Gone are the days when the global smarrtphone market was the battleground for just Samsung and Apple. Today, the market is also feeling the presence of a lot of other smartphone manufacturers offering quality and feature rich smartphones at not so high prices. Many of these smartphone manufacturers are Chinese and one such Chinese smartphone manufacturer is Meizu.
Meizu steppped into the smartphone market 6 years ago in 2009 and since then has made quite a name for itself by selling aggressively priced Android smartphones that bear similarities to iPhone. One such device that we are reviewing today is the comapny’s latest offering the Meizu MX5. So lets get to it.
In The Box:-
- MX5 Smartphone
- SIM ejector tool
- Wall charger
- USB cable
- Earphones
- User manual
Design & Hardware
The first thing you’ll notice when you see or hold the MX5 in your hand is the striking similarity to the iPhone 6 series. From the metal body to the curved edges and the speaker grill, everything looks pretty similar to the iPhone 6.
Talking about the build quality of the Meizu MX5, we must say the phone feels like any other premium flagship smartphone in hand. The all metal body and the curved edges make it a pleasure to hold the device in your hand. However, all that metal makes the MX5 slippery like anything. Also the aluminium back attracts fingerprints but we wouldnt call it a fingerprint magnet. The body to screen ratio is exceptionally well with the MX5. The bezels have been thinned down to as thin as they could get . The phone measures a decently thin 7.6mm and weighs 149 grams which makes it one of the lightest smartphones in the market.
Specifications:
- Display: 50-inch
- Processor: 2GHz
- Front Camera: 5-megapixel
- Resolution: 1080×1920 pixels
- RAM: 3GB
- OS: Flyme 4.5
- Storage: 16GB
- Rear Camera: 7-megapixel
- Battery capacity: 3150mAh
Display
Meizu has incorporated a 5.5” full HD AMOLED display in the MX5 which was quite fascinating to see. The display churns out 401 ppi. Talking about how the display actually feels in real, we must say we weren’t disppointed. The color regeneration and saturation on neutral tones are good. You also get good viewing angles but one area where the MX5 has taken a hit is brightness. MX5 doesn’t have the brightest screens around and we would say its less than average bright. This affects the visibility outdoors.
Performance
Powered by 3 gigs of RAM and a top of the line MediaTek processor, the phone surpassed our expectations when it came to perfromance. With the Rs. 18000 price tag that the phone comes with, we imagined it would be an above average smartphone but it performed exceptionally well for that price bracket. The MX5 handles multitasking very well and doesnt show the slightest signs of lagging. There were no accidental crashes or freezes during our time with thw phone. Even while playing games like Ashphalt 8: Airborne, the phone handles all the processing well and didnt heat up even after long periods of continous usage.
Camera
Talking about the shutters, we have a 20.7 MP unit on the back paired with laser auto-focus and a dual tone LED flash while on the front you have a 5 MP unit to cater to your social networking needs.
Frankly speaking, we weren’t impressed by the 20.7 MP camera on the MX5. We’re not saying the camera is bad, it performs quite well but it doesn’t do justice to the 20.7 MP tag. Yes we know more MPs dont always mean better pictures but we expected more of the MX5. The camera performs just average but if you are fond of cameras that auto focus quickly, you will be happy. The auto focus is very fast and the camera app is good too. You get a lot of options to toy with.
The camera performs well in well lit conditions but the picture quality takes a hit in dark conditions. The dynamic range takes a hit and the noise is visible too. One thing that we were impressed were the details in the photo. The photos, both low light and bright light were very detailed and didnt pixelate when zoomed in. The back camera is also capable of 4K video recording.
Battery
The battery on this one is a 3150 mAh powerhouse which again is exceptionally well for a device this price. After a day of normal usage which included video playback for about 2 hours, web browsing, extensice gaming, some camera use and typical phone calling we were left with about 20% battery at the end of the day which is not bad at all and actually better than most phones out there. With typical usage, the phone will last you a day and a half.
Verdict
Meizu MX5 sounds like a great phone on paper and is a valur for money device but there are some cons to it. The camera and the screen visibility outdoors could have been better. Now the device faces stiff competition from other device in this range like the Moto X Play and the OnePlus X both of which have their areas of expertise but the MX 5 is no less. One particular area where the MX5 takes a hit is the after sale value. Being a relatively new brand in India, selling off your used Meizu device would not be an easy task. The company still has many hurdles to overcome.
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