Can the Meizu Pro 6 Take on the iPhone? [Review]

Meizu isn’t a brand many will immediately be familiar with, but since their launch in South Africa in December last year, it’s a name that’s soon to become synonymous with specs and affordability.

Going up against the iPhone 7 is a difficult thing to do, but Meizu is doing it unashamedly with its flagship device, the Pro 6 – which undoubtedly takes inspiration from its Apple.

Priced at R7,999, the Meizu Pro 6 is a fair-bit cheaper than the big-name players in the market, but falls alongside the likes of the Xiaomi Mi 5, offering a robust smartphone that produces the specs and grunt you need, without all of the unnecessary trimmings.

And speaking of grunt, the Pro 6 is touted as the world’s first 10-core smartphone, and in practice, it delivers. The Pro 6 features a Helio X25 processor under the hood, along with 4GB of RAM, a 5.2-inch full HD AMOLED display with 3D Touch, 32GB of internal storage (no microSD support), a USB Type-C charging cable, dual-SIM slots and a 2560mAh battery with fast-charging. This phone is all about productivity and day-t0-day usage, and while the battery isn’t the biggest or most robust on the market, the fast charging capabilities make up for the lack of usage longevity.

That’s not to say the device doesn’t show off a little, though. Along with having a very responsive fingerprint scanner, the Meizu Pro 6 runs on a custom-built Android variant called Flyme, which is all about improving user experience. Flyme can analyse what apps users use most and solve retarding and frame losses via measures such as in-depth core scheduling and tendering pre-acceleration. It’s not the snazziest of OS skins, but it does a great job at keeping the user-interface clean and responsive, and sometimes that’s what matters most.

As for the phone itself, it’s not the lightest. Being a pure metal body, it’s got a sleek and solid exterior, but it works for the Pro 6, as the device has a robust feel to it and moves it into the echelon of high-end smartphone designs.

In the camera department, the Pro 6 packs a 21MP f/2.2 main camera (supporting 4K video), as well as a 5MP selfie shooter with 1.4 micron pixels. Our shots with the device were serviceable but it did seem to suffer from bloom in the lens. You probably won’t win any photography awards with it, but it’s a good shooter that’ll get the job done.

The latest flagship Meizu managed to impress in more ways than one, and while there may not be anything unique to help this device stand out from the crowd, it does really well with the features it does have to offer.

The Meizu Pro 6 is available for R7,999 from the Meizu SA online store.

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