Meizu recently introduced two smartphones, the real flagship Meizu Pro 7 Plus and its compact, simplified modification, Meizu Pro 7. The latter retained the main unique features of the top-end smartphone and is cheaper, which is of particular interest to users who are not ready to pay for the flagship stuffing. but wants to move away from the standard appearance of phones.

Features of Meizu Pro 7:

• screen: Super AMOLED, 5.2 inches, resolution 1920x1080 pixels 1.9 inches, resolution 240x536 pixels
• Platform: MediaTek Helio P25
• RAM: 4 GB, ROM: 64 GB
• main camera: 12 MP (f/2.0, color) and 12 MP (black and white), front camera: 16 MP (f/2.0)
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.2, USB Type-C, GPS
• battery: 3000 mAh
• accelerometer, light sensor, fingerprint scanner, compass
• dimensions: 147.6x70.7x7.3 mm, weight: 160 g
• OS: Android 7, Flyme 6

Appearance

The Meizu Pro 7 is packaged in a metal case and feels similar to the matte black version of the iPhone 7 (7 Plus) or the earlier Meizu Pro 6 Plus. The edges of the device are sharp, but rounded, which made the smartphone almost square in appearance, but due to its small dimensions, this design does not cause inconvenience and emphasizes the small thickness.

The manufacturer's logo is found only at the back, the inscription is placed vertically, which hints at how to hold the device when taking photos and videos. The letters are glued into cutouts where dust and grease accumulate. The only element protruding on the back is the rim around the lenses, but the side rises by less than a millimeter, due to which it is not felt in practice and serves as additional protection for the glass on the camera.

The dual camera unit is inscribed in a glass panel, behind which the main “chip” of Meizu Pro 7 is also hidden - an additional display. It contrasts with the body color, which adds to the effect in the black version of the smartphone. Plastic separators are as close as possible to the edges, which is why they are almost invisible.

Meizu also noted an interesting solution on the front panel - the sensors are hidden in a small window merged with the speaker grille, to the right of which is the front camera lens. The design makes the front panel even more minimalistic, which is nice. The location of the rest of the elements is familiar.

Display

The novelty received a 5.2-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels, covered with 2.5D glass. There are no glare, viewing angles are excellent, the minimum brightness is comfortable for use at night, the maximum is also enough for most cases.

The temperature is adjustable, which allows you to make the image both very cold and with a pronounced warm effect. The overflows of green-violet and red, familiar from AMOLED, are not so pronounced and are distinguishable only on a white background, they can be clearly seen only with an unnatural deviation.

The display is pleasant in general, but the glass that covers it reflects any slightly illuminated objects. Paired with a low maximum brightness, this makes it difficult to use in the sun. The information is readable, but the environment is superimposed on the text and pictures, which complicates the perception of information.

The settings allow you to choose one of the color profiles, the difference between each of them is not big, they are all close to natural tones or slightly add saturation, but there is no sharp acidity. The strengths of AMOLED, such as excellent contrast and perfect blacks, are present.

The screen does not give fault, given the price - it resembles what it showed more expensive and is only inferior, where, by definition, one of the best representatives of AMOLED stands. In the case of Meizu Pro 7, this is an interesting offer compared to competitors.

Second display

The main difference between the novelty and all the manufacturer's smartphones was the appearance of a second display (1.9 inches, 536x240 pixels). At first it seems that it replaces the additional screen of the LG V20/V30 or repeats the basic functionality of a smart watch, but the reality is not so rosy.

Although it is an OLED display, it does not remain constantly active, you have to wake it up with a double tap. Here the number of steps, time and weather are displayed, you need to move between the corresponding widgets with swipes. For some reason, one screen to display all three indicators was not enough. When charging is connected, progress is displayed on it.

The player mode is the most convenient feature of the Meizu Pro 7 second screen, which disables all phone functions and deactivates the main display, but gives access to the music player (only stock, no streaming services) and all songs from the phone's memory. Manage track switching and volume is offered on the second screen. The launch of the mode is carried out by long pressing the power button, where you can also turn off and reboot the device.

The second and last really useful feature of the second display was its use as a viewfinder for the main dual camera. This allows you to conveniently take selfies in the highest possible quality, and not be content with the front 16-megapixel module. The camera starts immediately on the second screen, for this you need to activate the display and swipe from bottom to top or top to bottom.

