Meizu MX4 Review: Formidable Flagship or Paper Tiger?

Meizu MX4 Review: Formidable Flagship or Paper Tiger?

Meizu MX4 14

We review the Meizu MX4!

Today, we’ll be reviewing Meizu’s latest flagship, the MX4. The MX4 made waves in our website a few weeks ago because of its relatively extreme benchmarks which was probably the highest we’ve ever seen on a mobile device at that point. On paper the MX4’s performance looked mighty impressive, especially when compared to its contemporaries but past experience has thought us that benchmarks aren’t everything. Is the Meizu MX4 all it’s cracked up to be or is it just a paper tiger? Let’s find out.

Meizu MX4 specs

  • MediaTek MT6595 processor with big.LITTLE architecture, 2.2GHz quad-core Cortex-A17 processor, 1.7GHz quad-core Cortex-A7 processor
  • PowerVR H6200MP4
  • 2GB of RAM
  • 5.36-inch full HD IPS display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection
  • 16/32/64 GB of storage
  • 20.7-megapixel rear camera, Sony sensor with image stabilization
  • 2-megapixel front camera
  • WiFi, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, USB OTG, GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS
  • 3G, LTE
  • Android 4.4 Kitkat
  • 3100mAh battery
  • 144 x 75.2 x 8.9 mm

Meizu MX4 15

Design takes plenty of inspiration from Apple

The overall design of the the MX4 takes liberal design cues from Apple and kind of looks like an iPad from afar. Don’t let that discourage you though – the MX4 has plenty of unique design elements that make it stand out from the pack. Its frame, for instance, is made out of aluminum, with the sides polished and chamfered to give it a more premium feel.
Meizu MX4 02
The front of the 5.36-inch display (we’ll be talking about this later) is covered in Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3. We’re liking how small the Bezels are of the MX4, both on the sides a well the top and bottom. Eagle-eyed readers will notice that the MX4 doesn’t have an abundance of capacitive keys flanking the home button on the bottom of the device – just a simple pulsating halo that’s been the trademark of Meizu’s MX series of smartphones.
Meizu MX4 01
Turning the device over, you’ll notice the matte grey finish of the back of the phone, as well as the relatively flat camera module for the Sony made 20.7-megapixel camera. While it looks like the MX4 uses a non-removable back, thats not the case as you can pull apart the relatively thin grey plastic back of the device to put in your SIM card, though unfortunately the memory is non-expandable.
Meizu MX4 05
The 5.36-inch full HD display of the MX4 is quite unique. For one, it’s a rather odd screen size for for a full HD panel, putting the device’s resolution at around 1920 x 1152, which is a bit of a departure from the usual 1920 x 1080 of other devices. As far as actual display quality, the one on the MX4 is pretty good, with generous viewing angles and outdoor performance.
Meizu MX4 06
It’s an IPS panel after all, and while it pales in comparison to AMOLED offerings of other flagships, it’s still a good panel considering the price-point that you’re working with. We’re also liking how Meizu shrank the bezels of the MX4, as this makes the device smaller and easier to hold in the hands even though it has a display bigger than 5-inches. The gentle sloping back of the MX4 also helps a lot, and makes the device infinitely more pocketable compared to other devices that share (roughly) the same screen size.
Meizu MX4 12

Flyme: a different take on Android

Like Meizu’s other Android offerings, the MX4 is equipped with the company’s Flyme OS. Much how Xiaomi’s MIUI removes the app drawer and streamlines the Android experience, Meizu’s Flyme offering does the same, though there are distinct differences. Flyme removes the app drawer entirely and puts all of your apps front and center when you navigate through the phone. You can wake the phone from sleep by simply tapping twice on the display while it’s off. Swiping down from the display while its off will bring up your notification menu, while swiping left will pull up the camera app. Swiping left shows you the phone’s settings.
The trademark halo button of Meizu acts like your master home button while you’re using your phone, though a capacitive back key appears when you’re inside an app to help around in navigation. Additional buttons show up depending on the app, which is a quite elegant design choice if you ask us.
Like any new OS or UI overlay, using Flyme takes a bit of getting used to. One of our biggest complaints with Flyme is the terrible, terrible keyboard that’s included with it. It’s extremely hard to use and offer no kind of correction or predictive typing whatsoever. While we usually give stock keyboards a chance whenever we review products (letting them sit in the device for around a week or two to see how they do) but the one in the MX4 got boot almost immediately after we tried it, replaced by our perennial favorite, Swiftkey.
Meizu MX4 09 Meizu MX4 08 Meizu MX4 07

