Ever looked at the Samsung Galaxy Note8 and gone “yeah, I like the internals, but I wish it was in another smartphone body and had a different Android skin on top that looks even more kiddish”? Good news! There’s now a phone for you and it’s Meizu‘s brand new flagship handset.
Meizu 15 Plus
Meizu announced their brand new flagship smartphone, the Meizu 15 Plus. It is named in celebration of the company’s 15th anniversary and is a flagship smartphone through and through. Perhaps the most interesting spec on this handset is its processor, which is an Exynos 8895 10nm octa-core chip at its heart. If that sounds familiar to you, it’s because it is the same flagship processor you’d find in Samsung’s Galaxy Note8 and S8 series smartphones. It’s rare that we see Exynos processors in non-Samsung smartphones, but it isn’t entirely new for Meizu.
Mated to that, the Meizu 15 Plus features 6GB of RAM and either 64GB or 128GB of internal storage. Keeping the smartphone powered is a 3,500 mAh battery. It’s also got a large 5.95-inch Quad HD AMOLED display with absolutely no notch in sight. It’s also a 16:9 aspect ratio screen! How un-2018 of them.
For photos, the Meizu 15 Plus features a 12MP + 20MP dual camera module at the back with optical image stabilisation (OIS) and electronic image stabilisation (EIS). We’re not entirely sure if both lenses are stabilised or if it’s just the normal wide f/1.8 aperture lens over the main 12MP 1.55 micron pixel sensor that features OIS and EIS. The secondary lens is a short 2X telephoto lens for 3X “lossless zoom” according to Meizu.
There are also features like multi-frame noise reduction and a HDR algorithm that’s apparently on par with the Huawei P20. In front, you’re getting a 20MP selfie shooter so it’s easier to print massive images of your face should the desire suddenly strike you.
On the software side of things, it’s running Meizu’s Flyme 7 OS that is about as far from stock Android as you can get. It’s supposed to have about 100 innovations and improvements though, whatever that means. Of course, it also comes with AI features packed in because why not?
There are other hardware goodies, including a fingerprint scanner, facial recognition, a 3.5mm headphone jack and a pair of stereo speakers that’s all complemented with the handset’s stainless steel aluminium composite body. The body will apparently feel like steel but be as light as aluminium. How? I’m not quite sure either.
The Meizu 15 Plus will be priced at CNY3,000 (around RM1,855) for the base model with 64GB of storage and CNY3,300 (around RM2,040) for the model with 128GB of internal storage.
If the Meizu 15 Plus is too baller for you, the Chinese company also released two watered down versions dubbed the Meizu 15 and Meizu 15 Lite.
Meizu 15
The Meizu 15 retains the AMOLED display of its bigger sibling but bumps sized own to 5.46 inches and resolution to 1080p. Inside, it’s powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 14nm processor with 4GB of RAM and 64GB or 128GB of internal storage. Surprisingly, it shares the same camera system as the Meizu 15 Plus except for the fact that the Meizu 15’s unit doesn’t have OIS and relies solely on EIS. It also retains the 3.5mm headphone jack.
Keeping the smartphone juiced is a 3,000 mAh battery. The Meizu 15 will be priced at CNY2,500 (around RM1,550) for 64GB and CNY2,800 (around RM1,730) for the version with 128GB of internal storage.
Meizu 15 Lite
Finally, you’ve got the Meizu 15 Lite. On the most affordable handset in this lineup, the 15 Lite features the same 5.46-inch sized screen as the Meizu 15, but is now an LTPS LCD display instead of AMOLED. It still pushes a Full HD resolution of 1080p, however.
Inside, the handset gets a Snapdragon 626 processor with 4GB of RAM and 64Gb of internal storage. In the camera department, you only get a single 12MP sensor but it still features large 1.4-micron pixels, which is nice, and an f/1.9 aperture lens. Besides that, it’s also got Dual Pixel AF, which is very surprising for a “Lite” model handset. The Meizu 15 Lite also packs the same 20MP selfie shooter as the other two devices in this line.
Keeping the lights on is a 3,000 mAh battery. Prices for this handset start at CNY1,700 (around RM1,050).
