Meizu has officially taken the wraps of their new device, the Meizu M5, and it deviates from the norm by sporting a polycarbonate body.

The Meizu M5 is a beautiful and colourful phone and that is because the company decided to ditch the use of an all-metal body in favour of a plastic one. Meizu knows quite a number of us (I should be number one on that list) are tired of the champagne gold, pink gold, white gold and all the other boring colours found on all-metal phones, so they decided to spice things up. Apparently, bright colours appear really nice on plastic compared to metal, that’s why the M5 comes in a range of colours. Meizu says the body of the phone is painted using a sophisticated pearlescent powder paint process.

The Meizu M5 has a 5.2” 2.5D screen with a 720p display and is powered by an octa-core Mediatek chip clocked at 1.5GHz. It is available in 2GB + 16GB and 3GB + 32GB variants, has a 13MP f/2.2 primary shooter with PDAF, fast auto-focus, and dual tone LED flash; and a 5MP camera up front.

The M5 also has a fingerprint scanner on the chin that unlocks in 0.2s. Meizu has bundled the phone with a 3070mAh battery that is said to be able to offer up to  66 hours of music playback. Sim slot is the hybrid type that appears to be the standard now. Dual SIM slots or a single sim and a SD card are the options you have. Sadly, the Meizu runs Yun OS and there  is no mention of an international variant.

READ MORE: Meizu Pro 6s Appears on Antutu, Key Specs Revealed

Want to pick up the Meizu M5? There are a bunch of colours available such as Mint Green, Blue, Matte Black, white, and champagne gold (because some people still love it). There is no mention of the price yet, but we’ll update the article once it is announced.

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Meizu M5 is reportedly releasing on October 31 when the company has a big promo event scheduled. Li Nan already confirmed the launch of the device a few hours back and now, new images of the M5 have cropped up online, along with a possible Geekbench listing. This means we have a lot more information about the upcoming device, including its new polycarbonate design and specifications.

The Meizu M5 seems to feature a very similar design as the M3S model which was announced in June, however, the phone could come with a polycarbonate body instead of a metal one. Further, along with a black colored model, we have also spotted a green colored one. Given that Meizu’s Blue Charm series have always been a colorful lineup, it’s possible that the company launches a green color option for the device.

More pictures are given below.

As for the specs, a recent Geekbench listing of the device revealed that the Meizu M5 will come with the MT6750 octa-core processor with 2GB RAM and Android 6.0 on board. The above pictures further reveal that the phone was running on YunOS platform and featured a 5-inch 720p display, 13MP rear camera, 2GB RAM and 16GB of internal storage. It is said that there could be a 3GB RAM version of the device as well.

RELATED: Meizu TV Box in The Works, Priced at 299 Yuan ($44)

As for the pricing of the Meizu M5, given the specs, expect it to be super cheap. Also, considering that Meizu is releasing this device in anticipation of its 11/11 sales, the company should price it aggressively. The M3S was announced for just $106, so the upcoming M5 model should also be priced around the same figure.

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Meizu’s newest phone is the Meizu M3E which was launched a few hours ago. Apart from the nice specifications and price, one unique feature of the M3E is its car remote feature, which is putting it in the simplest form.

Just before we dive in, it is important to mention that the phone can only be used with just a particular car at the moment, the Roewe RX5, which is jointly made by Chinese state-owned SAIC, and Alibaba. It is a compact SUV car featuring Alibaba’s specially developed software, YunOS for Car and is marketed as the first mass-produced internet car.

The Meizu M3E acts as a sort of smart key for the Roewe RX5, carrying out functions such as locking and unlocking of doors, heating the seats, and displaying real-time vehicle information.

So if you own the RX5 and the Meizu M3E, you should be able to monitor things like oil level (probably fuel level too), plot navigation routes, heat the car seats before getting in and basic unlock features.

READ MORE: LeEco Launching Dual Camera Phone August 16

We hope more features will be announced soon or added in form of updates. However, if you don’t own the RX5 that doesn’t mean you should rule out buying the Meizu M3E. It is a pretty solid phone with a nice price point.

The post The Meizu M3E Can Control A Car Remotely, Confirms Company appeared first on Gizmochina.

Meizu’s Blue Charm range has always given us the best specs at a relatively affordable price tag. The company just unveiled the brand new Meizu M3E mid-ranger today and its comes with pretty decent specs for its price.

