Meizu MX5 review
Introduction
Another autumn, another flagship season. Meizu was actually the first to open the flagship season with their MX5 announcement. While we may be a bit late with this review it was certainly something we were looking forward to as Meizu devices usually tend to be nicer than expected. We were excited to see whether this would be the case yet again as the expectations for the Meizu MX5 were already quite high - shipping with a great display, blazing-fast hardware and a capable camera all that at a quite reasonable price point.
Instead of combining all the latest available tech, Meizu returned to its roots offering a balanced flagship with a reasonable price tag. The new MX5 is a thoughtful combination of premium design, capable internals and for the first time - an AMOLED screen.
Key features
- 5.5" 1080p AMOLED display of 401ppi
- Heavily customized Flyme OS 4.5.2 on top of Android 5.0.1 Lollipop
- MediaTek Helio X10 chipset: octa-core 2.2GHz Cortex-A53, PowerVR G6200 GPU, 3GB of RAM
- 20.7MP Sony sensor camera with two-tone LED flash, 2160p video recording @30fps
- 5MP front-facing camera with 1080p@30fps video recording
- 16GB, 32GB or 64GB of built-in storage
- Cat. 4 LTE (150/50Mbps); Dual SIM; Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac; Bluetooth 4.0; GPS/GLONASS/Beidou/QZSS; microUSB, USB On-The-Go
- mTouch Home button with a fingerprint scanner
- Active noise cancellation via a dedicated mic
- 3,150mAh battery
- Allows for screen lock/unlock without ever touching the power button
- Metal body, Slim bezels and great screen-to-body ratio
Main disadvantages
- No microSD card slot
- 64GB option is hard to get
Meizu smartphones are already easier to get outside of China and a quick search reveals Meizu listings on many popular online retailers. The 64GB models are still a rarity though, but we hope this will improve in time, too.
The only feature that will definitely be missed is the microSD card slot, which should have been an alternative of the second SIM. Then again Meizu isn't favorable towards expansion slots for quite some time
Meizu MX5 retail package
There is nothing unusual inside the Meizu MX 5 big retail box - a 2A charger, a microUSB cable and a very-well packed headset with a remote control.
The MX5 itself is packed into a booklet-style holder with descriptions of the phone's key features.
The retail package
Meizu MX5 360-degree view
Meizu MX5 is built around a 5.5" display - the same screen estate the Meizu MX4 Pro had. The new MX5 spreads at 149.9 x 74.7 x 7.6mm and weighs 149g - this makes it 1.4mm thinner and 2.3mm tighter than its processor. It has lost some weight too - about 9g.
Design and build quality
Meizu MX5 is not only the company's first smartphone to introduce the AMOLED tech to the series, it is also the first one to switch from plastic to metal. This allowed Meizu to reduce the device's thickness and footprint, but keep the flagship specs.
Meizu MX5
About 74.5% of the front is occupied by the contrasty AMOLED screen, surrounded by completely black tiny bezels. The fingerprint/home key is almost invisible - there is no accent frame around as there was on the Meizu MX4 and we like it this way better.
The MX5 indeed looks gorgeous - the metal back won't get smudged easily, nor is it prone to scratches as the glossy plastic. The antennas around the top and bottom are actually covered by matte plastic bands, done with the same silver paint as the rest of the body.
Handling the Meizu MX5 feels exquisite - the chamfered metal finish before the screen glass improves the grip as is the mostly metal back. Unless your observation skills are extremely good, you won't be able to tell the antenna's plastic bands from the metal parts.
Handling the MX5
The Meizu MX5 is lightweight and the very good grip eases the one-hand operations. Its thin profile makes the phone slip easily in pockets and you'll have no problem carrying the MX5 around while driving, walking or even running.
Controls
Above the 5.5" AMOLED screen of the Meizu MX5 we find the earpiece flanked by a couple of sensors, the notification LED and the 5MP selfie camera.
Below the display is the lonely mTouch fingerprint scanner / Home button combo. This key is both capable of hardware press and capacitive touch. A tap means Back, while a physical press acts as a Home key under Android OS.
