Meizu m1 metal review: Glitter in the dark

Performance

Meizu m1 metal joins the growing list of phones powered by the MediaTek's MT6795 chipset, also known as Helio X10. Unlike the name suggests, the processor is an octa-core 2GHz Cortex-A53, accompanied by a PowerVR G6200 (Rogue) GPU and 2GB of RAM.

The Meizu MX5, Xiaomi Redmi Note 2, Sony Xperia M5 and HTC One E9+ are the other devices we've met so far that utilize the same chipset.

GeekBench 3 gauges the multi-core performance of the processor and the Meizu m1 metal is doing flawless, as expected.

GeekBench 3

Higher is better

• Meizu MX5
  5110
• Meizu m1 metal
  4825
• HTC One E9+
  4796
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 2
  4589
• Lenovo K3 Note
  4067
• Meizu m1 note
  3988
• Sony Xperia M5 Dual
  3554
• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  3321
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  3120
• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  2375
• Xiaomi Mi 4i
  2336
• OnePlus X
  2297

The compound AnTuTu 5 test puts the Meizu m1 metal on par with its MX5 sibling and ahead of the Redmi Note 2 and Xperia M5 (also Helio X10 competition).

AnTuTu 5

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  50875
• HTC One E9+
  50753
• Meizu m1 metal
  49508
• Meizu MX5
  48915
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 2
  46307
• Lenovo K3 Note
  46283
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  45348
• OnePlus X
  39990
• Meizu m1 note
  39224
• Sony Xperia M5 Dual
  38786
• Xiaomi Mi 4i
  34491
• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  32217

BaseMark II 2.0 calculates CPU, GPU, memory, OS and web performance and puts in into a single score. The m1 note is behind its Helio X10 siblings - the MX5 and One E9+, but on par with the Redmi Note 2 and beats the Xperia M5. It seems the software optimizations have a lot to do with the score. We made sure we opted for the Performance Power Mode.

Basemark OS 2.0

Higher is better

• Meizu MX5
  1252
• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  1233
• HTC One E9+
  1227
• OnePlus X
  1213
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  1160
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 2
  1063
• Meizu m1 metal
  1039
• Lenovo K3 Note
  984
• Meizu m1 note
  880
• Sony Xperia M5 Dual
  860
• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  858
• Xiaomi Mi 4i
  296

Oddly the single and multi-core results in BaseMark OS II 2.0 turned out lower than expected and noticeably behind the rest of the Helio X10 gang.

Basemark OS 2.0 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  5739
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  5557
• OnePlus X
  5118
• HTC One E9+
  3444
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 2
  3434
• Meizu MX5
  3262
• Xiaomi Mi 4i
  3008
• Lenovo K3 Note
  2990
• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  2628
• Meizu m1 note
  2617
• Meizu m1 metal
  2439
• Sony Xperia M5 Dual
  2065

Basemark OS 2.0 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• HTC One E9+
  28201
• Lenovo K3 Note
  24538
• Meizu MX5
  22976
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 2
  21516
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  19237
• Meizu m1 metal
  17481
• OnePlus X
  16983
• Meizu m1 note
  14565
• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  14276
• Xiaomi Mi 4i
  13521
• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  13167
• Sony Xperia M5 Dual
  7891

PowerVR G6200 GPU is perfectly capable of handling 1080p displays. Its raw offscreen performance is better than the widespread Adreno 405 within the Snapdragon 615, so we guess the Helio X10 is the smarter choice for the 1080p upper mid-rangers. The only threat comes from the Snapdragon 808's Adreno 418 (Xiaomi Mi 4c), which seems to be the better performer.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  15
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  12
• Meizu MX5
  10
• OnePlus X
  9.9
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 2
  8.5
• Meizu m1 metal
  8.4
• Sony Xperia M5 Dual
  8.4
• HTC One E9+
  6.6
• Xiaomi Mi 4i
  6.2
• Lenovo K3 Note
  6.1
• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  5.84
• Meizu m1 note
  5.8

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  15
• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  12.2
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  12
• OnePlus X
  10
• Meizu MX5
  9.5
• Sony Xperia M5 Dual
  8.7
• Meizu m1 metal
  8
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 2
  7.9
• Xiaomi Mi 4i
  6.2
• Lenovo K3 Note
  6.1
• Meizu m1 note
  5.7
• HTC One E9+
  5.4

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  10
• Meizu MX5
  4.8
• Sony Xperia M5 Dual
  4.5
• Meizu m1 metal
  4
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 2
  4
• Lenovo K3 Note
  2.9

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  9.7
• Sony Xperia M5 Dual
  4.9
• Meizu MX5
  4.7
• Meizu m1 metal
  3.9
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 2
  3.9
• Lenovo K3 Note
  2.9

BaseMark X GPU test oddly puts the metal's GPU somewhat behind its siblings.

Basemark X

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  12096
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  11798
• OnePlus X
  10572
• Meizu MX5
  10403
• HTC One E9+
  9639
• Meizu m1 metal
  8526
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 2
  8518
• Sony Xperia M5 Dual
  7780
• Lenovo K3 Note
  5656
• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  5105
• Xiaomi Mi 4i
  4875
• Meizu m1 note
  4617

The MX web browser got some performance and stability improvements with the Flyme 5 upgrade and now it's quite fast. The m1 metal scored a very good mark on the JavaScript Kraken benchmark, and on the compound BrowserMark test.

Kraken 1.1

Lower is better

• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  4506
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  5968
• OnePlus X
  7295
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 2
  9504
• Lenovo K3 Note
  10712
• Meizu MX5
  11414
• Xiaomi Mi 4i
  11439
• Meizu m1 metal
  11887
• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  13609
• Meizu m1 note
  15055
• HTC One E9+
  17430
• Sony Xperia M5 Dual
  25088

BrowserMark 2.1

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  2113
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  2066
• Lenovo K3 Note
  1554
• Meizu m1 metal
  1548
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 2
  1505
• Meizu MX5
  1471
• OnePlus X
  1406
• Xiaomi Mi 4i
  1396
• HTC One E9+
  1279
• Sony Xperia M5 Dual
  1203
• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  1171
• Meizu m1 note
  536

The Helio X10 inside the Meizu m1 metal is an absolute treat for such an affordable device and a real powerhouse. There is nothing the Helio X10 can't handle on the m1 metal's 1080p display and we are sure the Meizu fans will appreciate the choice of platform and all the software optimizations the company has done on the Flyme 5 launcher.