Meizu MX6 review: Six of a kind

Display

The display of the Meizu MX6 employs a Sharp-made 5.5" TDDI LCD panel of 1080p resolution. The colors are nicely saturated and the viewing angles are quite good. The 403ppi density is sharp enough and you wouldn't really tell the difference to any QHD screen on the market unless you're looking at some really small fonts. The MX6's display matrix is a standard RGB arrangement.

We were a bit disappointed Meizu ditched the AMOLED we saw on the MX5 for an LCD panel, but we are happy to report the screen turned out great. The screen offers a very good maximum brightness of 457 nits, deep blacks, and a high contrast ratio of 1344:1.

The color calibration turned out very good, too, with an average DeltaE of 4.4 and a peak at the white color of 8.9 (towards blue). You can get a more accurate color rendition and bring down the average DeltaE to 3.5 if you use the Warm(est) end of the color calibration slider, but you may not like the yellowish tint you'll get all over the white menus.

Outdoors, the Meizu MX6 is an above average performer regarding sunlight legibility. The glass on top of the display is reflective, but most of the time you'll have no problem seeing what's happening on the screen.

Sunlight contrast ratio

• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  4.615
• Samsung Galaxy S7 edge
  4.439
• OnePlus 3
  4.424
• Samsung Galaxy S7
  4.376
• HTC One A9
  4.274
• Samsung Galaxy Note7
  4.247
• Samsung Galaxy A3
  4.241
• Google Pixel XL
  4.164
• ZTE Axon 7
  4.154
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  4.124
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  4.09
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  4.019
• Vivo Xplay5 Elite
  3.983
• OnePlus X
  3.983
• Oppo R7s
  3.964
• Apple iPhone 7
  3.964
• Huawei P9 Plus
  3.956
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016)
  3.918
• Samsung Galaxy C5
  3.911
• Samsung Galaxy C7
  3.896
• Samsung Galaxy A5
  3.895
• Samsung Galaxy J7 outdoor
  3.879
• Samsung Galaxy J2 outdoor
  3.873
• Samsung Galaxy A8
  3.859
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (2016)
  3.817
• Motorola Moto X (2014)
  3.816
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016) outdoor mode
  3.802
• Xiaomi Redmi Pro
  3.798
• LG V20 Max auto
  3.798
• Sony Xperia XZ
  3.795
• Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016)
  3.789
• Apple iPhone 6s
  3.783
• Meizu Pro 5
  3.781
• Microsoft Lumia 650
  3.772
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
  3.756
• Oppo F1 Plus
  3.709
• Vivo X5Pro
  3.706
• Sony Xperia X Compact
  3.694
• Apple iPhone SE
  3.681
• Samsung Galaxy A7
  3.679
• Meizu PRO 6
  3.659
• BlackBerry Priv
  3.645
• Apple iPhone 7 Plus
  3.588
• Apple iPhone 6s Plus
  3.53
• Samsung Galaxy J3 (2016)
  3.523
• Samsung Galaxy J3 (2016) outdoor mode
  3.523
• Acer Jade Primo
  3.521
• Microsoft Lumia 950
  3.512
• Oppo R7 Plus
  3.499
• nubia Z11
  3.466
• Samsung Galaxy J7
  3.422
• Meizu MX5
  3.416
• LG V20
  3.402
• Oppo R7
  3.32
• Xiaomi Mi 5s
  3.276
• Samsung Galaxy J2
  3.235
• Sony Xperia X Performance
  3.234
• Motorola Moto X Play
  3.222
• Huawei P9
  3.195
• Lenovo Vibe Shot
  3.113
• Motorola Moto X Force
  3.105
• LG Nexus 5X
  3.092
• Huawei Mate S
  3.073
• Microsoft Lumia 640 XL
  3.065
• Sony Xperia X
  2.989
• Huawei Mate 8
  2.949
• Xiaomi Redmi 3S
  2.913
• Sony Xperia XA Ultra
  2.906
• LG G5
  2.905
• HTC One S
  2.901
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  2.884
• Sony Xperia Z5
  2.876
• Microsoft Lumia 550
  2.851
• Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro
  2.803
• Sony Xperia Z5 compact
  2.784
• Meizu MX6
  2.751
• LG V10
  2.744
• Xiaomi Redmi 3
  2.735
• Sony Xperia M5
  2.69
• Huawei P9 Lite
  2.679
• Vivo V3Max
  2.659
• Xiaomi Mi 4i
  2.641
• Sony Xperia XA
  2.609
• Motorola Moto G4 Plus
  2.582
• Motorola Moto G4 Plus (max auto)
  2.582
• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  2.574
• LeEco Le Max 2
  2.567
• Microsoft Lumia 640
  2.563
• Asus Zenfone 3 ZE552KL
  2.563
• Lenovo Moto G4
  2.544
• Oppo F1
  2.528
• Sony Xperia Z5 Premium
  2.525
• Huawei Honor 7 Lite / Honor 5c
  2.506
• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  2.503
• Oppo F1s
  2.481
• Motorola Moto G
  2.477
• Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus
  2.473
• Huawei G8
  2.471
• Huawei nova
  2.467
• Sony Xperia Z
  2.462
• Lenovo Vibe K5
  2.459
• Huawei Honor 7
  2.406
• Sony Xperia E5
  2.386
• ZUK Z1 by Lenovo
  2.382
• HTC 10
  2.378
• Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
  2.378
• Huawei nova plus
  2.329
• HTC One E9+
  2.305
• Alcatel One Touch Hero
  2.272
• Apple iPhone 4S
  2.269
• Lenovo Vibe K4 Note
  2.254
• Sony Xperia C5 Ultra
  2.253
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (MediaTek)
  2.249
• Sony Xperia C4 Dual
  2.235
• Xiaomi Mi Note
  2.234
• Motorola Moto G (2014)
  2.233
• LG Nexus 5
  2.228
• Huawei P8
  2.196
• Huawei Honor 6
  2.169
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 2
  2.166
• OnePlus Two
  2.165
• HTC One X
  2.158
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4
  2.145
• LG Aka
  2.145
• Archos 50 Diamond
  2.134
• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  2.119
• Xiaomi Mi 4S
  2.095
• Acer Liquid X2
  2.084
• Huawei P8lite
  2.078
• Moto G 3rd gen max manual
  2.026
• Xiaomi Mi Max
  1.996
• Sony Xperia E4g
  1.972
• OnePlus One
  1.961
• Meizu m3 note
  1.923
• BlackBerry Leap
  1.892
• Meizu m2 note
  1.892
• ZTE Nubia Z9 mini
  1.759
• Sony Xperia U
  1.758
• Asus Zenfone Selfie
  1.68
• Motorola Moto E (2nd Gen)
  1.675
• ZTE Nubia Z9
  1.659
• Jolla Jolla
  1.605
• Motorola Moto E
  1.545
• Sony Xperia M
  1.473
• HTC Desire C
  1.3
• Sony Xperia C
  1.283
• Meizu MX
  1.221
• Sony Xperia E
  1.215

