Introduction
Meizu MX6 hit the shelves in July and has been spicing up the rich Android lineup the company has built over the past year. The MX6 is a sequel to the highly popular MX5 and offers some long-awaited upgrades to the series - a better processor with high-speed cores and faster LTE connectivity.
Naturally, the MX6 inherits a lot from its predecessor, like the aluminum unibody, but it also takes inspiration from its newer siblings such as the Pro 6 and its new subtle antenna bands. The iconic mTouch key sits right below the 5.5" phablet-friendly screen, which is now covered with a trendy 2.5D polished glass.
Indeed, the MX6 has a lot going on, and we want to accent on the new Sony IMX386 12MP camera with wide-aperture f/2.0 and phase-detection autofocus. While it downgrades the camera resolution, the bigger pixels and newer sensor shoot boost the ove rall image quality.
Here comes the full list of features:
Key features
- 5.5" 1080p Sharp-made TDDI display of 403ppi
- Heavily customized Flyme OS 5.2.2 on top of Android 6.0 Marshmallow
- MediaTek Helio X20 chipset: deca-core processor (2x A72 at 2.3GHz, 4x A53 at 1.9GHz, 4x A53 at 1.4GHz), Mali-T880MP4 GPU, 4GB of RAM
- 12MP Sony sensor camera, f/2.0, phase-detect AF, two-tone LED flash; 2160p @30fps
- 5MP front-facing camera, f/2.0, 1080p@30fps
- 32GB of built-in storage
- Cat. 6 LTE (300/50Mbps); Dual SIM; Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac; Bluetooth 4.1; GPS/GLONASS; USB Type-C port
- mTouch v2.1 Home button with a fingerprint scanner
- Active noise cancellation via a dedicated mic
- 3,060 mAh battery, fast charging (100% in 75 minutes)
Main shortcomings
< ul class="article-blurb article-blurb-disadvantages">Meizu MX6 has a few holdups, but weve seen those being forgiven in some even pricier smartphones already. And while it seems like a champ, there is a whole different picture when you put the MX6 next to its MX5 sibling.
Instead of the upgrade MX6 name implies, the new model is actually a step down from the MX5. Or at least thats the first impression an MX5 fan get from the new specs sheet. Is this really the case? Or is there more than meets the eye? Lets find out, shall we?
Unboxing the Meizu MX6
The Meizu MX6 comes in a rather standard paper box, but its a departure from the pr evious big flat packages. Instead, Meizu went for the Apple approach - a phone-sized box with the device itself along with the necessities - a USB Type-C cable and a 24W charger plug.
Unboxing the Meizu MX6
Meizu MX6 360-degree spin
The Meizu MX6, just like the MX5, comes with a 5.5" display. The highlight of the TDDI technology is the unification of the screen layers, which reduces the thickness and the bezels. Yet, somehow losing the AMOLED panel for a TDDI one increased the overall footprint - the MX6 spreads at 153.6 x 75.2 x 7.3 mm. Thats 4mm taller and a hair wider than the MX5.
The MX6 also gained additional 6g in weight up to the total of 155g.
Design and build quality
We are having a deja-vu with the Meizu MX6 and thats understandable. While the MX6 welcomes a new design, and looks better than its predecessor, Meizu didnt come up with the exterior for this device in particular. The Meizu Pro 6 had virtually the same body, it was just a bit smaller as the flagship had to accommodate a 5.2" screen.
While the MX6 reuses a previous design, its still relatively new, so we can forgive that. Plus, the MX6 looks stunning even without any updates, so we are fine with what we got.
Meizu MX6
Indeed, the metal unibody is a pleasure to work with. The rounded frame and the 2.5D front glass are a treat, as are the new subtle antenna bands that flow with the phones curves. The tiny strips around the top and bottom are also made of metal and dont intervene with the seamless design.
Meizu put some nice silver accents on the mTouch key, the camera, and even the LED flash, and we really appreciate the attention to detail the company has put while working on the MX6.
There is one thing that bothers us - the lack of a proper screen protective glass, or at least the announcement of such. The MX5 used a Gorilla Glass, other Meizu phones came with Dinorex solutions, but there is nothing on the MX6. Luckily, we are happy to report it isnt as easily scratched as some of the recent Xiaomi smartphones.
Finally, the MX6 thanks to its matte finish offers a really nice grip and the handling is as pleasurable as with any other flagship. From the moment you start playing with the MX6, you know you are handling a premium device and this impression doesnt diminish over the time.
Handling the MX6
Controls
The Meizu MX6 has a fairly standard set of controls. Above that big 5.5" display we find the earpiece surrounded by the 5MP selfie snapper and a bunch of sensors.
Below the screen is the mTouch fingerprint scanner / Home button combo. This key is both capable of hardware press (Home) and capacitive touch (Back) and while its odd at first, it quickly grew on us.
Meizu MX6 • the earpiece • the mT ouch key
The Dual-SIM tray is the only thing of interest at the left side. The volume rocker and the power/lock key are on the right, both made of metal.
By the way, you can lock the screen with a long press on the Home key, if you prefer to do it this way.
The left side • the SIM tray • the right side • the volume and power keys
The secondary mic is lonely at the top of the phone, while the bottom is pretty busy - there is the audio jack, the primary mic, the USB Type-C port, and the loudspeaker grille.
