The Meizu Pro 7 Plus has a worse camera than its predecessor

DxOMark's assessment of Meizu's flagship for the year was anything but stellar, with the camera evaluation website scoring the Chinese device a lukewarm 71 points—100 being the highest possible—a score that isn't exactly terrible but still fails to live up to the expectations one would have from a device in the flagship segment.

Importantly, the Pro 7 Plus, according to DxOMark, offered a palpable drop in camera performance from its predecessor, the Meizu Pro 6s. The 6s scored an impressive 85 points when it was reviewed, placing it in contention with other last-gen flagships like the iPhone 7 and the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Edge. The Meizu Pro 7 Plus, on the other hand, doesn't even reach those heights, with performance sitting in the bracket of older devices like the Galaxy S6 and Xiaomi's Mi 5S Plus.

It should be noted, however, the Meizu Pro 7 Plus and Meizu Pro 6S were tested using different protocols. The differential in scores between both test protocols are negligible, though, as devices like the Google Pixel and iPhone, when tested using the two protocols, recorded changes of +1 and -1 respectively. That shows that even if both the Pro 7 Plus and Pro 6S were tested on a level playing field, the difference would still be sizeable.

The Meizu Pro 7 Plus is notorious for being the only smartphone in the world to be powered by MediaTek's failed Helio X30 SoC—a chipset that promised to compete with the Snapdragon 835 but failed to deliver in the end. It's also comical that the Pro 7 Plus sees such a drop in performance when it sports an extra rear sensor. More isn't always better, it would seem.

DxOMark scores aren't gospel, of course, but what they do is give users a chance to make inferences based on data rendered on an almost level playing field.