Meizu M3s Mini a new product in an elegant metal case with 3D sandblasting and high-quality finishing polishing. The smartphone runs on the Android operating system and is equipped with a large 2.5D screen, powerful processor and battery large capacity. Meizu M3s mini supports two nano-SIM format SIM cards, works in 4G LTE networks and provides reliable protection thanks to the presence of a fingerprint scanner in the phone.
Basic Meizu M3s Mini specifications: 2 SIM cards, HD screen with a diagonal of 5 inches, Android 5.1 operating system, a powerful battery with a capacity of 3020 mAh, an eight-core processor, support for microSD memory cards up to 128 GB, a main camera with a resolution of 13 MP and a front 5 MP camera.
You can buy Meiza M3s mini in two versions with 32 GB built-in and 3 GB RAM or 16 GB built-in and 2 GB RAM, and both versions support memory cards. Price Meizu M3s Mini will depend on the version you choose. The smartphone is sold in four colors: gold, gray, silver and metallic pink.
The powerful processor and large RAM of Meizu M3s Mini will cope with any task, work with several open applications on the large screen with protective 2.5D glass or play the latest games android games without brakes or freezes.
Working with two SIM cards allows the user of Meizu M3s mini to save on communication services, select favorable tariffs for the Internet and calls. The fingerprint scanner provides reliable protection of the smartphone from unauthorized persons; now there is no need to remember complex passwords; to unlock the smartphone, just touch the sensor and the phone will quickly identify the owner and unlock the screen.
A Meizu M3s Mini user will be able to install two SIM cards or one SIM card and a memory card. Use high speed internet thanks to 4G LTE support from both SIM cards. When choosing 4G Internet from one of the SIM cards, the second one will work in 3G networks.
Long-term operation of a smartphone is one of the most important characteristics of any device. Received Meiza M3s mini powerful battery with a capacity of 3020 mAh and provides up to 240 hours of standby time and up to 13 hours of talk time.
Full specifications of Meizu M3s Mini. Meizu M3s mini features
- Number of SIM cards: 2 with 4G support
- SIM card type: 2 Nano-SIM or 1 Nano-SIM card + microSD
- Case material: metal
- Operating system: Android 5.1
- Processor: 8-core / MTK MT6750
- GPU: ARM Mali-T860
- Display: 5.0" diagonal 2.5D/ HD 1280 x 720 pixels/ 296 ppi density/ full lamination
- Main camera: 13 MP / 5-element lens / dual flash / autofocus
- Front-camera: 5 MP / 4-element lens
- Video camera: video recording in FullHD 1920 x 1080 pixels
- 4G LTE: supports
- Wi-Fi: WLAN IEEE 802.11 b/g/n
- Dot Wi-Fi access: Yes
- Bluetooth: 4.0
- Battery: 3020 mAh/ function fast charging
- Talk time: up to 13 hours
- Standby time: up to 240 hours
- RAM: 2 GB/ 3 GB
- Built-in memory: 16 GB / 32 GB
- Memory card: microSD up to 128 GB
- Audio jack: 3.5mm
- MicroUSB: USB 2.0, USB-OTG, USB-Host
- Navigation: GPS/ A-GPS/ GLONASS
- Sensors: Accelerometer/gyroscope/light/gravity/compass/IR sensor
- Fingerprint scanner: yes / capacity up to 5 prints
- Flashlight function: yes
- Color: gold/silver/gray/pink metallic
- Size: (W.H.T.) 69.9mm x 141.9mm x 8.3mm
- Weight: 138 grams
The smartphone in my hands was ordered on AliExpress and arrived directly from China. Then the seller offered a white Meizu M3s mini with 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of permanent memory for eight thousand rubles. The phone firmware is Chinese, but there is a Russian language. Simply put, there were no problems using this version of the smartphone.
At the time of writing the review, the same seller was offering a white Meizu M3s mini with 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of storage, already with international firmware, and at a price of 7,620 rubles. The black smartphone cost 7,957 rubles, the gold one - 8,221 rubles. The pink one was not on sale yet.
The cost of the older Meizu M3s mini model with 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of permanent memory was 10,097 rubles for the black version and 10,493 rubles for the white or gold version. There was no pink either.
