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  • blackmagnum - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    Have you checked that it was not programmed with a backdoor that could access your personal information? Right? Just checking.
  • WorldWithoutMadness - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    Well, you can't really know. What if they installed it from the hardware to software?
    If you don't trust these technologies then just buy your own country phone. Even if they do access your personal information, you can blame your country for it
  • Murloc - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    most of the stuff in any phone is made in China so...
  • StevoLincolnite - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    They can spy on me.
    I only look at cat video's anyway.
  • bigstrudel - Friday, February 20, 2015 - link

    You're a happy slave. Keep paying your taxes buddy. And invest in the stock market.
  • theduckofdeath - Tuesday, February 17, 2015 - link

    The SoC is made in Korea. Apart from that, I think Apple trolls on this site are just about as pathetic as trolls on the internet can get. Virtually all smartphones in the world are assembled in China, except for a few high end Samsung devices and maybe an LG or two. That includes brands like Microsoft and Apple.
  • twoD - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    Agree.

    While you at it, also check Apple and Google. They've known to be sharing personal info with the NSA.

    Just saying.
  • melgross - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    Don't make things up please.
  • bigstrudel - Friday, February 20, 2015 - link

    Its not made up. Do some homework. All the info you need to draw your own conclusion is on the internet.

    Or you could keep getting all of your info spoon fed to you by corporate media who basically just want you to buy stuff and watch commercials.
  • deadlockedworld - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    Apple and Google have been pretty good about fighting for public transparency in their national security cooperation. Both are taking heat from the government for encrypting consumer devices and data. Its Verizon and ATT that are fully onboard with giving everything to the NSA.
  • bigstrudel - Friday, February 20, 2015 - link

    Google has cooperated with the NSA since day 1.

    Google Maps for instance was purchased from the US Govt intelligence community. Android is "secured" with SELinux, provided by the intelligence community.

    Its all out there on the internet.
  • Wall-Swe - Wednesday, February 18, 2015 - link

    US gov creates spyware that invades the firmware of HDDs
    http://www.neowin.net/news/us-gov-creates-spyware-...
  • nevertell - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    Anything with a SIM card has a backdoor because the spec for implementing SIM cards into devices requires the vendor to provide an API to the simcard with root privileges. The SIM card actually runs it's own code, it has it's own memory, and it's completely opaque. If you want to feel safe about your privacy, don't put sensitive data on your phone, or just don't use one.
  • ScorpionRaY - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    Every phone has a backdoor. The only important question is, do you really have valuable information worth NSA looking at?
  • Valis - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    Not my K750i that I still use. =) Awesome device.
  • web2dot0 - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    Come on, don't use your juvenile logic. Information which may seem unless to you can become very useful for the NSA to finding out your behavioural pattern, shopping patterns, who your friends are, what you say to your friends, places where you'll most likely be in the future.

    The information on its own is very useless, but if you map it out, it become very useful and highly private information.
  • ZhenWan - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    Well, it's better having a backdoor in Chinese made programs than backdoors in US made programs, I rather prefer to have a company exploiting my interests than a Government-funded organisation specifically made to tap into everything I do, "For the safety of "National" Security". *Cough* NSA, *Cough* CIA, *Cough* GCHQ....
  • theduckofdeath - Tuesday, February 17, 2015 - link

    To be really cynical. The Chinese aren't breaking any laws spying on Americans, while Americans bends over and lets their government feck them in the arse every day, breaking any law they see fit.

