Meizu 16th First Impressions

Meizu recently made the Meizu 16th official in the Philippines. It's the latest affordable premium smartphone of the Chinese brand equipped with a flagship-grade processor for less.

Meet Meizu 16th

The Meizu 16th is equipped with the Snapdragon 845 chipset. It's the same chip found on most high-end smartphones of 2018. But, it is priced at just PHP 24,990. It is just as affordable as other upper mid-range phones.

In addition, it sports a near bezel-less design, In-Display fingerprint scanner, Sony dual-cameras, and stereo speakers.

Phones with such specs and features are not that common at this price point.

Let's have a look!

Build Quality/Design

Glass back

At first we thought that the Meizu 16th is made out of polycarbonate materials. But it is made out of a special type of sandwiched metal and glass construction with 7-layer of coating which made it feel and look like ceramic. The back is 3D glass.

Close to premium construction!

There's no mention of glass protection for both the screen and the 3D glass back. As expected, it has no IP rating for water and dust resistance.

No notch!

Headphone jack slot, mic, USB-C, and speaker below

Dual SIM tray at left

Power button and volume keys

The design is elegant. It is a stunning looking device with a big 6-inch FHD+ AMOLED screen and small bezels. It has an 18:9 screen aspect ratio and large 89.57 screen-to-body ratio.

Interestingly, Meizu made this high screen-to-body ratio with slim 1.43 mm side bezels possible even if doesn't have a notch. Meizu even managed to squeeze a 20MP f/2.0 selfie camera and an earpiece on the top. The earpiece also serves as the secondary speaker to make the phone produce a stereo effect.

The measurements are also small and slim for a device with a big 6-inch screen. It measures at 150.5 x 73.2 x 7.3 mm.

At the back, it sports a 3D glass design. You will also find the dual-camera setup and the 6-LED ring flash.

The top is clean, but the bottom is loaded. You will find the 3.5mm headphone jack slot, mic, USB-C, and speaker. There's the dual SIM tray at left and the power button/volume keys at right.

Generally, the handset is comfortable to hold. It is just a bit prone to fingerprint smudges like other phones with glassy design.

Initial findings

Near bezel-less design with notchless screen

1. Build is close to premium and it looks good overall for the price. I also like that it has a near bezel-less design with no notch. The 6-inch Super AMOLED screen with FHD+ resolution is impressive as well.

2. Specs are powerful and flagship grade. It has the very fast 64-bit Snapdragon 845 octa-core processor clocked at 2.8GHz. It is also paired with Adreno 630 GPU which can handles all games with ease at high settings. The phone also goes with 6GB RAM and the speedy 64GB UFS 2.1 storage. It has no microSD card slot though.

The battery capacity is also far from big at 3,010mAh. But, it has the mCharge fast charging tech which can fully charge the handset in 90 minutes.

3. The Android 8.1 Oreo with Flyme OS skin is neat looking and smooth as expected. It comes with few bloats, but it is tolerable. We also noticed that its more of a gesture based UI versus other skins. It is not easy to use at first. It'll take a bit of time before you can master it.

Dual cam

4. It has a 12MP f/1.8 Sony IMX380 sensor + 20MP f/2.6 Sony IMX350 sensor and 6-LED ring flash. I like that it even comes with Dual Pixel PDAF, laser AF, OIS, and 3x optical zoom. It is one of the most competitive camera configuration at its price point.

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2x zoom

3x zoom

The cameras are great right off the bat. It even has a portrait mode and AI for scene detection.

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2x zoom

3x zoom

For selfies, you will find a 20MP f/2.0 selfie camera. It comes with face beauty and portrait selfie bokeh.

Selfie featuring Leslie Gene Ordinario

Selfie 2

Selfie 3

5. The Meizu 16th is also complete with an In-Display fingerprint scanner, USB-C, and stereo speakers. It even has an RGB LED notification at the left of the camera. It also goes with all the common sensors found on high-end smartphones.

Meizu 16th Specs

Display: 6-inch 2.5D curved Super AMOLED screen w/ FHD+ 2160 x 1080 resolution at 402 ppi

CPU: 2.8GHz 64-bit Snapdragon 845 octa-core processor

GPU: Adreno 630

RAM: 6GB

ROM: 64GB UFS 2.1

Main Camera: 12MP f/1.8 Sony IMX380 sensor + 20MP f/2.6 Sony IMX350 sensor w/ Dual Pixel PDAF, laser AF, 3x optical zoom, OIS, and 6-LED ring flash

Selfie Camera: 20MP f/2.0

Battery: 3,010mAh w/ mCharge fast charging

OS: Android 8.1 Oreo w/ Flyme OS

Connectivity: WiFi 802.11 b/g/n (2.4GHz/5GHz), 4G LTE, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, GLONASS, dual SIM

Sensors: Accelerometer, light, orientation, proximity, gyroscope, sound, magnetic

Others: In-Display fingerprint sensor, AI face unlock, USB-C, stereo speakers

Dimensions: 150.5 x 73.2 x 7.3 mm

Weight: 152 g

Price: PHP 24,990

As of the moment

The Meizu 16th is one of the most complete and powerful for the price. The only minor weakness we can see so far is the lack of a microSD card slot. Maybe it could also be better if the battery size is larger than 3,010mAh.

Other than that, there are very few who can match of compete with its overall value for money at PHP 24,990.

We will try to secure a review unit for our full review!

Note: You can get the Meizu 16th at Shopee Mall.

We will keep you posted!