The Meizu MX is a
smartphone
A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...
designed and produced by the
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
manufacturer
Meizu Technology, which runs on a modified
Android
Android may refer to:
Science and technology
* Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human
* Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system
** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...
operating system, dubbed as
Flyme OS
Meizu Technology Co., Ltd. () is a Chinese consumer electronics manufacturer based in Zhuhai, Guangdong. Founded in 2003 by Jack Wong, Meizu began as a manufacturer of MP3 players and later MP4 players. In 2008, Meizu moved its focus to smartph ...
. It is the company's second Android-based smartphone, after the
Meizu M9.
The MX is Meizu's first smartphone to be released outside mainland
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
, as its launch also happened in
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
at the same time, on January 1, 2012.
Since the development phase, Meizu announced that the MX would come in a
dual-core
A multi-core processor is a microprocessor on a single integrated circuit with two or more separate processing units, called cores, each of which reads and executes program instructions. The instructions are ordinary CPU instructions (such a ...
and a
quad-core
A multi-core processor is a microprocessor on a single integrated circuit with two or more separate processing units, called cores, each of which reads and executes program instructions. The instructions are ordinary CPU instructions (such a ...
model, the second being due to be released later than the first. This made Meizu the first company to announce a quad-core smartphone and, later, the first to announce an
Exynos 4-based smartphone, beating the
Samsung Galaxy S III
The Samsung Galaxy S III (or Galaxy S3) is an Android smartphone designed, developed, and marketed by Samsung Electronics. Launched in 2012, it had sold more than 80 million units overall, making it the most sold phone in the S series. I ...
in marketing time (even though the latter went on sale first).
The MX was the first Meizu phone to achieve extensive coverage on
tech blogs and
websites
A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Wikipe ...
outside China because of its features comparable to the
flagship phones of major
mobile phone manufacturers
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* Mobile County, Alabama
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. Thanks to the good reception, rumors stated the MX could arrive on Western markets.
History
Design
The first rumors about a successor of the Meizu M9 leaked out in Q4 2010, even before M9's official launch itself, suggesting that a so-called M9II phone was in development, with a dual-core processor, 4-inch screen and 1 GB of
RAM.
Initially, this phone was supposed to look almost identical the M9, although with upgraded hardware, and some media thought it could have been a competitor in China to the
iPhone 5, rumored to be in development, as happened with the
Meizu M9.
In mid-April 2011 Meizu officially confirmed that the company was developing the phone, along with declaring that its name would be MX (M10, following the company's product name numeration). In this period the MX was attributed a
Retina
The retina (from la, rete "net") is the innermost, light-sensitive layer of tissue of the eye of most vertebrates and some molluscs. The optics of the eye create a focused two-dimensional image of the visual world on the retina, which then ...
-like display resolution (1280x854 or 1200x900 pixels),
which is not the one of the production models' display.
The device's final design, price and release date. were changed many times, as happened before
with the M9.
Release
Pre-order
A pre-order is an order placed for an item that has not yet been released. The idea for pre-orders came because people found it hard to get popular items in stores because of their popularity. Companies then had the idea to allow customers to r ...
s for the dual-core MX started on December 15, 2011, and granted a guarantee to receive the phone exactly on January 1, 2012, the day that official distribution started through the company's
flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...
stores (in China and Hong Kong).
On launch day many customers waited for their turn outside the stores, forming queues (not as long as the ones for the M9 though); some reports claim that Meizu wanted to avoid attracting big crowds (for a matter of public order), so the customers who pre-ordered the devices were invited to arrive at the store only after receiving a phone confirmation. Even so, people started arriving the night before January 1.
Meizu assured that production and
supplies would be able to meet customers' demand by 2012
Chinese New Year's Day (January 23), advising people to order the MX as soon as possible to receive it by that date.
Meanwhile, the quad-core version was rumored to be going on sale around mid-2012 and on April 16, 2012, it was officially announced that it would start selling in June.
Meizu, in partnership with
PCCW Mobile, held a launch party in Hong Kong on June 25, 2012, formalizing the release date of the MX 4-core: June 30. On that day many customers went to pick up their new phone at Meizu stores, resulting some cities running out of stock the same day.
On July 14 a new, improved dual-core model was released, replacing the old model in Meizu's product lineup. It features a 32 nm
SoC, a bigger capacity battery and an improved Wi-Fi module.
Features
Models
The Meizu MX is available in two variants, differing primarily for the
system on a chip
A system on a chip or system-on-chip (SoC ; pl. ''SoCs'' ) is an integrated circuit that integrates most or all components of a computer or other electronic system. These components almost always include a central processing unit (CPU), memory ...
they use: one model uses an
Exynos 4 Dual 32 nm with a dual-core 1.4
GHz ARM Cortex-A9 CPU
A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU performs basic arithmetic, logic, controlling, and ...
, an ARM
Mali 400 quad-core
GPU and 1
GB of
RAM, while the other model, named MX 4-core, uses the Exynos 4 Quad 32 nm with a quad-core 1.4 CPU (the other characteristics being equal). Meizu declares that the Exynos 4 Quad used by the MX 4-core model has a CPU 60% faster and a GPU 50% faster, compared to the previous model, while at the same time consuming 20% less battery.