    Hypocrite Americans......
  • sonny73n - Tuesday, February 17, 2015 - link

    So true.
  • Wall-Swe - Wednesday, February 18, 2015 - link

    Did you miss the news yesterday, that basically every hard drive sold in recent years have exploits built in to the firmware that is impossible to remove, curtesy of the NSA in the US .
    So don't point your finger at China, when the US are the bad guys.
  • olafgarten - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    This looks like an iSamsung.
  • jameskatt - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    This is why Samsung is in deep trouble. Bottom feeders like Meizu can simply copy Samsung's designs and sell more phones, killing Samsung's own opportunity to sell phones.
  • sonny73n - Tuesday, February 17, 2015 - link

    Copy Samesung designs? Lol. Don't you even know all smartphones are rectangle with touchscreen and volume buttons? The only theft I know stealing designs from Apple is Samsung. Funny that they had pictures of the iPhone designs side by side with theirs with arrows and marks and notes showing how to. Then the whole thing leaked out and Samesung got their arses sued off. I couldn't stop laughing when I saw those pictures. Google it.

    Samesung design is ugly. They keep releasing the same old ugly thing over and over, protruding camera and speaker on the back, only in different sizes. Lol. Then they call it new and slap a premium price on it. Low specs and high price on the same ugly thing lol.

    Oh! Didn't you know they cheated in benchmarks? Lol. So lame. I can't wait for those cheating crooks hit the dumps.
  • TT Masterzz - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    Nice to see AT reviewing devices primarily sold in Asia. On a side note why don't you guys review Xiaomi devices. Xiaomi is much bigger than Meizu. They are the largest in China and some of their smartphones are amongst the top 10 most sold smartphones in the world. Would love to see a review of Mi Note Pro for example.
  • Pissedoffyouth - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    I'd like them to do even less known ones, like ThL phones or similar.
  • jjj - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    It is the second cheapest 1440p (or about that in this case) phone on the market at China prices (2499CNY/400$) after the Iuni U3 but maybe the MX 4 is more interesting since it's 20% cheaper and the most interesting Meizu is the m1 Note since it's one of the first to define the new 2015 midrange (5.5 inch 108p, 8xA53 , 2GB RAM at 160$).
    As for the lack of microSD, they have an Apple fetish they have a hard time doing better so the Meizu m1 is their first device with one, all previous models don't have it.
    But Meizu is a name to watch this year, by my estimates they sold 6.5-7.5 million units last year but they changed strategy and instead of one device per year now they are playing in a bunch of price bands. So they'll have fantastic growth this year ,they'll easily hit 20 million units but in an ideal scenario they could even get close to 40 million units. They are trying to catch Xiaomi (Xiaomi went from 1 model to a few earlier) and they might get there in 2-3 years.
    Hard to say if they have the intelligence, creativity, instinct to do more and actually make a difference but we shall see.
    Oh and ofc hopefully they'll get the Exynos 7420 or better in their next flagship since Meizu always goes Samsung (the only significant external win for Exynos so far) so their next flagship could be one of the few devices faster than most other flagships that are by default SD810 based.
  • jjj - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    Also too bad you can't test LTE, was curious how Marvell does, they usually do a got job in everything (HDD controller, SSD controller, networking) but in mobile they had some tough years with the Blackberry decline.
  • Andrei Frumusanu - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    Like I said it does pretty well in subjective testing. I just need to get more Qualcomm devices and I'll do a proper comparison of all of them in the future.
  • jjj - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    Maybe AT could do a dedicated article on LTE with Qualcomm , Marvell , Mediatek , Intel ,Hisilicon. Icera.
  • Gemuk - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    Sad indeed that 8xA53 is considered midrange nowadays. Agree though that the m1 Note should do well, at least until Xiaomi releases the Redmi Note 2 (if there is one)
  • jjj - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    I have doubts that Xiaomi still aims to make great value products and the likely Redmi Note 2 might be 720p and SSD615 but we shall see. Xiaomi or not there are a few similar devices already anyway, some even cheaper ,the only big name for matching the m1 Note now being TCL.
    As for A53, it is a small core , from a cost perspective it's normal to be well priced. Perf wise it is nice, for us consumers.
  • getbacktosrinu - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    How come Anandtech is reviewing a Meizu, and is not reviewing phones from Sony, a much bigger brand and one of the bigger players in the international smartphone market?

