Is the Helio X25 in the Meizu Pro 6 really that weak ?

For many people the Meizu Pro 6 launch was quite a disappointment, because the revealed specs are somewhat weaker than expected. We have already covered the detailed comparison with the previous Pro 5 model and the step backwards is evident. But is the Helio X25 chipset used really that weak ?

Dedicated fans at Ifanr pitted the Helio X25 equipped Meizu Pro 6 against Samsung Note 5 with Exynos 7420 (same chipset as in Meizu Pro 5) and Oppo R9 Plus with Snapdragon 652 to find out the answer to that question. And seems like not everything is as bleak as the naysayers painted it.

First test in the obligatory Antutu benchmark 6.1.3 version showed pretty decent result for the Meizu Pro 6, but keep in mind the Samsung Note 5 is equipped with 2K resolution screen so the result is is a bit skewed.

Samsung Note5, OPPO R9 Plus, Meizu PRO6

Geekbench CPU benchmark have spitted out way more impressive numbers so it’s clear the Helio X25 is no slouch in the raw power department.

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Samsung Note5, OPPO R9 Plus, Meizu PRO6

Last but not least in the terms of important came the 3D Mark graphic torture test and the Mali-T880MP4 of Helio X25 falls flat against the older Mali-T760MP8 of the Exynos. In this test the real resolution of the screen doesn’t matter so the numbers can be compared more or less accurately. Another little concern is the temperature spike in full load for the Helio X25, nothing crazy bad, but still noticable.

Samsung Note5, OPPO R9 Plus, Meizu PRO6

So what’s the conclusion based on the tests above ? Well it seems like the Helio X25 is not as bad as many people are trying to paint it, but it’s undeniable its not much of an upgrade either. And when you factor in the usage of LPDDR3 and only eMMC5.1 memory instead of LPDDR4 and UFS2.0 memory in the previous Meizu highend model then it’s clear the new Meizu Pro 6 is an underwhelming newcomer right out of the gate.

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About the author
Martin Fabian
Tech & gadget enthusiast, expert in covering such areas with countless articles. Part of the Gizchina family since 2016 and counting.

Gnarnia
April 17, 2016
They are following Apple’s strategy… put a PRO after everything you make and try to fool the users. Unfortunately for Meizu, Android users are not so stupid
- illystor
  April 17, 2016
  I mean, really, they put a Pro before something.
- balcobomber25
  April 17, 2016
  Depends which Apple product. The i7 Macbook Pro is without a doubt more powerful than the regular Core M Macbook.

Tremaine Underwood
April 17, 2016
I just don’t see where this leaves the Mx6. If they put the X20 in it then there will be almost no difference in performance and if the Mx6 has a 5.5 inch screen and the same camera then it would be the much better choice at its price range. This thing should really have been the Mx6 with maybe a X30 powered Pro much later on. I really think they lost the plot with this phone.
- Martin Fabián
  April 17, 2016
  Well in my eyes the Pro 6 is more or less MX6 anyway, personally i still think (or hope) that this is not really the flagship Meizu model for this generation of their phones and we will get the “better” one in not-so-distant future.
  - Tremaine Underwood
    April 17, 2016
    I agree i also think there will be something bigger coming near the end of the year but the price is the problem then, it should have been more in line the MX series.
  - balcobomber25
    April 17, 2016
    I think if there is an MX6 it will be with the soon to be released Helios P20.
    - Joel Adames
      April 17, 2016
      I hope they do make that real a PRO 6 PRO or PRO PLUS hahaha so that they amend it to 5.7 display 4kBattery and the much hyped 6gbRam!!!
      - balcobomber25
        April 17, 2016
        I doubt they will use 4K, maybe 2k. But I would like to see a bigger model.
        Joel Adames
        April 17, 2016
        I meant 4k battery, sorry, basically 4000mag+ battery
        Joel Adames
        April 26, 2016
        The 4K was more about the battery size, sorry the missunderstanding

realjjj
April 17, 2016
That;s a bit of a copy paste from the Chinese press with nothing extra added.
Saying when you factor in DDR3 and eMMC without factoring it in is kinda weird isn’t it. All those benchmarks do factor in DDR3 , any task you run is impacted by the memory perf and that’s about it. It’s not a feature that you can use in any other way. As for eMMC, a shitty UFS can be worse so it needs proper testing. The Mi 5 for example has really low random write even if they brag about their fast storage.
On the big core side, the difference is far bigger than that score shows. http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench3/compare/6118250?baseline=5753920
The Pro 6 with the software sorted out should score like that. Over the Pro 5 in integer some 20% faster and in floating point almost 60% faster.You can average that to 40% faster. In multi core ,in practice, it depends on number of threads utilized by each app and throttling,as well as how each SoC manages the cores. So a lot of proper data would be needed for a conclusion.
On the GPU side,it’s all about how it throttles and that remains to be seen.
I do have an interesting video to share. The Pro 6 with PerfMon displaying the activity of the cores. Note how little is needed in UI or when scrolling and how the big cores are sleeping a lot This is why they got 10 cores and why the mid range is starting to be pretty good in both experience and battery life. Feel like going on another rant after the video…it’s the weekend and i get bored with so few news lol
https://youtu.be/oh1g4SGQCtM?t=961
CPU perf in mobile is getting to good enough. An A72 core on 7nm TSMC in 2018 might be about 0.5mm2 area and consume some 150mV or less at 2.5GHz- just some vague approximations. Point is that the small ARM core (A53) is targeted at such power levels and size. So by then , SoC makers might have 2 big cores with insane perf that are mostly for marketing and a bunch of small cores that provide A72 level of perf and enough perf for actual usage.Plus ,maybe some even smaller cores. CPU perf in phones is there, it is time to focus on lower power cores to allow more thermal room for the GPU, improve other areas and add some things.
- Assefa Hanson
  April 17, 2016
  o_0
- Lazar Prodanovic
  April 18, 2016
  This will come as a surprise as I usually don’t agree with you but this time around I do.
  Their is no single OoO design ARM made that can be even close in efficiency to in order ones. We still don’t really need 64 bit addressing in mobile space & by the looks of it the 64 bit ARM ISA eats 25% of the size of the core in the best case scenario (A35 compared to A25). We do need more efficient general purpose cores (CPU), do need more efficient GPU’s striped down from any compute capabilities & all that along with more efficient parallel computing units; DSP, FPGA’s with integrated DSP that are reprogram-able so that the functionality can be altered in the flight along with usage. Don’t have a high hopes on node/process shrinking.

