Meizu Pro 6 review: Changing lanes

Display

The Meizu Pro 6 packs a 5.2" Super AMOLED screen of 1080p resolution, which results in 423ppi. The images are crystal clear and sharp, the viewing angles are excellent, as is the contrast.

The screen of the Pro 6 is half an inch smaller than the Pro 5's, but in its defense it improves the pixel density, helps the handling and, most importantly, brings 3D Press capabilities. We'll explore these in detail in due time.

The pixel arrangement is the usual Diamond PenTile. According to Meizu, the Pro 6 uses a 5.5 generation Samsung AMOLED panel.

The colors provided by the Meizu Pro 6 are good, but not perfect, just like it was with the Pro 5. The two displays are tuned slightly differently as the average DeltaE of the Pro 6 is slightly lower at 5.3 (for the primaries, plus black and white), but the max DeltaE is higher at 10.2. What it means is the Pro 6 screen is well calibrated (Avg DeltaE of 5.3, anything below 4 is considered perfectly calibrated), but the white color (DeltaE of 10.2) is way off, which explains the less than perfect score.

The white color came out bluish in all of the display modes, but we were able to get better calibration by moving the color slider midway into the Warm option.

The contrast is as good as an AMOLED screen can offer and the brightness, at 360 nits, is slightly better than the promised 350 nits. The AMOLED units aren't known to be very bright to begin with - the Pro 5 is slightly dimmer (322nits), while the Galaxy S6 display (363nits) is on par with the Pro 6.

A definite positive point is that the minimum level of brightness is only 3 nits, which would make for an extremely comfortable reading experience in pitch dark environments.

You will probably notice the screen is not completely dim at pitch black color. It turns out lots of the AMOLEDs out there can't go completely dark, but we can only guess about the reasons. Some suggest this is to prevent screen burn-in, while others point to backlight leaks - the current passing through the LEDs to sustain the screen refresh rate. Anyway, this shouldn't bother you, but it gives a better explanation of the results below.

The sunlight legibility is great and you'll have no problem seeing what's happening on the screen even under bright sunlight.

