In May last year, Meizu 17 series went official that included two phones named the Meizu 17 & 17 Pro. Both the phones featured Snapdragon 865 5G SOC, a 90Hz AMOLED panel, 64 Megapixel Sony IMX686 primary camera sensor, a 4,500mAH battery & 30W fast wired charging. Today, the Meizu 18 series was unveiled in China and this time as well, there are two phones under this series. There is the vanilla Meizu 18 and the more feature-packed Meizu 18 Pro. Last year, Meizu 17 series started at ¥3,699 whereas this time, the 18 series starts at ¥4,399.
MEIZU 18 – DESIGN, SPECIFICATIONS & PRICING
Speaking of the Meizu 18 first, it has a rectangular camera module with triple cameras in it and a centered hole-punch cutout on the front, both of which are seen in every other phone in the market. So while Meizu devices are known for unique designs, that doesn’t seem to be the case this time. Anyways, the panel on the front is curved on all four sides and the fingerprint scanner is placed under it. One interesting thing about the fingerprint scanner is that this is Qualcomm’s ultrasonic fingerprint scanner which we have seen on Samsung’s premium flagships. There is no 3.5mm headphone jack but that is no longer a surprise. There are stereo speakers as well.
On the front, Meizu 18 has a 6.2-inch 2K Super AMOLED panel featuring a 120Hz refresh rate and a 240Hz touch-sampling rate. The brightness peaks at 1,300 nits & the panel supports HDR10+. Under the hood, there is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset paired with 8GB/12GB LPDDR5 RAM and 128/256GB UFS 3.1 storage. The battery underneath is a 4,000mAh unit and the phone supports 36W fast wired charging. There is no support for wireless charging, something that the Pro version has.
Speaking of the cameras, there are three on the back that includes a primary 64 Megapixel Sony IMX682 sensor with OIS and f/1.6 aperture lens, a secondary 16 Megapixel Samsung sensor for taking ultrawide as well as macro shots, and a third 8 Megapixel telephoto camera with 3X optical zoom. On the front, there is a 20 Megapixel camera for selfies.
Meizu 18 launched in three colors and three storage options and here is the pricing for the Chinese market –
- 8GB + 128GB – ¥4,399 (~$680)
- 8GB + 256GB – ¥4,699 (~$726)
- 12GB + 256GB – ¥4,999 (~$770)
MEIZU 18 PRO – DESIGN, SPECIFICATIONS & PRICING
Meizu 18 Pro is the most premium phone right now by the brand and compared to the 18, it features a bigger camera module with an extra sensor in it. It has a similar Quad-curved front glass with a hole-punch cutout in the middle.
The display is bigger at 6.7-inches and there is Gorilla Glass 6 protection. It is the same panel as one the Meizu 18 i.e., 120Hz 2K Super AMOLED. There is Snapdragon 888 SOC, 8/12GB LPDDR5 RAM, and 128/256GB UFS 3.1 storage. The battery is bumped up to 4,500mAh and there is 40W Fast Wired charging along with 40W fat wired as well as fast wireless charging. It also supports 10W reverse wireless charging.
Speaking of the camera setup on the rear, there is a primary 50 Megapixel (23mm) Samsung GN1 sensor with an f/1.9 aperture lens and OIS, a secondary 32 Megapixel (15mm) Sony IMX616 sensor for 130-degree ultrawide and 2cm macro shots, an 8 Megapixel (78mm) telephoto lens with 3X Optical Zoom and a 3D Time of Flight sensor. On the front is a 44 Megapixel Samsung GH1 sensor with an f/2.4 aperture lens.
Meizu 18 Pro comes in three colors and three storage options, just like its younger sibling. Here is the pricing for China –
- 8GB + 128GB – ¥4999 (~$770)
- 8GB + 256GB – ¥5499 (~$850)
- 12GB + 256GB – ¥5999 (~$928)
The pre-sale has begun in the Chinese market from today and there is no word from the brand on launching these devices outside the Chinese market.