Brief history of Meizu: from MP3 player to smartphone

Now, Meizu is known as a manufacturer of smartphones, but ten years ago, in 2003, for Meizu, everything started from completely different devices — multimedia MP3 / MP4 players. Over the ten-year history of existence, the most important devices produced by the company have become portable MP3 players Meizu M3 MusicCard, M6 MiniPlayer, as well as smartphones M8, M9, MX and MX2. Let's follow along the path that the company has gone from its first simplest music player to the modern MX2 smartphone, which is capable of carrying with devices from well-known companies.




The first half of the material is based on the article “The Brief of Meizu company, from MP3 player to Smartphone” , supplemented and revised, the second half is written by meizu
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Meizu mx

The first player, released under the brand name Meizu, was the model Meizu MX, it was back in 2003, when the company came into being and planned to deal only with MP3 players. The player, resembling a small bar, had 512 MB of flash-memory, a recording function and a small LCD screen with blue backlighting; then, of course, the Meizu brand didn’t have any fame. Few people know, but that “the very first player from Meizu” was in fact a full copy of the player released a year earlier from the Korean company Cowon - the iAudio CW300 model. The copying was so obvious that the reproaches of users fell in the direction of Meizu and, as we see now, this very first lesson went in favor. Later, the company no longer allowed such an obvious copy, and then the development path chosen, which included a small model range and the use of only high-quality components and components, then bore fruit and the love of portable-audio users.

Meizu me

In March 2004, a second audio player, Meizu ME, was released. This model was no longer a copy of anything and laid the foundation for the company's success by making it recognizable among Chinese users. The player was equipped with a small LCD screen, built-in flash memory of 126/256/512 MB, worked on the Sigmatel 3520 chipset, was powered by a single AAA battery or battery, and had a typical joystick control unit that was used more than once in Meizu.

Meizu mi

Then, in March 2004, Meizu Mi appeared on the market, the first player of the company with an unusual body shape, designed for girls. From the previous model, the control unit and a similar display, as well as all other functions, are preserved - only the design was different.


Image from: mxapk.com

Meizu e2

In September 2004, Meizu E2 saw the light, very similar to the ME model. By the way, at that time, Meizu had not yet been engaged in the production of the player independently, but ordered them from manufacturers along with other brands. So Meizu E2 was not the only one, he had complete analogs, for example, the model Onda VX505.


Image from: mxapk.com

Meizu x2

In January 2005, the company introduced the popular model Meizu X2. This player is distinguished by a strict design, right angles and smooth lines, the model was designed for a male audience. The player's case was made of an aluminum alloy, which was polished and oxidized, as a result of which an oxide-aluminum layer was formed on the case, giving the device beauty and protecting the player from wear. The maximum amount of flash-memory in this player was already equal to 1 GB.

Meizu e5

In April 2005, Meizu E5 appeared on the market - a huge step forward for the company. There were several new features in this player at once: support for FM radio, an alarm clock, the ability to read texts on a 6-line screen, the ability to update the firmware. The control in the player was also unusual - a rotating wheel was used with an independent central key inside, with its help it was convenient to scroll through the text or tracks. The characteristic features of previous models remained: a voice recorder and a display of lyrics. The player played music for 40 hours from a single AA-battery charge, at that time such an indicator of autonomy was impressive.

Meizu x6

In April 2005, Meizu X6 appeared - one of the first players of the company, sold outside of China. In this model, there were also features characteristic of previous players: voice recorder, FM radio and a joystick as the main control element. The X6 featured a futuristic design with bright blue backlighting around the perimeter of the joystick and an OLED screen. The body of the player was made of metal.

Meizu e3

In August 2005, the classic model Meizu E3 appeared. The main factor for the success of this player, as in the case of ME, was the use of a high-quality chip from a well-known brand - Philips Nexperia PNX0102. The rest of the player resembled the very first devices of the company - the same case in the form of a bar, control with the help of a joystick, only the screen here was no longer used LCD, but OLED. Before the advent of E3, Unika, HACHA, OPPO were already on the market, sharing the main segments of the MP3 device segment, but even though E3 appeared later than the aforementioned devices, it became the most popular MP3 player in the domestic market at that time.

