Chinese Spring Festival is drawing closer and as a result, many smartphone manufacturers have kickstarted their promotional sales during which period there is usually a huge reduction in prices. Meizu has joined the fray today, as the company has announced its New Year deals with a  reduction of up to 300 yuan and even 400 yuan in some cases, applicable to some of its smartphones.

From the announcement, Meizu smartphones which fall among the price reduction include; the Meizu MX6 which got a 200 yuan slash in its price, coming down to 1599 Yuan. The Meizu U10 also got 200 yuan off its price and is now available for just 799 yuan. The Meizu U20 wasn’t left out as it too got 200 yuan off its official price tag and is now up for grab for 899 yuan. The Meizu Metal which was released in 2015 also got a 300-yuan slash in its price, bringing down the price to 699 yuan.

Related: Get the Meizu MX6 for just $275.99 from Lightinthebox!

In addition, the highest reduction in price was slammed on the Meizu Metal Gift Box version which had a 400 yuan reduction in its price. The device is also available now for 699 yuan. Considering the designs and initial rice tag of these smartphones, we’d say it is a fair and attractive reduction which should get many buyers interested.

Sales are currently on going and already some color variants of the Meizu smartphones on offer are out of stock.

(via)

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Meizu has produced quite a few smartphones this year and the M3 is one of the most affordable ones. Learn more in our full review.

Thanks to Gearbest for sending Meizu M3 for a review.

Meizu M3 Review: VIDEO REVIEW

[embedyt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_IR8Ck6QYY[/embedyt]

Meizu M3 Review: UNBOXING

In the box, you can find a wall charger, USB cable, SIM ejector pin and some paperwork.

Meizu M3 Review: SPECS

Meizu M3 Review: DESIGN and DISPLAY

Meizu M3 is a very compact phone due to its 5” display and it looks like a shrunk down Meizu M2 Note.

Speaking of the display, it sports just a 720p resolution but it still quite sharp and good display for a budget phone like this. The only complaint would be that it could be slightly brighter for outdoor use.

We have a 5MP shooter along with a notification LED light on the top.

On the bottom, there is just a physical home button and you can either physically press to take you home or just tap it and it acts as a back button. Unfortunately, the phone lacks a fingerprint scanner.

Although the device uses glossy plastic in its construction, the phone is well-built and it feels solid. In fact, it is really comfortable to hold it in the hand due to rounded corners on the back. We have a 13MP camera with f/2.2 aperture on the back coupled with a dual-tone dual LED flash.

The loudspeaker sits on the bottom and the sound quality is actually pretty good for the phone this cheap.

The buttons are on the right, they are clicky and tactile.

We have a hybrid SIM card slot, which can take either 2 SIM cards or a combo of 1 SIM and the microSD card.

Overall, the Meizu M3 is a well-constructed phone and it feels great in the hand.

Meizu M3 Review: HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

Meizu M3 has some pretty decent specs for the price. My review unit sports an octa-core Mediatek 6750 chip with the clock speeds of 1.5GHz, 2 GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable storage.

The day-to-day performance of the UI is fast but the gaming performance is kind of a letdown. The phone lags quite a bit when playing Asphalt 8 even at the lowest graphics.

Meizu M3 Review: BENCHMARKS

Meizu M3 Review: USER INTERFACE

My Meizu M3 unit has FlyMe OS 5.1, which is built on top of Android 5.1. My review unit has a fully de-bloated ROM with multi-languages and Google Play services pre-installed.

If you are familiar with the FlyMe OS, you will feel right at home. There is no app tray but there are some neat features. For example, you can swipe down anywhere on the screen to open up the notification shade. If you swipe from the bottom, you will open up your recent apps and this is one of my favourite features.

We have a bunch of other features, plenty of customization options, various tweaks and settings to play with. Just to name a few, you can use choose from a variety of themes, use gesture controls, which work fine and so on.

Overall, the FlymeOS runs fast and fluid, I didn’t have a single hiccup on a daily basis.

