Meizu about 6 battery characteristics. Appearance and ease of use

Sound is the first thing I want to start this review with. Initially, the Meizu company was engaged in the production of high-quality MP3 players, so all Meizu flagship smartphones have a separate chip that is responsible for the sound quality of music in headphones. For the purity of the test, the site compared the Pro 6 with such giants as Marshall London (a smartphone from a famous music brand), LG G5 SE and Samsung Galaxy S7.

All compositions were listened to on expensive monitor headphones. The undisputed leader is Meizu Pro 6. It has the most pleasant bass, natural sound, and thanks to the emphasis on mid frequencies, the most pleasant vocals. It remains to wait for the LG G5 to go on sale to compare the sound quality of the Korean with the module from Bang&Olufsen.

If you are a music lover, then Meizu Pro 6 is a great option

The screen is excellent

The screen in Meizu Pro 6 can easily be called one of the best. There is a 5.2-inch Full-HD Super AMOLED matrix with support for 3D Press (analogous to 3D Touch). The screen recognizes pressure, just like the iPhone 6S. Without any doubt, this is very cool, but third-party application manufacturers do not yet support this feature. Therefore, you can appreciate the beauty of 3D Press only with standard pre-installed applications.

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I pressed the dialer harder and a window pops up, offering to immediately call selected contacts. Very comfortably! We hope that third-party developers will not stand aside and promptly update their applications.

The fact that they didn’t “shove” QHD resolution here is a separate plus. If you're not a fan virtual reality, then you won’t notice the difference between Full-HD and QHD (like the Samsung Galaxy S7 and LG G5).

The viewing angles are maximum, so correspondence on the subway will be available to the entire carriage. And you can watch videos comfortably in a large company. The brightness range of the flagship is very large. It is pleasant to use a smartphone at any time of the day: be it late at night or a sunny April day. The color temperature can be set in the settings - this is definitely a plus. It’s also good that there are no frames around the screen, like in Xiaomi Mi5.

The Pro 6's screen is one of the best among the competition, and the Full-HD resolution instead of QHD is a smart decision

The designers did their best

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Compared to its predecessor, the new product has become much smaller, so using a smartphone with one hand is a pleasure. The plastic inserts on the rear panel were replaced with curved strips. This solution looks harmonious: much nicer than the same iPhone.

The metal Pro 6 will turn out to be very bold: this is especially noticeable in the new flash, which looks more like additional camera or even a fingerprint scanner.

There are no complaints about the assembly: no crunches, no creaks. And the Home button is nice and easy to press. For example, the competitor from Xiaomi - Mi5 - has a tight and narrow button.

The Meizu shell, in my opinion, is one of the best among Android smartphones. Everything works quickly and easily. And the aforementioned Home button is very multifunctional. If you hold it down, the screen will go dark, a simple press will return you to the home screen, and a light “tap” works like the “Back” button. Very comfortably.

How powerful is it?

Comparison of Meizu Pro 6 performance with competitors in synthetic tests. The higher the number, the better.

There is no need to worry about power. The device copes with any “heavy” games like Asphalt 8 and Dead Trigger 2 with a solid five. During a week of use, Meizu Pro 6 never slowed down and solved all problems effortlessly. This performance is achieved thanks to the ten-core Mediatek Helio X25 chipset and 4 GB of RAM.

Although the processor is one of the top ones, it is noticeable that not everything is perfect with optimization. The device heats up noticeably, although it doesn’t burn your hand, and in some games the number of frames per second sometimes drops. I'm glad that Meizu is famous for frequent updates and long-term support for devices, so let's hope that with each update it will become a little better.

There are no problems with the quality of communication: the network does not “fall off”, and LTE reception is excellent. I really liked the fast fingerprint scanner. When the screen is on, it generally works instantly, and it recognizes the owner’s fingers quite accurately. There is no slot for a memory card: you have to choose between 32 and 64 GB versions. But there is a slot for two SIM cards and an unusual USB Type-C. Leaving the charger at home is contraindicated; it is still very difficult to find a new one - the format is not yet very widespread.

The power of Meizu Pro 6 is enough to “chop” into the heaviest toys

Not a bad camera

photos Autonomy indicators are ambiguous. The battery in Pro 6 is 2560 mAh. This is not enough for a 5.2-inch smartphone. However, thanks to the AMOLED screen, which consumes little energy, the device plays Full-HD video for 14 hours, but you can only play toys for 3-3.5 hours. In mixed mode of use (social networks, correspondence in instant messengers, Youtube, music), the device can hardly survive until the end of the day.

When compared to its competitors, the Pro 6 isn't all that bad. It turns out that the autonomy indicators of the flagship Pro 6 are average.

conclusions

Meizu Pro 6 is a smartphone with top specifications, an excellent screen, better sound in headphones, nice design and a good camera. In Russia, the device will cost approximately 35 thousand rubles for the initial version, which is significantly more expensive than in China. But even this price tag is not bad compared to competitors from A-brands, because for the Samsung Galaxy S7 you need to overpay 10-15 thousand rubles. Of course, the Korean is more interesting in almost everything, but a third of the price is serious, and besides, the sound is Meizu is better, and Press Touch technology is still a rare toy in Android.

LG G5 SE is another alternative to the firmware. It has 3 GB of RAM (versus 4 for Meizu), worse battery life and a dimmer screen (but more pixels). Among the advantages of LG is a wide-angle camera and a modular design, that is, you can quickly replace the battery. But is it worth the overpayment of 10-15 thousand rubles?

A competitor from China, Xiaomi Mi5, costs significantly less, about 25 thousand rubles in Russia, but it does not have an official guarantee, its battery life, firmware, and sound are worse. But the processor power is noticeably higher: Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 is a significant advantage.

pros

• Interesting design
• Top characteristics
• Excellent screen with pressure recognition
• Best sound quality on headphones
• Nice shell

Minuses

• In Russia the official price is too high
• Short working time
• The camera is inferior to competitors

The exterior of this smartphone is distinguished by its ring tone flash. At the same time, the device in a compact metal case will pleasantly surprise you not only with excellent sound, but also with a powerful processor, as well as new touch input technology. Vesti.Hi-tech sorted out all the "chips" of Meizu Pro 6

The “professional” new product from Meizu continues the glorious traditions of “musical” flagships, such as and, while simultaneously delighting mobile music lovers with a completely reasonable price. At the same time, according to the manufacturer, special attention was paid to the device not only to the sound options, but also to the capabilities of the camera and screen. In addition, one of the “highlights” of the debuted smartphone was, of course, the new MediaTek platform, although, of course, the matter is not limited to it. The compactness of the body is easily explained by the reduction in the screen diagonal - the next round of fashion for outright “shovels” seems to have already passed. Let's now take a closer look at what else has changed in Pro 6 compared to, say, the same.

Specifications

• Model: Pro 6
• OS: Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) with Flyme OS 5.2.0.0G shell
• Processor: 10-core, 64-bit MediaTek Helio X25 (MT6797T): 2 x ARM Cortex-A72 2.5 GHz + 4 x ARM Cortex-A53 2.0 GHz + 4 x ARM Cortex-A53 1.4 GHz
• Graphics coprocessor: ARM Mali-T880 MP4 (850 MHz)
• RAM: 4 GB, 32-bit, dual channel, LPDDR3, 933 MHz
• Storage Memory: 32GB/64GB (eMMC 5.1)
• Interfaces: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 GHz + 5 GHz), Bluetooth 4.1 (LE), USB (3.1) Type-C (OTG, Host), 3.5 mm headphone jack
• Screen: capacitive touch, 3D Press technology, full lamination, manufactured by Samsung, Super AMOLED matrix, 5.2-inch diagonal, resolution 1920x1080 pixels, pixel density per inch 424 ppi, contrast 10,000:1, brightness 350 cd/sq. m, 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass 3
• Main camera: 20.7 MP, 1/2.4-inch optical size, Sony IMX230 Exmor RS, 6-element lens, f/2.2 aperture, phase detection and laser autofocus, 10-LED ring tone flash, 4K@30fps video, 120 slow motion fps, Corning Gorilla Glass 3, blue IR filter
• Front-camera: 5 MP, OmniVision OV5670, 5-element lens, f/2.0 aperture, Blue Glass, Full HD video@30 fps
• Audio: Cirrus Logic CS43L36 24-bit 2-channel DAC, NXP Smart PA Gen 3 power amplifier (for speaker)
• Network: GSM/GPRS/EDGE, WCDMA/HSPA+, LTE Cat. 6, FDD-LTE (1800/2100/2600 MHz)
• SIM card: two nanoSIM (4FF format)
• Navigation: GPS/GLONASS/BDS, A-GPS
• Sensors: gyroscope, compass, Hall sensor, accelerometer, light and proximity sensors (infrared), biometric sensor (mTouch 2.1 fingerprint scanner)
• Battery: non-removable, lithium-polymer, 2,560 mAh, mCharge 3.0 fast charging
• Colors: dark grey, silver, gold
• Dimensions: 147.7x70.8x7.25 mm
• Weight: 160 grams