    Why not look at the Xperia Z3 and the Z3 Compact and dig in to find out how Sony is extracting "2 - day battery life" purportedly?
  • jjj - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    To be fair Sony is barely in top 10 smartphone makers - Samsung, Apple, Huawei, Lenovo, LG, Xiaomi , Coolpad , BBK (OPPO and Vivo are ahead of them and Sony fights with ZTE and TCL for the last 2 spots in top 10 - and they might sell the phone division by this time next year. Plus those devices are not exactly fresh. Meizu could be one of the next tech giants and they would likely overtake Sony in units in 2016 if not this year.At least this device is a bit different than the standard 1080p, SD80x and so on.that gets rather boring and offers little surprises.
  • TT Masterzz - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    Shouldn't Lenovo be the third largest after they acquired Motorola and also I believe Xiaomi is fifth and LG is sixth. Although I am not sure about that
  • TT Masterzz - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    Also if we go by your logic of units shipped then I believe there should be no reason for AT to review One Plus One right ?.
  • jjj - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    Well you kinda overextend what i was saying but there is no logic for AT to not review devices from major phone makers that it currently ignores. OPO in the end shipped little so yeah there isn't all that much of a reason to review it. However it did ship to lots of enthusiasts and AT was about PC enthusiasts not mainstream so from that perspective it makes more sense to review the OPO than S6 or the iphone.
    As for phone makers rankings, i wasn't trying to list them in Q4 order or 2014 order. Lenovo has bought Moto but they had only 2 months of Moto sales in 2014 and they are not growing all that fast. Huawei shipped some 75 million units in 2014 so they were 3rd for sure and at this point the most likely to be third in 2015 as they expand the Honor line to more markets.
    Anyway, in 2015 Huawei , Lenovo and Xiaomi are likely to fight for the 3rd spot with Lenovo the least likely to get it and LG could drop a few spots but that depends on their strategy .Some China guys might get in trouble this year too , HTC and Sony might have to sell so maybe we see some mergers and the rankings change a bit.
  • TT Masterzz - Wednesday, February 18, 2015 - link

    I agree on the latter part of your comment. The Chinese market seems to be approaching saturation and inevitably this would mean the death of certain small scale Chinese manufacturers who had till now been surviving on the enormous growth rate China had. Although I beg to differ that smartphones like S6 and iPhone 6/6+ are not used by enthusiasts. Even Sony smartphones are used by enthusiasts in my opinion. Plus if AT were to only review gadgets that appeal to tech savvy users then why ignore Xiaomi products. Xiaomi's "almost" zero marketing and online flash sales pretty much guarantees that only tech enthusiasts use their smartphones. Xiaomi's volume also is much higher than One Plus. I guess the best way to put it is that AT reviews devices at their whims and fancies. Cheers :)
  • Gemuk - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    AT have always parroted the "we only review stuff that the manufacturer sends us" line which I just find lazy. What's so hard in actually buying the stuff, and then sell it after they're done? Heck they can even use their own forums to do so. Surely the increased revenue would be more than enough to cover the $50-100 expense?
  • TT Masterzz - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    They don't need to do that also. For example for the Galaxy Note 4 review the device was provided by 28mobiles.com I believe. Why can't they borrow a Sony or Xiaomi unit from 28mobiles.com and drop by a sponsored line for them. I am sure 28mobiles.com would consider providing a device if they can get a name on a website like AT.
  • piroroadkill - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    Yeah, it's very, very odd. Z3 Compact is STILL the best phone on the market, in my opinion.
  • DanNeely - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    Sony has refused to provide laptop review samples to Anandtech for as long as I've been reading it; I assume the same thing is true for smartphone review samples...
  • grant3 - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    Why do you think?? Sony isn't paying them off to write a featured softball review.

