Meizu MX5 Review: An impressive phone with a sturdy Metal body

Launching new smartphones in the market is not much of an effortful job, apparently. However, what makes the smartphone makers shine in its glory is the quality of the devices that it makes and most of them fail to achieve a rightful market reception.

Yet another Chinese smartphone maker Meizu, which has taken most of the parts of the Android dominated world by storm, has now entered into the Indian soil, with its latest Android device - the MX5. The overwhelming response is, however, yet to be seen from the Indian users, as the company is yet kick off its sales in one of the world's largest Android markets.

PROS

• Fingerprint Sensor
• High-end specs
• Dual SIM Support
• Great Cameras
• 4G LTE
• Metal body

CONS

• Over heating
• Average UI
• Poor Battery

Not much of a charm look-wise, of course, but the Meizu MX5 bears an spectacular specs, that won't fail to make you go "wow!".

Frankly, the smartphone is, spec-wise, prepared to overthrow the Indian smartphones with mid-range price-tag and perhaps, also might steal the ever-increasing popularity badge from Xiaomi.

Meizu MX5 unveiled last month, comes in three versions: Gray, Silver and Gold. They are offered in 16, 32 and 64GB options. Although the pricing is not confirmed, the MX5's native market price translates to Rs.18,468, Rs. 20,519, and Rs. 24,630, for aforementioned models (built-in storage) respectively.

GizBot explored the device inside-out and did everything possible to come up with the best of the feedback about the device. Let's go ahead and check the full review.

Design

If you would see the MX5 in a silhouette lighting, I believe, you will mistake it with iPhone 6, because of its shape. The metal chassis, the rounded back-edges, a single capacitive/fingerprint sensor right below the display is something that iPhone 6 users will mock about in this phone. Anyway, moving deeper into the design aspect, the company hasn't changed its design from its last iteration, the MX4 as well. The only change is in terms of the placement of the buttons, like the volume rocker keys and the power button have now been shifted to the right edge.

The all metal body has complemented the device to a larger extent by delivering it a premium look and feel. As far as the dimension is concerned, the MX5 comes with a 149.9 x 74.7 x 7.6 mm build factor, and due to its thin shape, even though it is a big device, it is easy to handle. Moreover, the device is not too heavy as well, which one would be expecting looking at its build. It weighs about 149 grams, which is quite a challenge for a smartphone of this size that too with a metal chassis.

Although, the device is likely to get scratches easily, during its stay with us, it didn't get any. The good this is that the back panel which is matte finished will not attract any fingerprints but the front face is quite opposite to that.

You'll see the microUSB port on the bottom edge in-between two speakers, camera module is placed at the top-center of the rear panel just above the LED flash. The 3.5mm headphone port is placed at its ideal location - the top edge just beside the secondary microphone. The left-side hosts a SIM card slot and a

Fingerprint Scanner

The Fingerprint scanner, which is not at all new to the market, is in fact the adoption from the company's MX4 Pro model. The way the company has tweaked it is quite awesome, I must say, the sensor works in two ways; the button press and touch. The company calls it the mTouch 2.0, which, since I have used it does make it very easy to use. Moreover, surprisingly, the fingerprint sensor is quite fast when it works.

Display

Meizu MX5 features the 5.5-inch display with 1080 x 1920 pixels (QHD) display. Now add Super AMOLED screen panel and Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection to that. Perhaps, that is something you would crave to own. Moving into specifics, the resolution is as sharp as 401ppi pixel density and since there is barely any bezel on the sides of the screen, the device offers quite an experience while watching videos.

The company claims that MX5 delivers an extreme viewing angle close to 90 degrees and it does. However, from that sort of angle expect some reduction in picture quality and besides who would prefer to watch like that. Color reproduction is amazing as it employs the Super AMOLED display, which we have seen in quite a lot of premium devices. The display over all is quite impressive with optimum responsiveness and the brightness level are such that it offers quite an astonishing sunlight readability to the users.