Meizu M3 Review: IMAGE QUALITY

The 13MP camera is far from perfect but it can produce one of the better-looking images in a sub-$120 phone.

Most of the daylight shots will look good but one of the shortcomings is a poor dynamic range adjustment. Luckily, the HDR mode does a pretty good job solving this issue.

The low-light camera performance is okay for the phone this cheap but keep in mind that cheap phones usually don’t take great night shots.

The 1080p video looks pretty good and the footage is one of the best in class. See a video review for a video sample.

A 5MP selfie shooter can take some nice photos that will definitely do the trick for social media.

Meizu M3 Review: CONNECTIVITY

As for connectivity, you should not expect any issues with neither of the options that include wifi, Bluetooth, GPS or call quality.

Meizu M3 Review: BATTERY LIFE

The phone has an embedded 2870mAh battery that performs well. I could constantly get over 5 hours of SOT on a mixed use, which is a good result.

Meizu M3 Review: CONCLUSIONS

Meizu M3 is one of the better phones in this price range.

Sure, some may say that it lacks some common features like a fingerprint scanner and fast charging but the phone has a good display and great build quality.

Also, the device is fast on a daily basis, it has a good battery and one of the better cameras in its price range.

However, you have to keep in mind that the phone will struggle handling the 3D games and it lacks premium materials like metal in its build.

Overall, Meizu M3 is a great phone for the price of just $116 despite a few shortcomings.

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Meizu released the Pro 6 flagship last month, just few months after the release of the earlier generation Pro 5. Considering the Meizu Pro 5 was one for the most powerful smartphones in the market last year, we expected the new generation model to feature high-end specs. However, the company released the new flagship with Helio X25 chipset inside, which although is a pretty decent chip, it’s less powerful than competitors like Snapdragon 820 and Exynos 8890. This helped the company to keep the price of the device down to $386.

But it looks like there’s a new device in the works that’s reportedly going to come with the mighty Exynos 8890 chip. This isn’t the first time we are hearing rumours about an Exynos 8890 powered Meizu smartphone, but this new rumour adds more information. The source adds that the new phone will come with curved display from Samsung. Once again, this isn’t the first time we are hearing about such a device, but this is the first time someone is claiming that both the devices are actually one and the same. So, basically, the upcoming Meizu smartphone will feature a curved display and Exynos 8890 which hints that the company is trying to target the high-end market.

So, what about the price? The source states that we can expect this phone’s price to be around 3000 Yuan. This comes to around $460 which is a little higher than the pricing of the top-end Meizu Pro 6 variant. If the curved Meizu device is really this cheap, then we may have a winner here. But it’s still too early to confirm any details. From the release point of view, expect the phone to be announced only in the second half of 2016. Maybe we will get to see this alongside the rumoured MX6 flagship.

Stay tuned for details.

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Meizu’s upcoming smartphone is going to be the M3 Note, but that didn’t stop the company from silently listing the Meizu MX5e Lite version up for sale in China.

In case you are wondering whether you have been out of the loop recently, then worry not. This is an unannounced model and we haven’t seen any details regarding this particular Lite version until now. However, the company has officially confirmed that the phone is real and it will soon go on sale in China via multiple retailers.

So, what’s different in the Meizu MX5e Lite version than the regular MX5? From what we could see, there are two major changes. The company has decided to downgrade the processor inside, from MTK MT6795T Helio X10 high version to the standard MT6795 version. So, the clock speed has reduced from 2.2GHz to 2.0GHz. Another major change in the new handset is the rear camera. It’s also downgraded from 20.7MP to 16MP in this model.

Other specs remain the same as the regular model. So, you get a 5.5-inch display with 1080p resolution, 3GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. Up front, there will be a 5MP camera sensor. Other features of the handset include dual SIM dual standby, 3150mAh battery and mTouch 2.0 Fingerprint ID. At the moment, the company seems to be selling just the white version of the device.

