Meizu isn't the first name that comes to mind when looking for premium smartphones. Even though it has sizeable presence in its home country China, the company marketed its budget smartphones in India and abruptly slowed its pace. But Meizu is now looking to leave an impression in the flagship smartphone arena with two of its latest entries.
Meizu Pro 7 and Pro 7 Plus were launched in China on Wednesday, giving a fresh perspective on premium smartphones. While Samsung, Apple, Sony and Xiaomi have little to worry about since the phones are not available outside China, the innovation certainly mandates a reality-check by the well-known brands.
Meizu Pro 7 and Pro 7 Plus pack top-of-the-line specs. But the standout feature is the secondary display that sits at the back of the phones just below the dual cameras.
Dual screen
LG was the first to demonstrate a secondary ticker screen to display local time, weather update and important notifications without activating the phone entirely. Meizu has taken this notion to a whole new level when by placing a 2-inch Super-AMOLED display at the back.
The secondary display lets users manage notifications, music, add wallpapers to personalise the rear style and take perfect selfies using rear cameras. Users will not have to rely on the front camera for selfies any more, and can take much better and detailed selfies using the rear camera setup.
Dual camera
The dual camera compliments the secondary screen at the back of the Pro 7 and Pro 7 Plus. The phones are powered by 12-megapixel Sony IMX386 sensors — one colour and the other monochrome — to capture detailed images even in low-light conditions.
Users can take advantage of the premium camera setup at the back to take clear selfies by looking at the rear display to get the framing right.
The secondary display and the dual camera doesn't replace the regular front camera. There's a capable 16MP sensor in the front of both phones, which uses a four-in-one algorithm to shoot better in low-lit areas.
Rest of the specs
The key visible difference between Meizu Pro 7 and Pro 7 Plus is the screen size. The former has a 5.2-inch display with Full-HD resolution and the latter gets a 5.7-inch Quad-HD display. The display is securely wrapped in a metal case, and a brushed texture at the back gives it a unique look. The Pro 7 comes in black, gold and red colours, while the Pro 7 Plus has matte black, space black, amber gold and crystal silver colour options.
Under the hood, the Pro 7 uses a MediaTek Helio P25 processor and has 4GB RAM and 64GB storage, while the Pro 7 Plus runs on an 10nm Helio X30 chipset paired with 6GB RAM, and comes in 64GB/128GB storage options. It is evident that the Pro 7 Plus outperforms the Pro 7 on many levels.
Continuing the trend, the Pro 7 has a 3,000mAh battery and the Pro 7 Plus sports a 3,500mAh battery. Both phones support mCharge fast-charging technology and are powered by Android 7.0 Nougat-based Flyme OS 6. As an add-on, both phones have the Cirrus Logic CS43130 Hi-Fi chip, which enables supreme audio experience, along with a fingerprint scanner, USB Type-C, 4G VoLTE and dual SIM support.
"The Meizu Pro 7 and Pro 7 Plus convey the very essence of Meizu – our passion to innovate and our commitment to creating premium devices," Ard Boudeling, head of Global Marketing at Meizu, said in a statement. "We've been trying out different implementations of rear displays for the past years, and are confident we have now created an implementation that truly offers a great user experience."
Are Pro 7 and Pro 7 Plus worth buying?
The Pro 7 is priced at 2,880 yuan (approximately Rs 27,500) while the Pro 7 Plus will retail for 3,580 yuan (Rs 36,000). Both phones will be available August 5 onwards, but don't bet hard on international shipping just yet.
