The Meizu MX3 review

When we are talking about smartphones, the true mark of a top of the range smartphone isn’t necessarily its specifications, its design or the newness of its design, but more the feel of the whole experience using it. If you feel as though it is better than your previous device, then its well worth being called a top class smartphone. Let me tell you that when we got to try the Meizu MX3 we felt as though it was well worth all the hype.

Meizu MX3

Meizu MX3 Review – Specifications

The new Meizu MX3 come in four different flavours, the cheapest one is the 16 GB version, and as you move up the price scale they come in 32 GB, 64GB and 128GB varieties. The only one that misses out on NFC is the 16GB model. All four of them share the same Exynos octa core processor, F2.0 8MP camera, and 2GB of RAM.

Manufacturer	Meizu
Model	MX3
Release Date	2nd September 2013
Display
Size	5.1-inch
Resolution	1800 x 1080
Protection	Gorilla Glass
Other	SHARP, FULLHD, Aspect Ratio 15:9, 415ppi, Contrast Ratio: 1000:1
Features
OS	Android 4.2 with 3.0 interface Flyme
Chipset	Samsung Exynos 5410 1.6GHz 5
CPU	Exynos 5 Octa-core, 28nm, LP HKMG Tech
GPU	PowerVR SGX544MP3 533 Mhz
RAM	2GB DDR3 (12.8GB / s bandwidth)
Battery	2400mAh Sony
Other	NFC, OTG, WiFi5G, Bluetooth 4.0, Wolfson audio processor,
Cameras
Rear camera	8 mega-pixel
Features	Sony IMX179 Sensor Chip, F2.0, HDR
Video	1080p
Front camera	2.0 mega-pixel CMOS Sony
Memory
Internal	16GB to 128GB
SD card	No,
Network support
Dual-sim	No,
WCDMA
GSM
Body
Dimensions (mm)	71.9 x 139.9 x 9.1 mm
Weight (g)	143 grams
Colours	Black face white rear

Meizu MX3 Review – Design

In terms of colours you can choose from white or black. Pretty bog standard stuff. The white version i have to say is very good looking and rivals any other brand named phone out there. Meizu have always based their designs around the iPhone (or so it seems) and this one is no exception. While i enjoyed the first fell of this phone, some of my friends commented that the phone felt a little thin to them.

The similarities to the iPhone really are only in the design form however. The Meizu MX3 has a whopping 5.1 inch FHD touch-screen that dwarfs the iPhone completely. On the front there is a Halo button. This multi function button can wake the phone up from sleeping, lock it when not in use and acts a as a notification light.

The whole front of the telephone is glass and leads to a nice machine tapered edge that is nice to hold. The metal band around the outside acts as the antenna and does a really good job. No position that i held it in seemed to affect signal reception.

Although the version we have reviewed is the white one, the back panel is removable and can be replaced with panels in varying colours that a re sold separately. The only slight nag about the back cover is that it needs a special tool to remove it, a little like the iPad needs a special tool to remove the sim card. The tool is, of course, included, but its a little tricky to remove all the same.

Once you get the cover off you can see where you can put the sim card. What is rather unusual for this phone is that it only has one SIM card slot, strange for Chinese phones, which tend to have two as standard. The battery is a 2400mAh one, that is not removable. This is not the first phone I have seen with a non removable battery, but i still dont understand the need for doing it. Most of us nowadays are used to our smartphones guzzling amps at an alarming rate and most of us carry a spare. With the Meizu MX3 you will find yourself hunting a plug socket when you reach the dreaded 15% battery mark.

With the rear removed we can see space for the single micro SIM card, and the 2400mAh Sony battery which, strangely cannot be removed! I think this is the first phone I have ever reviewed which has a non removable battery despite a removable panel! Meizu say the reason for the design is to allow customer to change the colour of the rear panel easily. But why not allow us to easily change the battery too?

On the back is the camera, the Meizu logo, rear speaker and flash. The lens on the camera is quite big and prone to smudgy finger marks, so bear in mind it might need a clean before you snap a few photos.

On the bottom is the micro usb socket and on the top the power button and on the left the volume button.

Overall i think design wise, the Meizu MX3 is up there with the latest offerings form Samsung.

Meizu MX3 Review – Screen

The screen was a little bit of a surprise when we read the specs. Being a flagship phone, we expected at least a 1920×1080 display but this phone only got a 1800 x 1080 one. A little strange perhaps, and does make the phone seem a little chubbier, but it is good to use none the less, and is great for watching videos and surfing the net.