The second mic on top • The bottom • the USB Type-C port
The back is where we find the 12MP camera lens accompanied by a dual-tone LED flash.
The back • the 12Mp Sony lens
Display
The display of the Meizu MX6 employs a Sharp-made 5.5" TDDI LCD pane l of 1080p resolution. The colors are nicely saturated and the viewing angles are quite good. The 403ppi density is sharp enough and you wouldnt really tell the difference to any QHD screen on the market unless youre looking at some really small fonts. The MX6s display matrix is a standard RGB arrangement.
We were a bit disappointed Meizu ditched the AMOLED we saw on the MX5 for an LCD panel, but we are happy to report the screen turned out great. The screen offers a very good maximum brightness of 457 nits, deep blacks, and a high contrast ratio of 1344:1.
The color calibration turned out very good, too, with an average DeltaE of 4.4 and a peak at the white color of 8.9 (towards blue). You can get a more accurate color rendition and bring down the average DeltaE to 3.5 if you use the Warm(est) end of the color calibration slider, but you may not like the yellowish tin t youll get all over the white menus.
| Display test | 100% brightness | ||
| Black, cd/m2 | White, cd/m2 | ||
| 0.34 | 457 | 1344 | |
| 0 | 346 | ∞ | |
| 0.50 | 390 | 780 | |
| 0.01 | 360 | 40000 | |
| 0.00 | 408 | ∞ | |
| 0.38 | 439 | 1158 | |
| 0.00 | 422 | ∞ | |
| 0.00 | 425 | ∞ | |
| 0.44 | 637 | 1448 | |
Outdoors, the Meizu MX6 is an above average performer regarding sunlight legibility. The glass on top of the display is reflective, but most of the time youll have no problem seeing whats happening on the screen.
Sunlight contrast ratio
- Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
4.615 - Samsung Galaxy S7 edge
4.439 - OnePlus 3
4.424< /li> - Samsung Galaxy S7
4.376 - HTC One A9
4.274 - Samsung Galaxy Note7
4.247 - Samsung Galaxy A3
4.241 - Google Pixel XL
4.164 - ZTE Axon 7
4.154 - Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
4.124 - Samsung Galaxy Note5
4.09 - Huawei Nexus 6P
4.019 - Vivo Xplay5 Elite
3.983 - OnePlus X
3.983 - Oppo R7s
3.964 - Apple iPhone 7
3.964 - Huawei P9 Plus
3.956 - Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016)
3.918 - Samsung Galaxy C5
3.911 - Samsung Galaxy C7
3.896 - Samsung Galaxy A5
3.895 - Samsung Galaxy J7 outdoor
3.879 - Samsung Galaxy J2 outdoor
3.873 - Samsung Galaxy A8
3.859 - Samsung Galaxy A9 (2016)
3.817 - Motorola Moto X (2014)
3.816 - Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016) outdoor mode
3.802 - Xiaomi Redmi Pro
3.798 - LG V20 Max auto
3.798 - Sony Xperia XZ
3.795 - Samsung Galax y A5 (2016)
3.789 - Apple iPhone 6s
3.783 - Meizu Pro 5
3.781 - Microsoft Lumia 650
3.772 - Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
3.756 - Oppo F1 Plus
3.709 - Vivo X5Pro
3.706 - Sony Xperia X Compact
3.694 - Apple iPhone SE
3.681 - Samsung Galaxy A7
3.679 - Meizu PRO 6
3.659 - BlackBerry Priv
3.645 - Apple iPhone 7 Plus
3.588 - Apple iPhone 6s Plus
3.53 - Samsung Galaxy J3 (2016)
3.523 - Samsung Galaxy J3 (2016) outdoor mode
3.523 - Acer Jade Primo
3.521 - Microsoft Lumia 950
3.512 - Oppo R7 Plus
3.499 - nubia Z11
3.466 - Samsung Galaxy J7
3.422 - Meizu MX5
3.416 - LG V20
3.402 - Oppo R7
3.32 - Xiaomi Mi 5s
3.276 - Samsung Galaxy J2
3.235 - Sony Xperia X Performance
3.234 - Motorola Moto X Play
3.222 - Huawei P9
3.195 - Lenovo Vibe Shot
3.113 - Motorola Moto X Force
3.105 - LG Nexus 5X
3.092 - Huawei Mate S
3.073 - Microsoft Lumia 640 XL
3.065 - Sony Xperia X
2.989 - Huawei Mate 8
2.949 - Xiaomi Redmi 3S
2.913 - Sony Xperia XA Ultra
2.906 - LG G5
2.905 - HTC One S
2.901 - Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
2.884 - Sony Xperia Z5
2.876 - Microsoft Lumia 550
2.851 - Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro
2.803 - Sony Xperia Z5 compact
2.784 - Meizu MX6
2.751 - LG V10
2.744 - Xiaomi Redmi 3
2.735 - Sony Xperia M5
2.69 - Huawei P9 Lite
2.679 - Vivo V3Max
2.659 - Xiaomi Mi 4i
2.641 - Sony Xperia XA
2.609 - Motorola Moto G4 Plus
2.582 - Motorola Moto G4 Plus (max auto)
2.582 - Xiaomi Mi 4c
2.574 - Microsoft Lumia 640
2.563 - Asus Zenfone 3 ZE552KL
2.563 - Lenovo Moto G4
2.544 - Oppo F1
2.528 - Sony Xperia Z5 Premium
2.525 - Huawei Honor 7 Lite / Honor 5c
2.506 - Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
2.503 - Oppo F1s
2.481 - Motorola Moto G
2.477 - Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus
2.473 - Huawei G8
2.471 - Huawei nova
2.467 - Sony Xperia Z
2.462 - Lenovo Vibe K5
2.459 - Huawei Honor 7
2.406 - Sony Xperia E5
2.386 - ZUK Z1 by Lenovo
