Today was the day many of us had been waiting for, the launch of the Meizu MX4 Pro, here are the complete specifications and hands on photos.
To launch so late in the year and behind their main rivals in China, Oppo, OnePlus, Xiaomi, Huawei etc, is a risk. Not only does the Meizu flagship have to out do those phones already on the market, but also next years replacements (the Oppo Find 9 must only be a few months away), and we think the MX4 Pro has what it takes to keep fighting well in to next year.
Meizu have once again gone for a different choice in processor than many tech gurus would have expected. The Samsung Exyno 5430 octacore chipset in the Meizu MX4 Pro is a huge improvement over the chip in the Meizu MX3, Meizu claim the GPU performance is up to 130% better for example, however many fans were hoping for the newer, more powerful Exyno 5433 found in the Samsung Galaxy Note 4. We’re not sure why Meizu took this step, although it surely cost less, but we are confident the processor will handle that new ultra-high resolution without to much of a worry. We’ll post some benchmarks later, but as we all know by now its the real world testing where things really matter.
The Meizu MX4 Pro is slightly larger than the MX4, with a bigger 5.5-inch display and thicker 2.8mm screen bezels but the overall width is only 77mm, pretty impressive for a 5.5-inch phone. The screen takes up 76.5% of the front of the MX4 Pro which is only slightly less than the MX4.
A higher resolution panel, 2560 x 1536, has the MX4 Pro ahead of most of the current flagship phones on the market and boasts an impressive pixel density of 546ppi. The new panel uses NEGA negative LCD with an LED backlight to help keep battery drain down while optimising visibility. Panel Self Refresh (PSR) also helps to keep battery consumption to a minimum.
Speaking of battery life, Meizu have wisely gone for a larger 3350mAh battery. Meizu are claiming a day and half of battery life from the MX4 Pro with LTE, we will soon find out if that is accurate. LTE is compatible with FDD-LTE and TD-LTE. There is also 3G and GSM too, but we are waiting to see which bands and frequencies.
The extra width of the MX4 Pro allows room for the larger battery, and also helps to squeeze in the new home button/fingerprint scanner combo and a whole host of exciting audio equipment.
Starting with the security on the MX4 Pro, Meizu have developed the new MX Touch system which compromises of a sapphire glass protected home button with stainless steel bezel and fingerprint scanner. Pressing the home button brings the fingerprint scanner to life. The MX4 Pro will decide if you are the owner of the phone in around 500 milliseconds. To ensure that your data is kept safe Meizu say that the whole system is encrypted and store in ARM TrustZone safe zones.
As you can tell from the teaser images and theme of the MX4 Pro launch, the Meizu MX4 boasts plenty of impressive audio hardware. An OPA1612 operation amplifier has been built-in to the MX4 Pro to maximise dyanamic range with utralow distortion and a high slew rate. Linked to that is an ESS 9018 DAC chip which should please even the most demanding audio enthusiasts.
Other improvements include a new 5 mega-pixel front camera to compliment Flyme 4.0’s very clever beautification feature, with F2.2 aperture and pixel size of 1.4 μm, and RAM has been updated to 3GB RAM to ensure everything runs smoothly even when when multi-tasking.
The rest of the hardware remains similar to the MX4 with FDD-LTE, TD-LTE, WCDMA, GSM support, dual band WIFI, 20.7 mega-pixel Sony rear camera, Flyme 4.0 based on Android 4.4.4 and a choice of 3 colours.
The MX4 Pro will come with either 16GB or 32GB internal memory at a retail price of 2499 Yuan. International release details have not been annouced.
Have you tried the fingerprint sensor? Is it as good as the one in Huawei Mate 7?
unlocks fast. but it does take a while around 8-10 taps for the initial setup to scan and save a new finger. (Max of 5) but after that its all sweet, tap and go in any direction.