I. Foreword: Putting an end to traditional smartphones and starting a new AI era
Last year, the big model technology in the field of artificial intelligence began to emerge, triggering widespread concern throughout the industry.
The cell phone market as a testing ground for new technologies, the major brands naturally do not want to lag behind, in the second half of 2023 have joined the exploration and practice of AI technology, hoping to occupy a favorable position in the fierce competition in the AI market.
Just after the Spring Festival of 2024, Meizu announced that it had stopped the research and development of traditional cell phones and fully transformed to AI, officially opening the All in AI strategy, and on the last day of February 2024, it released the open AI terminal for the AI era, Meizu 21 PRO.
1, Meizu's first open AI terminal
Meizu 21 PRO is the last traditional phone of Meizu, the first terminal device for open AI, and the first open platform phone in the history of Meizu.
Meizu 21 PRO will be open to all big models, fully open to all big models, giving developers in-depth access, API documents allow developers to request data from users, and open the AI arithmetic of the processor to provide developers with strong hardware support, and jointly create a more complete and efficient AI intelligent experience.
2, the first phone with wide-area ultrasonic fingerprint recognition this year
At a time when many manufacturers have canceled wide-area ultrasonic fingerprints and replaced them with single-point ultrasonic because of cost issues, Meizu has to go on this feature at all costs, and has made the Meizu 21 PRO the first flagship cell phone this year to carry wide-area ultrasonic fingerprint recognition capability.
The benefit of wide-area ultrasonic fingerprint recognition is that the fingerprint recognition area is much larger, compared to the Meizu 21, the recognition area has increased by as much as 9 times, and is no longer limited to a specific small point for fingerprint recognition, but rather, it can be recognized at any position above, below, left and right of the main recognition area (within the range of about a single finger), which significantly improves the accuracy and speed of fingerprint unlocking.
3, 21:9 ratio one-handed large screen flagship
Meizu 21 PRO in order to make the screen bigger, abandoned the traditional 20:9 screen ratio, instead of the same Sony consistent 21:9 golden ratio, strict control of the width of the body, to 74mm ergonomic optimal grip size, so that this large 6.79-inch screen, with a slender body, girls can easily hold with one hand.
4, the strongest imaging system in Meizu's history
Meizu 21 PRO also has the strongest imaging system ever, the main camera uses a 1/1.3-inch Howell OV50H large-size 50-megapixel sensor, supplemented by OIS + EIS dual stabilization, combined with Meizu's self-developed imaging algorithms, the texture details of the sample compared to its predecessor will have a huge improvement.
The telephoto lens has also been upgraded to a 72mm 3x optical lossless zoom (66mm 2.7x pure optical zoom), and the 13-megapixel 122° ultra-wide-angle lens forms a new generation of full-focus triple-photography imaging system.
Second, the appearance: 21:9 golden ratio screen The classic Meizu white color scheme is good and good-looking
The Meizu 21 PRO fully implements the straight-screen, four-narrow-edge design of its predecessor, the Meizu 20 PRO, utilizing a narrow 74mm ergonomic body to create a slim 21:9 ratio throughout the entire phone, allowing this 6.79-inch large-screen flagship to be held in one hand.
The phone's screen supports up to 2K+ resolution, 120Hz adaptive high swipe, and 2160Hz high-frequency PWM dimming.
BOE's new generation of light-emitting materials, diamond-like pixel arrangement scheme, 1368×3192 resolution, standard PPI of 522, equivalent PPI of 417.
The front-facing lens of the Meizu 21 PRO is centered at the top, with a 32-megapixel Samsung S5KJD1 CMOS, and an old friend.
The four sides of the phone have an equal width design, and the bottom bezel is very narrow.
The back panel of the Meizu 21 PRO is designed with the Hoshigaki process, and the Meizu White color scheme makes the whole back panel look as delicate and warm as jade, which highlights the high-level sense of the whole machine, and it won't be stained with fingerprints no matter how you touch it.
