Meizu Launches the PRO 6 Plus: 5.7-inch SAMOLED and Exynos 8890 SoC

Meizu added a new flagship phablet to its smartphone lineup today. The new 5.7-inch PRO 6 Plus is the direct successor to the PRO 5, but it incorporates the updated styling from the smaller 5.2-inch PRO 6. On paper at least, the PRO 6 Plus appears to be a definitive upgrade relative to Meizu’s previously released phones, unlike the PRO 6 which trailed the older PRO 5 in performance, battery life, and audio quality and failed to separate itself from the similar but less-expensive MX6.

The PRO 6 Plus incorporates the same aluminum unibody construction and elegant styling as the PRO 6. The slightly raised, circular camera surround with Meizu’s circular, dual-tone LED flash ring below give the back of the PRO 6 Plus a distinct look. The plastic antenna strips are colored to better match the sandblasted aluminum chassis and stick close to the upper and lower edges to further minimize their appearance. Its rounded edges and radiused corners make it comfortable to hold, although its smooth finish makes it feel a bit slippery. The 2.5D edge-to-edge glass covering the front eliminates sharp edges, enhancing the smooth feel of the phone.

What separates the design of the PRO 6 and PRO 6 Plus from so many other metal unibody phones, however, is Meizu’s attention to detail. Every edge and hole—the camera surround, ring flash, speaker holes—has a polished chamfer, and the single piece volume rocker and power button near the top of the right edge are inset into a polished groove. All of these extra machining features give the PRO 6 phones a premium look and feel.

The Meizu PRO 6 Plus, like the PRO 5 before it, uses a 5.7-inch SAMOLED display from Samsung; however, resolution increases to 2560×1440, which is a vast improvement over the PRO 5’s 1080p panel whose pixel density was insufficient to overcome the limitations of its PenTile subpixel arrangement. The display’s brightness ranges from 3 nits to 430 nits in direct sunlight when using the auto-brightness boost feature, according to Meizu. Although an APL value was not specified, I assume these are for 100% APL based on our measurements of the PRO 6, which achieves 436 nits at 100% APL and 512 nits at 50% APL.

Meizu also claims 103% coverage of the NTSC color gamut, which is good news for people who prefer highly saturated, vivid colors. Meizu introduced several different screen modes, including a proper sRGB mode, in FlymeOS 5.2, along with a color temperature slider, to allow for some adjustment of the display’s output, although it’s unclear if these features carry over to FlymeOS 6.

Most phones are now incorporating special night modes that filter out blue light for nighttime reading or low-light situations, and the PRO 6 Plus is no exception. It’s also the first Meizu phone to come with an always-on display (AOD) that shows the time, date, battery level, and notifications when the phone is locked. If enabled, Meizu claims it only consumes 1% of the battery’s charge per hour.

Inside the PRO 6 Plus is an Exynos 8890 SoC. Meizu has used Samsung’s Exynos chips in previous phones, most recently the Exynos 7420 in the PRO 5, and with Snapdragon 820/821 off the table because of its ongoing licensing disagreement with Qualcomm, the Exynos 8890 is a logical choice. The octa-core CPU uses a big.LITTLE pairing of four low-power ARM Cortex-A53 cores and four higher-performance, custom Exynos M1 cores from Samsung. Core frequencies vary depending on which storage option is selected. The version with 64GB of UFS 2.0 NAND uses a lower-binned SoC that limits the peak frequency of the Exynos M1 cores to 2.0GHz and the A53 cores to 1.5GHz, while the version with 128GB of internal storage allows the A53 cores to run at 1.6GHz and the M1 cores to run at up to 2.3GHz when three to four cores are active or 2.6GHz for better single-threaded performance when only one or two cores are active. Both versions use an ARM Mali-T880 GPU and come with 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM, but the lower-binned SoC only includes ten cores instead of the Exynos 8890’s usual twelve like in the 128GB version. While the amount of internal storage is reasonable, there’s no microSD support for storage expansion.

The PRO 6 Plus’ 3400mAh battery is a little on the small side given its size. Huawei’s 5.9-inch Mate 9 comes with a 4000mAh battery, for example. Even several smaller 5.5-inch phones such as Samsung’s Galaxy S7 edge (3600mAh), Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 3 Pro (4050mAh), and Meizu’s own M3 note (4100mAh) come with larger batteries. Meizu clearly prioritized thickness and weight over battery capacity, but we’ll have to wait and see how it performs in our battery tests before we can assess the impact of this decision. Regardless of how long the battery lasts, it should charge quickly thanks to Meizu’s mCharge fast charging technology that pulls up to 24W (8V/3A) at the wall.

