Meizu M1 Note Review

A few of us knew that there is a smartphone from China named Meizu here in Kuching. When we think about a product from China, especially mobile phones, the worst things that we can think of is clones phone, Oppo, Huawei and Lenovo, just to name a few (which are the famous one)

Well, Meizu recently revealed some exciting devices for the consumer, for example the Meizu MX 2, MX 3 and the latest one is the MX4 and MX4 pro. This year, they come out with a budget friendly smartphone, the Meizu M1 Note. Budget by nature but rich in terms of specification and this phone can punch above its waist line.

I recently bought one for my dad, he wanted a Note 4 edge but he won't probably use all the note's function and further more, note 4 edge is freakingly expensive. 

The Meizu M1 Note is a good looking phone. So good looking that it look similarly like the Apple IPhone 5C from every angle you look at. Polycabornate material wraps the entire back of the device while the front is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3. It cost only me around RM700 plus. You can be assured that the specs will make other devices at its price group weeping tears.

VITAL SPECS

1. 5.5" 1980X1080pixel IGZO LCD display (403PPI).
2. Flyme OS on top of Android 4.4.4 with lollipop future upgrade.
3. MediaTEK MT6752, Octa-core 1.7GHz Cortex-A53, Mali-T760MP2.
4. 2GB of RAM.
5. 13MP Samsung camera sensor with two tone LED flash. Can record 1080p video @30fps.
6. 5MP front facing camera with 1080p@30fps video recording.
7. 16/32 GB internal storage.
8. 3140 mAh battery.

Detail specification can be viewed the link : http://www.gsmarena.com/meizu_m1_note-review-1232.php

HARDWARE

As i mention early, the phone are made of polycarbonate plastic at the back and a full tempered glass in the front. Mind you it is the latest Corning Gorilla Glass 3. Feast your eyes with the gorgeous 1980x1080 FullHD LCD screen. The screen is alright, with good visibility from any angle and good color reproduction.

At the front of the device, we have a single capacitive touch button which acts as the home button and lock to touch button. Small bezel on the sides, a ear speaker grill on top as well as some sensors and a 5MP front facing camera. It also have the standard 3.5mm earphone jack, secondary microphone and the power button. The placement of the power button is a minus because you have to stretch your fingers across the 5.5 inch screen to the top which is a struggle itself.

The the right side we have just the volume rocker while on the left, a hidden dual sim slot iphone style.  

At the back of the device is the 13 MP camera censor, a dual tone flash and Meizu branding. The overall construction of the phone is sturdy and nothing is falling apart (or going to) while reviewing. The choice of plastic is great and i feels like a Iphone 5C on steroid.

The brain that keeps the device ticking is a MediaTek MT6752 chipset, with a Quad-core 1.7GHz Cortex-A53 with Mali-T60MP2 GPU. It is running on 2GB of Ram. The performance of the phone is fluid enough with some (but not always) lag but overall it is a pleasure using the phone. I tested the performance of the phone using Antutu benchmark and the score is really good (nearly 40k). Above some of last year flagship devices such as the Xiaomi Mi3, Nexus 5 and even the LG G3 which is much more expensive than the M1 Note.

As stated before, the M1 Note is equipped with a 13 MP autofocus Samsung camera with dual tone LED. I owned the Samsung Note 3 and i can say that the camera is almost identical to the M1 Note while its 5MP front facing camera is great for video calls. I will try to update with the picture and the video sample.

The loud speaker is loud enough but as usual, lacks bass element and distorted when in high volume. Normally you can hear your phone ringing in a loud environment just as good. The call quality is decent as the i could hear the other parties loud and clear and vice versa. The signal strength also shown a consistency pattern. even in rural areas.

The Meizu M1 Note has a choice of 16 or 32GB of internal storage but sadly there is no option for removable storage so you are stuck with it so plan before buying. For me personally, 16GB is not really an option to consider at least go with the 32GB because nowadays, apps and games are coming with a size of more that 100mb or beyond. Furthermore with the 13MP camera you tend to snap around with it, and the size of the images will be somewhere 2-4 mb depending on the quality. So 16GB is definitely note enough for me, but it is just me.

Battery life for a  3140 mAh battery is okay. You can go to a day and a half or maybe less than that if you are a heavy user. But normally i will last u till the end of the day


SOFTWARE

Out of the box, the Meizu M1 Note is pre-loaded with Android 4.4.4. Kitkat with news that Lollipop is coming. So expect fluid interface with a lot of google goodies. On top of that, the Meizu M1 Note is skin heavily with Flyme 4.0 OS. Something similar with Samsung's Touchwiz and Oppo's swipe gesture skin pack. Due to the fact that the power/lock button is located at the top of the phone, you can unlock the phone by tapping the screen and lock the phone by tapping the capacitive button. Which comes in handy for everyday use.

Its camera interface is simple enough. Again, i can't emphasize enough that the Flyme OS is alot like IOS so its camera interface is mimicking its fruity counterpart.


CONCLUSION

There are not many phones that can match M1 Note specification and price range of under RM800 but if you want to consider other alternative, Xiaomi Mi4i just launched here in Kuching with a price tag of under RM800 with almost similar specification. Other than that you have your typical Samsungs and Sonys but i bet they specs are only mediocre to the M1.