Demo renders showed that the alarm clock and, at a minimum, messages from WeChat are also displayed on the screen, but our sample does not know how. Apparently, the issue is in the firmware, which will develop functionality over time (if the manufacturer does not forget about it, like 3D Press), including learning how to display notification text from any program, like a smart watch. So far, this is a little useful thing, which there is a risk of breaking by dropping the device on its back.

Camera

The smartphone received two modules of 12 megapixels, color and black and white (both without optical stabilization), the second is needed to expand the dynamic range and create photos in the bokeh effect. The camera highlights the depth of the scene well every other time:

The photos are generally not bad, but by the standards of the middle class they are completely good: the detail is pleasant, the color reproduction is accurate. The camera does not handle rich, bright colors, especially red, but overall the result is acceptable.

Detailing is not the highest, but since the sharpness is not lifted by algorithms, the photos are natural, the effect of gluing close objects in a graphics editor is not created. The main weakness of the camera remains a narrow - as for one of the best in the middle class - dynamic range:

The device takes a long time to process pictures - the first seconds you can not evaluate the quality of the photo on the screen. The low speed is maintained in other cases, whether it's focusing or HDR stitching.

No HDR

No HDR

HDR

Creating frames in the latter mode also does not please with speed, which is why you can get the following result:

No HDR

No HDR

HDR

No HDR

No HDR

HDR

Usually the photos are of high quality, on average Meizu Pro 7 can be called one of the most attractive options as a camera phone in its price segment. Future updates will further improve the stability of the work, which will close most of the problems.

Performance

The smartphone received a MediaTek Helio P25 mid-range processor and 4 GB of RAM, which is enough for the system to work smoothly and stably. Benchmarks say that the device is slightly more powerful than Snapdragon 625 models, but this does not correlate with games:

Asphalt 8 keeps stable 30 fps, casual projects also work well. The device heats up slightly, but there is no big difference in temperature even after 30 minutes of playing. The exception is the most demanding projects that warm up the entire body, including Modern Combat 5.

The latter at medium settings jumped within 22-28 fps, on the maximum chart the lower threshold dropped to 18 fps, but most of the time it stayed at around 22-24 fps. This can hardly be called good performance for a single player mode, and in online battles it will be difficult to defeat users with more productive devices.

The overall performance does not cause complaints, as well as the work of the shell, as well as application programs. If you do not play the most demanding games, performance problems will not appear.

autonomy

The battery capacity of Meizu Pro 7 was 3000 mAh, which is not enough for the middle class on average, but enough for a device with such dimensions and stuffing. Practice has shown that you can count on a day of work.

With 26 hours of standby, the device provided 5 hours of active display (including 30 minutes of YouTube video playback), 20 minutes of phone calls and an hour of listening to podcasts. Not the best indicator for a mid-range smartphone.

The regular power supply with support for fast charging provided a familiar speed: 51% was restored in 30 minutes, the battery was fully charged in 1 hour and 22 minutes. There is no critical heating during the process, but the phone still heats up more than current models with Qualcomm processors.

The autonomy is sufficient for most consumers, only in heavily loaded scenarios you will have to recharge the smartphone during the day, and this will take little time if you use the standard charger.

communications, sound

Meizu Pro 7 received an up-to-date set of wireless modules, they all work stably. The device was especially pleased with the reception radius of Wi-Fi at a frequency of 5 GHz, but GPS gave an error of more than 15 m when walking.

The device is deprived of NFC, which is inappropriate in 2017: contactless payments cannot be made, tags cannot be programmed, and a portable speaker cannot be quickly connected. Well, at least there was a place for USB Type-C.

The manufacturer places special emphasis on the advanced DAC, which provides high quality sound in headphones. The sound is really excellent, most competitors lose, including flagships without appropriate improvements. "Medium" Meizu competes in this parameter with.

The external speaker is mediocre in quality, but loud enough to hear a call and watch a video in a noisy room. It is located below, which is inconvenient for games: you constantly block it with your palm.

Additional features

The kit includes a plastic-silicone case - for the first time the company has become generous with such an accessory. It spoils the pleasant appearance, but makes the device less slippery and more or less protected from external threats.

The fingerprint scanner seems to work even faster than in and, the reading accuracy has also remained at a high level. The mTouch key, where the scanner is inscribed, remains the most convenient solution for navigating the system.

The pedometer, which is displayed on the second display, works strangely: fantastically accurate when you hold it in your hand and walk, but very freely when worn in your pocket. The data diverge by 15-20% down.