Sunlight contrast ratio

• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  4.615
• Samsung Galaxy S7 edge
  4.439
• Samsung Galaxy S7
  4.376
• HTC One A9
  4.274
• Samsung Galaxy A3
  4.241
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  4.124
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  4.124
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  4.09
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  4.019
• OnePlus X
  3.983
• Oppo R7s
  3.964
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016)
  3.918
• Samsung Galaxy A5
  3.895
• Samsung Galaxy J7 outdoor
  3.879
• Samsung Galaxy J2 outdoor
  3.873
• Samsung Galaxy A8
  3.859
• Apple iPhone 6
  3.838
• Microsoft Lumia 950XL
  3.837
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (2016)
  3.817
• Motorola Moto X (2014)
  3.816
• Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016)
  3.789
• Apple iPhone 6s
  3.783
• Meizu Pro 5
  3.781
• Microsoft Lumia 650
  3.772
• Oppo F1 Plus
  3.709
• Vivo X5Pro
  3.706
• Apple iPhone SE
  3.681
• Samsung Galaxy A7
  3.679
• Meizu PRO 6
  3.659
• BlackBerry Priv
  3.645
• Apple iPhone 6s Plus
  3.53
• Acer Jade Primo
  3.521
• Microsoft Lumia 950
  3.512
• Oppo R7 Plus
  3.499
• Samsung Galaxy J7
  3.422
• Meizu MX5
  3.416
• Oppo R7
  3.32
• Xiaomi Mi 5
  3.24
• Samsung Galaxy J2
  3.235
• Motorola Moto X Play
  3.222
• Huawei P9
  3.195
• Lenovo Vibe Shot
  3.113
• Motorola Moto X Force
  3.105
• LG Nexus 5X
  3.092
• Huawei Mate S
  3.073
• Microsoft Lumia 640 XL
  3.065
• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  3.023
• Sony Xperia X
  2.989
• Samsung Galaxy Note
  2.97
• Huawei Mate 8
  2.949
• LG G5
  2.905
• HTC One S
  2.901
• Sony Xperia Z5
  2.876
• Microsoft Lumia 550
  2.851
• Sony Xperia Z5 compact
  2.784
• Meizu MX4 Pro
  2.765
• LG V10
  2.744
• Xiaomi Redmi 3
  2.735
• Sony Xperia M5
  2.69
• Vivo V3Max
  2.659
• Xiaomi Mi 4i
  2.641
• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  2.574
• Microsoft Lumia 640
  2.563
• Oppo F1
  2.528
• Sony Xperia Z5 Premium
  2.525
• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  2.503
• Motorola Moto G
  2.477
• Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus
  2.473
• Huawei G8
  2.471
• Sony Xperia Z
  2.462
• Huawei Honor 7
  2.406
• ZUK Z1 by Lenovo
  2.382
• HTC 10
  2.378
• Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
  2.378
• HTC One E9+
  2.305
• Alcatel One Touch Hero
  2.272
• Lenovo Vibe K4 Note
  2.254
• Sony Xperia C5 Ultra
  2.253
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (MediaTek)
  2.249
• Sony Xperia C4 Dual
  2.235
• Motorola Moto G (2014)
  2.233
• LG Nexus 5
  2.228
• Huawei P8
  2.196
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 2
  2.166
• OnePlus Two
  2.165
• HTC One X
  2.158
• LG Aka
  2.145
• Archos 50 Diamond
  2.134
• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  2.119
• Acer Liquid X2
  2.084
• Huawei P8lite
  2.078
• Moto G 3rd gen max manual
  2.026
• Sony Xperia E4g
  1.972
• OnePlus One
  1.961
• BlackBerry Leap
  1.892
• Meizu m2 note
  1.892
• HTC Butterfly
  1.873
• ZTE Nubia Z9 mini
  1.759
• Sony Xperia U
  1.758
• Asus Zenfone Selfie
  1.68
• Motorola Moto E (2nd Gen)
  1.675
• ZTE Nubia Z9
  1.659
• Motorola Moto E
  1.545
• Sony Xperia M
  1.473
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  1.311
• Sony Xperia C
  1.283
• Meizu MX
  1.221

Battery life

The Pro 6 has 500mAh less battery capacity compared to the Pro 5 - for a total of 2,550 mAh. But unlike the energy-efficient Exynos chipset, we didn't quite know what to expect of the new Helio X25 chip.

We ran our battery test and it outed mixed-bag results. The smartphone does average across all of our tests, including the single-SIM and dual-SIM standby.

The rating of 57 hours isn't bad at all - it means you can use the Pro 6 for two full days and then some if you are to make an hour of 3G talks, web browsing and video playback each day. Putting a second SIM card drops the rating down to 54 hours. Such usage pattern is of course entirely artificial, but we've established it so our battery results are comparable across devices.

Obviously the new MediaTek Helio X25 is far from an energy efficient hardware, just like the rest of the MT chipsets we've met so far. Naturally, we've tested the phone on Performance Power Mode. You can save a few more hours on the Balanced Plan, if you like. We surely miss the Exynos chip on the new generation.

This is how long a single battery charge will last you if you use the Meizu Pro 6 for an hour each of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. Such usage pattern is of course entirely artificial, but we've established it so our battery results are comparable across devices.

The battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you're interested in the nitty-gritties. You can also check out our complete battery test table, where you can see how all of the smartphones we've tested will compare under your own typical use.

Connectivity

The Meizu Pro 6 supports LTE Cat.6 connectivity and you can tap into an LTE network on either SIM, but the other will default to a GSM network. The LTE bands our review unit supports include 1(2100), 3(1800), 7(2600), 38(2600), 39(1900), 40(2300), 41(2500). Dual SIM telephony is also supported, but the slot isn't hybrid and you can't put a microSD card inside.

The rest of the wireless connectivity features include dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac support and Wi-Fi Direct. There is also support for Bluetooth 4.1, NFC, and GPS and GLONASS. Wireless screen mirroring is available via the Miracast protocol.

The Pro 6 supports USB Type-C and fast charging. If you have a proper USB OTG adapter, you can attach peripherals and thumb drives. You should be able to charge other devices, but you'd need to get a special adapter as Meizu hasn't included one in the package.