We find each time more models on the market, since the manufacturers have as goal to cover every single segment on the market, no matter what your budget is...there is a smartphone for you.
During these past summer months, two of the big Chinese manufacturers have introduced an update for two of their most popular models. We are talking about the
Meizu m2 Note (end of June) and the
Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 (August).
The truth is that the only point they probably share is a FullHD 5,5” screen and low-medium segment they are both addressed.
Lets see the specifications:
Prices: Meizu m2 Note ->
From 9 with Flash salesXiaomi Redmi Note 2 ->
From 9.99 with current promosAs you can see, with this update Xiaomi has make much more emphasis on the “power” than his competitor. In addition, the version I’m trying is the Prime (2,2Ghz and 32GB of RAM) so the difference seems even more evident.
Appearance Looking at the design, first thing to mention is that m2 Note is made on a single piece, meaning mainly a more “solid” terminal, or at least feels more resistant on the hand. It is slightly shorter and narrower than the Redmi Note 2, although thicker. The Redmi Note 2 on its side, has rear cover and removable battery.
Anyway, both are quite similar on size and weight, but they are figures difficult to notice on a daily basis.
Looking at them from the front, both show at first the imposing 5,5” screen, even though they use different technologies for it (I’ll talk about it later). Above the screen, Meizu’s one shows the speaker and the secondary camera. Xiaomi model adds also a LED for notifications (Meizu model also has a LED but it’s not as useful or evident, and not as customizable as the Xiaomi LED). Both cameras have 5Mpx.
Below the screen, Meizu only has a physical central button, with 3 different functions depending if we touch, press or hold it. The Xiaomi has the 3 typical Android haptic buttons, although they work in a different way because they can be customized (that’s pretty cool) so we can decide what they’ll do when we press or hold each button.
For the rest, on the Meizu we have the buttons for volume and lock on the left side and the slot for SIM and microSD on the right side. The secondary microphone (for noise cancelation) is on the top side, together with the Jack 3.5 plug, so the micro USB plug and the main speaker are on the bottom side.
The Xiaomi is quite similar, but having all the buttons on the right side, not having anything on the left side and adding the infrared port on the top...the rest all the same.
When flipping it, the main camera (13Mpx) and the flash, which is dual LED on the Meizu and single LED on the Xiaomi. The camera is completely flat for the Meizu and protrudes slightly on the Xiaomi. This last also includes the main speaker on this rear side. Both have the logo on the bottom.
The perception of the finishing is high quality for the two models, and with both I had the impression of sliding from my hand at the beginning. However, once you get used to their shape, size and weight... they fit very comfortable on the hand.
Screen The 5,5” screens on these models deliver FullHD resolution and excel 400ppi of density with a incredibly good quality of image. The only one difference is then, that Meizu chose IZGO technology and Xiaomi opted for the commonly used IPS LCD panel.
After using both daily, my impression is that Meizu screen offers better quality and dims more, which is very nice for reading during the night for example. Said that, both screens have a very good quality and have the option to adjust the color temperature.
There are some complaints about IZGO screens showing yellowish when it should be white, but I haven't noticed that effect at all.
Use and multimedia
Both models come with Android Lollipop 5, nonetheless each one has a very different and complete customization layer.MIUI is much more known than FlymeOS, although the people from Meizu is doing a great job with continuous improvements on the ROM. The goal surely is to make it each time more popular and compatible with more models, something that has worked very well in the favour of MIUI in the past years.
An important part of this customizations is the way we use the buttons and interact by using gestures.
Since I'm now comparing those two smartphones, I'm not going deeper on the ROMs (MIUI and FlymeOS) used, since it would make an endless review.
What I must say is that both will require a (small) adaptation time even for those coming from Android. In my case it was easier and faster with FlymeOS than with MIUI. Maybe also because MIUI has even more personalization options.
