Meizu MX as a replacement for Apple iPhone 4
From Meizu. Welcome again, habra people! After our first note on Habré, we have already received more than a dozen messages with suggestions on writing reviews and articles on our products, requests to provide a device for tests, to get acquainted with the brand, and so on. We are very pleased that those who wish were found so quickly and, moreover, several people have already sent us their materials. One of these articles we want to post on our blog today. This text is from Vladimir Kuskov, unfortunately, the author does not have an account on Habré, and we really liked his article, so we place it under our account. Read, discuss, share your opinions with us in the comments.
')
Hello, dear habrayuzer, in this article I want to share with you my experience of finding a smartphone that is convenient for me and tell me why I chose Meizu MX, how could this happen and what came of it?
Getting started with Meizu for me, it seems to me, is standard for a user from Russia. This Chinese company was not known for a long time, then their audio player began to be sold, and later information about the Meizu M8 smartphone based on Windows CE appeared, but it was first sold from the underground and was considered an incredible exotic, so I passed by. Being at that time a “confident user” of Windows Mobile-based communicators, I did not dare to change my HTC Touch Cruise to a strange device from an unknown company.
It took a little more time, I “moved” to android-smartphones, first HTC Hero, then briefly used the Samsung Galaxy S, but at one point I got an Apple iPhone 4 in my hands. I bought a phone from a friend, so I had the opportunity to see what it is. I take it in my hands and understand: “here it is, the ideal size for me personally - excellent body width for a comfortable grip, moderate height, comfortable weight and, most importantly, the correct screen sizes!” That was the key factor, I switched to Apple iPhone 4 and successfully used it for about a year. Honestly, I would continue to "sit on the" iPhone ", but either my inferiority complex affected, or really in big cities like Moscow or a geek or a person who uses an Apple iPhone, not because of what is fashionable, but because convenient - it is difficult. Stupid jokes from friends, constant trolling on the network (not me personally, but just iPhone owners), the label “fan of apples” and so on - all this got sick and I decided to part with the Apple iPhone ...
Just kidding, there were a few points where the iPhone and the entire Apple ecosystem did not suit me, I just could not get used to:
After deciding to switch back to Android, I ran into an unexpected problem. Similar to the characteristics of the Apple iPhone 4 smartphones with Android were either very large and heavy, or wide and inconvenient for the grip, and only very inexpensive model cards that did not suit me turned out to be convenient. You can say that the author of the text pays too much attention to the dimensions of the device, but I sincerely believe that everyone should use the smartphone in the most convenient dimensions for it, including the body width and weight comfortable for the grip. I think it's like shoes, for example. After all, there will not be a man with 43 feet in size wearing shoes of 40 or 46 sizes? Because they are not his size, and it doesn’t matter that they are made of genuine leather, they will last forever, their sole is strong and comfortable, and the grip is maximum in any weather. So with the smartphone. Characteristics and different cool features - this is very important, but if the device is inconvenient in size - why suffer and use it? Especially when there are so many manufacturers on the market and there is a choice.
Dimensions and design
Before choosing Meizu MX, I read a lot of materials about this smartphone, mostly in English, because there was little information on our websites, a couple of reviews and that's it. The general tone was as follows - this is a good clone of the Apple iPhone, with a good assembly and design (as in the "iPhone", yeah) and an unusual shell inside, looking at which you can not immediately guess Android. As a result, before buying, I went and looked at it in a DNS store (now you can buy a smartphone with a PCT in the official online store in Russia). It turned out that MX approximately resembles my previous iPhone 4 in dimensions, of course the “Chinese” is not so narrow, but I’m used to this difference in centimeters, I was pleased with a weight of 139 grams (in iPhone 4 137 grams) - that was exactly what I’m searched
I can explain my love for relatively heavy pipes. I have always had weighty communicators on Windows Mobile, and I almost never used simple phones, except when I went to the university, Dad gave me gifts. There was also a pair of Nokia Symbian smartphones (remember the legendary Nokia 6600?). One day, a friend asked him for a Samsung Galaxy S II - he looked, twisted, I liked the phone according to the characteristics, but in my hand I didn’t lie at all and seemed weightless.
