China's Meizu bucks trends with three new notchless phones
The new Meizu 15 Lite, Meizu 15 and Meizu 15 Plus come packing pretty impressive specs including OLED displays and Samsung's Exynos processor.
Chinese phone maker's latest iPhone-clone is its new Meizu 15.
Chinese phone maker Meizu is oddly choosing Sunday of all days to launch three brand new notch-free phones.
The Meizu 15 trio of metal-clad iPhone-looking phones mostly come with midrange specs, though the Meizu 15 Plus version boasts Samsung's Exynos 8895, the chip used in last year's Samsung Galaxy S8 .
Interestingly, it seems Meizu isn't bothered by the recent bevy of Android phones with notched screens that have launched in its home country -- all three of its phones, the Meizu 15 Lite, Meizu 15 and Meizu 15 Plus come notch-free. Of note is the Plus version, which comes with a 5.95-inch AMOLED display from Samsung on top of the Exynos chip.
That's not to say that the Meizu 15 and 15 Lite aren't any good -- both phones use a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 and 626 processor respectively, and come with a 5.46-inch display, with the Meizu 15 using an AMOLED display while the M15 uses LCD instead.
The Meizu 15 and 15 Plus are equipped with dual rear cameras, 20-megapixel and 12-megapixel. Both phones use a telephoto and wide angle lens set up, with 3x lossless zoom. On the other hand, the lower-end 15 Lite only has one 20-megapixel rear camera. All three phones will sport a 20-megapixel front camera.
Other cool features in the phones include a more sensitive vibration motor that supposedly is able to mimic "perfectly" -- Meizu's own words -- the feeling of pressing on a physical button. There are also two stereo speakers located at the top and bottom of the phone.
While the phones will launch in China first on April 29, Meizu says the devices should be available globally in select markets -- unfortunately this does not include the US, UK or Australia, but there's a pretty long list of markets that includes countries like the UAE, Singapore, Hong Kong, Ukraine and Spain.
Meizu's new lineup
| Meizu 15 Lite | Meizu 15 | Meizu 15 Plus | |
| Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon 626 | Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 | Samsung Exynos 8895 |
| Display | 5.46-inch full-HD LCD | 5.46-inch full-HD OLED | 5.95-inch 2K OLED |
| Memory | 4GB | 4GB | 6GB |
| Storage | 64GB | 64GB or 128GB | 64GB or 128GB |
| Camera | 20-megapixel rear camera | Dual 12-megapixel and 20-megapixel rear camera | Dual 12-megapixel and 20-megapixel rear camera |
| Operating system | Flyme 7 (Android) | Flyme 7 (Android) | Flyme 7 (Android) |
| Battery | 3,000mAh | 3,000mAh | 3,500mAh |
| Price | Starting from 1,700 Chinese yuan (converts to $270, £190 and AU$350) | Starting from 2,500 Chinese yuan (converts to $400, £285 and AU$520) | Starting from 3,000 Chinese yuan (converts to $475, £340 and AU$620) |
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