xi7
April 17, 2016
new cpu kirin cloned
Assefa Hanson
April 17, 2016
side note i see gearbest selling the ulefone future for $257 so maybe the phone is maybe $200 or less??
- illystor
  April 17, 2016
  That’s not so much a side note as just a note on an entirely different thing oO
  - Assefa Hanson
    April 17, 2016
balcobomber25
April 17, 2016
The Mediatek demo devices of the X20 consistently score equal or better than the SD820 in Geekbench.
- xi7
  April 17, 2016
  disappointment still 29fps video record. and about cpu sd820 and exynos play games better than mediatek. low-end gpu
- Clippoz
  April 17, 2016
  Balco, don’t get me wrong, i perfectly know the path of MTK, i’ve been a fan of the platform for the past 2 years, they bring something new on the table that and this is good for the phone business, no matter what.
  MTK SoC are not cheap, but they have problems outside the Chinese territory (should not be a big deal for me, since i go outside of China only 1 month per year…but still..) most of them sadly related to network coverage – a problem more located in European market sadly-
  Then, we have the GPU, that this year is not actually on par with SD or Exynos (no, i’m not looking only on gaming side…i don’t play that much)
  Then DDR3 and eMMC…again?? that is the biggest bummer for me(probably the X25 can’t stand the new standards??)
  I know, that you know, that the Chinese market is not anymore populated by 90% crappy phones and 10% good ones..and sadly i don’t see the X25 being a major performer this year. (compared to the success of the X10 last year)
  My complains with the Pro6 are not only SoC related, again the X25 has it’s problems, but the X10 had it’s problems too last year…is the total package of the phones that, again, leaves me a bit disappointed…they did so well in the past year, and i feel that this Pro6 is a bit of a step back.
  Again i’m a bit disappointed..but i’m not saying that the Pro6 is bad..is just not on par with the Chinese competition in my opinion.
  - balcobomber25
    April 17, 2016
    Network problems aren’t related to Mediatek. Their modems support every network in the world, one of the main reasons Meizu is using this instead of the Exnyos. The problem is most Chinese phones only include the bands for Asia. That is on the OEMs not Mediatek.
    - Karly Johnston
      April 18, 2016
      It didn’t stop them from using Exynos last year on the Pro 5 which is a better phone today than the 6.
      - balcobomber25
        April 18, 2016
        Last year Mediatek didn’t have another SoC for them to use. They already used the X10 in the MX5. They won’t use Qualcomm so there was no choice but the Exnyos.
        As for the Pro 5 being a better phone it remains to be seen. The Pro 5 is a very good phone but until we see reviews of the Pro 6 we can’t really say one way or the other. Early reviews from China suggest it will be a very close race between the two.
- BubonicPlague
  April 17, 2016
  You may not know this, but MediaTek phones require EPO files for GPS which need to be updated monthly – something to do with satellite positioning – I dunno.
  The bad news is that the EPO server stalls while downloading the EPO files, so most users never get those EPO files. Moreover, one needs MobileUncle MTK tools or similar MTK engineering tools to actually do these things, and it requires root too and some tweaking expertise (if I recall correctly).
  But here is the real kicker – all of this doesn’t guarantee good GPS performance, but basically brings down the lock times from *never* to say, 30 minutes, that too when outdoors in a good signal zone.
  I have this experience from a Zopo phone with MT6589 and GPS never worked on it. All these new phones must be suffering similar problems, which is probably why the GPS functionalities are never shown.
  What a shame in 2016 – otherwise I agree that MTK processors offer decent value for money in Android basic features, like screen transitions, app drawer render with lots of apps and light day-to-day usage (less background apps otherwise it will stutter).
  - balcobomber25
    April 17, 2016
    This is precisely what I am talking about. You just made my point for me. Mediatek used to suffer from terrible GPS performance like with the chip you just mentioned. The newer Mediatek chips have very good GPS.
    - BubonicPlague
      April 17, 2016
      I don’t understand (English not my first language) – you say terrible performance and agree to my point, then you say very good GPS. What is your point exactly. I can post my video of my old Zopo with Xiaomi Mi4 side by side – it is a comparison my friend.
      - balcobomber25
        April 17, 2016
        You’re old Zopo uses a Mediatek chip from 2013. Those older chips had terrible GPS performance. The 64 bit chips changed that starting with the MT6732 and MT6752 (both released towards the end of 2014). Every chip released since then has had no issues with GPS.
    - BubonicPlague
      April 17, 2016
      Ah, you said “newer”. I missed it. So which chip onwards did the GPS improve? And are EPO files still needed for good performance?
      Anyway, I will never buy a MediaTek phone again, having suffered a lot with the Zopo MT6589. 🙁
      - yalok
        April 18, 2016
        I was also very disappointed by MT6589T, but when I tested a device with MT6795 (helio x10), I was amazed by it’s GPS quality. Even better than SD801! The only issue for me with MTK now is not so many good quality custom ROMs or sometimes none at all.
        
        Rockafeller
        April 18, 2016
        What are you smoking? MT6795 better than SD 801? Just like Trump is better than Sanders? Nice one.
        Don’t comment on tech that you don’t understand much better than the Kardashians would, you Sub-Kardashian wannabe tech authority.
        MediaTek GPS sucks ba.lls.
- Lazar Prodanovic
  April 18, 2016
  If you truly compare X20-X25 to any other SoC that have a Quad cluster of big cores it will lose either in heavy task switching (from game to another one or from game to heavy app) or in apps that can use 4 threads (very small number can). On the other hand in apps (99% of them) that will use only two cores it will be ahead or tied (depending on nominal frequency with same cores). Still using two quad A53 clusters is simply idiotic.
  I am not really into the MHz race nor useless core caunt I am really looking with a joy to upcoming A25 cores that are only 32 bit ARMv8 cut down 64 bit ISA. They are 25~30% slower than A53 but also 50% smaller & about 11% more efficient than A7 wile being a little faster. On the other end they share same advanced SIMD (NEON block) like A53’s, A35’s that is actually 2X faster than those used on A7. Simply I see it as something that can deliver satisfactory level of performance wile saving power.