Around back is a 12MP camera based on Sony’s IMX386 Exmor RS sensor with 1.25µm pixels. It employs a hybrid autofocus system that combines the benefits of phase detection (PDAF), laser, and contrast methods. The PRO 6 Plus also includes 4-axis optical image stabilization (OIS), a first for Meizu, which should help improve low-light photography by allowing sharp exposures up to 0.25 seconds. Covering the camera sensor is a 6-element lens array with f/2.0 aperture. Meizu also says its improved image-enhancing algorithms and noise processing take full advantage of Samsung’s integrated ISP.

One of the PRO 5’s best features was its excellent sounding audio subsystem. The PRO 6 took a more traditional approach and its results were disappointing by comparison. Fortunately, the PRO 6 Plus uses the same ESS Technology es9018k2m SABRE32 DAC as the PRO 5, which supports 16/24-bit audio from 44.1kHz to 192kHz with a dynamic range of 127dB and low noise. It also includes a dual-channel AD45275 power amplifier from Analog Devices.

The PRO 6 Plus comes with a touch-based, capacitive fingerprint scanner integrated into the front-mounted home button along with Meizu’s pressure sensitive screen technology it calls 3D Press, which the PRO 6 and PRO 6s also include. Because the software API’s are proprietary, the ability to press an icon on the home screen and open a shortcut menu or press on a hyperlink, email, or text message to open a preview are generally limited to Meizu’s apps.

In addition to 3D Press support, Meizu’s new FlymeOS 6 includes more than 400 new features, including the “One Mind” artificial intelligence engine that optimizes system performance by monitoring how the phone is used and prioritizes resources to the most used apps.

The PRO 6 Plus is available in three different colors: gold, gray, and silver. The gold and silver colors come with a white front, while the darker gray color comes with a black front. You can also choose between 64GB (¥2,999) or 128GB (¥3,299) of internal storage. The integrated Samsung Category 12 LTE modem supports 5-mode operation (no CDMA) and the following frequency bands (no LTE support in the US): FDD-LTE B1 / B3 / B7, TDD-LTE B38 / B39 / B40 / B41, WCDMA B1 / B2 / B5 / B8, TD-CDMA B34 / B39, GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz. It will be available in many Asian and European countries in December.

The OnePlus 3T Review

Back in June, OnePlus launched their new flagship smartphone, the OnePlus 3. I’ve had an interesting relationship with the OnePlus 3 due to certain decisions that were made regarding its display and some parts of the operating system before the phone initially launched. Since that time, OnePlus has made significant improvements to both of these aspects, and in my follow-up piece I concluded that the OnePlus 3 should be considered by all smartphone buyers, even ones who were ready to pay $700 or $800 for a flagship phone from another company.

Earlier this month OnePlus surprised a number of people in the Android community by launching a successor to the OnePlus 3. This move isn’t in line with the yearly cadence that we’ve come to expect for their smartphones, which makes it all the more interesting. The name of this new phone is the OnePlus 3T, and based on that name one can already see that it represents an evolution of the OnePlus 3 rather than a revolutionary upgrade. As the OnePlus 3’s successor, the OnePlus 3T simply serves to update certain aspects of the phone’s hardware in order to take advantage of technology improvements that have been made available since the OnePlus 3 was originally developed and released. Read on for the full AnandTech review of the OnePlus 3T.

Huawei Mate 9 Porsche Design Unboxing and Hands On Benchmarks

Alongside the Mate 9 launch a few weeks back, Huawei also announced the Mate 9 Porsche Design model. The presentation in Munich was heavily skewed towards the Porsche branded unit, despite the fact that it is a limited edition part to be sold at 1300 Euro, nearly twice as much as the Mate 9.