In the official Russian online store MyMeizu.ru, white and black M3s mini cost the same, namely 11,990 rubles for the 2/16 GB model and 13,990 rubles for the 3/32 GB model. Gold and pink options were not available.
Why such an overpayment in the official Russian store? Firstly, for saving time. When choosing free delivery on AliExpress, you need to mentally prepare for a month-long wait for your parcel. Buyers in Russia will have to wait much less.
Secondly, Meizu does not have an international warranty. By purchasing a device intended for the Chinese domestic market, you are left without any consumer rights and will have to solve any problems that arise with the smartphone yourself. When purchasing from an official Russian store, you receive a guarantee and service.
I will not describe in detail every little detail of the tested device. Read long boring reviews with a bunch of useless stuff regular user You can find information on other sites, but here everything is to the point.
Design and execution
M3s mini is the only one currently available on this moment metal Meizu smartphone with a 5-inch screen. It is followed by the audiophile ten-core flagship with a diagonal of 5.2 inches, recently tested by Lifehacker.
All other Meizu models, including the M3 Note, Pro 5, MX5 and the recently announced MX6, are equipped with a screen with a diagonal of 5.5 inches or more, that is, they are phablets with quite impressive sizes and not everyone likes them.
Following a good tradition, Meizu engineers made an aluminum case incredibly similar to the iPhone for the M3s mini.
From an aesthetic point of view, there is no fault with the execution. The weight of the smartphone is only 138 grams with a thickness of 8.3 millimeters. Neat, sophisticated lines with rounded corners look great. If you like the design of the iPhone, then... appearance Meizu will also be to your liking.
From a technical point of view, there are no complaints about the M3s mini case either. Not only did Meizu engineers forge this budget phone in metal, but they also did not cheat and accurately adjusted the details. Surprisingly, the super-cheap M3s mini is built just as well as the flagship Pro 6.
To reduce the cost, aluminum corners of the case and sophisticated plugs hiding the antennas were used under the knife. The top and bottom of the M3s mini's rear panel are made of plastic.
The photo shows that it is quite difficult to distinguish plastic elements from metal. The colors are identical, the difference in texture is not felt even when touched, and only shiny decorative grooves reveal the place where the metal transforms into plastic.
On the front panel there is a single mechanical button, which is also an mTouch 2.1 fingerprint scanner. Touching the button is equivalent to the “Back” action, and pressing it returns the user to the home screen or duplicates the power button when the display is off.
The front location of the scanner is certainly more convenient if you often access your smartphone lying on the table. The scanner accepts a fingerprint from any angle and operates in a fraction of a second.
The power button and volume rocker are located on the right. If you do not press them, but only slightly touch them, a tiny play will be noticeable. In general, there are no complaints about the buttons.
On the left there is a hybrid slot for two nanoSIM cards, one of which can be replaced with a microSD card with a capacity of up to 128 GB inclusive.
The external speaker, microphone and microUSB port are located at the bottom.
The only thing where the designers and engineers of the Meizu M3s mini screwed up was the position of the headphone jack.
Well, why do it on top? After all, we put the smartphone in our pocket with the top first. With this location of the socket, additional mechanical stress occurs on the plug and wire, which means inevitable breaks and premature failure.
Another disadvantage common to all Meizu smartphones is the lack of protection against water. It’s time to catch up with Samsung and release equipment that meets at least the IP67 standard, and better yet IP68.
Screen
Meizu M3s mini is equipped with a 5-inch IPS HD display with a resolution of 1280 × 720 pixels.
If you think that the lack of Full HD in 2016 cannot be forgiven even for a budget smartphone, then just look at the ppi value, which here is 296 pixels per inch. Jobs said that at 300 ppi the pixels are narrower, and it’s unlikely that a shortfall of 4 ppi would greatly affect the quality of the picture. At least my eyes couldn't detect any pixels on the M3s mini's screen.
The use of IPS provides color fidelity typical for this type of display without wild, unnatural shades and white distortion. It is clear that it would be naive to count on a top-end matrix in a smartphone for 8 thousand, but the picture looks acceptable even with a strong tilt of the screen, the colors are only slightly distorted towards yellow and purple.
The presence of an anti-reflective coating allows you to comfortably work with your smartphone in the bright summer sun, and the use of the now fashionable 2.5D glass adds even more streamlinedness to the body.