The design is a bit different than previous generation Meizu models as it comes with a single metal unibody design with nano injection molding process and anodic oxidization. It looks much more premium now, but the two antenna lines on the top and the bottom are still visible. The phone will be available in five color options — Moonlight Silver, Sky Gray, Champagne Gold, Rose Gold, and Glacier Blue. Yes, blue is indeed the new exotic color added for the M3E. The measurements are as follows: 153.6 x 75.8 x 7.9mm. The phone weighs 172 grams, which to be honest is a bit heavy for its segment.

The Meizu M3E is powered by the octa-core Helio P10 processor, that powers many mid-rangers in the market today like the OPPO R9. Inside, there will be 3GB of RAM and 32GB of expandable internal storage. You get a 5.5-inch 1080p IPS display which translates into a pixel density of 403 ppi with a contrast ratio of 1000:1 and 450 nit brightness.

As for the camera, the Meizu M3E comes with the Sony IMX258 13MP sensor at the back with 0.2 sec PDAF fast focus. The setup features f/2.2 aperture lens, dual tone LED flash and 5P lens. Now, to remind you, this is the same primary camera sensor used on the Redmi Pro. But the Pro comes with an additional 5MP Samsung depth sensor at the back. Up front, you get a 5MP f/2.0 aperture camera with FotoNation 2.0 for great selfies.

Like with most other Meizu models released recently, the Meizu M3E comes with the mBack button up front which also features a fingerprint sensor. The sensor reportedly unlocks the device in just 0.2 seconds. Inside, the phone features a 3100mAh battery with 18W fast charging tech. The company claims that the phone charges up to 50% in just 30 minutes of charging. In just 60 minutes, the phone will be charged up to 90%.

As for connectivity, the phone comes with Bluetooth 4.1 with support for BLE, 5GHz Wi-Fi n, dual SIM dual standby, entire network support in China, Infrared sensor, VoLTE and GPS.

Unfortunately, like the Meizu Metal, the new Meizu M3E is also running on Flyme based on YunOS. And like we saw earlier, the company confirmed that M3E can interact with cloud-connected cars.

Now, coming to the pricing, it’s cheaper than we expected. The Meizu M3E is priced at 1299 Yuan ($195) which is pretty decent. The phone will go on sale on August 14 at the company’s official website and Lynx store.

So, which one would you pick, the slightly cheaper Meizu M3E or the Redmi Pro with dual cameras?

The post Meizu M3E Official: Helio P10, 13MP Sony IMX258 Sensor & 3100mAh Battery appeared first on Gizmochina.

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.

The post Meizu M3 Review – A Great Cheap Smartphone! appeared first on Gizmochina.

Newman has been in the market for the past few years, however lately we haven’t heard anything new from the company. In fact, the company’s last post on its official Weibo page dates back to July 2014.

Earlier today, surprisingly, Newman forwarded a post from YunOS’s weibo page. The post was about a new concept YunOS device. The image had a unique rear button just below the camera, however the post failed to explain the use of the button.

A few hours later, Newman posted a image on its Weibo page which finally revealed a new device from the company. It seems that the concept machine revealed by YunOS was in fact the new Newman Button phone which will run on YunOS.

This is not the first time we are seeing at a YunOS powered Newman device. Last year, we had seen many manufacturers adopt YunOS for their phones, including Newman. So, this particular announcement doesn’t come as a big surprise.

We still don’t know what the mysterious button below the camera does, but it could be something related to the camera feature. Or it may even be used to control sound or even for fingerprint recognition. Unfortunately, we can only speculate the features on the Newman button phone right now. But expect more information when Newman announces more details about the phone on April 8.

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Design is one of the most important aspects of a product and to find out the best in the industry, you have the prestigious German iF Design award. This is one of the highest ranking awards that you can get in the industry and naturally those who are selected in the final round are some of the best designed products in the market.

For over 60 years, The iF DESIGN AWARD has been recognized the world over as a label of design excellence. And among the list of finalist this year, there was an interesting smartphone powered by Ali Yun OS.

The Ali YunOS concept machine sported a very unique look with a sleek design. The highlight of the device was its navigation wheel at one side along with a silver breathing light which gives the phone a very cool look. Specs wise, the phone was expected to feature a 5-inch Full HD display and a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor with fingerprint recognition.

Unfortunately, this is just a concept machine and its highly unlikely that the phone will ever see the light of the day. Still, its good to see that this YunOS concept phone made it to the final round of such a prestigious award. Over 53 countries had entered the competition in a number of different categories. An expert panel of 53 jury were present to decide the winners of the iF Design Award 2015.

So what do you think about the phone. Does it look good?

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This afternoon, Alibaba formally launched the new YunOS 3.0. This operating system’s biggest feature is that it includes CloudCard service where the apps are presented in the screen as a bunch of cards. You would not have to go download the apps that you need.

