Meizu Announces New PRO 5
by Andrei Frumusanu on September 23, 2015 11:40 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mobile
- Meizu
- PRO 5
- PRO5
| Meizu PRO 5 Specifications | |
| SoC | Samsung Exynos 7420 4x Cortex A57 @ 2.1GHz + 4x Cortex A53 @ 1.5GHz Mali T760MP8 @ 770MHz |
| RAM | 3 / 4GB LPDDR4-3200 |
| NAND / Storage | 32 / 64GB UFS 2.0 + microSD |
| Display | 5.7" 1920x1080 SuperAMOLED 2.5D Gorilla Glass 3 |
| Network | 2G / 3G / 4G LTE FDD-LTE / TD-LTE / TD-SCDMA / WCDMA / GSM (Chinese Bands) |
| Dimensions | 156.7 x 78 x 7.5 mm 168 grams |
| Camera | 21.16MP Sony IMX230 sensor F/2.0 Main camera w/ Laser + PDAF auto-focus w/ Dedicated Samsung ISP 5MP F/2.0 Front camera |
| Battery | 3050mAh |
| OS | Android 5.1 with Meizu FlymeOS 5.0 |
| Connectivity | 802.11 b/g/n/ac + BT 4.1 + BLE, GPS/GNSS USB Type C |
| SIM Size | nanoSIM + nanoSIM or nanoSIM + microSD |
Meizu continues the newly introduced usage of AMOLED screens. Similar to the MX4, the PRO5 uses a 1080p Samsung panel, but this time it increases the size to 5.7", increasing the footprint of the device to 156.7 x 78mm. The screen now features 2.5D edges and is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3. Meizu was able to shave off 0.1mm of the thickness to get to a total of 7.5mm on the new flagship, but it seems the battery slightly lost some capacity in the process as it goes from 3150mAh in the MX5 to 3050mAh in the PRO5.
Storage-wise the device comes with either 32 or 64GB of memory backed by the new generation UFS 2.0 interface. Main memory also varies between 3GB or 4GB depending on the variant. What is new for Meizu is that for the first time the company is employing a microSD card slot that is part of the dual-SIM tray, meaning one can choose to use either two nanoSIMs, or have a combination of a microSD with a nanoSIM. The dual-SIM functionality provides dual-standby.
Meizu doesn't specify the specific bands or what kind of baseband processor is used on the PRO5. Last year we saw the MX4 Pro make unique use of a Marvell Armada baseband so we'll have to wait until the device is launched to find out what made it into this year's unit. It should be mentioned though that for now it seems Meizu limits itself to the Chinese market as the band support for western networks looks to be sparse.
On the camera-side, we now see usage of a new Sony IMX230 sensor. This is the same sensor found on the recently announced Moto X Style and Moto X Play. The sensor is encased in a 6-lens F/2.0 camera module. Interestingly, Meizu advertises usage of a dedicated Samsung ISP that is supposed to improve image quality. The camera is able to record 4K video in HEVC format, which should help reduce file sizes.
Among the usual top-end connectivity features, the phone comes with a new USB Type C connector which should enable it to be future-proof as the industry transitions over to the new standard.
The Meizu PRO5 comes in gold, grey, silver and silver & black colour options in either 3GB/32GB or 4GB/64GB variants priced at respectively￥2799 (US$438, 393€) or ￥3099 (US$485, 435€).
Source: Meizu
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
56 Comments
View All Comments
xilience - Wednesday, September 23, 2015 - link
Can you go into more detail about why other vendors aren't able to employ Exynos 7420? Seems like the best SoC currently, so it would be great to see it come to more devices. (and hopefully at better price points!)Andrei Frumusanu - Wednesday, September 23, 2015 - link
I don't have any more information than anybody else. It's not like other vendors aren't *able* to get them, SLSI would probably love to sell them. It's a complex issue of pricing, availability (contracts with the mobile division taking up most chips?) and many other factors. Samsung LSI doesn't comment on the matter so we can at best guess why it is like it is.lilmoe - Wednesday, September 23, 2015 - link
Did you hear any news about a "Snapdragon 820-B" or whatever the rumors are saying?Andrei Frumusanu - Wednesday, September 23, 2015 - link
Revision 3? Nothing out of the ordinary.quiksilvr - Friday, September 25, 2015 - link
My guess would have to be software. Very few vendors actually run stock vanilla android and from what I've seen on this, it is a very custom (and iOS rip-offy) OS. You can't just slap in a Exynos chip and expect it to work with their custom OS on the get-go. Snapdragon is familiar and chances are vendors have long standing deals with them.lilmoe - Wednesday, September 23, 2015 - link
This would have been the perfect phone if:- Didn't have that horrid skin.
- Didn't look too much like a damn iPhone... At least the back isn't.
Akatsuki786 - Wednesday, September 23, 2015 - link
thats actually what has made this phone popular iphone feel running android softwarebernstein - Wednesday, September 23, 2015 - link
i wish i could buy an android phone and run iOS on it... love the software, hate the hardware...neo_1221 - Wednesday, September 23, 2015 - link
Lol, I wish the exact opposite. I can't deny that Apple makes great hardware (I really want the camera from the iPhone 6S) but I can't stand iOS. This phone would be very tempting if it were a bit smaller (and coming to the US).bklm1234 - Wednesday, September 23, 2015 - link
@neo_1221: totally agree with you. I can't stand iOS. For example, It's just an app launcher without any consideration for apps to talk to one another. Apps run in silos. Android has "Share" capability forever. Apps can't pass content to one another without the developers hot wiring which apps are communicate'able. For example, I can use any TTS app to read out any app's content. That's tremendous. How about choosing your own app defaults. Why email on iOS only opens Safari when you tap a URL, not Chrome, not any other browser? And I can't always get Safari to zoom in so I can read the freaking text. It's totally stopping the show.