Alleged Meizu 16s case leak suggests departure from predecessors' design

The next Meizu flagship may be a decent offering. The rumors built up around this phone suggest that it will be powered by the premium Snapdragon 855 processor, and feature a state-of-the-art 48MP Sony imaging sensor in its main-camera arrangement. It has also become linked to a front panel with minimal bezels, so as to give what appears to be an appreciable screen-to-body ratio without resorting to either a notch, punch-hole or pop-up front camera. 

The phone in the relevant rumor-site post shows a screen that is not in truth much different from its predecessor, the 16, 16 Plus and 16X, although its forehead and chin may be even smaller. However, a new leak may turn all of this speculation on its head. It shows a case for a phone, one of which has Chinese characters followed by the term '16s', superimposed on it.

This case shows cut-outs for an almost Huawei-esque triple-camera, arranged along the left top edge of the phone (while face down). Should it really turn out to fit a Meizu flagship, it would indicate that the OEM has changed its mind about the normally central orientation of its 16-line flagships.

This latest leak also fails to match up with the last in that the button placement differs between them. The case shows 2 separate volume buttons above what is probably a power button along one side of the phone. The 'screen' leak, on the other hand, shows that the volume controls are in rocker form, and thus couldn't work with the case.

There is also a new, strange detail in this post: an additional button along the opposite edge to the others, near the bottom edge of the phone. This does not match up with either the putative 16s from the earlier leak, or the devices that have come before it. This completely new component could be a dedicated camera button, a remappable one for anything the user wants, or, indeed, not a feature of the real Meizu 16s after all.