• Overview of the top smartphone Meizu Pro 5

    Meizu has long been known and respected among gadget lovers. But it is not yet well known, despite the most interesting assortment and competitive prices of smartphones.

    In recent years, the company has been reporting a 4-5-fold increase in sales annually, and one should think that in 2016 Meizu should occupy a significant part of the market and establish itself as a serious manufacturer among the mass consumer.

    Last week we finished testing the top-end smartphone Meizu Pro 5. We are talking about it.

    Characteristics:

    • Screen: diagonal - 5.7 inches, resolution -1080 x 1920 (386ppi), matrix type - SuperAMOLED;
    • Camera: rear -21MP, front -5MP;
    • Processor: Exynos 7420 4x1.5GHz + 4x2.1GHz, Mali-T760MP8 graphics;
    • Memory: Storage: 32/64GB, RAM: 2/4GB;
    • Operating system: Android1;
    • Dimensions: 156.7 x 78 x 7.5 mm;
    • Housing material: aluminum, plastic;
    • Weight: 168g;
    • Battery: Lithium-Ion, capacity 3050mAh

    Design and materials

    Let's get clean. It's no secret that the company imitated Apple smartphones from the very beginning. And what, I would say that the first models of imitation was quite unsophisticated. To this day, Meizu produces smartphones in the style of the iPhone, copies elements of iOS, copies solutions from other manufacturers, but at the same time it is becoming more and more its own face. Yes, in general, companies that produce phones that are not in the style of the iPhone can now be counted on the fingers. Even fairly large players like Samsung or HTC in recent generations abandoned the developments of previous years and released “iPhone-like” handsets. For buyers, this is rather good.

    The Pro 5 is similar in appearance and dimensions to the iPhone 6 Plus. The front panel is glass - Gorilla Glass 3, the glass is slightly rounded around the edges. Side bezels are minimal. The button on the front panel has an oval shape. The mTouch fingerprint sensor hidden in it works just as well as on the iPhone, but the shape itself is not very convenient. Still, the circle in this regard is tactilely more pleasant. The button has three functions at the same time, it is a fingerprint sensor, directly pressing the button will return you to the home page, and touching it is equivalent to the “back” function. The latter solution is extremely convenient and you get used to it almost instantly.

    There is a chamfer on the aluminum part of the front panel, which allows the phone to lie more securely. Given the rich history of broken screens on the iPhone 6, I think this solution is not superfluous.

    The back cover is aluminum, with roundings turning into edges. There are two shallow chamfers on the case, plastic covers behind them. This is quite hard to believe because the structure, color and feel of the body feels metallic. In principle, you can forget about this information and consider the case to be all-aluminum. The camera's pupil protrudes a little beyond the boundaries of the case, which is normal for a device 7.5 mm thick.

    The SIM and MicroSD slot is located on the right. The manufacturer offers us to make a choice either to use one SIM card and MicroSD with additional memory, or to use two SIM cards. The choice is not very pleasant. But there is a way out, craftsmen, inspired by a similar solution from Huawei Mate, came up with a way to glue the SIM card chip onto the back surface of the MicroSD. The method has been tested and works. Although the top device could have two slots.

    On the right side is the power button and volume rocker. Bottom edge, speaker mesh, USB Type C slot and headphone jack. Everything is standard.

    The dimensions of the device are slightly larger than smartphones for the mass market. It is conditionally possible to consider the most massive devices with a diagonal of 4.7-5 inches. The 5.7-inch Meizu Pro 5 is still pretty big. People who choose iPgone 6s Plus or Galaxy Note are closest to the target group of this device. The appearance of, say, Pro 5 Mini would be quite logical.

    Display

    Pro 5 works with a 5.5-inch SuperAMOLED matrix manufactured by Samsung. Resolution Full HD 1080x1920. Those. in terms of an inch, the density is 387ppi.

    We keep coming back to the situation with overestimated pixel density, which the human eye simply cannot catch, and even wrote on this topic - here is the link. In short, the human eye is able to distinguish a single pixel at a density of approximately 250-300ppi. Those. there is simply no point in QuadHD resolution on a 5-inch display - a person will not see it. It's just that marketers need to somehow sell new smartphones.

    Returning to the sample installed in the Pro 5, we can say that it is not inferior to the samples installed in the top devices from other manufacturers, iPhone 6S, Galaxy S6, Sony Z5, etc. Brightness, viewing angles, color reproduction - all at the highest level. There is no choice of color profiles in the menu, similar to what Samsung does for its AMOLED matrices. Nevertheless, the display is initially configured so that you most likely will not want to change the profile.