64 GB of storage ensures that you can carry enough songs and programs, as well as photos. However, this is the maximum - there is no slot for memory cards, so the most active users will have to master the clouds. Alternatively, you can buy an advanced version with a more capacious drive.

Competitors

Meizu Pro 7 is presented in three colors: , gold and black, there are modifications from 64 or , the price starts from .

For 11,999 UAH, it offers a more advanced display (also with the Always-On function), protection against dust and moisture, NFC, otherwise it does not differ much from the Pro 7. The smartphone is without a bright feature, but it is filled with maximum functionality for its money.

A refurbished 16 GB iPhone 6s is available for 10,999-11,999 UAH, it is still a very fast device with an excellent camera and balanced ergonomics. A good option if you want to switch to iOS in search of the unusual, especially in light of full support, but 16 GB of memory is not enough for comfortable use.

Alcatel Idol 4S is available in Ukraine for 9999 UAH, this smartphone offers a more powerful processor, a 5.5-inch display and loud quality stereo speakers. The smartphone is a little old, but given the cost and filling, it remains an interesting option to buy.

conclusions

The younger brother of the flagship Meizu Pro 7 Plus is a convenient, polished smartphone that is pleasant to use in everyday tasks: there is enough autonomy, the interface does not slow down, the screen is good. The problem is that the same is true for devices available in Ukrainian retail for UAH 8,000.

However, Meizu Pro 7 is worth its money, it will attract attention with a good camera and an unusual (albeit not very useful) feature in the face of the second display. But it is convenient to listen to music on the road, when you turn off the radio part, the battery is also saved. It works especially well when you use decent headphones.

If you want at least something unusual, you should look at Meizu Pro 7: this is the most inexpensive option on the market with a truly unique feature. The device attracts emotionally, for which you can forgive some weaknesses in basic things and pay a couple of thousand extra.

5 reasons to buy Meizu Pro 7:

• neat appearance
• good camera, convenient implementation of selfies on the main lenses
• great fingerprint scanner
• music only mode on second screen
• quality sound in headphones

2 reasons not to buy Meizu Pro 7:

• the second display looks useless most of the time
• no NFC

Thanks to the online store for providing it for review.

After the presentation of the novelty in Zhuhai, I had the opportunity to twist the phone a little in my hands and make a first impression. If interested, you can read it here. Of course, I could not notice some little things, but the general message of that article was correct: Pro 7 is not a flagship.

On September 20, a local presentation of new products took place in the Odessa “TseHub”, which I also got to. The head of Meizu in Ukraine announced the start of sales, Tony Lei, who spoke about all the key features of the devices. In addition, Citrus had several demo zones where guests could test phones on their own. It was there that I managed to get hold of the Pro 7 in order to quickly review it.

Design

After all this mountain of frameless smartphones that have been dumped on the market, Meizu Pro 7 no longer causes a “wow effect”. And if the back panel may be of interest for an additional screen, then the front side is almost indistinguishable from dozens of other Meizu. I think even the most ardent fan of this company could not tell which model it is.

Before us are the usual dimensions and aspect ratio of the screen, a protective 2.5D-glass and an aluminum case. I had a black version of this phone, but there will be a red version available on the market, which will be much brighter and more interesting. The red model does not seem to be as branded as the black one. Prints on the latter will have to be constantly wiped or generally used with a protective cover to get rid of this problem. But you don’t want to wear it with a case, because the case turned out to be very ergonomic and comfortable. He reminded me of Pro 6.

By the way, nothing much has changed in the design. Only a dual camera and another screen were added, but the overall shape remained almost the same.

All connectors and control buttons remained in their places, special thanks for the presence of a 3.5 mm jack. But what upset me a little was the presence of a mechanical Home button. After a series of phones equipped only with sensors, some looseness and fragility of this mechanism is a little embarrassing. And after the next replacement of this button in my spare M3S, I have big questions about its reliability. I hope that these problems will not appear in the flagship.

The fingerprint scanner is familiar to all Meizu devices - fast, responsive, does not create problems.

Screen

The phone is equipped with a 5.2-inch AMOLED-matrix with a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels. And now I want to praise the company for using a good panel, only the front of the phone turned out to be boring because of this. There is a real lack of framelessness, no matter how fast the phone is, no matter how many cameras or other “chips” it has, 90 percent of the time we look at the screen and at the huge frames around. And they, for 2017, are really big. Personally, I did not have the feeling that I had a new flagship in front of me. The bezel-less trend has taken a strong hold in our heads and turned most of the cool bezel phones into obsolete products.