I never found information about the type used in the M3s mini protective glass. But it’s definitely here, and it’s good, because in two weeks active use Not a single scratch appeared on the smartphone screen.
Filling
Inside the M3s mini there is an eight-core MTK MT6750 (four Cortex-A53 at 1.5 GHz and four Cortex-A53 at 1 GHz) and Mali-T860 graphics. MediaTek chips are not very suitable for heavy 3D games, but they perform excellently in terms of speed and smooth operation of the system, especially when a less resource-intensive HD display is installed instead of Full HD.
In combination with even 2 GB of fast LPDDR3 RAM, the smartphone shows impressive results both in synthetics and at the level of sensations when working directly with the device.
The system flies, the applications fly. No freezes, no slowdowns.
I did not have the opportunity to look at the older model with 3 GB of RAM, but it is logical to assume that the increased amount of memory will manifest itself when working simultaneously and switching between several heavy applications. However, the younger M3s mini copes well with everyday scenarios.
The presence of a slot for a memory card actually makes any discussion about the size of the built-in storage meaningless, and therefore you need to choose between the older and younger M3s mini model only based on the number and resource intensity of the applications used.
Unfortunately, Meizu M3s mini does not have NFC, but it does support all other current types of communication, including 5 GHz Wi-Fi, 4G and Bluetooth 4.0.
- Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac.
- 2G GSM/GPRS/EDGE (900/1 800/1 900 MHz).
- 3G WCDMA/HSPA+ (900/2 100 MHz).
- 4G FDD-LTE (1 800/2 100/2 600 MHz).
- 3G TD-SCDMA.
- 4G TD-LTE.
- Bluetooth 4.0, BLE support.
- GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS.
Cameras
Obviously, you can’t expect any outstanding sensors in such a cheap smartphone. But those that exist provide acceptable shooting quality in automatic mode under favorable conditions. And the lack of light can be compensated for by manual mode, HDR and Meizu’s proprietary circular two-color flash. Thanks to the powerful hardware, the cameras work very quickly.
The main camera here is exactly the same as in the Meizu M3 Note: 13 MP, f/2.2, powerful flash, PDAF. You can judge the quality of the photo yourself.
The front 5-megapixel camera with f/2.0 aperture and software image enhancement takes wonderful selfies and records Full HD videos.
System
M3s mini runs on Android 5.1, on top of which a proprietary shell is installed Meizu Flyme 5.1.
Flyme almost completely changes the default Android interface, but you get used to it quickly enough.
Flyme has no unnecessary software, only the most necessary ones pre-installed applications and a utility for optimizing and maintaining the system in good condition. With its help, you can run a comprehensive diagnostic of your smartphone in one tap, clean up your memory, debug power consumption, check for viruses, and so on.
At the beginning of the review I talked about just one system button on the front panel, which takes over the “Back” and “Home” functions. Are you wondering how the application manager is called in this case? To do this, simply swipe up from the bottom of the screen. Why didn't Google think of this?
Flyme is perfectly optimized, and combined with powerful hardware, the result is an extremely nimble system that is a pleasure to use.
Battery
The M3s mini has a non-removable battery with a capacity of 3,020 mAh. With moderate use, the battery lasts two days. In more active scenarios with visiting YouTube, Play Music, frequent browsing of the browser and social networks, the smartphone lives for 18–22 hours.
Best budget phone of 2016?
I hope that when reading this review you kept in mind the cost of the M3s mini, that is, everything described above can be obtained for less than 8 thousand rubles. Meizu M3s mini is a compact and beautiful aluminum smartphone with an excellent screen, a fingerprint scanner, powerful hardware and memory expansion, all the latest types of communication, decent cameras and a well-functioning system. Don't you think that Meizu M3s mini looks like the best budget phone of 2016?
