Chapter 138: Orange Phone Engineering Version: Hardware Troubles (Request

The third day of summer vacation.

After finishing the morning meeting at the startup park, Chen Yansen drove to Zhuxian Town Tech Park.

The download count for AuroraOS has surpassed 20 million; even if only 10% of users support it, Orange Phone can sell 2 million units.

The digital circle generally considers the two most anticipated new products of 2011 to be Lei Yi Army’s Xiaomi Phone and Chen Yansen’s Orange Phone.

After all, Xiaomi and Orange Tech were the first smartphone manufacturers to launch customized operating systems, enhancing user experience at the software level.

They had already cultivated millions, even tens of millions, of potential users.

Although Orange Tech had not publicly announced the new phone’s release date, the establishment of the Orange Phone factory in Shencheng signaled to the outside world that the phone was just one step away from market launch.

There was little traffic on the road; ten minutes later, the car entered the tech park.

As soon as Chen Yansen stepped onto the second floor, he saw Gao Weilin sitting on a wicker chair in the balcony lounge area, holding a laptop and sipping coffee slowly—he had clearly adapted to life and work in Xucheng.

“Old Gao, aren’t you hot?” Chen Yansen walked over and sat down across from Gao Weilin with a smile.

The morning sun rose in the east, already bringing a hint of stuffiness.

“Boss, try my new coffee beans? This year’s harvest from Nariño has a citrus aroma.”

Gao Weilin had just risen to greet him, but Chen Yansen pressed him back into his seat, so he raised his cup and smiled in recommendation.

The morning sun warmed his body, and Gao Weilin seemed to be enjoying it.

“No thanks, I’m not used to it.” Chen Yansen waved him off, then asked: “What did Le Tian say?”

“They’re very interested, but Le Tian, like Ali, is short on capital. Given Ali’s current development status, whether using P/S or P/E valuation, the final valuation won’t be lower than $2.5 billion.”

Gao Weilin shrugged and smiled: “For Le Tian, this is a major investment, so I’ve contacted Augusta Capital and plan to use a primary-secondary joint sale method to package and sell Ali.”

This acquisition method is uncommon on the mainland but standard in Hong Kong.

For many venture capital firms, controlling stake isn’t important—profitability is.

After learning that Ali is also interested in Ali, Le Tian is leveraging SoftBank’s connections to jointly acquire Ali with Augusta Capital and merge it into Ali Baba.

To achieve an indirect stake in Ali!

Compared to Ali’s equity, the equity of Ali Baba, the e-commerce giant, is clearly more attractive.

“I’ve always trusted your judgment,” Chen Yansen nodded, raising no objections.

Boss, we’ve only known each other for a month?

Gao Weilin opened his mouth, wanting to retort, but he held it back.

Since quitting, his work ethic on the mainland has been even stronger than when he was at Zhao Ye Group.

He knew clearly: once this equity sale is completed, he will instantly become famous in China’s internet industry.

“Boss, Orange Phone factory’s financial accounting and fund management have been integrated into the financial shared center and ERP system—every transaction is transparent and traceable; subordinates find it hard to manipulate anything.”

Gao Weilin set aside his thoughts and continued.

“Alright, I understand. If you need more staff, have HR help you recruit.”

Chen Yansen replied, then stood up and headed upstairs.

The initial industrial design draft submitted by the R&D team was outright rejected by him—the border widths on all sides were wide enough to park a row of RVs.

Compared to borderless phones from over a decade later, it looked ugly beyond description.

The engineers explained that this was due to outdated COG screen packaging technology, requiring wide borders to accommodate driver circuits and wiring—no other choice.

After understanding the situation, Chen Yansen confirmed the engineers weren’t lying to him.

But in 2011, solutions did exist—they just increased packaging costs, which is why 99.9% of smartphone brands on the market abandoned them.

Chen Yansen pondered: if Orange Phone was just like Xiaomi, Meizu, or Samsung, lacking unique advantages, why would users choose Orange?

Because AuroraOS is smoother than stock Android?

Then users could just flash their phones—why buy an Orange Phone?

So Chen Yansen scrapped the first design and started over.

First, he spent a huge sum to purchase COF packaging equipment—this more advanced technology packages the chip onto a flexible circuit board before connecting it to the screen, drastically reducing border width.

There were virtually no smartphone factories in China using COF packaging; after inquiring, Cao Dahua and Zuo Hongyu could only buy imported new equipment—700,000 yuan per unit, over 500,000 yuan more expensive than used COG packaging equipment.

Second, add virtual buttons to reduce the phone’s chin space.

Even Apple, known for boldness, hadn’t dared to eliminate the Home button outright.

Xiaomi’s first-generation phone also retained the three Android “golden keys”: Back, Home, and Recent Apps.

Chen Yansen went straight to the end: eliminate all touch buttons and adopt full-gesture navigation.

Hardware-wise, use ultra-high-sensitivity touchscreens;

System-wise, deeply modify AuroraOS to optimize touch latency.

Additionally, replace the processor with Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8260—performance equivalent to Apple’s A5 chip used in the iPhone 4S, same as Xiaomi’s first-gen model.

Finally, change the phone’s plastic casing to high-strength aluminum alloy.

Although costs increased, this improved the phone’s structural strength and reduced the likelihood of screen cracks caused by narrower borders.

Cost accounting showed that material expenses alone reached 1,100 yuan!

Add R&D, manufacturing, promotion, and sales costs, and even with strict supply chain control, profit margin per unit would fall below 10% if priced at 1,999 yuan.

But Chen Yansen didn’t care about those few dozen yuan in profit—he cared about how many human sparks the smartphone industry, from R&D to retail, could add to him.

