'Meizu m2' Note review: Good camera, long battery life

In a bid to cater to consumers seeking a smartphone with high-end features at a reasonable price, Meizu - one of the top 10 smartphone and consumer electronics manufacturers in China - has unveiled its "Meizu m2 Note" smartphone in India. Priced at Rs.9,999 - a price field where most of the old and new entrants are now fighting to grab a bigger pie - "Meizu m2" offers a bulk of features with high-end specifications that other smartphones in the similar price bracket lack.

The phone comes with two variants - 16 GB and 32 GB - of internal storage packs that can be expanded up to 128 GB via a microSD memory card. Weighing a mere 149 grams, unlike other Note models, "m2 Note" has shorter width and higher height.

The Note comes with a 5.50-inch touchsceen display with a resolution of 1080 pixels by 1920 pixels at 403 pixel per inch (PPI) density and Corning Gorilla 3, enabling it to deliver a colourful and detailed viewing experience even under strong outdoor lighting conditions.

For shutterbugs, the "Meizu m2 Note" packs a 13-megapixel primary camera on the rear that produces rich, sharp and extremely detailed pictures. The premium dual-tone flash delivers an accurate white balance, even in low-light environments. The phone comes with a 5-megapixel front shooter for selfie lovers and has an upgraded FotoNation beatifying system. Functions like zero-delay shooting and slow-motion video recording enhance the chances of the phone being picked up by shutterbugs.

Another feather in the smartphone's cap is a 3100mAh non-removable mega battery. With inclusion of this mega-sized battery, "m2 Note" promises a battery-life of 24-36 hours to the Indian customers who seek higher battery life.

"Meizu m2" is sleek, no doubt, with curved edges and its dimensions make it easily fit in palm and your pocket. The phone has a polycarbonate chassis covering a magnesium-alloy frame. It comes with three integrated buttons - volume up, volume down and lock/wake up screen - on the left side. The phone has one touch-enabled Home button that has three functions - a slight tap on brings the user to the previous screen, a single press returns the user to the main screen and a long press locks the phone. The other side of this dual SIM phone has only one SIM and memory card tray. Two Nano-SIM (GSM and GSM) cards and a memory card can be inserted into the "m2 Note's" single tray.

Talking about the hardware, the "Meizu m2" is powered by 1.3GHz octa-core MediaTek MT6753 processor compiled with 2GB of DDR3 RAM, making the phone insulated to system lag. With this, one can enjoy high-definition games and do multi-tasking without any difficulty.

The phone comes with two variants - 16GB and 32 GB - of internal storage packs that can be expanded up to 128GB via a microSD memory card. The "Meizu m2" runs Flyme 4 skinned Android 5.1 (Lollipop) user interface improving the accessibility to day-to-day tasks. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, FM, 3G and 4G.

Verdict: The phone meets almost all requirements by providing the Indian consumers special features like sleek design that supports comfortable grip, mega-battery, good-quality camera with zero-delay shooting and slow-motion video recording. However, some questions may be raised on the durability of the chassis.

Full Specifications: 1.3GHz octa-core MediaTek MT6753 processor; 2 GB DDR3 RAM; 5.5-inch display with Gorilla Glass 3; 16/32 GB storage (expandable to 128GB); 13-megapixel auto focus rear camera with dual-tone flash; 5-megapixel front camera; 4G LTE; Wi-Fi; Bluetooth; 3,100 mAH battery.