Design, ergonomics

The new product has retained most of the traditional design of its predecessors, although it is not without interesting nuances. So, Pro 6 received an all-metal unibody body, as, indeed, befits another flagship, even if it’s a “musical” one.

However, unlike, for example, , here they abandoned the rather wide radio-transparent inserts on the rear panel, replacing them with thin, originally curved plastic strips. The Pro 6's aluminum body with rounded corners and edges is available in three colors: dark grey, silver and gold. We got the last color option for testing.

Note that the matte anodized coating is not easily soiled, which allows the device to easily maintain a neat appearance. Thus, the exterior of the new smartphone looks premium and expensive, matching the devices of the most famous brands.

Since the screen size has decreased significantly compared to (from 5.7 to 5.2 inches), new model has become much more compact (147.7x70.8x7.25 mm versus 156.7x78x7.5 mm), and more ergonomic, of course. Let's now compare the overall dimensions and weight of the Pro 6 with its 5.2-inch "classmates" - and Xiaomi Mi 5 - (147.7x70.8x7.25 mm, 160 g) versus (147x72.6x7.9 mm, 136 g) versus (144.55x69.2x7.25 mm, 139 g). As you can see, the Pro 6 turned out to be the most “significant” in this team. However, in practice, such a difference is nothing more than a game of numbers, which does not always reflect the real ease of use of a particular device.

The front camera is nothing special to brag about. However, the necessary “makeup” for self-lovers is available here. The wide-angle lens with f/2.0 aperture has a 5-megapixel BSI sensor (OmniVision OV5670). There is no flash or autofocus here. The maximum resolution is achieved with the classic aspect ratio (4:3) - 2560x1920 pixels (5 MP).

The main camera can record videos not only in Full HD (1920x1080 pixels, 16:9) at 30 fps, but also in 4K mode (3840x2160 pixels, 16:9), and with the same frame rate. In turn, slow motion slo-mo (120/30 fps) is available only in HD resolution (1280x720 pixels). But for the front camera, the best recording quality is Full HD (1920x1080 pixels, 16:9) at 30 fps. Content is saved in MP4 container files (HEVC/AVC - video, AAC - audio).

The interface and functionality of the Camera application are practically no different from those used, for example, in the model. In particular, there are nine modes at your disposal - “Auto”, “Manual”, “Video”, “Portrait”, “Panorama”, “Focus Change”, “Slow Motion”, “Macro” and “GIF” (up to 6 minutes animation). In the settings, you can also enable HDR mode, as well as decide on the photo size and video quality. When shooting in manual mode, you are asked to choose the parameters of shutter speed, ISO, exposure compensation, saturation, white balance, etc. For “Portrait”, the relevant beauty salon options are “Eyes”, “Tightening”, “Smooth Skin” and “Whitening”. Let us remind you that the “Change Focus” mode allows you to create seven frames with different depths of field and then select the one you need from them.

Focus and exposure can be measured separately. Almost a dozen filters ("Film", "Black and White", "Oxidized", etc.) will help you create the desired effect on your image. To switch from the main to the front camera and back, it is convenient to use vertical swipes. But to release the shutter, it is also suggested to use the volume rocker (both increasing and decreasing).

The monophonic sound of the “multimedia” speaker, the decorative grille of which is located at the bottom end of the case, is quite loud and clear. To drive the diffuser, a separate “third generation” power amplifier, NXP Smart PA Gen, is provided. 3. Hi-Fi sound in the smartphone is provided by a 24-bit digital-to-analog converter (DAC) CS43L36 from Cirrus Logic. Established funds smartphones allow you to listen to audio files, for example, with FLAC extensions, created by codecs for data compression without loss of quality. After connecting the headphones, you are offered to use a 5-band equalizer with presets and manual setting. The device traditionally does not have a built-in FM tuner. The Voice Recorder application makes fairly high-quality monophonic recordings (44.1 kHz), which it saves in MP3 files.

Filling, performance

The new MediaTek Helio X25 (MT7697T) single-chip system debuted simultaneously with the Pro 6. This chip, made in compliance with 20 nm design standards, uses a Tri-Cluster architecture of ten computing cores. MediaTek's addition of a third group of cores has been compared to adding a gear to a car's transmission. Thus, simple tasks are sent to one cluster, while more complex and energy-consuming ones are distributed to two others. In theory, this division should improve optimization of performance and energy savings.

So, all the cores on the MT7697T chip are grouped into one duo of Cortex-A72 with a frequency of up to 2.5 GHz, as well as two quartets of Cortex-A53 with a frequency of 1.4 GHz and 2.0 GHz, respectively. An additional companion core Cortex-M4 (364 MHz) services sensors. For graphics processing, the chip provides a special ARM Mali T880 MP4 (850 MHz) accelerator with four execution units. Other highlights include the WorldMode 4G LTE modem, which provides support for a large number of communication standards. On the eve of the release of Helio X25, the manufacturer announced the addition of support for DTS Headphone: X technology (3D surround sound through headphones) to this chip.

Judging by the published information, in multi-core tests Helio X25 leaves behind such “heavyweights” as HiSilicon (Huawei) Kirin 955, Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 and Samsung Exynos 7420. But the new product copes somewhat worse with tasks designed for one core (without parallelizing operations). The same applies to 3D graphics, where Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 also leads.

Note that the basic hardware of the Pro 6 is complemented by 4 GB of 32-bit RAM (2-channel LPDDR3, 933 MHz). So, high results in benchmarks are due not only to a powerful processor, but also to a large amount of RAM.

This is clear, for example, from a set of synthetic tests AnTuTu Benchmark, where in terms of the number of “virtual parrots” the new product is very close to the psychological mark of 100 thousand.

The position of the Pro 6 looks no less optimistic when assessing the amount of horsepower (single-core test) and the efficiency of using processor cores in the Geekbench 3 and Vellamo benchmarks.

On the Epic Citadel visual test settings (High Performance, High Quality and Ultra High Quality), the average frame rate changed as follows - 58.6 fps, 54.9 fps and 45.2 fps, respectively.

On the universal gaming benchmark 3DMark, the new product was tested on the recommended Sling Shot set (ES 3.1), where a result of 1,057 points was recorded. Of course, no problems were found with games, including “heavy” ones (Dead Trigger 2, Asphalt 8). However, under heavy load, the smartphone body heats up noticeably.

In turn, the total number of points scored by the Pro 6 on the cross-platform benchmark Base Mark OS II was 1,860.

The Pro 6 has 32 GB or 64 GB of internal eMMC 5.1 memory. In the 32 GB model that we received for testing, about 24 GB is available after switching on. Unlike, where a memory card can take the place of a second SIM card in the universal tray, the Pro 6 does not provide such an option. Thanks to the support of USB-OTG technology, it is possible to connect flash drives to the device. However, the lack of a corresponding cable (USB-OTG Type-C) in the kit did not allow us to test this possibility in practice.

