Meizu 18Pro review: top hardware level, extremely “clean” Flyme9

The 2021 Meizu flagship has arrived much earlier than expected. You may still have the impression that last year’s Meizu 17 series waited until May to be officially launched on the market, and at this time many manufacturers have already begun to enter the second round of new product release cycles. However, the overall results are good. Some time ago, officials publicly stated that even if it relied on only one flagship for the whole year, the company still achieved profitability.

When the mobile phone industry entered the era of giants, it actually lost some persistence. Meizu is one of the few brands that has always followed its own pace. There is always an inexplicable " magic". For many digital enthusiasts, not every Meizu phone may "certainly support it this time", but they will have different expectations for its new products, and it seems to be innately popular.

No surprise, this year’s generation of Meizu flagship is called Meizu 18 series, including Meizu 18 and Meizu 18 Pro, both of which are equipped with the top Snapdragon 888 platform in the current Android camp. This is probably also the origin of the "dual flagship" in the product definition. The protagonist of this article is the relatively larger Meizu 18 Pro.

Since the full-screen concept became popular in mobile phone products, more and more people have begun to be "face-blinded". You will find that every product seems to have a long face on the front. Without the "same face", even for people like me who look at their mobile phones every day, it is difficult to tell the specific model of the mobile phone in front of them at the first time. But looking back at the many mobile phone products in 2020, there are also some that are highly recognizable, such as Meizu 17 Pro.

The one I have is the white version of Meizu 17 Pro. As far as the full-screen solution is concerned, it is actually not too special. It also uses a hole-punch screen. The difference is that on the basis of the straight screen, it has a certain margin in the width of the four borders. With the "rare" pure white front panel, I think it has the best front appearance among all mobile phones last year.

Let’s go back and look at Meizu 18 Pro. This generation of products obviously did not follow the previous logic. Instead, it moved the opening to the middle of the screen and changed it to a more mainstream curved screen. Putting the two generations of flagships together, the 18 Pro looks much slender and refined. . Regarding this change, you may think that it lacks some so-called "personalization", but it is not an exaggeration to use the word "good-looking" to describe it.

The screen quality has also reached the top level, equipped with a 6.7-inch Samsung Super AMOLED screen, E4 luminescent material, 2K+ resolution (3200 1440), 526ppi, the local peak brightness can reach 1300nit, and passed HDR1 and SGS low blue light eye protection certification. In addition, this time Meizu 18 Pro also supports 120Hz refresh rate and 240Hz touch sampling rate.

In addition to the conventional parameters, it also has several points worth mentioning. Meizu has added ambient light and color temperature sensors to the top of the front of the fuselage, which can provide 4096 levels of brightness adjustment. At the same time, the screen can automatically adjust to the most comfortable color temperature display according to changes in ambient light. Of course, some people are comfortable with the primary color display mode and some are not. Everyone can decide according to their own preferences whether to turn it on or not.

The screen fingerprint has been significantly changed. After turning on the screen, you will find that the screen fingerprint of this generation of products is obviously higher up. The advantage is that it is much more convenient to unlock with one hand. In addition, Meizu 18 Pro uses Qualcomm’s new ultrasonic screen fingerprint solution, which is the first time among domestic mobile phones. In actual use, both the unlocking speed and recognition accuracy are excellent, and it can basically be "opened with one touch".

Turn over and look at the back of the fuselage. Meizu 18 Pro is available in three color options: Snow Streamer, Galaxy Secret Realm, and Vast Sky. The actual color effects correspond to white, silver, and blue respectively. Coincidentally, the Feixue Streamer version we got this time is similar to the fixed white version last year, so everyone can more intuitively understand the difference between the two white generations.

The most eye-catching thing is of course the camera part. On the Meizu 17 Pro, the rear cameras are arranged horizontally. Due to the large number of elements, the overall cutting area feels larger. When it comes to Meizu 18 Pro, it has been replaced with a relatively conventional rectangular design. However, because the body is relatively slender, there is no problem of accidentally touching the camera when used, so there is no need to worry about this.