Meizu uses a really good matrix with excellent saturation, brightness and color reproduction. In the settings, you can find several options to adjust the picture for yourself, but the automatic mode is more than enough.

The rounded protective glass covers the matrix, and the company obviously did not stint on the oleophobic coating. From this point of view, using the phone is a pleasure.

There is also a second screen. This is a 1.9-inch AMOLED-matrix (307 ppi), which displays notifications, several widgets and player control. At the moment, the user can install a stock animated screensaver or replace it with another image from the gallery, turn off the display of widgets and enable the screen to wake up on double tap. AlwaysOn mode, despite the type of matrix, is not here.

Of the other features, there is, for example, the ability to use an additional screen as a viewfinder for taking selfies or in the mode of displaying player controls. All this sounds good, but the implementation is lame on both legs.

Take the same shot. It would be logical that the second screen could be used during video shooting. For mobile vloggers, this would be just a gift. But no, sorry, the second screen is active only in photo mode.

I have the same problem with the player widget. I thought that it would be possible to quickly rewind a track or even select another one from the list right on the secondary display. And again, no, advanced player control options are available only after switching the phone to the “Music Only” mode. In normal mode, only the song name is displayed on the screen. It also only works with the native player, Play Music users are on the run. So the idea is very original, but so far it does not work well, and there is little practical use.

Characteristics and autonomy

• Operating system: Android 7.1;
• Display: 5.2-inch, 1920 x 1080, second screen 1.9-inch;
• Processor: Helio P25;
• Video accelerator: Mali-T880 MP2;
• RAM: 4 GB;
• ROM: 64 GB;
• Main camera: dual, main module 12 MP, second module 12 MP, monochrome, LED flash;
• Battery: 3000 mAh;
• Other: USB Type-C, fingerprint scanner.

It was the characteristics of the phone that became the most controversial moment. Several versions of the device will be available on the market, which differ in screen and processor. My model has an average performance P25 chip, which produces only 60 thousand in Antutu, 4 GB of RAM and a T880 MP2 video accelerator. In the "plus version" installed X30, the results of which exceed 130 thousand points.

The performance of the younger version is very unfortunate, but thanks to optimization, the phone works smartly. All games run at medium settings and work fine, only occasionally losing a few frames. The 64 GB drive is not the fastest here - eMMC 5.1 (the Plus uses UFS 2.1), so launching and installing applications is a little slower than in other flagships. There is no support for memory cards.

But even with such indicators, Flyme OS feels great. The speed of drawing the interface does not lose to competitors. Only a few times I have crashed YouTube while using multitasking.

And everything would be cool if it were not for the price of the device. Asking for such a device 470-480 dollars, even taking into account all the features, is too much. But just before the publication, the prices for the new product dropped to $ 400, which slightly corrects the situation with strange pricing and makes the Pro 7 not so sky-high expensive. Not only did the price go down on the smaller model, the Plus also went down in price and, in my opinion, it deserves attention, because there are no performance problems there.

True, there is one little thing that cannot be fixed at a price - the lack of NFC, which is becoming more and more useful. Take at least the payment for travel in the subway.

But you don't have to worry about battery life. Due to the energy-efficient processor, the 3000 mAh battery is consumed very slowly. I had about 4-4.5 hours of active screen and still had 10 percent left. So that's enough for a day's work. In addition, there is support for fast charging via USB Type-C. Just half an hour and 40 percent.

Sound

Meizu decided to go back to basics and, in addition to a good DAC, add the ability to work in MP3-only mode to the Pro 7. In this mode, the phone turns off all wireless modules, the main screen and other chips, transferring control to the secondary display. It looks quite interesting and will be useful to those who, for example, often fly. Let me remind you that this only works with the standard player.

The sound in the headphones is very specific. The mids and highs play out perfectly, the details were enough for me, but the low ones seemed a bit lacking. And I would like to have more equalizer settings, because this is a music phone with a separate Cirrius Logic CS43130 DAC. It’s hard to call me an audiophile, but there really aren’t many sliders and switches here. Yes, and I did not notice a significant difference when moving them.

There is only one external speaker. The headroom is enough to hear the call, but nothing special. Neither stereo sound nor a wide frequency range should be expected from it.

cameras

I spent a day with Meizu Pro 7 and spent a week in China, and the last thing I want to do is turn this article into a regular enumeration of the characteristics and features of Pro 7 - in this kind of first glance, I will try to list the main features of the gadget and tell what I and Ilya Kazakov faced a week in China. We will alternate, first about chips, then interludes. Both will be equal. For those who are only interested in the characteristics - they are below.

