Meitu, the Chinese beautifying photo app: Here’s why everyone is using it

Forget about Prisma. Meitu is the latest photo-editing app to go viral.

The Chinese app has been around since 2008, but it landed in the US in early January and already has about 430 millions outside of China. It’s been installed on 1.1 billion devices and counting and has generated over 6 billion beautified photos for its 456 million monthly active users around the globe. You’ve probably seen those photos on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, because everyone seems to be using Meitu.

Here’s everything you need to know about Meitu.

What is Meitu?

It’s a free photo-editing app for iOS and Android. It uses facial recognition with augmented reality to combine your actual face with a virtual look. Meitu’s name means “beautiful picture”. It is supposed to give your selfies a “hand-drawn look” and is described as a “one-touch photoshop for enhancing your beauty”. In our opinion, it gives you the appearance of an anime – widened eyes, slimmer jaws, and all.

The developer behind Meitu, which had a $4.5 billion initial public offering last year, makes other popular apps such as AirBrush and MakeupPlus, both of which utilise its patented technology.

How does Meitu work?

Pocket-lint reviewed the iOS version of Meitu in the US.

Once you download and open Meitu, it’ll bring you directly to the core “hand-drawn” experience that lets you create a selfie like the examples at the top of this article. However, every time after that, you’ll go to the main screen and see the following menu options:

• Editing – Edit your photos with basic tools like auto-enhance, frames, stickers, text, blur, a magic beauty brush, and more.
• Camera – Take a photo (or upload from camera roll) – with or without a vignette or even a blur effect enabled – and apply one of the dozen filters available, whether that be “youthful” or “sunlit” or various other ones for “selfie”, “food”, or whatever. You will also see buttons at the top that let you access a timer, give yourself a face lift, or enabled a night mode.
• Retouch – This is basically the Photoshop section of the app, where you can enhance your skin, get rid of acne and wrinkles, slim down your face, add highlights, erase dark circles, and even make yourself look taller.
• Tips – Confused? No worries. If you can understand Mandarin, you can go here to see several tips and tricks on how to use the app.
• Hand-drawn – The star feature in Meitu. Tap it to take a photo (or upload a photo), and from there you can select one of the beauty filters also available in the Camera screen. After, you can apply one of six effects that will change the shape of your face and eyes, as well as the colouring and effect of your photo, and even the texture of your hair. The end result is like an anime, though Meitu calls it a “painted” photo.
• Collage – This does exactly what you think: lets you grab several photos from your camera roll and arrange them in a collage. You can use one of the templates or create your own. There’s also features for decorating a collage.
• Auto beauty: If you just want to quickly slim your face and firm your skin in a hurry, this option will let you do just that.
• Meipei – This is a download link to Meipei, an app that lets you apply stickers and effects to video clips.

After you finish editing your selfie, you can save it to your phone or share it via all the usual channels, like Instagram or Facebook.

Why is everyone using Meitu?

Why pay for a nip and tuck when you can just tap and save?

Commenters have given the app glowing reviews, and it currently holds a five-star rating in the US app store. While the novelty of the app might quickly wear off, you’ll be impressed at how well it works. Besides, like those beloved Snapchat lenses, it’s just cool to see yourself in a whole new light. The app is available on both the iOS and Android app stores, and it’s free on both platforms, so there’s no reason to not at least try it. The iOS version also supports for the iMessage App Store.

Examples of Meitu creations:

#meitu #TRUMP #win pic.twitter.com/zsLEdeY2UA

— ButterGo (@ButterGo) January 17, 2017

I don’t know, I think this really captures the real me, ya’ know? #Meitu pic.twitter.com/8GB3Osumbp

— Liana Brooks (@LianaBrooks) January 19, 2017

You are welcome. #meitu pic.twitter.com/gG6Zinqeaa

— Roo Reynolds (@rooreynolds) January 19, 2017

Nintendo’s ‘Fire Emblem Heroes’ arrives on Android next month

If you’ve been yearning for a Fire Emblem game to play on the go that isn’t relegated to a portable gaming system, maybe the upcoming Fire Emblem Heroes will do the trick. It’s a tactical role-playing game (think Final Fantasy Tactics) where “fate has brought two warring kingdoms together in a bitter clash.” Naturally. During today’s Fire Emblem Direct stream, it was announced that you’ll battle it out on an 8×6 grid.

You’ll also level up familiar characters and fans will “find the battle intensity they’ve come to expect from the series” (more info resides right here). It looks like in-app purchases are all but confirmed as summoning orbs — they call in additional heroes for help during battle — will be doled out after a fight, or you can buy them with cash. How much are those doggies in the window? Footage showed a purchase screen with a 35-pack costing $20, with a 3-pack running $1.99.

Pre-registration (alerts for when it’ll be released) starts January 19th, with the game itself coming out February 2nd on Android. Folks with iOS devices will have to wait until sometime “soon.” Have a Fire device? Bad news because the stream specifically mentioned Google Play as a vendor.

