Meizu is one of the fastest-growing smartphone manufacturers out there. This China-based company has managed to sell 20 million smartphones in 2015, which is a lot more than they managed to ship a year before that, when they sold ‘only’ 4.4 million units. Meizu has released a number of devices last year, and their most powerful offering arrived in September, the Meizu PRO 5. This handset is powered by Android Lollipop out of the box, and we’ve already reviewed it, but Meizu decided to announce a new variant of this phablet right before MWC, the Meizu PRO 5 Ubuntu Edition. We’ve already covered the main announcement of this handset, and have managed to get some hands-on time with the device in Barcelona, so read on if you’re interested.
This variant of the device ships with Ubuntu on the inside instead of Android. Those of you who are not familiar with it, Ubuntu is Canonical’s Linux-based OS used in PCs, and this is its mobile version. This is not the first Meizu-branded smartphone to ship with Ubuntu on top, the company has already released the Meizu MX4 which has this OS installed on it. In terms of the design, this variant of the device is completely identical to the original, we’re looking at the all-metal smartphone here which sports a physical home button below the display. Its loudspeaker is located on the bottom fo the device, while you’ll find the SIM tray slot and volume rocker buttons on the right. The power / lock key is placed on the right-hand side of this device, and the SIM tray I’ve mentioned hides two SIM card slots on the inside, and you can use one of the two for a microSD card if you want.
In terms of specs, this phablet is also completely identical to its Android sibling. The device ships with a 5.7-inch 1080p (1920 x 1080) AMOLED display, 3GB / 4GB of RAM and 32GB / 64GB of expandable internal storage. The device is fueled by Samsung’s Exynos 7420 64-bit octa-core SoC, and is the only handset outside of Samsung’s ecosystem to use this chip. The 21-megapixel snapper can be found on the back of this device, and a 5-megapixel shooter is available up front. The 3,050mAh battery is located on the inside, and is not removable. The Meizu PRO 5 measures 156.7 x 78 x 7.5mm, while it weighs 168 grams. That is more or less it, the device is now available for pre-order on Ubuntu’s official site, in case you’re interested. You’ll find mostly UI shots in the gallery down below, if you’d like to get a better look at the device itself, visit our Meizu PRO 5 review linked in the first paragraph.