2.382 - HTC 10< br />2.378
- Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
2.378 - Huawei nova plus
2.329 - HTC One E9+
2.305 - Alcatel One Touch Hero
2.272 - Apple iPhone 4S
2.269 - Lenovo Vibe K4 Note
2.254 - Sony Xperia C5 Ultra
2.253 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (MediaTek)
2.249 - Sony Xperia C4 Dual
2.235 - Xiaomi Mi Note
2.234 - Motorola Moto G (2014)
2.233 - LG Nexus 5
2.228 - Huawei P8
2.196 - Huawei Honor 6
2.169 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 2
2.166 - OnePlus Two
2.165 - HTC One X
2.158 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 4
2.145 - LG Aka
2.145 - Archos 50 Diamond
2.134 - Xiaomi Redmi Note
2.119 - Xiaomi Mi 4S
2.095 - Acer Liquid X2
2.084 - Huawei P8lite
2.078 - Moto G 3rd gen max manual
2.026 - Xiaomi Mi Max
1.996 - Sony Xperia E4g
1.972 - OnePlus One
1.961 - Meizu m3 note
1.923 - BlackBerry Leap
1.892 - Meizu m2 note
1.892 - ZTE Nubia Z9 mini
1.759 - Sony Xperia U
1.758 - Asus Zenfone Selfie
1.68 - Motorola Moto E (2nd Gen)
1.675 - ZTE Nubia Z9
1.659 - Jo lla Jolla
1.605 - Motorola Moto E
1.545 - Sony Xperia M
1.473 - HTC Desire C
1.3 - Sony Xperia C
1.283 - Meizu MX
1.221 - Sony Xperia E
1.215
Battery life
Meizu MX6 is powered by a 3,060 mAh battery, about 100mAh shorter than the MX5 power block. The phone supports fast charging via a 24W plug and our tests show it fills the batter from 0% up to 56% in 30 mins, 95% in 75 minutes, and 100% in 90 minutes. The new TDDI screen that re places the AMOLED and the Helio X20 chipset werent looking promising, so we didnt actually have any particular expectations for the MX6s battery life.
And before we continue to the results and draw any parallels with the MX5, lets just be clear that we tested the MX5 last year at 117nits of display brightness, which surely affected its browser and video scores.
We ran our battery test and it outed mixed-bag results. The smartphones performance is average across all of our tests, including the single-SIM and dual-SIM standby.
The rating of 68 hours isnt bad at all - it means you can use the MX6 for two and a half days if you are to make an hour of 3G talks, web browsing and video playback each day. Putting a second SIM card drops the rating by only an hour. Such usage pattern is of course entirely artificial, but weve established it so our battery results are comparable across devices.
The MX6 (68 hours) is a healthy improvement over its MX5 predecessor (55 hours) in terms of battery life, especially if we account the higher 200nits of brightness, the MX5 was tested at half that. So even though the MX5 also gets 9 hours for web and video, the MX6 will easily outlast it at equal screen brightness.
The battery testing procedure is described in detail in case youre interested in the nitty-gritties. You can also check out our complete battery test table, where you can see how all of the smartphones weve tested will compare under your own typical use.
Connectivity
The Meizu MX6 supports LTE Cat.6 connectivity and you can tap into an LTE network on either SIM, but the other will default to a 3G or GSM network. You can have both cards connected to a 3G networks, too. Dual SIM telephony is also supported, but the slot isnt hybrid and you cant put a microSD card inside.
The rest of the wireless conn ectivity features include dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac support and Wi-Fi Direct. There is also support for Bluetooth 4.1, NFC, and GPS and GLONASS. Wireless screen mirroring is available via the Miracast protocol.
The MX6 supports USB Type-C and fast charging (56% in 30 minutes). If you have a proper USB OTG adapter, you can attach peripherals and thumb drives. You should be able to charge other devices, but youd need to get a special adapter as Meizu hasnt included one in the package.
There is no FM radio or IR blaster on the Meizu MX6.
MX6 runs on Flyme OS 5.2 with Marshmallow core
The Meizu MX6 runs on the latest Flyme 5.2.4.0 OS, which was built on top of an Android 6.0 Marshmallow core. The Chinese models comes with the so-called Yun OS, which is a forked version of Android with Chinese-exclusive services to replace everything Googles. The international models come with all must-have Google APIs and apps, tho ugh.
The Flyme OS 5 lockscreen is a pretty simple affair - you drag upwards to unlock and have the option of securing it with a passcode, an unlock pattern, or use the fingerprint reader (its not always-on, sorry). There are no shortcuts on the lockscreen, but you get a quick access to the camera.
