Meizu Pro 6 Plus review: imPROved

Performance

The Meizu Pro 6 Plus comes in two different versions, although both models are based on the latest Exynos 8890 chipset, which also powers the flagship Galaxy S7 series.

There is a minor difference in the CPU clock speeds and GPU cores between the two Meizu models, and you can compare those side by side in the table below.

We kick off the benchmark scores galore with the processor tests. Quite expectedly, a single downclocked Mongoose core does well, but trails behind its faster sibling within the Galaxy S7 series.

GeekBench 4 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 7 Plus
  3473
• Huawei Mate 9
  1898
• Galaxy S7 edge (E8890)
  1860
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  1815
• Galaxy S7 edge (S820)
  1696
• Sony Xperia XZ
  1578
• Meizu Pro 6 Plus
  1467

GeekBench 3 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 7 Plus
  3526
• Galaxy S7 edge (S820)
  2345
• Huawei Mate 9
  2173
• Galaxy S7 edge (E8890)
  2151
• Sony Xperia XZ
  2136
• Meizu Pro 6
  1905
• Meizu Pro 6 Plus
  1742
• Meizu Pro 5
  1545

The multi-core test on Geekbench runs on the powerful half of the processor - the four Mongoose cores in the case of the Meizu Pro 6 Plus. Since we have the downclocked 64GB model, we expected about a 15% drop in the performance compared to the Galaxy S7 edge, and we were about right. Even though the Pro 6 Plus score fell down to the middle of the charts, those are still flagship-worthy numbers, so nothing to worry about.

You can also notice the muscle behind the quad-core Cortex-A73 setup used in the Mate 9 - Huawei really did a good job with its latest Kirin chip.

GeekBench 4 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Huawei Mate 9
  6112
• Apple iPhone 7 Plus
  5664
• Galaxy S7 edge (E8890)
  5583
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  4333
• Meizu Pro 6 Plus
  4142
• Galaxy S7 edge (S820)
  4128
• Sony Xperia XZ
  3868

GeekBench 3 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Huawei Mate 9
  7290
• Galaxy S7 edge (E8890)
  6600
• Meizu Pro 6
  6427
• Apple iPhone 7 Plus
  6123
• Meizu Pro 6 Plus
  5970
• Meizu Pro 5
  5578
• Galaxy S7 edge (S820)
  5420
• Sony Xperia XZ
  5394

Naturally, compound benchmarks should give us a better understanding of the overall performance, not just raw processing power that the CPUs are capable of. AnTuTu 6 places the Meizu Pro 6 Plus close to the current flagship crop, which is nice, but it still lags behind because of its lower clock. The Galaxy S7 edge scored exactly 15% better than the Pro 6 Plus.

AnTuTu 6

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 7 Plus
  173110
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  155185
• Galaxy S7 edge (S820)
  132849
• Galaxy S7 edge (E8890)
  129229
• Sony Xperia XZ
  124266
• Huawei Mate 9
  122826
• Meizu Pro 6 Plus
  113397
• Meizu Pro 6
  99195
• Meizu Pro 5
  67531

The same conclusions apply for the compound BaseMark OS II test. The Pro 6 Plus performs close to the S7 series, but the downclocked processor takes its toll.

Basemark OS II

Higher is better

• Huawei Mate 9
  3280
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  2677
• Sony Xperia XZ
  2273
• Galaxy S7 edge (E8890)
  2107
• Galaxy S7 edge (S820)
  2045
• Meizu Pro 6 Plus
  1823
• Meizu Pro 5
  1733
• Meizu Pro 6
  1446

On to graphics, to see how those 10 cores of the Mali-T880 GPU stack up. We were really curious to see if the missing two cores will actually impact the GPU performance enough to be noticed.

Well, the raw 1080p offscreen test indeed placed the Meizu Pro 6 Plus a whisker behind the Exynos-powered Galaxy S7 edge, which have the full dozen of cores. The Adreno 530 in the Snapdragon 820/821 chipsets (Xperia XZ, Mi 5s Plus) is noticeably better regarding graphics performance.

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 7 Plus
  39
• Galaxy S7 edge (S820)
  32
• Sony Xperia XZ
  31
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  30
• Galaxy S7 edge (E8890)
  29
• Meizu Pro 6 Plus
  25
• Huawei Mate 9
  22
• Meizu Pro 5
  14
• Meizu Pro 6
  11

GFX 3.1 Car scene (offscreen)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia XZ
  20
• Galaxy S7 edge (S820)
  18
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  18
• Galaxy S7 edge (E8890)
  15
• Meizu Pro 6 Plus
  13
• Huawei Mate 9
  13
• Meizu Pro 6
  6.4

Basemark X also calculates its scores based on offscreen performance mostly and the Meizu Pro 6 Plus did fine, but it trails behind the competition.

Basemark X

Higher is better

• Huawei Mate 9
  36519
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  36062
• Galaxy S7 edge (S820)
  32160
• Sony Xperia XZ
  29548
• Galaxy S7 edge (E8890)
  28480
• Meizu Pro 6 Plus
  23513
• Meizu Pro 5
  20038
• Meizu Pro 6
  15209

Let's move to the onscreen tests, which matter the most. The Meizu Pro 6 Plus has double the disadvantage here - it has fewer GPU cores than the S7 series and the Quad HD resolution won't help it either against the Snapdragon 820-powered Xperia XZ and Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus, both running on 1080p resolution.

The Meizu Pro 6 Plus is just a hair below the Galaxy S7 edge scores, but the competition does better when it comes to GPU performance. We could understand the underclocked processor, but we can't justify the crippled GPU.

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 7 Plus
  42
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  32
• Sony Xperia XZ
  32
• Huawei Mate 9
  23
• Galaxy S7 edge (S820)
  16
• Galaxy S7 edge (E8890)
  15
• Meizu Pro 5
  14
• Meizu Pro 6 Plus
  13
• Meizu Pro 6
  11

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  19
• Sony Xperia XZ
  19
• Huawei Mate 9
  14
• Galaxy S7 edge (S820)
  10
• Galaxy S7 edge (E8890)
  7.8
• Meizu Pro 6 Plus
  7
• Meizu Pro 6
  6.4

Samsung's Exynos 8890 is still a fantastic chipset almost a year later after its release. It does an excellent job in both processor- and graphics-intensive tasks and is worthy for a flagship. We are sure the Meizu Pro 6 Plus 128GB model will ace almost any benchmark, but we can't grasp the reason behind the limitations imposed on the 64GB flavor - even more so the disabled GPU cores. The phone still performs great, and there are no hiccups or lag, but that's not how you future-proof a flagship device, especially one with a Quad HD display.