Meizu to launch new smartphone brand on December 23, ready to battle Xiaomi

By Andy Boxall December 22, 2014

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Meizu, an up and coming Chinese smartphone company, is set to announce a new brand on December 23. It will hold an event in Beijing to reveal all the details, but several leaks have provided a few early hints, while the company has produced a video teaser to whet our appetites.

The teaser campaign revolves around using the tagline No Blue, and the leaks indicate the new brand name is Blue Charm. It’s believed Meizu will launch two phones initially, both of which will be competitively priced, and will eventually build Blue Charm into a wider consumer electronics brand.

Related: Meizu announces the MX4 Pro

Rumor reports suggest Meizu will have a 4.6-inch and a 5.5-inch smartphone to show us on December 23, both of which could feature 1080p resolutions, octa-core MediaTek processors, and 2GB of RAM. If Meizu can keep the price down despite the Full HD screens, it could genuinely contend with Xiaomi – the obvious target for this new brand.

Other hints found on the Meizu Facebook page give the impression the Blue Charm series will be available in various colors, much like the iPhone 5C, and feature a modern design which will set the phones apart from other budget devices.

While Meizu phones traditionally use Android as the operating system, hidden underneath the firm’s Flyme user interface, there’s a possibility the Blue Charm series may not. A set of leaked pictures from China show what’s thought to be the new phones with a different UI over the top. The source speculates it’s a modified version of Jolla’s Sailfish launcher, but it seems unlikely this would make it on to the final device.

There is another possibility. Meizu is one of Canonical’s partners on Ubuntu Mobile, and has recently reiterated its intention to release a phone running the long-delayed operating system. Could the Blue Charm phones be the first? We’ll find out everything we need to know at Meizu’s event.

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