Meizu m1 note review: A major scale

Performance

The Meizu m1 note utilizes a MediaTek MT6752 chipset with eight Cortex-A53 cores ticking at 1.7GHz and Mali-T760MP2 GPU - that's the same GPU Samsung put inside the Galaxy S6 though just dual-core (S6 hast the octa-core configuration). The RAM is at 2GB so overall, it's a very respectable system.

The Meizu m1 note offers a few battery modes. For the benchmarks we used the Performance mode (as opposed to Balanced and Power-saving), which should, in theory, give us the best results.

It topped the GeekBench 3 table with a very respectable result. It also posted a very good AnTuTu 5 score, slightly behind the Meizu MX4 and (faster) Lenovo Vibe X2. In Basemark OS II the Meizu MX4 showed a great multi-core performance, which is the usual for eight-core chipsets. However the single core the overall score wasn't as spectacular.

GeekBench 3

Higher is better

• Meizu m1 note
  3988
• Lenovo Vibe X2
  3647
• Meizu MX4
  3556
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  2880
• OnePlus One
  2663
• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  2435
• HTC Desire 816
  1510
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  1460
• Sony Xperia C3 Dual
  1181

AnTuTu 5

Higher is better

• Meizu MX4
  46922
• Lenovo Vibe X2
  46666
• Meizu m1 note
  39224
• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  32487
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  31436
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  20616
• Sony Xperia C3 Dual
  18466

The compound BaseMark OS II 2.0 test puts the Meizu m1 note on the runner-up spot, bested only by the OnePlus One.

Basemark OS 2.0

Higher is better

• OnePlus One
  1230
• Meizu m1 note
  880
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  813
• Meizu MX4
  666
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  511
• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  479
• Sony Xperia C3 Dual
  175

Even though OnePlus One runs on a quad-core Krait 400 processor, it still outperforms the octa-core Cortex-A53 powering the m1 note. Oddly, the Meizu m1 note did slightly worse than the Galaxy A7, which has a slower Cortex-A53 processor.

Basemark OS 2.0 (single-core)

Higher is better

• OnePlus One
  5108
• Meizu m1 note
  2617
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  2480
• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  2388
• Meizu MX4
  2219
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  1806
• Sony Xperia C3 Dual
  1507

Basemark OS 2.0 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• OnePlus One
  19625
• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  18490
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  16640
• Meizu m1 note
  14565
• Meizu MX4
  12671
• Sony Xperia C3 Dual
  6440
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  6362

Meizu m1 note utilizes a powerful Mali-T760MP2 GPU, but unlike the octa-core MP8 flavor embedded within the Galaxy S6, the m1 note relies only on two T760 cores. This doesn't sound as a hardware cut for high-end 1080p gaming, but let's see the benchmark results.

The GFX Bench outs the same results for the onscreen and 1080p off-screen tests, but that's to be expected as both run in 1080p resolution. The m1 note GPU configuration seems adequate, outdone only by the OnePlus One's Adreno 330 and Lenovo Vibe X2's PowerVR 6200.

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus One
  28.3
• Meizu MX4
  22.7
• Lenovo Vibe X2
  17.8
• Meizu m1 note
  15
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  15
• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  9.8
• HTC Desire 816
  5.9
• Sony Xperia C3 Dual
  5.8
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  5.2

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (onscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus One
  30
• Meizu MX4
  21.3
• Lenovo Vibe X2
  17
• Meizu m1 note
  16
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  15
• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  13.3
• Sony Xperia C3 Dual
  11
• HTC Desire 816
  11
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  9.6

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus One
  12.1
• Meizu MX4
  7.9
• Lenovo Vibe X2
  6.1
• Meizu m1 note
  5.8
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  5.8
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  1.8
• HTC Desire 816
  1.7

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus One
  12.9
• Meizu MX4
  7.4
• Lenovo Vibe X2
  6.1
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  5.8
• Meizu m1 note
  5.7
• Sony Xperia C3 Dual
  4
• HTC Desire 816
  3.9
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  3.9

Strangely, the GPU-intensive BaseMark X result is behind the curve.

Basemark X

Higher is better

• OnePlus One
  13129
• Meizu MX4
  8324
• Lenovo Vibe X2
  6512
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  4802
• Meizu m1 note
  4617
• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  2974
• HTC Desire 816
  1437

Unfortunately the web browsing performance turned out quite poor in both browser tests - the JavaScript benchmark Kraken and the compound BrowserMark 2.1. Maybe you should look for an alternative to the default browser, such as Chrome.

Kraken 1.1

Lower is better

• Lenovo Vibe X2
  4747
• OnePlus One
  7008
• Meizu MX4
  9408
• Meizu m1 note (Chrome)
  10303
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  12266
• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  12416
• HTC Desire 816
  13564
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  13694
• Meizu m1 note
  15055
• Sony Xperia C3 Dual
  15737

BrowserMark 2.1

Higher is better

• Lenovo Vibe X2
  2211
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  1655
• OnePlus One
  1339
• Meizu m1 note (Chrome)
  935
• HTC Desire 816
  774
• Meizu MX4
  720
• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  588
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  549
• Meizu m1 note
  536

Meizu m1 note provides more than adequate performance for the class and honestly, more for what you'd expect for your cash. It does very well when it comes to CPU and GPU performance, while the Android OS is blazingly-fast and hiccup-free. Our only concerns are with the default MX web browser, but you can always opt for a different browsing app from the Play Store.