    Performance

    One of the strongest points of the Pro 5. The smartphone runs on the top-end Samsung Exynos 7420 chip. A similar processor is installed in the Galaxy S6. But in defiance of Samsung, the top Meizu does not have a display with such a high resolution, i.e. most of the processor resources are free for user tasks. Therefore, in the tests, AnTuTu Pro 5 shows at least 82,000, while the Galaxy S6 knocks out only 60,000.

    For those who do not play benchmarks, I can say that the performance of the Pro 5 is enough to keep the device up to date for 2-3 years. I have no doubt that any application from Google Play will go great and such confidence will remain with you for many years.

    Camera

    Meizu has a sensor manufactured by Sony - IMX230, the maximum number of pixels is 21.16 megapixels. Optics consists of 6 elements. A similar sensor has proven itself in the Sony Xperia Z4, Huawei Honor 7.

    In addition to what we know about the IMX230, there is not much to add, the phase autofocus works accurately and quickly, the quality of detail and color reproduction does not raise any questions.

    In general, just like other flagships, when buying a Pro 5, you don’t have to worry about the photo path - everything is fine.

    Literally before the Pro 5, we tested the budget device M2 Mini, also manufactured by Meizu. The Flyme OS shell installed in M2 had an index of 4.5.4, while in Pro 5 it already has 5.1.2. In terms of the camera interface, we didn’t like the changes, now to change the camera modes you need to press a separate button (as is usually done on Android), and on the M2 Mini you could change the swipe modes left or right (as on iOS).

    The front camera works with a 5MP forehead sensor, more than enough for selfies

    Working hours

    I am sure it is not a secret for you that the main consumer of energy in smartphones is the display. The higher its parameters, the more energy it consumes, respectively, on top-end devices, a capacious battery mainly serves the needs of a cool display. The display of the Pro 5 is more than decent, but the engineers didn't go along with the marketers and installed a display with a standard FullHD display. Thus, a battery with a capacity of 3050 mAh ideally lasts 36 hours, i.e. I was able to whine the Pro 5 through the night. And this despite the fact that the device practically did not turn off. There wasn't much time for testing. Excellent result even among top devices.

    Moreover, the device supports fast charging, in half an hour you can charge the device by 65%. Charging is monitored by a separate chip

    Soft

    As well as the appearance of Meizu Pro 5 resembles the iPhone, so the Flyme shell is not a little similar to iOS. Icons, gestures, settings menus - everywhere you can feel the spirit of Apple.

    The lion's share of our colleagues received a device with Flyme 4.5.4 for testing, but literally the first time the device was turned on, it was updated to 5.1.2. Of the obvious outward changes, the settings menu is now even more similar to that of iOS, and the camera software, which we liked less than the old version. The rest of Flyme OS is also great. Here are the main skins:

    Recently, manufacturers have paid very little attention to the audio subsystems of their smartphones. No, it’s not that there are any problems here, the capabilities of modern processors are truly enormous, but at least two more elements are usually involved in the output of a high-quality audio signal, this is a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) and an amplifier. Just these elements are the highlight of the Pro 5.

    The ESS Technology ES9018K2M DAC and Texas Instruments OPA1612 amplifier are responsible for the conversion. In order to finally establish itself in the quality of the sound, the headphones with planar magnetic drivers OPPO PM-3 were handed over for the test.

    Flac files were used as samples - Michel Camilo & Tomatito, Keiko Matsui, Scott Hamilton & Karin Krog and Metallica for a snack. Despite the absence of any significant audiophile inclinations, I easily distinguished a bunch of new instruments and parts in complex compositions, and was simply glad of the smooth sound. I'm sure if I were an audiophile this section would be much longer.

    Safety

    The presence of a fingerprint scanner greatly simplifies the life of users. The device responds instantly, you can set a lot of prints. Otherwise, all the usual features of Android, do not forget to activate the Android Device Manager.

    General impression

    This time, the accusations that we have listed only the advantages of the device will be groundless. We have nothing to reproach Meizu. Can you wish for more? Perhaps yes. The camera could have optical stabilization, the Micro SD and SIM card slots could be separated, the dimensions of the device could be reduced to 4.7-5 inches - this is perhaps the recipe for an ideal smartphone. Now we can state that Meizu is one of the fastest smartphones on the market, plus it is one of the longest-playing smartphones. In practical terms, the most important parameters.

    Smartphone manufacturers are trying to add some zest to their devices, Apple's Retina Display, Sony Z's IP67, leather and wooden cases - all this has sunk into oblivion and surprises the user little. Meizu has relied on a Hi-Fi level audio path. Will play or not look in the near future.

    In what Meizu gives in to the current market leaders. Only in name. The Meizu brand is not yet so well known in our market, but I hope that with our help, the company's devices will become more recognizable.

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