Gesture wake up is available - you can use pre-defined gestures to launch different apps while your phone is asleep - double tap to wake and swipe to unlock work by default, but you can also use swipe down, or other gestures such as Z, M, U, W, among others to launch apps of your choosing.
Lockscreen • Lockscreen with notifications • Configuring gestures wakeup
The homescreen is simple - you get two panes by default but you can add more later on. The homescreen gathers all of your app icons and you can add widgets into the mix.
Homescreen • A folder with apps • Organizing the homescreen • Widgets
The notification area pulls down the whole way. You get a set of four circular toggles for various settings and you can expand them with a swipe down or with the dedicated virtual button in the top right.
The rest of the notification area is a basic list or expandable, actionable notifications.
Notification area • Notification free area • The toggles
Switching between tasks is done with a pull up menu from the bottom of the screen. The task switcher has been completely overhauled in Flyme 5 - its now a 3D scrollable carousel and there is an option to close all active/suspended apps. The option to pin an app (tap and hold) is here to stay - the pinned app will stay always in recent apps at the state you closed it.
Flyme 5 supports multi-view, which is also managed via the task switching interface. The supported apps have a Multi button and you can activate a split-screen app right away. Unfortunately, the apps to support multi-view are only two - Video and Settings. Hopefully this list will grow bigger with the upcoming firmware updates.
Task switcher • Multi-window
You can customize the UI with various themes. You can browse the Themes app for themes - some of them are paid but there are many free and a lot to choose from. Theres also a variety of built in wallpapers.
Themes Store • Applying a new theme • A new theme • A new theme
Theres a Do Not Disturb mode that will block notifications and calls and you can choose a white list of numbers that can get through. It can be scheduled to run at specific time intervals or be set manually.
There is one more option - Scheduled Power On and Off - you can setup your Meizu m1 metal to shut down and boot up at a specific time on specific week days - just like alarms.
The accessibility settings • DND mode • Scheduled power on and power off • Smart Touch
Meizu provides a way for single-handed operations with the so-called Smart Touch. Its a movable virtual 4-way key, like a D-Pad, and you can assign functionalities to each of the directions, tap and hold, tap, and double tap. For example, moving the key downwards brings down the notification area, moving it towards right acts as Back. If configured properly, it can very much allow you to control the metal with just one hand, while you are on the move.
Flyme OS can be tough to get around at first but once youve gotten your bearings it becomes a treat to work with. Meizu is keeping things as simple as possible and ev erything works seamlessly without any hiccups.
Performance in benchmarks
The Meizu MX6 is powered by the MediaTek Helio X20 chipset. Its a pretty impressive chipset and its almost identical to the Helio X25, which has been featured in higher-priced phones such as the Meizu Pro 6. The two chipsets share the architecture but the X25 has slightly higher clockspeeds.
The Helio X20 is comprised of a tri-cluster processor: a couple of Cortex-A72 (2.3GHz), a quad-core Cortex-A53 (1.9GHz) and a low-power, quad-core Cortex-A53 (1.4GHz). The sheer number of cores sounds impressive and we hope the GPU - a Mali-T880 MP4 GPU - will be able to keep up the pace.
Lets kick things off with the impressive CPU setup and see how it fares against the competition. In terms of single-core performance, the Cortex-A72 isnt too far off compared to the Kryo CPU in the OnePlus 3 (Snapdragon 820).
GeekBench 4 (single-core)
Higher is better
- OnePlus 3
1719 - Xiaomi Redmi Pro
1551 - Meizu MX6
1550 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 4
1546
GeekBench 3 (single-core)
Higher is better
- OnePlus 3
2383 - Meizu Pro 6
1905 - Huawei P9 Plus
1892 - Meizu MX6
1724 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 4
1596 - Meizu Pro 5
1545 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
1543 - Meizu m3 note
807
We are beginning to doubt how the multi-core GeekBench test works, as those results are far from what wed expected from a 10-core processor. There is a good chance the app works only with the two A72 cores, which will explain the results below. And if we are right, then the score means the Helio X20 has a monstrous processor.
GeekBench 4 (multi-core)
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Redmi Note 4
4456 - OnePlus 3
4045 - Xiaomi Redmi Pro3885
- Meizu MX6
3070
GeekBench 3 (multi-core)
Higher is better
- Huawei P9 Plus
6660 - Meizu Pro 6
6427 - Meizu Pro 5
5578 - OnePlus 3
5520 - Meizu MX6
5215 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 4
5166 - Meizu MX5
5110 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
4537 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S 650)
3695 - Meizu m3 note
3028
AnTuTu is a compound benchmark, which takes into account storage performance, RAM and GPU prowess. The Snapdragon 820 inside the OnePlus 3 is the only one to overpower the Meizu MX6 because of its far superior GPU. The Qualcomms custom Kryo cores probably helped, too.
