Meizu M2 Note: characteristics, reviews. Potential hit: review of the Meizu M2 Note smartphone Meizu M2 Note technical specifications

The Chinese concern Meizu, as you know, is actively presenting itself on the market as an “iPhone killer.” At least this can be concluded after viewing the company's advertising. In addition, this can be confirmed by the external design of the smartphone, its high technical capabilities. Taking all this into account, phones of this brand can really be considered by buyers as “cheap iPhone analogues.” It is not surprising that developers actively use this “status” for their own purposes.

In this article we will talk about one of the devices released by the company that is quite in demand on the market. We are talking about the Meizu M2 Note smartphone. The specifications of the phone are truly amazing. At its low cost, the model also has a very attractive design. The build quality of the device and its stability are not far behind. In general, let’s not get ahead of ourselves, but simply spend more time detailed review devices so that you understand what we are talking about.

Positioning

Surprisingly, Meizu does not hide its imitation of the main Apple concern, which sets fashion in the world of smartphones. This is communicated not only by advertising slogans, but also by the features of the model’s body and its external design. Just look at the “Home” button, made in the likeness of the iPhone 5S.

Due to this “image” a double situation arises. On the one hand, the device is only a copy, a semblance of the original Apple, which does not seem at all unusual: in Lately Many companies produce analogues of “top” smartphones. On the other hand, the situation is also observed in a second, positive aspect. It's about attractiveness.

The characteristics attributed to the Meizu M2 Note device are described by customer reviews as only one of the factors that forced them to purchase this model. In addition, this also includes price, as well as appearance. Despite the fact that everyone perfectly understands where it originally came from and what the Chinese are trying to copy, this kind of design is always a success, which the Meizu company did not fail to take advantage of in its activities.

Design

The body of the Meizu M2 Note (we will present the characteristics of the device a little later) is made of polycarbonate, which lies pleasantly in the hand. The texture (depending on the model) can be matte or glossy - this is the user’s choice. The general features, as already noted, are strongly reminiscent of the iPhone - these are rounded corners on the back of the case and a direct transition between the glass and the cover at the front. To give the model rigidity, a metal base, so to speak, a frame, is installed inside.

The back cover of the model should not be removed at all; all functional holes are provided in the side of the case. Therefore, it’s easy to guess that the SIM card and memory card get into the phone using special “sliders”, and the slots here are opened, just like in the “Apple friend” - with the help of a needle.

The general appearance of the device (the way it lies in the hand and behaves when squeezed) allows us to draw a positive conclusion about the smartphone (and its assembly) as a whole. We were unable to make the Meizu M2 Note (we'll list the specifications a little further) creak, and we couldn't cause any play or movement of individual body elements. Therefore, we confidently praise the Chinese who assembled the phone so well.

CPU

Now let's move on directly to the filling of the model. And first of all, let's start with the “heart” of any gadget. Characteristics Meizu smartphone M2 Note shows us that the model is equipped with a processor that includes 8 cores. The clock frequency of each (in normal operating mode) is 1.3 GHz - this is a good indicator. Thanks to high performance The gadget behaves perfectly when interacting with graphically “heavy” games, playing them without hitches or any unpleasant “freezes”.

2 GB RAM also has a similar effect - it significantly increases the reaction speed and “liveness” of the device, its capabilities. What do users say about Meizu M2 Note? Are they satisfied with the characteristics? The phone is really quite fast, and all this is thanks to the “heart”.

Screen

The smartphone has a recently classic display with a diagonal size of 5.5 inches. With this indicator, the screen resolution of 1920x1080 pixels seems simply fantastic, which is why the actual image density on the Meizu M2 Note 16Gb (the specifications won’t let you lie) reaches 401 pixels per square inch.

The picture quality can be called very high. You can verify this both in your own practice, simply by picking up the phone, and through an analysis of the technical indicators that are mentioned in the specifications. Thus, such a high density can produce a very accurate, clear and sharp image, and IPS technology allows the smartphone to be provided with the proper brightness and color saturation, which is also important.

