"No Upgrade, No Big Tail Wolf" Redmi K40S Experience Report.

Some time ago, there was an interesting report: after young people were unwilling to struggle and have children, these bold young people even refused to change their mobile phones. In 2022, mobile phone sales fell by nearly 50% year-on-year. The replacement cycle of young people has been extended from 2 years to 3 years. Interpretation from an expert's point of view: There are too many mobile phone users in China, which has affected the expansion of the mobile phone market in China.

At this time, I think we should persuade manufacturers to be generous and see hope from the downturn. For example, as long as mobile phone manufacturers are willing to squeeze toothpaste, they will certainly stimulate users' enthusiasm for changing machines, easily beat Apple and kick Samsung, and win the first place in China. Isn't it beautiful to sit on the iron throne? Unfortunately, the current decline in consumption in the mobile phone market has not stopped falling. As for the specific reasons, I think I can take my main machine now-Redmi's humble K40S to study and criticize these decadent young people.

Cut the crap and look at the parameters first.

Ok, let's criticize these young people who are not enterprising.

First, positioning: "humble" to dusty mobile phones

Redmi K40S is a card product, not a main product, because the configuration of K40S and K40 is almost the same, and the price-sensitive users will directly choose the cheaper Redmi K40. If you add some money to K40S in Redmi, you will find three big bosses in Redmi: Redmi K50, Redmi K50 Pro and Redmi K50 E-sports Edition. These three bosses have special skills, especially Redmi K50, which has propped up Redmi's reputation in 2022.

In this case, Redmi K40S was so sad that it was not on the homepage of Xiaomi's mobile phone. It should be pointed out that Redmi K40S may become a "dead man" at a critical time. This mobile phone has mature and extreme product hardware, which means that this mobile phone has some room for price reduction. With the blessing of Snapdragon 870, Redmi K40S will become a magic weapon at a critical moment.

Second, appearance: "You look ordinary."

Mediocrity is an evaluation of the appearance of Redmi K40S. When I saw this mobile phone, my first thought was "stepmother". In appearance, K40S is close to Red Rice Note 1 1 series models. Sometimes I think this is the millet series to cut corners. Red rice Note 1 1 series molds are directly used for the appearance, and K40 scraps are used for the inner panel. The product manager of Redmi K40S need not worry too much.

The front screen feels good, and my tolerance for the screen is relatively high, especially when I bought the K40S of Xiaomi 10S, I only feel that the screen has been upgraded to a higher level. Although this screen is not particularly good in the field of smart phones, it is still quite satisfactory. 120Hz is the standard for mid-to high-end mobile phones in 2022. Xiaomi is willing to pay for a mobile phone with a starting price of 1699 yuan. It should be pointed out that the K40S adopts a low-cost screen wrapping method. Again, cost is the reason for all design.

In terms of material, K40S adopts plastic frame +AG frosted glass back cover. The products in this price range are standard.

In terms of appearance, the performance of K40S is a long story. K40S did not inherit the slightly curved back design of K40, but went directly to Apple, bringing the mature design of iPhone. Cook has to say something professional after reading it

The design of right-angle frame leads to the user's perception of thickness, which leads to the K40S's grip feeling is not as good as that of the previous generation K40. 195g right-angled frame makes K40S look a little heavy, not light.

Fortunately, Redmi's product designers have retained a lost dignity. The rear camera area is a black rectangle, then plan a hierarchical square, and then draw a circle around the camera. I seriously doubt that the designers in Redmi only think of "a perfect place" without considering "harmony" and the accumulation of various elements. At first glance, there is no memory.

Maybe it's ugly This is what engineers in Redmi want to wear.

In addition, the frame packaging method of K40S is relatively cheap, and there are plastic packages around the screen, so it is understandable to cut costs and make way.

The only thing that K40S can be called advanced is the "silver trace" color matching, with flat AG frosted glass, which enhances the overall texture. This may be my comfort as a K40S user.

In terms of appearance, the K40S really doesn't have many features. It adopts the flat border appearance of iPhone and cheap screen packaging technology. If it weren't for the flat AG frosted glass, it would be difficult for me to associate this phone with "good-looking". The appearance of K40S is "true-prime".

Third, taking pictures: IMX582 with optical image stabilization.

Compared with K40, Redmi K40S has almost no improvement in the rear camera. What Lu shouted at the press conference was: "K40S has optical image stabilization!" I don't know if I will dig out a big villa awkwardly after the press conference.

The three rear lenses of Redmi K40S are IMX582 main camera, with optical anti-shake, 8-megapixel super wide-angle lens and 2-million macro tactical lens.

Seriously, K40S can take pictures in some scenes.