Also, if you want to watch a movie or eat out, you can click on the cards that say so and you may book reservations at a restaurant or buy movie tickets.

Below are photos of the new OS’ user interface. What do you think?

The post YunOS 3.0 UI leaked again appeared first on Gizmochina.

Today, Meizu and Alibaba announced that they will hold a launch event on October 21 in Beijing for new products that they have developed together. Meizu, a mobile internet enterprise, has made a lot of effort in developing its own smart devices, while Alibaba, a company that focuses on traditional internet services, has created great services and resources. With the two of them teaming up, it seems to us that mobile operating systems have become more important than ever.

Meizu races to the top as Alibaba introduces its apps to the masses

On July 25, 2012, Alibaba formally launched its smartphone cloud operating system, the YunOS. In just two years, they released the YunOS 3.0. For the last several days, news broke out that Meizu will release a Meizu MX4 phone that uses the YunOS 3.0. It should be no surprise what was on everyone’s mind once Meizu and Alibaba made their announcement.

According to their Weibo accounts, Alibaba and Meizu’s CEOs are still talking to each other regarding their collaboration. Meizu is trying to figure out how to make the YunOS 3.0 compatible with its own Flyme OS, while Alibaba is trying to figure out how to install the YunOS 3.0 into the Meizu MX4.

The writer feels that this partnership will be good for both companies. The biggest problem Meizu faces lies on whether or not they will be pushed from the top as the market continues to be flooded with rival devices. Although they have done a good job with the designs, their marketing has not been good enough. Their partnership with Alibaba may improve their marketing and product channels, as well as their customer services. In other words, it will make them more open.

Furthermore, Meizu has always wanted to break Google’s hold over them, so they decided to choose a non-Android platform like Ubuntu. Developing a new Flyme OS with the YunOS may decrease operational risks. Despite their partnership, however, we are certain that future Flyme upgrades will continue to use the same interface as now.

As for Alibaba, the YunOS’ problem is that it does not rely on enough famous Chinese brands to push their products. Even though we don’t know why they chose Meizu, considering how well known Meizu is, pushing the YunOS 3.0 on Meizu’s devices will introduce more people to Alibaba’s own apps.

Talks not going smoothly 

Looking back at the dialog between both companies, their cooperation has not been going smoothly. A while ago, a war of words blew up on Weibo between Meizu Vice-CEO, Li Nan, and Aliyun YunOS’s chief architect, Pan Aimin. Regarding this, Meizu CEO Huang Zhang said in his Weibo account that Meizu cellphones should use the Flyme. Both sides ended up debating which OS was better with everyone witnessing it.

The importance of Flyme for Meizu is pretty clear. They can get more users through their own OS. So, even though we don’t really know any specific details about their partnership, in the end, it will all go back to the Flyme OS with the YunOS as the secondary OS. This is what everyone will be concerned about before the launch.

Improvements in mobile smart operating systems 

We have already seen many ways in which smartphones have survived to this day, but looking back in their development, what is most essential is the combination of hardware (cellphone) and software (operating system). For example, Xiaomi and Smartisan start developing their operating systems before their actual cellphone hardware.

So, it is no exaggeration to say that the mobile OS is an integral part of the smartphone. Smartphones come and go very fast, especially Android phones which are replaced every two years. The same cannot be said for operating systems. When a cellphone company adopts an OS, they may be able to better introduce their services to more customers, which makes the OS have a lot of potential for attracting users. Perhaps, we may even see more collaborations like this between Meizu and Alibaba in the future.

In addition, the regular consumer does not care about their partnership or why they are collaborating. The only thing that they want is to get their hands on better products and a better OS. So, we want all these cellphone companies to show us what services and functions are worth trying out.

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Recently,Philips has released more information about its upcoming cellphone in collaboration with YunOS, to make a yunOS phone, Philips I966, which will have the new YunOS 3.0.

A recent promotional poster of the phone shows that the Philips I966 will have a pixel density of more than 534ppi and 2560 x 1440 Quad HD resolution. Since this phone will sport a 5.5-inch screen, it is safe to say that it will use a 5.5-inch 2K screen. This means that this phone will be released as a flagship device.

In addition, the Philips I966 also has support for 4K videos as well as 4G LTE networks. It may also get a fingerprint scanner. Because the use of a 2K screen will require a powerful processor and GPU, it might use MTK’s MT6595 processor or a processor from Qualcomm like the Snapdragon 801.

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According to the last picture by the leaker, Meizu MX4 YunOS version has only 727MB is available out of 2GB ram, but we didn’t know if he had closed all apps or not. Could YunOS be a big RAM hogger?

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