It’s been 15 years since a high school dropout named Jack Wong started an MP3 player company named Meizu, and in the years since the company has evolved into a relatively small but respectable Chinese handset maker. The company celebrated the anniversary recently with the release of a new phone series appropirately named the 15.
The phones come in three variants: there’s the top of the line 15 Plus, which runs on a Samsung Exynos 8895 (the same SoC powering last year’s Samsung Galaxy S8) and has a Quad HD 5.9-inch OLED screen; a standard 15 with a 5.5-inch OLED panel running on the mid-tier Snapdragon 660; and a “Lite” version running Snapdragon 626.
I’ve been testing the middle child of the device, and it’s been a refreshing experience, because Meizu, unlike other Chinese phonemakers, don’t seem to feel the need to chase smartphone trends.
The Meizu 15 has no notch, but has a headphone jack; it uses a metal back instead of the glass sandwich design; and the display panel is in the traditional 16:9 aspect ratio instead of the longer 18:9. Not that I have a problem with any of those smartphone design trends (except the no headphone jack thing, which is really, really annoying), but it is just refreshing to see a phone not follow the 2018 smartphone design handbook. Even as a smartphone geek such as myself, it is getting a bit repetitive when Chinese companies pump out 25 phones a year and they all have similar design traits.
Though the top and bottom bezels of the 15 aren’t eyecatchingly slim, the side bezels are, and surprisingly I haven’t experienced any erroneous palm touches—Meizu’s software likely has a palm rejection algorithm in there. The virtually non-existent side bezels allow the phone to feel somewhat slim in the hand despite the chunkier 16:9 aspect ratio. The OLED panel is sourced from Samsung, and as expected it’s got excellent color reproduction with very little signs of color shift.
And unlike on most other Chinese handsets, the bottom chin is justified: there’s a circular home button/fingerprint sensor with an excellent haptic engine underneath it. The 15’s button, like the iPhone 7 and 8’s home button, isn’t an actual clickable, moving piece. Instead the haptics engine motor simulates the feeling of pressing a button. I haven’t used an iPhone 7 or 8 in a long time so I can’t say for sure, but I’m thinking the Meizu 15’s power button haptics feel just as “realistic” as Apple’s offering.
On the back of the phone is a brushed metal finish; the antenna lines are filled with a pattern that’s a nice touch. In terms of optics, both the 15 and 15 Plus has a dual-camera using a 12-megapixel main lens paired with a 20-megapixel telephoto lens. The latter lets the phone zoom in 3X without losing detail, and I’ve been quite impressed by what I see. Samples below:
In fact, the Meizu 15’s camera has been a pleasant surprise. It’s obviously not on the Pixel 2/Huawei P20 Pro/Galaxy S9 levels, but it might be the best sub-$400 phone camera out there. The bokeh mode offers pre- and post-shot tweaks and in general, the depth-of-field effect looks natural.
Night shots tend to suffer from noise and exposure issues, but that’s expected for a phone in this price range.
The 15 runs Meizu’s own Android skin, named the Flyme, which I’m quite fond of, other than the outdated looking icons. There’s a lot of shortcut gestures, such as the ability to launch apps by drawing alphabets. The company’s mBack navigation system is back and it’s quite intuitive: you tap on the home button to go “back,” press into it to go “home.” To bring up list of recent apps, swipe up from the bottom of the screen.
Performance is smooth. The phone runs Android 8.0, with Meizu’s flourishes on top. I don’t like that I can’t quick swap between apps (as there is no app overview/square button) but otherwise Flyme is fine. There’s a 3,000 mAh battery, which is a bit on the small side, and the phone hasn’t quite been able to last me an entire day—though I’m a heavy user. Meizu has its own fast charging tech that can top up the phone at nearly a 2% per minute rate, however.
Overall, there’s not much groundbreaking about the Meizu 15, but there’s not much to dislike about the Meizu 15 at this sub-$400 price range either. Though I must say that the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S is a better deal, considering it has a Snapdragon 845 chipset inside and a superior camera for just a bit more money.
The Android smartphone market is so crowded, that phones seem to be churned off an assembly line, at the very least, the 15 looks and feels a bit different.
