Meizu S6 review: Is the side fingerprint a genius idea for a full-screen phone?

Meizu S6, the first full-screen mobile phone of the Meizu brand, can be said to be a product that is both reasonable and unexpected.

What is understandable is that it does not use any unprecedented new technology. Overall, it follows the usual design style of Meizu phones and chooses the industry-common 18:9 full screen.

What was unexpected was the addition of a side fingerprint scanner and the return of the small circle, making it an outlier among domestic full-screen mobile phones. In addition, the debut of Samsung's full-network processor also brought new variables to the choice between MediaTek and Qualcomm for Meizu mobile phones last year.

So, will the Meizu S6, which is still positioned as a "youth product" at around 1,000 yuan, be a satisfactory full-screen phone?

The touch is unforgettable, and the balanced configuration has a strong "Samsung flavor"

As we all know, the biggest advantage of full-screen design is that it can further increase the display area without increasing the width of the phone and affecting the holding experience.

For the Meizu S6 equipped with a 5.7-inch full screen, its holding feel is indeed not much different from the previous 5.5-inch Meizu mobile phones. In addition, the narrow frame and rounded body are also trying their best to please users who like to operate the phone with one hand.

What is more worth mentioning is that in terms of the surface treatment of the body, Meizu S6 emphasizes the use of a specific type of zirconium sand for multiple sandblasting of the entire back cover. Taking the black version in our hands as an example, its touch and visual effect are in no way inferior to the amazing feeling that the matte black on the iPhone once gave people.

In terms of hardware parameters, one of the major selling points of Meizu S6 is naturally the first launch of Samsung's full-network processor Exynos7872. This chip not only realizes the full-network function in the integrated baseband part, but also introduces the A73 architecture large core for the first time in Meizu's thousand-yuan product line. In addition, Meizu S6 has 3GB of running memory as standard. This configuration combination is obviously impeccable.

The ideal power consumption control performance brought by the 14nm process chip also enables the Meizu S6 to play the "Chicken Dinner" game for 6 hours without charging, supported by a 3000mAh battery. On the other hand, the 18w fast charging technology is also present, which effectively speeds up the charging speed of the phone.

At the same time, not only the choice of processor, but also the choice of other key hardware of the mobile phone, Meizu S6 is also a product that is very fond of "Samsung Star". For example, the front and rear cameras of the mobile phone use 8 million and 16 million pixel Samsung CMOS respectively, and the rear main lens also has a large aperture of f/2.0 and a 5P customized lens.

Therefore, after listing a circle of parameters, it seems not difficult to find out why the opening words of the previous Meizu S6 launch conference were officially ridiculed as "Samsung S6 launch conference". To be precise, this phone retains the appearance of a youthful and good product, but the internal Samsung elements are the key to its competitiveness in the configuration part of the thousand-yuan price range.

HD+ resolution is not good enough? Full screen 0.1 interactive system makes the classic continue

There is no doubt that the biggest controversy about the full-screen Meizu S6 is also due to this full-screen display.

Meizu S6 uses an HD+ screen, making the display resolution of Meizu's first full-screen mobile phone only 1440x720, which naturally seems to be a gap from the mainstream level.

A reasonable explanation may be that considering factors such as cost and supply chain, this choice is most in line with the most entry-level positioning of products below 1,000 yuan. In addition, the display fineness of this 5.7-inch full-screen is very close to 300PPI. As long as you are not an absolute "Sharingan" or parameter party, the actual viewing experience will not be a reason to prevent most ordinary consumers from choosing Meizu S6.

Of course, the bigger problem for Meizu Blue to make a full-screen mobile phone is that previous non-full-screen products all used the physical HOME button on the front as the core of interaction. Faced with the further increase in the screen-to-body ratio that squeezed out the space for the HOME button on the front of the phone, Meizu Blue S6 adopted a new full-screen 0.1 interaction system in the Flyme system. In this interaction system, the side fingerprint and virtual buttons constitute two important supports.

First of all, no one really likes the "blind massage" style rear fingerprint, so Apple iPhone X simply removed the fingerprint for the full screen. As for the side fingerprint setting, although Sony and the new Razer phones have appeared one after another before, these two international manufacturers seem to be dismissive of the full-screen design, and the Meizu S6 has undoubtedly found the sweet spot of combining side fingerprint and full screen.

Unlike Sony or Razer phones that combine the side power button and fingerprint recognition into one, the Meizu S6's side power button and fingerprint recognition area are independent of each other, and the fingerprint recognition function is not a physical button that can be pressed, but a recessed area.

The advantage of this arrangement is that you no longer have to worry about the life of the physical buttons being damaged by repeatedly pressing them, nor will you unlock your phone when you just want to light up the screen to check the time. Of course, this fingerprint recognition area still supports direct unlocking of the phone and fingerprint payment when the screen is off, which is as practical as the original HOME button fingerprint of Meizu phones.

Secondly, the full screen 0.1 interactive system does not deny the importance of the virtual buttons on the screen for Android full screen mobile phones, so that in the system, you can also set the virtual buttons of Meizu S6 to the same three button styles as ordinary Android phones.

However, Meizu would like you to continue using the brand's iconic "small circle" and mBack interaction logic in the position of the virtual button. This virtual "small circle" also fully inherits the complete operations of the previous Meizu mobile phones, including tapping to return, pressing to return to the main interface, and even long pressing to turn off the screen.

The only regret is that although the Meizu S6 can sense the pressure you press on the virtual "small circle", it does not have a lifelike vibration effect like Apple's 3D Touch. Otherwise, it could really become a "physical HOME button" that is indistinguishable from the real thing.

In general, as the first shot fired by Meizu in 2018, the Meizu S6, which is the first full-screen phone, is a stable product with some innovations.

Stable, because this 18:9 full screen now seems to be unable to give people too many surprises. Fortunately, from the perspective of a product with a starting price of 999 yuan, we can't ask for too much.

The new thing is that Meizu S6 shows us new thinking on the full-screen interaction form. The full-screen 0.1 interaction system is indeed unique, and there is no more compromise on user usage habits due to hardware changes. It can be said that it has found the smoothest and most reasonable way for Meizu phones to enter the full-screen era.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.