Two subscriber identification modules in nanoSIM (4FF) format are connected to one radio module and operate in Dual mode SIM Dual Standby (DSDS), that is, they are constantly active, but if one of them is busy, then at the same moment the other is unavailable. In the settings, you should indicate which nanoSIM card will work with LTE, since only GSM networks will remain for the other. Many will probably take note that the “Phone” application provides recording of voice calls. Both slots support LTE networks Cat. 6 (300/50 Mbit/s) and VoLTE technology, which is gradually beginning to be implemented by domestic telecom operators. Of the “Russian troika”, only two are available frequency range FDD-LTE - b3 (1800 MHz) and b7 (2600 MHz). At the same time, the lowest frequency is still missing - b20 (800 MHz), which provides better communication, for example, indoors.

In addition, the Pro 6's wireless communications suite includes a dual-band Wi-Fi module 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 and 5 GHz) and Bluetooth 4.1 (LE). Pay for new design(without wide plastic inserts on the metal back panel) was the disappearance of the NFC interface, which is still pleasing in . By the way, the solution to a similar problem can be seen, for example, in where the NFC antenna area has moved behind the glass of the front panel.

GPS, GLONASS and BDS satellite systems can be used for positioning and navigation. A-GPS mode (coordination over Wi-Fi and cellular networks) is also available.

The “Professional Musician” was equipped with a 2,560 mAh lithium-polymer battery, the capacity of which was 490 mAh less than that of (3,050 mAh). The smartphone comes with the same power adapter UP1220E (5 V/9 V/12 V, 2 A), which supports mCharge 3.0 fast charging technology. Thanks to it, in 10 minutes the battery is filled by approximately 26%, and in an hour - by 100%. Let us remind you that the adapter uses a proprietary USB 3.1 high-speed interface cable, made in the Type-C design. In a sense, fast charging compensates for the device’s not very high battery life.

Thus, the AnTuTu Tester program, having worked with the smartphone’s battery for almost 2.5 hours, estimated the achieved result at 7,599 points. A test set of videos in MP4 and Full HD quality played continuously at full brightness for about 6 hours.

But the combined battery discharge time test, which emulates real tasks - web surfing, video playback, writing text and photo editing, showed a result of 5 hours 3 minutes (backlight level 100%).

In the "Power Management" settings section, depending on the expected load, you can force the smartphone to switch from "Balanced" mode to "Energy Saving" or "Performance". In addition, the Security Center offers not only control over app sleep mode, but also flexible settings to save battery power in Smart, Super, and Custom modes.

Software Features

The Pro 6 smartphone runs on the Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) operating system, the interface of which is hidden under the proprietary Flyme OS 5.2.0.0G shell. Let us remind you that all program shortcuts, folders and widgets in the Flyme launcher are placed directly on the desktop. Swipe down to open the panel quick settings with a brightness adjustment slider, and swiping up (from the bottom edge of the screen) - recently opened applications.

By the way, in this version of the shell you can split the screen to simultaneously display the work of two applications (here this applies to the “Settings” and “Video” programs).

The use of the mTouch 2.1 fingerprint scanner is preceded by a simple procedure for registering papillary patterns from one to five fingers, after which to activate the recognition process you simply need to place the selected finger on the sensor pad. The manufacturer specifies an access speed of 0.2 seconds for this device, and the correct recognition angle is 360 degrees. Using stored fingerprints, you can provide not only screen locking, but also access to files and applications.

The “Special Features” section still contains smartphone control gestures, including those for launching applications, as well as a SmartTouch “ring” (not shown in the screenshot) with adjustable transparency.

One of the “chips” of the Pro 6 was the 3D Press technology, which responds to the applied force on the touch screen by displaying a context menu without opening it. In the settings, you can select a convenient pressing force value - “Strong”, “Normal”, “Soft”. After which, 3D Press can be used in proprietary pre-installed applications, for example, to create a new note, message or contact, start playback on the player, “set” an alarm clock, quick access to Wi-Fi in settings, etc. Developers have access to the 3D Press Kit, which allows them to implement 3D Press support in third-party programs.

Purchase, conclusions

The new “musical” flagship with Hi-Fi sound in headphones will appeal not only to music lovers. The fact is that in the compact metal body of this smartphone there was room for a fairly powerful processor and a large amount of RAM, providing very good performance. Among the undoubted highlights of the Meizu Pro 6 are a ring tone flash, fast charging and a fingerprint scanner. An innovative feature of the new product is 3D Press technology for the Super AMOLED touch screen.

Under “heavy” loads (3D games, shooting 4K video, etc.), the smartphone processor shows its “hot” character, which manifests itself in a noticeable increase in the temperature of the metal case. I was also not pleased with the fact that the lowest-frequency LTE band available in Russia was ignored, and, in addition, the low autonomy of the device. But the price for the disappearance of the wide radio-transparent inserts on the rear panel was the NFC interface. Another unpleasant surprise is the inability to expand the built-in memory microSD cards.

The Meizu Pro 6 model with 64 GB was priced at 35,990 rubles, and with 32 GB - at 32,990 rubles. As for her "classmates", then, at the time of testing, in large retail networks for (32 GB) and Xiaomi Mi 5 (32 GB) they asked for the same 32,990 rubles. Note that it is perhaps difficult for a 5.2-inch plastic “standard” with a Korean accent, both in appearance and in contents, to compete with the Meizu Pro 6, although it, of course, also has its advantages. But Xiaomi Mi 5 is equipped, in particular, with one of the most powerful processors(Qualcomm Snapdragon 820) and a little more capacious battery(3,000 mAh), in addition, it received an NFC interface and even an infrared port. True, Xiaomi Mi 5 is clearly deprived of a good “voice”.

Results of the review of the Meizu Pro 6 smartphone

Pros:

• Compact metal body design
• Good performance
• 3D Press technology
• Ring tone flash
• Hi-Fi sound in headphones
• Fast charging
• Fast fingerprint scanner

Minuses:

• "Hot" nature of the processor
• Low autonomy
• Built-in memory is not expandable with microSD cards
• No NFC interface
• Lack of low-band LTE support

In general, Meizu saved on the hardware (with the exception of the cool 4 GB of RAM), which is why the new flagship actually works less stable than the old one. The results in the benchmarks are encouraging, but we managed to get them on the sixth attempt. Because Pro 6 immediately showed 60 thousand in Antutu and 4700 in Geekbench. You had to wait until the smartphone cooled down completely (and it is usually hot), set the productivity mode in the settings and hope for luck. There were no such hassles with all the other models in the table.

And in terms of speed when heating, it even loses to its predecessor. Anyone who is convinced that the numbers in benchmarks are self-indulgence will not notice the difference, because there is enough power for a Full HD display and current games. But the Helio X25 was and remains an unbalanced processor, the only advantage of which is its modest price for smartphone manufacturers.

Software

The Flyme branded shell is a charismatic thing. In the sense that it leaves no one indifferent. In the case of Chinese revisions, it can ruin the nerves of the smartphone owner with crooked implantation Google services and incomplete Russification, which will have to be carried out by force. Meizu can also be upset by the clumsy update policy of Android itself - the Chinese argue that they first need to update Flyme and “make it beautiful for users,” and compatibility with the latest Google bells and whistles will wait. But for now there is nothing to complain about at all - our smartphone has Android 6.0 and Flyme version 5, and such a tandem will not be outdated for a long time. Among the innovations - pop-up notifications about calls or messages have appeared - it has become more convenient to respond to SMS or calls.

It's time to start getting used to the pace at which Xiaomi and Meizu bring new products to the market. Exactly six months after the announcement, the company introduced PRO 6. Already during the presentation, it became clear that the smartphone turned out to be controversial. A smaller screen, a hardware platform from MediaTek, the absence of an ESS music chip - these points caused confusion, but the information was presented in such a way that all this was done for the benefit of the user. We express our gratitude to the store LstoreMobile for providing us with a smartphone for review!

