Meizu M5s review: Shiny armor, rusty ammo

Software

The Meizu M5s runs on Flyme 5.2.13.0 OS, which was built on top of an Android 6.0 Marshmallow core. Flyme, just like Apple's iOS, revolves around a single-tier UI - every app or widget resides directly on the homescreen without an additional app drawer that is typical for Android. All other system features can be configured through either the Settings menu or within the powerful Security app.

In China, many Meizu models come with what they call Yun OS, which is a forked version of Android with China-exclusive services to replace everything Google's. This is the reason why Meizu is not a registered Google Services partner. So Meizu can't ship even their international models with the Google APIs and apps, which are must-haves in the Western markets.

Meizu has found a workaround to give you those crucial apps - the Hot Apps application on your homescreen is a mini appstore of sorts and it would instantly recommend you downloading something called Google installer, which would add everything you need to enjoy a normal Android experience and would give you access to the Google Play store.

The lockscreen • the homescreen • the notifications drawer • toggles • Security app

Flyme offers a variety of customization options, including themes. There are lots of useful system-wide gestures, which you can use even when the screen is turned off. You have advanced features such as a Do-Not-Disturb mode and scheduled power on and off among others.

Themes • themes • themes • scheduled power on/off • DND mode

Flyme 5 supports multi-view, which is managed via the task switching interface. The supported apps have a 'Multi' button, and you can activate a split-screen app right away. Unfortunately, the apps to support multi-view are only two - Video and Settings. Hopefully, this list will grow bigger with the upcoming firmware updates.

Task switcher • multi-view in action

Meizu provides all the necessary apps to get you started - gallery, multimedia players, calendar, weather, among other necessities, but you can find everything else in the Play Store.

Performance

Meizu M5s is powered by the dated MediaTek MT6753 chipset, which despite its model number, is one step behind the MT6750 inside the M5. It packs an octa-core Cortex-A53 processor clocked at 1.3GHz (vs 1.5GHz for the M5). The GPU is even less special - the Mali-T720 MP3 (read tri-core). At least there are 3GB of RAM, which is plenty.

While the GPU got an additional core, it's an older model, which is a lesser performer than the Mali-T860 inside the M5, and lacks support for Vulkan, Open CL 2.0, and OpenGL ES 3.2, which essentially means - all the latest graphics APIs, which provide the more advanced visual effects in games.

With that said, the phone performs snappily in everyday tasks and we didn't experience any slowdown or lagging in everyday operation - not even while a bunch of apps were updating in the background.

GeekBench 4 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (Helio X20)
  1546
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (S625)
  839
• Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime
  819
• Meizu M5 Note
  683
• Xiaomi Redmi 3s Prime
  641
• Meizu M5s
  610
• Meizu M5
  592

GeekBench 4 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (Helio X20)
  4456
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (S625)
  3065
• Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime
  3016
• Meizu M5 Note
  2690
• Meizu M5s
  2480
• Meizu M5
  2428
• Xiaomi Redmi 3s Prime
  1944

The graphics performance, as we suspected, took a hit and dropped even below the M5's already underwhelming numbers. While the offscreen raw scores are nothing to talk about, the onscreen fps do improve because of the lower 720p resolution, and thus the M5s ends up on par with the Redmi 4.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (Helio X20)
  15
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (S625)
  9.9
• Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime
  9.8
• Xiaomi Redmi 3s Prime
  7.1
• Meizu M5 Note
  5.5
• Meizu M5
  5.2
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
  4.9
• Lenovo Vibe K5
  4.8
• Meizu M5s
  4.5
• Meizu m2 note
  2.3

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (Helio X20)
  9.5
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
  7.2
• Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime
  6.2
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (S625)
  6.2
• Xiaomi Redmi 3s Prime
  4.5
• Meizu M5 Note
  3.6
• Meizu M5
  3.4
• Meizu M5s
  2.9
• Meizu m2 note
  1.5

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (Helio X20)
  15
• Xiaomi Redmi 3s Prime
  14
• Meizu M5
  10
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (S625)
  9.9
• Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime
  9.6
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
  9.5
• Lenovo Vibe K5
  9.4
• Meizu M5s
  9.2
• Meizu M5 Note
  5.5
• Meizu m2 note
  2.3

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi 3s Prime
  10
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (Helio X20)
  9.4
• Meizu M5
  7.9
• Meizu M5s
  6.5
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (S625)
  6.2
• Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime
  6.1
• Meizu M5 Note
  3.6
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
  3.2
• Meizu m2 note
  1.9

Basemark X

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (Helio X20)
  13666
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (S625)
  10483
• Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime
  10424
• Xiaomi Redmi 3s Prime
  7604
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
  5383
• Meizu M5 Note
  5276
• Meizu M5
  4767
• Meizu M5s
  4646
• Lenovo Vibe K5
  4263
• Meizu m2 note
  3946

Compound benchmarks such as AnTuTu and BaseMark OS II give us a better understanding of the overall performance. Here, the Meizu M5s stands better, just a step behind the competition, but the gap isn't that big and probably unnoticeable under normal use.

AnTuTu 6

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (Helio X20)
  85162
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (S625)
  62454
• Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime
  62316
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
  49094
• Meizu M5 Note
  47806
• Xiaomi Redmi 3s Prime
  43344
• Meizu M5
  40831
• Meizu M5s
  39166
• Lenovo Vibe K5
  33414

Basemark OS II

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime
  1296
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
  999
• Meizu M5 Note
  944
• Xiaomi Redmi 3s Prime
  934
• Lenovo Vibe K5
  877
• Meizu M5
  846
• Meizu M5s
  842
• Meizu m2 note
  794

The benchmark tests show the Meizu M5s as an average performer, close to the M5 model, so it will provide an acceptable mid-ranger user experience. We were hoping for a small upgrade, at least up to Helio P10, instead of another demotion, but that's what we got. Meanwhile, the competition is ready to give us that extra bit of oomph at the same price. So if you are looking to use this phone for gaming, you might be better off looking at alternative devices.

Audio is very clean but too quiet

The Meizu M5s delivered nicely clean output when hooked up to an active external amplifier. The smartphone posted excellent scores for clarity, and decent volume levels.

Plug in a pair of headphones and the volume plummets to some of the lowest levels we’ve seen. Surprisingly, clarity remains virtually unchanged and the scores are once again excellent, but the output is so quiet we can’t give full marks here.

Meizu M5s frequency response

You can learn more about the tested parameters and the whole testing process here.