- Case materials: metal, plastic, glass
- Operating system: Android 5.x, Flyme
- Networks: GSM/EDGE, UMTS/HSDPA, LTE (two nanoSIM slots)
- Screen: IPS LCD, 5” diagonal, resolution 1280x720 pixels (HD), ppi 294
- Platform: MediaTek MT6750
- Processor: eight-core, 64-bit, Cortex-A53 at up to 1.5 GHz (two clusters of 4 cores)
- Graphics: Mali-T860 MP2
- RAM: 2/3 GB
- Data storage memory: 16/32 GB
- Memory card slot: yes, microSD (instead of a second SIM card)
- Main camera: 13 megapixels, f/2.2, phase detection autofocus, dual LED flash
- Front camera: 5 MP, f/2.0
- Interfaces: Wi-Fi Dual-Band, Bluetooth 4.0 (A2DP, LE), microUSB connector (USB-OTG, USB-Host) for charging/synchronization, 3.5 mm jack for headset/headphones
- Navigation: GPS (A-GPS support), Glonass
- Additionally: fingerprint scanner, accelerometer, light sensor, proximity sensor
- Battery: 3020 mAh
- Dimensions: 141.9 x 69.9 x 8.3 mm
- Weight: 138 grams
Introduction
The Chinese company, which has managed to become relatively popular in Russia (to some extent thanks to us, don’t consider it immodest), has released another metal smartphone. This time there is more metal in the budget (for China) or mid-price category (for Russia). The collection has been replenished with the Meizu M3s mini device. They decided to give this fancy name to the gadget just for us, since in our homeland a similar one is simply called M3. However, it is worth understanding that the M3s mini and M3 are still different: the version for the Russian market has a metal case and operating Android system, the battery capacity has increased slightly.
The price has not yet been decided, but according to rumors, a 2/16 GB smartphone will cost 12,000 rubles, and a 3/32 GB gadget will cost 14,000 rubles. Personally, it seems to me that it will be like this: 12,990 and 14,990 rubles. Sales in August.
Design, dimensions, control elements
This time, Meizu designers didn’t particularly bother with the design of the new product, so the M3s mini looks almost identical to the Pro 6: sloping edges, a flat back surface, a metal body, a scanner plus a touch-mechanical button, the location of some elements, etc. The only global difference: the back of the Pro 6 is entirely made of aluminum, and in the case of the M3S mini, there are plastic inserts on the top and bottom. A similar solution is used in many gadgets with non-plastic panels.
The front side is protected by glass with a 2.5D shape, the thin chrome edge is still made of plastic. By the way, a device came to me with a rather broken edging. On the one hand, this is not very good, since it will have to be photographed in such an unaesthetic form, on the other hand, you can immediately imagine what will happen to the smartphone after a certain amount of time.
The glass is durable and did not get a single scratch during testing. Oleophobic coating is present. The quality is good, your finger glides across the surface of the screen easily.
Due to its compact dimensions and extremely successful body shape, holding and using Meizu M3S mini is a pleasure, especially after “shovelling”. The device is assembled tightly, no backlash, creaks, or pressing into the battery.
There are quite a lot of colors for Meizu: dark gray, silver, gold and metallic pink. I hope that all of them will definitely be available to our consumers.
On the top of the front panel there are light and proximity sensors (they work quite slowly), an indicator of missed events (bright, white), a camera and a speaker, covered with a metal mesh. Its volume is high, the timbre is pleasant, the interlocutor can be heard clearly and legibly.
Below the screen is a touch-mechanical button, which is responsible for exiting to the home screen, “Back”.
It is also a fingerprint sensor. I was completely satisfied with the response speed. Using the mTouch 2.1 scanner, you can not only block the smartphone from turning on, but also limit access to any applications on the device using your fingerprint, including programs and games you personally installed.
The scanner works no worse or better than others.
At the bottom there is a microphone (on the left), microUSB and a speakerphone. The volume rocker and power button are on the right. Their stroke is minimal, the pressure is firm, and there is a pleasant “click” sound, like on an iPhone.
On the left is a metal tray for sharing nanoSIM+nanoSIM or nanoSIM+microSD.
WITH reverse side– a camera lens recessed into the body, below – a two-color LED flash, MEIZU inscription.
Meizu M3S mini and Apple iPhone
Display
Meizu M3S mini uses a screen with a diagonal of 5 inches. Let me remind you that in M1/M2 Note the diagonal is 5.5", in MX4 - 5.36", and in MX4 Pro - 5.5", in Pro 5 - 5.7", in Pro 6 - 5.2". The physical size of the M3S mini display is 64x110 mm, frame top – 15.5 mm, bottom – 15, right and left – just under 4 mm. There is an anti-reflective coating.