Packaging and accessories

Meizu PRO 6, like its predecessor, comes in a black box, but now it is made of plastic rather than cardboard. The packaging looks quite impressive.

The smartphone comes with a power adapter, a sync cable, instructions and a paper clip. In some countries, the box with PRO 6 will additionally include a proprietary headset.

Appearance and ergonomics

The design of the PRO 6 is calm, but not boring, and overall the device looks good. In terms of appearance, the smartphone has little in common with older models, but it is still recognizable as Meizu's signature style. Unlike rear end The smartphone is entirely aluminum, there are no plastic inserts, and therefore there are no assembly flaws. The front is covered with 2.5D glass, some Russian-language reviews say that this is Gorilla Glass 3, strange, but not a word is said about this on the official website. quality.

The ratio of body dimensions to screen diagonal of the PRO 6 is average, but thanks to its successful shape and proportions the phone is comfortable to use. All holes, connectors and controls are where they need to be. Particularly pleasing is the presence of a mechanical home button, because it is more convenient to wake up the device. The mTouch 2.1 fingerprint sensor is built into the home button, exactly the same as in the previous model, it works perfectly.

Another control element has appeared in Meizu PRO 6; the phone screen can determine the pressure applied, the function is called 3D Press. The name and operating principle are completely copied from Apple's 3D Touch. On desktops, pressing hard on the icon of an application that supports this API opens context menu, which allows you to either select the desired section before starting this application, or activate the desired function. In the applications themselves, pressing harder usually causes previews of links or menu items.

Screen

Compared to Meizu PRO 5, the screen diagonal in the new product has been reduced from 5.7 to 5.2 inches. Such a decision against the backdrop of recent trends looks strange, but understandable if we assume that Meizu wants to compete with, and the version of the smartphone with big screen release a little later. The matrix is ​​a SuperAMOLED panel with FullHD resolution and subpixels arranged according to the Pentile scheme.

To the delight of users who cannot stand oversaturated colors, the ability to select color profile close to sRGB. At working viewing angles, the screen can produce a decent picture quality; subjectively, the white balance is shifted to the cold side. The maximum brightness is stated at 450 cd/m2, but the anti-glare filter on the screen is not very effective; outdoors in sunny weather the picture is difficult to read and is almost invisible when the phone is slightly tilted.

Hardware platform and performance

Another strange decision was the abandonment of the Exynos hardware platform in favor of a solution from MediaTek. The system-on-chip is a ten-core monster made using 20nm technology, it includes: a Mali-T880 graphics accelerator, two Cortex-A72 cores operating at frequencies up to 2.5 GHz, four Cortex-A53 cores operating at frequencies up to 2 GHz and four more Cortex-A53 cores operating at frequencies up to 1.4 GHz. RAM type LPDDR3 in both modifications is 4 GB, permanent memory type eMMC 5.1 can be 32 GB or 64 GB, there is no slot for a memory card.

In synthetic tests, PRO 6 showed confident but far from record results: for AnTuTu v6 it was 98,119 points, for the Geekbench 3 singlecore test - 1,947 points. The practical performance of the smartphone is excellent, yes, in terms of hardware, PRO 6 is not the best, but this cannot be understood in everyday use. The interface literally flies; the vast majority of games at maximum graphics settings produce a comfortable FPS value.

Cellular communications and interfaces

Battery and autonomy

Meizu, probably to reduce the thickness of the case, reduced the battery capacity to 2560 mAh. mCharge 3.0 technology allows you to charge a smartphone battery from 0% to 100% in just an hour, in fact this is a new record among mass-produced models. Testing confirmed the stated time, complete charger With a power of 24 W, PRO 6 charges from 0% to 100% in just 64 minutes (from 0% to 75% in 35 minutes).

But when it comes to operating time, the picture is not so rosy. It is claimed that the energy-efficient system-on-chip and AMOLED screen made it possible to maintain battery life at the same level compared to the previous model. This is not so; testing in typical operating conditions showed the following results:

Note. Testing is carried out in the appropriate modes according to the following method: – listening to music on headphones at maximum volume with the screen turned off; – viewing 1080p video from the device memory at 50% backlight brightness and maximum sound volume in headphones; – active browsing (constantly opening new tabs, actively scrolling pages, etc.) via Wi-Fi at 50% backlight brightness; – 3D games (Real Racing 3) at 50% backlight brightness.

Cameras, photo and video quality

The main camera sensor in Meizu PRO 6 remains the same - it is SONY IMX230. The lens has an F2.2 aperture and an equivalent focal length of 22mm. Autofocus has phase sensors and laser rangefinder. The system camera has a fully manual shooting mode, which adjusts: shutter speed, ISO, focus, exposure compensation, saturation, contrast and white balance.

It is worth mentioning separately LED flash. The fact is that these are 10 diodes arranged in a circle, 5 for each of the two shades. True, the total luminous flux is only slightly greater than that of the two-section flash of the iPhone 6s Plus, and as can be seen from the example given, a larger flash does not provide any advantage. CLICKABLE! On the left are pictures of Meizu PRO 6, on the right -:

In daylight conditions, Meizu PRO 6 allows you to take photos good quality. Sharpness, dynamic range, color rendition and white balance – all these parameters are at a very decent level. CLICKABLE! On the left are pictures of Meizu PRO 6, on the right -:

In HDR mode, the smartphone camera quite strongly compresses the tones and slightly brightens the picture, and the saturation also increases slightly. Unfortunately, in a large percentage of photographs, sharpness drops across the entire field of the frame. CLICKABLE! On the left are HDR pictures with Meizu PRO 6, on the right - HDR with Apple iPhone 6s Plus:

Photos taken in low light conditions are slightly less sharp and detailed, but overall camera PRO 6 copes well with such conditions. CLICKABLE! On the left are pictures of Meizu PRO 6, on the right - Apple iPhone 6s Plus:

The panoramic shooting mode in PRO 6 is not present for show, the photo resolution is more than 33 megapixels, there are no gluing artifacts, and the image is most often correctly exposed. But the shooting process itself is difficult, no matter how slowly you move, the application will still complain about moving too fast, the time to save a photo is usually more than ten seconds. CLICKABLE! Top panorama of Meizu PRO 6, bottom - Apple iPhone 6s Plus:

The 5 MP front camera is covered by a five-component lens with an F2.0 aperture and an equivalent focal length of 28 mm, and can capture video in 1080p resolution. CLICKABLE!

The smartphone records video with a maximum resolution of 3840*2160 pixels at 30 fps, and the sound is (finally) stereo. It has already become a “good” tradition that YouTube and the video editor refuse to accept 4K videos shot on Meizu. There is a recording mode in 1080p and 720p resolution, also at 30 fps. There is a quadruple slow motion mode in HD resolution at 30 fps and without sound.

Sound quality

By tradition, the only ringing speaker is located on the bottom end; it produces a loud and balanced sound, everything is fine with that. One of the main advantages of previous PRO series models was the presence of a DAC from Saber and quality amplifier for headphones. In PRO 6, the widely promoted ESS was replaced with the “modest” Cirrus Logic CS43L36, which did not in any way affect the musical capabilities of the smartphone.

The sound in the headphones is excellent, the tonal balance is even, and there is a good margin in resolution. As a solution for an advanced music lover (not an audiophile), Meizu PRO 6 can be called one of the best smartphones on the market. The system player has an equalizer, but no FM radio.

Operating system features

At the time of writing the review, the smartphone out of the box runs on the Flyme OS 5.2 operating system, which is based on Marshmallow. There is a separate section dedicated to this operating system on our website, so as not to duplicate information, in this review I will limit myself to a brief description.

Flyme OS 5 represents an evolutionary development of the ideas inherent in previous versions of the shell. The developers have refreshed the interface of all system applications, reworked system settings and a multitasking window, the latter now reminiscent of the standard Android one. It is worth noting the Security Center, which is a set of utilities for maintaining digital hygiene. Here you can clear disk space of garbage, scan the system for viruses, limit application rights and flexibly manage energy saving and Internet traffic.

