The past two years haven’t been great for Meizu. In fact, last year, we saw the company limit its launches significantly, sticking to mainstream lineups like the mid-range Meizu M series and high-end Pro series. Even they didn’t do so well, despite the Meizu M6 Note offering pretty good value for money. So, 2018 is going to be an important year for the company and the Meizu mBlu S6 is going to kick start the year for them.
In case you remember, Meizu was split into three divisions last year, Meizu, Blue Charm, and Flyme. The mBlu S6, which we also call the Meizu M6S, will be the company’s first rebranded Blue Charm smartphone. It actually makes sense to rebrand the mid-range cost effective series, so that it’s given a separate identity, especially when the company is reportedly focusing on high-end devices in 2018.
So, being the first mBlu branded device, we are all interested to see what’s in store for us tomorrow. Luckily, there were enough leaks in the past few months to paint a complete picture of the mBlu S6 and below is a summary of these details.
DESIGN:
Meizu mBlu S6 has adopted a very simple design, keeping the front as well as back clean. So, you have no intrusive buttons or sensors on both the sides. This also means that the company is going to ditch the popular mBack physical home button that we all love. This might not be the best decision, but let’s reserve our judgment until tomorrow. There’s the new mblu branding at the back along with U shaped antennas on the top as well as bottom.
You have the usual power and volume keys on the two sides, but what’s really interesting is the fingerprint sensor that’s placed just below the power button. We have seen companies usually prefer rear placed sensors for 18:9 long screen phones, but Meizu has decided to go with a side mounted one. I am personally not a big fan of rear placed sensors, so this does make things interesting.
Apart from this, there’s nothing special to talk about the mBlu S6’s design. Oh yes, one more thing, expect on screen buttons for navigation.
SPECS:
This is where things get interesting. The mBlu S6 is said to feature a lower mid-range Exynos chipset from Samsung. We are not used to seeing Exynos chips inside non-Samsung devices, but Meizu has always been one manufacturer having very good relationship with the South Korean giant, so the use of this chipset is not surprising. However, it’s worth nothing that the Exynos 7872 has not yet been officially detailed by Samsung. But we do have some rumored / leaked specs of the chipset.
The Exynos 7872 inside the mBlu S6 is said to be manufactured on a 14nm node featuring an hexa-core architecture. The chip is said to sport 2 x Cortex A73 @ 2GHz and 4 x Cortex A53 @1.6GHz cores inside. Graphics is taken care by Mali-G71 MP3 GPU with other notable features including Bluetooth 4.2, Cat 7 LTE, and dual SIM support. According to the Geekbench scores of the mBlu S6, the Exynos 7872 does really well in single core test but lags behind in multi-core test as compared to SD625 (which scores near 4K).
As for the other specs of the mBlu S6, the phone should come with 3GB + 32GB / 64GB storage options, 5.7-inch HD+ 1440 x 720p display with 2.5D curved glass on top, 3000mAh battery with 18W fast charging, Android 7 with Flyme OS, and 16MP rear / 8MP f/2.0 front cameras.
The company confirmed the 18:9 display on the phone earlier today and even added that there was a surprise feature on the phone. I guess, we’ll have to wait until tomorrow to know more details.
PRICING:
The mBlu S6 is said to be a 1000 Yuan segment smartphone and the likely price tag could be 1299 Yuan ($199). The phone launches tomorrow in China and the first set of orders should likely ship within next week.
CONCLUSION:
Everything looks pretty good for the mBlu S6, expect for the fact that with the above mentioned price tag, it competes directly with the Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus. But in terms of the specification that we have seen so far, the mBlu S6 would struggle in front of the Redmi 5 Plus. The resolution is lower on the S6 (HD+ vs FHD+) and the battery is smaller as well (3000 vs 4000). From the specs, the phone is better suited to take on the Redmi 5, which retails for 799 Yuan ($125).
So, the pricing is going to be crucial for the mBlu S6. Or maybe there’s a feature that sets the phone apart from the Redmi devices.
Well, all we have to do now is wait and see if Meizu finally starts the year with a good launch.
ADDITIONAL READING: Meizu’s Uninspiring 2017 Could Be For a Promising 2018