Aside from a few things such as the camera and the internal SoC, the Porsche Design (PD) model shares little aesthetically with the Mate 9. They both use the new Kirin 960 SoC, designed by Huawei’s HiSilicon subsidiary and is the first design to use the newest ARM Cortex A73 CPU cores as well as CCI-550 interconnect and Mali G71 graphics cores (read about the Kirin 960 here). But where the Mate 9 has 4 GB of DDR4, the PD has 6GB. Where the Mate 9 has 32/64 GB of US 2.1 storage, the PD has 256GB. Perhaps the biggest change is in the display – where the Mate 9 uses a 5.96-inch 1920×1080 screen, the PD opts for a dual edged curved 5.5-inch 2560×1440 panel.

To be honest, the curve is almost unnoticeable. It could easily be mistaken for curved glass on a flat display, but I can confirm that the display itself is curved. The reason for the curve is more to do with economics than new user interface experiences, and Huawei has actively promoted that it’s new EMUI 5.0 operating system interface, based on Android 7.0, has new mis-touch algorithms to identify when part of the screen is accidentally touched, for example when taking a photograph.

The higher resolution display might arguably draw more power, especially during high graphics activity, but the physically smaller PD version has a similar 4000 mAh battery configuration to the Mate 9. With the hardware comes Huawei Supercharge, a new technology to enable up to 25W charging with compatible adaptors and cables – it relies on sensor data and communication between the charger and phone to remain cool but also offers 0 to 58% charge in 30 minutes. As the CEO said at the launch, ‘No explosions.’

Mate 9 PD and Mate 9 – Note no fingerprint sensor on the PD, it’s been moved to the front

The PD uses Huawei’s second generation dual camera system on the rear, co-engineered with Leica. The configuration gives a 20MP color and 12MP black and white set of cameras to enable variable depth bokeh applied in post processing, a true monochrome mode, and what the promotional materials want to define as ‘the Leica look’ to ensure that certain pictures have that Leica feel.

‘The Leica Look’

When we spoke with Leica at the Huawei event, we were told that Leica’s involvement between the two companies starts the moment the photon hits the lenses, to when the image data is stored in memory. This means Leica is involved in the lens configuration, the sensor choice, different sensor features, DSP implementation/use and algorithm feature set. Huawei and Leica are set to open a new joint R&D facility in France next year to cohesion future products.

Top to bottom: Mate 9 PD, Mate 9, Mate 8.
The PD puts the 3.5mm jack on the bottom, contrary to previous Huawei designs.

The Mate 9 removes the alternate texture on the power button for easy differentiation,
but the PD and Mate 8 have it.

As always with a new device, it felt snappy even if there was a detectable dropped frame here and there. Huawei is promoting that EMUI 5.0 has a series of features in place through machine learning to subvert that feel of a slow device after 6-12 months, as well as some new GUI ‘tricks’ to help the user experience. The PD model will use a different tableau of browner icons for the core system apps, as well as different backgrounds on the system. Despite the fact that Porsche Design and Porsche are different companies, I would have thought that the PD model might have some Porsche or Leica related backgrounds to choose from.

 
Custom Case for the PD

For the 1300 Euro (the PD won’t be sold in the US), the PD model is designed as a lifestyle product, for people who buy the car, buy the shoes, then buy the phone. In the box is a custom case designed for the curve screen, a set of custom ear buds, a Supercharger wall wart, a Supercharger car wart, and a standard C-to-C cable.

Gallery: Huawei Mate 9 Porsche Design Unboxing and Hands On Benchmarks

On the benchmarking side, it is worth noting that these results were on near-final software. Huawei is pushing an update out to review units soon to support Android 7.1 and Daydream VR as well as minor OS fixes. But as we only had limited time with the PD, results were taken as is.

So despite the fact that the Mate 9 and PD have the same SoC, the performance of the PD in most situations was lower than that of the Mate 9. I might attribute this to the smaller chassis having lower thermal limits, but even recording 17-minute 4K video on the Mate 9 made it barely warm to touch, so it makes me wonder how the PD is slower in short benchmarks as well.

One part that the PD wins out on is storage if we run the benchmark at default (typically AT has a custom workflow which we did not have time to run – the default results can perhaps bloat the numbers more than a user might experience). The 256GB solution in this configuration beats the 64GB Mate 9 for sequential and random performance.

Overall, from a brief hands-on, it’s clear that the key selling point of the Mate 9 Porsche Design is going to be the exclusivity. It’s not aimed at someone like me, who would suggest the Mate 9 (or the recently announced Mate 9 Pro) if budget or performance is a concern.