On another positive side I would like to mention the screen design. In this case, the developer used the method of painting the panel (top and bottom edges). Due to this, visually the frames may seem much smaller than they actually are. True, the practical effect of this approach is minimal - it is done purely “for beauty”.

operating system

If we talk about the software that controls the smartphone, we should note the shell Google Android, which is unchanged on this kind of device. True, the peculiarity of the Meizu M2 Note 16Gb (the characteristics will also confirm this information) is that the Flyme graphic add-on is installed on top of the “native” Android interface. It gives the smartphone an interface design (the icons you will see here may be unusual for you if you have not previously worked with Meizu); some options (for example, the SmartTouch function); and even methods of entering information (perception of user gestures).

Thanks to this, we can say that the basis of the device’s operation is the familiar Google platform, while the manufacturer has also developed its own set of programs that make interaction with the smartphone more convenient and comfortable. It’s also worth saying that Meizu continues to support its “shell” by releasing new updates. You can download them directly via a Wi-Fi connection (without installing additional programs).

Camera

Of course, when describing the characteristics of a device, it is also necessary to indicate the capabilities of its camera. After all, photography and video functions are key for any smartphone.

As stated in the documentation, the device has a camera whose matrix has a resolution of 13 megapixels. This is enough to create colorful, clear and color-rich photos. This is how they appear, at least when the picture is taken in good lighting. Under other conditions, slight changes in the picture may occur. User reviews note that it is best to use the Meizu M2 Note camera (the technical characteristics of which you already know) for private shooting - create an avatar in social network, take a photo of the text and so on.

Battery

Another important point is the autonomy of the device. It directly depends on how big the battery is. In the case of the M2 Note, the developers used a battery with a capacity of 3100 mAh. Considering, however, the bright screen and powerful processor, the charge is only enough for 10-12 hours of active use or 1-1.5 days of moderate load.

conclusions

It’s not for nothing that the mobile phone we described above is so popular. As those describing Meizu M2 Note show Mini specifications, the device is really good in all respects. It looks great, has an adequate price, has a wide range of functionality and, in addition, boasts stable operation.

Buyers clearly praise the device, positively note its qualities and write reviews in which they clearly recommend purchasing such a model. All this, as you understand, is reflected favorably on the image of the entire company. In recent years, smartphones of this brand have become quite expected in world markets.

The question is, what else do you need from a smartphone of this class? Apparently, the developers at Meizu asked themselves this question when designing this model. And, it should be noted, they managed to find a solution that could satisfy user requests.

• Case materials: glossy or matte plastic (polycarbonate), tempered glass (front panel), magnesium alloy (case base)
• Available body colors: white, gray, pink, blue
• operating system: Android 5.1, Flyme 4.5
• Network: 2G/3G/4G (including support for bands common in Russia for FDD-LTE), two nanoSIM cards with LTE support (in Meizu m1 mini LTE networks were supported by only one slot)
• Processor: quad-core, 64-bit, Cortex-A53 at 1.3 GHz, on the Mediatek MT6735 platform (in Meizu m1 mini 64-bit, Cortex-A53 at 1.5 GHz, Mediatek MT6732)
• Graphics subsystem: Mali T720 (in Meizu m1 mini Mali T760 MP2)
• RAM: 2 GB (Meizu m1 mini 1 GB)
• Memory for data storage: 16 GB (Meizu m1 mini 8 GB)
• Memory card slot: yes, supports cards up to 128 GB
• Interfaces: Wi-Fi (a/b/g/n) Dual-Band, Bluetooth 4.0 LE, microUSB connector (USB 2.0) for charging/synchronization, 3.5 mm for headset
• Screen: IPS matrix, 5” diagonal, resolution 1280x720 pixels, ppi 296, protective glass Dragontrail X, automatic backlight level adjustment, tempered glass
• Main camera: 13 megapixels, 5 lenses, f/2.2, 1080p video recording
• Front camera: 5 MP without autofocus, OV5670 sensor, 69 angle, 4 lenses, f/2.0, real-time effects application
• Navigation: GPS (A-GPS support), Glonass
• Additionally: accelerometer, light sensor, proximity sensor
• Battery: 2500 mAh
• Dimensions: 140.1 x 68.9 x 8.7 mm
• Weight: 131 grams

Introduction

The conveyor of the Chinese company Meizu does not stop for a minute. Over the past couple of years, a large number of different devices have come out of the oven, and recently we have seen a trend of several lines of devices appearing: MX, MX Pro, M Note, and, most likely, it will become a good tradition to release gadgets with the M mini prefix. However, in China the mini prefix is ​​not used.

