Meizu M2 Note Review

Encased in polycarbonate unibody construction, the M2 Note smartphone carries the same design and looks as Meizu M2. The main difference being an extra 0.5 inches of screen and arrangement of physical buttons.

Unlike Meizu M2, volume controls, power button are located at left side of the device and have good tactile response and sim slot is moved to right side of device. The hybrid SIM slot located the left allows you to use either two nano SIM cards or one SD card and one SIM card.

The single physical home button at the bottom that packs the same functionality (single tap to back, hold the button to lock the device and a double tap to main screen) into it as Meizu M2. The smartphone is slightly heavier than its younger sibling that may be due to packing a 3100mAH battery as compared 2500 mAH battery in M2.

At the back you will find 13 MP camera with LED flash and Meizu branding at the bottom. The rounded edges do make the phone feel very good in hand and despite packing additional inches of screen it is easy to use with a single hand.

Performance

The 5.5″ Full HD display delivers good colors and viewing angles without any shift in brightness when viewed off axis, which is certainly better than M2. In case you are not satisfied with the Auto color temperature, you can also play with color temperature that best suits you.

The Asahi dragon trail glass is reflective and visibility is sub-par when you view in direct sunlight. You need to set the brightness to more than 80% to view more clearly outside, which on the other side will drain your battery faster if you are outdoors for a longer time.

Meizu M2 runs on Meizu’s custom Flyme 4.5 OS built on Android 5.1 Lollipop and feels smooth and fluidic. Like with most chinese interfaces there is no room for app drawer and all apps are hooked directly onto your home screen.

If you have used Meizu M2 earlier than you may be hooked to device in to time. For first time users, the Meizu M2 note may initially require a learning to get used to single multifunction button. Once done it is pretty intuitive and allows easy swap through apps.Tap once on the single physical button to go back, press it for home and a gentle slide from the side will showcase recent apps. Additionally long press will shut off the display.

The 13 MP rear camera has good shutter response and is also relatively quick to focus. The colors and exposure was great however it missed out details. Just swipe down and you will be greeted with various camera modes. The manual mode allows you to set focus and shutter speed among other options, however if you are not pro we recommend you to use Auto Mode. The 1080p recording was good and clear. The 5MP front shooter is good enough for selfies.

Call quality and signal reception was good and we did not notice any call drops. 4G also worked fine. The speaker at the bottom produces loud sound and is good enough for your music and movies.

The 3100mAH battery lasted for 10 hours and 25 minutes in our battery test wherein we looped a video at 50% brightness and 50% volume until it ran out of juice. The battery life is greater by 2 hours compared to Le 1S which also competes in same price range.