Rob
April 17, 2016
I don’t think anyone doubts the CPU in this thing is good, as always with MT it’s a weak GPU that always let them down. Still think they should use less CPU cores and more GPU ones to create a much better balanced chip.
- Joel Adames
  April 17, 2016
  Rob, the deal is that maybe we want to much from MTK I know for sure that they have full network support and only the phone manufacturers activate certain bands depending on the markets they intend to sell like what Gionee does when they sell to allView and Blu and Qnoir. All with different bands but the same device and same Chips. I’m very happy with my X10 PURE XL and it has yet to fail any game I’ve thrown at it and I have 2gb+ heavy games so I guess that what MTK is looking after is for all around performance/convenience/price and by going the route of not so many cores in the GPU department they try to save some $$$.
  I do wish to see a MTK X25 with T-880 mp12 as Sammy but I know that’s not going to happen.
  - Rob
    April 17, 2016
    I haven’t had any problems with mine either but if they want to enter the high end market that Quallcomm and Samsung occupy they need to improve the gpu and if that means spending a few $`s more then so be it. You can’t do flagship on the cheap!
    - balcobomber25
      April 17, 2016
      I don’t think Mediatek really cares about a spec war with Qualcomm or Samsung. They like making chips that have a good combination of performance/affordability. For the average consumer they don’t really know the difference between different GPU’s most couldn’t even tell you what is or isn’t inside their phone. It’s just harcore geeks like us that know that stuff.
      - Lazar Prodanovic
        April 18, 2016
        MTK is not actually charging a lot less per gate (caunt)/lithography proces than QC. MTK is so afraid from Chinese concurrency, much more than anyone else. Spreadtrum is their current worst nightmare & Spreadtrum at least for now are doing a much more decent job not begin a cheap basterd’s like MTK.
      - xcerty
        August 25, 2017
        hey fellow hardcore geek
    - Joel Adames
      April 17, 2016
      I don’t think think they are after the high end. We make assumptions, as they know really what is nessesary to make a proper competitor but they CHOOSE NOT to do it. So we have to live with it. The last PRO at 5.7″ screen had 3050mah battery I think maybe they said “let’s make it smaller screen so we get thinner phone from a smaller battery” I think we will see good SOT times because those 4 cores on the lower clusters should help the thing economic.
  - Karly Johnston
    April 18, 2016
    MP12 has three times the shader cores, X25 needs to be at least half the gpu of current flagships.
  - Lazar Prodanovic
    April 18, 2016
    Try with Dolphine emulator to see it fall badly.
    I am not really for huge GPU clusters (same goes for CPU’s) but more optimized ones for the job (resolution) as that way you will get good performance paired with good power consumption. Now imagine if they at least used GX6250 instead 6200 which is power optimized version of the same (up to 40% less power consumption). I do have a high hopes for newly announced Power VR’s but we won’t see them at least until next year.

Moose
April 17, 2016
I think Meizu had little choice but to use a Mediatek processor because Mediatek made a substantial investment in Meizu.
- Clippoz
  April 17, 2016
  Actually Meizu chose the MTK SoC because of network coverage.
  Exynos is not “optimized” for China, expecially with China Telecom Sim Cards (that are quite a bit here) on the other hand MTK is made for this market.
- balcobomber25
  April 17, 2016
  It had to do with both the investment and the Chinese networks. Exnyos doesn’t have support for CDMA 2000 which is used by one of the 3 largest network providers in China.

Sapiderman
April 17, 2016
its kinda weird decision since it isnt much faster than predecessor (or even slower in some part)
its fine if they sell pro6 much cheaper than SD820 equipped Xiaomi’s Mi5… but no 🙁
- Clippoz
  April 17, 2016
  Pro 6 sadly is not cheaper than the Mi5 🙁
  I live here in China, Mi5 starts at 1999RMB Pro 6 starts at 2499RMB
  It’s kind of a bummer sadly..i was expecting a bit more…but i’ll wait a full review before taking a decision.
  - balcobomber25
    April 17, 2016
MattD
April 17, 2016
It’s not “weak” by itself, but it’s not the flagship soc we would expect this year, and surely not at this price point…
Karly Johnston
April 17, 2016
Sami Luo did a full review on YT and his unit only scored 62k in Antutu. Obviously it wouldn’t score that low unless there was serious throttling taking place. We need to carefully check thermal tests before placing an order.
- Joel Adames
  April 17, 2016
  It would be necessary to dig a lot into that as most of people and places I’ve seen have showed 95,000+ scores… The guy Realjjj up there had it at 100,000+ points so it would be good to check if they were using a powered down version or something…
  That’s just not normal for heating alone.
  - MaxPower
    April 17, 2016
    Realjjj is very biased when it’s about Meizu and Mediatek.
    I wouldn’t take everything as granted.
    - realjjj
      April 17, 2016
      Oh man , you are as always miles away from any kind of sanity. Bias my ….If anything i am mostly negative on Meizu , i hate home buttons, folks that go without microSD disgust me and i do not favor Pentile. This device is even worse with a large footprint, no OiS , a small battery ( but not terrible battery life) and a somewhat high price.The wifi is likely not 2×2 but that’s an assumption. Not a fan of the headphone jack at the bottom either.
      As for Mediatek or any other SoC maker i have always been nothing but objective. Huawei sucked before, now they have maybe the best option. I bashed MTK for going 8xA53 in the P20. I blasted them for the x25 branding and exclusivity and i’ll have no mercy if thing throttles hard. And yes i do think that the marketing GPUs some are selling are not the way to go. As for Kryo , it’s not that fast or efficient and anyone that can be bothered to compare it with A72 on 16ff+ can see that. Bias is when you like something or hate something for no valid reason,like you love Xiaomi.
      Here you miss even the entire damn point and just attack me, unprovoked i might add. I can troll you too if you keep this up. Joel Adames was likely referring to a vid i linked, not to show some Antutu score ( i would never do that) but to show CPU load in UI and scrolling.
      And don’t bother responding, i don’t read anything you have to say, here i just had to say something in response to your slanderous remarks.
      - MaxPower
        April 17, 2016
        Lol, you don’t bother reading what I say but then you read my response to somebody else and bother yourself writing as well.
        I don’t love Xiaomi as much as you hate it, since you have made sure to comment how every single device of them are overpriced and there’s something out there better and cheaper (the pepper???)
        What about this Pro 6? Everybody said it’s overpriced but you, and that’s very singular.
        When Xiaomi sux I have no problem saying it. I have said several times that the Note 3 Pro that I own is crap. I have said several times that the new MI5 isn’t good at all.
        