Meizu x3

In November 2005, the company released a fashionable X3 device. There were no features other than a bright design.

Meizu e3c

In February 2006, the company introduced the Meizu E3c model with a color screen. The seamless anodized metal frame and the front and back panels, made with a minimum number of connections, have become part of the very laconic design of the novelty.

Meizu MiniPlayer (M6)

In May 2006, Meizu showed the world one of its iconic models, which made the brand world-famous in circles of fans of audio players - Meizu MiniPlayer. The device was designed for playing music, games, viewing photos and videos, audio recording. It also had the functions of a radio, an e-book and a disk drive, which made the MiniPlayer a versatile multimedia device of its time. The output of this model just coincided with the fashion on PMC (Personal Media Center), but, unlike the classic PMC, the player from Meizu was compact and light.



As regards MP4-players, namely Meizu MiniPlayer (M6) belonged to this category of devices, the company was one of the pioneers of the market. The rest of the Chinese brands began to release their MP4-players after Meizu. However, Xvid support, a high-quality QVGA screen, a unique design and a proprietary control system that is controversial in terms of convenience, but no less original, and the use of metal — all of these elements made the MiniPayer one of the most famous MP4 players of its time. The model was sold in many countries, including Russia, where it was known under the brands Ritmix (player RF-9200) and Powerman (XL850).

Later, in 2007, Meizu will release an update of this model called Meizu M6SL - the new player was about 3 mm thinner than the original model, equipped with a slightly less capacious battery (600 mAh vs. 750 mAh in M6), but had a matte cover, which significantly reduced her wear. It was the brilliant cover of the M6 ​​that was one of the main problems of the original model, in which it was worth removing the protective film from the screen and the cover - the surfaces were immediately covered with a grid of the smallest, but numerous scratches.


Image from: mobile-review.com

Reviews:
China is coming! Powerman XL-850 Flash Player Review (ferra.ru)
Powerman XL-850 Media Player (ixbt.com)
Meizu M6 MP3 Player Review (mobile-review.com)

Meizu MusicCard (M3)

March 2007 was the time of the release of the Meizu MusicCard - Meizu's Chinese response to Apple iPod Nano 1G / 2G players. A unique feature of this device was the design, as well as a very thin body, the use of aluminum and a proprietary control system. Fans of uncompressed audio player also had to be remembered, in 2007, apart from Meizu and Cowon, few offered the market omnivorous compact players that support such rare formats as WMA Losless, Flac and APE.



Reviews:
Media Player Ritmix RF-7400 (ixbt.com)
Meizu Music Card MP3 Player Review (Ritmix RF-7400) (mobile-review.com)

Meizu m8

In February 2009, Meizu introduced its first phone - the Meizu M8. As in the case of Apple, for the company it was the first experience of creating such a device. At the same time, rumors that Meizu was preparing its own phone began to appear on the network in early 2007, since then various concepts and options have been presented, but almost until the last moment no one knew what the Meizu M8 would be in the end. The first phone of the company worked on the Windows CE 6.0 operating system, more precisely on the CE kernel, the interface was made by Meizu developers from scratch, as well as individual applications: a telephone client, mail, and so on. At that time, it was one of the most serious reworkings of the interface, comparable to what HTC did, completely changing the look and feel of the familiar Windows Mobile OS with the HTC TouchFLO.


Image from: mobile-review.com

Externally, the Meizu M8 resembled an Apple iPhone, and, functionally and technically, the actual communicators of the time were based on Windows Mobile. For its time, the Meizu M8 turned out to be a truly unique smartphone, and the point is not that it was based on the design of the Apple iPhone and the Windows CE platform unused for communicators and phones. The fact is that for the first time a brand unknown to anyone at that time released a device capable of bearing phones from eminent brands, for Meizu, the release of the M8 was a major event. After this smartphone attitude to the company around the world has seriously changed for the better, besides, the name Meizu just became much more famous than before the appearance of the M8.


