Product background
Compared with last year's release of more than a dozen market strategy, Meizu this year, the launch of models will be significantly reduced, and tend to boutique. And by the strong high dollar, cell phone parts and components continue to rise in price and other external factors, Meizu's product pattern will be exceptionally careful. The first product released after the beginning of spring this year, Meizu Blue E2 not only assume the huge mission of sales and profitability, and will further impact the domestic and overseas markets, stabilize the basic plate of Meizu.
From Meizu's internal positioning of the product, the E series is mainly targeted at the demand for "consumer upgrades" in the thousand-dollar market, and previously the machine also verified Meizu's thinking, and then stocked 500,000 units of sufficient supplies, the debut day of the sales of the first day exceeded 200,000 units, and in the operator's market to achieve surprising results. With the first generation of products in the market after the success of the feedback, Meizu Blue E2 will still lock the open market and carrier channels, and with the settlement of the Qualcomm patent dispute case, for more international regions, become for the Meizu epitomizes the idea of the whole year's products.
So it is not difficult to see that the launch of Meizu Blue E2, although it seems to be a regular update of the E series, but in fact contains Meizu's vision of the open market and specific channels of sales, and to increase the overseas output strategy, and strive to achieve a breakthrough in sales and profit growth.
Focus on product
From the product level, Meizu's Meizu Blue E2 is also really in line with Meizu's 'steady as she goes' status. The appearance of the continuation of Meizu's consistent thinking, metal unibody, 2.5D curved glass, thin and light screen, etc. are very consistent with the characteristics of this product focus on the public channel and carrier market, and the back LED flowing light design not only brings Meizu differentiated design ideas, its unique lighting effects can also visually attract a lot of users, and similar products to distinguish between the functions. Of course, the most important thing is the price of 1299
RMB, although there are already a lot of products available on the online channel, but for the main market where it is on sale, it still has a good competitiveness, to realize the win-win situation for consumers, dealers and enterprises.
Before we start the review we might as well compare the differences between the Meizu Blue E2 and the Meizu Blue E.
Meizu Blue E, Meizu Blue E2 parameter comparison
Phone model
Meizu Blue E
Meizu Blue E2
Screen size
5.5 inches
5.5 inches
Resolution
1920×1080
1920×1080
Processor
MediaTek Helio P10
MediaTek Helio P20
Frequency
4x1.8GHz + 4x1.0GHz
4x
2.3GHz + 4
x
1.6GHz
Onboard Memory
32GB
32GB/64GB
Operating Memory
3GB LPDDR3
3GB/
4GB
LPDDR4X
Main Camera
13MP, F2.2
13MP, F2.2
Front camera
5MP, F2.0
8MP
, F2.0
Body dimensions
153.6*75.8*7.9mm
153.7*
75.7
*
7.5mm
Body weight
172g
155g
Battery
3,100mAh
3,400mAh
Body color
Rose Gold, Champagne Gold, Lunar Silver, Starry Gray, Glacier Blue
Champagne Gold, Moonlight Silver, Obsidian Black
Operating System
Yun OS-based Flyme 6
Network Format
All-Network-Pass
Price
RMB1,299
RMB1,299
It's not hard to see from the comparison table that, after eight months, Meizu Blue E2's hardware Configuration up a span. 16nm process Helio P20 both performance and power consumption compared to the P10 have been significantly improved, in addition to the Meizu Blue E2 also used the general flagship only to enjoy the LPDDR4X memory, which compared to the standard LPDDR4, the same performance but lower power consumption.
▲Left is Meizu Blue E2, right is Meizu Blue E
Also worth noting is that the Meizu Blue E2 achieves a 3400 mAh level of battery capacity, which not only boasts a stronger endurance than its predecessor, but also keeps the body under control to be thinner and lighter. Foreseen is that no matter performance, life or value, Meilan E2 compared to the previous generation of products have a comprehensive upgrade.
