic product quality and are unwilling to sacrifice core experiences for a low price. They seek to “buy a more quality product within their budget,” focusing on quality and experience rather than just “cheapness.” They appreciate the product’s attention to detail and value brand heritage and reputation.
Target Audience for the “Addition Strategy”: They prioritize price and feature configuration above all else. Highly price-sensitive, they aim to get as many features and as high specs as possible within a limited budget, striving to “get the most features for the same money,” emphasizing practicality. They focus more on spec sheets and parameters, and their perception of fundamental product quality and long-term experience might be relatively lower.

Conclusion

High-Standard Subtraction Design: Quality-first, achieving value for money by streamlining non-core configurations, suitable for users who prioritize quality.
Low-Standard Addition Design: Cost-first, achieving appeal by adding features, suitable for price-sensitive users.

Neither of these strategies is inherently superior or inferior; it depends on brand positioning, target market, and resource capabilities. Returning to the Firefly, the reason it left me with an impression of “high quality” and “true value for money” is precisely because it tends to adopt a “high-standard subtraction strategy” for an entry-level product. It inherits NIO’s brand genes in design, intelligent experience, and even a certain “texture” or “feel,” extending these high-standard elements downwards to offer a unique choice for consumers who desire a cross-segment quality experience but have a limited budget.