Meizu m2 note review: ReMixed

Performance

The Meizu m2 note has a 1080p display and runs on a MediaTek MT6753 chipset with eight Cortex-A53 cores ticking at 1.3GHz and Mali-T720MP3 GPU. This means it has less-powerful CPU than its predecessor. The GPU is also of the lesser kind, but offers three GPU cores instead of two as was the case with the Mali-T760MP2 in m1 note. The RAM stays the same at 2GB.

Given the specs at hand we expected the Meizu m2 note to perform slightly below the original m1 note and we were about right.

The eight Cortex-A53 cores within the Meizu m2 note are becoming quite a common configuration these days. The first generation m1 note used the same processor, but it was more powerful at 1.7GHz. This 400 MHz worth of a difference has put an immense gap between the CPU performance of the first and second Meizu note. The m2 note performs similarly to the recently released Huawei P8lite, while the m1 note leads our chart.

GeekBench 3

Higher is better

• Meizu m1 note
  3988
• Lenovo Vibe X2
  3647
• Meizu MX4
  3556
• Huawei P8lite
  2813
• Huawei P8lite (Snapdragon 615)
  2717
• OnePlus One
  2663
• Meizu m2 note
  2649
• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  2435
• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  2375
• LG G2
  2243
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  1460

AnTuTu 5 compound benchmark takes in consideration the GPU and memory performance, too. This explains the 7,000 points difference between the more powerful m1 note. The m2 note performs equally to the Sony Xperia M4 Aqua and Xiaomi Redmi Note flagship, which is very respectable.

AnTuTu 5

Higher is better

• Meizu MX4
  46922
• Lenovo Vibe X2
  46666
• Meizu m1 note
  39224
• Huawei P8lite
  35205
• Huawei P8lite (Snapdragon 615)
  35038
• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  32487
• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  32217
• Meizu m2 note
  32054
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  20616

Oddly, the compound BaseMark OS II test puts the m2 note right next to the m1 note, while the new BaseMark OS II 2.0 gives the m1 note a significant edge over the m2 note.

Basemark OS II

Higher is better

• OnePlus One
  1196
• Lenovo Vibe X2
  930
• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  883
• LG G2
  848
• Huawei P8lite (Snapdragon 615)
  799
• Meizu m2 note
  794
• Meizu m1 note
  715
• Meizu MX4
  695
• Huawei P8lite
  600
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  509
• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  452

Basemark OS 2.0

Higher is better

• OnePlus One
  1230
• Meizu m1 note
  880
• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  858
• Huawei P8lite
  691
• Meizu m2 note
  673
• Meizu MX4
  666
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  511
• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  479

Both the single-core and multi-core performance of the Cortex-A53 processor hit the bottom of our charts because of their lower clock.

Basemark OS 2.0 (single-core)

Higher is better

• OnePlus One
  5108
• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  2628
• Meizu m1 note
  2617
• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  2388
• Meizu MX4
  2219
• Huawei P8lite
  2154
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  1806
• Meizu m2 note
  1709

Basemark OS 2.0 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• OnePlus One
  19625
• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  18490
• Huawei P8lite
  17099
• Meizu m1 note
  14565
• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  13167
• Meizu MX4
  12671
• Meizu m2 note
  8105
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  6362

Now it's time for the GPU checkup. As we mentioned above, the Meizu m2 note relies on a Mali-T720MP3 GPU, which is less capable than the Mali-T760MP2 configuration inside the m1 note. The MP2 and MP3 configuration aren't the best options for handling 1080p graphics, but they are OK for a mid-ranger which isn't targeting high-profile gaming.

So, the offscreen and onscreen tests are pretty much identical, but the latter clearly shows the performance supremacy of the 720p devices such as the Xperia M4 Aqua and Huawei P8lite.

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus One
  28.3
• Meizu MX4
  22.7
• LG G2
  22
• Lenovo Vibe X2
  17.8
• Huawei P8lite (Snapdragon 615)
  15
• Meizu m1 note
  15
• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  14.9
• Meizu m2 note
  12
• Huawei P8lite
  10
• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  9.8
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  5.2

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus One
  12.1
• Meizu MX4
  7.9
• Lenovo Vibe X2
  6.1
• Huawei P8lite (Snapdragon 615)
  6
• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  5.84
• Meizu m1 note
  5.8
• Meizu m2 note
  2.3
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  1.8

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (onscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus One
  30
• Huawei P8lite (Snapdragon 615)
  26
• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  25.8
• LG G2
  23.1
• Meizu MX4
  21.3
• Lenovo Vibe X2
  17
• Huawei P8lite
  16
• Meizu m1 note
  16
• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  13.3
• Meizu m2 note
  12
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  9.6

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus One
  12.9
• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  12.2
• Huawei P8lite (Snapdragon 615)
  12
• Meizu MX4
  7.4
• Lenovo Vibe X2
  6.1
• Meizu m1 note
  5.7
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  3.9
• Meizu m2 note
  2.3

The BaseMark X GPU test also places the Meizu m2 note GPU behind the others.

Basemark X

Higher is better

• OnePlus One
  13129
• LG G2
  11101
• Meizu MX4
  8324
• Lenovo Vibe X2
  6512
• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  5105
• Huawei P8lite (Snapdragon 615)
  5062
• Meizu m1 note
  4617
• Meizu m2 note
  3946
• Huawei P8lite
  3648
• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  2974

Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, the web browsing performance turned out unimpressive 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
• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  12416
• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  13609
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  13694
• Meizu m2 note
  14462
• Meizu m1 note
  15055
• Huawei P8lite
  16743
• Huawei P8lite (Snapdragon 615)
  18665

BrowserMark 2.1

Higher is better

• Lenovo Vibe X2
  2211
• OnePlus One
  1339
• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  1171
• Huawei P8lite
  981
• Meizu MX4
  720
• Meizu m2 note
  656
• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  588
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  549
• Meizu m1 note
  536
• Huawei P8lite (Snapdragon 615)
  501

So, Meizu has outfitted the m2 note with upgrades such as the wide-band LTE and microSD slot, but the main hardware has actually seen a downgrade. We could understand the lower CPU clock but not the GPU downgrade. At least the m2 note seems to be selling cheaper, which is somewhat of a compensation.

The m2 note is probably as good as the m1 note when it comes to day-to-day tasks, but it will do even worse at gaming than its predecessor. If gaming isn't your thing, then you should have no worries about the m2 note's performance.