Meizu Pro 6: Release date, specs and pricing expected from iPhone lookalike

Chinese manufacturer Meizu's Pro 5 model received phenomenal response last year with many benchmark tests comparing it to the iPhone 6 and putting it ahead of a host of other flagships like Samsung Galaxy S6 and Nexus 6P. This year the company is slated to come out with five to six new models of smartphones which include the Meizu Pro 6.

Recently leaked photos of the Pro 6 looked so similar to the upcoming iPhone 7's rumoured design that most people mistook it for the Apple product. Meizu's vice president of sales and marketing Li Nan clarified that the photos were actually pictures of the upcoming Meizu Pro 6.

IBTimes UK brings you a detailed look at the specifications, features and pricing expected from the upcoming device:

Design and Display

The leaked photos of the Pro 6 reveal a design similar to its predecessor with a metal unibody with curved sides. The large rear camera module remains intact like the Pro 5 along with the front panel's home button and the Meizu Mtouch fingerprint scanner. The Pro 6, however, appears to have a reduced bezel size.

As for the screen, a leak by benchmarking site GFXBench earlier this month showed the Pro 6 would come with a 4.6-inch screen bearing 1,080 x 1,920 resolution. But the leaked photos show a 5.5-inch FullHD display which means there may be two variants of the phone according to screen size. Rumours have pointed towards a pressure sensitive screen and a 3D Touch function like the iPhone.

Processor, RAM and OS

The device will likely be launched with two different versions in terms of specifications too. First a high-end model with 6 GB RAM and 128 GB storage and the lower-end one could come with 4 GB RAM and 64 GB storage.

Although the Pro 6 was originally rumoured to run on the Exynos 8890 flagship chipset used in the recently launched Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, Meizu recently announced that the Pro 6 will be the first smartphone to use the deca-core Helio X25 chipset. The X25 is the enhanced version of its predecessor, the Helio X20 and is reported to have a faster GPU at 850 MHz vs 750 MHz of the X20 along with the cores boosted from 2.3 GHz to 2.5 GHz.

The device will be running Android 6.0 Marshmallow based on Meizu's Flyme 6.0 OS.

Camera

The device's rear camera is said to be 20 MP, and the front-facing selfie snapper a 5 MP camera. The cameras are expected to have laser autofocus, OIS, dual-LED (dual tone) flash along with Geo-tagging, touch focus and face detection features. The rear camera will be capable of shooting 4K video of UHD quality.

Release Date

Initial reports had suggested an April 2016 launch for the Pro 6. But recent reports coming out of its home country, China suggest that an August launch is more likely. The Pro 5 was released in September last year.

Pricing

There are no reliable reports on pricing information for the Meizu Pro 6 but the Pro 5 last year was in the $500 range which suggests the Pro 6 could be priced between $500-$600 depending on the variants. In addition to the Pro 6, Meizu is expected to launch a Pro 6 mini, MX6 and MX6 Mini this year.