    The z3 compact looks awesome. I wish there was a verizon model.
  • Speedfriend - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    That permissions editor would be a godsend for my Android phone. More impressed with the OS than with the hardware, though it is starting to look much harder to justify paying close to $1000 for an iPhone.
  • phoenix_rizzen - Wednesday, February 18, 2015 - link

    Install a custom Android ROM. Just about every one out there includes Privacy Guard which lets you manipulate which permissions are enabled on an installed app, which permission return anonymous data, etc.
  • TT Masterzz - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    Shouldn't Lenovo be the third largest after they acquired Motorola and also I believe Xiaomi is fifth and LG is sixth. Although I am not sure about that.
  • Gemuk - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    For me Andrei Frumusanu has been the best thing that happened to AnandTech since they started this mobile gig. More like these, please.
  • mpokwsths - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    @Andrei: Which Androbench version did you use?
    If you used the newest one, you should reconsider.
    Even Notebookcheck found out (without knowing it) that the latest Androbench produces extremely improved results, incomparable with the ones from previous versions:
    http://www.notebookcheck.net/Samsung-Galaxy-Note-E...
  • Andrei Frumusanu - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    The numbers are still from the old version.
  • velanapontinha - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    I know this is as good as trolling, but I'd like to have a proper review of Mediatek's 6595 SoC, which is feature in the "regular" Meizu X4. If Anandtech was to say MTK6595 is good, then I would believe it. Any chance, guys?
  • Andrei Frumusanu - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    I will be receiving a sample in the near future and will do a thorough dive in that unit, but don't expect anything till after MWC and the storm will have calmed down.
  • velanapontinha - Tuesday, May 26, 2015 - link

    Hi, Andrew.

    Any ETA on the review of the "regular" MX4? MWC is long over.
    AnandTech still doesn't have one single review to a Mediatek based device. Mediatek is no longer a Cyrix kind of thing, you guys should give it the spotlight it is starting to deserve.
  • pjcamp - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    I'm baffled at how you guys can find time to review these obscure Chinese knock-off phones, but apparently can't manage to review a Sony.
  • techcrazy - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    It's Sony's fault. Andrei asked for a review unit but it looks like they didn't provide any review unit.
    http://www.anandtech.com/show/8655/the-huawei-asce... . Look at the comment section.
  • sonny73n - Wednesday, February 18, 2015 - link

    Sony would never dare to let an unbiased tech site like AT to review their devices. Sony devices may look nice but if you take in depth approach into them, you'll surely be disappointed. Take a few flagships Sony has released just a couple of years back for examples - the ZR, ZL and Z1, all were made with TFT panels. And the recent Z3C isn't so good either - with so many reports of self-cracked front and back glass. Need I say more?
  • notposting - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    Regarding the plastic insets on the metal band -- aren't those generally used to separate discrete external antenna bands (like the iPhone 4 and so on)?
  • xaueious - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    The review is not really useful without reviewing the Marvell baseband
  • Submano - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    Great review as the one with the Note 4 Exynos! On a side note, are you Andrei Lux from XDA? Cheers
  • cjs150 - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    I think I can answer the question why phone makers omit the microSD (and tablet makers).

    It is so they can rip the customer off by massively overcharging for additional memory. A 64Gb MicroSD card costs c. £25 whereas upgrading Nexus 6 from 32Gb to 64Gb costs £90 (Iphone 6 16G to 64G is an extra £80), tablets are the same.
  • PC Perv - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    I really appreciate the power consumption section. I totally agree with you that we need some legitimate methodology for batter performance under mobile data (esp. LTE) Literally everyone experiences different battery performance using same devices because of different signal quality.

    I think it would be very helpful if you explain in a separate article as to when/how/why battery drains using mobile data? Are their differences between carriers? Or is it spectrum-bound? How much signal strength matter? Etc.

    I also appreciate that you went a length to experiment with the power saving modes. A lot of people seem to use power saving mode without knowing what it does, hoping their devices last longer. Not only you gave us explanation on this phone's implementation but you also measured the efficiency of it - It is something I want to know in many phone reviews but reviews never explored it. I cannot thank you enough.

