Meizu MX5 rumors suggest crazy hi-res camera, fingerprint sensor not on home button

Meizu MX5 rumors suggest crazy hi-res camera, fingerprint sensor not on home button

Seeing as the Meizu MX4 launched back in September, 2014, we'd expect that the screen-to-body champion's next iteration – most probably bearing the name MX5 – is still quite away from even hitting the production lines, so we'd take any rumors about the next gen Meizu with a grain of salt. Still, this little whisper suggests a couple of interesting things, and mentions Nokia once more – let us remind you that, just a month ago, there were rumors claiming that the two companies may work together on a phone, though, it was firmly denied by Meizu's VP of Science and Technology.

Coming from China-based tech blogging site MyDrivers, the latest MX5 rumor says that the handset will sport a 5.5" 2K screen (we wouldn't wager on the exact resolution, as the MX4 surprised all of us with its unorthodox 5:3 aspect ratio), will again be powered by a MediaTek SoC, and will be loaded with 4 GB of RAM.

Now, for the interesting bits – the publication says that the handset will have a fingerprint scanner, but will maintain the classic Meizu capacitive home button on the front. Could this mean a fingerprint scanner on the back? We wouldn't say it's unlikely, though, in the MX4 Pro, Meizu did do away with the capacitive O-shaped button, in order to house a biometric sensor instead. Secondly, the rumors speak of a 41 MP sensor for the phone's main camera – supposedly, a Nokia-made one at that! Now, the MX4 and MX4 Pro were both loaded with a 21 megapixel Sony IMX220 and we quite liked the results. If this rumor is true, we'd be more than curious to see the outcome. But for now – we'll just take this grain of salt in hand and wait patiently for some more reliable leaks. Source

Here's a couple of concept renders to tide you over in the meantime!

Meizu could sell 20 million smartphones in 2015 without even planning to

Meizu could sell 20 million smartphones in 2015 without even planning to

Meizu has been riding a wave of success lately, largely driven by quality handsets like the Meizu MX4 / Pro on the premium side of things, and the Meizu M1 on the low-cost end. These guys managed to sell 100,000 units of the last in mere seconds, and shipped just 1.5 million smartphones in January alone!

It was about time Meizu gave itself a public pat on the back. Li Nan, VP of Marketing and Sales at Meizu, published a classic stealth brag on the company's Weibo account, writing something to the tune of 'Hey, we don't have a goal of selling 20 million handsets this year... but we could totally sell over 20 million smartphones anyway!'

This isn't Meizu blowing hot steam in the air, by the way. If the company keeps up the tempo of over 1 million sales monthly, it could steal a good night's sleep from the guys at Xiaomi next door. Besides, not only is the vendor building momentum, it's also enjoying a $590 million cash injection from none other than Alibaba, the biggest cat in Chinese e-commerce. Watch out for Meizu, folks, it's about to explode! Source

A Meizu phone may be used to showcase Ubuntu Touch at this year's MWC

A Meizu phone may be used to showcase Ubuntu Touch at this year's MWC

We've been hearing rumors about a Meizu MX4 handset with Ubuntu Touch for quite a while now, yet there's been no official word on the matter yet – not for the MX4, nor for the MX4 Pro.

Recently, senior manager Heng Zhang has recently made a post on Weibo, claiming that Meizu will be bringing a phone to MWC, looking to introduce the brand to international users. However, Meizu is not listed as an exhebitor in the MWC 2015 database, but guess what – its partner, Canonical Group Ltd., is. The latter is actually registered at the conference and has hinted that it will be displaying a new phone at the show.

Speculators say that it may be a dual boot-capable handset, which would be able to load either Flyme OS (Meizu's heavily skinned fork of Android) or Ubuntu Phone. This may sound a bit hard to believe, as dual booting phones are still more of a myth than anything, but Ubuntu OS is said to be able to run Android, when the device is in "phone mode", but go to Ubuntu environment once the gadget is docked and has peripherals attached to it. Alternatively, there may be a Flyme version of Ubuntu? We can't really be sure at this point. Yoursalephone

As far as which phone it would be – our wager is either the MX4 or MX4 Pro, naturally.

Meizu does it again – another batch of 100,000 M1 units gone in mere seconds

Meizu does it again – another batch of 100,000 M1 units gone in mere seconds

One could argue whether flash sales are the newest crutch that uprising Chinese manufacturers are relying all too heavily upon, when trying to make a name for themselves in a short amount of time, or if some handsets are just so desirable that the builders can't keep up with demand. We'd like to stay in the gray zone and say that it may be a little bit of both.

