Meizu M5s review: Shiny armor, rusty ammo

Camera

The Meizu M5s main camera has the same 13MP sensor with f/2.2 aperture we saw on the M5, the m3 and probably on the m2 as well. The snapper is capable of capturing 4208x3120px photos in 4:3 aspect ratio. There's also a dual-tone LED flash that should allow for more pleasing colors in low-light flash photos.

There are quite a few shooting modes available - HDR, Macro, Manual (where you can adjust the shutter speed up to 10s, ISO, exposure compensation, and the focus), Panorama, GIF, Beauty, and even Light Field. Light Field is Meizu's refocus feature, which allows you to defocus any part of the scene after the photo has been taken.

The Meizu M5s snaps pleasant 13MP pictures, but they are not without some issues. The resolved detail is average, the level of noise is high, and it could get in the way of good detail definition. The colors are fine and the contrast is very good. The dynamic range turned out about above average, which is a rare among the mid-rangers.

The average detail, the noise, and the lack of sharpness are offset by the good colors, contrast, and dynamic range. At the end of the day, we feel good about the camera samples we took with the M5s.

Meizu M5s 13MP camera samples

You can check out a few 5MP images taken with the front-facing camera of the device. Those aren't peachy, though - the amount of resolved detail is rather poor.

Meizu M5s 5MP selfies

If you'd like to compare the M5s camera to the M5 and Redmi 4, head over to our Picture Compare Tool.

The Meizu M5s shoots videos in up to 1080p resolution at 30fps. All videos from the M5s camera are captured in an MP4 container. The video bitrate is about 17Mpbs, and the framerate is stable. The audio recorded in the video is stereo - it uses an AAC codec with 128 Kbps bitrate and 48 KHz sampling.

Unfortunately, the resolved detail is rather poor, but the contrast and colors are very good. Here is a sample we've uploaded on YouTube.

You can also download the 1080p@30fps (9s, 20MB) video sample taken straight off the Meizu M5s. If you'd like to compare the M5s video camera to the M5 and Redmi 4, head over to our Video Compare Tool.

Final thoughts

It's been a bumpy ride with the Meizu's M5 series, and there is no way for us to end it on a high note. The Meizu M5s, the final addition to the lineup, didn't present a good enough case to deserve a praising conclusion.

We appreciate the new metal back cover, and the fast charging is a useful addition every phone should have. The screen is nice and bright too, but that's about it. The downgrade of the chipset with poor gaming graphics support and the less than stellar battery life are not things we'd sign up for in this thriving market.

The 5.2" display is a nice trump card for the Meizu M5s though, and it may eventually tip the scales in its favor. It puts the phone in what we like to call a comfortable niche between the compact and phablet sizes, and many users who are accustomed to smaller screen sizes would probably appreciate the upgrade.

The biggest threats to the Meizu M5s are coming from Xiaomi - whether it's a Redmi 3, Redmi 3s, Redmi 4, or their respective Note versions - they are all ready to offer you more features and power for the same price.

Xiaomi Redmi 3s • Xiaomi Redmi 4 • Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 • Xiaomi Redmi Note 4

You should also consider the cheaper Meizu M5, which may have plastic back, but it's equally beautiful, it's more powerful, and it supports the latest graphic frameworks.

Meizu M5

We guess Meizu did their best with the M5s, but it's just not enough to impress us, not even at this price. The buttery-smooth Flyme experience is a charmer, as is the metal body, but the old hardware and uninspiring test scores prevented the M5s of making it to our list of recommendations.

Editorial note: We don't intend to suspend our regular longer reviews, but we are experimenting with this shorter review format so that we can cover a broader range of devices. Our goal is to give you our impressions in a more concise manner, but without sacrificing the performance assessment and the results from the full tests, we normally perform.