Meizu MX5 review: Amaze U

Telephony

At its core, the phonebook on the Meizu MX5 is a list of all contacts but you can view only a specific group or filter where contracts come from - phone contacts, email account or a Meizu account.

You can't add Facebook or Twitter or any social network out of the box. Installing the Facebook or Twitter app will allow you to sync your contacts from there. You can link contacts, but the functionality is annoyingly limited.

The phonebook will automatically link contacts with the same name, but that's it. You can't manually link or unlink contacts.

Phonebook

The Meizu MX5 has all reception bars full and held onto signal great even in tighter spots. Call quality is very good. A dedicated mic for active noise cancellation makes sure the other party hears you loud and clear.

The dialer features smart dialing, which is nice. Otherwise it doesn't differ from any other in functionality.

Dialer

The phone supports dual-SIM with dual-standby. The second SIM supports GSM networks only, while the primary works on 3G and LTE. Managing the SIM cards is very easy as is initiating calls and sending texts.

The Meizu MX5 passed our loudspeaker test with flying colors and the speaker quality is excellent for a single-speaker setup with deep sound. The Meizu MX5 has one of the loudest speakers we've seen to date.

Speakerphone test	Voice, dB	Pink noise/ Music, dB	Ringing phone, dB	Overall score
Sony Xperia M4 Aqua	60.2	57.2	64.5	Below Average
Motorola Moto X (2n Gen)	66.1	66.2	72.0	Average
Apple iPhone 6	66.6	65.7	72.8	Average
HTC One M9	65.2	64.6	76.1	Average
Samsung Galaxy S6	68.1	66.3	73.7	Good
Xiaomi Redmi Note 2	66.1	66.0	76.0	Good
Meizu m1 note	67.7	66.2	75.7	Good
Xiaomi Redmi 2	70.8	70.9	77.4	Very Good
Meizu MX5	75.7	73.5	79.5	Excellent
OnePlus 2	75.7	73.5	80.7	Excellent
Meizu MX4	81.3	75.8	83.6	Excellent

Messaging and keyboard

The messaging department is quite straightforward: there are no folders here, just New message, Search and Settings buttons. Above is a list of all your messages organized into threads.

Messenger • Email

Meizu has tweaked the generic email client. It supports multiple Exchange, POP or IMAP inboxes and you have access to the original folders that are created online, side by side with the standard local ones such as inbox, drafts and sent items.

The keyboard of the Meizu MX5 is nicely laid out and has a four-row interface. There's a dedicated numeric view with a numpad-like style but we would have preferred the numbers as a line on top of the keyboard.

Keyboard • TouchPal keyboard

You can switch between keyboard styles, send Meizu and text smileys and have an option to choose between many languages.

The TouchPal keyboard is also pre-installed - it offers rich customization options including key width and height, themes, gestures, among other options.