We have seen leaks of the rear shell of the Meizu m1 mini, and we have seen purported press material, but this photo is the first to show us a working Meizu m1 mini. And there is something more to it than that!
The image shows three phones. The one nearest the camera is the Meizu m1 note with its 5.5-inch display, while the other two look a lot like the rumored 5-inch Meizu m1 mini. We can see the thicker than average border around the display, which would match expectations of a plastic unibody shell, and which also helps to debunk the idea that these phones are the older MX3.
Look more closely at the two m1 minis and the middle phone appears to be running a stock version of Android, similar to what you find on Nexus phones. We can see the standard Android icons, and the Flyme SmartBar has been replaced with Android’s native on-screen navigation keys.
What we are most likely looking at is a development phone running stock Android, but some commenters have suggested Meizu might release a stock Android version of the m1 mini. We are not so sure, since Flyme is part of what makes a Meizu phone a Meizu, but on the other hand a lot of big changes have happened over the past year.
The final phone in the photo looks like a YunOS phone. Unfortunately there is no Ubuntu device in the picture, which would have helped to confirm last evening’s leaks.
Meizu will hold its “Connected” launch on January 28, where we hope to see the Meizu m1 mini officially for the first time.
Why a stock Android screenshot got people talking
It is easy to forget how central Flyme was to Meizu’s identity. The company launched Flyme with the original Meizu MX in 2012 as a deeply customized version of Android, and by early 2015 it had become the main reason many fans chose Meizu. Flyme 3.0 was one of the first Android skins to embrace a flat design, and Flyme 4.0, which arrived with the MX4 in 2014, was the first version Meizu made available for other manufacturers’ phones, with official builds for some Samsung, Sony, LG and HTC devices.
A Meizu phone without Flyme was therefore a genuine surprise, and it immediately raised the question of whether Meizu was preparing a “pure Android” edition for international buyers, the same way it was exploring Ubuntu with Canonical and YunOS with Alibaba.
Three operating systems in one photo
The most interesting thing about the image is not any one phone. It is that the photo appears to show one company’s hardware running several different operating systems at once. That fits what we knew about Meizu at the time:
- Flyme was Meizu’s own Android-based system and the default on its phones.
- YunOS from Alibaba was offered alongside Flyme on the MX4 in mainland China, the first Meizu phone to get that option.
- Ubuntu Touch was being developed with Canonical, and was widely expected to appear on a Meizu phone at MWC.
- Stock Android is what developers often run on test hardware before a custom skin is ready.
Put together, the photo looked like a snapshot of a company keeping its options open.
What happened next
The “Connected” launch went ahead as planned, and the phone arrived as the Meizu m1, without the “mini” suffix that every leak had used. We covered the launch in our report on the Meizu m1 being officially released for 699 Yuan. It was the second model in the new M series, which Meizu had started in December 2014 with the m1 note, and whose purpose was to bring solid features to a lower price point.
What did not happen was a stock Android version. The m1 shipped with Flyme, as did the phones that followed it. Meizu continued to treat its software as a key selling point, releasing Flyme 4.5 based on Android Lollipop with the M2, M2 Note and MX5 later in 2015, and pushing it to earlier devices including the m1 note, MX4 and MX4 Pro. Stock Android, it turned out, really was just a development build.
The m1 also marked the start of a very busy period for Meizu’s budget line. In June 2015 the company launched the M2 Note, and then the M2, and it took both to India that same summer after bringing the m1 note there in May. The M series became one of Meizu’s biggest sellers in markets like India, where the M2, M2 Note and later the M3 Note were among its biggest hits.
For more on the device that stars in this photo, see our leaked comparison of the m1 mini next to the Xiaomi Redmi.
Why it still matters
This photo is a good reminder that a leaked prototype is not a finished product. Test units run whatever software engineers need, and they often look different from the phone that ships. When you see a leak today, treat the software on the screen as the least reliable detail in the picture. The shape of the body, the position of the buttons and the size of the display bezels are usually far better clues, which is exactly how this photo was read at the time.
It also explains why custom Android skins still matter. For Meizu, Flyme was not decoration; it was the thing that made its phones feel different from the dozens of similar handsets on sale. That is still true across the industry today, where the hardware often comes from the same few suppliers and the software is where brands really compete.