It may not be easy to notice the Feixue Streamer version when you look at it alone, but if you put it together with the Meizu 17 Pro fixed white version, you will find that although the back covers of both products are white, In fact, the whiteness of the latter is purer. The reason for this difference is relatively easy to explain. The main reason is that the body material is changed from ceramic to glass.

Along with the material change comes the processing technology. Meizu 18 Pro uses AG etching process, which feels extremely delicate to the touch. In addition, the back cover is white in color and has an anti-fingerprint coating. Even if it is not covered, When used with the case, the stain resistance is still satisfactory enough. Meizu also did a good job in the details this time. The shiny metal middle frame and the metal trim around the camera enhance the sophistication of the product itself to a certain extent.

As a Meizu 17 Pro user, my first impression when I hold the Meizu 18 Pro in my hand is that the latter has a significantly better grip. For this generation of products, Meizu has made all-round "slimming". Its body length is 162.5 mm and width is 73 mm. Probably due to changes in materials, the weight has been reduced to 189 grams, which is 30 grams lighter than the previous generation.

After the body becomes thinner, lighter, and narrower, it will be more friendly to users with relatively small hands, and it will be much easier to hold it with one hand. However, during actual use, we also found that Meizu 18 Pro cannot completely avoid the common accidental touch problem with curved screens. Fortunately, it does not cause too much trouble in daily use.

Meizu 18 Pro’s front camera is 44 million pixels, F2.4 aperture, sensor model is Samsung GH1, supports AI ultra-clear selfie, front-facing super night scene and face unlock and other functions. However, unlike other domestic mobile phones, its front panel does not support portrait mode. What’s more interesting is that the previous Meizu 17 Pro battery display appeared in the form of a small circle on the screen on this generation of products.

There are many rear camera elements, among which the main camera is 50 million pixels, F1.9 aperture, uses Samsung GN1 sensor, has a 1/1.3-inch outsole, supports optical image stabilization; the ultra-wide-angle lens is 32 million pixels, F2.2 aperture, Sony IMX616 sensor, the field of view reaches an exaggerated 130°; the telephoto lens is 8 million pixels, F2.4 aperture, supports 3x optical zoom and up to 30x digital zoom.

In addition to the three conventional lenses, Meizu 18 Pro still retains the iconic ring flash of Meizu mobile phones, and also adds a 3D depth detector, which is used to further improve focus during night shooting. speed. However, because we got the machine relatively early, the deep focus function was not launched online and will be added OTA later. The following are real shot samples without any post-processing:

On Meizu 18 Pro, Meizu is equipped with a set of "Pure Fusion" algorithms, including DarkVision Ultimate Night Scenery, Super Night Scenery 4.0, and Super Night Scenery Video, AI ultra-clear portrait and natural beauty. As far as the actual sample is concerned, its ultra-wide-angle mode is consistent with the data, and the viewing angle is very wide. In addition, the picture effect in night scene mode is also great, with both dark detail preservation and highlight suppression ideal.

During the shooting process, we discovered a feature called "immersive preview" in its camera interface, which is supported in both photo and video modes. In photo mode, after turning on this function, all icons in the camera viewfinder frame except the shooting button will be hidden. Even the shooting button is displayed in a hollow form, retaining the integrity of the viewfinder preview as much as possible.

The slightly different thing about the video mode is that the shooting button retains the same solid red icon as the regular mode. It is speculated that this may be to make the user more aware of the current working mode of the camera. The on/off operation of this function is also relatively simple. After selecting "Immersive Preview" in the settings interface, just double-click the screen. It feels quite practical.