Image from: mobile-review.com

Reviews:
Chinese "iPhone" Meizu M8 - Review (exler.ru)
Meizu M8 (habrahabr.ru)
Review of GSM-phone Meizu M8 (mobile-review.com)

Meizu m9

However, naturally, the development of smartphones on Windows CE in Meizu did not continue, because 2010 was the first year when the Android platform was already firmly striding the planet after its launch in 2008-2009. It took several years for Meizu to develop an Android smartphone, and finally, in January 2011, the company introduced its first smartphone on this platform, the Meizu M9. From the point of view of design and dimensions, the M9 was a direct continuation of the previous model, it also looked like an Apple iPhone, although it was made of a more practical matte plastic, unlike the M8, which used glossy black plastic. The smartphone was equipped with a high-quality display with a resolution of 960x640 pixels, had a good sound and an up-to-date platform.



The device was based on the Android 2.2 OS with a lot of changes, in general, the Meizu M9 interface was a little like the classic Android: it did not have the usual menu of programs, and all applications were placed directly on the desktops (as in iOS), but there was a convenient lock screen with the ability to quickly jump to calls or messages, and other features. The main thing is what set this smartphone apart from other models of that time - attention to detail, starting with the original packaging and ending with individual interface elements.

Reviews:
A detailed review of the Android-smartphone Meizu M9 (gagadget.com)
Meizu M9 Review: Noble Chinese (itc.ua)
Review of GSM / UMTS-smartphone Meizu M9 (mobile-review.com)

Meizu mx

Exactly one year later, in January 2012, the next smartphone of the company, Meizu MX, saw the light. The most successful and already truly widely known outside of China, suffice it to say that reviews on this model were published on the world's largest resources devoted to portable electronics: Engadget, Gsmarena, Phonearena, Slashgear, and many others.



Externally, the new smartphone again looked like an Apple iPhone, but this time only from the front, the cover in the MX was made of a two-layer plastic with a matte white base and a transparent upper layer. The smartphone was equipped with a high-quality screen with an ASV matrix from Sharp, an 8 megapixel camera and worked on the basis of the Samsung dual-core platform, one of the most productive for that time. Inside was Android, completely redesigned, the new interface was named Flyme OS and the company continued to develop the old ideas of maximum simplicity, which Meizu based on its first phone, the M8.

Reviews:
Review of the smartphone Meizu MX (itc.ua)
Review of GSM / UMTS-smartphone Meizu MX (mobile-review.com)

Meizu MX review (engadget.com)
Meizu MX review: Amaze U (gsmarena.com)
Meizu MX Review (phonearena.com)

Meizu MX 4-core

Following the Meizu MX, in the first half of 2012, its quad-core version appeared, which differed only in a more productive platform and versions with a large amount of internal memory (32 and 64 GB).


Image from: mobile-review.com

Reviews:
Review of GSM / UMTS-smartphone Meizu MX 4-core (mobile-review.com)
Review Meizu MX 4-core: original smartphone level Galaxy S 3 (mobiltelefon.ru)

Meizu MX 4-core review (engadget.com)
Meizu MX 4-core review: Twice the power (gsmarena.com)

Meizu MX2

The new flagship of the company, Meizu MX2, was introduced on November 27 in Beijing, this is a logical development of the previous model, MX, the design was changed, the diagonal and display resolution was increased, the new platform was installed and the Flyme interface was redesigned, the control was changed and the camera was improved.

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Review Meizu MX2 in the process of preparation, in the comments (or in the profile meizu ) you can leave questions on a new smartphone and express what you want to see in the MX2 review, what information on the device is most relevant and important for you, what tests or measurements are required .

I remind you that you can also find all the news on the official Russian site Meizu , and on the forum you can ask questions on our smartphones and get hints from device owners.