The three mirrors on the rear are arranged side-by-side with the flash, which is more in line with the public aesthetics, and the classic ring flash (4 LEDs monochromatic) has been retained, with a dToF laser focus sensor integrated in the center of the flash.
The logo at the bottom is integrated into the base color of the body, showing the fusion of technology and aesthetics.
The power button and volume adjustment button are located on the right side of the body position.
The top of the phone is equipped with a sub-microphone, infrared remote control sensing.
The bottom is equipped with a speaker port, microphone, Type-C port and SIM card slot.
An 80W wired fast charging kit is included with the device.
Third, performance and games: Snapdragon 8 Gen3 performance iron triangle large 3D handheld game steady 58.1FPS
As this year's flagship phone, the Meizu 21 PRO is equipped with the strongest performance Iron Triangle of the moment, the third generation of Snapdragon 8 + LPDDR5X 8533Mbps RAM + UFS4.0 flash memory, with up to 16GB + 1TB of storage, and the configuration of the Meizu 21 PRO in our hands is the 16GB + 512GB version.
Next up, we run a set of theoretical performance tests on the Meizu 21 PRO, turning on High Performance Mode and turning off the phone's memory expansion for the duration of the tests to fully utilize the Soc's maximum performance.
--Performance test
The first is the AnTuTu comprehensive performance test, with a total score of 1,747,000, a single CPU score of 334,400, and a single GPU score of 792,200, which is about 25% more comprehensive than the second-generation Snapdragon 8, which was equipped in the previous generation of the Meizu 20 PRO.
Then the CPU single performance was tested, and in the Geekbench 6 test, the CPU single-core score reached 1,630, and the multi-core score was 6,534, and the multi-core performance was improved by about 24.1% compared to the previous generation of the Meizu 20 PRO with Snapdragon 8 Gen2.
Next is the GPU test, GFXBench's six 1080P programs under continuous testing conditions, the results are as follows:
Aztec Ruins OpenGL: 185FPS
Aztec Ruins Vulkan: 205FPS
Racing Chase Frame Rate: 146FPS
Manhattan 3.1 Offscreen: 239FPS
Manhattan Offscreen: 329FPS
Tyrannosaurus Rex off-screen: 477FPS
Compared to Snapdragon 8 Gen2, this generation of Snapdragon 8 Gen3 also has a more obvious advantage in graphics rendering capabilities, improving up to 60% or more, which will theoretically bring about a huge improvement in smoothness when playing large handheld games.
In the flash memory performance test, the sequential read rate is 4311MB/s and the sequential write rate is 3509MB/s.
In the memory performance test, the copy rate was 13,662MB/s and the write rate was 25,211.3MB/s.
--Game Test
Then we tested the game performance of the Meizu 21 PRO. In an office environment with a room temperature of 22 degrees Celsius, we chose 3 popular handheld games, namely Peace Elite, Proto-Gods, and Wipeout: Star Dome Railroad, and tested the game at the highest frame rate under the highest image quality (with the image quality as the priority), and recorded the frame rate, power consumption, power efficiency ratio, and the temperature performance of the machine body during the game.
1. Peaceful Elite
First of all, the test of the Peace Elite handball game, in HDR HD quality + extreme frame rate, a game of nearly 20 minutes of intense battle, the average frame rate is stable at 59.5FPS, the first 16 minutes of the frame rate is very stable, and after 16 minutes of a small fluctuation, but only feel a slight lag.
The average power consumption is about 3.2W, the frame energy consumption is 53.7mW, and the energy efficiency ratio is 18.6FPS/W.
In terms of temperature, the front is up to 34.7 degrees Celsius, the back is up to 33.5 degrees Celsius, and the middle and negative handheld games can be played at will, and the whole machine has almost no heat.
2, the original God
The original God's hand game in the middle load, the top running test in Sumeru City, the highest quality + special effects + 60 frame rate for 15 minutes, the average frame rate is stable at 58.1FPS, there will be a slight fluctuation during the game, but it did not bring too much screen tearing feeling.
The average power consumption is about 5.57W, the frame energy consumption is 95.9mW, and the energy efficiency ratio is 10.43FPS/W, which is slightly higher in Snapdragon 8 Gen3 phones.