Meizu's next flagship turned out to be quite strange, there are too many compromises, PRO 6 can jokingly be called a teaser for an as yet unannounced model, which should be better in all respects. The smartphone has a frankly non-flagship chipset, a screen that fades in the sun, and poor battery life by today’s standards. The advantages of the new product include excellent sound in headphones, a good camera, and fast and smooth operation of the OS. But in the end, Meizu PRO 6 can hardly be called the ultimate smartphone; it’s difficult to call it a device that reflects everything that the company is capable of today.

Deca-core smartphone with 3D Press screen technology

Less than six months have passed since Meizu released its “music flagship” (as it calls it) Pro 5, and last spring its successor called Meizu Pro 6 was announced in China. Thus, the line of premium devices manufacturer, which began with the name MX Pro, has now finally turned into simply “Pro”, and the “MX” prefix remained assigned to the flagship line, now headed by the Meizu MX 5. Representatives of both families can rightfully be described as devices of the highest category, and so that To separate them at least thematically, the marketers conceived this move: to position the Pro line as a separate “musical” line. Moreover, even the MX 4 model at one time had a dedicated DAC for headphones and a sound chip for the main speaker, so the separation is artificial. In any case, the hero of today’s review can boast of not only an advanced sound system, but also much more, read about all this in our detailed Meizu review Pro 6.

Main characteristics of Meizu Pro 6 (Model M570N)

• SoC MediaTek MT6797T (Helio X25), 10 cores: 4 x 1.4 GHz + 4 x 2.0 GHz (ARM Cortex-A53) + 2 x 2.5 GHz (ARM Cortex-A72)
• GPU ARM Mali-T880
• operating room Android system 6.0
• Super AMOLED 5.2″ touch display with 3D Press technology (with touch force response), 1920×1080, 424 ppi
• Random access memory (RAM) 4 GB LPDDR3 933 MHz
• Inner memory 32/64 GB eMMC 5.1
• SIM cards: Nano-SIM (2 pcs.)
• Map support microSD memory absent
• GSM networks 900/1800/1900 MHz
• WCDMA networks 900/2100 MHz, TD-SCDMA
• LTE networks FDD Band 1/3/7, TD-LTE
• Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi Direct
• Bluetooth 4.1 BLE
• Micro-USB 3.1 Type C, OTG
• GPS/A-GPS, Glonass
• Direction, proximity, lighting sensors, accelerometer, gyroscope, barometer, magnetic compass, fingerprint scanner
• Camera 21 MP, f/2.2, autofocus, LED flash
• Front camera 5 MP, f/2.0
• Battery 2560 mAh
• Fast charging mCharge 3.0
• Hi-Fi audio DAC Cirrus Logic CS43L36
• Smart PA NXP Gen 3 chip responsible for sound from the main speaker
• Dimensions 148×71×7.3 mm
• Weight 160 g

Appearance and ease of use

Unlike Xiaomi, which in the case of the new Mi 5 went by copying the design from Samsung, Meizu remains faithful to the course it once took towards Apple, and even now their latest creation is very reminiscent iPhone latest generations. The body of Meizu Pro 6 is completely made of metal and has rounded edges and corners that are streamlined on all sides, reminiscent of smooth pebbles turned on all sides.

The production uses materials for injection molding of the body with a metal share of 98%, and all this is finished and polished using 3D sandblasting. Unlike its predecessor Pro 5, there are no plastic inserts on the ends. The body is solid, made in the form of a single trough, the ends are also made of metal, and for the antennas the usual grooves are cut out from the outside, covered with plastic. The grooves, by the way, have an unusual shape with smooth curves, which looks fresh.

The quality of materials and assembly does not raise the slightest complaints; Meizu products in this regard are no worse than the most recognized A-class brands, and in some ways, perhaps even better. At least the matte metal surfaces here are less slippery than those of the iPhone 6, although they look very similar. The coating is not easily soiled, the smartphone always looks neat and does not collect a large number of fingerprints.

As for the weight, it is, of course, larger than that of the lightweight colleague Xiaomi Mi 5, but the difference of 30 grams is unlikely to be a serious argument for anyone when choosing a smartphone.

The front panel, like its predecessor, is covered with 2.5D glass with slightly sloping edges, making the sides almost completely rounded. In older Meizu models, the smooth curve of the body ended abruptly at the junction with the flat front glass.

Among the elements at the top of the front panel there was an unexpected LED notification indicator, which is good news. Below the screen, Meizu never has three touch control buttons, only one. In this case, the mTouch 2.1 mechanical key is equipped with a built-in and fairly fast fingerprint scanner.

As before, by touching this button you can perform the “back” action, a short press to return to the main screen, and a long press to turn off the device display. Using a fingerprint scanner, you can block access not only to the device itself, but also to any of the applications in it, including third-party ones you installed yourself.

The side mechanical keys are located on the right side in the usual order, the buttons are large, noticeably protrude beyond the body, and have an elastic movement - in general, the buttons on Meizu smartphones are always in perfect order.

There is a camera with flash on the back side of the body. The camera module protrudes slightly beyond the surface, but this does not interfere with the control of the device lying on the table; the smartphone does not sway.

The flash is very unusual: for the first time, a special design of 10 LEDs of different colors, arranged in a circle, was used here. Needless to say, this flash is the brightest ever seen in a smartphone? It is simply impossible to look at it directly from within one room, and it completely illuminates the room better than any other lantern.

Cards are inserted into one single side slot. It is here, like the Xiaomi Mi 5, not hybrid, that is, installing a memory card is not allowed; only two Nano-SIM cards can be installed in it. The slots are equivalent in their capabilities, and hot-swappable cards are supported.

The speaker is located at the bottom end, there is only one grille covering it, on the other side of the central Micro-USB type C connector there is a conversational microphone and a headphone jack. Thus, Meizu exactly repeats the arrangement of elements in the iPhone 6, in which they are also assembled at the bottom end, and there is nothing at the top.

There are no plugs on the connectors, and there are no strap mounts on the case either. The device did not receive protection from moisture and dust. As for the colors of the case, here the manufacturer followed a familiar path, offering the buyer a choice of dark gray, light silver and golden options.

Screen

The smartphone is equipped touch screen Super AMOLED manufactured by Samsung with convex 2.5D Gorilla Glass 3. The physical dimensions of the display are 65x115 mm, diagonal - 5.2 inches. The screen resolution is standard 1920×1080, the pixel density is 424 ppi. The frame around the screen is thin, about 3 mm on the sides, but even it turns out to be a little wider than that of Xiaomi Mi 5 - and certainly wider than that of the frameless one Sony Xperia XA.

The display brightness is automatically adjusted based on the light sensor. There is also a proximity sensor that blocks the screen when you bring the smartphone to your ear. Multi-touch technology allows you to process 10 simultaneous touches.

A distinctive feature of the Meizu Pro 6 display is support for the new 3D Press technology with response to touch force. With its help, you can, for example, call up the context menu of an application without opening it. The 3D Press Kit is already available to developers, which will allow them to implement support for 3D Press functions in third-party applications.

A detailed examination using measuring instruments was carried out by the editor of the “Monitors” and “Projectors and TV” sections, Alexey Kudryavtsev. Here is his expert opinion on the screen of the sample under study.

The front surface of the screen is made in the form of a glass plate with a mirror-smooth surface that is scratch-resistant. Judging by the reflection of objects, the anti-glare properties of the screen are better than those of the Google Nexus 7 (2013) screen (below, simply Nexus 7). For clarity, here is a photo in which a white surface is reflected in the switched off screens (on the left - Nexus 7, on the right - Meizu Pro 6, then they can be distinguished by size):

The screen of Meizu Pro 6 is slightly darker (brightness according to photographs is 112 versus 114 for Nexus 7). Note that the reflection from bright objects in the Meizu Pro 6 screen has a pale bluish-greenish halo that is slightly more pronounced in the transverse direction. The ghosting of reflected objects in the Meizu Pro 6 screen is very weak, this indicates that there is no air gap between the layers of the screen (OGS - One Glass Solution type screen). Due to the smaller number of boundaries (glass/air type) with very different refractive indices, such screens look better in conditions of strong external illumination, but their repair in the case of cracked external glass is much more expensive, since the entire screen has to be replaced. The outer surface of the screen has a special oleophobic (grease-repellent) coating (very effective, noticeably better than that of the Nexus 7), so fingerprints are removed much easier and appear at a lower speed than with regular glass.