Industrial design
Meizu, as well as the Meizu Blue phone in terms of appearance has always maintained there is a simple, sophisticated style. But along the years, set in stone. Especially in the last year, Meizu hit the sea of machine tactics, Meizu cell phone was once jokingly called "set of machine". This time, Meilan E2 on the whole is a continuation of the design style of the previous generation of Meilan E. But the focus is on the back of the body to make the design style. But focus on the back of the body to make some changes, this part, we will do the analysis of the appearance of the design of the Meilan E2.
Looking at the back of the body, "full metal body", "nano injection molding antenna", overall Meilan E2 and the previous generation of Meilan E's back of the body is largely similar to the back of the body, the back of the body to maintain a high degree of unity. Although the overall look does not have some new and surprising places, but the overall appearance and workmanship is satisfactory, reflecting the level of the price range of cell phones should have.
Before the launch, Meizu's official launch poster, "Who do you choose to remove" aroused everyone's interest. The earpiece? The flash, the home button, the camera? The camera? The answer was revealed at this conference, "flash". Meizu Blue E2 adopts the flash antenna integrated design, 4 LED flash embedded in the top of the body antenna injection molding strip, the camera also moved to the upper left corner of the injection molded antenna. This leaves more white space in the metal body area on the back, which makes it visually more integrated. This is another manifestation of Meizu's minimalist aesthetics.
Additionally, Meizu has added a "Water Light" function to the four flashes, which has the ability to "Flow Light", "Star Shift", "Release", "Breathe", and "Breathe". "Breathing", "Breathing", "QiHui" five kinds of special effects. For a phone like Meilan E2, which is positioned at 1,000 yuan, it is rare to be able to make such differentiated highlights in the appearance design. In fact, it can be seen as an upgraded version of the breathing light, you can feel this running light function through the moving picture.
The bottom of the front of the body, or Meizu's iconic mBack button. The preview poster for this launch, "Who do you choose to remove?" is also generating a lot of buzz. We all expect that Meizu may make a big fuss over mBack, but in fact it is still the same design and operating logic as before "touch to return, press to return to the desktop". This operation logic has been adopted by all major Android manufacturers, once used, can never go back. The earpiece and sensor arrangement on the top of the fuselage is also still in the traditional style, which is not too bad.
On the periphery of the body, Meizu E2 also uses CNC technology to process two circles of glossy beveled edges, outlining the contours of the entire machine, playing a decorative role, so that the whole machine looks more three-dimensional, hard style.
Summary: In terms of exterior design, Meilan E2 still follows the design style of Meilan cell phones, maintaining a consistently simple design language. Although it does not look with some big breakthroughs, but its overall workmanship and texture fully afford its product positioning of about one thousand dollars. The new flash antenna integrated design reduces the back of the body metal area openings, further improving the unity of the whole machine, play a decorative role, which is not at the top of the pyramid of the industry chain in terms of the Meizu, is the appearance of a small breakthrough.
User experience
When it comes to user experience, the first thing that comes to mind is software optimization. But to be precise, software optimization needs to be based on hardware after all, otherwise even the most brilliant algorithms will be difficult to land. For Flyme 6, which has been precipitated by 5 years of time, the MediaTek Helio P20 and LPDDR4X-standard memory carried by Meizu E2 give it plenty of room to play.
As for the MediaTek Helio P20, compared to what you already know. The chip debuted in the Meizu X. It uses a 16nm process and an 8-core A53 architecture. The frequency of the four large cores is 2.3GHz, and the frequency of the four small cores is 1.6GHz, which is a significant increase compared to the P10, which means that it can ensure smooth operation of the system at the same time to maximize the reduction of power consumption and power saving. However, MediaTek's choice of GPU has always been more conservative, and the P20's GPU still uses Mali-T860 MP2, although the core frequency has been increased to 900MHz, but the actual performance is still mediocre. So for those who are keen on playing big games on their phones, I still don't recommend you choose this phone.