AnTuTu 6
Higher is better
- OnePlus 3
141764 - Meizu Pro 6
99195 - Huawei P9 Plus
97392 - Meizu MX6
92377 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 4
85162 - Xiaomi Redmi Pro77442
- Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
76186 - Meizu Pro 5
67531 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
45474 - Meizu m3 note
44898
AnTuTu 5
Higher is better
- Meizu Pro 5
74655 - Meizu MX6
69595 - Meizu MX5
48915 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
47816 - Meizu m3 note
41838
The other compound test - t he BaseMark OS II 2.0 - ranks the MX6 below most of the Redmis, including the Redmi Pro with the same chipset. The Flyme launcher and some under the hood optimizations are probably at fault.
Basemark OS II
Higher is better
- OnePlus 3
2677 - Huawei P9 Plus
2155 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
1914 - Meizu Pro 5
1733 - Xiaomi Redmi Pro
1648 - Meizu Pro 6
1446 - Meizu MX6
1203 - Meizu MX5
1163 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
956 - Meizu m3 note
930
The Helio X20 chipset uses a Mali-T880 MP4 GPU, the same GPU as in the Kirin 955 that powers the Huawei P9 Plus flagship and the more affordable Honor 8. Qualcomm put a solid GPU in the S650 and the Redmi Note 3 remains quite competitive, while the Helio X10 leaves plenty to be desired.
GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
- OnePlus 3
31 - Meizu Pro 5
14 - Meizu MX6
11 - Meizu Pro 6
11 - Huawei Honor 8
10 - Huawei P9 Plus
10 - Xiaomi Redmi Pro
9.5 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 4
9.5 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
9 - Meizu MX5
4.8 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
4 - Meizu m3 note
2.5
GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)
Higher is better
- OnePlus 3
30 - Meizu Pro 5
14 - Meizu MX6
11 - Huawei Honor 8
11 - Meizu Pro 6
11 - Huawei P9 Plus
11 - Xiaomi Redmi Pro
9.5 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 4
9.4 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
9 - Meizu MX5
4.7 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
3.9 - Meizu m3 note
2.5
GFX 3.1 Car scene (offscreen)
Higher is better
- OnePlus 3
18 - Meizu Pro 6
6.4 - Huawei Honor 8
6.3 - Huawei P9 Plus
6.2 - Meizu MX6
6 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 4
5.4 - Xiaomi Redmi Pro
5.4 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
5.3
GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)
Higher is better
- OnePlus 3
18 - Huawei Honor 8
6.9 - Huawei P9 Plus
6.8 - Meizu Pro 6
6.4 - Meizu MX6
6 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
5.5 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 4
5.4 - Xiaomi Redmi Pro
5.4
Basemark X
Higher is better
- OnePlus 3
32715 - Meizu Pro 5
20038 - Huawei Honor 8
16592 - Meizu Pro 6
15209 - Huawei P9 Plus
15058 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
14717 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 4
13666 - Meizu MX6
12621 - Xiaomi Redmi Pro
12190 - Meizu MX5
10403 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
8540 - Meizu m3 note
4567
We are quite happy with the performance the Meizu MX6 offers in a €300 package. The unconventional CPU has a lot to offer, especially when pushed to the max. You should be aware though the MX6 may get a bit warmer than the comfortable temperature, but we guess thats the price to pay for such a beast.
Meizu MX6 is a good upgrade over its predecessor and offers adequate perfor mance for the class. It isnt a benchmark topper, but the MX6 is nicely balanced for multi-tasking and gaming performance, while there is a monstrous processing potential to tap into when needed. And thats a bit more than we would have asked for, which is great.
Telephony
At its core, the phonebook on the Meizu MX6 is a list of all contacts but you can view only a specific group or filter where contracts come from - phone contacts, email account or a Meizu account.
The dialer features smart dialing, which is nice. Otherwise it doesnt differ from any other in functionality.
The dialer • Phonebook • A cont act
The Meizu MX6 has all reception bars full and held onto signal great even in tighter spots. Call quality is very good. A dedicated mic for active noise cancellation makes sure the other party hears you loud and clear.
The phone supports dual-SIM with dual-standby. The second SIM (you choose which card to be secondary) supports 3G and GSM networks, while the primary works on 3G and LTE. Managing the SIM cards is very easy as is initiating calls and sending texts.
The Meizu MX6 scored a Good mark at our loudspeaker test. The speakers audio quality is about the average for a single-speaker setup with crisp but not so deep sound.
| Speakerphone test | Voice, dB | Ringing | Overall score | |
| 61.6 | 66.2 | 68.3 | Below Average | |
| 66.5 | 64.6 | 71.7 | Average | |
| 67.7 | 66.6 | 68.7 | Average | |
| 64.2 | 67.2 | 76.9 | Good | |
| 68.1 | 71.8 | 69.4 | Good | |
| 65.7 | 71.7 | 72.5 | Good | |
| 64.0 | 71.5 | 89.1 | Very Good | |
| 75.7 | 73.5 | 79.5 | Excellent |
The gallery
The Flyme gallery has two viewing modes - photo and gallery. The photo stacks images into months while the gallery puts them into folders. You can add or remove folders from the gallery and also search through it.
Gallery • Albums • Viewing an image • Editing an image
Theres also a built-in editor that offers filters and all the basic controls for contrast, brightness and you can even add blur or vignette. You cannot use different editors from the stock gallery and would need to install a thir d-party gallery (like Googles Photos) to have different editors.
