Meizu M3 Note, analysis and opinion

The mobile phone market has been flooded with Chinese manufacturers offering top quality solutions. That time when a Chinese smartphone was synonymous with problems has been left behind thanks to the good work of some brands. And a clear example is Meizu.

When I had the opportunity to analyze the Meizu Pro 6, it was very clear to me that this manufacturer wants to offer good quality and a better guarantee in Spain. Now I have had the opportunity to try another of their solutions and I can tell you that my feelings after the video analysis I have made of the Meizu M3 Note They couldn't have been more positive.  

Meizu has managed to become a benchmark in the market thanks to the quality of its solutions

Over the years we have seen the growth of the M range, a line of terminals below the acclaimed MX, but that each renewal surprises by raising a notch in terms of quality. And this M3 Note, the older brother of the M3, is a new example of this.

Meizu is doing an excellent job and if it continues on the same path, it will soon become a benchmark in our country. Let the big ones like Samsung or LG tremble because the irruption of brands like Huawei, ZTE or Meizu will change, if they have not done so yet, the telephony market.

Design and build: a premium, robust and beautiful phone

Meizu returns to bet on him 6.000 series aluminum to create a unibody body on the M3 Note that it has two different finishes on the back: polished on the upper and lower edges and textured on the flatter surface, offering a very pleasant touch and above all, preventing the terminal from slipping from your hands despite the material used for its construction. .

The phone is a large terminal, with measures 153,6 x 75,5 x 8,2 mm and weighing in at 163 grams it is clear that its 5.5-inch screen makes it a difficult phone to use with one hand.

Anyway the curved edges make it quite comfortable to hold, despite not being as compact as other terminals with the same screen diagonal. And another detail is that the terminal is slightly thicker than normal, logical if we consider its impressive 4.100 mAh battery that offers unprecedented autonomy.

In the front we find his 5.5-inch screen that occupies 73%. The frames are well used, although they are still one step behind other terminals, it must be remembered that the phone around 200 - 230 euros depending on the model, so we cannot expect a phone with a perfect design.

At the bottom is the Home button that has fingerprint reader function. Personally, I like it better that it is located at the back, under the camera, but there are people who prefer the button on the front to be able to unlock the phone when it is resting on the table. About tastes, colors.

Buttons volume control and terminal on / off They are located on the left side of the Meizu M3 Note. All offer good travel and more than correct pressure, as well as a metal construction that gives a great feeling of durability.

On the left side of the phone we find the nano SIM card slot and another slot to insert a micro SD card and expand the memory of the terminal. While in the lower part we find the micro USB port and the speaker output, the upper part is reserved for the 3.5 mm audio output. Finally we have a rear panel where the main camera of the phone is located, with a dual-tone LED flash, in addition to the brand logo.

Ultimately, a phone with very premium finishes and that feels really good in the hand. Considering its price, the work done by the manufacturer in this regard is excellent, giving the feeling that the Meizu M3 Note is a high-end with that body made of aluminum.

Technical characteristics: Meizu M3 Note complies with note

How does the Helio P10 processor behave together with 2 GB of RAM? The unit that Meizu sent us for this analysis had this hardware and I have to say that I have no complaints. The terminal works fluently and multitasking emerges without any problem, without noticing any lag during use.

As you may have seen, I have been testing games that require a large graphical load and the Meizu M3 Note has moved them without difficulty, allowing you to make the most of its 5.5-inch screen, so if you are looking for a powerful phone without having to leave you too much money, the Meizu M3 Note is a very interesting option.

Yes, you I recommend going for the version with 32 GB of internal memory and 3 GB of RAM, they are 40 euros of difference, but you will appreciate it since personally the 16 GB of my test unit seems something fair, no matter how much micro SD card I can put.

A free bloatware software

The Meizu M3 Note comes with Android 5.1, a detail that I did not like, although luckily its custom Flyme interface is the best I have seen. The phone comes totally clean, it only comes with a tool kit that integrates a compass, magnifying glass and little else. Everything else we will have to install ourselves. Thanks for not adding junk apps.

One of the Few apps that come pre-installed give the M3 Note a high level of security. And it is that the Security application offers a performance improvement allowing a certain optimization and cleaning of cache and other residual files without having to install other programs.