With that said, I still used the Meizu E2 to test two games, King's Honor and Hearthstone Legends.
▲Meizu E2 running King's Honor game screenshots
▲Meizu E2 running Hearthstone Legends screenshots
From the test results. Under the default conditions of King's Honor (character stroke off, high image quality, HD display off, high particle quality), the entire game can maintain a frame rate of 30fps, and there is no lag or frame dropping phenomenon in the group battle. The Hearthstone Legend, despite its large game data, does not eat the phone's hardware, so it runs very easily and without lag.
That is to say, for the King's Honor, Hearthstone Legends, such as the game does not eat the GPU too much, the Phantom Blue E can still easily cope with.
Besides the gaming experience, the Flyme 6 system itself is also commendable. Meizu officially called its design concept "content design", meaning that by weakening the framework layer of the UI, to allow users to return to the content. I was impressed by the introduction of the Action View system, which allows content in the UI to not only exist in the form of text and images, but also to come alive in front of you through dynamic effects. In short, Flyme 6 is less rigid and more spiritual than before.
When it comes to the spirituality of the phone, then we have to talk about the recently popular artificial intelligence system. Artificial intelligence is dependent on big data, it can analyze and learn based on the user's habits, and ultimately help the user to improve some problems. For example, Flyme 6's OneMind, although it's not a visual app, it's an electronic brain that optimizes the user experience and can make your phone better and better, the more you use it.
OneMind is able to improve performance in these three areas by analyzing users' habits. One is the ability to increase the opening speed of frequently used apps by up to 200%; the second is the ability to increase CPU scheduling efficiency by 20% compared to before; and the third is the ability to ensure that users get the best gaming experience in gaming situations, which includes no pop-ups and fine-grained cleanup of background caches, among other things.
Flyme 6, in addition to AI and UI repainting, also has a lot of functionality improvements, with Parallel Space and Kids Space being among the top priorities.
Kids Space, as the name suggests, is designed for those bear children. Parents can set their own anti-addiction time, child-accessible apps, and low-battery lock screen. Also in Kids Space, Meizu has turned on the anti-SMS deduction function by default to prevent children from playing games in the wrong location leading to money deduction. In this mode, the eye protection mode is also automatically turned on to minimize screen damage to children. For the children's space settings, Meizu is still very thoughtful and careful.
Parallel space, in fact, is the privacy mode. In this mode, users can hide contacts, apps, photos, videos, files by themselves. And in the lock screen interface, through a specific fingerprint or password can enter the privacy space. This feature can also be found in other Chinese systems, but Flyme 6 can seamlessly switch between normal and private modes without any lag, making the switching process very fast and less noticeable.
Imaging quality
In terms of photography, Meilan E2 uses a 13-megapixel camera, with a single pixel size of 1.12μm. Although Meilan E2 has redesigned its flash, it emphasizes more on its "running light" function, which is not very relevant to the imaging effect in dark light. The camera's hardware parameters. Let's take a look at the camera's hardware parameters.
Meizu E2 main camera parameters
Pixels
13 million
Mirror group
5P lens
Focusing method
PDAF phase focus
Aperture
f/2.2
Individual pixel size
1.12μm
In terms of hardware parameters, the Meizu E2's main camera is moderate. Here's still a look at the actual photo performance of this phone through sample photos.
Outdoor samples. The environment was cloudy, and the darkness and lightness of the sky were better displayed. Without looking at the details, the whole picture is still quite impactful. It's a great way to record your life and share it on social media platforms.
Through this backlighting sample, you can generally see the camera tolerance of the Meizu E2, observing the brightest and darkest parts of the sample. The sample shows a relatively good sense of hierarchy, and the transition from dark to light in the bushes is relatively natural.