Not long ago, the Meizu M2 mini model was introduced (another name is Blue Charm m2). Artem Lutfullin said in his acquaintance with the device: “The main task that the company solved when creating a new model was to transfer it to an even lower price category, to the segment of ultra-budget solutions or simply practically the most affordable smartphones with normal characteristics.” It must be emphasized that these are not gadgets with poor TFT-TN screens and 1400 mAh batteries. In fact, with the M2 mini we get a stripped-down M2 Note in some respects.

Unfortunately, due to exchange rates, the Russian representative office of Meizu was unable to keep the cost of the device low. The price in China is about 7,000 in rubles. In our country, the cost of the M2 mini is 13,000 rubles. Frankly speaking, I was expecting a price of around 10,000 rubles or less.

Design, dimensions, control elements

Personally, I am happy when a company finds a design that is eventually implemented in future devices, emphasizing the seriousness of the corporation’s commitment to releasing new devices. Sometimes the appearance gets boring quickly: for example, Samsung had too many identical gadgets in terms of design, so in less than a couple of years such devices began to create an ambiguous impression.

It seems to me that Meizu has already found the appearance that will be recognizable, at least among those who understand mobile devices. To be fair, it should be said that the development team, when creating Meizu gadgets, was inspired by Apple products. Therefore, in part, the smartphones of the Chinese company may remind us of Apple phones.

The Meizu M2 mini from the front side is similar to Apple iPhone 6, live, not in pictures. It's my opinion. Yes, the M2 mini does not have the notorious curved screen, but common features are traceable. The sensations in the hand are similar.

• Apple iPhone 6: 138x67x6.9 mm
• Meizu M2 mini: 140x68x8.7 mm

The shape of the case is rectangular, the corners are sloping, the front panel is flat, the back panel smoothly transitions to beveled edges. If we compare it with Meizu gadgets, then with the M2 Note. The MX4 Pro is also worth mentioning. Only it has a metal edge and the central button is more rectangular.

In terms of appearance, the device makes an excellent impression. Ergonomics also did not disappoint: due to its small width, smooth contours and weight of 130 grams, the M2 mini is very comfortable to hold in your hand and use for a long time. If it weren’t for the trend of smartphones being pushed in all directions, I would say that the size of the M2 mini is ideal.

The front panel is protected by AGC Dragontrail tempered glass. Not everyone knows Corning, but it’s also not bad. After a month of active use, there wasn’t a single scratch left on it (though I’m a neat person and I try to treat devices with care). There is an oleophobic coating, it is of average quality, that is, traces remain and cover the surface of the display abundantly, but no greasy residue remains. The finger glides well.

The body is monolithic, like most Meizu devices. The inside of the chassis is traditionally made of metal. The lid is plastic, or, as it is now fashionable to call this material, polycarbonate. Looks durable. Assembly without any complaints. Please do not write in the comments, saying that you bought an M2 mini the other day, and the body is all wobbly and creaking. I am describing a specific sample and cannot be responsible for other samples.

As for the colors of the rear panel, there are only four of them: white, grey, blue and pink. As far as I know, the first three colors are currently available for pre-order. I periodically use Meizu M1 Note in blue. Pleasant color, practically not easily soiled, although the material is glossy. By the way, matte is only gray.

It seems to me that the most strict and representative is matte gray, like the MX4 Pro.

At the top center of the front panel is the speech speaker. It is loud, the timbre is pleasant, there is enough both high and low frequencies. The interlocutor can be heard clearly and intelligibly. Compared to the M1/M2 Note, their speaker is at about the same level. Only the MX4/MX4 Pro/MX5 is cooler - the volume there is one and a half times higher. Personal opinion.

To the left of the speaker are light and proximity sensors. There are no questions for them. On right - front-camera and a small indicator of missed events.

