Meizu Pro 7 phone has second screen to help you take the perfect selfie

Claims of all modern smartphones looking the same have just been debunked by Meizu, a Chinese tech firm which has launched a handset with two screens - one on the front and one on the back.

The Android phone comes in two sizes, a 5.2in version called the Pro 7 and a 5.7in model named the Pro 7 Plus. Both offer high-end performance, big batteries, lots of storage and high-quality cameras. But their unique selling point is undoubtedly the second screen.

Fitted below the rear camera and in a portrait orientation, the AMOLED display measures 1.9in diagonally and has a resolution of 240 x 536, giving it a high pixel density of 307 per inch.

Automatically coming to life when you turn the phone over, the display shows the time and weather forecast, music playback and notifications. Perhaps most usefully, the screen acts as the perfect selfie tool, showing a live feed of the rear camera to help you frame the idea shot. On other phones, using the higher-quality rear camera is a blind case of hit-and miss.

As for that rear camera, it has a pair of 12-megapixel, f/2.0 sensors with larger pixels for capturing more light. One sensor captures colour, the other is for black and white. Power comes from a 3,000mAh battery in the Pro 7 and a 3,500mAh cell in the Pro 7 Plus, which also features a fast charging feature to bring a dead battery up to 67% in 30 minutes.

Colour options include black, gold and red while storage options are 64GB and 128GB for both models. The phones go on sale in China on 5 August, priced from around £365, but with no official launch date for elsewhere your best bet will be to import one.