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Meizu’s newest phone is just fine (and that might not be good enough)
Smaller smartphone makers getting squeezed as competition in China grows
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This article originally appeared on ABACUS
It’s funny how quickly things can feel ‘normal’. Take the smartphone notch. The iPhone X is just six months old -- and yet it feels every Chinese smartphone maker is copying the notch.
Perhaps that’s why Meizu’s new notchless flagship line -- the Meizu 15 -- feels like a phone from another time. (It even has a headphone jack!)
And that’s not the only throwback here. There’s also an old-fashioned home button that simulates the feeling of pressing a physical button -- a little like the iPhone 7, which the phone strongly resembles from the front.
The lineup includes three handsets: The entry-level, the Meizu 15 Lite, Meizu 15 and the premium Meizu 15 Plus.
The phones look familiar, the specs are solid… and that might be Meizu’s problem, as it competes in a market increasingly dominated by Huawei, Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi and Apple.
Beyond the big five, China’s other smartphone makers are feeling the pinch: LeTV, Coolpad and many more rapidly grew and then stalled, fighting it hard to make headway in such a crowded market. And industry watchers don’t think it’ll get any easier, with many predicting more brands will “rapidly” fall away.
Andrew Barclay is a tech reporter with Abacus. A self confessed gadget nerd, he likes writing about the intersection of technology, culture and business. If he's not at the office, he's probably eating ramen. He has previously worked at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
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