Something that I dislike from both is the number of things (apps, screens, messages) in Chinese, it's not excessive, but they simply appear sometimes and you don't have any other option. It's easier to avoid them in Meizu, since in Xiaomi their AppStore cannot be entirely disabled, and will continue suggesting you updates, which in some cases will just change the language of your apps... to Chinese.
Something good from MIUI (Xiaomi) on this point is that the account creation can be made in English (or other languages) and then it's later integrated with many other apps like their cloud app (called MiCloud... does it remember you something?) coming with 5GB for free and working pretty well for pictures, contacts, messages and some more things which look very similar to Apple iCloud.
As an extra in this section, Xiaomi Redmi Note 2, features an infrared port, and Xiaomi's MiHome app detects it automatically and helps quite good to control different devices at home (TVs, air conditioned, satellites,…). It could seem some silly thing, but it works pretty well.
This Redmi Note 2 also includes radio (digital and FM options), which is something I missed a lot on the Meizu, it works well, with good sound quality.
Regarding the proprietary apps, each one has some strengths and weaknesses. FOr example Meixu's weather app doesn't work for cities outside China, while you can select any city with Xiaomi one. The music app for both allow to browse their extensive catalogue ready to download, but for Xiaomi it's quite complicated to find international (non asiatic) artists. On its side, Meizu's app works very well, it's completely translated and have lots of international artists.
We will find a voice assistant in both smartphones, and both very similar to Apple's Siri, but in Chinese, so in any case it's really useful or something to highlight. The day any of them translates it to make it available internationally (English at least) it will be a good point I guess.
Camera Here the competition becomes even more interesting (if possible). The pictures I've taken with both smartphones show very good quality, they focus very fast and you can do burst shoot, which is something I cannot say about most of smartphones (not talking about first brands).
So this part is surprisingly satisfying for both competitors.
With the Redmi Note 2, I was surprised by the face detection on the selfies, which in addition is capable of identifying sex and age very accurately :-O
With the main camera, the results are very good even with low light where the flash works very precisely.
Talking about the Meizu m2 Note... I sincerely have the impression that it can compete hand to hand with my iPhone 5 and recording video (1080 @ 30fps) can probably beat him.
Some samples taken with each one, always first the Meizu then the Xiaomi:
Some samples of video
Meizu ->
https://youtu.be/Epl1fUwMrjQXiaomi ->
https://youtu.be/ZePaimXFL3U Battery Not much to say in here. The manufacturers have bet for a size that covers perfectly the expectations, meaning around 3000mAh and 1 day of standard use.
We can find tools for managing the energy in both cases allowing us to choose between power, balance or power saving modes. We can even select if the power saving mode should be automatically enabled when reaching a percentage.
We can say that the Meizu m2 Note, having a less powerful processor and managing better the screen bright, wins by little this battle.
Conclusions If I had to choose which one to keep, it would really be a hard decission.
A priori, the Redmi Note 2 is more powerful comes with some very interesting and useful extras (radio, infrared,…), however the user experience is more satisfying with the m2 Note and I like more the camera.
A table with pros and cons of each one would be like that:
As you can see, I find some more advantages on the Meizu, despite having less power. Specially strong in the camera, which is one of today's main uses for our smartphones.
In the present case, in addition, I'm using the Xiaomi's Prime version meaning an internal storage of 32GB and 2,2Ghz CPU's speed.
Personally, the FM radio is a very strong point, since I missed it a lot on the Meizu and one of the downside of iPhones for example, since you need data to listen to radio.
FlymeOS use is a little bit more agreeable, although you also get used to MIUI in some days.
For the power and the extras, I choose the Xiaomi as winner on today's competition.
Nevetheless, if you're not planning to play a lot of games, and so you don't require as much power, and you count on using one SIM and a microSD card, I recommend you the Meizu.
PS: if you liked the post... please thank it ;)
If you want to see real size pics, I could just upload them to my spanish blog ->
http://dabarsocialmarketing.blogspot...mi-note-2.html