Music player
The music player can only find tracks located in the Music folder. You can browse your collection the traditional way or you can select to have it filtered by folders.
In the first case tracks are sorted into several playlists like All songs, Recently added, Folders and you have the option to create custom playlists. When viewing All songs you can choose between three types of sorting in a tabbed layout: song name, artist and album.
The homepage • Music player • Browsing albums • Now playing • Equalizers
You can access the equalizer from the advanced menu. It features several presets, which you can edit manually - but you need to insert the headphones first.
Great video player
The Meizu MX6 comes with a dedicated Video app, but it expects videos to be placed in the video folder. You can use the file browser or gallery to get videos to play from elsewhere - it offers thumbnails and everything so we ended up using it more often than the Video app itself.
Theres a pop-out option that allows you to view the video as an overlay to the OS.
Video player
The Meizu MX6 played everything we threw at it - Xvid, DivX, MP4, MOV, WMV and it supports the AC3 audio codec, too. Subtitles are supported, but it recognizes only Latin and Chinese characters.
Audio output is amazingly loud
The Meizu MX6 is easily among the best devices we’ve tested when hooked up to an active external amplifier. The flagship posted excellent scores and garnished them with some of the loudest output we’ve ever seen.
Impressively enough the volume remained as high when we plugged in our standard headphones set. Unfortunately clairty took a pretty sharp turn for the worse with stereo quality deteriorating significantly and some distortion creeping in. A rather mediocre showing in that aspect, but many will feel the loudness is worth the compromise.
Anyway, here go the results so you can do your comparisons.
| Test | Frequency response | Noise level | Dynamic range | THD | IMD + Noise | Stereo crosstalk |
| +0.10, -0.03 | -94.2 | 94.0 | 0.0019 | 0.0064 | -89.3 | |
| +0.30, -0.07 | -92.5 | 93.0 | 0.810 | 0.271 | -31.3 | |
| +0.03, -0.30 | -86.6 | 83.6 | 0.0017 | 0.049 | -91.1 | |
| +0.06, -0.03 | -92.4 | 92.4 | 0.0018 | 0.021 | -88.2 | |
| Xiaomi Mi 5s | +0.01, -0.03 | -89.6 | 90.2 | 0.0029 | < td>0.040-85.5 | |
| Xiaomi Mi 5s (headphones) | +0.71, -0.31 | -82.9 | 84.8 | 0.229 | 0.559 | -48.0 |
| +0.06, -0.10 | -92.4 | 92.3 | 0.0015 | 0.0093 | -80.9 | |
| +0.03, -0.11 | -92.3 | 92.3 | 0.0011 | 0.012 | -77.0 |
Meizu MX6 frequency response
You can learn more about the tested parameters and the whole testing process here.
A 12MP camera
The Meizu MX6 is the first smartphone to use Sonys IMX386 sen sor. The sensor specs sound rather nice on paper - 12MP resolution, 1/2.9" size, and 1.25µm pixels. Meizu has paired it with a f/2.0 lens and a dual-tone flash, and there is also phase-detection autofocus.
Unfortunately, that sounds a bit of a downgrade from the 20.7MP Sony IMX220 we saw on the Meizu MX5. Sure, the IMX220 had a bit smaller pixels at 1.2µm, but it made up for that with pixel count, and back then it has a laser-assisted AF system, which is now replaced by a phase-detect system.
We were really pleased with the MX5 camera, so we kind of had similar expectations for the MX6. Lets see how things turned out.
The camera interface by default launches into Auto mode where the camera determines the shooting parameters. You have the option (in Settings) to turn on HDR (but no automatic HDR), gridlines for the viewfinder and a level gauge so that your horiz on is level.
Available shooting modes include Auto, Macro, Manual, Beauty, Panorama, GIF, Light field, Scan, and Slowmotion. Now, thats a lot of modes so lets go through some of them. The Manual mode allows you to set the shutter speed down to as low as 20s, and it allows you to fiddle with ISO, exposure compensation and even the focus - from macro to infinity. The Beauty mode can make your subjects eyes bigger, face slimmer, skin smoother and skin tones lighter. Panorama and GIF are somewhat self-explanatory, but Light field is Meizus refocus app allowing you to defocus any part of the scene and even do it after the image was taken. Scan offers quick QR barcode scanning, while Slowmotion... well, it captures slow motion videos.
Camera • Modes • Manual mode • Manual mode
The Meizu MX6 snaps rather average 12MP pictures. The resolved detail is uninspiring and often gets compromised by the high levels of noise. The images lack sharpness, there is purple fringing along some edges, and the auto ISO and exposure tweaking reset quite often should you tap to focus on a particular subject.
On a positive note, the dynamic range is okay and the colors, contrast and white balance were quite accurate.
Meizu MX6 12MP camera samples
In bright sunny days, the MX6 would snap great photos. When the light is low, the detail gets ravaged by the overeager noise reduction. In the dark, the autofocus gets quite unreliable, too.
Noise gets in the way the darker it gets - cloudy, normally lit room, at night
When shooting at night, it really pays if you have a tripod with you - even a small one. Auto focus is quite unreliable in the dark, and you would have to rely on the Manual focus option to lock on proper focus in these conditions. Once you have the phone set up on a tripod, its also realy easy to make use of the long exposure feature to take beautiful low-light pictures.
