From gaming phones to e-sports tablets, do players really need these professional equipment?

[Mobile China]At the beginning of 2023, the gaming phone giant Black Shark Technology suddenly announced that it had carried out large-scale layoffs and was unable to pay layoff compensation on time. So far, Black Shark Technology has not yet brought a gaming phone product in 2023. This has caused many consumers to have certain doubts about gaming phones and other products, thinking that perhaps, as Lu Weibing, president of Xiaomi China, said before the release of Xiaomi 13, today we no longer need a gaming phone.

However, although Black Shark Technology has basically withdrawn from the gaming phone market. However, there are still many active manufacturers in the market, such as ASUS ROG and so on. In China, Nubia's Red Magic brand has taken up the banner of the domestic gaming phone industry after Black Shark Technology fell silent. Recently, Mobile China noticed that Red Magic released a Red Magic 8S Pro gaming phone based on the second-generation Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 leading version mobile platform. At the same time, Red Magic also brought a brand new 5G gaming tablet.

It can be seen that the Red Magic brand is still delving into the market of mobile gaming devices, and this 5G gaming tablet is a proof of this. Then, turn your attention to the consumer group. In 2023, do we still need a gaming device? Are these gaming devices just gimmicks to attract users, or do they really have their own uses?

Technology geeks don’t know how to optimize

For a long time, there were two major game manufacturers in China, Tencent and NetEase. The former's mobile game products are represented by “Honor of Kings” and “Peace Elite”, while the latter's mobile game products are mainly “Fantasy Westward Journey” and “Onmyoji”. There is no doubt that in the competition between the two, Tencent is in an absolute advantage. Whether it is game revenue or the number of players, Tencent is above NetEase, while other game manufacturers such as Lilith and Perfect World cannot compare with Tencent.

The author believes that Tencent's games basically have one feature, that is, they do not have high requirements for device performance, whether it is PC or mobile. This may also be Tencent's strategy, because it is undoubtedly more convenient for it to expand its user base. If the game requires high performance, Tencent will officially carry out a lot of optimization. However, there are also manufacturers who are not very concerned about this, such as miHoYo. In recent years, miHoYo has gradually risen. However, they also bring users anxiety about device performance.

From Honkai Impact 3rd to Genshin Impact, and then to the recently released Honkai Impact 3rd, all of miHoYo's games have high requirements for the running devices of the games, and the best picture quality of many of these games can only be achieved with the help of a PC. Unfortunately, games such as Genshin Impact and Honkai Impact 3rd are very influential nowadays, and there are many players. If you want to get a more complete experience of these games on mobile devices, specially designed gaming phones and e-sports tablets may indeed be necessary equipment.

Sufficient differentiation

The author believes that one of the reasons why Black Shark gaming phones have come to this point is that their products are not sufficiently differentiated. At least since the Black Shark 3 series, Black Shark's gaming phones are not much different from the flagship phones of mainstream manufacturers on the market. This design may be to expand the user base. After all, “people who want to buy mobile phones” and “people who want to buy gaming phones” are not at the same level in terms of quantity. However, this also means that Black Shark gaming phones must compete head-on with the flagships of various manufacturers, and it has lost the “moat” of gaming phones. However, this is not the case for Red Magic.

At present, Red Magic still has no intention of moving its gaming phone closer to the direction of ordinary flagship phones. It has a very clear positioning of its products, which is a mobile device prepared for hardcore gamers! The reason why Red Magic can stick to this product positioning is that the active cooling fan is a major credit to it.

Compared with gaming phones from brands such as ASUS and Black Shark, the biggest feature of the Red Magic gaming phone is that it has a built-in active cooling fan. Take the Red Magic 8 Pro as an example. Its high-speed centrifugal fan is on the left side of the body and can achieve a speed of 20,000 revolutions per minute. At the same time, the body of this phone is also designed with a full-through air duct that covers the main heating areas.

Don't underestimate this small fan. As an active cooling design, its heat dissipation capacity is not comparable to VC liquid cooling heat sink, heat dissipation copper tube, heat dissipation graphite, etc. On the other hand, for the user group, this fan is enough to let them distinguish the Red Magic gaming phone from ordinary gaming phones and realize that this may be a “professional gaming device.”

Saturated experience

Among the arguments against gaming phones, “there is not much difference in gaming performance between gaming phones and ordinary flagship phones” is a statement that is recognized by many people. This may indeed be the case, because unlike the console market, which often customizes processors, in products such as mobile phones, manufacturers have few core processors to choose from. Netizens often joke that the core processors of Android flagships released in the same year are all “unified wholesale” by Qualcomm. Since the core processors are not different, gaming phones are naturally no different from flagship phones in terms of performance.

However, the fact that there is not much difference in performance does not mean that there is no experience. While the core processor cannot be differentiated enough, manufacturers have set their sights on other aspects of the phone. For example, on the Red Magic 8S Pro, the official provides it with up to 24GB of running memory. There is no doubt that 24GB of running memory is prepared by Red Magic for game running. However, the game itself is a high-load running scenario, and the configuration prepared for the game will only provide a more complete experience in daily use.

On the other hand, gaming phones are not designed with the concept of “lightness” in mind, so the peripheral colors of such phones are generally quite complete. For example, the Red Magic 8S Pro, which many manufacturers have removed due to “insufficient internal space”, still has a 3.5mm headphone jack.

Final Thoughts

In an industry or market, the flourishing of products with different characteristics can show that it has strong vitality. Products such as gaming phones and e-sports tablets may not be necessities for many people, but they are still indispensable participants in the market.

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