For years Meizu was a one-phone-per-year kind of company. They relied on a single flagship each year to carry them through to the next, but that formula has been turned completely on its head over the previous 6 months or so. With the arrival of the company’s 4th generation flagship back in the fall of 2014, the Meizu MX4 was quickly followed up by the MX4 Pro a few months later. This new model boasted a similar design with a slightly larger display and overall size as well as beefed up specs, giving Meizu two big flagships for 2014. In December the company went on to unveil the first pair of phones that would be available in the new year: The M1 and the M1 Note.
Both of these new phones are a second tier of devices for the once flagship-only company and are half the price of the MX series. The M1 series also marks a change from the MX4 and MX4 Pro by bringing a shiny plastic build to the table all while still keeping the solid build quality Meizu is known for. The M1 Note is a larger 5.5-inch version of the 5-inch M1 and also includes some beefed up specs compared to the smaller version. Inside the M1 Note you’ll find a 64-bit 1.7GHz Octo-Core Mediatek MT6752 and a Mali-T760 GPU, also found inside the similarly priced iOcean Rock. 2GB of RAM gives you great multi-tasking capabilities and 16gb or 32gb internal storage is likely enough room for most people to work with. The 5.5-inch display is a full HD 1080p IGZO display from Sharp, features a 13-megapixel camera on the back, 5-megapixel on the front and a 3,410mAh battery.
Check out our full unboxing and brief tour of Flyme OS, the Android skin that powers all Meizu phones, in the video below. If you’d like to read our full review of this handset, click here.