The display resolution of Meizu M3S mini is HD, that is, 720x1280 pixels, density is 294 pixels per inch. The matrix is made using IPS technology without an air gap.
The maximum brightness of white is 400 cd/m2 (official data is 380), black is 0.59 cd/m2. Contrast ratio – 677:1 (officially – 1000:1).
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 almost directly below the target curve at values from 0 to 100%, which means that at each value the image is under-lit. The yellow line is actually the average amount of red, green and blue.
The average gamma value is 2.12.
Judging by the level graph, blue is in excess and red is in short supply.
At minimum brightness the temperature is closer to 7800 K, on average - 7200 K
Judging by the diagram, the data obtained does not exceed the sRGB triangle, especially in the green, red and blue zone.
Many gray points are located within a radius of DeltaE=10, which indicates that gray colors will not contain other shades.
The viewing angles are maximum; at certain angles of the screen, the picture becomes very yellow and violet. This suggests that the matrix here is one of the most budget-friendly.
Behavior in the light
Viewing Angles
White color
Battery
This model uses a non-removable battery with a capacity of 3020 mAh.
When working with the device, the battery lasted for about 16-18 hours: about 20-30 minutes of calls per day, about 7 hours of 3G/4G use (constant synchronization of mail, Twitter, WhatsApp, Skype, etc.), about 6 hours of Wi-Fi , several dozen photos, hours of listening to music.
In a more gentle mode, the gadget works for up to 24 hours. If you leave only data synchronization (Wi-Fi), then you can count on two days. Up to 13 hours of continuous talk time.
In movie mode (HD) the battery runs out after about 9 hours, in gaming mode the battery lasts for about 3.5 hours, in audio playback mode it lasts for about 3.5 hours. maximum volume– up to 50 hours.
The PC Mark Work Battery life application showed a result of 10 hours 37 minutes.
Unlike top models, the M3S mini does not have fast charging. Network adapter– 5 V and 2 A.
Communication capabilities
The device is equipped with two nanoSIM slots. Both connectors support 3G/4G networks (LTE CAT 6) in Russian frequencies: FDD-LTE / TD-LTE / TD-SCDMA / WCDMA / GSM.
Network types:
- 2G GSM/GPRS/EDGE (900/1800/1900 MHz)
- 3G WCDMA/HSPA+ (900/2100 MHz)
- 4G FDD-LTE (1800/2100/2600 MHz)
- 3G TD-SCDMA
- 4G TD-LTE
The rest is standard: Wi-Fi (ac and b/g/n/ac) dual-band Wi-Fi (2.4 GHz/5 GHz) - sensitivity at Samsung Galaxy S6, Bluetooth 4.0, microUSB connector (USB 2.0 with OTG support) for charging/syncing. GPS navigation works without problems.
Memory and memory card
The smartphone will be available in two versions:
- 2 GB random access memory(LPDDR3) and 16 GB built-in
- 3 GB RAM (LPDDR3) and 32 GB internal
Reading speed internal memory(16 GB LPDDR3) – 72 Mbit/s, recording – 16 Mbit/s.
There is support microSD cards up to 128 GB.
Cameras
The main module is 13 MP with phase focusing (5 lenses, f2.2 aperture, the lens is protected by Gorilla Glass 3), and the front one is 5 MP (4 lenses, f2.0 aperture). There is a dual LED flash with warm and cool glow.
The quality of the picture during the day completely satisfies me: accurate white balance, good dynamic range, relatively sharp picture. Focusing speed is high thanks to phase detection autofocus. The accuracy is also excellent.
As for shooting at dusk or simply in low light conditions, the camera shows extremely poor results: there is a lot of noise, the image becomes blurry, and the white balance often fluctuates. However, almost all modules in the price category of devices up to 15,000 rubles behave in a similar way.
The front module is not very wide-angle. The photos are good and sharp.
The video is normal – FullHD at 30 fps during the day and 20 fps at night. The picture is average, the focus is also average. The sound is loud, clear, excellent intelligibility, good sensitivity. The selfie camera records FullHD - quite suitable for vlogs.
The usual manual settings for ISO, shutter speed, focus, and exposure remain. Otherwise, nothing new.