        balcobomber25
        April 17, 2016
        I also haven’t said it’s ovepriced. 😉
        But I also pay $500+ for Gionee’s so I am no the best judge of prices lol.
        
        MaxPower
        April 17, 2016
        So am I, I’ve been saying things for what they are.
        The MI5 has been a disappointment and the Note 3 Pro that I own has a really buggy software and I’m still waiting for the unlock code.
        Right now I would not suggest any of my friends to go with the new Xiaomi phones.
        Maybe the Redmi 3 isn’t that bad… Maybe
        balcobomber25
        April 17, 2016
        I did however buy a Mipad 2 a few weeks ago. I love it. I have owned hundreds of phones but this is only my second tablet. I had the 2012 Nexus 7 and now this.
        MaxPower
        April 18, 2016
        I’m considering the MI Pad 1, it’s going very cheap lately.
        I don’t need a tablet but for that price it’s worth it
        
        balcobomber25
        April 18, 2016
        Yea when I was shopping for my Mipad 2 I saw several of the 1’s for $150 or less. I think I ended up paying around $220 for the 2 after shipping and buying a case. I only use my tablets for movies and a few games so I didn’t need amazing specs. I looked a the Pixel C and was very tempted but just too much for what I use it for.
        MaxPower
        April 18, 2016
        Actually you can find it as low as $130. Very tempting
        
        balcobomber25
        April 18, 2016
        I seriously considered getting the original. The only reason I chose the 2 was for the weight and design.
        Adam Irvine
        April 18, 2016
        Which one did you go for Balco, Windows or Android?
        And maybe you can give a solid answer to this…
        Does it have HDMI out via the USB-C?
        balcobomber25
        April 18, 2016
        I went for Android, I love MIUI. I can check the HDMI out for you.
        
        Adam Irvine
        April 18, 2016
        Ye if you could please 🙂
        I’d go for the Android one myself too, I recently killed a Teclast x80h by flashing the ‘incorrect’ bios so I’m on the lookout for a replacement…
        If the MiPad 2 can do HDMI out then it would fit the bill nicely 🙂
        Muhammad Yasir
        April 18, 2016
- - MattD
    April 17, 2016
    Well, with the previous version of antutu in was supposed to score more thanks to cpu scores, i guess… Anyway, there’s no doubt you’re right, there’s something extremely odd about that low score (unless x20 has serious throttling issues)
  - Assefa Hanson
    April 17, 2016
    do you speak chinese balco?
    - balcobomber25
      April 17, 2016
      I know very very basic Mandarin. I used to do a lot of business in China (one of the reasons I know so much about Chinese phones) and I have a lot of friends in China and Taiwan so they often translate for me lol.
      - Assefa Hanson
        April 17, 2016
    - Joel Adames
      April 17, 2016
      I don’t understand crap about Chinese but went to see the videos anyways I’m pretty good at figuring out by what a regular REVIEW goes by.
  - Muhammad Yasir
    April 18, 2016
    - balcobomber25
      April 18, 2016
Gnarnia
April 17, 2016
They are following Apple’s strategy… put a PRO after everything you make and try to fool the users. Unfortunately for Meizu, Android users are not so stupid
- illystor
  April 17, 2016
  I mean, really, they put a Pro before something.
- balcobomber25
  April 17, 2016
  Depends which Apple product. The i7 Macbook Pro is without a doubt more powerful than the regular Core M Macbook.
Tremaine Underwood
April 17, 2016
I just don’t see where this leaves the Mx6. If they put the X20 in it then there will be almost no difference in performance and if the Mx6 has a 5.5 inch screen and the same camera then it would be the much better choice at its price range. This thing should really have been the Mx6 with maybe a X30 powered Pro much later on. I really think they lost the plot with this phone.
- Martin Fabián
  April 17, 2016
  Well in my eyes the Pro 6 is more or less MX6 anyway, personally i still think (or hope) that this is not really the flagship Meizu model for this generation of their phones and we will get the “better” one in not-so-distant future.
- Tremaine Underwood
  April 17, 2016
  I agree i also think there will be something bigger coming near the end of the year but the price is the problem then, it should have been more in line the MX series.
- balcobomber25
  April 17, 2016
  I think if there is an MX6 it will be with the soon to be released Helios P20. But I also woudn;t be surprised to see a Pro 6 Plus (would be epic if it was Pro 6 Pro) with a 5.7 inch display.
- Joel Adames
  April 17, 2016
  I hope they do make that real a PRO 6 PRO or PRO PLUS hahaha so that they amend it to 5.7 display 4kBattery and the much hyped 6gbRam!!!
- balcobomber25
  April 17, 2016
  I doubt they will use 4K, maybe 2k. But I would like to see a bigger model.
- Joel Adames
  April 18, 2016
  I meant 4k battery, sorry, basically 4000mag+ battery
- Joel Adames
  April 26, 2016
  The 4K was more about the battery size, sorry the missunderstanding