This is a photo I took casually, which is barely qualified by the standard of 2000 yuan.

On the color reproduction of the sky, K40S performed well. In fact, at present, the imaging effect of Snapdragon ISP+ Sony/Samsung CMOS in daytime is not very bad.

In the dark environment, the imaging effect of K40S is acceptable, and there is little problem in daily use.

What the camera means to most people this year is to scan the code. I use K40S as the host, and the code scanning is smooth. In the case of bad network, the code scanning time will be extended, but it will not be extended because of the camera. Good comment. For the vast majority of users, the photo quality is not required, only the code scanning speed is expected to be fast enough.

My evaluation of the camera part of K40S is that the code scanning speed is good enough for daily use. If you want to have a better photo effect, I'm sorry. I suggest paying more.

Fourth, hardware &; Experience: stability, less bugs, and experience moderation.

K40S uses Snapdragon 870 chip, which is not classic. Classic is a derogatory term in the field of semiconductor, which is different from "an eternity" of diamond. The eternity of a chip means enterprise innovation and an important problem of R&D. The two flagship chips after Snapdragon 870-Snapdragon 888 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 1-are persistent on the road of rollover. Therefore, dull consumers have to turn their attention to Snapdragon 870.

The tried and tested Snapdragon 870 won't get stuck in daily use. At the same time, K40S has good heat dissipation specifications, good paper parameters and acceptable daily heating. Everyone knows the performance of Snapdragon 870, and it is not a big problem to play mainstream games. If there is a higher demand for games, it is recommended to purchase the model of Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 with heat dissipation back clip.

The K40S is designed with asymmetric upper and lower double speakers. Since using Xiaomi 10S, I feel that the sound effects of other dual speakers are not so interesting. There is infrared at the top of the fuselage, so it is convenient to turn on the air conditioner in summer, so you don't need to find a remote control. X axis linear motor, very comfortable vibration experience.

K40S machine adopts 4500mAh battery and 67W wired fast charging. It is basically no problem to use it for one day in terms of battery life. The fast charging efficiency of 67W is not slow. Fragmented charging+good battery life is actually enough for most people.

Finally, the experience part mentioned the stable version of MIUI 13. MIUI 13 is bloated, especially in terms of functional redundancy. From a certain point of view, functional redundancy is to reduce the learning cost of users. Some friends also talked about the stability of MIUI. From my personal experience, there are so many problems with MIUI/KOOC-0//KOOC-0/2/MIUI/KOOC-0/2.5 that I will encounter all kinds of problems when using it. Now the stable version of MIUI 13 performs well in stability.

For background killing, I use the 12GB version. In fact, the ability to hang an App in the background is acceptable, and the occasional problem of background game killing is harmless.

If you don't pay too much attention to taking pictures, it's no problem to take K40S as the main force.

5. Summary: Please give me a reason to change planes?

In my experience, Redmi K40S can be used as the main machine for daily use. If you don't rely on your mobile phone to take photos as much as I do, K40S should be able to meet more than 80% of your smartphone needs. In addition, the most terrible thing about K40S is that this mobile phone has adopted the most mature products and processes in the supply chain from beginning to end. It is believed that K40 and K40S will have a good price during June 18, which will have an impact on mobile phones within 2000 yuan. This is Mie's consistent killer, and pulling other brands needs to bite the bullet and fight the price war.

We have finished summarizing Redmi K40S. At this time, we need to answer the first question: Is it really the pot for young people not to change their mobile phones? Obviously not, the mobile phone market has been halved by nearly half, and the macro level is economic stagnation. More and more consumers are unwilling to spend, tightening money for the winter; At the micro level, we found that the K40S with 2020 level configuration is still the flagship configuration in 2022, and it can still be played. If it is a luxury market, I can sincerely praise the value-preserving ability of luxury "cultural attributes". However, this scene happened in the field of smart phones with full technological attributes, which can only be described as "not enterprising". This "lack of progress" is a panic transmission in the consumer field when human beings temporarily touch the limits of semiconductor manufacturing technology and design.

In the past, smartphones needed to constantly improve their performance to drive the experience. At present, the development of upstream semiconductors is basically stagnant, and the transmission to the consumer market means that mobile phones have experienced the process of "durable goods, fast-moving goods and durable goods". If there is no strong selling point or marketing concept, consumers will only be more and more strict with their money bags, and there is no need to invest money in durable goods.

The deadlock in the semiconductor field will inevitably lead to a lose-lose situation for both the industry and the consumer market, and the stagnation of this performance upgrade will not end in a short time. I'm afraid IT digital will repeatedly mention this sentence from the comment area of the media:

"There is no upgrade, what big tail wolf is installed."