There is a mechanical button under the display. It has an oval shape and a chrome-plated rim. The pressure is firm, the stroke is minimal, there is a barely audible “click” sound. The button is used to activate the backlight (short press when the screen is locked), exit to the desktop (short press in active screen mode), exit back (short press), lock the screen (long press in active screen mode). Comfortable!

Bottom – microphone, microUSB and speaker, top – 3.5 mm audio output for headphones.

There are metal slides on the left side. They can hold either two nanoSIMs, or one nanoSIM and a microSD memory card.

On the right side there is a volume rocker key and a power button for the device. Slightly convex, with clear pressing. I liked the power button because you can definitely feel the press. There is a quiet high-frequency sound of a “click”, or rather a “click” that is pleasant to the ear.

WITH reverse side- lens (it is mounted flush with the body) and flash.

Overall, it turned out to be a cool device in terms of appearance, design ergonomics, ease of use, and so on.

Meizu M2 mini and M1 Note

Meizu M2 mini and Highscreen Power Five

Meizu M2 mini and Apple iPhone 5

Display

Meizu M2 mini uses a screen with a diagonal of 5 inches. Let me remind you that the M1/M2 Note has 5.5 inches, the MX4 has 5.36, and the MX4 Pro has 5.5. The physical size of the M2 mini display is 62x110 mm, the frame on top and bottom is 15 mm, on the right and left - approximately 3.5 mm. There is an anti-reflective coating.

The M2 mini display resolution is HD, that is, 720x1280 pixels, density is 296 pixels per inch. Matrix - IPS OGS. The screen-to-body ratio is 75.6%.

The maximum brightness of white color is 386 cd/m2 (for M1 - 480, for M2 Note - 409), the maximum brightness of black color is 0.52 cd/m2. Contrast ratio – 741:1.

The white line is the goal we are trying to achieve. The yellow line is the actual screen data. You can see that we are directly on the target curve - perfect value!

An average gamma value of 2.2 is ideal throughout the entire curve.

Judging by the level chart, there is a shortage of red, a lot of blue, and just right green. Judging by the graph, the higher the brightness, the more blue and less red.

The temperature remains virtually unchanged and remains around 8000 K.

Judging by the diagram, the data obtained does not quite correspond to the sRGB triangle. It is slightly shifted upward.

Almost all gray points are located outside the DeltaE=10 radius, which indicates that other shades of colors will be present in gray colors.

Although the viewing angles are maximum, at certain angles the screen even slightly inverts the picture. Of course, the matrix is ​​not as cool as in the M1 Note and M2 Note, but for its price category (if you don’t take our prices) it’s quite suitable.

Behavior in the light

Behavior in the shadows

Viewing Angles

Settings

Battery

This model uses a non-removable battery Sony capacity 2500 mAh.

When working with the device, the battery lasted for about 19-20 hours: about 20-30 minutes of calls per day, about 3-6 hours of 4G use, about 20 hours of Wi-Fi (constant synchronization of mail, Twitter, WhatsApp, " Skype” and so on), several dozen photos, 2 hours of listening to music.

In a more gentle mode (3G, music, a little less talking), the gadget works for up to two days. If you leave only data synchronization (Wi-Fi), you can count on 3-4 days. Up to 13 hours of continuous talk time.

Below is a screenshot with official data:

When the screen backlight brightness is automatically adjusted, the display operates for 2 to 3 hours.

Communication capabilities

The device is equipped with two nanoSIM slots. Both connectors support operation in the 4G LTE network, however, if one SIM is in LTE, the other automatically switches to the GSM network.

• GSM/GPRS/EDGE (900/1800 MHz)
• WCDMA/HSPA+ (900/2100 MHz)
• LTE (1800/2100/2600 MHz)

The rest is standard: Wi-Fi (a/b/g/n) Dual-Band (2.4 GHz/5 GHz), Bluetooth 4.0 LE, microUSB connector (USB 2.0 with OTG support) for charging/synchronization. GPS navigation works without problems. By the way, GLONASS is also available. There is no NFC chip.