So in general, you can say - I am satisfied. I was looking for a replacement iPhone 4 with Android on board - and found it. Of the minuses, I can note the "glossiness" of the case, and, although it uses technology with two layers, that is, the base is made of white plastic, and on top of a layer of translucent glossy - this does not save the smartphone from scratches and scuffs. It's good that the lid is white - due to the color, the traces are not too noticeable, so besides me no one sees them.
While reading various reviews, I came across complaints from people regarding the difficulty of attaching the battery cover. I can confirm by example. I bought the device, brought it home, unpacked it, trying to remove the cover - in any way. I noticed two “contacts” from the bottom of the case, but I thought it was for a docking station or some kind of Chinese accessory that we don’t supply to us. Then he opened a smaller box from the kit and there, in addition to the cable, he found a tool resembling a mediator. It turned out that the “contacts” on the bottom are not contacts, but metal pins on which the lid holds and, in order to open the case, the pins need to be pressed inwards with the help of this mediator itself. Then already with a fingernail or something else, the lid is hooked and dragged toward itself. In short, the design is strong, but it would be better for Meizu to write coarsely on the inside of the box, how to remove the cover. The process is completely unobvious.
Talk about the characteristics
I know that I like talking about the detailed characteristics of devices on the Habré, I myself gladly read similar texts, but I thought that in this recognition of my convenience of a smartphone in size and grip as its main characteristic, it would be strange to paint technical specifications. Is that in brief.
Initially, I had a version of Meizu MX based on the Samsung Exynos 4212 platform (dual-core processor, 1.4 GHz) with a gigabyte of RAM, which is enough for the eyes and 16 GB of memory for storing data. Here, of course, I made a serious sacrifice, switching from the iPhone 4 32 to the Meizu MX with 16 GB, but then there were no other options, it now has a new 4-core version with 32 or 62 GB of memory. Just recently, I sold my first Meizu MX and bought myself a MX 4-core with 64 GB of memory, but now I bite my nails, because there was information about the MX2 model, and when I changed one MX to another, I did not hear anything.
About the speed of the interface I will say this - it is not as smooth as in iOS, but it suits me (I used to). It seems to me that so far none of the Android smartphone manufacturers have such devices that could be compared to iOS by the smoothness of the interface. For me, it was an important opportunity to watch video with subtitles (anime) on the device, and MX has no problems with this - the smartphone plays an unconverted video, moreover, with support for external subtitles.
The eight-megapixel camera here has about the quality of about five megapixels in the original iPhone, that is, the picture size is certainly larger, but the overall quality is not high, it is not an iPhone 4S or Samsung Galaxy S II. I have enough, because I rarely take pictures on the phone at all, except maybe some cool moment or something for work if needed.
Working hours
I did not use modern Uber-devices on Android, which operate at an average load only until evening, and the first or second generation of devices were still quite good in terms of operating time, I think. I remember how I grumbled that my HTC Hero lasted just a day and a half. Meizu MX in this regard is somewhere in the middle, I listen to music on my smartphone, I watch one or two anime series a day, I read twitter, and of course there are calls. At the same time, the battery charge of my Meizu MX lasts for the whole day, but a couple of times there were still situations where it was discharged, not ending the day. I can not say that I am completely satisfied with the time, but what can I do?
