Meizu Pro 7: Two displays on one stylish phone
The Meizu Pro 7 has a second display on the back. Not only does it look good, it also has three practical functions. I took a closer look at it.
The Chinese company Meizu not only produces smartphones but also accessories such as headphones and power banks. They started out in 2003 with the production of MP3 players. Since 2008, they have focussed on smartphones. Like now on the Meizu Pro 7.
The Meizu Pro 7, which of course has nothing to do with the TV channel Pro 7, ended up with me because the product management raved about it. I tested the phone for a while and can say: I understand the enthusiasm.
The back of the Meizu Pro 7 has a 2-inch colour display. This makes it the only one on the European market at the moment. Only on the Asian market are there one or two phones, where the back could also pass for a colour display.
If, like me, you were thinking about the Yotaphones: The Yotaphones don't have a colour display on the back. They have an e-ink display, which is black and white.
The secondary display
The colour 2-inch display on the back is equipped with Amoled technology. With Amoled, each pixel is individually illuminated. On the one hand, this ensures better image quality and on the other, it saves battery power because no backlight is required. The display has three functions:
- Displays the image from the rear camera
- Displays the weather, time and messages
- Displays your step count
I think the best of the three functions is the main camera display. It's there to take good selfies with the more powerful dual camera on the back of the phone. You can activate the camera from the small display. Admittedly, the display is quite small, but it was enough for me. One swipe on the mini display from top to bottom and the camera is running.
You can choose between three modes for the rear camera on the small display:
- Original: Just the way you look
- Beauty: an automatic beauty filter
- Blur: an artificial bokeh effect, i.e. depth of field. No, not the band.
The display switches on as soon as you turn the phone over. Unfortunately, however, it cannot be used as an always-on display.
With the second display, the Meizu Pro 7 definitely stands out. I've been asked about the phone several times by colleagues. And once even by an unknown guy on the train. He still didn't get my phone number though.
The camera
The 12-megapixel dual camera has a Pro mode, which allows you to set the shutter speed, ISO values, exposure and other things that photographers like. You can also record GIFs. There is also an artificial bokeh effect called Blur. It didn't always work quite right for me, sometimes my hair was included in the blurred part.
Beautifully slim
I like the Pro 7, at 7.3 mm it's a slim phone and at 163 grams it's light. The 5.2-inch Amoled display is easy to use with just one hand. I particularly like this compactness. And it has an audio jack socket. Finally listening to music again without a dongle. The Pro 7's 3000 mAh battery lasts me more than a day, usually 1.5 days.
One small drawback: the Pro 7 does not have IP certification, so it is not waterproof. You can't listen to music in the shower. I'll just have to sing again myself.
The back of the Pro 7 is made of dark, matt aluminium and looks shatterproof. It is not susceptible to fingerprints. Unlike many flagship mobile phones this year, which come with a ceramic back.
However, instead of just one, two displays can now break.
The Pro 7 hasn't had to experience a fall with me. Incidentally, it's one of the few, as I like to drop my mobile phones often.
Meizu provides you with a case with an edge that protrudes slightly over the display. And the display looks sturdy enough so that it doesn't suffer total damage with every unspectacular drop.
Special effects
The Meizu Pro 7 has functions that are not obvious at first glance.
There is the Music Only mode. It works like this: You press the on/off button for about three seconds. Then you can select the mode in which you only listen to music. Only the second display is active and you have peace and quiet from incoming messages and calls.
Meizu has superimposed its own user interface over Android. With Flyme, you can download designs from your own store to personalise your phone.
You can close apps with the familiar Android function: Simply swipe upwards on the display. Special with Flyme: You can set the apps to be displayed blurred directly when you scroll through the open apps.
This is practical for me because people always want to press around on the Pro 7. At least they can't look at my WhatsApp chats while I'm scrolling.
You can use the Pro 7 without a Google account
When installing the Pro 7, you will not be asked to link the phone to your Google account.
This has advantages, but also disadvantages during installation. I want to try using it without Google. Firstly, I tried a phone clone with the pre-installed app from Meizu. The Pro 7 and my old phone found each other. However, for reasons I don't understand, the data transfer was always rejected when it was halfway through and then cancelled. So I started a manual transfer. After half an hour, I'd had enough. Above all, my Whatsapp backup could not be implemented. So I installed the Google Installer, after which I was able to copy everything from my backups to the Meizu without any problems. But now it's just connected to the search engine giant.
For hobbyists in particular, using a phone without a Google account is certainly exciting. You can also download apps from Meizu's App Centre with or without Google. But Meizu hasn't thought about hobbyists. The reason why the Google Play apps are not installed on Chinese phones - except those intended for export - is that Google, with its philosophy of openness, does not get along with the Chinese government, its censorship and its Great Firewall of China. Every now and then, Google makes attempts to bring the Play Store censored or uncensored to the Chinese market, so far without any significant success.
Conclusion
It may well be that a second display on the back will never catch on. It requires a little more battery and is an additional weak point in terms of break resistance. However, if you use the small screen instead of the large one, you also save on battery.
Colleague Philipp Rüegg saw the phone on my desk. He finds the second display totally unnecessary, a battery hog and another point on the phone that could break. I myself see the Pro 7 as a good and solid mobile phone that is very lady-like: you can take great selfies with it and edit your pictures with many pre-installed filters directly on the phone. The Amoled display is an eye-catcher, the design is beautiful, simple and compact.
The Pro 7 is a phone that I would have liked to keep for longer than just the test period.
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Testing devices and gadgets is my thing. Some experiments lead to interesting insights, others to demolished phones. I’m hooked on series and can’t imagine life without Netflix. In summer, you’ll find me soaking up the sun by the lake or at a music festival.