So, after Xiaomi became wildly famous with its Mi 3 handset and its super-fast flash sales in India, OnePlus infuriated many, who wished to buy their One outright, with a questionable invites-only system, now it's time for Meizu to shine. The company has only recently announced its Meizu M1 (a.k.a. Blue Charm) – the entry-level handset, which carries a $112 price tag and midranger hardware – and the device is already making waves on the market. It was made available for purchase last week, and the system quickly went back to “Out of stock”, as the 100,000 available units were ordered within 60 seconds. It was the same this week, Meizu boasts, as 100,000 M1 phones were ordered within a minute of sales being open yesterday.

The M1 has a 5" screen with a 768x1280 resolution. It's powered by a 64-bit quad-core 1.5GHz MediaTek MT6732 CPU, coupled with a Mali T-760 GPU, and 1GB of RAM. The handset only has 8 GB of internal storage, but it's expandable via the microSD card slot up to 128 GB. It features an impressive-for-the-pricepoint camera combo as well – 13 MP rear and 5 MP front snappers. We also recently heard that Meizu may be prepering a 2 GB RAM version of the very same handset, in response to Xiaomi's 2 GB upgrade of the Redmi 2, which is also on its way. How these changes would impact the prices of the devices – we can't say yet. Yoursalephone

Meizu M1 revealed with 13MP camera and $110 price

Meizu M1 revealed with 13MP camera and $110 price

Meizu held a big event today where they announced the Meizu M1 or the Meizu Blue Charm if you prefer. The smartphone of many names has shown up several times in the past couple of months, but today we finally found out the Meizu M1 price and confirmed its specs.

The Meizu M1 is a handset aimed at the Redmi Note and similar devices in its price range – there are many. That means it’s a midranger with better than average specs, and a price tag that won’t put you in the poor house. It also means it’s a phone you’re going to want to consider regardless of your locale.

Unlike its larger brethren, the Meizu M1 features a 5-inch display with a resolution of 1,280 x 768. Under the glass, you’ll find a 64-bit MediaTek MT6732 chipset clocked at 1.5GHz, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of expandable storage. As a bonus, that expandable storage can be kicked all the up to 128GB so you should have plenty of space.

The rear camera of the Meizu M1 is listed at 13MP while the front-facing snapper uses a 5MP sensor. All the boxes are checked when it comes to connectivity so you’ll get WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, and 4G LTE. The handset has a reasonably sized 2,610 mAh battery, and rocks Android 4.4 with the Flyme 4 skin on top.

Meizu has put out some impressive smartphones over the past 6 months, and they are going to turn some heads this year if they keep producing value devices like the Meizu M1. The specs are in line with handsets like the Redmi 2, and it’s price of CNY 699/$110 is definitely appealing. Pre-orders for the Meizu M1 start on February 5th in China and it will be available in White, Green, Blue, Pink, Yellow or Peppermint Green. Source

Meizu MX4 tops AnTuTu's list of top Android phones for 2014

Meizu MX4 tops AnTuTu's list of top Android phones for 2014

The AnTuTu benchmark site released its list of the top scoring Android phones for 2014. On top was the Meizu MX4. Powered by the octa-core MT6595 from MediaTek, the phone had an average score of 47,765. For those new to the world of smartphones, the AnTuTu site tests Android devices submitted by users via an app that can be downloaded from the Google Play Store. AnTuTu tests each model's CPU, GPU, RAM, I/O and UX. When done, the app will give you an overall score, which can be different each time you run the app. Factors like the temperature of the phone and running apps can change the bottom line result.

After the Meizu MX4, the stock Android Nexus 6 was next with an average score of 47,079. A couple of phones from Sammy were next with the Samsung Galaxy Alpha (45,817) and the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 (44,669) finishing third and fourth respectively. With an average result of 44,516, the OnePlus One rounds out the top five.

Some of the trends observed by AnTuTu include the use of a Snapdragon chip in seven out of the top ten devices, including two models that employ the Snapdragon 805 SoC (Nexus 6 and Samsung Galaxy Note 4). This year, AnTuTu expects to see phones powered by the Snapdragon 810 making its list.

In 2013, the top two ranked Android phones based on AnTuTu's testing were both Samsung Galaxy Note 3 models. On top was the Snapdragon 800 powered variant, while the version run by the Exynos 5420 finished second. You can check out the top ten for both 2014 and 2013 by clicking on the slideshow below. Source