Flyme os
And I also want to say a few words about Flyme OS. Apparently, the Chinese have decided that if we take the Apple iPhone as a basis for our smartphone, then not only in terms of design, but also the interface. I think so, because the Flyme OS shell is very similar to iOS, and when I give my Meizu MX to someone to see, no one understands right away that this is a smartphone on Android. There is no application menu, no list, no tiles, another notification bar (double), otherwise the menu and pop-up windows and so on are made. As a result, I got used to this shell, although at first I even put different shells from the Android Market (then it was still a normal name, and not like now, Google Play). It seems to me that there is a zest in this interface, especially if you are not a hardcore Android user who is used to a bare system.
findings
I have only one conclusion, you need to select a smartphone not only for technical parameters and trickyness, but also for such trivial and completely unaffected things in reviews like “like, it is convenient to hold in your hand and you don’t want to let go”. This is the effect that, in my opinion, so far only Apple manages to transfer from each previous “iPhone” to a new one - they all fit perfectly in the hand and don’t want to let them out. I do not know how things are with this in the iPhone 5, really. Other manufacturers have rare gaps, for example, I madly liked the HTC Hero, how it went into the hand, how convenient it was to talk, this unusual body bend - now the company does not do anything like that. Samsung had an interesting Wave series, more precisely, the first phone from it. I remember watching it somewhere in the store and wondered how cool and reliable it was, I almost even decided to buy it. But now these phones are very few and Meizu MX, it seems to me, is one of them. For example, on engadget.com in the review it was compared to the Xiaomi Mi-One, but I kept both devices in my hands and the impressions of Xiaomi are not at all the same - the feeling that you are holding a plastic rattle bought in the transition. Although technically smartphone is just great. With Meizu MX, everything is different - it has quite good characteristics (I am satisfied), but there are many compromises, such as a nonstandard display resolution, an inconvenient mechanism for removing the lid, the camera is “not a fountain”, but for me it all plays a secondary role, it is important that fast, working day and very comfortable in the hand, and also gives the impression of a very high-quality thing, just like the Apple iPhone.
Ps . If you found the text interesting or not useless, I can continue. I would like to talk about how I set up the MX for myself, because the Flyme OS shell, to be honest, didn’t suit me at all in some respects and had to change a lot, I would also like to share my view on the organization of working space on the screens and the required minimum of software, about the screen and other things. I apologize in advance for the quality of the photos and errors in the article, if you find them, I am not an expert in this, but I tried to write correctly.
Vladimir Kuskov
')
Hello, dear habrayuzer, in this article I want to share with you my experience of finding a smartphone that is convenient for me and tell me why I chose Meizu MX, how could this happen and what came of it?
Getting started with Meizu for me, it seems to me, is standard for a user from Russia. This Chinese company was not known for a long time, then their audio player began to be sold, and later information about the Meizu M8 smartphone based on Windows CE appeared, but it was first sold from the underground and was considered an incredible exotic, so I passed by. Being at that time a “confident user” of Windows Mobile-based communicators, I did not dare to change my HTC Touch Cruise to a strange device from an unknown company.
It took a little more time, I “moved” to android-smartphones, first HTC Hero, then briefly used the Samsung Galaxy S, but at one point I got an Apple iPhone 4 in my hands. I bought a phone from a friend, so I had the opportunity to see what it is. I take it in my hands and understand: “here it is, the ideal size for me personally - excellent body width for a comfortable grip, moderate height, comfortable weight and, most importantly, the correct screen sizes!” That was the key factor, I switched to Apple iPhone 4 and successfully used it for about a year. Honestly, I would continue to "sit on the" iPhone ", but either my inferiority complex affected, or really in big cities like Moscow or a geek or a person who uses an Apple iPhone, not because of what is fashionable, but because convenient - it is difficult. Stupid jokes from friends, constant trolling on the network (not me personally, but just iPhone owners), the label “fan of apples” and so on - all this got sick and I decided to part with the Apple iPhone ...