Above and below the display
The dual-SIM bed sits on the left side of the Meizu MX5, while the right has the metal volume rocker and the comfy Power/Lock key. You'll barely use the latter as the MX5 display can be unlocked right from fingerprint scanner.
The MX5's left and right sides
The audio jack is on the top of the Meizu MX5 as is the secondary mic. The bottom has the usual - the microUSB port, the loudspeaker grille and the primary microphone.
A peek at the top and bottom of the MX5
The back is where we find a Sony-made 20.7MP camera under a sapphire-glass lens accompanied by a dual-tone LED flash and the assistive laser for the auto-focus.
The 20.7MP camera lens
The rear cover is non-removable this time around.
Display
Meizu MX5 packs a 5.5" AMOLED screen of 1080p resolution, which results into a flagship density of 401ppi. The images are crystal clear and sharp, the viewing angles are excellent, as is the contrast.
The color rendition is good, but not perfect with an average DeltaE of 5.6 (for the primaries plus black and white). While the MX5 screen displays very accurate colors in most cases, the reds are a bit off with a DeltaE of 12.7.
The pixel arrangement is very familiar - it's the Diamond PenTile we are used to see on the modern Samsung Super AMOLED screens.
While the contrast is as good as an AMOLED screen can offer, the brightness isn't on par with other siblings. Sure, the AMOLED units aren't known to be very bright, but the MX5 is noticeably dimmer than the Galaxy S5 and Galaxy S6 displays. At 100% the MX5 screen is as bright as the Oppo R7'sm but when we move the brightness slider in the middle the actual brightness is about 30% of the maximum.
| Display test | 50% brightness | 100% brightness | ||||
| Black, cd/m2 | White, cd/m2 | Black, cd/m2 | White, cd/m2 | |||
| - | - | - | 0.63 | 594 | 947 | |
| - | - | - | 0.69 | 775 | 1127 | |
| 0.00 | 117 | ∞ | 0 | 346 | ∞ | |
| 0.17 | 162 | 953 | 0.492 | 467 | 953 | |
| 0.09 | 108 | 1240 | 0.43 | 532 | 1238 | |
| 0.15 | 175 | 1180 | 0.44 | 534 | 1221 | |
| 0.00 | 274 | ∞ | 0.00 | 529 | ∞ | |
| - | - | - | 0.68 | 789 | 1158 | |
| 0.00 | 208 | ∞ | 0.00 | 362 | ∞ | |
The sunlight legibility is great though and you'll have no problem seeing what's happening on the screen even under bright sunlight.
Sunlight contrast ratio
Battery life
The MX5 has 200mAh less battery capacity compared to the MX4 Pro - for a total of 3,150mAh. But unlike the energy-efficient Exynos chipset and IPS display, we didn't quite know what to expect of the new Helio X10 and AMOLED configuration.
We ran our battery test and it outed mixed-bag results. The smartphone does average across all of our tests, including the single-SIM standby, but scored a poor mark on the dual-SIM standby thus losing 9 hours from the total endurance rating in this scenario.
The rating of 55 hours isn't bad at all - it means you can use the MX5 for two full days and then some if you are to make an hour of 3G talks, web browsing and video playback each day. Putting a second SIM card drops the rating down to 46 hours. Such usage pattern is of course entirely artificial, but we've established it so our battery results are comparable across devices.
Those numbers are nowhere near the MX4 and MX4 Pro scores. Meizu has to do some serious optimizations with the next Flyme updates.
Our proprietary score also includes a standby battery draw test, which is not featured in our battery test scorecard but is calculated in the total endurance rating. Our battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you want to learn more about it.
Connectivity
The Meizu MX5 comes with quad-band 2G/GPRS/EDGE, 3G with HSDPA and HSUPA, as well as LTE Cat.4 support.
Local connectivity is covered by dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac with DLNA, so you can easily play media (photos, videos, music) from DLNA-enabled storage devices or push content from your phone to a DLNA-compatible TV or music player.
Bluetooth 4.1 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).
There is GPS and GLONASS support. There's no FM Radio, IR port or NFC on the Meizu MX5, there is no wired TV-out option either.
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