Memory and memory card

Meizu M2 mini has 2 GB installed random access memory. On this moment This is the typical volume of most mid-price smartphones. Here you need to understand that in China this device is considered a budget device, so 2 GB is cool. For us, the M2 mini falls into the middle DS section.

Built-in memory 16 GB EMMC 5.0 from Samsung. Unlike the M1 Note, the M2 mini (like the M2 Note) now has a card slot microSD memory. The maximum volume is up to 128 GB!

Cameras

Two cameras: main 13 MP (CMOS sensor from Samsung, 5 lenses, F2.2 aperture) protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3, front 5 MP (4 lenses, F2.0 aperture, 69 degree angle). The flash has one LED.

The camera shoots approximately at the level of the M1/M2 Note, that is, the waveform is good: the white balance is always fine, the detail is slightly above average, there is little noise, but there are small artifacts, the focus is accurate and fast.

The front camera is excellent: also accurate white balance, fairly good detail, minimal noise in poor lighting conditions, a wide viewing angle, but not the maximum among mobile phones.

The gadget shoots video in FullHD resolution at 30 fps in good lighting conditions and 15 fps in poor lighting conditions. Mono sound. The picture is clean and crisp. The only thing I didn't like was the viewing angle. It is frankly small, almost 30-40% of the frame is cut off relative to taking a photo.

The front camera shoots video in FullHD resolution at 24 fps.

As always, at your disposal manual settings cameras: shutter speed, ISO value and other parameters. There are very few gadgets with such things, and none at all among inexpensive ones.

Sample photos

Performance

The device runs on the Taiwanese MediaTek MT6735 chipset. It was announced at the end of last year. This is a 64-bit SoC that contains 4 ARM Cortex-53 cores, 28 nm process technology, each clocked at up to 1.5 GHz. The graphics used are Mali T-720 with support for Open GL ES 3.0 and Open CL 1.2 API.

It should be noted that the MT6735 chip was created as an inexpensive solution for use in devices that can operate in various networks. Therefore, its main feature is LTE in our country.

The interface is very fast and smooth – two main advantages of the device. Applications launch instantly. With games, everything is not so smooth: you shouldn’t count on a large number of FPS and high quality graphics (BIA3 slows down, DeadTrigger at maximum also slows down). The smartphone is slightly weaker than the M1/M2 Note in this regard.

System information

Performance tests

Software platform

The Meizu M2 mini smartphone runs under the operating system Google systems Android versions 5.1. But, unfortunately, there is nothing left of the “five” here after the Chinese “rolled” the Flyme shell version 4.5 onto it. In fact, nothing new or interesting has appeared: the animation, icons, and general design are the same. It's sad, of course, because Android 5.0 is good without any decorations.

Multimedia

The music player is standard for Meizu. The speaker has a very high volume, I think it was “inherited” from the M1/M2 Note. Clean, no overload.

The sound in the headphones is loud, but a little quieter than in the M2 Note. The quality is great. As always, there is an equalizer and Dirac HD Sound (sometimes it is useful).

There is still no radio - very strange. The video player has not changed, but a special button has appeared to display other videos in memory. The device “plays” any video in resolutions up to FullHD and a maximum bitrate of 40 Mbit/s.

Conclusion

I like the way the Meizu company thinks - fellow Chinese are moving in the right direction, in my opinion. Maybe an even more affordable device will appear. In this case, a segment that is still inaccessible to the company will close: inexpensive - mini, middle segment - Note, expensive - MX, premium - Pro, and the most budget ones... well, I don’t know what they’ll be called Meizu.

The device made an extremely positive impression. It has a nice appearance, excellent ergonomic design, several colors to suit every taste, good technical characteristics, fairly long operating time, good cameras and the ability to operate in fourth generation networks.

Up to 15,000 rubles, I often recommend taking either the M1 Note, or for 4G lovers, the M2 Note. Now we can recommend the Meizu M2 mini among compact smartphones with excellent hardware.

