Meizu has officially announced the Meizu M3 Note mid-ranger today at an event in Beijing, China. The phone is everything we expected it to be, and even better, thanks to a larger than expected battery on board. Before we move on to the specs of the device, which are quite impressive, let’s take a look at the pricing. Meizu has surprised us all by pricing the Meizu M3 Note at just 799 Yuan ($123) for the base variant (2GB RAM + 16GB ROM) and 999 Yuan ($154) for the higher-end model (3GB RAM + 32GB).
Now, let’s take a look at the features of the M3 Note.
First of all, Meizu had abandoned the traditional polycarbonate body on the Blue Charm series in favor of metal on the new M3 Note. This makes the phone look much more premium and good looking than its predecessors. Coming to the specs, the Meizu M3 Note features a 5.5-inch 1080p LTPS display up front, same as the previous versions. There will be two variants, one with 2GB RAM + 16GB storage and another with 3GB RAM + 32GB ROM. The company reveals that these are eMMC 5.1 storages which is a lot faster than previous versions.
Under the hood, the phone features the Helio P10 octa-core chipset, which is slightly under clocked as compared to the OPPO R9. So, it’s clocked at 1.8GHz instead fo 2GHz. There will be Mali-T760 GPU on board. At the back, the M3 Note comes with a 13MP camera sensor with f/2.2 aperture, PDAF and 5 element lens. Up front, there is a 5MP f/2.0 shooter. Like other Meizu phones, this particular device will feature dual SIM cards, but SIM2 slot is hybrid which means you can use it for MicroSD cards as well. As for the software, the phone runs on Android 5.1 out of the box with Flyme UI on top. The company reportedly has worked with Mediatek to make the UI on the phone smoother.
Continuing its tradition of using mBack buttons, Meizu has upgraded the home button up front with mTouch 2.1 fingerprint sensor which can unlock the phone in just 0.48 seconds. During the launch, the company mocked OPPO of using the same oval button design as Meizu. But OPPO’s fingerprint sensor is faster (unlocks in 0.2 seconds). The M3 Note measures 8.2mm in thickness and inside this body, the company has managed to pack in a large 4100mAh battery. The company claims that this battery is good enough for 17 hours of video playback and 32 hours of talktime. Also, the phone weighs 163 grams and supports VoLTE.
The phone will be available in three colors, namely Silver, Gold and Gray. Both the versions will go on sale for $123 and $154 respectively on April 11 via the company’s own website as well as other notable retailers in China.
Meizu is yet to reveal international release plans for the Meizu M3 Note.
Apart from the new smartphone, the company also unveiled a new Bong 2P fitness tracker that retails for 79 Yuan ($13) independently and 60 Yuan ($10) as a bundled option with the M3 Note. The fitness tracker boasts of a 40-day battery life, which is impressive.
Then there’s the EP51 Bluetooth headphones that boast of 6 hours of battery life, omni directional microphone, nano waterproof material and super light weight body. The headphones will retail for 269 Yuan ($41) independently or at 199 Yuan ($31) with the M3 Note.