So, the phone is actually available at 1499 Yuan ($231), on Suning.com. That’s too close to competitors like the OnePlus X. There are plenty of other great options in the market at this price. So, we are not entirely sure what Meizu is attempting with this silent release.

So, what’s your favorite Android smartphone under $250?

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Compared to rivals like Xiaomi and Huawei, we can say that Meizu was late to enter and make a mark in the smartphone industry. This is clearly evident from the fact that the company managed to sell only about 4.40 million units in 2014, as compared to rivals, who easily sold in double figures.

However, that doesn’t mean we can rule out Meizu from the competition as the company has shown tremendous promise this year. Since the launch of the low cost yet attractive Blue Charm series, the company’s sales have been growing pretty well.

Now, Meizu revealed in an event that the cumulative smartphone sales of the company has surpassed 20 million units in 2015. This is a 350% increase in sales year over year, which shows that the company has done well in the past 12 month period.

Given such a growth in the sales in just a year, we would be thinking Meizu has big targets for 2016. However, that’s not the case, as Li Nan, Meizu’s VP has revealed that the company will control the sales next year and it should exceed around 25 million units.

While this is a surprising strategy from the company, it makes sense to some extent. The company is still tiny as compared to giants such as Samsung and Apple. So, if they try to get into the rat race of sales numbers, they will most likely lose the product quality. But they cannot afford to lose that since Meizu is often considered as an affordable yet quality smartphone maker. So, if they manage to limit the sales to 25 million units next year, it would be easier for them to focus on the quality of the smartphones produced next year.

Of the expected sales next year, the ratio of Meizu MX series to Blue Charm series should be 3:7. This means that, about 30% of the 25 million units sold is expected to be an MX series phone and the rest 70% to be a Blue Charm device.

What do you think about Meizu’s strategy to control the amount of sales in 2016?

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A set of leaked photos showing a black box with Meizu’s logo and the box’s interior with a piece of foam packaging with a cutout in the shape of a pair of headphones could signify that the company plans to release their first pair of headphones during the company’s event on April 8. No other details other than the images have been released so no information on what kind of headphones the company plans to launch if they do launch them at all.

Meizu could be trying to follow in the footsteps of its major competitors like Xiaomi and OPPO by also producing and releasing other products aside from mobile devices as both companies have released headphones or earphones in the past.

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While there’s no doubt that Xiaomi dominates the sales in China, there are manufacturers like Meizu, OPPO and Vivo who also have a considerable share in this domestic market. Meizu in particular launched a number of new and affordable product in the past few months alone which will have definitely changed the numbers for the company in the Q1 2015. Now, we have some unofficial information about the sales figure of the company in the first three months of 2015.

Sun Changxu revealed on Weibo recently that Meizu along with other Chinese manufacturers are doing quite well in the first quarter of 2015. The sales was mainly driven by the Chinese Spring Festival season.

Sun also revealed some more information about Meizu’s sales figures. According to her, Meizu sold around 1.5 million units in January, 1.2 million units in February and 1.9 to 2 million units in March. The company’s quarter on quarter growth has been impressive. Last December, it sold around 1 million units, but in recent months, the company has reached the 2 million units sales mark, which is commendable.

The timing of the growth in sales hint that Meizu’s newest Blue Charm range could be responsible for such an amazing growth. Both, the Blue Charm Meizu M1 Note and the Meizu M1 (Mini) has attracted praises from experts and users alike, which is why we see a spurt in its sales. And given this rate, it looks like Meizu will easily reach its target sales of 20 million+ units by the end of 2015.

In comparison, Xiaomi sold over 61.12 million units in 2015, averaging about 5.1 million per month. Sun also said that Meizu is aiming to increase its production to 2 million units a month.

Meizu definitely has converted itself as a quality brand with affordable hardware. The M1 Note in particular has been the company’s best value for device.

So, do you like Meizu? Do you think the company will ever be as big as Xiaomi?

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