Why is there a second display?

All test samples have a strange firmware that does not allow you to change the wallpaper, the loading of weather data on the second screen does not work, it is not always activated when you turn it - really, it’s worth waiting for samples with normal software to test. Here are the main purposes of the second screen: at any party, you will always recognize your smartphone when a bunch of devices are screens down.

And the second purpose - you can put beautiful wallpapers on the second screen, they were shown at the presentation, alas, I didn’t take a picture of the slide. Other purposes, such as: help in selfies when shooting on the main camera, the number of steps, notifications, weather information - all this is secondary. Yes, for the corrosive and tech-savvy, important info: 1.9 ”AMOLED, 240 × 536 pixels. The glass is installed well and does not interfere with life in any way. The screen can be activated with a double tap, with a slight vibration it lights up.

Interlude about heat

The heat in Hong Kong does not allow to prepare for going out; you can take a cold shower, put on the lightest T-shirt, but the sun is natural heat. You go out at ten to reach Starbucks and feel how the sun gently presses you to the ground. Thank you for having a shadow, there is sometimes a breeze.

For the first time on this trip, I noticed that the locals actively use pocket fans, an amazingly simple device that allows you to create at least the illusion of coolness. There are a lot of options for fans, from pink women's to brutal black men's. There are fans with a stand, there are mobile ones. It seems to be a funny thing in the age of iPhones, but it actually makes life easier.

Meizu Pro 7 and Pro 7 Plus

The difference is not only in size, but also in characteristics, the usual “seven” has the Mediatek Helio P25 processor, the large Mediatek Helio X30. The regular Pro 7 has a 3000 mAh battery, the Plus has a 3500 mAh battery. The big one can 4K, the small one can't. The big one is really big in the hand, the small one is perceived as some kind of spindle, like the Nokia 3310.

And this, by the way, is nice - I constantly go with the iPhone 7 Plus and switch to a small device is very cool. Even in the test firmware, the music mode does not work - although this is a sentence from another paragraph. In normal samples in this mode, you can listen to music for a VERY long time.

Interlude about separate headphones

It's amazing how many models of separate wireless headphones there are, we went to the market to look for something related to the iPhone 8, but there are a lot of these “ears” in almost every tent. From fake AirPods, stupid and huge, to works of art - and I mean it seriously. What is not there. Moreover, there are a lot of people with such headphones on the streets of Hong Kong, a lot of AirPods owners.

On the other hand, there are many stores with a variety of classic headphones on the computer market - they have everything, cables, nozzles, accessories, portable DACs, and all this is not idle, people walk, listen, take an interest. The wire is still too early to write off. But, I wanted to say here that in Russia AirPods are almost the only ones in their class, but in fact the category is developing by leaps and bounds.

Exterior

Pleasant smartphones who want to hide black, shiny black, pink or gold color of the case - take the case out of the package and hide the beauty. I would not do this, the second screen, brushed aluminum (or glossy black aluminum), well-camouflaged antennas, well-designed little things, controls, the way the Flyme shell blends with the body, the most convenient touch button under the display - it's all cool! And for this you can pay 33,000 rubles or 40,000 rubles (preliminary prices for Pro 7 and Pro 7 Plus) - but here you need to know and understand the nuances.

For example, if I were buying an Android smartphone, I would take a Pixel - to be honest, I won’t lie. Or Sony Xperia XZ Premium because I love Sony. But if I was looking for something for dad, easy to learn, well-made, so that he would not whine about the lack of a memory card slot, then he would also consider Pro 7. Draw your own conclusions. But here, in addition to excellent design, there are other positive chips.

Interlude about Adidas NMD

A friend from China was with us on the trip and he said that the Adidas NMD is a cult thing here, that it is being swept off the shelves, that it is considered very cool and in Moscow he buys all the versions that appear in stores. I thought it was nonsense and wandered around Hong Kong and Adidas Originals stores. Let me remind you that buying NMD in Moscow is not a problem at all. Here - in one sold out, in the second there was one model of the smallest size (!), in the third there were NMDs from the new collection, but also not all sizes. Prices are similar to Moscow. But the accessibility is not the same. By the way, walking in China in ordinary (not limited) NMD is very cool, convenient, comfortable, cozy, as expected, God bless you.

