I've been on tenterhooks, but it's been postponed twice. Waiting for the Meizu 22 has made me feel like a clown.

Right, when you clicked into this article, you probably knew that Tony was going to start criticizing the small Zhuhai-based factory.

But before I start the main text, I'd like to make a disclaimer first. As a die-hard Meizu fan who has owned more than a dozen Meizu phones, been a victim of several first-release blunders, and also pre-ordered the Meizu 22 this time, I really wouldn't want to rant if I weren't really fed up...

The cause was still last Friday. The highly anticipated Meizu 22, which might bring Meizu back to the top 5 among domestic brands (just kidding), was delayed again. And the latest "delivery" time has been set for early September. Meizu fans were devastated...

Let me walk you through the two delays of the Meizu 22, and you'll understand why I and many other Meizu fans are so disappointed.

First, at the Meizu Note 16 launch event in May this year, Lao Wan confidently said on stage that the new flagship Meizu 22 would "see you in the midsummer". Positioned as a small-screen flagship in the AI era and even having a characteristic imaging system comparable to the Ultra level, it made my mouth water.

You know, the last time Meizu released a new flagship was more than a year ago. So many Meizu fans who were still using old phones were very excited, saying that they could finally get a new phone.

Well, yes, that's how we Meizu fans live.

But who would have thought that after waiting so eagerly for summer, as July was almost over, Meizu hadn't even started the preheating... Finally, an official announcement said that it was delayed because "it's challenging the world's narrowest 1.2mm physical four-sided bezel".

Alright, anyway, this can be considered as the start of preheating, right!

Not long after, on August 1st, the Meizu 22 also started the national pre-order. Thinking that since there was a pre-order this time, it shouldn't be delayed again. Meizu fans didn't complain too much. After all, it's still so hot. Why can't it be considered midsummer?

Unexpectedly, the official Weibo account almost went silent after the pre-order started... Except for some posts to promote the Shanghai China Joy event during that period, there was no news for more than ten days until almost the end of the month. The rumor that the Meizu 22 would be "delayed again" was spreading like wildfire...

During that time, Meizu fans were going crazy. They waited for new news from the official Weibo account at 10 a.m. every day, made their own mock-up pictures for fun. Even Yang Yan, the former person in charge of Flyme, posted several Weibo posts saying that he would have a feud with Meizu for some unknown reason, which was also regarded as part of the marketing.

Finally, as expected, the silent official Weibo account finally admitted last Friday that the Meizu 22 would be delayed again. And the reason for this delay was "to polish 13 new imaging algorithms".

Sigh... After such constant setbacks, even someone like me who loves Meizu so much is really disappointed. In the Meizu fan groups I'm in, there were a lot of complaints, and even some die-hard fans left the groups.

Moreover, speaking of the reason for this delay, I also think it's quite strange - if you didn't mention the imaging aspect, even though you boasted about having "Ultra-level performance" before, in fact, many people don't have high expectations for Meizu's imaging. By saying so, aren't you just putting yourself in a difficult position?

To put it bluntly, do people who really buy Meizu phones these days really care about Meizu's imaging?

Actually, product delays can be regarded as part of Meizu's corporate culture. It can be traced back to the M8 era. The first domestic smartphone, which was once called the "Chinese iPhone", was unveiled in 2007 and didn't hit the market until early 2009...

ZOL (Zhongguancun Online). The first thing they did when they got the M8 back then was to complain about the delay.

Since then, product delays seem to be engraved in Meizu's DNA.

In my memory, Meizu's MX4 Pro, Pro 5, and X8 have all been delayed. Besides phones, the delays of accessories are even more serious. The power bank, the Gravity speaker that left many people disappointed, and an M3 Pro HiFi player have been silent since they were shown at the Meizu Fan Conference in 2022...

Forget it. These are all in the past. Let's not talk about it... But it's already 2025. I think as a mature smartphone company, releasing products on time should be the most basic principle, right?

Besides the issue of product delays, Meizu's marketing in the past two years often makes me feel like an old man in the subway looking at his phone.

For example, Meizu 20 had a super-long one-and-a-half-month preheating, and Meizu 21 had an inequality-style promotion. It also said something mysterious like "not making phones but AI terminals". Looking back on Meizu's marketing methods in the past two years, I'm so embarrassed that I could dig a hole in the ground with my toes.

To be honest, everyone knows that the Meizu brand has extremely high user loyalty, and its sales rely largely on the support of Meizu fans. That is to say, people who don't buy Meizu phones won't pay much attention to Meizu, and those who do are its own fans. Isn't it just making things difficult for your own people by having such exaggerated marketing?

However, in the past two years, Meizu's efforts in marketing have not yielded satisfactory results -

In sharp contrast to its booming smart glasses and Flyme Auto businesses, Meizu's mobile phone business is rather cold.

In the IDC statistics of the Chinese smartphone market in 2023 and 2024, Meizu was classified as "Others".

Although Meizu successfully created a small hit with the Note 16, a budget phone, in the first half of the year, it's unrealistic to rely on just one budget phone to turn things around. There's only about half a year left until the deadline of "returning to the top 5 within three years", and time is running out for Meizu...

So, in the next half year, can Meizu stage a comeback with the yet-to-be-released Meizu 22?

Regarding the configuration, you may have heard something - it's rumored that the Meizu 22 may not be equipped with the new flagship processors like the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 or the Dimensity 9500, but instead will use a "sub-flagship" Snapdragon processor. There's a debate about whether this processor is the Snapdragon 8 Elite or the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4.

Unless Meizu has some surprises in store, it will show us the coexistence of old and new processors again...

Judging from the network access information, the Meizu 22 supports 80W wired charging for the battery, with a typical capacity of 5500mAh. This really isn't outstanding this year - the OnePlus 13T of the same size next door has a battery capacity of up to 6260mAh (please stop with your inequality marketing).

To make matters worse, your proud 1.2mm ultra-narrow bezel is very likely to be outshined by the 1mm bezel of the Xiaomi 16 as soon as it's released.

But whether the Meizu 22 will flop before its release depends on the situation, I think.

I wonder if you've seen the imaging samples updated by the official Weibo account in the past few days. It's said that the periscope telephoto lens of the Meizu 22 this time uses the same LYT600 as the X200 Pro mini. Judging from the imaging quality of the samples, it's really quite competitive. It can hold its own against products from other brands in the 6.3-inch category.