The core hardware configuration may be the least suspenseful part. We also mentioned at the beginning of the article that Meizu 18 Pro is equipped with the Snapdragon 888 chip, which is matched with Recently, the full-blooded version of LPDDR5 running memory and UFS3.1 body storage have appeared frequently. Three storage combination versions of 8GB+128GB, 8GB+256GB and 12GB+256GB are available.

The core hardware combination of Snapdragon 888 + full version LPDDR5 + UFS3.1 will not be described here. The measured AnTuTu score of Meizu 18 Pro is 727,380 points, and Master Lu’s score is 860,016 points. It is worth mentioning that it is equipped with the new OneMind 5.0, which specifically adds a OneMind 888 special module for the ultra-large core of Snapdragon 888 to balance performance and battery life.

By the way, battery life. Its battery capacity is 4500mAh, which is the same as the previous generation. The fast charging solution has been upgraded from 30W wired + 27W wireless to 40W wired + 40W wireless. It takes about 55 minutes to fully charge using a wired charger.

In addition, it also supports QC4+ and PD3.0 protocols, which means that you can use the PD charger of a laptop or tablet to achieve fast charging.

However, this time, neither Meizu 18 Pro nor Meizu 18 comes with a charging head in the box. Regarding this initiative, we have actually discussed it in an earlier Xiaomi 11 review article. It is meaningful in the long run. After all, environmental protection requires more manufacturers to join in and promote it. From the user's perspective, it may Everyone has more than one charger at home, so it’s not a big problem to use multiple devices.

When talking about Meizu mobile phones, Flyme is of course an important part that cannot be ignored. Since Meizu held a separate press conference for the new Flyme 9 one day before the mobile phone conference, everyone should have a general understanding of it through various channels. Here we pick a few more important points. Let’s talk about it.

First of all, starting from Flyme 9, all Meizu phones will no longer be pre-installed with any third-party applications, and the system’s own applications will also be streamlined; in addition, the system’s own applications will not have any Formal ad placement, system application and all third-party application notifications are turned off by default. Users can manually authorize it to turn it on according to their own needs. After completing the setting steps and entering the mobile phone interface, the overall feeling is very "clean".

In other aspects, Flyme 9 has optimized the Alive Design design and brought a new small window mode 3.0. Aicy has become smarter and further emphasized privacy protection. What I like better is actually its interaction logic. Meizu integrates full-screen gestures and mBack, which can take into account the advantages of both. For old Meizu mobile phone users, this is currently the best interaction solution.

In addition to what we mentioned above, the highly praised points of previous generations of Meizu mobile phones have been inherited without exception. For example, Meizu 18 Pro also has a horizontal linear motor, matched with the new mEngine 4.0 touch engine. Officials say that the vibration amplitude has been increased by 30%. The actual vibration feedback is very crisp, which greatly improves the "texture" of using the phone. .

As for almost all the configurations you can think of, such as multi-function NFC, new generation dual super linear speakers, Bluetooth 5.2 and Wi-Fi 6E connections, Meizu 18 Pro has not fallen behind, and there is almost no fault. . Comprehensive and top-notch hardware configuration, coupled with the cleanest Flyme 9 system currently among domestic brands, we think it is not inferior to any competing products of the same level.

If in the past few years, due to various reasons, Meizu mobile phones always felt like something was missing, then on this generation of flagships, everything has returned to the "look" it was originally known for. This company has indeed changed. Gotta be more mature. Regarding sales, the 8GB+128GB version of Meizu 18 Pro is priced at 4,999 yuan, the 8GB+256GB version is 5,499 yuan, and the 12GB+256GB version is 5,999 yuan.

Finally, let’s make a preview. We are also preparing the review content of Meizu 18. Although the two models only differ by a “Pro” suffix, there are many differences in appearance design and use experience. From this perspective, I don’t think there is a stronger or weaker one between the two. Interested friends can pay attention to GeekChoice (ID: GeekChoice).

Author of this article: Tofu Shop Manager

This article was first published on Geek’s Choice. For reprinting, please contact Geek Parker (ID: geekparker).

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