Audio

Once upon a time there were Meizu MP3 players and I suspect that they sold many millions of them before they spread to smartphones - they talked about the glorious past at the presentation, well, it’s clear that music is considered an important part of the Pro 7. An article about the new Meizu Flow headphones I'm cooking, it's good. The Pro 7 has a Cirrus Logic CS43130 Hi-Fi DAC with an integrated headphone amplifier. Please love and respect. Almost a Hi-Fi player, the smartphone understands FLAC - almost all of the downloaded 10 GB, but here again I'll write off the test firmware.

The player is simple but stylish. The sound quality for the phone is awesome, I listened just with Flow. I know that there are people who don’t shoot a lot, but they constantly listen to music - this is just such a machine. It is a pity that there is no slot for a memory card and the version with 128 GB is only Pro 7 Plus. Therefore, if you want to combine a sound-quality gadget and a smartphone with two SIM cards and good screens, here is a ready-made option for you.

Interlude about small backpacks on the stomach

In Hong Kong, I noticed that here the love for small backpacks for wearing on the stomach has become truly rampant, I don’t know how to explain it better - it may look strange, but very convenient. And then there are a bunch of fanny packs, small chest bags, a bunch of backpacks - in short, hypebeast.com in action. By the way, this site has a special Chinese version. At every step in Hong Kong there are shops with bags and backpacks, and sometimes the brand name resembles well-known ones - you go in and this is such an easy deception, they changed one letter or simply borrowed part of the name. Although there are quite good local brands of accessories that deserve attention.

How Ilya and I took pictures

Well, we shot photos, videos, and selfies on Meizu Pro 7, but we’d better wait for the final samples and the final firmware and show you. That's the truth, trust me.

Interlude about Flyme

Rarely does the shell of a smartphone penetrate you so much that you then start to lightly touch the sensor on the iPhone to go back - this is Flyme. A dangling level in the camera button, perfect fonts, icons, a ready-to-use smartphone for a person with any level of training.

If you want - dig, if you want, use it as it is. So I will say, if you are for Pixel, then Meizu will not come to you. If you like to dig and imbue the ideas of smart people, then it’s interesting to play with Flyme, you just feel like a pioneer. In a good way, no bullshit.

What was it?

After the presentations, I constantly ask myself this question and try to answer it without eeeeee or nuuuuuu: Meizu showed a new smartphone for a wide audience, with a second display for a change, with advanced audio capabilities, without comparison with the iPhone 7 or Samsung, without aggression and show-off. In our time, already such an easy approach is expensive. In Zhuhai, a Chinese city, they booked an opera house, invited fans, made a beautiful presentation, now we'll wait for the final iron in Russia and make a review. In the meantime, I'll take the Meizu Pro 7 from the table, carefully put it in my pocket and go through the streets of Hong Kong to see the treasured 10,000 steps on the second screen. What, I like it.

SPECIFICATIONS OF MEIZU PRO 7:

Display: 5.2 "SuperAMOLED, 1920x1080 pixels, protective glass 2.5D

Processor: Mediatek Helio P25 (64-bit, 8-core, up to 2.6 GHz, Cortex-A53)

Graphics: Mali-T880 MP2 (1GHz)

RAM: 4 GB, DDR4X

Internal memory: 64 GB, UFS 2.1

Battery: 3000 mAh with fast charging function (2A/9V)

Body colors: black, gold, red

SPECIFICATIONS OF MEIZU PRO 7 PLUS:

Connectivity: 2 nano SIM cards with LTE support

Display: 5.7 "SuperAMOLED, 2560x1440 pixels, protective glass 2.5D

Secondary display: 1.9” AMOLED, 240×536 pixels, touchscreen, color

Processor: Mediatek Helio X30 (64-bit, 10-core, up to 2.5 GHz, Cortex-A53 + Cortex-A73)

Graphics: IMG PowerVR 7XTP-MT4 (800MHz)

RAM: 6 GB, DDR4X

Internal memory: 64 GB / 128 GB, UFS 2.1

Main camera: 12 MP + 12 MP, SONY IMX386, f/2.0, 6 lenses, phase and laser autofocus, dual tone flash, special portrait mode (background blur), AcrSoft algorithms

Front camera: 16MP, f/2.0, 6 lenses, wide angle, Face AE light boost, FotoNation 2.0 smart selfie, ArcSoft algorithms

Audio: Cirrus Logic CS43130 Hi-Fi DAC with integrated headphone amplifier

Interfaces: dual-band Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac; 2.4/5 GHz), Bluetooth 4.1 LE, 3.5 mm headphone jack, USB Type C with USB-OTG support, USB-HOST

mTouch fingerprint scanner, 360 degree scanning, read in 0.15 sec

Navigation: GPS/A-GPS/GLONASS, electronic compass

Battery: 3500 mAh with fast charging function (2A/9V)

Dimensions: 7.3 mm, weight 160 grams

Body colors: matte black, space black, amber gold and crystal silver.

