Meizu’s M3 Note is shaping up to be a budget phone to want to own, but it is also shaping up to be a rival to Meizu’s own Meizu Metal range!
From leaks so far we have discovered that the new Meizu M3 Note will feature a new all alloy body rather than plastic, we have also seen that the budget smartphone could also have a fingerprint scanner in the home button, a 5.5-inch display, and Mediatek Helio P10 chipset plus larger 3500mA battery. All these features sound great, but don’t they also sound very similar to what the Meizu Metal range offers?
Gizchina News of the week
If the current specs hold true then Meizu will be competing not only with the likes of LeTV, Lenovo and Xiaomi in the mid-range smartphone market, but also with their own Meizu Metal and upcoming Meizu Metal 2. This sounds like an odd position to be in but Meizu have been in it before when they launch the original Meizu Metal last year, that shared many of the same features of the Meizu MX5 (including metal body, processor and screen size).
What makes this even more odd is the face a new teaser for the Meizu M3 Note reveals that the price could be just 1099 Yuan! A significant price as its the exact same RRP as the Meizu Metal.
Odd movements at Meizu but perhaps there is a method to their madness?
Hopefully it costs a lot less, it won’t sell at all well ay 1099CNY. ,Anyway, first benchmarks showed up http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench3/5930866
I think it will still sell reasonably at that price. M2 Note if it wasn’t direct from Meizu was going for a similar price through Tmall, JD etc a few months back, and the Metal seemed to do just fine at that price point. Sure it’s not going toe-to-toe with the most affordable of the Redmi Note 3 variants at that price, but I think Meizu actually, from conversations I’ve had here, has a bit of a better perception around it here in China than Xiaomi. Maybe they are gambling a little on not getting into an all-out race to the bottom.
The Metal got a price cut to 999CNY a while ago and Xiaomi is not the only competitor that matters.
I’m basing things on what I see around me on the streets here. I’ve, for instance, only seen one LeTV device in someone’s hands. Huawei’s bigger devices and the Honor flagships seems to do fine, but the lower cost Honor devices I’ve scarcely seen. Vivo here and there, but really, outside of iPhones, the overwhelming majority of devices I see are Meizu or Xiaomi. Sure, it’s purely anecdotal, but that’s what I’ve seen.
I am guessing you are in China. Because everytime I go to China I see more people using Xiaomi, Meizu and Oppo than any other brands.
Yep, Hangzhou. I completely glossed over Oppo in my head (which is funny, doesn’t seem that long ago I was ogling the Find 5 in all its beauty) but you’re not wrong, the Rs seem to be pretty common.
The problem with oppo is they can build amazing hardware but they charge too much for it in comparison to meizu & xiaomi and colourOS is garbage.
Yeah. The Find 5 way back when was… probably the best looking Android device on the market in its era. It was leaps and bounds ahead of the designs of any of the major international flagships. And the Oppo Find 7, and it’s… half brother the OnePlus One were both very nice phones, though the OPO sort of stole its thunder a bit. The problem is since then it’s all been essentially phones using similar components to the domestic competition, but in pricier packages. Bring me a Find 9 to get excited about again!
Is there any real need for a meizu metal 2?
Last year they were forced by xiaomi redmi note 2 which, as we all know, completely changed the game in the middle range segment… But this year xiaomi already did its move, and by choosing a snaodragon soc they kinda “freed” meizu from a direct competition in the mediatek-based phones… So I don’t see that much of a need for a metal 2, unless they’re planning of putting it between the meilan and mx series both in specs and price
Yeah, I think the only reason the Metal was released under the name it was, was because they didn’t want to cannibalize M2 Note sales and turn people off the existing range. I don’t see the Metal having a successor with the same branding.
Flop sales guaranteed with that price IMO.
The Meizu M2 Note was a nice phone in every way except for the display which was a fingerprint magnet. Let’s hope the M3 Note is better in this department.
Meizu should get that price down
The Metal was a reactionary phone to the RN3, which no one expected. Meizu had just released the Note 2 and needed something to compete. I doubt we will see a Metal 2, I think the Metal and MX line will be merged into one upper midrange phone.
but the price :/
It probably should be closer to $140/150 and will be after a price cut.
The Metal released a month before Redmi Note 3 and just 2 months after Redmi Note 2.
Developing a phone from scraps takes more than a couple of months.
I meant Note 2 got my numbers mixed up. Meizu needed an X10 budget/midrange phone to compete.
I believe they fused the note and metal series instead, so to put more distance between note and mx, but the conclusion is the same: most likely we won’t see metal 2.
The Metal also could have been an experiment to see how Yun OS Flyme would work out.
yes, quite possible.
Question for you Balco on different subject (sorry): was looking at specs for Zopo Speed 8. “Devicespecifications” lists one of the sensors as a Magnetometer. Is this the same as an electronic compass? Thanks!
Yes it’s another name for a digital compass.
that is ABSURD pricing :/ !
what are you doing meizu !
Odd move obviously given the metal, but then again xiaomi has made similar moves before. I get he impression meizu is now just trying to keep the releases going in direct response to xiaomi mainly. Also while I don’t mind mediatek their cpu’s age very quickly because of the weaker GPU’s, would like to see meizu use more than 1 chip manufacturer. The thing is with meizu as well is they need to start taking their position globally more seriously I think. In my mind the are a top 5 android manufacturer in terms of build quality and design now days. They have in many ways eclipsed both LG and HTC. Look at the shitstorm with the G5 currently going on. Meizu is making better value, better built and better looking metal devices at a fraction of the cost of LG and HTC. Flyme remains the best looking android skin period and its not a clunky bulky, gimmicky joke like miui or touchwiz. The multiple use home button design is in my mind more intuitive than the android three button layout and they never received as much recognition as they should have for that. They also use quality audio DACS in their devices. They need to simply focus on bug squashing, better software updates and get more LTE bands in and improve cameras with OIS and low apertures and then they will be on samsungs level. They are already better than samsung and LG and HTC in terms of the visual looks of their software and arguably flyme is lighter and more streamlined than sense/touchwiz/LG etc etc.