It seems like every time I review a new Meizu phone, I end up with the same conclusion; it's hard to beat the value for the money. This time I'm starting with that conclusion, because you won't believe what you can now buy for way less than $400.
The M3 note is so good in so many ways, it's really hard to know where to begin.
So let's just look at it for a bit. The brushed aluminium casing is slim and smooth, without being slippery to hold. Despite the large display, the handset isn't much bigger than many phones with smaller screens and the curved edges make it extremely comfortable in the hand.
The M3 note is light, surprisingly so. After all, it is a large phone. The metal casing means the phone still feels sturdy though. I've dropped it at least once with no visible side effects. (I should probably stop dropping phones. It's not really what they're designed for)
So, big tick for style. And another tick for screen size. I'm not sure how many other 5.5inch displays there are out there anywhere near this price. If there are any, I can pretty much guarantee they won't have the processing power behind them to effectively run a screen that big.
The Meizu M3 note does. In terms of colour, contrast and clarity, this is not the number one viewing experience on the market. But then, it's not $1200 either. And it's actually a pretty good display.
The M3 note's genuine octa-core processor provides an impressively smooth user experience. I swapped between various apps seamlessly and download and installation speeds were great. Meizu seems to be going to great lengths to improve its Flyme UI experience. Each time I use it, I find it more intuitive than the last. As I've mentioned before, there is only one navigation button at the base of the handset, but that single button handles a variety of operations depending whether you tap, press or swipe it.
It also serves as the fingerprint scanner which, on this device, I found very reliable. Unlike many other attempts from other brands, this scanner worked almost always, unlocking the handset very quickly.
The cameras are excellent without being outstanding, with a full array of settings and effects within easy reach.
Apart from its low price, there are two other features that really set the M3 note apart from the pack.
Firstly, customisation. Not only are there literally hundreds of theme packs available straight out of the box (You can even make this thing look like an iPhone. Why you would want to is another question entirely) You're actually allowed to root the M3 note for ultimate access to it's system settings and tweaks. There's no trick to it - it's just another setting on the phone. This is previously unheard of but will be welcome news to tech-tragics like me who can now fiddle around under the hood to their heart's content.
Secondly, the battery. At a whopping 4100mAh, it's the highest-capacity battery on the market. In theory, this means super long life. As usual though, the claims from the manufacturer don't quite live up to the reality. Meizu seems to think you might get 2 days standard use out of this device on a single charge. This may be true if all you did was turn it on and not connect it to any wifi or bluetooth devices. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't caught short by unexpected battery drain but I certainly wasn't looking at a 65% sign at the end of the day either. However, I certainly was impressed with how fast the battery charged. Not wirelessly though. Oh well.
What was definitely noticeable was the dramatic increase in power consumption once I connected a smart watch to this phone - and battery drain wasn't the only issue here. Meizu has made considerable progress "New Zealandising" its user experience, working hard to ensure many of our most popular apps work reliably with their devices. Unfortunately, it seems to have some way to go when it comes to non-Meizu accessories, in my case an Android-wear watch.
While I had no problem receiving notifications from the M3 note on the watch, almost nothing worked in the other direction. I couldn't start and stop music or video with the watch. I couldn't reply to texts or emails. And perhaps most frustratingly of all, none of my Google voice commands worked. Given this is the most efficient way to operate any Android-wear device, I think Meizu has got some homework to do if it wants to sell its phones to smart watch wearers.
On the other hand, little annoyances I had encountered on previous Meizu handsets, like Periscope crashing, have not only been sorted, but in cases like Periscope, it now runs better on the M3 note than on many other phones.
That's what has impressed me most about this device; Meizu's obvious commitment to providing the end-user with the experience we actually want. This is the antidote to Apple's insistence the iPhone knows best and you'll use it the way Apple wants you too.
As for the price. At the risk of sounding like an infomercial, you simply won't get more phone for your dollar.
Click here for more information and pricing on the Meizu M3 note
...then this review may not be anywhere near long enough, because what Huawei has achieved with the P9 is the revival of the camera-phone.
There was a time, surprisingly recently, when having a mobile phone with a camera in it was considered pretty revolutionary. Of course, I could never see the point of it. After all, why would you want to take sub-standard photos you can't develop, when you've got a perfectly good digital camera you always remember to take with you wherever you go?
I'm really quite an idiot sometimes.