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A few years ago, users greeted each new generation of flagships with great enthusiasm, because the smartphone became faster, lighter and better. However, in recent years, manufacturers have hit the ceiling in terms of characteristics, so they have to surprise buyers with original solutions, and not numbers in benchmarks.

Meizu is well aware of this trend, so in their new flagship they decided to please users with such an unusual element as a second small display. The solution itself is original, and in this article we will also evaluate its usefulness for the end owner.

Watch

The simplest and most understandable feature of the second display is the time display. Works very simply. We turned the smartphone screen down - the second display lit up and showed the clock for a few seconds. If the PRO 7 Plus is already on the table, then just tap twice to turn on the small screen.

Notifications and calls

The display can notify you of new messages and calls. In the first case, a small bell will be shown under the clock, and in the second, a message about the call. Interestingly, during a conversation, its animation is on the screen, it looks original.

Music player

When Meizu sent out invitations to the presentation of PRO 7 Plus, the company intrigued participants with various slogans related to music players. Someone even assumed that they would introduce a new player. But it turned out that it was a teaser for one of the possibilities of the second display.

In PRO 7 you can turn on the super power-saving mode, in which only the player will work, and the small display becomes a control panel for it.

In fact, the smartphone turns into a player with a capacious battery. This is very convenient for situations when the device is already close to the discharge, and you want to stretch listening to music for a longer time.

Selfie on the main camera

No matter how good the front camera is, manufacturers rarely manage to make it at the same level as the main module. With the advent of dual cameras and portrait mode, this situation is only getting worse. Here you are photographing other people with a beautiful background blur effect, but you can’t click on yourself like that. It's a shame? Not that word! In PRO 7 Plus, the second display solves this problem completely. It turns into a viewfinder when you shoot, so you can check out the shot before you shoot, using the rear rather than the front camera. To activate this function, you need to click on the second screen icon in the camera interface, in the future you can open the camera directly from the small screen, just swipe down or up on it.

When the camera is open on the second screen, you can long press to turn on the three-second timer. This is enough time to move the smartphone further away and capture more details in the frame.

More options for portraits

You will laugh, but girls are often unhappy with pictures taken on a smartphone. In this case, it is usually not about the quality of the photo, but about how they themselves look: either something is wrong with the pose, or the facial expression is not the same, etc. Sometimes you have to shoot a lot of takes before you get a good shot. Especially for such situations, you can use a small screen as a mirror, when shooting, the model will immediately understand how it will turn out, and will be able to take a different pose, smile or fix her hair.

Weather

The weather on the smartphone is displayed in two ways. In the first case, the forecast icon is right below the clock. The second option is a forecast for the entire display with beautiful animation.

Pedometer

Now an increasing number of users are abandoning separate pedometers in favor of built-in smartphones. Few people look at special statistics by month, but it’s sometimes curious to know how many steps you took per day. Meizu PRO 7 Plus also has a built-in pedometer, information from it can also be displayed on an additional screen.

Wallpaper and GIF animation on the second screen

One of the spectacular features of the second display is the ability to set static wallpapers or animated GIFs. When you turn your smartphone over, they will start automatically. By default, animations of a hummingbird, a fluttering silk scarf, an explosion of colors, slowly pouring water and a beautiful blue jellyfish are available, but you can always add any "gif" you want, whether it's a yawning cat or a blossoming flower.

General display navigation

As you can see, the second display has a lot of additional features, so it would be useful to clarify how navigation through them works. First of all, I note that in the settings there is a separate section dedicated to the settings of the second screen, where you can enable or disable some of the functions.

By default, it is activated when you turn the smartphone in your hands, you can also activate the display with a double tap. Initially, the clock is displayed, a swipe to the left opens the pedometer data, and another swipe shows the current weather forecast.

Vertical gestures bring up the camera app. In it, you can either immediately take a photo using the volume rocker, or choose one of three modes: standard, portrait with background blur, and beautifier. By the way, you can process the picture later, Flyme has a very functional gallery.