A handheld night photo • A tripod photo • Longer 3s exposure • Longer 5s exposure
The HDR mode is meant to bringing back detail in the highlights and the shadows. On the Meizu MX6 it does a good job, and sometimes it even produces more accurate colors than the standard mode.
HDR off • HDR on • HDR off • HDR on
Panoramas are far from impressive on the Meizu MX6, though. There is plenty of resolution and good overall exposure, but the resolved detail is less than we would have liked.
A panoramic sample
Finally, you can check out the 5MP images taken with the front-facing camera of the device. It offers enough detail for a selfie camera, the colors are okay as is the contrast, but weve seen far better results from even cheaper phones.
5MP selfie sample
Weve uploaded full resoluti on (12MP) photos to our photo quality comparison database to compare against other high-resolution smartphones. You can clearly see the superiority of the Honor 8 (bottom right), but the MX6 camera turned out better than the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (bottom left).
Meizu MX6 vs. Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 vs Huawei Honor 8 in our Photo quality comparison tool
2160p video recording at 30 fps
The Meizu MX6 shoots videos up to 4K resolution (3840 x 2160px) at 30fps and 1080p videos at 30fps. Theres no 60fps smooth motion option.
Camcorder UI
The UHD videos of the Meizu MX6 are recorded in the HEVC format, also known as H.265, a recent codec thats supposed to offer the same quality as the widely popular H.264 in lower bitrate and smaller filesizes. While this advancement makes sense because it helps you reduce the storage requirements, were not quite sure if its worth the inconveniences and it comes with a whole bunch of those.
First off, with H.265 means that most of your computer media players will need an additional codec in order to playback the videos you shot with the Meizu MX 6.
Secondly, uploading the files to YouTube doesnt work either as YouTube doesnt support H.265 and our research led us to believe there are no plans for adding support in the immediate future. The smartphone itself has no issues with playing the videos, but sharing them is a major PITA.
And finally, were not even sure if the claim for "same quality, smaller file sizes" appli es here as the Meizu MX6 uses a bitrate of 44Mbps, which is about what other smartphone are using for H.264 (48Mbps for the Galaxy S7 and 46Mbps for the iPhone 7). So you dont even get the benefit of smaller filesizes.
Even worse, there is no apparent benefit in quality either. The 4K videos produced by the Meizu MX6 have average levels of detail and average dynamic range. On the positive side, the contrast is good, and so are the colors and at least there are no compression artifacts as there are on the Huawei Mate 9 videos, which also rely on H.265 but use a noticeably lower birate of 30Mbps.
The audio recording is stereo at 128Kbps bitrate.
Framerate stays firmly at 30fps, and we got almost no dropped frames.
Here is a short 4K video (10s, 52MB) for download.
The r esolved detail in the 1080p videos is quite poor, the noise often gets in the way and makes the samples unpleasantly grainy. All samples look a bit out of focus, which is a whole other issue. The contrast and colors are good, though. Here is sample weve uploaded on YouTube. The 1080p videos are encoded in H.264 so there so no problem with that unlike the 4K ones.
You can also directly download the 1080p@30fps video sample (10s, 20MB).
Head to our Video quality comparison tool for a comparative look at the MX6 video recording capabilities. Surprisingly, the phone did great at the 2160p charts when compared to the Meizu Pro 6 and Xiaomi Mi 5.
Meizu MX6 vs. Meizu Pro 6 vs. Xiaomi Mi 5 in our 2160p Video quality comparison tool
Meizu MX6 vs. Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 vs. Huawei Honor 8 in our 1080p Video quality comparison tool
Pre-installed apps
The latest version of the MX web browser utilizes almost the entire screen real estate to the web page, save for the status bar on top and a tiny bar on the bottom for Refresh, Tabs and Bookmarks.
The browser comes with an integrated ad-blocker.
Theres even a Reading mode and our favorite Night mode, which inverts the background and text colors and makes it really easy to read at night.
MX Browser
The Meizu MX6 features a calendar that supports multiple online accounts. It offers monthly, weekly, daily and agenda views and is pretty straightforward to work with. Creating a new event lets you set which calendar to store it in, along with a reminder.
The Calendar has a very minimal, clean look but retains all the functionality youd expect. You can also go for the Google Calendar - its available for download as a separate app from the Play Store.
Moving on, we have the Clock app that will handle multiple alarms with custom repeat times, ringtones, snooze time and labels. There are also a stopwatch and timer integrated within the Clock app.
Calendar • Calendar • Clock • Clock • Clock
A calculator app is also on board. Interestingly you can use it as a pop-up app over the homescreen. It offers a currency, length, weight and volume converter, too.
Calculator
There is a very helpful Toolbox app, which provides a flashlight, a mirror, compass, level, ruler and magnifying functions.
Toolbox
The Memos app is clean and simple, but digging into it youll find many different themes available. You can add notes, images and even check lists into it.
Memos
The preinstalled file manager lets you browse through the memory of the Meizu MX6. It allows copy, cut and paste and also sharing of files on your device.
File manager
Perhaps the highlight of Meizus homebrewed apps is the Security app. It lets you scan for viruses, clean junk files, keep an eye on your large files, manage your data traffic, and most importantly - control the permissions for each app you install.
