As bizarre as it seems, the practice of carmakers selling phones isn’t entirely unheard of these days – at least, in China. The Middle Kingdom has seen a number of car-branded devices launched in the past few years, including from Nio and even Polestar.
Now, there’s a new company appearing to join the fray, and that’s Lynk & Co. The firm’s China general manager Lin Jie, who’s also the vice president of the Geely Auto group, posted a photo on Weibo purportedly from a Lynk & Co Phone Pro, showing off its camera’s low-light prowess.
The specs accompanying the photo show a 24 mm main camera with an f/1.9 aperture. As Car News China points out, that’s a similar camera that’s found on the Meizu 21 Pro flagship-level smartphone. That’s not surprising, given that the Polestar Phone is also based on that device.
What links these three? The makers’ owners – Lynk & Co and Polestar are of course owned by Geely, while Meizu was bought over by Geely founder and chairman Li Shufu in 2022. The Chinese conglomerate has been busy putting the purchase to good use, working with Meizu on a new infotainment operating system called Flyme Auto – a software that will appear on the Proton eMas 7 (stylised as e.MAS 7) when it arrives here at the end of the year.
No details have been revealed just yet, but we can expect the specs to be similar to the 21 Pro. These include the flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, a 6.79-inch full HD+ AMOLED display, a triple-camera setup consisting of a 50 MP main camera, a 13 MP ultra-wide and a 10 MP telephoto shooter, a 5,050 mAh battery, 50-watt wireless charging and IP68 water and dust resistance. The phone also integrates AI large language models, enabling features such as generative AI in the voice control system.
As for why these carmakers are selling their own phones, it’s simple – deeper integration with their cars’ infotainment systems. In the case of the Polestar Phone, the device can be used to unlock and start the vehicle through ultra-wideband technology, seamless integration with the car’s voice control system, and the ability to mirror the phone’s application on the car’s screen. The phone’s interface also features similar icons as what you’ll find in a Polestar car. Expect similar functionality on the Lynk & Co Phone Pro.
However, these features are already supported on regular Meizu phones on vehicles with Flyme Auto, so perhaps this is just another sign of carmakers trying to cash in on China’s bustling smartphone market. In any case, Meizu’s integration with Flyme Auto is a good sign for owners of the Meizu 21 (the Pro version is not available here, unfortunately), who may be able to look forward to their phones working with the eMas 7.
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