Dry characteristics

When designing various "wow-chips", the convenience of users is often forgotten. For example, Meizu could perfectly supply an inexpensive low-resolution IPS display for the second screen, and even save on an oleophobic coating.

But the company wanted to make not only a spectacular, but also a convenient function for its smartphone, so with a diagonal of 1.9 inches, the display has a resolution of 536x240 pixels! AMOLED is used as a matrix, and the screen is covered with protective glass with a good oleophobic coating.

Conclusion

No matter how good some separate feature is, any buyer perceives the smartphone as a whole, so it is important that the same dual screen be the icing on the cake, and not the only element worthwhile. Meizu understands this, which is why the PRO 7 Plus has a high-quality AMOLED display, a powerful MediaTek Helio X30 chipset, and, of course, excellent dual cameras with background blur.

Friends! We invite you to take a closer look at the flagship of the Chinese company Meizu - the Meizu Pro 7 Plus model, the uniqueness of which lies in equipping it with two screens.

Many fans of gadgets from the Middle Kingdom believe that Xiaomi is a Chinese Apple. However, not only this manufacturer can boast of good smartphones. For example, in the case of Meizu Pro 7 Plus, the magic begins at the first glance at the box…

Appearance

The smartphone comes with a plastic case, a key for the SIM card tray, a charger with a USB-C cable, and instructions. The set is quite standard, but, frankly, there are not enough headphones in it.

Itself is a perfectly assembled product. On the front, there is a 5.7-inch Super AMOLED display with QHD (2560x1440 px) resolution. Unlike other phones. released in 2017, there is no bezel here - there is still a lot of space around the screen, especially when it comes to the top and bottom bezels. Under the screen, the manufacturer placed a physical mTouch button, which is both a Home, Back button and a fingerprint scanner (to quickly unlock the screen, you need to press the button and hold your finger on it).

There are no frills above the screen - a speaker for talking, on which there is a proximity sensor, and next to it is a single front camera. Not without a notification indicator, which is monochromatic (white).

Specifications Meizu Pro 7 Plus

Mediatek is not so bad

Mediatek haters will be disappointed - in everyday use, the Meizu Pro 7 Plus processor - and this is the Mediatek Helio X30 chip, behaves perfectly. Therefore, users of the device will not have any complaints - the smartphone works very smoothly.

All applications run without any problems, even if there are a lot of them running in the background. Communication is at a very good level - 4G works even in those places where flagships such as Xiaomi Mi 6 and OnePlus 5T take the Network.

Also, there are no problems with wi-fi and GPS - the smartphone catches up with satellites within a few seconds, during the navigation mode everything works very accurately.

Avid players will also be happy with such a smartphone. When using games such as Need for Speed: No Limits or Mortal Kombat X, there were no performance issues. The quality is top notch, no lags.

The disadvantage, unfortunately, is the average life of the Meizu Pro 7 Plus on a single charge. When using the gadget with an average intensity for 1 day, it was possible to achieve an operating time with the screen on at the level of 4-4.5 hours.

The smartphone is super, only this operating system...

Meizu Pro 7 Plus is running the Flyme OS operating system, which, unfortunately, is far from perfect. The current version 6 of the system was released in December 2016 and, unfortunately, has not been updated yet. The design of the firmware is outdated, and user support is a little lame.

Fortunately, work on Flyme OS 7 has officially begun, so let's hope that within a few months the system will be updated and become more modern.

Is an additional display an interesting idea?

Admittedly, adding a second display to the Meizu Pro 7 Plus is an interesting concept. Initially, the user is given the option to customize the screensaver and determine what information should be shown (activities, notifications, weather, preview while shooting). But there is nothing unique about this.

Perhaps the secondary screen of the flagship lacks the ability to continuously display the current time, control Spotify, etc. But at the same time, there is hope that new features will appear along with the next system updates.

Camera in Meizu Pro 7 Plus

It should be noted right away that the smartphone cameras are not impressive. The selfie sensor is okay, although you have to admit that on the second screen it becomes rather an extra addition (the camera on the back of the smartphone is certainly better than the front one). At the same time, the main camera has a big plus - a bokeh effect with background blur, which this device comes out with perfectly.

Review - Xiaomi Mijia Smart Thermometer iHeals and Smart Thermometer Miaomiaoce thermometers

In this video, we will show the non-contact Smart Thermometer Xiaomi iHeals and the Smart Thermometer Miaomiaoce baby thermometer, which allows you to track the temperature of the child.