Can Meizu 21 Pro compete head-to-head with flagships from major manufacturers?

On the last day of November, Meizu took advantage of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 new phone wave to bring its annual flagship new phone, Meizu 21. Not long ago, this site also conducted a review of this product. It is a mobile phone with obvious advantages and disadvantages. Moreover, Meizu 21 currently only has one model, unlike other brands that are divided into medium and large sizes. For those who want a super flagship, Meizu 21 seems a bit not “Pro” enough.

(Photo source: Lei Technology)

However, recently, the Internet News about Meizu 21 Pro appeared on the Internet, which is good news for Meizu friends who want more extreme configuration and experience. The screen of Meizu 21 is not strong enough? 2K screen is coming! The charging power of Meizu 21 is not high enough, 100W fast charging is coming!

Could it be that Meizu 21 is just a "small test" and Meizu 21 Pro is the big move?

The configuration is fully enhanced, Meizu 21 Pro is on the road

About Meizu 21 Pro, let’s take a look first The most certain piece of news. A few days ago, digital blogger @李安ANGANGah posted that Meizu 21 Pro has been approved by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. According to information on the website of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Meizu has launched two new mobile phones, with model numbers M481Q and M481. If nothing unexpected happens, they will all be Meizu 21 Pro series models.

@李安ANGANGah disclosed the basic configuration of Meizu 21 Pro: 2K direct screen, telephoto lens, 100W fast charging, support for wireless charging and ultrasonic fingerprint, There is a new glass material.

(Photo source: Weibo)

And on 11 At the end of the month, on the eve of the release of Meizu 21, the well-known blogger @digitalchat.com revealed the configuration of next year’s new Meizu phone: new ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, 2K screen, periscope lens, 100W wired flash charging and 50W wireless fast charging.

(Source: Weibo)

These two revelations It can be compared with each other. It can be seen that compared to Meizu 21, Meizu 21 Pro has three main upgrades: higher resolution screen, stronger camera and higher fast charging power.

In our previous review of Meizu 21, we summarized the three main shortcomings of this phone: low screen resolution, too many lenses, and low fast charging power . Looking at it now, Meizu 21 Pro has made up for these shortcomings, and all aspects of configuration have kept up with mainstream flagships. In addition, Meizu 21’s appearance and ultrasonic fingerprint recognition left a good impression on us. Meizu 21 Pro will most likely continue these two advantages, and its overall competitiveness will be greatly improved.

(Photo source: Lei Technology)

In addition, according to IT House reports, Meizu Technology Assistant Vice President Wan Zhiqiang @一PI老万 said in response to netizens’ inquiries that Meizu 21 Pro is still planning and there is no exact release time yet, but he It is revealed that Meizu 21 Pro may be priced at 6,000 yuan. The first-sale price of Meizu 21 starts at 3,299 yuan. If the price of Meizu 21 Pro is almost doubled, it will have to be supported by more luxurious hardware stacks and selling points.

(Photo source: Weibo)

Head-on confrontation with friends and businessmen , what differentiated selling points does Meizu 21 Pro need?

Judging from the existing leaked information, from one aspect, Meizu 21 Pro is a bucket-shaped flagship with a very comprehensive configuration. Compared with Meizu 21, it has stronger Appeal. However, there are many new flagship products that have been released and will be released on the market recently. Meizu 21 Pro has many competitors. It is not easy to stand out among so many competitors.

In fact, Meizu has already realized this problem on the Meizu 21 model, and has racked its brains to try to create differentiated selling points. On the eve of the release of Meizu 21, Meizu’s pre-heating marketing was very intensive. Every once in a while, a promotional poster was made around a selling point, which immediately became a topic and attracted countless eyeballs.

Looking back now, the truly differentiated selling points of Meizu 21 are mainly the following:

1. The extremely narrow frame with equal width on all four sides is really impressive. When paired with the white frame, it has a full visual impact;

2. Ultrasonic fingerprint. Compared with the short-throw screen fingerprint that some manufacturers have been using, The experience is indeed much better;

3. 36-month warranty. This service is aimed at 1 yuan advance booking users, which can be used to identify potential users in advance.

Let’s analyze one by one. The ultra-narrow bezel has indeed continued Meizu’s previous product design genes and impressed users with its excellent appearance. Meizu 21 has indeed done a good job in this regard. .

