Meizu MX4 Pro review: Sharpened up

Octa-core processing

The Meizu MX4 Pro ditches the MediaTek chipset of its predecessor and has instead opted for the Samsung Exynos 5 Octa 5430, built around a 20nm processor and ARM's big.LITTLE architecture. It has four Cortex-A15 cores clocked at 2GHz and four Cortex-A7's at 1.5GHz each. Graphics are handled by the Mali T628 MP6/600MHz GPU and there's a stocky 3 gigs of RAM.

The CPU performance of the Exynos chip starts off impressively. GeekBench 3 ranks the MX4 Pro at second place among the many phones in the chart, interestingly just behind the Meizu MX4.

AnTuTu 5 gives the MX4 Pro a third place behind the Snapdragon 805-yellding Motorola Nexus 6 and the Samsung Galaxy Alpha, the latter using the same Exynos 5 Octa chip as the subject of this review.

Basemark OS II is where the Meizu MX4 Pro loses serious ground. In the overall test the MX4 Pro only makes it to the bottom of the table but is still above the Samsung Galaxy Alpha, the Huawei Ascend Mate7 and Meizu's own MX4.

Single and multi-core performance is rated in last and second-to-last place, though.

GeekBench 3

Higher is better

• Meizu MX4
  3556
• Meizu MX4 Pro
  3386
• Motorola Nexus 6
  3285
• Samsung Galaxy Alpha
  3214
• Oppo Find 7
  3178
• Xiaomi Mi 4
  3175
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  3165
• Oppo Find 7a
  3093
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  2925
• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  2884
• Oppo N3
  2704
• OnePlus One
  2663
• LG G3 - EU version
  2563

AnTuTu 5

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Alpha
  51905
• Motorola Nexus 6
  49803
• Meizu MX4 Pro
  48489
• Meizu MX4
  46922
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  46824
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  41510
• LG G3 - EU version
  39905
• Oppo N3
  39245

Basemark OS II

Higher is better

• Motorola Nexus 6
  1509
• Xiaomi Mi 4
  1324
• Oppo N3
  1280
• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  1222
• Oppo Find 7
  1212
• OnePlus One
  1196
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  1181
• LG G3 - EU version
  1126
• Oppo Find 7a
  1057
• Meizu MX4 Pro
  922
• Samsung Galaxy Alpha
  915
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  830
• Meizu MX4
  695

Basemark OS II (single-core)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  4031
• Oppo Find 7
  2606
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  2588
• Oppo Find 7a
  2580
• Samsung Galaxy Alpha
  2579
• Xiaomi Mi 4
  2573
• Oppo N3
  2417
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  2334
• OnePlus One
  2213
• LG G3 - EU version
  2213
• Motorola Nexus 6
  1967
• Meizu MX4 Pro
  1891
• Meizu MX4
  1729

Basemark OS II (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Alpha
  15096
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  15012
• Meizu MX4
  12268
• Oppo Find 7
  10391
• Oppo Find 7a
  10256
• OnePlus One
  10234
• Motorola Nexus 6
  9915
• LG G3 - EU version
  9611
• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  9604
• Xiaomi Mi 4
  9508
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  9446
• Oppo N3
  9320
• Meizu MX4 Pro
  7399

The next installment of tests measures the GPU performance or in other words gaming and video playback. With its Mali GPU, the Meizu MX4 Pro didn't really crush the boards. The less-intensive T-Rex test showed an almost stutter-free 26 fps on the offscreen 1080p run. The on-screen version however uses the native resolution of 1536 x 2560px, resulting in a less impressive 17fps.

The Manhattan test is about twice as taxing and we got half the framerate compared to T-Rex. Both framerates are consistent with many of the MX4 Pro's direct rivals but still nowhere near a smooth 30fps.

Finally, Basemark X shows its own score for gaming prowess. The MX4 Pro edged out its predecessor but failed to match the heavyweights in the smartphone space.

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  44.6
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  41.7
• Motorola Nexus 6
  38.9
• Samsung Galaxy Alpha
  31.3
• Oppo Find 7a
  28.4
• OnePlus One
  28.3
• Oppo Find 7
  28
• Xiaomi Mi 4
  27.6
• LG G3 - EU version
  27.2
• Meizu MX4 Pro
  26
• Meizu MX4
  22.7
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  16.4

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Alpha
  48.4
• OnePlus One
  30
• Oppo Find 7a
  28.8
• Xiaomi Mi 4
  28.2
• Motorola Nexus 6
  27.4
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  26.4
• Meizu MX4
  21.3
• LG G3 - EU version
  20.5
• Oppo Find 7
  19.9
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  17.4
• Meizu MX4 Pro
  17

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  18.6
• Motorola Nexus 6
  18.6
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  18.5
• Samsung Galaxy Alpha
  13.4
• Meizu MX4 Pro
  13
• OnePlus One
  12.1
• Xiaomi Mi 4
  11.6
• LG G3 - EU version
  11.4
• Oppo Find 7a
  11.4
• Oppo Find 7
  11.1
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  8
• Meizu MX4
  7.9

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Alpha
  25.3
• OnePlus One
  12.9
• Motorola Nexus 6
  11.9
• Oppo Find 7a
  11.4
• Xiaomi Mi 4
  11.3
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  11.2
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  8.5
• Meizu MX4 Pro
  7.8
• Meizu MX4
  7.4
• LG G3 - EU version
  7.2
• Oppo Find 7
  6.7

Basemark X

Higher is better

• Motorola Nexus 6
  20901
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  18684
• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  18297
• Oppo Find 7
  14968
• OnePlus One
  13129
• LG G3 - EU version
  11552
• Samsung Galaxy Alpha
  11065
• Oppo N3
  10168
• Meizu MX4 Pro
  9111
• Meizu MX4
  8324
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  6501

Finally, we come to the JavaScript benchmark Kraken 1.1 by Mozilla. It evaluates the JavaScript performance by the web browser. It relies not only on the hardware under the hood, but also on the software optimization made by the manufacturer. The Meizu MX4 Pro ranks last in this test.

Kraken 1.1

Lower is better

• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  4650
• Samsung Galaxy Alpha
  4911
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  5351
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  5567
• Motorola Nexus 6
  6088
• Xiaomi Mi 4
  6137
• Oppo Find 7
  6363
• Oppo N3
  6460
• Oppo Find 7a
  6660
• LG G3 - EU version
  6987
• OnePlus One
  7008
• Meizu MX4
  9408
• Meizu MX4 Pro
  10193

While synthetic benchmarks can give you a pretty good idea of what to expect from a given hardware rig, we wouldn't go as far as saying that it's truly applicable as a practical measurement for recent high-end smartphones and their performance.

Each of the phones in the tables above offer outstanding performance without hiccups or stutters in just about any scenario you'd use them for.