The dual-core model is equipped with a 16 GB
flash memory
Flash memory is an electronic non-volatile computer memory storage medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. The two main types of flash memory, NOR flash and NAND flash, are named for the NOR and NAND logic gates. Both us ...
for internal storage, while the quad-core model is available with either a 32 GB or a 64 GB memory.
The current dual-core model was preceded by another one, currently discontinued, which used a battery 100 mAh less powerful than the one mounted on the quad-core model, had a display with lower contrast and a Wi-Fi module with poorer reception. The present dual-core model has been updated with the corresponding components from the 4-core variant. ''(See the
Launch and sale section for further information)''
Hardware and design
The Meizu MX has a plastic body with a Gorilla Glass display cover; it measures x x and weighs . It has a classic
candybar shape, being rectangular with rounded corners, and presents only one central physical button at the front, like many modern touchscreen smartphones. The MX features also two
situation aware capacitive
A capacitor is a device that stores electrical energy in an electric field by virtue of accumulating electric charges on two close surfaces insulated from each other. It is a passive electronic component with two terminals.
The effect of a c ...
keys (which are also
haptic enabled), a technology patented by Meizu; these
soft key
A soft key is a button flexibly programmable to invoke any of a number of functions rather than being associated with a single fixed function or a fixed set of functions. A softkey often takes the form of a screen-labeled function key located al ...
s have different functions based on the device's orientation and functions.
The front of the phone, including the key and the metal border around it, is completely black, and so is the internal
chassis
A chassis (, ; plural ''chassis'' from French châssis ) is the load-bearing framework of an artificial object, which structurally supports the object in its construction and function. An example of a chassis is a vehicle frame, the underpart ...
, while the back cover is available in five different colors (
pure white,
ivory white,
misty pink,
lilac purple and
milky lime). These covers are made from double-layer plastics: the bottom one is colored and the top one is transparent, giving the back a
glossy finish, similarly to other smartphones like the
Samsung Galaxy S III
The Samsung Galaxy S III (or Galaxy S3) is an Android smartphone designed, developed, and marketed by Samsung Electronics. Launched in 2012, it had sold more than 80 million units overall, making it the most sold phone in the S series. I ...
and the Huawei Honor.
The MX features a 4-inch diagonal, 960x640 pixel (
DVGA resolution)
ASV multi-touch
In computing, multi-touch is technology that enables a surface (a touchpad or touchscreen) to recognize the presence of more than one somatosensory system, point of contact with the surface at the same time. The origins of multitouch began at CER ...
capacitive touchscreen
A touchscreen or touch screen is the assembly of both an input ('touch panel') and output ('display') device. The touch panel is normally layered on the top of an electronic visual display of an information processing system. The display is often ...
display, with an
aspect ratio of 3:2, supporting up to
16 million colors and with a
pixel density
Pixels per inch (ppi) and pixels per centimetre (ppcm or pixels/cm) are measurements of the pixel density of an electronic image device, such as a computer monitor or television display, or image digitizing device such as a camera or image scanner. ...
of 288 ppi.
In addition to the touchscreen input and the front keys, the device has a volume/zoom control on the right side and the power/lock button on the top. The MX doesn't have a camera shutter key, but it is possible to capture a photo using the volume key or by swiping a finger on the proximity sensor (via a software update).
The Meizu MX has a
VGA
Video Graphics Array (VGA) is a video display controller and accompanying de facto graphics standard, first introduced with the IBM PS/2 line of computers in 1987, which became ubiquitous in the PC industry within three years. The term can now ...
front-facing camera and an 8.0
MP camera on the back. The main camera has a
backside illuminated CMOS sensor
An active-pixel sensor (APS) is an image sensor where each pixel sensor unit cell has a photodetector (typically a pinned photodiode) and one or more active transistors. In a metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) active-pixel sensor, MOS field-effec ...
with
autofocus; the optics have an aperture of f/2.2 and the macro focus is capable of clearly capturing objects as close as 5–10 cm. The software settings includes support for
geotagging, smile detection,
panorama mode and
wide dynamic range
In photography and videography, multi-exposure HDR capture is a technique that creates extended or high dynamic range (HDR) images by taking and combining multiple exposures of the same subject matter at different Exposure (photography), exposu ...
.
Reception
The MX4 received generally positive reviews.
Engadget gave the MX a score of 74 out of 100 possible points and praised the sharp display, great audio quality and good build quality.
See also
*
Meizu
Meizu Technology Co., Ltd. () is a Chinese consumer electronics manufacturer based in Zhuhai, Guangdong. Founded in 2003 by Jack Wong, Meizu began as a manufacturer of MP3 players and later MP4 players. In 2008, Meizu moved its focus to smartph ...
*
Meizu M8 phone
*
Meizu M9 phone
*
Meizu MX3
The Meizu MX3 is a smartphone designed and produced by the China, Chinese manufacturer Meizu, which runs on Flyme OS, Meizu's modified Android (operating system), Android operating system. It is a previous phablet model of the MX series, succeedi ...
phone
*
Comparison of smartphones
Notes
References
Meizu MX4
External links
{{Meizu, smartphones=yes, MP3=yes
Android (operating system) devices
Mobile phones introduced in 2011
Meizu smartphones
Discontinued smartphones