Competitors:

• Highscreen Power Five. Costs about 15,000 rubles. Amoled HD screen, 5000 mAh battery, LTE, metal body. The downside is the 8 MP camera, the Pentile is visible.
• Philips Xenium V526. It also costs about 15,000 rubles and is practically an analogue of Highscreen.
• ZTE Blade S6
• ASUS ZenFone 2 ZE500CL
• Lenovo S60

Pros of Meizu M2 mini

• Sturdy body
• Great build
• Ergonomic design
• Loud speaker
• Good cameras
• Capacious battery
• Two SIM cards

There are no downsides as such, but I would like a better IPS matrix (at least like the M1 Note) and a slightly lower cost of the device.

Color

General characteristics

Deciding on the type of device (phone or smartphone?) is quite simple. If you need a simple and inexpensive device for calls and SMS, it is recommended to choose a telephone. A smartphone is more expensive, but it offers a wide variety of options: games, videos, the Internet, thousands of programs for all occasions. However, its battery life is significantly less than that of a regular phone.

Screen

Multimedia capabilities

Connection

Memory and processor

Meizu M2 Note is the younger brother of the former legendary and discontinued Meizu M1 Note. Reviewers often like to say “working on mistakes.” But in this case this is not so - after all, the first version was a wonderful product. Should you opt for a budget smartphone from the already well-established Meizu? Answer this question yourself by reading or watching our review.

Specifications

• CPU: MediaTek MT6753, 1.3 GHz, 8 cores, ARM Cortex-A53
• GPU: Mali-T720 @450 MHz 3 cores
• Operating system: Android 5.1, Flyme OS 4.5
• Display: IPS IGZO (Sharp) 5.5″, 1920×1080, 401 ppi
• RAM: 2 GB, inner memory 16/32 GB
• Nano-SIM support (2 pcs), MicroSD support up to 128 GB
• Communication: GSM 900/1800 MHz; 3G HSDPA 900/2100 MHz; LTE Cat.4 (150/50 Mbit/s) 1800/2100/2600 MHz; Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n (2.4/5 GHz), point Wi-Fi access, Wi-Fi Direct; Bluetooth 4.0 BLE; GPS, A-GPS, Glonass; USB 2.0 OTG
• Camera: 13 MP, f/2.2, autofocus, 1080p video
• Front camera: 5 MP, OmniVision OV5670, f/2.0, fixed. focus
• Gyroscope, proximity sensor, light sensor, gravity sensor, electronic compass
• Battery: 3100 mAh, non-removable
• Dimensions: 151×75×8.7 mm
• Weight: 149 g

Video review

Equipment

Inside, in addition to the smartphone itself, there was a power supply, a microUSB cable, a proprietary paper clip and accompanying documentation. Not a lot, especially since recently companies have been equipping even the most budget devices with a wider scope of delivery. The “plug” in place for the headphones looks especially strange.

Appearance

The back panel is not removable; it smoothly flows onto the front side, framing the screen.
On the right side there are connectors for two nanoSIM cards. By the way, one of the connectors can be used to expand memory using an SD card. Right there on the right side there is a power button, which, it seemed to me, has a little tight movement. In addition, its location cannot be called convenient: it is located a little lower than standard, you will need to get used to this.

On the top of the back of the case is the main camera lens, which does not protrude beyond the panel and is covered with Dragontrail protective glass. There is also a multi-colored LED flash nearby.

The speaker was placed on the bottom end, positioned next to the microUSB connector and the conversation microphone.
At the top end there is a 3.5 mm audio output for headphones. Meizu M2 Note is available in white, blue and pink - all three are glossy, but the gray one is matte, and to be honest, it not only looks better and more presentable, but the matte finish is not so easily soiled, so leaving marks on it and scratches are much more difficult than on gloss.

Display

The brightness of the display is adjusted both automatically and manually, and the auto-adjustment is adequate and does not cause any complaints.

There is an anti-reflective coating, which is not ideal, but with the brightness set to maximum, you can easily read any information from the screen when exposed to bright sunlight. A little more about brightness: in the dark its level is also comfortable for reading.
As for the contrast of the display, it is quite high, but the colors do not have oversaturated shades, rather the opposite - they are as natural as possible, but not faded.
Overall, we can say that for a budget smartphone, the Meizu M2 Note has a good display with excellent performance. I was pleasantly surprised.

