Lately, smartphone manufacturers are attacking the bezels around the display like it’s the enemy to kill. Everyone wants to get rid of anything apart from the display on the phone’s front. We have smartphones that hide the front camera inside its body via a pop-up motor. There are even patents which show off an in-display camera design (coming soon), that lies beneath the display. For those looking for a less expensive option, there’s the notch, and I think we all will agree that waterdrop seems to be the most preferred one. Then came the punch hole camera, that reserves a small dot on the display, usually on one corner, so that it doesn’t hinder your experience.

Meizu’s take on the issue of bezels is a bit unique. With the Meizu 16th model, the company paved the way for a design that embraces the bezels (our 16th hands-on here!) around the display. The new Meizu 16S takes the same design to another level by adding a larger display, surrounded by even thinner bezels. The bezels on the top and the bottom are slimmer, with the chin measuring just 4.2mm. The top bezel is pretty slim as well, despite housing the front camera. This was made possible by using the 20MP Samsung 3T2 selfie sensor, which is the world’s smallest front facing camera.

The display is now 6.2-inches in size, in a relatively similar form factor as its predecessor (151.9 x 73.4 x 7.6mm). The phone might not be as light as the previous model, but at 165 grams, it’s still pretty easy to hold. Not to mention the 0.5° angle arc design that makes it comfortable to hold, even with one hand. The increase in thickness from 7.3mm on the Meizu 16th to 7.6mm in the 16S model is justified because of a significant increase in battery capacity. The new model houses a larger 3600mAh battery on board, which is a solid 20% increase.

We got the pearl white model in for review and it looks enticing. The back has what Meizu calls a plasma finish that gives it a premium look. However, we are even more excited to see how that Carbon Black variant with carbon fiber texture will look in our hands on. We’ll try to get that variant for review, but for now, we are playing around with this Pear White model.

The dual rear camera module consists of a 48MP Sony IMX586 sensor and a 20MP IMX250 sensor. There’s four-axis OIS to ensure the shots come out steady. The AI scene recognition will try to match the right settings for the perfect shot, depending on the environment.

The power and volume buttons are on the right while the left side remains clean. This is because the SIM card slot goes down below, alongside the speaker and USB-C port.

Inside, the Meizu 16S is powered by the flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor with 6GB /8GB RAM and 128GB / 256GB storage options. Adreno 640 GPU works together with Meizu’s Hyper Gaming tech offering a smooth and lag-free gaming experience. Further, mEngine 3.0 also provides an immersive experience with games like BuildTopia.

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Finally, Meizu has ensured that the phone supports NFC. There are stereo speakers for a rich audio experience. Unfortunately, in the pursuit of adding a bigger battery, Meizu had to kill the headphone jack. So, you will have to use its Type-C port for your wired audio needs.

We will review the Meizu 16S in the coming days. So expect a full detailed analysis of the phone soon. Meanwhile, you can check out our review of the Meizu 16th launched last year.

Check out our Meizu 16S hands-on gallery down below.

Meizu 16S hands on

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