GADGET GIZMO REVIEW MEIZU MX5

GADGET GIZMO REVIEW  MEIZU MX5   Chinese smartphone manufacturer Meizu officially announced their  entry into  India with the launch of their flagship MX5. At this price,  the MX5 competes  directly with popular phones like the OnePlus One, Asus Zenfone 2  and Xiaomi Mi 4. The MX5 meets the criteria for a flagship with its design and build  quality. It has a metal unibody in a slim 7.6mm design and weighs  just 149 grams. We liked that the phone.It did not feel slippery in hand like a few  other all  metal design phones. On the left side is the dual nano SIM slot while the  right side has the power and volume buttons. Around the back is the camera module surrounded by a metal ring,  dual tone flash and laser autofocus below it. Up front is a 5.5-inch amoled display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels that is protected from scratches by Gorilla Glass 3. In typical amoled fashion, the screen offers vibrant colour, deep blacks and fantastic viewing angle. The screen has slim bezels around it and that adds to the overall style. Under the screen is the home button with fingerprint sensor. The home button is multifunctional: tap to go back, press for home  and place a finger to scan. While this implementation works great,  it takes some getting used to. What we loved was that the capacitive  fingerprint sensor worked really well -using it as a daily driver for a  week, it failed us only once. You can add a maximum of 5 fingerprints  which should be enough for most users. The specifications of the phone are also fitting for a flagship device. You get a 2.2Ghz octa core Mediatek Helio X10 processor and  3GB RAM that handles everything without a hitch. We tried 3D games, 4k videos and ran more than 15 apps simultaneously without any signs  of sluggishness or slowdown. In synthetic benchmarks, the phone scored  just below the Galaxy Note 4 and was better than the Oneplus One  as well as the Mi 4.  Battery life was also fantastic. The 3,150mAh battery regularly lasted over  a day and half with mix usage. The only gripe we have was that the storage  is limited to 16GB (of which you get 10GB for appsmedia). Flyme OS is the name of the proprietary user interface that Meizu provides on the phone. Based on Android lollipop, the OS is heavily customised and has numerous features. There is no app drawer –all  icons and widgets are placed on various home panels. You swipe up  from the bottom to access the task manager while the shortcuts can  be accessed in the usual Android Lollipop style (swipe down the  notification panel again). There is also theme support,  colour temperature adjustment, power saving modes, gesture support  and a built-in app lock security system. Camera performance is another highlight of the MX5. The phone boasts  of a 20.7MP camera with laser autofocus and dual tone flash. In our  usage, the camera took photos with vibrant colors, sharp details and  minimal noise in daylight as well as indoors. The laser autofocus works  great and the camera takes a split second to save the image when you tap the shutter button. The camera app is feature rich and has a pro mode where you can tweak various settings. Video can be recorded in 4k resolution and there is also a slow motion recording mode that works well. The front 5MP camera also manages to take good photos but we felt that the results  were a bit on the soft side. Overall, the Meizu MX5 impressed us with its design, performance as well as features. The only letdown is the non expandable storage.  Users who demand these specifications usually want more storage. We're hoping that Meizu launches a 64GB version of the phone soon. That being said, the Meizu MX5 is still excellent value and  one of best smartphones available in the sub `20,000 price range.