With manual brightness control and when the white field was displayed in full screen, the maximum brightness value was approximately 340 cd/m², the minimum was 3.3 cd/m². The maximum brightness is not very high, but you need to take into account the excellent anti-glare properties of the screen and the fact that in the auto-brightness mode the brightness can be higher (see below). As a result, readability during the day in the sun is at a fairly good level. The reduced brightness level allows you to use the device even in complete darkness without any problems. Eat automatic adjustment brightness by the light sensor (it is located to the right of the front speaker slot). IN automatic mode When external lighting conditions change, the screen brightness both increases and decreases. The operation of this function depends on the position of the brightness adjustment slider. If it is 100%, then in complete darkness the automatic brightness adjustment function reduces the brightness to 47 cd/m² (suitable), in an artificially lit office (about 400 lux) it sets it to 150 cd/m² (normal), in a very bright environment (corresponds to lighting on a clear day outdoors, but without direct sunlight - 20,000 lux or a little more) increases to a maximum - up to 350 cd/m² (slightly more than with manual adjustment), and if you increase the brightness of the ambient light (in the area of ​​the light sensor ) somewhere up to hundreds of thousands of lux (corresponding to direct sunlight), then the screen brightness increases a little more - up to 44 cd/m². Brightness slider at 50% - the values ​​are as follows: 4.3, 84, 350 and 440 cd/m² (in complete darkness it is a little dark, the rest is normal), at 0% - 3.3, 9.3, 350 and 440 cd/m² (the logic can be traced). In general, the automatic brightness adjustment function works more or less adequately and allows the user to to some extent adjust their work to individual requirements.

Only at low brightness levels is there significant modulation at 240 Hz. The figure below shows the dependence of brightness (vertical axis) on time (horizontal axis) for several brightness values:

It can be seen that at maximum and average brightness the modulation amplitude is minimal, its frequency is approximately 60 Hz (screen refresh rate), so there is no visible flicker. However, with a strong decrease in brightness, modulation appears with a large relative amplitude. Therefore, at low brightness, the presence of modulation can already be seen in the test for the presence of a stroboscopic effect or simply when fast movement eye. Depending on individual sensitivity, this flickering may cause increased fatigue.

This screen uses an AMOLED matrix - active matrix organic light-emitting diodes. A full-color image is created using subpixels of three colors - red (R), green (G) and blue (B), but there are twice as many green subpixels, which can be referred to as RGBG. This is confirmed by a fragment of a microphotograph:

For comparison, you can see the gallery of microphotographs of screens used in mobile technology.

In the fragment above you can count 4 green subpixels, 2 red (4 halves) and 2 blue (1 whole and 4 quarters), and by repeating these fragments, you can lay out the entire screen without breaks or overlap. For such matrices, Samsung introduced the name PenTile RGBG. The manufacturer calculates the screen resolution based on the green subpixels; based on the other two, it will be two times lower. The location and shape of the subpixels in this version is similar to that in the case of the screen of the Samsung Galaxy S4 and some other newer ones Samsung devices(and not only) with AMOLED screens. This version of PenTile RGBG is better than the old one with red squares, blue rectangles and stripes of green subpixels. However, some unevenness of contrast borders and other artifacts are still present. However, due to high resolution they have only a minimal impact on image quality.

The screen is characterized by excellent viewing angles, although the white color, when deviated even at small angles, acquires a slight blue-green tint, and at some angles turns a little pink, but the black color remains just black at any angle. It is so black that the contrast setting is simply not applicable in this case. When viewed perpendicularly, the uniformity of the white field is good. For comparison, here are photographs in which the same images are displayed on the screens of Meizu Pro 6 and the second comparison participant, while the brightness of the screens is initially set to approximately 200 cd/m², and the color balance on the camera is forcibly switched to 6500 K. There is a white field perpendicular to the screens:

Note the good uniformity of brightness and color tone of the white field. And a test picture (profile Standard):

According to visual assessment, the color rendering of the tested screen is good, the colors are moderately saturated, the color balance of the screens varies slightly. Recall that photography can not serve as a reliable source of information about color rendering quality and are provided for illustrative purposes only. In this case, apparently due to the peculiarities of the emission spectrum of the AMOLED screen, the color balance in the photograph is noticeably different from what is visible to the eye and determined by a spectrophotometer. The photo above was taken after selecting a profile Standard in the screen settings, there are four of them:

Default:

The colors are oversaturated and unnatural, but the color contrast is not excessive.

Photo mode:

The colors are also oversaturated and unnatural, and for some reason the color contrast is now too high.

Full color mode:

The apotheosis of the “improvement” process - colors are oversaturated, unnatural, color contrast is skyrocketed.

Now at an angle of approximately 45 degrees to the plane and to the side of the screen (let’s leave the profile Default).

It can be seen that the colors have not changed much on both screens and the brightness of the Meizu Pro 6 at an angle is noticeably higher. And a white field:

The brightness at an angle for both screens has noticeably decreased (to avoid strong darkening, the shutter speed has been increased compared to the previous two photographs), but in the case of Meizu Pro 6 the drop in brightness is much less pronounced. As a result, with formally the same brightness Meizu screen The Pro 6 looks much brighter visually (compared to LCD screens), since the screen of a mobile device often has to be viewed from at least a slight angle.

Switching the state of the matrix elements is performed almost instantly, but at the turn-on (and less often off) edge there may be a step with a width of approximately 17 ms (which corresponds to the screen refresh rate). For example, this is what the dependence of brightness on time looks like when moving from black to white and back:

In some conditions, the presence of such a step can lead to plumes trailing moving objects, but in normal use these artifacts are difficult to see. Quite the contrary - dynamic scenes in films on OLED screens are distinguished by high clarity and even some “jerky” movements.

The gamma curve, constructed using 32 points with equal intervals based on the numerical value of the shade of gray, did not reveal a blockage either in the shadows or in the highlights. The index of the approximating power function is 2.27, which is slightly higher than the standard value of 2.2, while the real gamma curve almost does not deviate from the power dependence:

Color gamut in the case of a profile Default very wide:

When selecting a profile Photo mode coverage is adjusted to Adobe RGB boundaries:

When selecting a profile Standard the coverage is already compressed to the sRGB boundaries:

Without correction (profile Default) the spectra of the components (that is, the spectra of pure red, green and blue colors) are very well separated:

In case of profile Standard with maximum correction, the color components are already noticeably mixed with each other:

Note that on screens with a wide color gamut, without appropriate correction, the colors of regular images optimized for sRGB devices appear unnaturally saturated. Hence the recommendation - in most cases, watching movies, photographs and everything natural is better when choosing a profile Standard, and only if the photo was taken on Adobe installation RGB, it makes sense to switch the profile to Photo mode. It is better to forget about the existence of other profiles and never switch to them.

The grayscale balance is good. Color temperature is only slightly above the standard 6500K, and blackbody deviation (ΔE) remains below 3 units across most of the gray scale, which is considered excellent for a consumer device. Wherein Colorful temperature and ΔE change little from hue to hue (except for the darkest) - this has a positive effect on the visual assessment of color balance:

(The darkest areas of the gray scale can in most cases be ignored, since color balance there is not very important, and the error in measuring color characteristics at low brightness is large.)

This device has the ability to adjust the color balance by adjusting the tint warmer or cooler.

