Meizu PRO 6 Plus review: It can still be an Android flagship without Qualcomm

Before November 30, when people talked about this year's Meizu, they could basically be summarized into the following voices:

"After such a fierce dispute with Qualcomm, there will be no processors available for flagship phones, right?"

"A machine with MediaTek chips can still be called PRO! Isn't that too unfair?"

"Meizu Blue is selling so well, why not just sell phones priced at 1,000 yuan in the future..."

As a manufacturer that does not have its own self-developed chips like Apple and Huawei, Meizu was initially helpless in relying on MediaTek for the New Year in 2016 when all the Android flagships on the street were equipped with Snapdragon 820/821.

However, good things never come late, and the deep relationship between Meizu and Samsung since the MP3 era is not going to be severed. At the new product launch conference on November 30, after the Meizu Blue X, the debut of Meizu's true flagship PRO 6 Plus was undoubtedly a pleasant surprise. Is it true that Qualcomm is indispensable for Android flagship phones? Meizu doesn't think so.

Exynos 8890? Is it powerful?

From a certain perspective, the situation in which Qualcomm chips dominate the Android flagship phone market is not only because Qualcomm itself has outstanding technical strength, but also because it has no real competitors, resulting in a monopoly in the industry. So much so that when the once not-so-outstanding "glue dual-core" MSM8X60 and "hand warmer" Snapdragon 810 chips appeared, most manufacturers chose to grit their teeth and use them if they could.

Meizu, which has always been tied to Samsung, has indeed provided another choice to the flagship mobile phone market. The Meizu PRO 6 Plus is not only the only smartphone with a built-in Samsung Exynos 8890 chip that can be bought in China, but also allows Meizu to take a breath in the embarrassing situation where flagships are hard to find.

Similar to Qualcomm Snapdragon 820/821 which uses Qualcomm's own Kryo architecture, Samsung Exynos 8890 uses Samsung's own Mongoose architecture processor design, quad-core Samsung M1+ quad-core ARM Cortex-A53, full of black technology, and integrated communication baseband to solve the problem of full network access.

However, in terms of the performance of the benchmark software, the performance of Meizu PRO 6 Plus is still not aggressive enough, and it only beats its own "MediaTek flagship" PRO 6. The reason may be that when Exynos 8890 was first released, it was still competing with Snapdragon 820 and Kirin 950, but now both Qualcomm and Huawei have more or less launched upgraded and iterative products.

In addition, according to the official Meizu page, the chip specifications of the 64GB and 128GB models of PRO 6 Plus are not the same. The 64GB version of Meizu PRO 6 Plus has a slight reduction in processor frequency and GPU core count. In an era when flagship mobile phones generally have excess performance, some people have used the 64GB version's longer battery life as a consolation.

As for the key point that is emphasized, Samsung's 14nm FinFET process is certainly more advanced than MediaTek X20's 20nm and Huawei Kirin 950/960's unchanged 16nm process, but Exynos 8890 and Snapdragon 820/821 both use this technology, so when running at high loads, the Meizu PRO 6 Plus may be cooler than the "MediaTek flagship" PRO 6, but not necessarily cooler than other Qualcomm flagships.

On the whole, the uniqueness of the product brought by the Samsung Exynos 8890 on the Meizu PRO 6 Plus is greater than its leading performance. This does not mean that its performance is not at the flagship level, but it shows the importance of a "non-Qualcomm Android flagship" to the brand. In addition, the Samsung elements, including LPDDR4 memory, UFS2.0 flash memory, and Super AMOLED 2K screen, are greatly magnified in the core configuration of a non-Samsung mobile phone, making this flagship phone particularly unique in invisible places.

In addition to performance, this is an enlarged version of PRO 6

There is no doubt that the processor, that is, the performance part, is the most eye-catching part of the Meizu PRO 6 Plus. Apart from that, we can basically understand that this is an enlarged version of the Meizu PRO 6.

The front part that Meizu claims to have redesigned does not make much difference to the Meizu PRO 6 Plus. The forehead and chin are symmetrical, and the earpiece cover is the same color as the body. It is more of a re-sculpting of the details.

On the back, 10 ring-shaped LED dual-color temperature flash lights are also the iconic feature of the previous PRO 6. It is also worth mentioning that the main camera of Meizu PRO 6 Plus has 12 million pixels and Sony's customized IMX386 photosensitive element, which is exactly the same as PRO 6 and even MX6 in terms of parameters. This makes us see one thing more clearly, that is, Meizu believes that the previous so-called flagship PRO 6 is good enough in all aspects, and it only lacks a decent processing chip. So on PRO 6 Plus, this belated chip has finally been made up.

Speaking of cameras, we have to mention the new Flyme 6 system. Although at first glance there is not much difference from the previous Flyme system, the newly added horizontal calibration logo under the photo interface still leaves a deep impression on people after a simple use.

Of course, it is not accurate to say that the Meizu PRO 6 Plus is just "bigger with a new chip". For example, behind the 24W fast charging, the 3400mAh battery capacity is installed in a 7.3mm thick phone, which is a positive effect of the larger size. The integration of the NFC area and the Wi-Fi antenna band at the top of the back has also become another patented design of Meizu.

In addition, for Hi-Fi enthusiasts, the addition of ESS ES9018K2M decoding chip, second-generation Solo headphone amplifier circuit, RUBYCON ruby ​​film capacitors, ADI AD45275 op amp chip, ultra-low impedance polymer tantalum capacitors and other original components can bring another climax; the mTouch of the HOME button incorporates live fingerprint recognition, and heart rate detection can be completed directly by finger touch, which is extremely rare in the smartphone industry.

PRO 6 Plus makes Meizu have no regrets this year

After all, it sounds a bit "terrible" for a mobile phone brand with annual sales of tens of millions of units to only launch high-, mid- and low-end products equipped with MediaTek chips within a year. Fortunately, Meizu did not let such a "tragedy" happen one month before the New Year.

The use of the Exynos 8890 processor, which Samsung itself has not fully used in its own models, in the PRO 6 Plus also shows from one side that Meizu is sincere enough in building a flagship phone.

For loyal Meizu users, if you don't have an absolute love for small screens, forget about PRO 6 and MediaTek! PRO 6 Plus is the flagship product that you should really look forward to.

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.