Just kidding, there were a few points where the iPhone and the entire Apple ecosystem did not suit me, I just could not get used to:
- The need to use iTunes for data transfer (there were almost no alternatives then). I don’t have the most pleasant experience with this program on Windows XP, then on Windows 7
- The lack of high-quality players under iOS for watching videos in .mkv with subtitles (used to watching anime on the smartphone screen on trips even from work to home on the subway)
- The impossibility of fine-tuning the system for yourself without jailbreaking (you probably don’t need to be explained here - I wanted to fix a lot of things for myself and iOS allowed it, but only with jailbreak, now the system has seriously improved in terms of features and without this procedure)
After deciding to switch back to Android, I ran into an unexpected problem. Similar to the characteristics of the Apple iPhone 4 smartphones with Android were either very large and heavy, or wide and inconvenient for the grip, and only very inexpensive model cards that did not suit me turned out to be convenient. You can say that the author of the text pays too much attention to the dimensions of the device, but I sincerely believe that everyone should use the smartphone in the most convenient dimensions for it, including the body width and weight comfortable for the grip. I think it's like shoes, for example. After all, there will not be a man with 43 feet in size wearing shoes of 40 or 46 sizes? Because they are not his size, and it doesn’t matter that they are made of genuine leather, they will last forever, their sole is strong and comfortable, and the grip is maximum in any weather. So with the smartphone. Characteristics and different cool features - this is very important, but if the device is inconvenient in size - why suffer and use it? Especially when there are so many manufacturers on the market and there is a choice.
Dimensions and design
Before choosing Meizu MX, I read a lot of materials about this smartphone, mostly in English, because there was little information on our websites, a couple of reviews and that's it. The general tone was as follows - this is a good clone of the Apple iPhone, with a good assembly and design (as in the "iPhone", yeah) and an unusual shell inside, looking at which you can not immediately guess Android. As a result, before buying, I went and looked at it in a DNS store (now you can buy a smartphone with a PCT in the official online store in Russia). It turned out that MX approximately resembles my previous iPhone 4 in dimensions, of course the “Chinese” is not so narrow, but I’m used to this difference in centimeters, I was pleased with a weight of 139 grams (in iPhone 4 137 grams) - that was exactly what I’m searched
I can explain my love for relatively heavy pipes. I have always had weighty communicators on Windows Mobile, and I almost never used simple phones, except when I went to the university, Dad gave me gifts. There was also a pair of Nokia Symbian smartphones (remember the legendary Nokia 6600?). One day, a friend asked him for a Samsung Galaxy S II - he looked, twisted, I liked the phone according to the characteristics, but in my hand I didn’t lie at all and seemed weightless.
So in general, you can say - I am satisfied. I was looking for a replacement iPhone 4 with Android on board - and found it. Of the minuses, I can note the "glossiness" of the case, and, although it uses technology with two layers, that is, the base is made of white plastic, and on top of a layer of translucent glossy - this does not save the smartphone from scratches and scuffs. It's good that the lid is white - due to the color, the traces are not too noticeable, so besides me no one sees them.
While reading various reviews, I came across complaints from people regarding the difficulty of attaching the battery cover. I can confirm by example. I bought the device, brought it home, unpacked it, trying to remove the cover - in any way. I noticed two “contacts” from the bottom of the case, but I thought it was for a docking station or some kind of Chinese accessory that we don’t supply to us. Then he opened a smaller box from the kit and there, in addition to the cable, he found a tool resembling a mediator. It turned out that the “contacts” on the bottom are not contacts, but metal pins on which the lid holds and, in order to open the case, the pins need to be pressed inwards with the help of this mediator itself. Then already with a fingernail or something else, the lid is hooked and dragged toward itself. In short, the design is strong, but it would be better for Meizu to write coarsely on the inside of the box, how to remove the cover. The process is completely unobvious.
Talk about the characteristics
I know that I like talking about the detailed characteristics of devices on the Habré, I myself gladly read similar texts, but I thought that in this recognition of my convenience of a smartphone in size and grip as its main characteristic, it would be strange to paint technical specifications. Is that in brief.
Initially, I had a version of Meizu MX based on the Samsung Exynos 4212 platform (dual-core processor, 1.4 GHz) with a gigabyte of RAM, which is enough for the eyes and 16 GB of memory for storing data. Here, of course, I made a serious sacrifice, switching from the iPhone 4 32 to the Meizu MX with 16 GB, but then there were no other options, it now has a new 4-core version with 32 or 62 GB of memory. Just recently, I sold my first Meizu MX and bought myself a MX 4-core with 64 GB of memory, but now I bite my nails, because there was information about the MX2 model, and when I changed one MX to another, I did not hear anything.