In terms of temperature, the front of the body is up to 41.4 degrees Celsius, and the back is up to 41.1 degrees Celsius, thanks to the 4651 square millimeters of ultra-large area VC liquid cooling module, the heat generation of the whole machine is about 2 degrees Celsius lower than that of the previous generation of Meizu 20 PRO.
3, crash: star dome railroad
Finally we tested the more recent fire crash: star dome railroad, in the starcher sea hub running test 15 minutes, the average frame rate of the game is stable at 58.1FPS, the game fluctuates more frequently, but the later is more regular, did not cause a particularly large cut on the screen.
The average power consumption is about 6.66W, the frame energy consumption is 114.6mW, and the energy efficiency ratio is 8.7FPS/W.
The highest temperature of the body reached 45.2 degrees Celsius, which had to adjust the orientation of the grip of the phone in order to play the game, and the condition of the students in the play of this type of large-scale handheld game, can be matched with a radiator to assist in the dissipation of heat.
Fourth, the image: large bottom CMOS fusion of full-focus triple camera Meizu history of the most powerful image system
The Meizu 21 PRO has the most powerful imaging system in Meizu's history, which can be called a Meizu imaging milestone.
The main camera adopts a domestic super-large-bottom CMOS, Howell OV50H, with a 1/1.31-inch sensor, 1.2μm large pixels, and support for OIS Optical + EIS Electronic Dual Stabilization.
The telephoto lens is a 10-megapixel Sony IMX754 sensor with 3x optical zoom, also supporting OIS + EIS dual stabilization.
The ultra wide-angle lens is a 13MP Samsung S5K3L6 sensor that supports a 122° field of view.
Let's follow the footage and see how the Meizu 21 PRO's image performance really is.
--Main Camera
In the daytime scene, the main camera benefits from the large bottom and sufficient light intake, the samples taken are textured and transparent, the color performance is natural, and the true color of the subject can be well reproduced, and the dynamic range of the flowers photographed is also excellent, which does not make people feel particularly conspicuous, and the color is just right, and the buildings are photographed in such a way that the highlights are not overexposed, and the details of the dark parts are well preserved.
-- Telephoto
The 3x telephoto lens, even in the case of cropping, does not lose too much picture quality, and the color reproduction is quite accurate, and the photos taken by zooming in to more than 5x are optimized by the system to effect most of the noise, making the photos more enjoyable to watch.
--- Ultra wide angle
The 122° ultra-wide angle lens gives anti-distortion by default, making the overall image look more harmonious, there may be a slight vignetting in the extreme edge areas, which leads to a slight lack of naturalness in the photos, but overall, it still offers a wide angle of view to capture grand and magnificent images, even though it's only 13 megapixels.
--Night Scene
In the night scene, the large bottom main camera is able to effectively suppress the highlights in the image in a high contrast scene, so that the light and shadow and light and dark details are shown in a balanced way, especially in the color of the big red, the red looks bright and pure, without chromatic aberration, and it avoids the phenomenon of color whitening, which is common in a long time of exposure or a high-brightness light source.
Five, charging and battery life: 37 minutes full power in exchange for nearly 10 hours of battery life time
The Meizu 21 PRO has a built-in high-capacity battery of 5050mAh equivalent, supports up to 80W Super mCharge wired super charging, and supports 50W wireless charging.
In this regard, we also tested the charging ability and battery life of the Meizu 21 PRO.
--Charging test
After the actual test, the power starts charging from 1%, charges to 42% in 10 minutes, charges to 76% in 20 minutes, charges,94% in half an hour, and finally takes 37 minutes to be completely full.
--Battery life test
For the battery life test, we use a professional battery life test tool - Battery Dog produced by Fast Tech to conduct the test.
On the test items, the default will be carried out up to 20% of the power test, at the same time, including CPU high pressure, CPU multi-threading, AI recognition, image browsing, video playback and web browsing of all the test items will be checked, through the simulation of the user's use of the scenario, to restore the real load to the greatest extent possible, and infinitely close to the real power consumption situation.