Sound

Camera

Due to a terrible failure and the phone being reset before transferring photos, we are attaching photos of a user of the Yandex.Photos service: ra2fgk

Connection

Micro-USB 2.0 supports connecting external devices (USB Host, USB OTG).
Supports GPS and Glonass, satellites are found quickly (about 10-15 seconds on a cold start).

Working with two SIM cards is standard; the user himself chooses which card will be the main one. Both cards can work with 3G/4G networks, but not simultaneously.

OS and software

Performance

Battery

Let's sum it up

The editors would like to thank the official MEIZU store in Russia for the provided device:

The 5.5-inch Meizu M2 Note smartphone is popular due to its good price/quality ratio, but not everyone likes “shovels” with screens of this size. Some users prefer more compact smartphones, which are more convenient to use primarily as a phone. Meizu also has this option: Meizu M2 (or, as it is also called, M2 mini) with a 5-inch screen. The first M1 has not reached us, but the second one can already be bought.

What is this?

Meizu M2 is a 5-inch Android smartphone with a quad-core 64-bit processor, 2 GB of RAM, support for two SIM cards (instead of one of which you can install a memory card of up to 128 GB) and a 13-megapixel main camera (Samsung module) .

Why is he interesting?

The smartphone has few differences from the older model: the screen has been reduced to 5 inches, the resolution has been reduced from FullHD to 1280x720, which is even more justified with such a diagonal, and the processor from the same MediaTek company is slightly more modest. The design is almost identical to the M2 Note, with minor changes affecting only the controls.

What is in the box?

The budget M series (aka Blue Charm) comes in square blue and white boxes. Inside there is a standard set: a smartphone, a USB cable, a power supply, a paper clip for removing the tray and instructions. In the place where the headset could be there is a plug with an inscription that it is not included in the package. Perhaps in some markets it will still be available.

What does it look like?

Externally, the smartphone really looks like a smaller copy of the M2 Note (you can read the review on our website). The body is made of similar plastic, there are different colors. Available in white, blue and gray colors. We came across the last option and it looks very good, more expensive than competitors for the same money. The front panel is identical in layout: under a common protective glass there is a screen, a front camera, a set of sensors and an LED indicator. Above the screen is the earpiece, below it is the mBack button:

The LED indicator in Meizu smartphones has finally moved to the top of the front panel, along with the abandonment of the round touch button under the screen, which was used in older models:

Multifunction mBack button. A tap goes back one item, a press goes to the home screen, and a long press locks the smartphone. Everything is exactly the same as with the M2 Note:

Matt gray back cover. It has a rough texture, which feels more pleasant than glossy colored options. The logo is still old:

Main camera lens with single LED flash:

Now about the differences. Mechanical buttons and the SIM/MicroSD tray have swapped places. Now the buttons are located on the right side, they are the same as in the larger model:

Headphone jack on the top edge of the smartphone:

Tray on the left side:

Bottom - MicroUSB, microphone and external speaker. It sounds exactly the same as the older model. Quite loud, but the quality suffers at high volumes:

Tray for two nanoSIMs, one of which can be used for a MicroSD memory card:

Thanks to its small size, the smartphone fits perfectly in the hand, as expected, more convenient than the 5.5-inch model. It’s well assembled, as always, there are no complaints, although there’s nothing particularly wobbly: there’s no removable cover on the smartphone. Comparison with M2 Note:

How good is the screen?

The M2 uses a 5-inch IPS screen without an air gap with a resolution of 1280x720, pixel density of 296 ppi and protective glass AGC Dragontrail. It seems to me that with such a diagonal, HD resolution is optimal: the picture is clear, the pixels are difficult to see (I couldn’t see it anyway), and the load is less, which has a better effect on battery life and performance. I was not very pleased with the oleophobic coating: it is there, but of rather low quality. Fingers glide well, but the screen collects fingerprints very well.The declared maximum brightness is 400 cd/m2. The viewing angles are all good, there is enough brightness outside, although for a full impression it would be nice to evaluate it under the summer sun.