For me, the moment of photographic singularity happened in 2013 when my phone's pictures of Disneyland turned out way better than the ones I was taking with the stupid standalone camera. I think that camera's been sitting on a top shelf gathering dust ever since.
Of course, these days unless at least one of your phone's cameras is providing images into the double-digit megapixel range, you're basically living in the dark ages and you should take a good hard look at yourself and start questioning why so much of the 21st century has passed you by.
Decent photo quality has become the minimum expectation from any phone, in any price range - but Huawei's latest partnership with Leica has taken things to a whole new level.
The P9 features an innovative dual-lens camera, one RGB, one monochrome. Apparently this allows you to capture more light and detail than ever before with every shot. The P9 has a very quick brain, which then stitches together the information from both lenses to create the perfect pic.
That's the theory.
The Leica photo technology in the P9 is unquestionably the most advanced I've ever encountered in a phone. In fact, it's so advanced, many of my first attempts were worthless flops. I soon realised how dependent I'd become on "auto-mode" and I was actually a little nervous about accessing the many different settings and effects available.
In fact, it was a very similar experience to my first fumblings with an Android phone after being bossed around by Windows and Apple all my life. Suddenly I had a phone that would work the way I wanted it to instead of the other way around. Initially that kind of freedom can be intimidating and terrifying. But once you stop limiting your expectations and actually take the plunge, technical liberation is only a few failed experiments away.
Like an Android phone, the Leica camera on the P9 doesn't tell you how to use it, it waits for you to decide what you want to do, then supplies the tools to make that a possibility. Obviously there are the usual automatic options too, but that seems like a waste given the long list of enhancements Huawei now puts at your disposal.
Why add effects after you take the shot, when you can frame the shot with the effects. White balance, selective focus, aperture settings are all just a swipe away. Even features like time-lapse, slow-mo, audio notes and document scanning are standard, not an extra suite of apps you have to download.
When set to its default settings, in Huawei's usual style I found the colours to be a bit too colourful and the light slightly too bright. But these are minor adjustments, now easily corrected.
I was also extremely impressed by the clarity of the video footage, even when using the selfie camera. (Although, no amount of "Beauty Mode" ever really seems to save my mug - that would be miracle technology)
Obviously, having the dedicated monochrome lens means you can now shoot in genuine black and white, this is no longer just an effect. Some shots looked so sharp I almost felt like a real photographer, not just an idiot with a phone.
There's more to the P9 than a fancy camera, although surprisingly, just like the P8, the lenses and flash still sit completely flush with the rear casing, once again creating a minimalist, sleek, modern effect. The P9 is so slim and smooth, it reminds me of one of those pieces of glass you see people using as phones in sci-fi movies. Huawei is getting scarily close to making that a reality.
Unfortunately, sleek, slim and smooth does mean slippery and I found this phone to be disturbingly droppable in my clumsy mitts.
Speaking of fat fingers, while it's nice to have those dual camera lenses tucked away so subtly on top left corner, they're so close to the edge I occasionally had to re-shoot my pics when I discovered my fingers had spilled into the shot. This thing is a delicate piece of tech and needs to be held gently.
Maybe that's why I also struggled with the motion sensors. Given the incredible speed of Huawei's Kirin CPU, (which impressed me so much in the Mate 8) I was constantly frustrated with the lag in changing profiles from portrait to landscape. In fact, sometimes I had to tap or shake the phone to get the display to respond - a bit of a letdown when everything else works so fast.
As we've come to expect from most flagship phones, a fast charger is included and the battery life is excellent. For the P9, Huawei have moved to a Type-C charging cable which means less fiddling around but of course I'd still prefer wireless.
Like the Huawei-manufactured Nexus from last year, and this year's Mate 8, they've stuck with the fingerprint sensor on the rear casing, which is definitely more ergonomic than under the home key... especially since the P9 doesn't have a physical home key. The fingerprint sensor can also be used to take photos, answer calls, stop alarms, browse photos and even show the notification panel with a downwards swipe. Tricky.
Unfortunately, Huawei seems to have done nothing to improve its stock email and messaging apps (both boring and basic) or its functional-but-that's-all EMUI interface, which is really just window after window of all your apps. I imagine if you're anything like me, you'll replace all these things with your preferred apps as soon as possible.
Those are just niggles though and even if the Leica camera technology wasn't a genuine point of difference, the P9 would still sit proudly amongst the hottest phones on the market today. Therefore if pictures are your priority, you need to take the Huawei P9 into serious consideration.
Click here for more information on the Huawei P9