In terms of sharpness and vivid colours it’s up there with the best of them, offering fantastic viewing angles and sharp, bright colours in all lighting conditions.

Meizu MX3 Review – Performance

We can talk about benchmark tests all day long, but really i don’t find much difference in the usage of one phone from another. Maybe if you are giving your phone some real stick, you could see how the powerful Mediatek phones perform a little better but in daily usage of the Meizu MX3 i found it to perform splendidly and it could handle everything my Note 3 does.

The Samsung Exynos 5 Octacore processor works a treat and doesn’t let the phone down in any way. The camera is super fast to respond making those speacial moments easier to catch.

Meizu MX3 Review – Camera

Again we were a little surprised with the camera, it’s only 8MP when most phones nowadays rock a 13MP version. That said it produces nice images and is super fast. The F2.0 make for some interesting possibilities that could rival any DSLR on the market. The camera is really fun to use, I enjoyed it a lot.

The Flyme camera app has all the features yov would expect such as HDR, filters and manual controls such as white balance and exposure control.

Meizu MX3 Review – Flyme

The MX3 ships with Flyme Version 3.0, and for the majority of the review I used the phone with Flyme 3.4.1, the latest build (at the time). Flyme 3.0 has a very flat look and is often compared to iOS7 on the iPhone, in reality Meizu had Flyme 3.0 in the works before iOS7 so anyone saying Meizu is copying UI styles might want to look at launch dates.

My biggest fear with the Meizu would be that Flyme 3.0 would let the hardware down, and was not at all surprised when I booted up the camera to capture a photo only to have the MX3 freeze. Fortunately this was on the earlier ROM and since updating system stability has been much much better.

There are a few issues still though for example the gallery sometimes crashes when shooting video, but this is rare and everything else works flawlessly.

One of the features of Flyme is what Meizu calls the ’Smart Bar’, to you and me these are the onscreen navigation controls the MX3 has in place of the regular controls found on most Android phones.

Depending on which app you are in the Smart Bar will show a back arrow on the left and 3 dots on the right for the options menu. The Smart Bar actually takes up part of the display in portrait view, but will disappear in landscape mode. This is fine but means turning the phone to the side when wanting to move back in an application.

Swiping down from the top of the display brings a small notification bar with a few toggles which can be customised to your preferences. The notification bar will only use the amount of space it needs so as the notifications fill up the bar can be pulled further down.

A swipe from the base of the display (to either the left or right of the home button) brings up the multitasking bar. Apps can be cleared by flicking them away, or locked so that they can keep running in the background. Swiping to the right on the multitasking bar will bring you to a screen brightness toggle and settings shortcut, there is also space for you to add your own shortcuts here also.

Meizu MX3 Review – Conclusion

Meizu seem to be advancing with evey new phone that they produce and with the Meizu MX3 they haven’t disappointed. It certainly handles its own against its top brand name rivals. If you get this phone out of your pocket in front of your work colleagues you can still hold your head high.

All in all, design wise, performance wise and ease of use wise this phone is wonderful. I know i am partial to Chinese phones, mainly because i’m a bit of a scrooge money wise. I don’t see the need to pay through the nose for Apple or Samsung phones when there are so many cheaper alternatives out there that are just as good.

Price wise, the 16GB version will set you back around 250 pounds, shipping included, which when you compare it to the Samsung S4 its almost half the price. You can’t complain about that.

If you are interested you can buy the Meizu MX3 on the China Electronics website.

If you have liked this review, please comment and share.

The DooGee DG800 Valencia Review

If you do a search on the interent for white label mobile phones from China, you will find that DooGee is a brand that pops up very often on various websites. In China they are a well known company producing high quality, budget, android mobile phones. We have had our hands on two DooGee phones recently, the DooGee turbo and the DooGee Pixels, but this time we are reviewing the DooGee DG800 Valencia.

Valencia

It gets its name from the hot southern town of Valencia in Spain. I don’t know if they are trying to give some kind of Latin heat to the phone, but the name is cool. I like it. On of the main reasons we were thrilled to review this phone is because of the high specifications it offers, at an extreme budget price. Coming in at only £73 it offers a big punch for its money, especially when you consider things like its rear 13MP camera, something you only see on phones the likes of the Sansung Note 3. Another major factor is that it comes running Android 4.4 KitKat out of the box. WOW.