realjjj
April 17, 2016
That;s a bit of a copy paste from the Chinese press with nothing extra added.
Saying when you factor in DDR3 and eMMC without factoring it in is kinda weird isn’t it. All those benchmarks do factor in DDR3 , any task you run is impacted by the memory perf and that’s about it. It’s not a feature that you can use in any other way. As for eMMC, a shitty UFS can be worse so it needs proper testing. The Mi 5 for example has low sequential and random write (eMMC 5.0 levels) even if they brag about their fast storage.
On the big core side, the difference is far bigger than that score shows. http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench3/compare/6118250?baseline=5753920
The Pro 6 with the software sorted out should score like that. Over the Pro 5 in integer some 20% faster and in floating point almost 60% faster.You can average that to 40% faster. In multi core ,in practice, it depends on number of threads utilized by each app and throttling,as well as how each SoC manages the cores. So a lot of proper data would be needed for a conclusion.
On the GPU side,it’s all about how it throttles and that remains to be seen.
I do have an interesting video to share. The Pro 6 with PerfMon displaying the activity of the cores. Note how little is needed in UI or when scrolling ( clock and % load) and how the big cores are sleeping a lot This is why they got 10 cores and why the mid range is starting to be pretty good in both experience and battery life. Feel like going on another rant after the video…it’s the weekend and i get bored with so few news lol

realjjj
April 17, 2016
CPU perf in mobile is getting to good enough. An A72 core on 7nm TSMC in 2018 might be about 0.5mm2 area and consume some 150mV or less at 2.5GHz- just some vague approximations. Point is that the small ARM core (A53) is targeted at such power levels and size. So by then , SoC makers might have 2 big cores with insane perf that are mostly for marketing and a bunch of small cores that provide A72 level of perf and enough perf for actual usage.Plus ,maybe some even smaller cores. CPU perf in phones is there, it is time to focus on lower power cores to allow more thermal room for the GPU, improve other areas and add some things.
- Assefa Hanson
  April 17, 2016
  o_0
- Lazar Prodanovic
  April 18, 2016
  This will come as a surprise as I usually don’t agree with you but this time around I do.
  Their is no single OoO design ARM made that can be even close in efficiency to in order ones. We still don’t really need 64 bit addressing in mobile space & by the looks of it the 64 bit ARM ISA eats 25% of the size of the core in the best case scenario (A35 compared to A25). We do need more efficient general purpose cores (CPU), do need more efficient GPU’s striped down from any compute capabilities & all that along with more efficient parallel computing units; DSP, FPGA’s with integrated DSP that are reprogram-able so that the functionality can be altered in the flight along with usage. Don’t have a high hopes on node/process shrinking.

xi7
April 17, 2016
Just disappointment weak MP4 and rest of design cloned
Assefa Hanson
April 17, 2016
side note i see gearbest selling the ulefone future for $257 so maybe the phone is maybe $200 or less??
- illystor
  April 17, 2016
  That’s not so much a side note as just a note on an entirely different thing oO
- Assefa Hanson
  April 17, 2016
  lol i have to agree lol

balcobomber25
April 17, 2016
The Mediatek demo devices of the X20 consistently score equal or better than the SD820 in Geekbench. The current Geekbench results show the Pro 6 and Mi 5 being neck and neck, the Mi5 is slightly better in single core performance, the Pro 6 is better in multicore.
People are judging the X25 because of the Mediatek name. To many it is still the cheap chip maker with poor GPS that is only used in budget phones. Many don’t know how much Mediatek has improved in the past 2 years.
- xi7
  April 17, 2016
  disappointment still 29fps video record. and about cpu sd820 and exynos play games better than mediatek. low-end gpu
- Clippoz
  April 17, 2016
  Balco, don’t get me wrong, i perfectly know the path of MTK, i’ve been a fan of the platform for the past 2 years, they bring something new on the table that and this is good for the phone business, no matter what.
  MTK SoC are not cheap, but they have problems outside the Chinese territory (should not be a big deal for me, since i go outside of China only 1 month per year…but still..) most of them sadly related to network coverage – a problem more located in European market sadly-
  Then, we have the GPU, that this year is not actually on par with SD or Exynos (no, i’m not looking only on gaming side…i don’t play that much)
  Then DDR3 and eMMC…again?? that is the biggest bummer for me(probably the X25 can’t stand the new standards??)
  I know, that you know, that the Chinese market is not anymore populated by 90% crappy phones and 10% good ones..and sadly i don’t see the X25 being a major performer this year. (compared to the success of the X10 last year)
  My complains with the Pro6 are not only SoC related, again the X25 has it’s problems, but the X10 had it’s problems too last year…is the total package of the phones that, again, leaves me a bit disappointed…they did so well in the past year, and i feel that this Pro6 is a bit of a step back.
  Again i’m a bit disappointed..but i’m not saying that the Pro6 is bad..is just not on par with the Chinese competition in my opinion.
- balcobomber25
  April 17, 2016
  Network problems aren’t related to Mediatek. Their modems support every network in the world, one of the main reasons Meizu is using this instead of the Exnyos. The problem is most Chinese phones only include the bands for Asia. That is on the OEMs not Mediatek.
- Guest
  April 17, 2016
  You may not know this, but MediaTek phones require EPO files for GPS which need to be updated monthly – something to do with satellite positioning – I dunno.
  The bad news is that the EPO server stalls while downloading the EPO files, so most users never get those EPO files. Moreover, one needs MobileUncle MTK tools or similar MTK engineering tools to actually do these things, and it requires root too and some tweaking expertise (if I recall correctly).
  But here is the real kicker – all of this doesn’t guarantee good GPS performance, but basically brings down the lock times from *never* to say, 30 minutes, that too when outdoors in a good signal zone.
  I have this experience from a Zopo phone with MT6589 and GPS never worked on it. All these new phones must be suffering similar problems, which is probably why the GPS functionalities are never shown.
  What a shame in 2016 – otherwise I agree that MTK processors offer decent value for money in Android basic features, like screen transitions, app drawer render with lots of apps and light day-to-day usage (less background apps otherwise it will stutter).
- balcobomber25
  April 17, 2016
  This is precisely what I am talking about. You just made my point for me. Mediatek used to suffer from terrible GPS performance like with the chip you just mentioned. The newer Mediatek chips have very good GPS.
- Guest
  April 17, 2016
  I don’t understand (English not my first language) – you say terrible performance and agree to my point, then you say very good GPS. What is your point exactly. I can post my video of my old Zopo with Xiaomi Mi4 side by side – it is a comparison my friend.
- Guest
  April 17, 2016
  Ah, you said “newer”. I missed it. So which chip onwards did the GPS improve? And are EPO files still needed for good performance?
  Anyway, I will never buy a MediaTek phone again, having suffered a lot with the Zopo MT6589. 🙁
- balcobomber25
  April 17, 2016
  You’re old Zopo uses a Mediatek chip from 2013. Those older chips had terrible GPS performance. The 64 bit chips changed that starting with the MT6732 and MT6752 (both released towards the end of 2014). Every chip released since then has had no issues with GPS. Using a Helio X10 (MT6795) I get a lock in under 10 seconds.
- yalok
  April 18, 2016
  I was also very disappointed by MT6589T, but when I tested a device with MT6795 (helio x10), I was amazed by it’s GPS quality. Even better than SD801! The only issue for me with MTK now is not so many good quality custom ROMs or sometimes none at all.
- Guest
  April 18, 2016
  What are you smoking? MT6795 better than SD 801? Just like Trump is better than Sanders? Nice one.
  Don’t comment on tech that you don’t understand much better than the Kardashians would, you Sub-Kardashian wannabe tech authority.
  MediaTek GPS sucks ba.lls.
- Karly Johnston
  April 18, 2016
  It didn’t stop them from using Exynos last year on the Pro 5 which is a better phone today than the 6.
- Lazar Prodanovic
  April 18, 2016
  If you truly compare X20-X25 to any other SoC that have a Quad cluster of big cores it will lose either in heavy task switching (from game to another one or from game to heavy app) or in apps that can use 4 threads (very small number can). On the other hand in apps (99% of them) that will use only two cores it will be ahead or tied (depending on nominal frequency with same cores). Still using two quad A53 clusters is simply idiotic.
  I am not really into the MHz race nor useless core caunt I am really looking with a joy to upcoming A25 cores that are only 32 bit ARMv8 cut down 64 bit ISA. They are 25~30% slower than A53 but also 50% smaller & about 11% more efficient than A7 wile being a little faster. On the other end they share same advanced SIMD (NEON block) like A53’s, A35’s that is actually 2X faster than those used on A7. Simply I see it as something that can deliver satisfactory level of performance wile saving power.
- balcobomber25
  April 18, 2016
  Last year Mediatek didn’t have another SoC for them to use. They already used the X10 in the MX5. They won’t use Qualcomm so there was no choice but the Exnyos.
  As for the Pro 5 being a better phone it remains to be seen. The Pro 5 is a very good phone but until we see reviews of the Pro 6 we can’t really say one way or the other. Early reviews from China suggest it will be a very close race between the two.