As Chen Yansen stepped onto the third floor, two engineers approached, holding a 4.5-inch engineering prototype of the Orange Phone, smiling to greet him.

“Boss, this is the engineering sample sent from Shencheng—I and Zhou Ze tested it; touch latency is within acceptable range.”

Zhang Cong was head of the industrial design team; Zhou Ze, whom he mentioned, was head of the hardware design team.

One came from ZTE, the other from Huawei’s Honor phone team.

“Oh, Old Cao moves fast.”

Chen Yansen took the phone and followed them toward the testing team.

The testing team had about a dozen engineers, each with an Orange Phone, rigorously testing performance, interface, and sensors.

Also testing audio and video playback smoothness, audio distortion, and whether audio and video were synchronized.

Additionally, there were many other issues: heat dissipation, battery life, device compatibility—just the testing phase would take a full month.

Chen Yansen demanded that as many bugs as possible be fixed before launch.

If users discovered them after launch, whether recalling or compensating, losses would be incalculable.

Chen Yansen knew well: caution never hurts.

For example, AuroraOS had undergone two weeks of testing before launch, yet still had minor bugs afterward.

Zhang Cong and Zhou Ze led Chen Yansen through the testing team for the entire morning, reporting every issue found.

System issues were directly fed back to Wang Teng.

For hardware issues, if caused by suppliers, issue a warning first; if unchanged, replace them immediately.

“Boss, is there still room to optimize the appearance?”

After finishing his report, Zhang Cong asked tentatively.

In 2011, public smartphone aesthetics largely followed Apple’s lead—including Zhang Cong’s.

Thus, Orange Phone’s appearance resembled one-third of the iPhone 4 and had a hint of Meizu M9’s style, but with narrower borders and thinner profile.

As a result, each unit’s material cost exceeded the original plan by 200 yuan, but the feel was excellent—smooth touch, high-quality aluminum back cover, visibly more premium than plastic.

“The current design is fine.”

Chen Yansen nodded in approval—since the engineering prototype was already out, adjusting the appearance now would be troublesome; he’d been present during the final design approval, so no need for pointless tinkering.

“Boss, there’s a hardware issue: we have 100 engineering units, but I found the battery sizes aren’t uniform—the maximum deviation is 1.3 millimeters.”

Zhou Ze spoke with serious expression.

Remember, smartphones are precision digital products—every electronic component has strict placement requirements.

If battery size deviates from design specs, assembly equipment won’t function properly.

“That’s absurd.”

Chen Yansen blinked in surprise—he assumed suppliers merely followed contract specs; how could such a huge error occur?

Zhou Ze placed two batteries on the table.

Chen Yansen looked and burst out laughing in anger—the size difference was obvious, visible to the naked eye.

Right before their eyes, he pulled out his phone and called Zuo Hongyu.

“Replace the battery supplier. After these engineering units were made, didn’t you and Old Cao inspect them?”

Chen Yansen questioned bluntly.

“Huh!? We inspected them, didn’t find any problems.” Zuo Hongyu had indeed checked, but only tested phone functions—he hadn’t disassembled the hardware.

Components like processors, screens, cameras, and speakers had their own incoming inspection procedures and usually didn’t have issues.

“If the battery size deviates from design specs, this supplier must be replaced—otherwise, who knows what other problems will pop up later.”

Chen Yansen didn’t scold Zuo Hongyu further, only gave him a serious warning.

He sighed inwardly: these Shenzhen Huaqiangbei suppliers were surprisingly unreliable.

Unaware that during these years of Shanzhai phone dominance, a battery was considered good as long as it didn’t explode.

As for non-compliant specs—a 1-2mm deviation? Just force it in manually—it still works, doesn’t it?

“Understood, Boss.” Zuo Hongyu’s face turned pale and flushed—he never expected such a major mistake in the supply chain.

After hanging up, he immediately led his team into the warehouse and pulled out the batch delivered by Youpu.

“Digital caliper!” Zuo Hongyu shouted to his assistant.

“Boss, here you go.” The assistant beside him quickly handed it over.

Zuo Hongyu picked up a battery and began measuring its length, width, and height—his expression grew darker by the second.

Error of 0.3 millimeters!

Error of 0.5 millimeters!

Error of 0.9 millimeters!

"Son of a bitch, you dare to screw me, Zuo Hongyu? Who inspected this batch? Get the hell out right now!"

Zuo Hongyu flew into a rage, cursing loudly.

He immediately pulled out his phone and called the head of Youpu Battery: "Manager Wang, three out of ten batteries you sent are out of spec. Are you kidding me?"

"Manager Zuo, that’s an exaggeration! Don’t worry—our batteries won’t explode, as long as they work. I’ll arrange something for you at Xinghe Renjian later..."

Wang Hongde on the other end laughed it off evasively.

"I’ll arrange your mother! Get these pieces of junk out of here right now!" Zuo Hongyu snapped back harshly.

"Manager Zuo, go ask around—whose battery dimensions are absolutely precise? If you’ve got the nerve, sue us! Once Youpu’s products are sold, none have ever been returned."

Wang Hongde was a hardened rogue, utterly unfazed, grinning as he spoke.

"Fuck! You won’t get the final payment!"

"Hah! I never planned to collect the final payment anyway, Manager Zuo. Tell your backer, the Big Northern Fish, to stop breaking the rules of Huaqiangbei so casually."

Wang Hongde laughed loudly, dropped this warning, and hung up immediately.

Only then did Zuo Hongyu realize: the hiring terms Orange Tech offered in Shencheng must have threatened someone’s interests.

After a moment’s thought, he reported the situation to Chen Yan.

(End of Chapter)