Processor and Memory

The Meizu MX5 is derives its power from the 64-bit Octa- core CPU clocked at 2.2 GHZ. The other name for this particular CPU is Helio X10, which is in fact a Cortex-A53 Mediatek MT6795 chipset.

The highly-clocked processor is then coupled with 3GB RAM and PowerVR G6200 MP4 GPU, which take the ability of the device to amazing heights. Perhaps, gamers would be more than happy to have this device, since, you can play every graphic-intense game titles with hardly any lags on this device. Asphalt 8: Airborne and Dead Trigger 2 were the two that i enjoyed a lot playing in this device.

If you believe in numbers, the AnTuTu benchmark tool gave it a massive 45695 points.

Sadly, there is a problem with the CPU, which is overheating. The heating issue is quite annoying. Even while playing games it heats up to the level that it shuts down on its own. The worst part is that it heats up even when not used and also while charging.

Software

Apart from Android OS, things have moved a bit deeper in terms of software. It's the custom UI, which now-a-days every smartphone manufacturers are trying to improve on. Meizu is no exception to the idea. They call it the Flyme OS 4.5 which is based on Android Lollipop 5.0.1.

Due to this customization of the software, you won't see any of that popular material design that is found on the Lollipop OS. One thing for sure, it can be said that the UI somewhat adopts the iOS looks. However, Android is more deeply rooted in the device.

Camera

Meizu MX5 as said earlier, will not fail to please you with its specs. Even in the camera section, the handset is a monster. Bearing 20 megapixels rear camera with Sony IMX220 sensor, aperture of f/2.2, dual-tone LED flash plus laser autofocus features, the MX5 emerges as a competitor to the latest Sony Xperia Z series smartphones. Upfront, it has 5 megapixels selfie shooter along with brighter f/2.0 aperture for better low-light performance. With the rear camera you can record video at 2160p (4K) at 30 fps.

Meizu MX5 has a 20.7 MP shooter which can shoot images at 5248 x 3936 resolution. For low light imaging, the device uses a dual tone LED flash, which is efficient enough to reproduce certain colors accurately. The rear camera can also shoot Slow motion videos at 100fps with 720p resolution.

What is cool about the front camera is that it has an auto-focus 5MP camera module with large aperture value of f/2.0. Low-light images are average without the use of the flash.

Connectivity and Storage

Meizu MX5 is Dual SIM (nano-SIM) smartphone with LTE supports on both SIM, dual-band 802.11 ac/b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS, with A-GPS, GLONASS, Hall Effect sensor, gravity sensor, IR proximity sensor, gyroscope, ambient light sensor and compass sensors. The Wi-Fi speed on the MX5 is excellent as it comes with a fastest Wi-Fi protocol, which is 802.11ac, which makes it capable of handling 433mbps.

As said earlier, the Meizu MX5 is offered in three variants viz. 16GB, 32GB and 64 GB internal storage. Sadly, the phone doesn't feature a microSD card slot, which might be the one reason why it might struggle in India.

Battery

Meizu MX5 is fueled with 3150 mAh non-removable Li-Ion battery. The company says that the phone comes with mCharge technology that allows you to charge MX5 0%-25% in just 10 minutes. As we used it, the device can suck up the battery in a day with moderate usage. Also since Helios X10 CPU consumes more power the battery sometimes tend to drain even while not using. TO put it in hours, the device will not offer more than 8hours 30 minutes in one charge, with a good amount of usage.

Verdict

Frankly, the device is quite intense. However, there are certain things that don't go along in the device. Anyway, good things first. It's got an excellent build quality, amazing display, mesmerizing camera and captivating specs. Even the power and performance is more than average. However, the device's fate now rests on the company's pricing policy in Indian market.

The agonizing part of the smartphone is the battery, which is not a match for the CPU, Display and even the camera that it uses. Number-wise, it's the perfect, but the Meizu should have focused more on delivering the better and long lasting battery on this one.

Another aspect of the device that might fail the company in in the Indian market is the over-heating.

Provided the company solves the battery problem and over-heating problem, the Meizu MX5 has a potential to rival against the flagship devices from premium brands like Samsung, LG, HTC and Sony.