Rob
April 17, 2016
I don’t think anyone doubts the CPU in this thing is good, as always with MT it’s a weak GPU that always let them down. Still think they should use less CPU cores and more GPU ones to create a much better balanced chip.
- Joel Adames
  April 17, 2016
  Rob, the deal is that maybe we want to much from MTK I know for sure that they have full network support and only the phone manufacturers activate certain bands depending on the markets they intend to sell like what Gionee does when they sell to allView and Blu and Qnoir. All with different bands but the same device and same Chips. I’m very happy with my X10 PURE XL and it has yet to fail any game I’ve thrown at it and I have 2gb+ heavy games so I guess that what MTK is looking after is for all around performance/convenience/price and by going the route of not so many cores in the GPU department they try to save some $$$.
  I do wish to see a MTK X25 with T-880 mp12 as Sammy but I know that’s not going to happen.
- Rob
  April 17, 2016
  I haven’t had any problems with mine either but if they want to enter the high end market that Quallcomm and Samsung occupy they need to improve the gpu and if that means spending a few $`s more then so be it. You can’t do flagship on the cheap!
- balcobomber25
  April 17, 2016
  I don’t think Mediatek really cares about a spec war with Qualcomm or Samsung. They like making chips that have a good combination of performance/affordability. For the average consumer they don’t really know the difference between different GPU’s most couldn’t even tell you what is or isn’t inside their phone. It’s just harcore geeks like us that know that stuff.
- Joel Adames
  April 18, 2016
  I don’t think think they are after the high end. We make assumptions, as they know really what is nessesary to make a proper competitor but they CHOOSE NOT to do it. So we have to live with it. The last PRO at 5.7″ screen had 3050mah battery I think maybe they said “let’s make it smaller screen so we get thinner phone from a smaller battery” I think we will see good SOT times because those 4 cores on the lower clusters should help the thing economic.
- Karly Johnston
  April 18, 2016
  MP12 has three times the shader cores, X25 needs to be at least half the gpu of current flagships.
- Lazar Prodanovic
  April 18, 2016
  Try with Dolphine emulator to see it fall badly.
  I am not really for huge GPU clusters (same goes for CPU’s) but more optimized ones for the job (resolution) as that way you will get good performance paired with good power consumption. Now imagine if they at least used GX6250 instead 6200 which is power optimized version of the same (up to 40% less power consumption). I do have a high hopes for newly announced Power VR’s but we won’t see them at least until next year.
- Lazar Prodanovic
  April 18, 2016
  MTK is not actually charging a lot less per gate (caunt)/lithography proces than QC. MTK is so afraid from Chinese concurrency, much more than anyone else. Spreadtrum is their current worst nightmare & Spreadtrum at least for now are doing a much more decent job not begin a cheap basterd’s like MTK.
- eghr
  August 25, 2017
  hey fellow hardcore geek
Moose
April 17, 2016
I think Meizu had little choice but to use a Mediatek processor because Mediatek made a substantial investment in Meizu.
- Clippoz
  April 17, 2016
  Actually Meizu chose the MTK SoC because of network coverage.
  Exynos is not “optimized” for China, expecially with China Telecom Sim Cards (that are quite a bit here) on the other hand MTK is made for this market.
- balcobomber25
  April 17, 2016
  It had to do with both the investment and the Chinese networks. Exnyos doesn’t have support for CDMA 2000 which is used by one of the 3 largest network providers in China.

