We have seen a flood of Chinese smartphone makers enter India over the past year, and today, we have a new entrant in the form of the Meizu MX5. Priced at Rs. 19,999, the smartphone offers some interesting specifications. The phone runs on a MediaTek Helio X10 SoC coupled with 3GB RAM. This makes the MX5 the cheapest Helio X10-powered device in India. The device supports 4G connectivity, along with fast charging. According to Meizu, the MX5 can be charged up to 25% in 10 minutes.
Moving on, it has a 5.5-inch 1080p display, and the rear houses a 20.7MP camera with laser-assisted autofocus and true tone dual-LED flash. The phone also has a 5MP selfie camera, and a 3150mAh battery powers the entire package.
The phone has a full metal body and the best way to describe it is to call it the iPhone’s Chinese cousin, and that isn’t a bad thing. The device is slim, measuring 7.6mm in thickness, and is comfortable to hold. Even though the back of the smartphone is plain and not textured, the device is still quite grippy and didn’t fall out of my hands.
Coming to the front, a fingerprint sensor rests below the display and is very reminiscent of the OnePlus 2’s fingerprint sensor. One thing that you will notice is that the Meizu MX5 doesn’t have a back and menu button like we have seen with the library of Android phones available in the market. The home button itself acts as the back button. For example, if you are in the settings menu, all you need to do is tap the home button once and it will take you to the previous menu. How well this sustains with web browsing and multitasking, is something we will comment on in our full review.
Coming to the UI, the Meizu MX5 runs on Android 5.0.1 Lollipop with Flyme OS. The OS, like MiUI, doesn’t have an app drawer. All the apps are listed on the home screen like you’d find in iOS. The icons, too, are redesigned to give the interface a unique look.
We didn’t spend too much time with the device so we really aren’t going to talk about the performance or how good the camera is. It must be noted that, just like the OnePlus One, the MX5 can shoot video in 4K. The display of the device is crisp and videos looked really good on it.