About the speed of the interface I will say this - it is not as smooth as in iOS, but it suits me (I used to). It seems to me that so far none of the Android smartphone manufacturers have such devices that could be compared to iOS by the smoothness of the interface. For me, it was an important opportunity to watch video with subtitles (anime) on the device, and MX has no problems with this - the smartphone plays an unconverted video, moreover, with support for external subtitles.
The eight-megapixel camera here has about the quality of about five megapixels in the original iPhone, that is, the picture size is certainly larger, but the overall quality is not high, it is not an iPhone 4S or Samsung Galaxy S II. I have enough, because I rarely take pictures on the phone at all, except maybe some cool moment or something for work if needed.
Working hours
I did not use modern Uber-devices on Android, which operate at an average load only until evening, and the first or second generation of devices were still quite good in terms of operating time, I think. I remember how I grumbled that my HTC Hero lasted just a day and a half. Meizu MX in this regard is somewhere in the middle, I listen to music on my smartphone, I watch one or two anime series a day, I read twitter, and of course there are calls. At the same time, the battery charge of my Meizu MX lasts for the whole day, but a couple of times there were still situations where it was discharged, not ending the day. I can not say that I am completely satisfied with the time, but what can I do?
Flyme os
And I also want to say a few words about Flyme OS. Apparently, the Chinese have decided that if we take the Apple iPhone as a basis for our smartphone, then not only in terms of design, but also the interface. I think so, because the Flyme OS shell is very similar to iOS, and when I give my Meizu MX to someone to see, no one understands right away that this is a smartphone on Android. There is no application menu, no list, no tiles, another notification bar (double), otherwise the menu and pop-up windows and so on are made. As a result, I got used to this shell, although at first I even put different shells from the Android Market (then it was still a normal name, and not like now, Google Play). It seems to me that there is a zest in this interface, especially if you are not a hardcore Android user who is used to a bare system.
findings
I have only one conclusion, you need to select a smartphone not only for technical parameters and trickyness, but also for such trivial and completely unaffected things in reviews like “like, it is convenient to hold in your hand and you don’t want to let go”. This is the effect that, in my opinion, so far only Apple manages to transfer from each previous “iPhone” to a new one - they all fit perfectly in the hand and don’t want to let them out. I do not know how things are with this in the iPhone 5, really. Other manufacturers have rare gaps, for example, I madly liked the HTC Hero, how it went into the hand, how convenient it was to talk, this unusual body bend - now the company does not do anything like that. Samsung had an interesting Wave series, more precisely, the first phone from it. I remember watching it somewhere in the store and wondered how cool and reliable it was, I almost even decided to buy it. But now these phones are very few and Meizu MX, it seems to me, is one of them. For example, on engadget.com in the review it was compared to the Xiaomi Mi-One, but I kept both devices in my hands and the impressions of Xiaomi are not at all the same - the feeling that you are holding a plastic rattle bought in the transition. Although technically smartphone is just great. With Meizu MX, everything is different - it has quite good characteristics (I am satisfied), but there are many compromises, such as a nonstandard display resolution, an inconvenient mechanism for removing the lid, the camera is “not a fountain”, but for me it all plays a secondary role, it is important that fast, working day and very comfortable in the hand, and also gives the impression of a very high-quality thing, just like the Apple iPhone.
Ps . If you found the text interesting or not useless, I can continue. I would like to talk about how I set up the MX for myself, because the Flyme OS shell, to be honest, didn’t suit me at all in some respects and had to change a lot, I would also like to share my view on the organization of working space on the screens and the required minimum of software, about the screen and other things. I apologize in advance for the quality of the photos and errors in the article, if you find them, I am not an expert in this, but I tried to write correctly.
Vladimir Kuskov
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/158531/
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