That said, we tried not to be overcome too much, because, really, what can you expect from a Sim Free phone at only £73?? Let’s take a look at the specifications:

DG800

Specification

Processor     1.3GHz MT6582 Quad Core

RAM               1GB

Storage          8GB, microSD card slot, up to 32GB

Camera          13 Megapixel Rear Camera & 8 Megapixel Front-Facing Camera

Battery            2000 mAh

Connectivity    GPS, microUSB 2.0, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth

Networks         3G/WCDMA: 850/2100 MHz

Software         Android 4.4 with Google Play

Dimensions    138 x 67 x 9 mm

Weight 138 grams

Colors White

SIM slots 1x Normal SIM, 1x Micro SIM

For the price, the DooGee DG 800 Valencia offers a lot more in terms of specifications than it should in all fairness. To spend £73 on a sim free phone on the uk you wouldn’t get even a quarter of the specs this phone offers.

A quad core processor? Really? 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage? You’re pulling my leg! Seems to good to be true? Well it’s not. Theses really are the specifications of the DooGee DG800. That said, it’s not all bells and roses. Some cut backs have been made. The screen, for example is only a QHD 960×540 offering, but to be honest, on its 4.5 inch screen, it doesn’t look bat at all.

DooGee DG800 Valencia

 

But what about the design? Does it stand up to its major competitors in the mobile phone race?

Design

The design of this phone is simple, nothing over the top or exciting. Everything you would expect to find is there, no surprises, but no nasty surprises either. If I was pushed to make a comparison, I would say that it resembles a little the iPhone 3GS, but not as sexily curvy. From the front the phone is black, and on the back it is white. Very Harlequin. On the front at the bottom is a bar that houses the captive touch keys. On the top you can find the front facing camera, and speaker. The usb port and headphone socket are on the top, the power button on the right and the volume buttons on the left. Pretty normal stuff.

The DooGee DG800 really sets itself apart once we concentrate on its backside (no puns). The back cover contains a touch panel which you can use to control the phone without usinf the touchscreen, impressive. I think it’s something that will take a little getting used to, but once you’re used to it, it could come in realy handy.

It isn’t the most stylish of phones, it certainly won’t win any design awards, but is by no means ugly. It is simple, effective and is something to be proud of taking out of your pocket.

DooGee, looks like an iPhone 3GS

 

Performance

The DooGee Valencia shares the same processor as its brothers mentioned above, which means it scores the same on An Tu Tu, with a very respectful 17,645. Maybe that doesn’t mean much to you, but to put it in comparison with phones that you will have heard of and know, it puts the Valencia marginally behind the Samsung Galaxy S3. Not bad when you compare the Valencias £73 price tag to the £250 price tag of the Samsung. Thephone really does very well under test conditons and we found no lags or snags to write about.

We played a couple of 3D games and the DooGee performed like a well oiled machine. Because the screen doesn’t have such a dense pixel count, it isn’t as sharp on paper as the premium phones, but you need a very keen eye to be able to distinguish between them and we certainly couldn’t.

Battery

The battery of the DooGee DG800 is possibly its weak point. Rated at only 2000mAh, it is small, and seemed even smaller when we pushed it to the test. While we ran a 3D game, after one and a half hours, it was crying out for juice. YouTube streaming zapped it after only two and a half hours and a locally stored MP4 viewing session halted after three and a half hours. We would like to think that we were unlucky and we got a phone with a duff battery, but until we get chance to get hold of another we won’t know. We’ll keep you posted.

Camera

The DoGees 13MP camera is classed as wide angle, with a supposed 88 degrees shooting angle. It does get a lot more in than your average mobile camera, and the quality is superb. We were really impressed with the cameras capabilities, something that can be seen in the example photos.

Connectivity

When it comes to connecting with your DooGee DG800 it has eveything that you would need. It has 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, bluetooth, 2G and 3G, as well as havind dual sim card slots (something very typical to Chinese phones) so you can work on two mobile phone operators at the same time. Or have a works line and personal line on the same phone. The 3G is completely complatible with the uk, so you dont have to worry about slow connectivity.

It’s a beautiful phone

 

As we have commented earlier, this phone comes running Android 4.4 KitKat out of the box. Something mind blowing for a budget Android smartphone. It doesn’t run stock android, but a third party launcher, not a problem to replace with a different launcher from the play store should you not like the one it ships with.

