Meizu 20 Review: A Solid Performer in the Mid-range Segment

May 15, 2024, 09:10 AM
by Shahriar Rabab

UNB News
Publish- May 15, 2024, 09:10 AM
Shahriar Rabab
Update- May 15, 2024, 09:32 AM

Meizu 20

The Chinese Consumer Electronics manufacturing brand Meizu is the 11th largest smartphone manufacturer in the world. Meizu phones are known for their flagship-grade features on a mid-range budget. Recently, the Meizu 20 became officially available globally. Let’s find out the key features, pros, cons, and price of Meizu 20 in Bangladesh.

Key Specs of Meizu 20

Design and Build Quality

Meizu 20 with its design would lead anyone to confuse it with the Samsung Galaxy S series. It has the same chamfered edges, flat design structure, aluminum frame, and glass front and back. The camera system is also vertically placed completing the replicative look.

Dimension-wise, the Meizu 20 comes in at 157.93 mm by 73.5 mm by 7.99 mm, weighing 190 g. The weight remains under 200 g mainly due to a smaller battery capacity on the Meizu 20.

The choice of ports and buttons is as usual. There’s no headphone jack or an external micro SDXC on the 20. The fingerprint scanner is an in-display type with Meizu claiming 0.075 seconds response on the Ultrasonic mTouch 2.0 sensor. A secondary noise cancellation is positioned at the top with the sim tray at the bottom.

The Meizu 20 comes in gray, green, pink, yellow, and a colorway called Monologue. As for protection, the device is IP54 dust and splash-resistant.

The Display

The display on the Meizu 20 is a 6.55-inch OLED panel with a 144 Hz refresh rate and 1B colors. The resolution of the panel comes in at 1080 by 2400 pixels with a 20:9 aspect ratio and 402 ppi density. The near-symmetrical bezel on all sides means the Meizu 20 has a screen-to-body ratio of 89.2%). The high contrast ratio of 5000000:1 combined with 500 nits of typical and 800 nits of peak brightness makes for a pleasing viewing experience both indoors and outdoors.

On day-to-day use, the device maintains the 144 Hz speed. Touch response is smooth and media consumption is also great.

At this price point, the display of the Meizu 20 is easily on par with the Honor 50, and Realme 11 Pro while slightly falling short of the recently launched Motorola Edge 50. Surprisingly enough, the 20 has a better refresh rate and pixel count than the latest Meizu 21.

Overall, it’s a great display that’s worth every buck.

The Camera

There’s a triple camera setup on the Meizu 20 with the main sensor being a 50 MP f/1.9 aperture and 24 mm lens. The main sensor is equipped with PDAF and OIS. The second sensor is a 16 MP f/2.4 16 mm 122 degrees ultrawide shooter. And lastly, there’s also a 5 MP f/2.4 depth sensor. The front camera is a 32 MP f/2.5 wide-angle shooter.

The camera performance of the Meizu 20 is impressive. Pictures taken outdoors had a decent dynamic range with great details. The color reproduction is also vibrant and it didn’t oversaturate the content. The nighttime images also produced similar results albeit with a bit of exposure issues. The wide-angle camera is also nearly on par with the main one in terms of details and contrast.

The front camera produced characteristic beautified pictures which are common in most Chinese smartphones. But it also had good details and contrast balance.

The Meizu 20 can shoot up to 8K at 30 fps. but users will get the best result at 4K at 30 fps where both OIS and gyro-EIS kick in.

While the megapixel count isn’t a definitive metric, the Honor 50 (108 MP) and the Realme 11 Pro (100 MP) both have better sensors. The former even comes with a quad-camera system.

Processor and Performance

The processor on the Meizu 20 is Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 based on 4 Nm architecture. It has an octa-core chip design of 1x3.2 GHz Cortex-X3 & 2x2.8 GHz Cortex-A715 & 2x2.8 GHz Cortex-A710 & 3x2.0 GHz Cortex-A510 with Adreno 740 GPU.

In terms of performance, the 8 Gen 2 still holds up compared to today’s flagships.

Meizu 20 sports 12 GB of RAM. Its storage capacity ranges from 128 to 500 GB. Depending on internal storage the phone has three variants 12/128 GB, 12/256 GB, and 12/500 GB.

You’re looking at a score of 1532713 in Antutu 10 and 1991 (single core) and 5299 (multi-core) on Geekbench 6.

The processor can run all the leading game titles with ease. PUBG can be played at HDR Extreme setup. However, we found that it works best at Smooth Extreme Plus settings. There’s a constant frame rate between 50 to 60 fps. Titles like Genshin Impact and Asphalt 9 also worked smoothly.

The only noticeable gripe here would be the heating. Meizu claims to have a dedicated cooling system for the processor but the heating is very much apparent. However, gamers will not experience much throttling issues due to the heat.

Meizu 20 easily trumps the Honor 50 (Snapdragon 778G), Realme 11 Pro (Dimensity 7050), and Motorola Edge 50 (Snapdragon 7 Gen 3) in terms of performance.

Software

Meizu 20 came with Android 13 out of the box when it launched. Now users will get the Android 14 as the brand has already updated to the latest firmware. It is running a custom Flyme OS which looks more or less the same as MIUI. Bloatware issues are as apparent as ever on the Meizu 20. And for the record, users can download Playstore from third-party sites to avail of Google services.

Battery and Charge Time

The battery on the Meizu 20 is relatively small at 4700 mAh. Meizu has included an 80W charger on the box of the 20. However, the device supports up to 67W wired charging with Meizu’s proprietary Super mCharge technology. Even with 144 Hz, expect to get around one whole day's worth of battery on a full charge.

Pros and Cons of Meizu 20

Pros:

- 144 Hz high refresh rate OLED panel
- 67W wired fast charging
- Flat screen design
- Great camera performance
- Above-par video quality with up to 8K support
- UFS 4.0 storage (for 256 GB and above storage variants)
- Stereo speakers
- Ring LED flashlight
- Great for gaming and multitasking
- IP54 rating.

Cons:

- No headphone jack
- No micro SDXC support
- No wireless charging support
- No reverse charging support
- No optical zoom lens

The Price of Meizu 20

Meizu 20 is available in Bangladesh at around BDT 47, 000. The price may vary depending on the seller.

Verdict

Meizu 20 offers reliable performance backed up with powerful RAM, a rapid processor, a great camera, and a fast display. However, its noticeable drawbacks include heating issues. The provisions of wireless and rapid charging supports could make it a better deal. Other than that, the Meizu 20 can be a great mid-range phone for anyone looking for a hardcore daily driver.