Recently I bought Meizu MX4 Pro from China for review purpose. I ordered it from a Chinese based shopping website beutilfultech.com. They shipped it within a couple of days and it arrived after 3 days from the date of shipping. Product price is around Rs 28000 on the website but PayPal recalculated the cost after currency conversion to over Rs 30k. Later I paid additional cost around Rs 1400 as custom duties for importing stuff in India. Thus the final cost of the phone for me was Rs 31500 (around).
When I opened the package I found no any other accessory than the charger and data cable. All manuals were in Chinese and of no use for me. I started the phone and set up it in English language. Despite of selecting English, all stock applications were completely in Chinese and also I could not disable them. So I created a separate folder and place all Chinese applications in that folder. Luckily phone settings were found purely in English.
I started testing the phone and tested the phone for some days. This phone has some impressive features but on the other hand I found some serious disappointments. Here are some salient good and bad things regarding Meizu MX4 Pro.
Top Good things about Meizu MX4 Pro
Good Design
MX4 Pro has an elegant and ergonomic design. Meizu has managed to provide high screen to body ratio reducing screen bezels to almost nothing. Also there is not much space above and below the screen. A shiny aluminum rim around the front panel gives a gorgeous look to the device. However, this phone would have been much better in design if it was a little bit slimmer.
Affordable phone with ultra high-end specifications
No doubt that MX4 Pro is a budget Quad HD display, 20 MP camera, 3GB RAM, 2 GHz octa-core processor and advanced Fingerprint scanner phone. No other Android phone, at this price point boasts so yummy specifications. You can buy its 16GB version only for 450 U.S dollars (around).
Advanced Fingerprint scanner
Fingerprint reader of Meizu MX4 Pro fascinated me with its accuracy and functionality. It is far more accurate than that of Samsung and other swipe to unlock phones. It is placed on home button like in iPhone and all you need to do is putting your registered finger on it and it will unlock the phone within a second. You can also lock any application with the help of this scanner lock.
Auto Call Recorder
MX4 Pro has built-in call recorder and you can set it to record call automatically from all incoming calls or from selected contacts. Recording quality is found very clear.
Amplified sound and powerful speaker
If you want a phone with loud speaker sound and want to enjoy music even when there is noise around you, this device is for you. It features Hi-Fi sound that is crystal clear and fairly louder than that of most of the other phones.
Integrated Network Firewall
It is a feature that most of the Android phones don’t have in their software and in them, any application can get internet access without your permission. Meizu Flyme UI is powered by network firewall and no bullshit can get internet access over data connection or WiFi if you set rule in Firewall. You can access Firewall in “Security > Traffic Manager”. However Meizu reserves some of its stock apps and they can access internet over WiFi.
Battery Super saving Mode
If your phone battery is about to die, you can extend it greatly using Super Saving mode. This option converts your phone into a black and White screen device and disable almost everything except calling and messaging function.
Smart Touch
It is an innovative feature of Flyme UI and you can navigate your phone using a semi transparent tiny movable white circle. You can use this button to switch between recent apps, close an app, back to previous screen and back to home screen. In fact, I loved this feature.
Top Bad things about Meizu MX4 Pro
Flyme UI lacks some essential features
Flyme UI is a custom Android ROM developed by Meizu that is much similar to Huawei EMUI and Xiaomi MIUI in terms of functionality. Absence of app drawer may be a big disadvantage for many users that may force them to use a 3rd party launcher app to get app drawer. There is no app search and app sorting option in launcher, so, if you have many apps installed you may get confused finding a particular application among all. Additionally there is nothing to hiding unwanted applications from screen and you have not way other than placing all unwanted application in a folder and name that folder as “Junk folder”
Confusing Setting panel
Setting panel of Flyme UI is totally different from that of other Android ROMs and by default you will see only categories icons to navigate among various settings. However, there is a toggle button on top left of the setting panel that makes Categories names viewable. But not everyone is so smart who can locate this button on his first visit to setting panel and he will be stuck among icons to find out right setting to customize.
Front camera makes you cry
Seriously I am angry on Meizu why it implemented so bad quality lens in its front camera. I am shocked seeing my face distorted in its front camera. Distortion is so much that face looks ugly. If you keep your face at the center of screen, you face remains normal but moving to the sides or edges it starts deforming. Just try to rotate the phone in vertical axis and you will find out this issue. However, I am not sure whether it is a defect in my handset or it is a common issue in MX4 Pro.
Anyone can rip out your security with “hard reset” (Fixed in Flyme 4.52.A)
(update – Meizu has addressed this issue in latest Flyme 4.5.2A for MX4 Pro and now to reset phone you will be prompted to enter your phone password)
Meizu has implemented powerful fingerprint scanner security in its phone that works like a charm. But it is a great delusion that no one can break this security. Meizu has left a horrible vulnerability in its security system with which anyone can access all your encrypted data. Just restart the phone pressing Volume up button + Power button and MX4 Pro gives easy option to reset phone. Sadly resetting your phone leaves all stored data unlocked on the device and after resetting the phone anyone can access your private data saved in vault. I advice Meizu development team to add an option to set lock on hard reset.
Conclusion
MX4 Pro is phone that offers a lot at low price when compared to other parallel phones but it has some serious issues that need to be resolved as soon as possible. Specially their “hard reset” option requires a password so that phone can’t be reset after stolen by someone or if someone want to steal our private files secured by Finger scanner.
Additionally Flyme UI needs some basic launcher features to be added such as App search, App hide and even App drawer.