During the test, in order to keep the environmental variables of all models tested uniform as well as to ensure the accuracy of the test scores, Battery Dog automatically adjusts the brightness of the screen to 50% and turns off the auto-brightness, and the volume is adjusted to 30%.
After the battery dog continuous uninterrupted test, the power consumption from 100% to 20% in 8 hours and 22 minutes, after conversion, the full battery life of the Meizu 21 PRO can reach about 10 hours, daily users use a day without any problems.
Six, Aicy voice experience: into the big model semantic comprehension strong answer accurate logic clear
The Flyme 10.5 system carried by Meizu 21 PRO, relying on the addition of AI big models, injects a fresh soul into the experience and practicality of the Aicy voice assistant, which can understand complex contexts, provide more accurate and personalized answers, and no longer answer questions as stupidly as before.
We've also prepared a few questions to test the basic capabilities of the Aicy Voice Assistant.
AI big model of the most basic text writing ability, Meizu 21 PRO Aicy voice assistant can be easily completed, in the face of some more complex issues, AI semantic understanding ability is still good, perfect avoidance of the "set".
And in the face of the need to search for the integration of the problem, Meizu 21 PRO can give accurate answers, but also to add flowers.
For example, when asking the question "what snacks do not get fat", Aicy will not only recommend some low-calorie snack options, but also carefully attached to the brand and calorie information, so that the user can more conveniently choose and buy, enhancing the user experience.
As of press time, some of the AI functions of the Meizu 21 PRO are not yet online, and the AI will also be integrated into the mBack key at a later stage, and a heavy press will wake up the AI big model, which not only allows you to talk to the AI, but also analyzes the current screen content and provides rationalized suggestions.
In addition, a series of AI functions such as AI portrait and AI elimination will also be synchronized on line, and plans to open the API interface of the AI applet at a later stage, attracting more developers to join the Meizu ecosystem, and jointly create a more intelligent user experience.
Seven, summary: the end of the traditional cell phone AI cell phone pioneer
The appearance of the Meizu 21 PRO, inherited from the hard straight edge center frame + rounded corners of the Meizu 20 PRO, and that 21:9 golden ratio screen of the Meizu 20 Borderless Edition, gives the phone a hard-to-find one-handed grip feel.
Meizu's classic white panel, complemented by a glass body designed with the Hoshigaki process, not only enhances the texture of the body, but also brings a delicate touch, highlighting Meizu's persistent pursuit of technological aesthetics.
Secondly, this year's first large-area wide-area ultrasonic fingerprint identification, no longer bound by the location of the fingerprint identification module, do not have to deliberately align the fingerprint module can be easily unlocked, up and down, left and right are all OK, which is the real freedom of unlocking.
Good function, to be retained at all costs, I hope that friends in the future can also follow this concept of Meizu.
In terms of performance, with the Snapdragon 8 Gen3 performance Iron Triangle powerful support, as well as ultra-large area VC liquid cooling cooling module, in playing the original God of this large 3D class handheld game, the average frame rate can also be stabilized at 58.1FPS, although the frame rate in the late stage of the more frequent fluctuations, but the entire machine's heat compared to the previous generation of the Phantom 20 PRO is reduced by a full 2 degrees Celsius.
Secondly, in terms of AI, opening all permissions to developers greatly promotes developer innovation and participation, allowing developers to co-create an AI platform of their own, and making the Meizu 21 PRO not just a phone, but also an AI platform co-created by developers.
This is a brand new platform built by Meizu for the future of intelligent experience, marking a key step in the integration of Meizu's AI technology.
Comprehensively speaking, Meizu 21 PRO is not only a smartphone, but also a watershed to end the traditional cell phone and open the era of AI cell phone, with the "All in AI" concept, it creates an AI terminal device that carries on the previous and starts the next, creates the precedent of AI cell phone, and leads the future of AI cell phone.
The birth of Meizu 21 PRO is a milestone in the history of Meizu's cell phone development, and also signifies that AI will play an increasingly important role in the future development of smartphones.