Sample photos
Performance and Software Platform
Meizu M3S mini uses MediaTek MT6750 chipset. Information about the chip appeared at the beginning of this year. This processor was created as a low-cost solution with LTE Cat 6, as well as VoLTE, ViLTE and VoWiFi. The chip is 8-core: one cluster consists of four Cortex-A53 cores operating at 1 GHz and is designed for simple tasks; the second cluster consists of four high-performance Cortex-A53 cores operating at 1.5 GHz, designed for demanding applications. The graphics are handled by ARM Mali-T860MP2 with support for OpenGL ES 3.1, OpenCL 1.2 and DirectX 11.1, capable of operating at frequencies up to 700 MHz. In MT6750 it operates at 650 MHz.
When the processor is loaded, the case does not heat up so much (maximum 41–42 degrees), in normal conditions (music, camera, pictures, network use) – 32–35 degrees.
The smartphone is very fast, no microlags or system slowdowns. Meizu has polished the Flyme shell well, although it doesn’t have many functions.
With toys, not everything is clear: Unkilled shows an unstable 13–22 fps, Dead Trigger 2 – a stable 30 fps, Real Racing 3 – an average of 27, but the frames “jump” from 19 to 38 fps. Something like this…
Meizu or Xiaomi smartphones can hardly be called ideal, because you can find flaws in everything. But compared to their competitors, they look advantageous both because of the better price/quality ratio and because many of the rough edges play a minimal role for their audience. Today we will look at the advantages and disadvantages of Meizu M3s, the most affordable device in the company’s line.
The editors thank the store "Socket" for the Meizu M3s smartphone provided for testing
Equipment
As always, the smartphone comes in a miniature box with modest contents: charger, cable, a couple of pieces of paper and a beautiful branded clip.
Design
Meizu updates the design of its smartphones approximately once a year. Previously released resembled both competing Xiaomi and its own Meizu Pro 5, and the budget M3s is simply a smaller version of it.
The design is familiar from every second model from any manufacturer - a back made of sheet metal, plastic inserts on top and bottom for antenna operation, 2.5D glass front panel and a proprietary mTouch key for system control.
Apart from the obvious difference in size with the 5.5-inch M3 Note, we found exactly two differences. Firstly, a chrome frame has now appeared around the glass, more typical of Xiaomi, Huawei and Samsung, secondly, pink has been added to the silver, dark gray and gold colors of the body.
Despite the secondary nature, the design makes a good impression. Meizu M3s is well assembled, the body materials are of high quality and overall it looks more expensive than it costs.
The dimensions are standard for 5-inch models; there are medium-wide frames around the screen. Fans should like the device small devices- Compared to large smartphones, they are more convenient to use.
The controls are located in a familiar and convenient manner - these are two physical keys on the right, 3.5 mm and MicroUSB connectors on the top and bottom, and a hybrid tray for two NanoSIM on the left.
There is no manufacturer's logo on the front panel; it is almost perfectly symmetrical. To the right of the speaker, an indicator of missed events is hidden under the glass.
Screen
As we have already said, the younger model differs from the Meizu M3 Note with a screen reduced to 5 inches with HD resolution. Backlight brightness IPS matrices varies from 7.7 to 397 cd/m², measured contrast is 1 to 698.
For a budget smartphone, the screen is well calibrated and has calm, natural color reproduction. By adjusting the color temperature you can adjust it to suit you.
Even though the screen has more modest characteristics, the image still remains smooth. Viewing angles are not maximum, but sufficient, as are the brightness levels. Good display, like for a budget smartphone. The only thing I didn’t like was the weak response to taps on the edges of the screen, but I hope that this is a problem exclusively with the test sample.
Platform
The company chose the new budget MediaTek 6750 chip as the M3s hardware platform - it has 8 Cortex-A53 cores operating in two clusters with frequencies of 1 and 1.5 GHz, respectively. Integrated graphics – Mali T860. The smartphone is available in two configurations, with 16 and 2 GB of memory and 32 and 3 GB. You can install a memory card instead of a second NanoSIM - you will have to think about which configuration to choose and what is more important.
The smartphone does not show any special results in benchmarks, but for its class it works quickly - there are no lags in everyday mode, and the insufficient performance of the platform becomes noticeable only when actively switching between programs or launching heavy games.
If you want to get the highest possible speed, it is better to select the “Performance” power mode in the settings.
