May not be strong enough, but it could be special.

At 2:30 am on September 6, the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, Geely's commercial satellite company Spacetime Daoyu successfully launched 10 satellites with one rocket, including the "Interstellar Meizu Lucky Star" satellite. On the same day, Star Ji Meizu held a live broadcast of the "Flyme Star Wish Plan" mobile AI sharing session, officially announcing that it will be released this month:

Meizu Lucky 08.

In the past few days, Meizu has officially kicked off the Lucky 08 promotional campaign, confirming that a press conference will be held on September 25th, and releasing the back Deco design.

Readers who follow Meizu may have noticed that since the Meizu 17 in 2020, Meizu's mobile phone product line has basically been reduced to just the flagship digital series, and after the restart of Meilan, only one hundred-yuan phone equipped with a domestic Huaben chip was launched at the beginning of 2022.

It wasn't until this year that Meizu started to replenish its mobile phone lineup with the launch of the Meizu Note 21 and the joint launch of the Meilan 20 with China Mobile, but in the most competitive 2000 yuan price segment in the domestic mobile phone market, Meizu has been absent for several years.

This is also the price range that Meizu Lucky 08 is targeting.

Where is the luck in Meizu Lucky 08?

Meizu's upcoming new phone, Lucky 08, has a unique meaning from its name, and the official says its inspiration comes from the "Lucky Star" satellite launched by Star Ji Meizu. However, the beautiful meaning is mostly just emotional value, and practical value is a prerequisite for buying a phone.

So what is there to look forward to in this phone? First, we need to go back to the positioning of the Lucky series. According to Meizu's plan, unlike the digital series which focuses on "all-round flagship", and the Note series which focuses on "performance flagship", the Lucky series focuses on "beautiful and practical", aiming to become the most capable AI phone in the 2000 yuan price segment.

Image/Meizu

Since we're talking about "beauty", the design is definitely a focus.

In terms of design, Meizu has always been known for its minimalist and fashionable design language, and Lucky 08 seems to differ from the usual Meizu style. According to the information currently available, the Meizu Lucky 08 is expected to feature a 6.5-inch screen with a resolution of 2400x1080, and the front should still have a center-mounted punch-hole design.

Surprisingly, the back is different. From the posters released by Meizu, Lucky 08 changes the vertical rear camera design of the Meizu 21 and 21 Note, placing the Deco in the center of the back, but adopting an extremely special irregular design in the Deco area, which the official calls "Star Track Technological Aesthetics".

Image/Meizu

Whether it's beautiful or not may depend on seeing the actual phone. But it is certain that this design is bold, and the final result will either be outstanding or bizarre. The configuration is basically confirmed to include a "wide-angle + ultra-wide-angle" rear camera combination, so expectations for actual imaging performance may need to be lowered.

In addition, the Meizu Lucky 08 still adopts a flat frame design, but there are questions about the material of both the frame and the back cover. Judging from the official images, at least the back cover does not look like glass.

As for hardware configuration, although the specific model of the processor has not been fully confirmed, based on Meizu's consistent market strategy, Lucky 08 is expected to carry a mid-to-high-end chip, most likely Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 or Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3.

In fact, many mid-range phones in the 2000 yuan price segment, including the Redmi Turbo 3, also use these two Snapdragon chips. While they may not be flagship-level in terms of performance, they are definitely sufficient. More importantly, these two chips offer guaranteed AI performance, allowing Flyme AIOS to fully leverage its suite of AI features and experiences.

In March of this year, Lei Technology was invited to attend the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 launch event, where the emphasis was on the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 supporting up to 10 billion parameter large models. In addition, in terms of imaging, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 also integrates a cognitive 18-bit triple ISP, supporting multiple cameras on a mobile phone for triple concurrent and parallel processing, and enabling multi-layer semantic segmentation through "direct pathways" leveraging edge AI computing power for more customized image optimization.

Image/Lei Technology

Of course, the chip is the core foundation, but the system is what users directly interact with. And the addition of the Flyme AIOS system may also be the most compelling highlight of Lucky 08.

As Meizu's first phone natively equipped with Flyme AIOS after "All in AI", Lucky 08 not only has a series of AI features and experiences previously released by Meizu, but also includes AI answering, AI search, and other AI functions in different scenarios previously revealed in the "Flyme Star Wish Plan".

Among them, "AI answering" includes both automatic and manual answering options, automatically hanging up on fraud and harassment calls, automatically answering delivery and courier calls, and summarizing call contents and extracting to-do items with AI after the call, including the ability to add call summaries to notes with one click.

It can be expected that a series of scenario experiences built around AI will also be the core promotional selling point of Meizu Lucky 08.

In summary, Meizu Lucky 08 may have many highlights in terms of design, AI smart experience, and more. If you're looking for a mid-range model with a unique appearance, sufficient performance, and innovative features, Lucky 08 is undoubtedly a choice worth waiting for.

Be an alternative "rolling king" in the most competitive price segment?

When we talk about the mobile phone market in the 2000 yuan price segment, the first keyword is "involution." This price point is a battlefield where many brands compete fiercely, with Xiaomi, Honor, realme, OPPO, and other major players releasing a large number of cost-effective models in this price range each year to compete for consumer favor.

Whether it's in terms of performance configuration, design, or marketing tactics, manufacturers are frantically involved in this price segment, trying to enhance product competitiveness without changing the price.

Redmi Turbo 3, Image/Lei Technology

Why is the 2000 yuan price segment so competitive? The reason is not hard to understand:

This price point falls within the range of "reasonable price and decent configuration," attracting a large number of consumers with limited budgets but requirements for configuration and experience. For many users, spending 2000 yuan can get a smartphone with a powerful enough processor, a good display, and a multi-camera setup, with cost-effectiveness being their primary criterion for choice.

And this price segment has naturally become a must-win territory for major mobile phone brands - the core battlefield of the cost-effectiveness war. But is such a market worth competing in for a "small factory" like Meizu? This is a question worth discussing.

As we all know, although Meizu once flourished in the mobile phone market, it has been relatively weak in recent years due to resource and market share constraints in a market dominated by major players. So why is Meizu choosing to make a comeback in such a "rolled-up" price segment? This is obviously not something that can be explained simply by follow the fashion or impulse.

On the one hand, Meizu's choice to enter the 2000 yuan price segment actually has a certain logical market rationale. Despite the fierce competition, this price segment also represents a huge potential user base.

Meizu 21 Note, Image/Lei Technology

These consumers want a nearly flagship-level experience without exceeding their budget. Meizu Lucky 08 is precisely targeting this group, relying on its flagship Flyme AIOS system and all-new AI experience to break through the traditional perception of "hardware configuration is king" in this price segment through intelligent differentiation.

And with its deep cultivation of user experience, especially the reputation of the Flyme system among mobile phone enthusiasts, Meizu actually has the ability to differentiate and break through in this price segment. Unlike brands that focus on stacking configurations, Meizu has always been known for its hardware and software design, and the smoothness and user-friendliness of the Flyme system have garnered a loyal user base over the years.

On top of the Flyme AIOS, the key to Meizu Lucky 08's success is not just the stacking of hardware configurations, but also the innovation of user experience. In other words, intelligent and smoother system experiences are the key to Meizu breaking through in the 2000 yuan price segment.

Final Thoughts

From a broader perspective, Meizu's entry into the 2000 yuan price segment is actually part of its brand rejuvenation and strategic adjustment. Meizu stated that in addition to launching the Lucky 08 phone, they will also introduce the StarV View AR smart glasses and the LYNK&CO Z10 customized gaming and entertainment cockpit at the September 25th press conference.

In the Star Ji Meizu era, Meizu is gradually expanding into the fields of intelligence and the Internet of Things, with mobile phones shifting from "everything" to a "key link" in the layout. The launch of Lucky 08 not only marks the arrival of a new Meizu phone, but also represents an important node in Meizu's smart ecosystem.

Especially with the Flyme AIOS system, it demonstrates Meizu's ambition for the future smart device ecosystem. Through the popularization of smart systems, Meizu hopes to gradually form a user ecosystem centered on AI and IoT, with mobile phones serving as the entry point to attract users into this ecosystem.

In a nutshell, Meizu's push into the 2000 yuan price segment is not just about chasing sales volumes, but rather about becoming an "alternative rolling king" in this competitive market through differentiated products and innovative system experiences, thereby expanding the ecosystem's entry points and user base.

And in this price segment where configurations are stacked, Meizu has chosen AI and user experience as its breakthrough point, which may be the key to its turnaround.