In indoor dark light, the Meizu E2's exposure control for glowing objects in the picture is also better, and the picture is brighter. In that dark-light environment, you can see that the ISO value is raised to 716, and still maintains a good picture purity. In most well-lit environments, the general performance of cell phone cameras have good picture performance, but the dark light environment is the real test of a sensor's ability. Meizu E2 as a thousand yuan positioning products, such dark light performance is enough to compete with similarly priced products.
Macro samples, Meilan E2's main camera aperture of f/2.2, used to shoot macro samples, can also be relatively good to highlight the subject. In-focus clarity, out-of-focus bokeh transition natural.
Detail performance, Meilan E2 camera pixels for 13 million, for the current mainstream level of cell phone cameras. Observed through 100% zoom sample, the focus of the font edges are clear and sharp, and the car lock performance gullies and textures are reflected.
100% detail zoom sample. At present, cell phone cameras are no longer the pursuit of high pixel, the number of pixels from the previous 20 million or more back to the current 13-16 million, each phone in the details of the expressive power in fact can not pull too big a gap. Meilan E2 can reach the upper level of detail performance, can fully meet the social platform to share or part of the capture scene use needs.
Summary: Through the actual photo experience, the camera performance of Meilan E2 is satisfactory overall. In terms of image purity, tolerance, and details, it reflects a good quality. In the process of taking pictures, the camera's focusing speed is also not at all dragging, and there is no obvious shortcomings. For most users, the camera of the Meilan E2 is enough.
Afterword - Summary
We have already mentioned in the opening background analysis that this year's Meizu needs to ensure sustained profitability, and at the same time take the boutique route. So this requires Meizu to be more clear about the positioning of their products and their ability to control the market. Meizu Blue E2 is a phone that is mainly targeted at the $1,000 market, where there is a demand for "consumer upgrades", and its pricing is just over $1,000. There are also Meilan X series at the same price point as it, but the former upgrades the practicality compared to the thousand-dollar machine, while the latter has a face value. As for the price range online, it is undertaken by the Meizu MX series and PRO series, as far as possible to avoid the situation of the same door cut.
Additionally, Meizu's control of the product Meizu Blue E2 is not only to occupy the price range, but also to seize the profit margins of the thousand-dollar market. Compared to the hardware configuration of the more advanced Meilan Note series of cell phones, the later market Meilan E2 supply is more adequate. Adequate stocking also allows it to face more diversified channel sales. This is reflected in all aspects of online retail, direct store retail, dealer distribution, carrier cooperation, overseas markets. It's not hard to see that Meizu Blue E2 is the model that Meizu uses to move volume.
Since there are many sales channels, the profit margin of Meizu E2 is naturally not small. For the thousand-dollar class products, display, flash memory, camera and other components of the cost of each generation will not change too much, more difficult to grasp is generally in the choice of processor and process difficulty. Now from MediaTek Helio P20 debut model Meizu Blue X release has been 5 months, the chip's production capacity climbing period has long been over, leaving Meizu's profit margins have also improved a lot. In addition, the Meizu Blue E2's walking light design is chic and novel, but Meizu did not open a separate hole for this feature, or after a special process, so the cost of vigorous control has become one of the compromises in the design of the Meizu.
Additionally, if you're a fan of Meizu, you should know that most of Meizu's popular products, especially the Meizu Blue series of cell phones, are equipped with the Yun OS system, which is actually behind Meizu's partnership with Ali. Over the years, Meizu has made an indelible contribution to Ali's accumulation of big data in mobile terminals, and Ali, as one of Meizu's investors, has not only gained more user traffic, but also actively laid out Ali's services through Meizu products.
Overall, whether you're satisfied with the Meizu E2 phone or not, it won't stop the sales of Meizu E2 all the way. Perhaps you may feel that it doesn't seem to have much to offer in the online channel, but for the demographic and market that the Meizu E2 is targeting, this is already a practical, comprehensive class model that offers comprehensive updates and meets the demands of the times. Perhaps you can take the time to go to the operator's business hall to shop, I believe that after watching the comparison with the same price of Meilan E2 products, you will understand to the advantages of this product.