The new Meizu MX4 for some time now and already impressed quite a few of us. We had the chance to use a sample Meizu MX4 since yesterday. Here are our first impressions and Hands On with the new Meizu MX4.

 

 

With the Meizu MX4 launch, we saw a significant change in strategy for Meizu. Traditionally Meizu has been producing Flagship Smartphones with high spec and also high prices, like the Meizu MX3. The Meizu MX4 now is a high spec smartphone with very competitive pricing. In fact it is directly targeted at the competition of Xiaomi Mi4. We believe that is the right way to go and surely benefits users.

With Meizu’s new strategy CEO Li Nan announced also numerous new gadget partnerships along with the Meizu MX4. Meizu will launch a low cost smart watch, a Mini Wifi Router and even a quad-copter drone together with Ghost. This really seems like a big strategic shift, and on in the right direction. We think if Meizu can bring out those products at the right pricing and keep the high Meizu quality, users will buy.

In Contrast to Xiaomi, Meizu also launched the Meizu MX4 both in China and internationally at the same time for pre order. This is pretty new for a Chinese Smartphone Manufacturer – and we like it.

Meizu MX4 – Flagship with 20.7Mp Camera and beautiful design

The Meizu MX4 looks actually not so different from the Meizu MX3. They are completely different smartphones though. If you have seen the MX4 launch, you know that there are actually a lot of facts that make the MX4 much stronger then the MX3. The Meizu MX4 has a bigger display, more powerful processor, material from Aircraft grade alloy, increased battery life and the new Flyme 4.0

The MX4 models that Meizu gave to the Press are pre-production models. This means that there might be some more optimizations and tweaks to Flyme 4.0. Also there might be some small changes in Design when it comes to the End User compared to the Sample Model we were able to test.

Meizu MX4 Feeling and Looks

To be honest in terms of design the MX4 reminds quite a bit on the feel of Apple devices – which is good. The MX is manufactured with e new alluminium alloy frame which is carved out of a single block of aircraft grade metal. The whole frame is carved out of the aluminium and then sandblasted for a textured finish. The whole design reminds me very much on the Macbook im writing this text on. The MX4 feels very solid and qualitative and is still light enough.

The Rear of the MX4 is removable and made by plastic. It has been designed to look the same as the alloy sides. The Rear Still feels very soft, but not quite like on the OnePLus One for example. You can easily remove the Rear without a tool, just using your fingernails. The Rear on our Sample MX4 was a bit loose though. It will not come off mistakingly but we wish it to be a fixed a bit tighter for the production model by Meizu.

The Meizu Logo is on the bottom of the MX4 in a more understated design that goes very well with the Apple Look and Feel of the Alloy. Overall the MX4 is beautiful designed and not too flashy. The Rear Side also has the 20.7 MP Sony Camera and the Dual Flash.

The inside of the MX4 will remind MX3 owners of their devices. We can see a non removable 3100 mAH battery and a single SIM slot. It also appears that the MX4, like the Xiaomi MI4, will come without NFC. At least it looks like that in our Sample Version of the Meizu MX4.

On the sites of the MX4 we have the same buttons as on the MX3 with the home button on top and volume rocker on the left side. The finish of the alloy is splitted into areas with darker grey bars to make it more stylish. Along the alloy to the screen, there is another polished highlight machined to it which gives a very nice contrast to the brilliant 5.4 screen.

Nearly the complete front is covered by a Corning Gorilla Glas 3 panel which has a 15:9 screen ratio. This makes the new Meizu phone a bit shorter but wider then most competitve smartphones at the same size. With the only 2.6mm narrow bezels the Meizu managed to make the MX4 still very compact.

The MX4 still sports Meizu’s popular “halo” button and above the Full HD Display we see the 2 Megapixel Selfie Cam, including proximity sensor and speakers.

Meizu did a very good job on the MX4 design. The Combination of magnesium alloy, sandblasted and polished, glass and decent branding gives the user a very stylish piece of design. Even though the MX4 comes with a larger 5.36 inch screen, it doesnt feel that large compared to other smartphones with slightly smaller screens like the MX3. A real nice combination of high quality materials and understatement in branding from Meizu!

Meizu MX4 – Performance

The new Meizu phone is one of the first phones to sport the Mediatek MT6595 processor. On the launch event we saw an MX4 Antutu screenshot of 42000 points, which is pretty impressive on a MediaTek Processor. The MT6595 is clocked at 2.2 Ghz and runs on Big.Little Technology, which means that… In Combination with a powerful GPU and 2GB of Ram you can literally feel the power of the setup when playing around with it. We couldnt see any lag and experienced very smooth handling on the phone.

Part of the reason for the ultra smooth experience on the MX4 is for sure the new OS Flyme 4.0. You can really feel the strong specs and hardware though when gaming. We tried Dead Trigger on the MX4 and its super fast and nice. Especially the new 15:9 screen makes the Gaming Exprience on Meizu fantastic.

New Meizu OS Flyme 4.0

A smartphone can have great specs and hardware, but its truly up to the OS to transform those into user experience. FLyme 4.0 is a great OS. Flyme 4.0 got a cleaner look and is a tad simpler then the previous Flyme 3.0 but some things have remained unchanged.

A lot of the most impressive features of Flyme 4.0 are similiar to MIUI V6 still targeted at the Chinese Market. Meizu offers up to 40TB of free cloud storage in cooperation with a chinese cloud storage system, and also access to movies and music. Also there is a Voice Assistant included, but on our Sample MX4 it supported only Chinese so far.

For Flyme 4.0 Meizu seems to have taken in Fan comments though. The new notification bar on flyme extends on the complete screen down and all notifcation can be extended individually. Also some apps like the weather app have become very nice animations and graphics.

Flyme 4.0 also go a new camera application and user interface. With a simple swipe you can change the shooting or recording mode up to your tastes and use further enhancing modes after the shoot.

Meizu MX4 Hands On

We will test the Battery Life, Camera and other factors in the next days. Hopefully there will be additional Flyme 4.0 updates for our Sample Version also.

What do you think about the Meizu MX4? At the current pricing would you buy one? If you decide so, you can head over to Meizumart.com official website for official pre order.