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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.
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