After Xiaomi announced its launch event for Mi Mix 3 on October 25, Meizu responded quickly and also announced a launch event for the same day. Here, the new Meizu Note 8 is presented, but which plays in a different league than Xiaomis new design smartphone.
As a seasoned smartphone enthusiast you can actually see directly that the Note 8 is a device from Meizu. The mere fact that one apparently waives a notch display speaks for the manufacturer. Add to that the relatively compact design with the thin screen edges. Between these two edges is a 6 inch display, which offers a resolution of 2160 x 1080P. What kind of display is not known yet. An AMOLED panel would be an interesting feature in this price range.
Interesting is the information that the dimensions should be 153.64 x 75.56 x 7.95 mm, according to TENAA authority. This would make it bigger, thicker and wider than the Meizu 16X, despite the same screen size. From this we conclude that one is relying on a physical mBack button, which acts as a kind of home button below the display.
The back is also similar to most Meizu devices. The dual camera is arranged vertically, below which is interestingly the fingerprint sensor. The 6 LED flash, as we know it from the in-house flagship, does not exist. A normal flash sits above the upper camera! The Meizu Note 8 is available in four different colors: black, red, blue and purple. With 168 g it is also heavier than the Meizu 16.
Also some information about the hardware have already appeared. Relatively likely, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 636 processor powers the device. We already know this energy-efficient Octa-Core with 1.8 GHz clock speed from the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 and Redmi Note 6 Pro. The middle class is designed to be very economical, but relatively powerful and works great for all everyday tasks, but less for gambling. There are probably 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of internal memory, which can be expanded by means of a microSD card.
The battery is 3,500 mAh pleasantly large, but not above average size. In combination with this CPU and the possible AMOLED panel one could count on a good running time. But it is clear that the battery can be charged quickly.
Even though the specs sound like a good, but not outstanding, mid-range smartphone so far, Meizu seems to want to highlight a feature. On the official teaser photo, the smartphone is positioned next to many different camera models. So far, it is only known that one uses a dual camera, which combines a 12.0MP and a 5.0MP sensor. The front offers an 8.0MP sensor. Which sensors are used, we do not yet know.
We still have to wait and see how this focus will affect the cameras. Maybe you have invested a lot of time to tune the operating system to the hardware or to use one for this price segment unusually good sensor as the Sony IMX363 from the Pocophone F1.
That it does not always have to be a top model, prove smartphones like the mentioned Redmi Note 5 only too well. That’s why I find the approach interesting to make a kind of mid-range smartphone with a claim of a camera smartphone. That Meizu has what it takes, they recently proved to us with the Meizu 16. If the price is right, the Meizu Note 8 could be an interesting alternative to Xiaomi’s smartphone range.