A story of phones that look like onions and garlic

I do not know about you, but the phone's colors bother me a lot. Of course, everyone offers the same silver and gold finishes, while China's initially commendable efforts to develop every blue gradient pattern imaginable seem to be running out of steam.

The old sub-brand of Oppo, Realme, thinks to have the answer and the answer is: what else? – "hire the most famous Japanese industrial designer living to make phones inspired by vegetables."

Yes, vegetables. Naoto Fukasawa, whom you may know through his iconic work with Muji and the range of Infobar phones, has turned to the kitchen to find inspiration with the new 'Master Editions' of the flagship phone's Realme X. Two versions are available: onion and garlic.

Well, hell if these phones do not evoke onion and garlic. The back panels have a slightly rough texture, and there is a degree of translucency and dispersion of light that makes them appear not completely solid. Fukasawa explains that when he worked with Realme, the team underwent 72 gradient tests and over 300 sample adjustments "to bring this texture to perfection".

Stylistically, these phones do not have much in common with the majority of Fukasawa's portfolio, which has often focused on a kind of warm minimalism with simple colors and user-friendly forms. But the designer only worked on the CMF (color, materials and finishes) of Realme X Master Edition rather than on the phone itself, which may have released him from the camera. experience.

"Design is about improving the relationship between man, the object and the environment," he says. "I like to observe, to see the beauty of our nature. Garlic and onion are so common, but if you look closely, you will not normally achieve anything: the fine texture. I want to make people surprised. I started thinking "can we replicate this texture on a smartphone?"

The answer is basically yes. The Garlic Edition is very subtle and could pass for a classic white phone if you grab it head-on, but looks great at an angle-off angle – though almost impossible to photograph. The Onion model, meanwhile, is immediately an unusual color for a phone and has a more obvious texture that reacts more dramatically to light. The patterns are a bit more regular than expected, but the straight lines make sense considering the size and shape of the phone.

The Realme X phone is not quite enough for me, but otherwise I would use it on a daily basis. The Onion Edition, in particular, is so different from all the phones I've ever seen and where it's hard to resist.

And to be clear, the Realme X would be enough phone for most people. This is a similar device and above all better than the newer Oppo mid-range F11 Pro this year, despite Realme's status as Oppo's old budget brand. It has a Snapdragon 710 processor, a 6.53-inch OLED screen without a notch, a built-in fingerprint sensor, a 16-megapixel contextual selfie camera, a 48-megapixel main camera, up to 8GB RAM, a headphone jack Loading VOOC fast via USB-C. It uses Oppo's ColorOS 6 software, which I found quite harmless for Reno 10x Zoom's flagship product last month.

The normal version of the phone does not look bad either. The bright white back panel looks normal at first glance, but there is a sub-surface pattern that makes a rainbow-shaped S curve dance from the right angle. The construction is a little plasticky and the "chin" under the screen is more visible than on the newest headlights, of course, but none is blatant for the price category.

And the Realme X is a pretty outrageous device for the price, starting at 1,499 yuan (~ $ 220) for 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, while a model with 8GB of RAM and 128GB storage costs 1,799 yuan (~ $ 260). The main editions of Naoto Fukasawa cost 100 yuan (about 15 dollars) more.

The Realme X gives supposedly cheap phones, such as the $ 479 Pixel 3A XL, an extremely expensive look, whether or not you like onion-inspired designs. The only problem is that you will need to be in China to enjoy – or soon in India, which will also receive a special edition of Spider-Man: Far From Home.