This is where your fingerprint reader, a biometric sensor that requires a very precise configuration to work properly. I, who am used to doing it quickly without worrying too much, had some problems getting my fingerprint to be recognized, but after erasing it and starting the process following the steps and doing things right, the truth is that I noticed a noticeable improvement.

One section that I want to highlight is that The Meizu interface closes some applications that are in the background. If you buy this phone, take a good look at the security section since it is very likely that WhatsApp will close and you will not receive notifications. Rest assured that it is very easy to solve this problem, there are hundreds of forums on the internet where they explain where to touch in the phone's settings to solve the closing of applications in the background.

Another detail that I want to highlight is that the Meizu M3 Note uses a slightly different system to move through the interface. For example, we will gently press the Home button to pull back once, a more continuous pressure to go directly to the main screen, or we will slide our finger along the bottom of the terminal to open multitasking. A system that, once you get used to it, is really practical and comfortable.

A screen that complies, but without differentiating

The M3 Note has a screen made up of a 5.5 inch IPS panel which achieves a resolution of 1080 x 190 pixels and 403 dpi. The screen has a good degree of detail and offers sharp colors, thanks to an acceptable screen temperature, although the brightness setting is not very good.

On some occasions I have noticed that the terminal takes time to adjust the brightness automatically, especially on very sunny days, so I have had to go to the settings and increase the brightness manually.

Their 450 nits They meet more than enough, although they are slightly below other phones, but being a mid-range, the work in this section is more than enough. Note that the viewing angles are more than correct, inviting us to enjoy multimedia content on its 5.5-inch diagonal.

A speaker without much fanfare

The vast majority of phones have the speaker on the base, causing us to plug the audio output when we are playing games, and unfortunately the Meizu M3 Note has followed the line of the vast majority of terminals.

A problem with difficult solution, unless you put the speakers in the front part increasing the size of the terminal. To say that audio quality is quite poor in general, somewhat reducing the experience when viewing multimedia content. The best thing is that you use headphones to enjoy music, videos or games on this terminal.

Autonomy: with the Meizu M3 Note you will not need an external battery

Another of the highlights of this phone is its impressive 4.100 mAh battery which offers really good autonomy making the Meizu M3 Note score a few points.

With an average activity, using Spotify for an hour a day, surfing the internet, answering emails and using instant messaging services the battery lasted me an average of 25 hours.

This translates into a fairly good autonomy that guarantees that you get home with a minimum of 30% battery. Even sometimes I have used the terminal for two days without having to charge it, a detail to take into account.

It is clear that The work done by Meizu to optimize the battery of the M3 Note to the maximum has been excellent, allowing us to leave the external battery at home since we will not need it at all.

Camera

The Meizu M3 Note has a 5 megapixel front camera with f / 2.0, while its rear camera is made up of a 13 megapixel sensor with f / 2.2 aperture.  Its behavior is quite good, making high-quality captures, with vivid and natural colors, especially in well-lit environments.

If we want to take photos in environments with medium light or poorly lit, noise appears and, although the dual tone LED flash it helps a lot, the quality is inferior. Of course, the camera software, which allows you to adjust the vast majority of parameters in manual mode, allows us to significantly improve the captures we take.

In this case we find a camera that takes very good photos in automatic mode as long as we have good light conditions but that almost forces us to learn the secrets of manual mode to be able to make the most of the possibilities of the Meizu M3 Note's camera in low light situations.

I recommend that you spend a while tinkering with parameters such as ISO or shutter speed to be able to take advantage of the full potential of the Meizu M3 Note's camera. Finally I am going to leave you with a series of photographs taken with the phone, all of them in automatic mode, so that you can see the possibilities offered by the camera of this terminal.

Photographs taken with the Meizu M3 Note camera

Final conclusions

Standing out in the mid-range is an increasingly difficult challenge and Meizu achieves it thanks to its m3 Note, a terminal with good finishes, fingerprint reader and a very reasonable price.

You will find few phones that have a 5.5-inch screen and that you can buy in any physical store or through the manufacturer's website having guarantee in Spain.

Meizu's bet provides some very interesting incentives that make this phone one of the best solutions if you are looking for a powerful phablet, with great autonomy and without having to spend too much money.

For finding buts, I am missing a fast charging system, which would already be ideal if we take into account its impressive autonomy, or the poor quality of its speaker, but I have to say that this Meizu M3 Note is an excellent phone with a quality design thanks to its unibody body made of aluminum and that it does not it will disappoint you.

Editor's opinion