Sapiderman ✓ᶰᵒᵗ ᵛᵉʳᶦᶠᶦᵉᵈ
April 17, 2016
its kinda weird decision since it isnt much faster than predecessor (or even slower in some part)
its fine if they sell pro6 much cheaper than SD820 equipped Xiaomi’s Mi5… but no 🙁
- Clippoz
  April 17, 2016
  Pro 6 sadly is not cheaper than the Mi5 🙁
  I live here in China, Mi5 starts at 1999RMB Pro 6 starts at 2499RMB
  It’s kind of a bummer sadly..i was expecting a bit more…but i’ll wait a full review before taking a decision.
- balcobomber25
  April 17, 2016
  On resellers you actually can find it the same or cheaper than the Mi5.

MattD
April 17, 2016
It’s not “weak” by itself, but it’s not the flagship soc we would expect this year, and surely not at this price point…
Karly Johnston
April 17, 2016
Sami Luo did a full review on YT and his unit only scored 62k in Antutu. Obviously it wouldn’t score that low unless there was serious throttling taking place. We need to carefully check thermal tests before placing an order.
- Joel Adames
  April 17, 2016
  It would be necessary to dig a lot into that as most of people and places I’ve seen have showed 95,000+ scores… The guy Realjjj up there had it at 100,000+ points so it would be good to check if they were using a powered down version or something…
  That’s just not normal for heating alone.
  Maybe running only in the lower 2 clusters of cores.
- MaxPower
  April 17, 2016
  Realjjj is very biased when it’s about Meizu and Mediatek.
  I wouldn’t take everything as granted.
- realjjj
  April 17, 2016
  Oh man , you are as always miles away from any kind of sanity. Bias my ….If anything i am mostly negative on Meizu , i hate home buttons, folks that go without microSD disgust me and i do not favor Pentile. This device is even worse with a large footprint, no OiS , a small battery ( but not terrible battery life) and a somewhat high price.The wifi is likely not 2×2 but that’s an assumption. Not a fan of the headphone jack at the bottom either.
  As for Mediatek or any other SoC maker i have always been nothing but objective. Huawei sucked before, now they have maybe the best option. I bashed MTK for going 8xA53 in the P20. I blasted them for the x25 branding and exclusivity and i’ll have no mercy if this thing throttles hard. And yes i do think that the marketing GPUs some are selling are not the way to go. As for Kryo , it’s not that fast or efficient and anyone that can be bothered to compare it with A72 on 16ff+ can see that. Bias is when you like something or hate something for no valid reason,like you love Xiaomi.
  Here you miss even the entire damn point and just attack me, unprovoked. I can troll you too if you keep this up. Joel Adames was likely referring to a vid i linked, not to show some Antutu score ( i would never do that) but to show CPU load in UI and scrolling.
  And don’t bother responding, i don’t read anything you have to say, here i just had to say something in response to your slanderous remarks.
- MaxPower
  April 17, 2016
  Lol, you don’t bother reading what I say but then you read my response to somebody else and bother yourself writing as well.
  I don’t love Xiaomi as much as you hate it, since you have made sure to comment how every single device of them are overpriced and there’s something out there better and cheaper (the pepper???)
  What about this Pro 6? Everybody said it’s overpriced but you, and that’s very singular.
  When Xiaomi sux I have no problem saying it. I have said several times that the Note 3 Pro that I own is crap. I have said several times that the new MI5 isn’t good at all.
- balcobomber25
  April 17, 2016
  Gizmostek did a full review on YT and scored over 100,000 in Antutu.
- balcobomber25
  April 17, 2016
  This place did a review and scored 99,000
- balcobomber25
  April 17, 2016
  All of the other reviews are similar to these two scoring between 99-105K. Sami was either had a firmware problem or was using an older version of Antutu.
- balcobomber25
  April 17, 2016
  While I agree with your point just about every review I have seen so far (all of them in Chinese) have the Pro 6 scoring between 99,000 and 105,000. Meaning the one she is referencing is the extreme outlier. Either he was running an older firmware or he was using Antutu 5.
- balcobomber25
  April 17, 2016
  I also haven’t said it’s ovepriced. 😉
  But I also pay $500+ for Gionee’s so I am no the best judge of prices lol.
  As for Xiaomi no has been a bigger fan than myself over the years, but I haven’t been impressed with any of their recent phone releases. The best one IMO is the Mi4s but it is priced way to high.
- Adam Irvine
  April 17, 2016
  What’s crap about the Note 3 Pro out of curiosity?
- MaxPower
  April 17, 2016
  Poor software mostly. Very buggy
- MaxPower
  April 17, 2016
  The SoC belongs at that league, I have said in a old comment that Helio X20/25 goes neck to neck with Snapdragon and Exynos except for GPU, LTE and documentation.
  I found hilarious that he’s there taking about price (I’ve heard from him $60 for Snapdragon 820 and $20 for the Helio)
  Right…like he knows the price of them and still he takes time to point how overpriced any Xiaomi is and forget to mention how this one is (especially considering how cheap Mediatek is comparing to Qualcomm).
- MattD
  April 17, 2016
  Well, with the previous version of antutu in was supposed to score more thanks to cpu scores, i guess… Anyway, there’s no doubt you’re right, there’s something extremely odd about that low score (unless x20 has serious throttling issues)
- balcobomber25
  April 17, 2016
  Yea I laugh when he mentions prices. Especially since there is no 1 set price that every company pays. Xiaomi who buys 10 million+ chips and who has Qualcomm as an investor is paying less than say Ulefone who might buy 10,000 chips (if they used Qualcomm).
- MaxPower
  April 17, 2016
  So am I, I’ve been saying things for what they are.
  The MI5 has been a disappointment and the Note 3 Pro that I own has a really buggy software and I’m still waiting for the unlock code.
  Right now I would not suggest any of my friends to go with the new Xiaomi phones.
  Maybe the Redmi 3 isn’t that bad… Maybe
- balcobomber25
  April 18, 2016
  I did however buy a Mipad 2 a few weeks ago. I love it. I have owned hundreds of phones but this is only my second tablet. I had the 2012 Nexus 7 and now this.
- Assefa Hanson
  April 18, 2016
  do you speak chinese balco?
- balcobomber25
  April 18, 2016