Conclusion

It really is difficult to find fault with the DooGee DG800 Valencia. Even though there are better phones out there, better designed with even higher specs, you can’t deny that, because of its price, it’s really hard to talk badly about it. Come on, its cheaper than a sim free clamshell phone, and you have android 4.4 and an HD touch screen. I think even if I wanted to slate the phone, I couldn’t. If you are interested in the DooGee DG800 Valencia you can buy it on China Electronics.

Have you enjoyed this review? Please feel free to share it or comment below.

ThL Ultrathin 4400 Review

THL is maybe an unknown phone company to many in the western side of the world, but in the far east it is well known as a producer of innovative and well built products. With the THL 4400 there is no exception. This quad-core android mobile really surprised us as its the first THL phone we have been able to review.

THL 4400

First of all let’s take a look at the accessories that come bundled in the box.

Accessories

• 1 x THL 4400 black version phone

• 1 x Built-in 4400mAh Battery

• 1 x USB Cable

• 1 x Charger

• 1*OTG Adapter

• 1 x User Manual

• 1 x Headphone

Pretty bog standard stuff really, nothing that surpised us, but at least we saw eveything we expected to see in a mobile phone box.

Design

The design of the THL 4400 is nothing to shout about, it looks pretty much like any other mobile phone. On the front we find the camera, an 8MP offering, not bad for a front camera, the call peaker and three soft buttons. One surprising thing we did find was that the usb port and the headphone jack at the top of the phone. A little different to the norm perhaps but we didn’t find it too unnerving, once we had got used to its location.

THL 4400

The side of the phone has quite a nice bevel to it. It is comfortable to hold despite its size. The feel is good. Strong and solid, how any decent electronic item should feel. The left side holds the power button and on the right you have the volume rocker.

The backside of the phone holds all the typical features you would expect, the rear camera, a pixel shattering13MP one, the LED falshlight, the THL logo and a nice Technology Happy Life slogon. Very Chinese. Once we remove the back cover we unveil the ‘built in’ battery (!!!!!) and three card slots comprised of two SIM card slots and one TF slot. At the base of the battery we have the THL 4400 speaker.

Display

THL 4400

Remeber the days when phone manufacturers tried to make their phones smaller and smaller? If you do, you’re from my generation. However, nowadays bigger is better. Bigger screens, better resolutions they’re all the rage for better video game playing and video watching. The THL 4400 doesn’t diasppoint with its 5 ich gorilla glass screen. The resolution is a dandy 1290*720 HD and gives crisp, celar and sharp images.

Processor

The THL4400 runs a 1.3GHz MTK6582 Quad-core processor along with 1G RAM and 4G ROM That doesn’t quite make it a super giant, and couldn’t possibly compete with its octa-core counterparts but still has plenty to offer to your average, daily, android smartphone user. To be able to quantify how well it works, take a look at the Anutu score benchmark. It scores a total of 17036 points, which actually puts it ahead of the Google Nexus 4!

Battery

THL 4400

The THL 4400 ships with a hefty 4400mAh battery, really quite a monster compared to many brand name phones. It is a lot larger than, for example the Galaxy Note 3 which only has a 3200mAh one.

The THL 4400 easily lasted all day without having to worry about where the nearest plug socket was.

Camera

THL 4400

The THL 4400 has an 8MP front facing camera, and a 13MP rear facing camera. Both cameras were tested extensively, and we are happy to say that they exceeded our expectations. Both still and moving video recording were well up there, even with some of the best.

Summary:

What can I say about the THL 4400 in conclusion. Is it earth shatteringly fantastic? No. Is it rubbish? No. It’s around about middle of the road. A good, solid, decent day to day camera for your average person who is looking to make calls, take a few photos or videos, publish them on the social networks and browse the internet. If you are wanting a super fast, eye shattering, bright, super densely piixelated camera capable of launchin the nex international space mission, this is not for you. But for quality/price ratio, it is perfect.

When I compare these phones, and consider wether they are worth buying or not I always liken them to what is on offer in Britain. If I had to choose between the THL 4400, or say, it’s closest rival, the Galaxy S4, I would take the THL 4400 hands down.

What lets the phone down? Only 1GB Ram, it could have more, and a non changeable battery. Good points? Its price, its looks its all round performance.

If you are intested in the THL 4400, take a look at my website, China Electronics. For a direct link, follow this link THL 4400

Have you enjoyed this review? If so, please share. Feel free to comment below.