Lao Luo Returns — Can the Nut Pro Save Smartisan?

The usual 19:30 start? The promised one-and-a-half-hour event? Once again, Lao Luo redefined both.

But this time, the crowd didn’t seem to mind being toyed with — the die-hard Smartisan fans were loyal as ever, and even the skeptics and gleeful haters might have to take a fresh look at this iconoclastic Android phone maker. After all, after a brutal second half of 2016, nobody thought Smartisan would make it to today. And tonight’s event? It was actually pretty damn interesting.

As tradition dictated, Lao Luo kicked things off with a few industrial design slides for the 20,000-strong audience, presenting the ID with a “what else do you want?” attitude. Short, blunt, no fluff. Totally out of character for a company obsessive about industrial design — which, of course, meant a twist was coming.

Lao Luo first teased the Nut Pro’s key features: antenna optimization, thermal management, exceptional battery life, thickness and weight, durability, and low-light photography. On battery, it wasn’t just “5 minutes of charging, 4 hours of talk time” — they even introduced a dedicated reverse-charging feature cheekily dubbed “iPhone Companion Mode.” (Haters: “You spent half a year just to build a power bank for the iPhone?”)

At this point, the event was a head-scratcher. Then came the main act: SmartisanOS. A visibly nervous Zhu Xiaomu, Smartisan’s Head of UX, took the stage to walk through SmartisanOS 3.6’s new features: SMS unsubscribe, fake incoming call, HandShaker, and Pin.

SMS unsubscribe and HandShaker got lukewarm responses. The fake incoming call — a.k.a. the “blind date savior” — drew plenty of laughs and applause. But my pick for best feature? Pin 📌 — no question. Pin lets you stick any app to the lock screen without unlocking, and it doesn’t interfere with other apps at all. In an age of relentless information overload, none of us have a photographic memory, and most of us have at least a little OCD. Picking up movie tickets, checking flight info, navigating with maps — in all these scenarios, who doesn’t keep unlocking their phone to re-check information? It doesn’t take a crystal ball to predict that Pin will become a fan favorite.

Next up was OneStep 1.5, featuring image-based search, intelligent semantic drag-and-drop, one-step word lookup, and one-step font identification. These were largely about “seamlessly bridging” the user’s desktop workflow habits. Lao Luo probably knew these incremental updates weren’t earth-shattering — hence the 1.5 label instead of 2.0.

But BigBang 2.0? The version bump was earned. A barrage of “explosive” feature names cascaded across the screen, and the cheers that erupted throughout the venue only hinted at what was coming — most people hadn’t yet grasped BigBang’s disruptive potential for mobile productivity: OCR segmented explosions, explosion-point targeting, explode-on-demand (a term coined by an uncultured PM), non-intelligent word splitting, and the BigBang editor.

During the demo of Idea Pills 💊, a few bugs popped up on stage. For a seasoned live performer like Lao Luo, this was nothing — he handled it with the ease of a veteran. No harm done.

Honestly, my first thought was that Idea Pills was designed for the busiest person in the office — especially creative decision-makers who are brainstorming around the clock.

But the combination of “BigBang + Idea Pills” is devastatingly powerful. In any case, it represents a surprisingly healthy work habit. And writing articles directly on a phone? That’s a genuine disruption for us keyboard jockeys. At least, it is for me.

Just when the event seemed to be wrapping up, Lao Luo dropped the reversal. “From an industrial design standpoint, the Smartisan M1 series is our shame!” — a line that jolted the half-asleep journalists into alertness. Turns out, those first few Nut Pro ID slides? They were nothing but a masterclass in trolling — Lao Luo’s way of roasting the entire industry’s design homogenization.

The venue erupted again. Twenty thousand people, played once more. In a good way.

The Nut Pro’s industrial design was re-introduced in full glory. Renderings and lifestyle videos rolled across the screen — charcoal black, burgundy red, and the nostalgia-drenched “Thin Red Line Special Edition,” each making their entrance. Sharp lines, glass and metal. This fiercely individualistic ID style ran directly counter to the “rounded curves” trend dominating the industry.

The phone features a layered construction: aluminum alloy on the bottom front, a plastic home button, a glass rear panel (covering the rear camera), PET + glass fiber on the front bottom, and aluminum alloy for the mid-frame and side buttons.

As for the Thin Red Line edition’s origin story — trust Lao Luo to make it cool. In 1854, during the Crimean War, 500 infantrymen of the British Army’s 93rd Highlanders changed tactics, forming a single extended line and holding off 2,500 fierce Russian cavalry. They earned the title “The Thin Red Line.”

I don’t think this means Smartisan is drawing a line against its competitors. Rather, it speaks to Lao Luo’s ambition. It’s an honest, earnest statement.

After telling this story, Lao Luo — swearing and choking up — reflected on the heartbreaks of the past year: executives leaving, the funding winter, resorting to livestreaming just to stay afloat, JD.com throwing a lifeline. Let’s not rehash it all. Putting the noise aside, this middle-aged underdog has had it rough.

Finally, the obligatory pricing reveal. Despite being a few hundred yuan higher than rumors suggested, the event still felt substantial. A quick spec recap: Qualcomm Snapdragon 625/626 octa-core processor, 5.5-inch 1080p in-cell display, 13MP rear dual camera, 3500mAh battery, 18W fast charging, Smartisan OS 3.5/3.6 based on Android 7.1. Prices: 4GB+32GB at ¥1,499; 4GB+64GB at ¥1,799; 4GB+128GB at ¥2,299.

Rumor has it Lao Luo prepared 400,000 units of the Nut Pro. And JD.com already sold out… So, can the Nut Pro become Smartisan’s lifesaver? Who knows.

Only the market will prove — or disprove — the answer.