Meizu m1 note Review: Another mid-range Tablet

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Introduction

The stuff floating in the wake of a flagship - minis, phablets, all sorts of spinoffs. Everyone does it, trying to capitalize on the novelty and the excitement. Meizu moves in a different way. To begin with, it has what's probably the smallest squad for the season. A couple of flagships (the MX4 pair) and a couple of phablets (the brand new M1 series).

A small lineup, but not lacking quality. More importantly though, it's been put together with a purpose. The m1 note will try and make a splash outside Asia with flagship-worthy hardware at an entry-level price, while the regular m1 is helping Meizu tap the vast Indian market.
While most other midrange phones still offer 720p displays, and are powered by Snapdragon 400's or the fresh Snapdragon 410, the Meizu m1 note boasts a 5.5" 1080p display and an octa-core processor from MediaTek. There's 2GB of RAM, a capable 13MP camera and a fat 3,140mAh battery.
Meizu phones have often been criticized for having too much Apple in them. The Flyme skin with no app drawer is heavily influenced by iOS and so is the phone's design. On the other hand, Meizu's build quality has always been solid and the spec sheet is flagship grade - the Apple-like user experience and looks are probably meant to count as a bonus, if you're that kind of person.
Feautures(+) :
  • 5.5" 1080 x 1920px IGZO LCD display of 403ppi
  • Heavily customized Flyme OS 4 on top of Android 4.4.4
  • Mediatek MT6752 chipset, octa-core 1.7GHz Cortex-A53, Mali-T760MP2 GPU, 2GB of RAM
  • 13MP Samsung camera sensor with two-tone LED flash, 1080p video recording @30fps
  • 5MP front-facing camera with 1080p@30fps video recording
  • 16GB or 32GB of built-in storage
  • Cat. 4 LTE (150/50Mbps); dual-SIM, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n; Bluetooth 4.0; GPS/GLONASS; microUSB, USB On-The-Go
  • Active noise cancellation via a dedicated mic
  • 3,140 mAh battery
  • Very competitive price
Drawbacks(-) :

  • No microSD card slot
  • No Lollipop at launch (but very likely coming soon)
  • Non-removable battery
  • Clarity of display
The m1 note is a typical Meizu in that it lacks a microSD slot. The smaller Meizu m1 will be the very first phone from the Chinese maker to have one. The India-bound Meizu m1 has 8GB of inbuilt storage, while the m1 note starts at 16GB and Meizu will double that for you for $30 extra.
A microSD slot has a number of benefits such as local backup, easier ROM installation, or just faster data transfers. Another Apple-inspired decision or just the way Meizu does things makes little difference in the end.


Design and build quality

The moment we laid our hands on the Meizu m1 note, the iPhone 5c came to mind. The glossy plastic rear cover comes in a bunch of fresh colors: white, blue, yellow, green and pink.
The m1 note's entire front is protected by a piece of Corning Gorilla Glass 3. The 5.5" IGZO display enjoys nearly 73% of the available space - not as impressive as the MX4's screen-to-body ratio but close.
What we don't quite like about the Meizu m1 note is the Power/Lock key position at the top of the phone. Since the m1 note is rather big with a 5.5" display, it's nearly impossible to reach for the key while keep a secure grip on the phone single-handedly. Double-tap to unlock is a welcome workaround. There's Gesture wake up too - you can use pre-defined gestures to launch different apps from a turned off screen.

Controls

Above the display we find a small earpiece with a bunch of discreet sensors and a 5MP selfie cam. Below the 5.5" screen is the capacitive Home key.The left side of the Meizu m1 note has the two separate volume keys, while the SIM card compartment is on the right. You'll need the pin from your retail box to pop it open.The top has another microphone for noise cancellation, the seldom-used power button and the 3.5mm headphone jack. Oddly. the secondary mic isn't used for stereo video recording and is only meant for calls

Display

The display of the Meizu m1 note is a joy to look at. Its colors are nicely saturated and the viewing angles are very good. The IGZO panel is made by Sharp.
The resolution is a treat for the price and more than sufficient at 1080p. 403ppi is sharp enough and you wouldn't really tell the difference to any QHD screen on the market unless you're looking at some really small fonts.


Connectivity

The Meizu m1 note comes with quad-band 2G/GPRS/EDGE support, tri-band 3G with HSDPA and HSUPA, as well as quad-band LTE support.
The m1 note has dual-SIM, dual-standby functionality - 3G and LTE are supported only on SIM1, while SIM2 can tap into 2G GSM networks only.
The m1 note has dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n with DLNA, so you can play media (photos, videos, music) from DLNA-enabled devices or push content from your phone to a DLNA-compatible TV or music player.
Bluetooth 4.0 is also on board with A2DP.
The microUSB 2.0 port supports USB host so you can attach USB flash drives or connect peripherals.
You can also stream your display via the Wireless Display feature (Miracast).
GPS and GLONASS support is enabled. There's no FM Radio, IR port or NFC on the Meizu m1 note, there is no wired TV-out option either.

Performance

The Meizu m1 note utilizes a MediaTek MT6752 chipset with eight Cortex-A53 cores ticking at 1.7GHz and Mali-T760MP2 GPU - that's the same GPU Samsung put inside the Galaxy S6 though just dual-core (S6 hast the octa-core configuration). The RAM is at 2GB so overall, it's a very respectable system
The Meizu m1 note offers a few battery modes. For the benchmarks we used the Performance mode (as opposed to Balanced and Power-saving), which should, in theory, give us the best results.
It topped the GeekBench 3 table with a very respectable result. It also posted a very good AnTuTu 5 score, slightly behind the Meizu MX4 and (faster) Lenovo Vibe X2. In Basemark OS II the Meizu MX4 showed a great multi-core performance, which is the usual for eight-core chipsets. However the single core the overall score wasn't as spectacular.

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