Chinese smartphone maker Meizu has been somewhat slow in bringing its devices to India, but it still has a flagship in place. The much talked about Meizu MX5 costs around Rs. 20,000 and sports a MediaTek Helio X10 SoC, along with 3GB of RAM. Wait, isn't that the same specs as a bunch of smartphones? Well, we'll talk about all that in our review. For now, we picked up the Meizu MX5 and completed running some of the regular benchmarks on it, so as to present a preliminary comparison against another popular device in this price range, the Moto X Play.
While both the Moto X Play and the Meizu MX5 have garnered consumer interest, there's another phone that almost everyone in the market talks about. And that is the OnePlus 2. While the device costs a good Rs. 5,000 more than these two phones, it should be interesting to see how much of a difference the benchmarks can represent.
Performance
You will notice in the benchmarks that the Moto X Play is visibly weaker than both the Meizu MX5 and the OnePlus 2 as far as the benchmarks are concerned. This is not a surprise though, given that the Snapdragon 615 SoC in the Moto X Play is weaker than both the Snapdragon 810 and Helio X10 SoC. The Helio X10 though is weak in terms of GPU performance. If you check the 3D Mark Unlimited scores below, you'll see the difference in graphics performance in the Meizu MX5 and the OnePlus 2. It is worth noting though that 3D Mark isn't a pure GPU test, and takes into consideration the overall system as well. That being said, the difference is again pretty much what we expected. If you're a big gamer though, you'll easily notice a difference between the Meizu MX5 and the OnePlus 2.
Display
The 1080p display on the Meizu MX5 though is worth mentioning. We're coming directly from a Samsung Galaxy Note 5, which has a 5.7 inch QHD display. So, it's a jump from 500+ ppi to 401 ppi. The MX5's display though seems top class. The colours are really good and the touch response is perfect. It's not as warm as the Super AMOLEDs on Samsung, the AMOLED warmth is still evident, and it's likeable. The 5.5 inch 1080p display on the Meizu MX5 is right up there with any other phone that it competes with.
Build
The full metal build of the Meizu MX5 gives it a really premium feel. What's even more heartening though is that the MX5, despite having a 5.5 inch display, is quite compact and easy to use. This is something that Motorola achieved with the Moto X Play as well, but many may prefer the metal body of the Meizu MX5 over the Moto X Play's rubberised, yet stylish body.
Camera
For a sub-20k smartphone, the Meizu MX5's camera performance doesn't seem bad at all. That being said, this kind of camera would have been much appreciated some time ago. The 20.7MP shooter though is nowhere close to what we expected it to be. Pit against phones like the ZTE Nubia Z9 Mini, this phone's camera would pale in comparison. While we will be putting it through our regular tests for the full review, from what we see right now, we aren't impressed. Under indoor lights, the phone seems to lose the details, with some noise creeping in as well. You can judge for yourself from the album above.
From this quick review and comparison, we realise that the Meizu MX5 is an able smartphone, and has its weaknesses and strengths. That said, we'll be holding our judgements till we're done with the full review. The phone is built well and feels sturdy. In addition, it is an able performer given the budget, and the camera seems its only real weakness at the momeny.