Meizu’s new entry-level smart phone doubles up for less

About 6 months ago, Meizu had just gotten its hands into the entry-level smart phone segment with the m1, or better known as Blue Charm (“Mei Lan”) in China. With Xiaomi having its Redmi 2 enhanced version, Meizu has finally a well deserved response with its new m2 smart phone.

The m2 looks the same as the former m1, with an identical 5″ HD 720p IPS display and the front capacitive home button is now replaced with a physical key. Powering the device is a newer MediaTek MT6735 Quad-Core processor but it is clocked lower at 1.3GHz. As comparison, the previous m1 runs on a MediaTek MT6732 procesor with 4 cores running at 1.5GHz.

The biggest change is the amount of RAM and storage it brings, with 2GB of LPDDR3-RAM and 16GB of high performance eMMC 5.0 storage. If you need to store more photos and videos, it accepts microSD cards up to 128GB. Take note that the microSD slot is shared with the 2nd SIM tray slot of this dual-SIM 4G LTE device.

The choice of cameras remain unchanged with a 13MP f/2.2 main camera while the front gets 5MP f/2.0 unit. Keeping the lights on is a similar capacity 2,500mAh non-removable battery and out of the box it runs on the latest FlymeOS 4.5 that’s based on Android 5.1.

Overall the m2 it is thinner at 8.7mm (m1: 8.9mm) but it is slightly heavier at 131g (m1: 128g). With its improved specs, the m2 is priced at only 599 CNY (about RM367), which is cheaper than the m1 that was originally listed at 699 CNY (about RM428).

So far there’s still no word of its availability outside of China. No matter how quirky its FlymeOS feels, having 2GB RAM, 16GB storage and dual-SIMs with 4G LTE for under RM400 is a bargain you can’t ignore.