The curves in the graphs above Without corr. correspond to the results without any color balance correction, and the curves Corr.— data obtained after shifting the point to the position indicated in the image above. It can be seen that the change in balance corresponds to the expected result, since the color temperature approached the standard value and ΔE increased slightly. However, it doesn’t make much sense to make the correction. Note that this function implemented in this version rather for show, since there is no numerical reflection of the correction and there is no field for measuring color balance.

Let's summarize. The screen has a fairly high maximum brightness and has excellent anti-glare properties, so the device can be used outdoors without any problems, even on a sunny summer day. In complete darkness, the brightness can be reduced to a comfortable value. It is permissible to use a mode with automatic brightness adjustment, which works quite adequately. The advantages of the screen include an effective oleophobic coating, good color balance and close to sRGB color gamut(in case of profile Standard). At the same time, let us recall the general advantages of OLED screens: true black color (if nothing is reflected in the screen), good uniformity of the white field, noticeably less than that of LCDs, and a drop in image brightness when viewed at an angle. The disadvantages include screen flickering, which appears at low brightness. For users who are particularly sensitive to flicker, this may cause increased fatigue. However, overall the screen quality is high.

Sound

Meizu Pro 6 sounds no worse than its predecessor Pro 5. It also has a built-in Hi-Fi DAC (Cirrus Logic CS43L36) for headphones and a special chip (Smart PA NXP Gen 3), which is responsible for high-quality sound from the main speaker. The device sounds at the level of modern music flagships, here Xiaomi Mi 5 is definitely not a competitor to it, and many other modern top models too. The sound is rich, bright, bassy, ​​the range of frequencies represented is wide, and there is enough volume reserve. The sound quality in headphones is just as good. Here, however, it is no longer possible to choose from several different profiles of the Dirac HD Sound system for different models headphones, the only settings left are an equalizer with preset values. Regular calls can also be processed by the DAC, VoLTE is supported. The developers claim that the power consumption of the Hi-Fi module has been reduced by 75% compared to the previous generation module.

There are no complaints about the conversational speaker and microphone, extraneous noise practically not observed, the noise reduction system with an additional microphone located on the upper end of the device copes with its tasks adequately. The microphones are quite sensitive - perhaps even too sensitive, but even quiet speech can be recorded on a voice recorder. It is possible to record telephone conversations off the line. There is no FM radio in the smartphone.

Camera

Meizu Pro 6 is equipped with two digital camera modules with a resolution of 21 and 5 megapixels. The front camera is equipped with a 5-megapixel sensor and a relatively wide-angle lens with five lenses and an f/2.0 aperture without autofocus and its own flash. The quality of the resulting images is better than that of the Xiaomi Mi 5, the colors are more saturated, the sharpness and detail are normal.

The main camera features a 21-megapixel Sony IMX230 sensor with a six-element lens, f/2.2 aperture and fast phase detection autofocus (PDAF). The developers have increased the distance and speed of laser focusing. The ring flash is extremely bright; It is clear that in low light conditions it can provide good support when shooting.

The camera control interface has changed slightly compared to previous models. In general, it is very similar to the old one, but now it is possible to more clearly select the size and resolution of pictures and videos. Now this is a whole list of several options to choose from, but before you could only move a couple of horizontal sliders. However, the sliders usually did not cause any problems, since it made sense to move them to the maximum right once and not touch them again.

The rest of the settings menu has not changed: it is possible to manually set ISO (maximum sensitivity - ISO 1600), shutter speed, exposure compensation, saturation, contrast and white balance; available additional modes— portrait, panoramic, macro photography. Third party applications control of these settings via the Camera2 API is not available, and there is no way to save images in RAW.

The camera can shoot video with a resolution of up to 3840×2160 (4K UHD), and there is the possibility of slow-motion slo-mo recording. There's no mention of stabilization for video shooting, and there's a noticeable lack of smoothness when shooting on the move. Apart from this, the camera copes quite well with shooting at maximum resolution. The image is bright, saturated, detailed, sharpness is normal, autofocus is adjusted quickly, no artifacts were noticed. The sound is recorded well, but the microphones, according to the subjective feeling, are too sensitive.

• Video No. 1 (76 MB, 3840×2160 @30 fps)
• Video No. 2 (88 MB, 3840×2160 @30 fps)

	As the shot is removed, the sharpness drops slowly and smoothly.
	Good sharpness across the frame.
	The camera works well with shadows.
	The foliage in the background has not yet completely merged.
	Noise in light shadows is barely noticeable.
	Nice work in the shadows.
	Sharping is clearly visible on the wires.
	The license plates of nearby cars are distinguishable.
	The camera copes with macro photography.
	The text was worked out well, adjusted for the long exposure.

Meizu Pro 6	Apple iPhone 6 Plus

The camera turned out to be good. The module copes with its tasks at an above average level, the program works moderately. If it were not for minor shortcomings in the program and the low resolution for such a sensor, the camera could be considered good. However, she still does well in a variety of scenarios. Separately worth noting good mode HDR with wide range, no obvious transitions and virtually no ghosting.

Auto mode	HDR mode

Telephone and communications

Both SIM card slots support LTE Cat.6 networks with a maximum speed of up to 300 Mbit/s, as well as VoLTE technology, which is gradually being introduced and Russian operators communications. The smartphone can operate as standard in most 2G GSM and 3G WCDMA network bands, and also has support for fourth generation LTE FDD and TDD networks. As before, the top Meizu smartphone has support for only two of the three most common bands among domestic operators (B3 and B7), but the frequency of 800 MHz (B20), better than others, meets the requirements for communication indoors, as well as in sparsely populated areas, this the device does not support. That is, for some residents of regions outside large settlements this could be a bit of a problem. In the Moscow region, in practice, with a SIM card from the MTS operator, the device was confidently registered and worked in 4G networks. The quality of signal reception does not cause any particular complaints; the device confidently maintains communication indoors and does not lose the signal in areas of poor reception.

The device also has support for Bluetooth 4.1, two Wi-Fi range(2.4 and 5 GHz) MU-MIMO, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi Display, you can organize a wireless access point via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth channels. NFC module Meizu smartphones, as before, do not.

USB Type C connector supports connection external devices V USB mode OTG. From USB port 3.0 desktop PC, a 4 GB file is transferred to a smartphone via cable within 53 seconds (about 75 MB/s). At this point it is worth noting that Xiaomi Mi 5 does the same in 135 seconds (about 30 MB/s).

The phone application supports Smart Dial, that is, while dialing telephone number A search is also carried out immediately using the first letters in contacts. There is also support for continuous input such as Swype. The device comes pre-installed with an alternative keyboard from a third-party developer, TouchPal, with a wide range of settings and capabilities. For the convenience of working with a large screen with one hand, the Smart Touch function is standard for Meizu smartphones, which allows you to move the entire working screen halfway down, closer to your fingers.

A SIM card in any slot can work with 4G networks, but only one of the cards can function in this mode at a time. To change the assignment of slots, cards do not need to be swapped - this can be done directly from the phone menu. Work with two SIM cards is organized according to the usual Dual SIM Dual Standby standard, when both cards can be in active standby mode, but cannot work at the same time - there is only one radio module.

OS and software

As software platform Meizu Pro 6 uses OS Android versions 6.0 with proprietary Flyme OS shell. In this case, the new, fifth version of the Flyme 5.2.0.0G user interface is used, where G stands for Global, that is, the international version.

With the transition from the fourth to the fifth generation, the shell, I must say, has undergone quite significant changes for the better. Many complained that the interface was too focused on gestures; not everyone liked this kind of control, and the developers met the users halfway. Inconvenient recent menu bar open applications has been completely redesigned, and now it looks the same as in the original Android OS, in the form of a carousel going into perspective. In addition, a useful feature has been added to quickly clear memory from all applications in this menu at once. The notification shade has also changed. There is still no separate program menu, but the icons themselves installed applications became smaller in size, so more of them began to fit on desktops.