As for ultrasonic fingerprints, they have long been a standard feature of Meizu mobile phones. Manufacturers that also use them include Samsung, iQOO, OnePlus, etc., and they are generally solutions from Qualcomm. In other words, ultrasonic fingerprints are supplier technology, and the experience is better than short-focus fingerprints. The disadvantage is that the cost is much higher. In addition to Meizu, the current flagship new phone that also uses ultrasonic fingerprint scanners is the iQOO 12 Pro, but its price is much higher than that of the Meizu 21.

(Photo source: Meizu official)

It seems like this, Among the new flagship products priced at 3,000 yuan, Meizu 21’s ultrasonic fingerprint has indeed formed a differentiated advantage. However, if Meizu 21 Pro reaches the price of 6,000 yuan, this advantage will be weakened. Recent revelations show that Xiaomi Mi 14 Ultra will use an ultrasonic fingerprint solution, which may bring an unlocking experience similar to the Meizu 21 series. For higher-priced flagships, manufacturers are naturally willing to provide higher configurations.

As for the 36-month long warranty, it can be regarded as a marketing tool to make money. Meizu overdrafts part of future after-sales costs to attract existing customers. of potential users. For users, a longer warranty period will naturally bring better use protection. However, Xiao Lei personally believes that this kind of promotional method is difficult to implement in the long term. Meizu limits this right to some user groups who have pre-booked, and it itself is also controlling costs. Similar to this, Meizu previously launched the "Three Zeros" mobile phone, which means zero advertising, zero pre-installation, and zero push. It must be said that this initiative was very popular with users at the time, but it was unsustainable in the future, and Meizu had to The policy was quietly lifted.

(Source: Meizu)

Of course, Meizu can pass Higher pricing will cover the cost of long-term after-sales service for Meizu 21 and Meizu 21 Pro to avoid repeating the same mistakes. However, in this way, the cost of extended warranty will be passed on to users, and the appeal will be greatly reduced.

In the current mobile phone market, especially the flagship phone market, competition between products is very fierce. The involution direction of major brands is basically hardware stacking and Feature enhancements. Hardware stacking is easy to understand, that is, using hardware with higher costs and stronger configurations, such as higher-spec camera modules, screens with higher overall quality, and materials with higher reliability, etc. Theoretically, Meizu can increase costs to achieve this goal, just like Meizu 21 uses ultrasonic fingerprints.

However, in terms of functional enhancement, simple stacking may not be able to achieve the expected results. For example, the images that mobile phone manufacturers are producing are closely related to hardware specifications on the one hand, but also closely related to the manufacturers' technology accumulation and algorithm tuning on the other hand. This requires manufacturers to make long-term and continuous investment in a certain function or technology, which is behind huge financial and human costs. The difference between head and non-head brand products is often reflected here.

Therefore, as a non-head brand, Meizu’s differentiation in the Meizu 21 Pro product may still mainly reflect the unique appearance design. nature, ingenuity of some functions and some innovations in software systems. However, Meizu still has a long way to go before it can return to the first echelon from a small but beautiful place and start over.

Written at the end

Looking back on the development history of smartphones, Meizu is an important brand that cannot be avoided. Countless people still remember the sensation caused when the M8 was released, and many Meizu friends are still talking about innovative functions such as mBack, small circles, and screen drawing on Meizu phones. It is no exaggeration to say that Meizu is the pioneer of domestic smartphones, and Flyme is the Whampoa Military Academy that cultivates customized UI talents.

However, in the fierce competition one after another, Meizu failed to successfully break through. With the departure of Meizu's Three Musketeers and Huang Zhang's retirement, Meizu's mobile phone business is facing another choice. The good news is that after completing the integration with Xingji Group, Meizu mobile phones have gained new opportunities. Meizu has received more power and its mobile phone business has been able to survive. At the same time, the advantages of the Flyme system can be extended to the car, looking for opportunities in the wave of automobile intelligence.

As for Meizu 21 and Meizu 21 Pro, which are still on the road, they may not be called the top flagship products on the market, but we can see the continuation in the details. Meizu genes. Moreover, in today's highly homogeneous mobile phone industry, this kind of attempt to create its own uniqueness is always worthy of recognition.

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