While last year’s …… oh sorry, this year’s Meizu 20 leaves a lot to be desired, it was cheap enough to entice some people on a budget to buy it. So with the Meizu 21 going up in price 8 months from now, what’s it got to offer that would make me shell out that $470 to pick it up? I guess the biggest reason would be its looks.
Design
The phone gives me a bit of a strange feeling, it looks like the bastard child of Samsung and NOTHING phone. But I have to say, it does look quite good. Maybe it’s because all the other phones are so flashy in design, that it looks like the Meizu 21 is particularly minimalistic.
And they’ve put a little more thought into the flash: R! G! B! It beats to the music and can also be used to check the current volume level, quite an interesting little design. The vibration motor, which Meizu has always been proud of, is as good as ever, and the IR blaster and NFC are not absent. If only the IP54 could be replaced with an IP68, this phone would be perfect.
Display
With most cell phones, you can tell at a glance what brand it is when you look at the back of them. People like us who have reviewed a lot of phones can even accurately name the model number of each one. But I believe nobody can recognize a phone by its front, except for the Meizu 21 white version.
This white bezel will let you know it’s a Meizu phone without lighting up the screen, and the bezels aren’t equal width by the looks, they’re truly equal width. The front camera will also be a little smaller than other phones. All in all the Meizu 21 from the front is both unique and beautiful.
Well, when you tap on the screen, you might be a bit disappointed. I didn’t expect to see this 1080p Samsung E6 panel in a world where 1200p and 1440p screens are everywhere. Although the Meizu 21 will be a little smaller than other phones, the actual PPI of 321 is still more painful for literature lovers.
Combined with the PWM dimming, the peak brightness and viewing angle are not as good as other phones in the same price range, I’d hardly say this is a good screen. Since current technology hasn’t been able to get rid of the black matrix completely, the black line also makes it look less than perfect on the front panel.
All in all, this screen isn’t great in terms of display, and anyone looking to buy the Meizu 21 shouldn’t expect too much from this screen.
Benchmark & Gaming
Unsurprisingly, the Meizu 21 uses a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. But surprisingly, the performance of the Meizu 21 looks good and the thermal dissipation is quite better than last year’s Meizu 20. Does this mean that gaming isn’t as bad as it used to be either?
Yes, the gaming experience is much improved on the Meizu 21 as well. While it consumes more power and gets hotter than other 8 Gen 3 phones, it at least lets you keep your frame rates high for long periods of time. Well, shortcomings in performance Meizu has finally made up for, I guess.
Camera
There are three cameras on the Meizu 21, and minus the useless depth of field camera, there are really only two cameras on the Meizu 21 that you’ll use regularly.
As you know, the 200 MP primary camera is there to make up for the lack of a telephoto camera, and the zoomed-in photos can still have good clarity, not exactly a gimmick. But Meizu doesn’t seem to think so. The Meizu 21 photo seems to be 20MP instead of 200MP, and not as sharp as the 50MP Redmi K70.
Maybe the 200MP mode Meizu hasn’t been debugged yet? So let’s zoom in with auto mode to take a look. It doesn’t win over the K70 either at 2x or 4x. I’m pretty sure my hands aren’t shaking and in focus. Just …… I am speechless. You can just use this 200MP main camera as a normal 12MP one.
But hey, without zooming in, both cameras are not bad. The front camera can also record 4K 60fps video with image stabilization. If you don’t need much in the way of cameras, the Meizu 21 will barely meet your needs.
Battery & Charging
Charging and battery life aren’t the Meizu 21’s strong points, so you guys can see what it’s probably at by looking at the graphs.
Conclusion
Meizu is still the same as ever. it’s always been different from other phones and has its own unique strengths, like the white front panel, Home Indicator with 3D Touch, and Flyme OS. I appreciate their personalities, but I wouldn’t recommend the Meizu 21 to the non-fanbase because there are just too many phones out there that are more desirable to buy recently, like realme GT5 Pro.