Battery life

Meizu MX6 is powered by a 3,060 mAh battery, about 100mAh shorter than the MX5 power block. The phone supports fast charging via a 24W plug and our tests show it fills the batter from 0% up to 56% in 30 mins, 95% in 75 minutes, and 100% in 90 minutes. The new TDDI screen that replaces the AMOLED and the Helio X20 chipset weren't looking promising, so we didn't actually have any particular expectations for the MX6's battery life.

And before we continue to the results and draw any parallels with the MX5, let's just be clear that we tested the MX5 last year at 117nits of display brightness, which surely affected its browser and video scores.

We ran our battery test and it outed mixed-bag results. The smartphone's performance is average across all of our tests, including the single-SIM and dual-SIM standby.

The rating of 68 hours isn't bad at all - it means you can use the MX6 for two and a half days if you are to make an hour of 3G talks, web browsing and video playback each day. Putting a second SIM card drops the rating by only an hour. Such usage pattern is of course entirely artificial, but we've established it so our battery results are comparable across devices.

The MX6 (68 hours) is a healthy improvement over its MX5 predecessor (55 hours) in terms of battery life, especially if we account the higher 200nits of brightness, the MX5 was tested at half that. So even though the MX5 also gets 9 hours for web and video, the MX6 will easily outlast it at equal screen brightness.

The battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you're interested in the nitty-gritties. You can also check out our complete battery test table, where you can see how all of the smartphones we've tested will compare under your own typical use.

Connectivity

The Meizu MX6 supports LTE Cat.6 connectivity and you can tap into an LTE network on either SIM, but the other will default to a 3G or GSM network. You can have both cards connected to a 3G network, too. Dual SIM telephony is also supported, but the slot isn't hybrid and you can't put a microSD card inside.

The rest of the wireless connectivity features include dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac support and Wi-Fi Direct. There is also support for Bluetooth 4.1, NFC, and GPS and GLONASS. Wireless screen mirroring is available via the Miracast protocol.

The MX6 supports USB Type-C and fast charging (56% in 30 minutes). If you have a proper USB OTG adapter, you can attach peripherals and thumb drives. You should be able to charge other devices, but you'd need to get a special adapter as Meizu hasn't included one in the package.

There is no FM radio or IR blaster on the Meizu MX6.