Various smartphone makers are trying to find different solutions to place the front camera. We’ve seen phones with notches, punch hole cameras, flip cameras and pop-up cameras. While a notch or a punch hole camera interrupts the viewing experience, popup or flip cameras are still considered to be gimmicks by some users. Meizu is a rare mobile brand which is still sticking with the placement of the selfie camera on the top bezel and making it as small as possible. They have released yet another phone today with a symmetrical design and without a notch or moving parts, the Meizu 16Xs. Meizu launched the phone in an event in China today, along with a few accessories. It is a budget flagship offering with triple rear cameras, AMOLED display, and Snapdragon 600 series processor.
Meizu 16Xs: Hardware
The phone is the successor of the Meizu 16X launched last year with Snapdragon 710 Soc. Meizu has used Snapdragon 675 mobile platform this time on the 16Xs. The processor offers superior CPU performance, but a bit weaker GPU performance as compared to the Snapdragon 710. Meizu 16Xs has 6 GB of LPDDR4X RAW while it gets two storage variants, 64 GB or 128 GB. It has a 4,000 mAh battery which supports 18W mCharge fast charging.
On the front side, Meizu 16Xs has a 6.2-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display with the screen resolution of 2340 X 1080 pixels. The display has 103% NTSC colour gamut, 90.29% screen to body ratio, and an aspect ratio of 18.6:9. It also gets German VDE certification for hardware level blue light filtering. An in display fingerprint sensor is present under the screen, which Meizu calls as “mTouch” fingerprint sensor. It also supports payments on WeChat and Alipay.
Meizu 16Xs: Design
The phone continues the design of the Meizu 16 series. It has a symmetrical design from the front side, consisting of two small bezels on the top and bottom. The top bezel houses the front camera and other sensors. The back is changed a bit as the phone has a triple camera setup, making it the first Meizu phone with 3 rear cameras. Thankfully, the phone has a 3.5mm audio jack. It is available in 4 colour options: Black, Silk White, Coral Orange and Atlantis Blue. Meizu says they made the Coral Orange coloured back as it was selected as Pantone colour of the year 2019. The dimensions of the phone are 152 x 74.4 x 8.35 mm.
Meizu 16Xs: Software
The phone runs on Android 9 Pie with Flyme 7.3 UI on the top. Flyme OS is the custom UI of Meizu which offers many additional features with a minimalistic design. It runs on updated One Mind 3.0 AI engine. While the launch event, Meizu showcased that 669 apps were installed on the Meizu 16Xs, and the phone still didn’t lag. They also said the performance will be almost the same if you even install around 1000 apps. It also keeps up to 20 apps open at one time without lagging. There’s Game Mode 3 with Hyper Gaming present in the phone, which helps improve the frame rates in the game with overall improved gaming experience. Meizu also said that Flyme 8 is being developed and will be released soon in a few months.
Meizu 16Xs: Cameras
The phone has a triple camera setup on the back. It consists of 48 MP Samsung GM1 MOD as the primary sensor with f/1.7 aperture, a 5 MP monochrome lens with f/1.9 aperture for depth sensing, and a third 8 MP 118.8° wide-angle lens. Other features include portrait mode, double night mode, HDR and wide angle mode. The front camera is of 16 MP which supports face unlock, HDR+, AI beauty mode (including male beauty mode) and portrait mode.
Meizu 16Xs: Pricing and availability
Meizu 16Xs is available in two memory variants, 6+64 GB and 6+128 GB. The former will be available for 1698 Chinese Yuan, while the latter will be available for 1998 Chinese Yuan. Reservations of the phone start from 4:00 PM China Time today. Meizu also launched EP2C earphones today with Type-C port. The earphones will be available for 129 Yuan, but you can get them for 99 Yuan if purchased along with the Meizu 16Xs.