Useful settings and utilities have also arrived: for personalization you can choose free themes that are added every week, for security there are a lot of additional settings(you can clear memory, grant permissions to applications, turn on a spam blocker and antivirus), power management and energy saving have received visual graphs, and much more. The User Center utility is in beta testing, it is unstable, but later it will be possible to obtain root rights using it. In general, the shell has become more thoughtful and detailed, while remaining outwardly laconic and stylish, which is important for users who are accustomed to it.

Performance

The Meizu Pro 6 hardware platform is based on the latest and most powerful MediaTek mobile platform currently on the market - the 10-core Helio X25 SoC. The newest chip is currently exclusively installed only in Meizu Pro 6. This is a 64-bit processor with 4 Cortex A53 cores operating at 1.4 GHz, 4 more Cortex A53 cores active at 2.0 GHz, and 2 more Cortex A72 cores operate at a frequency of 2.5 GHz. The ARM Mali T880 graphics chip and 4 GB of fast LPDDR3 933 MHz memory are also responsible for the device’s performance. The built-in high-speed eMMC 5.1 flash memory is 32 GB or 64 GB. It supports connecting third-party flash drives to the Micro-USB port in USB OTG mode.

Based on the testing results, it can be noted that the Helio X25 SoC generally competes well in complex tests, and in specialized browser tests it even outperforms the leading ones in some places. this moment platforms Samsung Exynos 8890 Octa, installed in the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, and Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 (in the case of its younger modification in the Xiaomi Mi 5). However, in terms of graphics, the video accelerator is inferior to the leaders, and this is noticeable in all graphics tests without exception. In general, this is expected, and it has always been this way: the graphics in MediaTek platforms and in previous generations have always been inferior to competitors from Qualcomm and Samsung.

However, if we are not talking about comparison with the leaders, but about gaming use, then modern demanding games run here at maximum settings. World of Tanks can be played comfortably at 60 fps; other games also show no lag. The platform is new, and it clearly has performance headroom for future updates.

Testing in the latest versions of comprehensive tests AnTuTu and GeekBench 3:

For convenience, we have compiled all the results we obtained when testing the smartphone in the latest versions of popular benchmarks into tables. The table usually adds several other devices from different segments, also tested on similar latest versions of benchmarks (this is done only for a visual assessment of the obtained dry figures). Unfortunately, within the framework of one comparison it is impossible to present the results from different versions benchmarks, so many worthy and relevant models remain “behind the scenes” - due to the fact that they once passed the “obstacle course” on previous versions of test programs.

Testing the graphics subsystem in gaming tests 3DMark, GFXBenchmark and Bonsai Benchmark:

When testing in 3DMark, the most powerful smartphones now have the ability to run the application in Unlimited mode, where the rendering resolution is fixed at 720p and VSync is disabled (which can cause the speed to rise above 60 fps).

Browser cross-platform tests:

As for benchmarks for assessing the speed of the javascript engine, you should always make allowance for the fact that their results significantly depend on the browser in which they are launched, so the comparison can only be truly correct on the same OS and browsers, and this is possible during testing not always. For Android OS, we always try to use Google Chrome.

Thermal photographs

Below is a thermal image of the back surface (the lighter the temperature, the higher the temperature), obtained after 10 minutes of running the battery test in the GFXBenchmark program:

It can be seen that the heating is slightly higher at the top of the device, which apparently corresponds to the location of the SoC chip. According to the heat camera, the maximum heating was 40 degrees, which is the average heating in this test for modern smartphones.

Playing video

To test the omnivorous nature of video playback (including support for various codecs, containers and special features, such as subtitles), we used the most common formats, which make up the bulk of the content available on the Internet. Note that for mobile devices It is important to have support for hardware video decoding at the chip level, since it is most often impossible to process modern options using processor cores alone. Also, you shouldn’t expect a mobile device to decode everything, since the leadership in flexibility belongs to the PC, and no one is going to challenge it. All results are summarized in a single table.

According to the testing results, the subject, fortunately, was equipped with all the necessary decoders that are needed to fully play most of the most common multimedia files on the network. To successfully play them, you don’t even have to resort to the help of a third-party player. But even MX Player plays the AC3 audio format independently without the need to manually deliver codecs.

Further testing of video playback was performed Alexey Kudryavtsev.

Hypothetical support MHL adapters or SlimPort (Mobility DisplayPort) we could not test due to the lack of an adapter option that connects to the USB Type C port. Therefore, we had to limit ourselves to testing the output of video files on the screen of the device itself. To do this, we used a set of test files with an arrow and a rectangle moving one division per frame (see “Method for testing video playback and display devices. Version 1 (for mobile devices)”). Screenshots with a shutter speed of 1 s helped determine the nature of the output of frames of video files with various parameters: the resolution varied (1280 by 720 (720p) and 1920 by 1080 (1080p) pixels) and frame rate (24, 25, 30, 50 and 60 frames/ With). In the tests we used the MX Player video player in the “Hardware” mode. The test results are summarized in the table:

Red marks indicate possible problems related to the playback of the corresponding files.

According to the criterion of frame output, the quality of playback of video files on the screen of the smartphone itself is very good, since frames (or groups of frames) can (but are not required) be output with more or less uniform alternation of intervals and without skipping frames. When playing video files with a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels (1080p) on a smartphone screen, the image of the video file itself is displayed exactly along the border of the screen, one to one in pixels, that is, conditionally in the original resolution. On the test worlds, the features of PenTile appear - the vertical world through the pixel looks like a grid, while the horizontal world with stripes through the pixel has a typical greenish tint. The brightness range displayed on the screen corresponds to standard range 16—235—all gradations of shades are displayed in shadows and highlights.

Battery life

The capacity of the non-removable battery installed in Meizu Pro 6 is 2560 mAh. This is not a record, but quite a decent figure, although most competitors have already approached the 3000 mAh mark. In contrast to the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 installed in the Xiaomi Mi 5, our hero’s 10-core MTK processor did not demonstrate energy efficiency - on the contrary, it showed quite high wastefulness. This, in general, was typical of all MediaTek platforms, especially the top ones, but you always want to believe that in new products the situation will change for the better. Unfortunately, compared to its colleagues, modern flagships, the hero of today’s review looks rather pale, especially when it comes to energy consumption when running demanding games.

Testing, as usual, was carried out without using any energy-saving modes, although, of course, the device has them.

Continuous reading in the Moon+ Reader program (with a standard, light theme, with auto-scrolling) at a minimum comfortable brightness level (brightness was set to 100 cd/m²) lasted a little over 14.5 hours until completely discharged. When continuously watching videos from YouTube in high quality (720p) with the same brightness level through the home Wi-Fi network The device did not even last up to 10 hours, which in itself is not bad, but compared to its competitors the result is not the best. In 3D gaming mode, the smartphone operates for a little more than 3 hours, which is very little for a modern top-end device.

The smartphone supports mCharge 3.0 fast charging technology. Comes with network adapter with variable voltage (5/9/12 V, 2 A). The charging speed is amazing: from its own charger, the smartphone is fully charged within just one hour with a current of 1.85 A at a voltage of 9 V.

Bottom line

The Meizu company has long been officially represented in Russia, has service centers and support. Meizu Pro 6 price for Russian market determined, the smartphone is available in retail: it is offered at prices ranging from 33 thousand rubles for a version with 32 GB of flash memory to 36 thousand for a modification with 64 GB of internal memory. The closest competitor, the Xiaomi Mi 5, costs exactly the same, 33 thousand rubles, and is generally quite similar in capabilities (and both models can be purchased much cheaper if you don’t care about the official supply chain). So everyone makes the choice for themselves, and as for the hero of today’s review, we can say that the device turned out to be worthy. Meizu Pro 6 is excellent sound system, a high-quality screen, a powerful, fresh MediaTek platform and, of course, a very attractive appearance and a practical, stylish body. Of the obvious disadvantages, we can only note that the Meizu smartphone is inferior to the new Xiaomi product and many other competitors in terms of autonomy. True, most competitors are either more expensive or do not look so impressive in terms of characteristics, and perhaps the most interesting rival for Meizu Pro 6 today is Xiaomi Mi 5.