    Keep up the good work!
  • croc - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    Lesseeee... Known taps into every comms link going through the USA, and you are wondering if a China-made device has a backdoor? You have a strange set of priorities, my friend...
  • aryonoco - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    As much as I appreciate your in-depth analysis of SoC, power usage and displays Andrei, your taste in UI really baffles me.

    That is the most hideous, disjointed, inexplicably redundant UI I have ever seen on an Android device, and you seem to like it. I'm simply astounded that you like this everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach that many Chinese OEMs employ in regards to their ROMs. Brian and Anand knew that every additional UI feature comes with a cost, and it's a matter of finding the sweet spot. This point seems to be totally lost on you.

    As an occasional Android developer, I would hate to think what Play Store reviews would look like if phones like this, with their ability to revoke permissions from apps and for users to break apps without realising that they have done so, would look like. Thankfully, no OEM which actually provides customer care support is going to implement this in a Western country, as the support cost is going to be enormous.

    I really don't mean to sound disrespectful, but I'd love for Andrei to limit himself to hardware discussion in future Android devices (in which he is extremely skilled), and leave the UX review for someone with a bit more, shall I say, taste
  • Andrei Frumusanu - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link

    I'm reviewing for the user, not for the OEM. In my opinion Android suffers a lot from Adware and misbehaving apps that such permission managers are a pure benefit to the user as already commented by some others here.

    I have experience in software UI design and user interaction, so while you might disagree with me I see plenty of other people who find Meizu's new UI equally attractive.
  • overseer - Monday, February 23, 2015 - link

    To me Flyme OS has a homescreen with icons ugly as Quasimodo's face and so 2010, but the rest of interfaces (settings, notifications, etc) look strangely okay and taste somewhat close to Lollipop. This is a huge disparity in design practices and keeps me wondering if Meizu's UI designers hold a paranoiac love over that homescreen or they kind of hit a temporary ceilling in their professional competency. I would've taken the plunge for MX4 months ago had I not seen their everlasting homescreen. *_*
  • samflorin - Tuesday, February 17, 2015 - link

    @aryonoco cm11S for One+ called, would like a word on the built in permission manager.
  • ffsmaster - Tuesday, February 17, 2015 - link

    It is a pity that this review does not include the audio system: ES9018K2M+OPA1612.
  • Andrei Frumusanu - Tuesday, February 17, 2015 - link

    I just didn't have anything to write about it. It sounds good? Without proper equipment as in the iPhone 6 review audio testing has become futile.
  • vanguardkl - Wednesday, September 28, 2016 - link

    This. I'm coming back here in Sept 2016 just to say this. This phone is 1.5 years old - has a 2k screen. HD HiFi audio DAC - most people have to spend $100 just to buy this separately - among the best specs seen on any phone - and costs $150 now. I'm buying one as soon as I can - there's nothing that comes close to this value. This phone is a diamond in the rough, and once people know about its gonna be snapped up.. Hopefully this comment stays in the dirt. I have a Meizu M1 Note which I got for $125 and its next to perfect with 1080p screen and all. They provide MONTHLY updates to the OS and improvements all the time. Amazing I'm so happy with Meizu and hopefully they remain buried under the news headlines and I can pick up these phones for cheap.
  • loimlo - Thursday, February 19, 2015 - link

    Nice job! Well-written review!! How about other Chinese vendors like Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo ?
    I've been using Redmi for a year and am very fond of it. Solid HW/SW given its humble pricing.
  • Hrushi - Thursday, August 6, 2015 - link

    It is surprising to see that anandtech have missed on detailed audio quality analysis even when device have boasted this feature.
  • inguru - Thursday, July 21, 2016 - link

    Brother if you are really considering this to buy please be sure. Coz if something happens you cant fix this one. They have this digital security locked to its mainboard which you will not able to overwrite. No flashtool no ADB no fastboot what ever you try it will never be fixed & they are very dictating by saying send the phone to them but at the time you will b out of warranty and no place you will be able to go to bring it back. Its a dictatorship company. Be aware... you will never want to be in this situation

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