Meizu announced its first smartphone of the year, the Meizu M6S a couple of days back. After a dull 2017, the company seems to have done their homework this time, bringing a solid contender in the $150 price segment, directly taking on the current champion, the Redmi 5 Plus. So, it was very important that we got our Meizu M6S hands on as soon as possible to see if it lives up to our expectations.

The phone borrows a lot of design elements from the Meizu Pro 6, including nano injected U shaped antenna lines in a solid metal body. Also, with this phone, Meizu is joining the 18:9 club, featuring a 5.7-inch HD+ display on the front. This reduces the bezels on all the sides, making it similar to the Redmi 5 Plus and other 18:9 phones in the market. The back has a smooth finish with the camera sensor and flash placed at the center for a perfect symmetry. The logo lies below them, and given that our unit is from the first batch of M6S, we got the mblu branding at the back. After the initial batch is sold out, new M6S units will feature just the Meizu branding at the back.

Coming back to the front, we definitely have to talk about the Halo button on the screen. It’s called as Super mBack, an updated version of the popular mBack button, but this time around, it’s a virtual button instead of a physical one that’s seen on other Meizu devices. But it’s not your typical onscreen button as it features a pressure sensitive chip as well as a linear vibration motor below it to ensure smooth navigation. So, the halo button basically acts as the mBack button, in the virtual form.

You can touch for going back, press for getting to the home screen, swipe for multitasking and do a lot more with this one button. Check out this article for more details on how this Halo button works. However, if you are not used to Meizu’s mBack, it might take some time for you to get used to the gestures. Of course, if you want stock Android buttons, you can use them as well. Also, Meizu’s VP has confirmed that you will be getting an option to hide this halo button in the February 5 update, which opens up a bit more screen real estate.

Another interesting aspect of the Meizu M6S is its side mounted fingerprint sensor. Often companies shift fingerprint sensors to the back in an 18:9 display phone, but in this case, Meizu thought that wasn’t the optimal solution. Hence, the fingerprint sensor goes to the right side of the phone, below the power button. The placement is good, as you can instantly access the sensor to unlock the phone. The sensor is quick to recognise your registered fingerprint, and it’s as fast as other phones. Also, note that you almost never use the power button as the phone instantly wakes up as soon as your fingerprint is recognised.

The 3.5mm headphone jack, MicroUSB port, and speakers are located at the bottom. The volume buttons and the SIM card slots are placed on the left side of the phone.

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Overall, I like the built quality and finish of the Meizu M6S. The camera is quite okay so far, but I haven’t tested it out yet. It may not be as good as the M6 Note, but we’ll be adding camera samples and its comparison with the Redmi 5 Plus very soon. So stay tuned!

Meanwhile, you can take a look at some additional Meizu M6S Hands on pictures down below.

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