Security app
Final words
Meizu MX6 turned out to be a great device in spite of our initial doubts. You can probably tell we are fans of the MX5 and we werent so sure about the place of the MX6 in the series seeing how this model has seen some downgrades compared to its predecessor.
Unless you are coming from a Meizu MX5, though, there is nothing to worry about the MX6 qualities and capabilities. As a standalone midrange phone, the Meizu MX6 goes above and beyond to del iver in design, performance, and camera experience.
The all-metal shell and the new antenna bands are as premium as you can get today even from a flagship. The Helio X20 chipset doesnt disappoint and delivers stellar processing and above average graphic performance. Of course, there is a price attached to that - it does get hot, and the battery life takes a hit.
Compared to the MX5, the camera is perhaps the biggest downgrade. The new 12MP Sony IMX386 sensor looked promising on paper, but it failed to deliver in picture quality. The mixed-bag results only get worse when the light gets low.
Speaking of the Meizu MX5, it also had an AMOLED screen with Gorilla Glass, a smaller footprint and lighter weight, and yet a slightly bigger battery. We arent sure how the TDDI screen was supposed to work for the MX6, but even though it is slimmer than a regular LCD, it is not as slim as an AMOLED display.
Meizu MX6 key test findings
- The refined design of an all-metal unibody, stylish antenna strips, and subtly curved sides, make the MX6 one of the best-looking smartphones in the market.
- The mTouch home button is quite a smart set-up: it does fingerprint scanning and responds to both presses and taps.
- The 5.5" display is not an AMOLED, but its an overall good LCD unit with adequate brightness, high contrast, and accurate color rendering. The 2.5D glass along the edges is welcome, too.
- The battery endurance rating of 68h is good, but wont win any awards in the 5.5-inch category.
- Flyme OS is fluid and responsive, unlocking gestures are versatile, the mTouch button has some great added functionality (closing apps, going a step back). There are great theming options.
- The Helio X20 chipset is a good performer , and the GPU is great in this mid-range segment. The 10-core processor, however, is a power-hungry monster and performance comes at the expense of increased heat and battery life.
- Solid audio quality with great loudness, but not as clear with headphones plugged in; The loudspeaker loudness is good with output of average quality.
- The camera performance falls short of the Meizu MX5. In good light the photos are excellent, but the quality deteriorates when it gets darker. Disappointing panoramic images, the image quality of the selfies is average.
- The 2160p videos have average levels of detail, while the 1080p ones are unimpressive. The HEVC/H.265 codec brings all sorts of compatibility issues with YouTube and common video players yet hardly has any benefit in file size or quality.
Indeed, the MX6 is a capable midranger, but so is the Meizu MX5. As we said - it has a better screen with a Gorilla Glass and higher-res camera - two crucial features whi ch may turn the table for some. Its a bit cheaper, too, so there is that.
Meizu MX5
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 is at least €100 cheaper than the MX6, but its a perfect match for the Meizus offer. The Redmi Note 4 packs a 5.5" IPS screen with 1080p resolution, has an always-on fingerprint scanner on the back, runs on the same Helio X20 chipset, and there is a 13MP main camera with phase-detection autofocus. Oh, and dont forget the much bigger battery. Xiaomis Redmi Note 4 may lack 4K video recording, but its a lot cheaper and offers similar, if not better, features.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 4
The smaller Xiaomi Mi 5 is also a great alternative with a high-end glass design, flagship Snapdragon 820 chipset and a 16MP main camera with OIS. The Mi 5 is cheaper than the MX6 and turned out even better than the newer Mi 5s, so if the screen isnt too small for you, then its worth trying the Mi 5 out.
Xiaomi Mi 5
Samsungs Galaxy A7 (2016) and Galaxy C5 are a few euros more expensive, but you will be getting 1080p Super AMOLED screens for that. The A7 model has a 16MP camera with wide aperture and OIS, while the slightly cheaper C5 smartphone has a conventional 13MP camera, still with wide f/1.9 aperture. If you are fan of TouchWiz, weve already established those two are indeed capable smartphones and you should check them out.
Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016) • Samsung Galaxy C5
Finally, LeEcos Le 2, if you live in a market where its available, is a very good competitor and probably will win quite a few people over the MX6. The Le 2 has a 5.5" IPS screen of 1080p pixels, the same Helio X20 chip, a 16MP main camera, and a similar 3,000 mAh battery. You can also buy the Le 2 with a Snapdragon 652 chip. And no matter the model, the price is almost twice as low as the MX6.
LeEco Le 2
Meizus mid-rangers have always cost more than usual, and that may turn out to be a problem in todays highly competitive landscape. To make things worse, the MX6 is not the solid upgrade over the MX5, which weve been waiting. That doesnt mean the MX6 is not a worthy purchase on its own - quite on the contrary. It certainly has got a pretty face and solid performance in almost every aspect.
Meizus cor e fans will certainly appreciate the device, but perhaps the smartphone serves a different purpose of attracting new users to the brand, and this may very well be the reason why Meizu has positioned it differently than the MX5. Whatever the case, the current pricing is high enough to raise an eye brow despite the smartphones many merits.
! ( hope useful)
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