I was thinking about buying a phone to play games on lately. I’d been using a Xiaomi Mi Pad 4, and it’s not like it can’t run games, but that screen aspect ratio cuts off part of my view. When I play a turret-type mid-lane mage I just can’t keep track of everything, so I figured maybe I should just get a phone. At first I had my sights set on the Xiaomi Mi Max (first gen), since its specs are good enough, the screen is big enough, and the battery is ridiculous—it’s basically a handheld console. The second and third generations don’t even bear mentioning; the performance actually went backwards, even with bigger batteries and better build quality. But the Mi Max is obviously not something you can buy new. I found only eBay had them, so I went looking, and after digging around I couldn’t find a single one I was happy with. Ones in good condition were priced absurdly, and the reasonably priced ones were all crippled units. Then I thought I’d check out LeEco phones or Gree phones—hah, Gree phones are even more expensive, and LeEco phones are complete garbage… While I was hesitating, my good buddy, the Guo Degang of the medical world, a.k.a. Duan Ye, answered my prayers: “Master Li, there’s a Smartisan Nut Pro here that Luo Yonghao sold to idiots. Wanna take a look?” “If it’s sold to idiots, then how do you have one, Duan Ye? Don’t tell me…” “Cut the crap. Do you want it or not?” “Yes yes yes…” So I took the Nut Pro off Duan Ye’s hands and began my testing journey.

A long time ago I had no idea who Luo Yonghao was, yet plenty of my classmates were obsessed with him. They all thought he was amazing, so I watched his talks about idealism and startup history too, and figured yeah, the guy really is something. At least he isn’t the type who only cares about profit, and that alone is worth a lot. Then he decided to make phones and started boasting online every day. It annoyed me, but I could sort of see what he was up to. He just wanted marketing and eyeballs. He just picked a fairly low-brow way to get them. I wrote about this a long time ago. I was kind of itching to try the Smartisan T1, but I really hate physical buttons, so I never pulled the trigger. This time, with the Nut, I thought it over… figured worst case I could just replace my old Meizu M1 Note, so I went for it.