MediaTek’s new octa-core processor is a monster

The MX4 holds the distinction for being the first smartphone in the world to get MediaTek’s latest 6595 octa-core processor with big.LITTLE technology, as well as integrated LTE. Our initial benchmarks for the device were extremely impressive to say the least – although results vary wildy depending on which benchmark software you use. In AnTuTu and Geekbench, the MX4 beats out the offerings of Qualcomm, Samsung and Intel handily. In Quadrant, it’s a different story – our review unit only managed 18539 points, far below the established benchmark scores of other devices powered by Qualcomm’s latest chips. Clearly, the performance question wasn’t going to be settled by mere benchmarks.
Meizu MX4 10
Of course, benchmarks aren’t everything, and things like battery life and thermal performance need to be taken into account. We fired up Asphalt 8 to try out with the device, and we weren’t surprised that the device was able to handle the game with little to no lag at all. It’s the same deal with Real Racing 3, a game that usually give mid-end SOCs trouble when it comes to framerates and lag. The MX4 handled the game like a champ, and managed to power through without any issues at all.
Meizu MX4 11
Probably the biggest complaint we have with the device is heat. The MX4 generates quite a bit of it specially when you’re playing games and whatnot, although it isn’t as bad as Intel’s first generation Atom mobile chips. It’s not enough to burn you or render your device useless (heat warnings never popped up during our time with the device) but it is there, and it’s enough to remind you that you’ve been playing too long.
S41118-191649
Like we said earlier, the MX4 is the first smartphone to use MediaTek’s 6595 processor which has an integrated LTE chip instead of relying on a baked on solution which should ensure longer battery life (more on this later). As far as LTE speeds are concerened we were enjoying fast, consistent LTE compared to our other LTE equipped smartphones. We also noticed that the GPS locked quicker, and more solidly with the new SoC compared to the previous octa-core offering of the chip maker.
Meizu MX4 22 Meizu MX4 21 Meizu MX4 20 Meizu MX4 19 Meizu MX4 18 Meizu MX4 17

Impressive camera

The MX4 uses a 20.7-megapixel Sony sensor, much like other high-end devices floating around in the market. In our tests, we found that the MX4 is capable of taking better than average snaps, even in low-light.
Meizu MX4 16 Meizu MX4 23
We did notice that the MX4 had a bit of trouble metering light – those two gunpla shots were shot in the same lightbox under the same lighting conditions and as you can see, the Kampfer (blue Gundam) looked a bit more washed out than the Bearguy. The MX4 also has a pretty fast AF, and is able to lock into a subject rather quickly. It also boasts a burst mode that rivals the ones included in mirrorless interchangeable cameras and DSLRs.

More than a day on a single charge

One of the unknowns of the new octa-core SoC from MediaTek is battery efficiency. Their previous octa-core processor had a bad habit of completely draining a 2000mAh battery in the span of a few hours. That’s why we were pleasantly surprised to see that the new iteration of their octa-core chip is more power efficient somewhat. We managed around a day and a half with moderate use with the device before it needed to be charged, which is pretty good. We’re also assuming that the rather robust 3100mAh battery helped the MX4 to achieve those numbers.
Meizu MX4 13

Verdict: bang for the buck smartphone for people on a budget

Once you get down to it, the MX4’s Php 14,999 price tag for the base is a good deal, considering the specs and the performance of the device. People will always compare bang-for-the-buck smartphones with Xiaomi’s Mi 3, which is understandable and considering what you’re getting, we think that the MX4 is a slightly better offering. You’re getting LTE as well as comparable performance from MediaTek’s latest offering, as well as a kickass camera and rather decent battery life. If you’ve been pining for a bang-for-the-buck smartphone, you might want to take a good, hard look at the Meizu MX4.
The device is now on sale in different Novo7 Tech stores and kiosks.

Share:

Facebook
Twitter

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *