Joining the swelling ranks of cutting-edge Android flagships this month is the new Meizu Pro 6, announced in Beijing today. This handset comes with a 5.2-inch Super AMOLED display and a unibody metal design that boasts some of the smallest antenna lines in the business. Taking direct aim at the iPhone, Meizu says it has 48 percent less plastic in its design, while on the inside it also has a matching technology for Apple's 3D Touch with its own 3D Press. The Pro 6 is powered by a 10-core MediaTek Helio X25 processor, with Meizu claiming it will be the first deca-core smartphone on the market.

Xiaomi's Mi 5 and Huawei's P9 have recently elevated the standard for Chinese phone manufacturers to aim for, and Meizu's latest enters into direct competition with them. Like both of those devices, this is a super thin phone, measuring only 7.25mm in thickness and avoiding any camera bump compromises. On the inside, the Pro 6 has 4GB of RAM and either 32GB or 64GB of storage to go with its multicore processor. The camera has a 21-megapixel Sony IMX230 sensor, though Meizu has customized the construction of the whole module and lens assembly in order to make it thinner. Phase-detect autofocus and new image-processing algorithms allow Meizu to claim a focusing speed of just 0.07 seconds with the Pro 6, which also comes with a 10-LED ring flash. Oddly, it doesn't encircle the camera lens, as might be expected, but sits below it, framing the laser focusing assist (which has also been upgraded to now cover a distance of up to two meters away from the phone).

Other upgrades include a new fingerprint sensor with a 0.2-second recognition time and the addition of mCharge 3.0, which will take the Pro 6 battery from empty to full in under an hour. The battery is actually the one area where the Meizu Pro 6 lags behind its competition, as it's just 2,560mAh. Xiaomi and Huawei have been able to fit 3,000mAh cells in devices that are just as slim. Like the Mi 5 and P9, Meizu's Pro 6 also sports a 1920 x 1080 resolution and accepts two nano-SIM cards. Meizu goes the extra mile with its USB-C data cable, integrating short-circuit and high-temperature protection to ensure that its rapid-charging technology poses no undue threat to the smartphone's electronics.

Meizu hopes the Pro 6 will stand out for its audio and proudly touts a Cirrus Logic CS43L36 chip, noting that it comes from the same company that provides the iPhone's audio components. There's obviously been a lot of close consideration of Apple's flagship device during the design of Meizu's latest flagship, with the minimized antenna lines aiming to fix one of the biggest design downsides of the iPhone. The introduction of a pressure-sensitive touchscreen, dubbed 3D Press by Meizu, matches Apple's 3D Touch both in functionality and appearance — recreating the same blurred-out background when used on the home screen.

The Meizu Pro 6 is priced at ¥2,499 (just under $390) with 32GB of storage or ¥2,799 (around $430) with 64GB. Meizu offers a choice of black, silver, or gold alluminum alloy unibody, and the international version of the phone will be a pentaband, 11-frequency variant to ensure maximum network compatibility.