There are also no criticisms of the rest of the functionality. Wi-Fi and GPS work as expected, and the speakers boast quite normal sound. The ringer is not of super-quality, the company's expensive models sound noticeably better, but it can't be called bad either - this is the normal level of budget devices. The situation is similar when listening to music on headphones - quite loud and clear.
A fingerprint scanner is built into the key below the screen. The accuracy of its operation is comparable to more expensive smartphones, but the response is a little slower - most likely this is due to the performance of the platform.
In addition to locking the device, it is possible to protect the launch of individual applications with a password or fingerprint.
Working hours
A smaller battery is another simplification of the model, but taking into account the diagonal of the screen, its resolution and the performance of the platform, the 3020 mAh built-in battery looks quite convincing.
Most will be able to get about two days of use out of it, and in heavy-duty use the smartphone will last a day without any problems.
Shell
As operating system is the version 5.1 familiar to all owners of Meizu Flyme OS, built on Android 5.1. It does not have an application menu or normal assistant integration Google Now, but there is a rather nice, laconic design.
A single mechanical key is used to control the system. A simple touch works as "Back", pressing returns to the home screen ("Home"), and the list running applications called by swiping from the bottom edge of the screen. This control scheme requires a little getting used to, but it happens quickly and then other smartphones become less convenient to use.
You can tell by the Chinese plug in the box that it was not tested. international version smartphone. However, the seller has already installed “global” firmware with localization and Google services(Flyme 5.1.5.0G). This means that this Meizu can be reflashed (there are instructions on the specialized forums).
At the same time, a couple of unnecessary pre-installed programs appeared out of the box, including the annoying Clean Master. They can be removed using third-party software and built-in root rights. Similar nuances of use are characteristic of many Chinese smartphones.
Cameras
The main camera of the smartphone is similar to that installed in the Meizu M3 Note - the same 13 megapixels and f/2.2 aperture. If the camera was rather weak for the older model, then it looks more appropriate in an affordable device.
With the proper skill, you can take relatively good photos with it. The main thing is to jerk your hands less and not rush, especially since autofocus is average in speed. At night, it is best to use manual mode, then there is a chance to be left with a photo, and not with something remotely resembling it. Like other Meizu's, the HDR mode is unusable and often produces blurry photos.
A serious struggle broke out between Xiaomi and Meizu, because these Chinese brands decided to conquer the market with their near-budget smartphones with characteristics that are far from budget by today’s standards. And before the Meizu company had time to update the legendary Meizu m2 phone, which many users liked for its price/quality ratio, Meizu m3 came after Meizu m3s.
Positioning and appearance
Initially, Meiza was released in two versions: Note version and compact version. The same can be seen in solutions from Xiaomi, take at least the latest models Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 and the smaller Xiaomi Redmi 3. As for Meizu m3s– this is practically the same Meizu m3, but in an aluminum case. Apparently, the company decided to follow the path of Xiaomi and produce not only Note in metal. By the way, the smartphone practically adopted all its features from him: a stylish candy bar with rounded iPhone-like edges. At the back you can see a metal back and two plastic linings: top and bottom.
Unlike competitors from Xiaomi phone stands out with its protective 2.5D glass with oleophobic coating. Perhaps, just for this reason it’s worth replacing the M2 mini with a new metal one. It is also worth buying due to the fact that home button a fingerprint scanner has appeared; previously it was only available in expensive models.
Technical Specifications
Now it’s worth dwelling on the characteristics and the first thing worth mentioning is the high-quality five-inch display. The manufacturer left HD resolution, which should have a positive effect on battery life, especially since the device uses a 3020 mAh battery. The performance is ensured by a platform built on the Mediatek MT6750 processor. The graphics part runs on the Mali-T860MP2 chip. If we talk about memory, there are two versions available: with 16GB/2GB, as well as with 32GB/3GB of storage and RAM, respectively.
There is also an expansion slot that supports microSD cards with a capacity of up to 256 gigabytes. As for photographic capabilities, the camera shoots at approximately the same level as in previous models, because the smartphone uses a thirteen-megapixel sensor with a 2.2 aperture. It is difficult to predict whether the new m3s will repeat the success of the best-selling m2 mini on the domestic market, but one way or another the smartphone deserves attention.
