Meizu 16, 16 Plus and Meizu Gravity – FIRST REVIEW after Presentation

About half a year ago Meizu announced its anniversary series called Meizu 15. Yes, it took just 6 months for the Chinese manufacturer to release the next generation – Meizu 16. Honestly, I’m a little surprised, because Meizu releases new phones quite rare. From other side, Meizu 16 and 16 Plus are completely different from the previous generation, so we have to review new phones.

Meizu 16 and 16 Plus have different display size, dimensions and battery capacity, while other specifications are the same. So, we will talk about both of them in this article.

Meizu 16 and 16 Plus: Specifications

Dimensions and weight	Meizu 16: 150.5 x 73.3 x 7.3 mm, weight 152 grams Meizu 16 Plus: 160.4 x 78.2 x 7.3 mm, weight 182 grams
Body Materials	Aluminum and glass
Display	6 inches (Meizu 16) or 6.5 inches (Meizu 16 Plus), 2160×1080 pixels, Super AMOLED, 2.5D glass, oleophobic coating, fingerprint scanner, built-in display
operating system	Android 8.1 + Flyme 7
Net	2G: 850/900/1800/1900 3G: 850/900/1700/1900/2100 4G: b3 / b7 / b20 / b38 Dual SIM cards
Platform	Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, 8-core, 4×2.8 GHz Kryo 385 Gold & 4×1.8 GHz Kryo 385 Silver, Adreno 630
Memory	64/128/256 GB + 6/8 GB, no memory card slot
Wireless Interfaces	Wi-Fi b / g / n / ac, dual-band, Bluetooth 5.0 LE, aptX HD, LDAC
Navigation	GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS
Sensors and connectors	Face unlock, accelerometer, gyro, light and proximity sensors, Type-C connector and headphone mini-jack
Main camera	12 megapixels (Sony IMX 380), f/1.8 + 20 megapixels (Sony IMX 360), f/2.6, dual optical zoom, triple hybrid zoom
Front-camera	20 megapixels, f / 2.0
Battery	3010 and 3640 mAh, fast charge mCharge
Price	$400

Meizu 16 and 16 Plus: Design

Do you remember two main trends in 2018? Of course, they are notch above the display and dual vertical camera on the back. Fortunately, Meizu does not copy Apple and other Chinese manufacturers, and use its own design for new smartphones.

Meizu 16 has symmetrical design of top and bottom bezels of the front panel. By the way, the bezels on top and bottom are about 40mm, while sides bezels are only 1.43mm.

The back cover of new phones is made of 6-layer glass with oleophobic coating. It looks similar to Meizu MX3. The feeling that the painted part of the glass is covered with a transparent one. Anyway, Meizu 16 is very comfortable to hold in one hand.

Another advantage of Meizu phones is 3.5mm audio jack.

Meizu 16 will be sold in black and white colors. In my opinion, the black version looks boring, so I took the white version for the first review.

Meizu 16 and 16 Plus: Sizes

When the screen diagonal is increasing, the dimensions and weight of smartphones also increase. However, Meizu decided to “kick” competitors, especially Sony with its heavy Xperia XZ2 Premium. Meizu 16 looks very thin and light, while Meizu 16 Plus is still very comfortable to use, despite the huge 6.5-inch display.

• Meizu 16: 150.5 x 73.3 x 7.3 mm, weight 152 grams
• Meizu 16 Plus: 160.4 x 78.2 x 7.3 mm, weight 182 grams

Meizu 16 and 16 Plus: Display

The regular model has 6 inch diplay, while Plus version comes with 6.5-inch screen. The resolution of both is 2160×1080 pixels. Also, both phones have Samsung SuperAMOLED panel and 2.5D glass with excellent oleophobic coating.

The display has a built-in fingerprint scanner. We don’t know why you need it, but you can add the fingerprint of your cat, and unlock will still work. Meizu noted that the fingerprint reader is 8 times more expensive than usual. When testing process, the company collided with more than 300 bugs and fixed them all before the phones went on sale. To unlock, you just need to put your finger to a special place on display. When you take the smartphone into your hand, a spcial place is highlighted. The unlocking is super fast. There are no differences from scanners in other models.

Displays, according to first impressions, are very good. The image is bright and colorful. There is almost no greenish tinge when looking at the white background.

Meizu 16 and 16 Plus: Performance

This is the first smartphone from Meizu on Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset. To be honest, I really like that Meizu finally decided to use Qualcomm processor in new phones. As you may remember, earlier the Chinese company used only Samsung Exynos chipsets.

The Bluetooth version was updated to 5.0. In addition, new phones support aptX and LDAC codecs. Among other interesting features, there are copper tubes with coolant to ensure that the smartphones does not overheat and does not lose performance during games.

Meizu 16 and 16 Plus: Battery

The battery capacity is 3010mAh for Meizu 16 and 3640mAh for Meizu 16 Plus. It supports fast charging mCharge. For only half an hour the smartphone is charged at 67%.

Meizu 16 and 16 Plus: Camera

The smartphones have a dual camera. Below you can see the specifications of sensors:

• 12 megapixels, f/1.8, Sony IMX380, optical stabilization
• 20 megapixels, f/2.6, Sony IMX350

During the presentation we were told about interesting features of camera, about excellent shooting in complex lighting, about smart mode with auto detection scenes, etc. However, we should test the camera to say something about it. So, we are waiting for official release to buy these phones, and make camera test.

Meizu 16 and 16 Plus: Sound

Meizu traditionally pays much attention to the sound, so it is logical that new phones have stereo speakers. At first impressions, they are very good: the sound is loud, clean, does not wheeze even at maximum volume. We already said that new devices support wireless codecs LDAC and aptX HD.

Meizu Gravity

Also during the presention Meizu announces its new speaker called Meizu Gravity. Its main feature is visual effect of levitation. It was achieved thanks to a transparent glass stand. We cannot talk about speaker, because we haven’t tested it yet. So, here is some photos and specifications list.

• Support for Bluetooth 4.1
• Support for Aux In
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b / g / n (2.4 GHz)
• Display diagonal: 3 inches
• Built-in memory capacity: 4 GB
• S / N Ratio: ≥80 dB
• Frequency range: 70-20 kHz
• Power: 2 x 10 W
• Diameter of speakers: 2 x 40 mm
• THD: + N <1%
• Audio processing: TAS5754M from Texas Instruments
• Support for Dirac Power SoundTM and PurePathTM HybridFlow
• Column dimensions: 262 x 58 x 112 mm
• Weight: 1033g

Conclusion

First, let’s take a look at the Chinese prices for new phones.

Meizu 16:

• 6 + 64 GB: $400
• 6 + 128 GB: $450
• 8 + 128 GB: $490

Meizu 16 Plus:

• 6 + 128 GB: $470
• 8 + 128 GB: $520
• 8 + 256 GB: $590

First of all, we want to note the dimensions and weight, as well as design of new Meizu smartphones. In addition, I will highlight an excellent screen, wonderful stereo speakers and built-in display fingerprint reader. Perhaps, the main drawback is the lack of a slot for memory card and NFC.

As for other features, Meizu 16 and 16 Plus look the same as other flagship phones in 2018.

Meizu 16 Video Review

Source: meizu