  I know very very basic Mandarin. I used to do a lot of business in China (one of the reasons I know so much about Chinese phones) and I have a lot of friends in China and Taiwan so they often translate for me lol.
- Joel Adames
  April 18, 2016
  That’s what I though too.
- Joel Adames
  April 18, 2016
  I don’t understand crap about Chinese but went to see the videos anyways I’m pretty good at figuring out by what a regular REVIEW goes by.
- Assefa Hanson
  April 18, 2016
- Guest
  April 18, 2016
  Very Buggy software ? argh damn big time
  I am actually still waiting for xiaomi Redmi Note 3 pro to be available again at Mi online Singapore. My current china phone already got battery problem and this model already discontinue so no more they selling the battery online.
  Redmi note 3 pro is the only smartphone that i think is affordable for me and it does have a very good spec. I do prefer QUALCOMM as normally they always release their source code to public so i got option to choose cyanogen or other android that is more cleaner than MIUI.
  Mediatek SOC is cheap and fast but software wise not so good (not optimize) and future android upgrade is almost zero percent.
  Xiaomi only did 1 flash sale months ago and that time also the first time they announced redmi note 3 pro availability to Singapore. But all the units were selling like peanuts. Damn i was so stupid thinking that Xiaomi finally will have unlimited stock or at least a reasonable big qty. I didn’t book online order at that time *crying*
  Now you mentioned the sotware is very buggy and my heart sunk. What other choice do i have now.
- Ricardo A.
  April 18, 2016
  Is not that much! Only found problems with auto rotate, auto brightness and once with fingerprint (doesn’t recognize so I deleted the fingerprint and put it again) but I like the phone, hate that damn locked boatloader, really don’t want to unlock till is safe. But the phone is OK, battery is good, camera is average, screen is OK.
- MaxPower
  April 18, 2016
  I’m considering the MI Pad 1, it’s going very cheap lately.
  I don’t need a tablet but for that price it’s worth it
- Adam Irvine
  April 18, 2016
  That’s really strange because I’ve ordered and received 4 in the last month for friends and family and they’re all loving them!
  The only thing I had to do to each one was flash the original Miui onto them because it would seem that Gearbest flash a strange rom on them before they go out, which doesn’t get OTAs…
  Flashing the original Miui 7.1.7 then gets OTAs…
  All good though!
- MaxPower
  April 18, 2016
  Maybe I’ve been too rough or maybe what I consider a very annoying bug won’t be the same for somebody else.
  Fingerprint scanner didn’t work all the time so I disabled it.
  There’s a bug of the switch from portrait to landscape mode:
  Often it gets stuck in a mode and even of you turn your phone it won’t switch back.
  Also, the microphone stops working, so it gets annoying on a Skype video call. I find this one very annoying since I video call every day.
  Another bug is video playback on a browser:
  Some videos like the one on Facebook (I use chrome and not their app) don’t start at all.
  YouTube videos embedded into a website are extremely choppy and impossible to watch unless you open them into a YouTube app.
  It might be some bug with HTML5.
  If you can live with these bugs then the phone is fine.
  They really bother me and I’m considering to switch very soon.
- MaxPower
  April 18, 2016
  Look below, I’ve just replied to the other guy.
- Karly Johnston
  April 18, 2016
  Mi5 yes, RN3 Pro not really. Xiaomi hasn’t optimized M yet but 5.1 runs well.
- Karly Johnston
  April 18, 2016
  I had the mic bug, none of the others.
- Adam Irvine
  April 18, 2016
  Which one did you go for Balco, Windows or Android?
  And maybe you can give a solid answer to this…
  Does it have HDMI out via the USB-C?
- Ionut Johnny
  April 18, 2016
  I have the International software and I have 0 bugs and problems, works fluid, I like the camera,its good on auto too but I need to learn how to set up it accordingly to take the best shots, anyway it’s the best I have used ever.
- MUG3NHC
  April 18, 2016
  No problems with mine either. I’m happy with the camera too.
- MUG3NHC
  April 18, 2016
  Don’t have any of those apart from occasional rotation problem. Toggling it on and off fixes it tho.
- MUG3NHC
  April 18, 2016
  Got one as well. Brilliant tablet:)
- Ionut Johnny
  April 18, 2016
  Sorry to hear that but I don’t have any of the problems above, all works great here, with the International firmware.
- Lazar Prodanovic
  April 18, 2016
  That is actually becoming usual & peple do run to get a phone with newest Android version.
- Lazar Prodanovic
  April 18, 2016
- Lazar Prodanovic
  April 18, 2016
  Looks like a lot of problems associated with media codec’s, formats & config. They did rush it & most of advanced capabilities for QDSP 680 are disabled. Thanks for the info.
- Avinash kumar
  April 18, 2016
  The hardware sure is powerful and in general the device is smooth .I didn’t see any screen rotation delays . But the camera is crap , so is the music output . The biggest downside is ui with launcher redraws , apps moving out of memory . DONT buy the 2 GB version . I sold it in 1 week. I can only say it’s lost potential , some light ui with SD 650/652 would run circles around 2015 flagships.
  P.S. I am amazed with letv 1s and X10 chipset . It can keep so many apps in memory and is very fluid . I had a few mediatek chips before but they were strictly mid tier .Either X10 or letv EUI , it simply works .Agreed the gpu is underpowered but anything else it sure is right up there.
- balcobomber25
  April 18, 2016
  I went for Android, I love MIUI. I can check the HDMI out for you.
- MaxPower
  April 18, 2016
  I have the Chinese stable version.
  I can’t get to download the international version because I’m still waiting for the unlock code for the bootloader
- MaxPower
  April 18, 2016
  The problem is mostly the audio going off while doing it, and it always happens when I’m on important calls through Skype.
- balcobomber25
  April 18, 2016
  Yea when I was shopping for my Mipad 2 I saw several of the 1’s for $150 or less. I think I ended up paying around $220 for the 2 after shipping and buying a case. I only use my tablets for movies and a few games so I didn’t need amazing specs. I looked a the Pixel C and was very tempted but just too much for what I use it for.
- MaxPower
  April 18, 2016

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