Multi-touch up to 10 touches supported:

When measured with a colorimeter, it turned out that the real brightness is lower than declared, but not dramatically: 358.713 cd/m2, black field brightness is 0.496 cd/m2, and contrast is 723:1. Errors in color rendering are not critical, the usual slight bias towards blue colors, but in this case, rather, the lack of red is not visible to the eye at all. C The air temperature varies between 7500 and 8000K:

The smartphone has a standard utility for adjusting the color temperature.

Comparison with competitors:

How's the performance going?

Things are interesting with performance: instead of the eight-core MediaTek MT6753 with ARM Cortex-A53 cores and graphics Mali T720 MP3, 450 MHz installed quad-core MT6735 (same Cortex-A53), but with a faster version of Mali T720 MP2 at 600 MHz. The amount of RAM is 2 GB, dual-channel LPDDR3 is used. The FlymeOS shell provides a choice of system operating modes: Energy Saving, Balanced and Productive. Exactly the same as its predecessor:

In fact, the situation is as follows: the shell and applications are flying, there is nothing new in this issue, everything is fine, as it was. In benchmarks, the results are more modest, but the games run better. It seems that the lower resolution and higher frequency of the graphics accelerator had an effect. Mortal Kombat X on the Unreal Engine with impressive appetites works better than on the M2 Note, although in general the smartphone cannot completely get rid of the brakes in demanding games:

The smartphone does not heat up much even under prolonged use. The smartphone has 16 GB of internal memory; instead of one of the SIM cards, you can insert a MicroSD of up to 128 GB. The GPS module works without problems, cold start - about 30 seconds:

The battery capacity is 2500 mAh. There are no revelations in terms of autonomy: about 6 hours of video playback, just under three hours of games. IN normal mode with conversations for about half an hour a day, the Internet (Wi-Fi or 3G) for about 4 hours and about an hour of games, the smartphone lives for just over a day. If you don’t play, then 1.5 days is not a problem.

As already written above, the external speaker screams quite loudly, but the quality is not the best: the situation is similar to the M2 Note. The same can be said about the sound in the headphones: the power is enough for most simple earplugs up to 1000 UAH, just like the quality. Which will be quite enough for the average listener.

For those who want to know more

Meizu M2 has MediaTek MT6735 installed: 64-bit, four cores ARM Cortex-A53 clocked at 1.3 GHz and graphics accelerator Mali T720 MP2, 600MHz, RAM:2 GBLPDDR3. The smartphone, as expected, produces fewer parrots in synthetic tests than the M2 Note, but for its price category everything is very good: one of the close competitors Xiaomi Redmi 2 scores about 20,000 in AnTuTu, while the Meizu M2 is close to 27,000. Benchmark results:

Is the interface user-friendly?

Meizu M2 runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop OS with Flyme OS version 4.5.3I. We have already seen all this more than once and it is absolutely no different from the M2 Note (you can go into more detail in the review

Top curtain:

All sorts of useful pre-installed programs:

How are things going with the camera?

The main camera is the same as in the M2 Note, but with a single LED flash: 13-megapixel matrix with Samsung back-illumination, 5-element optics and f/2.2 aperture. Again, the interface does not change, you have to wait for Flyme 5:

As far as I can tell from the point of view of someone who is not too keen digital photography, then the photos in good lighting turn out to be quite sensible, but in the dark everything becomes much sadder. As you know, Meizu suffers from not entirely adequate processing algorithms:

Video in FullHD:

Bottom line

Meizu M2 is sold for 3300 UAH and having looked at other offers in the same price range It becomes clear that there are no obvious competitors at the moment. A-brand models are clearly inferior both in terms of screens and internals; the closest ones are Meizu’s compatriots: the same Xiaomi Redmi 2, which in the version with 2 GB of RAM will cost more. So for those who are looking convenient smartphone with a relatively small (by today's standards) screen diagonal for reasonable money, it is definitely worth considering the Meizu M2 as a candidate for purchase.

4 reasons to buy Meizu M2:

• Good screen;
• convenient, monolithic body;
• Supports 2xSIM and memory cards;
• price-quality ratio.

1 reason not to buy Meizu M2:

• mediocre camera quality.