The ‘DJ Hero’ and ‘Guitar Hero Live’ team is joining Ubisoft

Freestyle Games, known for its work on Guitar Hero Live and DJ Hero under publisher Activision, has a new home. The team has joined Ubisoft and will be renamed to Ubisoft Leamington — based on its location in the UK. A post on UbiBlog says that the studio will collaborate with Ubisoft Reflections, whose past projects include Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate and last year’s Watch Dogs 2, in addition to Ubisoft’s worldwide teams on their AAA projects.

Given Freestyle’s history in rhythm games, maybe an upcoming project will include Ubisoft’s own Rocksmith. The last entirely new entry in the franchise that teaches you how to play guitar with a real guitar (or bass) was released in 2014. So maybe, just maybe, we’ll see a new one of those sooner rather than later.

Source: UbiBlog

A new ‘Fire Emblem’ game is coming to Nintendo Switch in 2018

Good news, Fire Emblem fans: Today Nintendo announced that the next major title in its tactical RPG series will be for the Switch — making it the franchise’s first game on home consoles in almost ten years. The bad news? You won’t be able to play it until 2018.

The announcement was almost a footnote in today’s Fire Emblem Direct, and revealed precious little about the game. All we know about the game is that it features another “full scale war” and that its the full “home console experience.” It doesn’t do a lot to bolster the Switch’s meager launch line-up, but at least it’s something to look forward to.

Source: Nintendo

‘Super Mario Run’ will hit Android devices in March

It’s-a me, Android. Nintendo’s first fully fledged smartphone game (sorry, Miitomo), Super Mario Run, is scheduled to hit Android devices in March after landing on iOS in December. The news appeared on the official Nintendo Twitter account this afternoon.

In Super Mario Run, players tap the screen to make Mario jump over obstacles and enemies as he constantly sprints through various 3D worlds of the Mushroom Kingdom. It costs $10 for the full game, though the first few levels are playable for free. Also, make sure to find a strong internet connection, since Super Mario Run doesn’t work offline, ostensibly in an attempt to combat piracy.

Android版「Super Mario Run」は、2017年3月に配信を開始します。現在Google Playでは、配信開始を通知でお知らせする事前登録の受付を行っています。ぜひご登録ください。https://t.co/2DW2TnCK6d pic.twitter.com/2QbMM6fGRh

— 任天堂株式会社 (@Nintendo) January 18, 2017

In its first four days on the App Store, Super Mario Run was downloaded 40 million times. However, Nintendo hasn’t revealed how many players have actually thrown down $10 for the complete game. Either way, that figure is due to increase in March.

Source: @Nintendo

Nintendo Debuts New ‘Fire Emblem: Heroes’ Smartphone Game, Coming Soon to iOS Devices

Nintendo today officially announced Fire Emblem: Heroes, its next planned mobile game launching on iOS and Android devices in the near future. Positioned as a tactical roleplaying game in the Fire Emblem universe, Fire Emblem: Heroes will allow players to level up popular characters from the series and engage in strategic battles.

According to Nintendo, the game features a new, original storyline focusing on two warring kingdoms coming together in a bitter clash. Players take on the role of summoners, calling various historic Fire Emblem characters into epic fights.

Each battle map is an 8×6 square designed to fit on a smartphone’s screen, where players will engage in tactical fights with multiple allies and enemies on the battlefield.

Simple controls are included, such as dragging an ally onto an enemy to attack, and a battle victory is achieved when every enemy on a given map is defeated. Nintendo says that despite the simple controls, Fire Emblem fans will find the battle intensity they’ve come to expect from the series.

Nintendo plans to make Fire Emblem: Heroes free-to-play, with optional in-app purchases.

Fire Emblem: Heroes will be available on the Google Play store starting on February 2. Nintendo did not announce a specific release date for iOS devices, saying only that the game will be “available soon.”

Back in 2015, Nintendo promised to release five smartphone games by March of 2017. The company originally said its Fire Emblem game, along with a new game in the Animal Crossing series, would be released in the fall of 2016, but Nintendo did not make that deadline. While we now have concrete information on the planned Fire Emblem game, there is still no word on when we might see the promised Animal Crossing game for iOS.

Tags: Nintendo, Fire Emblem
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Leica M10 Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

The successor to the Leica M (Typ 240), Leica makes its M series even M-ier with the M10.

Unlike the recent M-D, the update in which Leica stripped almost every digital convenience from its full-frame rangefinder, Leica targets photography purists. It does so by removing selected low-priority capabilities, simplifying its operation and updating the design, as well as making improvements where needed or where the fans have demanded. So, for example, while the M10 lacks video, Leica adds Wi-Fi. And where it moved the drive modes off the top, the continuous shooting speed increases to 5 frames per second and with doubled buffer size of 2GB, can burst a decent number of images, even in raw + JPEG.

And I got to spend a few days with a preproduction unit. But you’ll be able to pick the M10 up for $6,595 starting this week. I don’t have UK or Australian pricing, but that converts to roughly £5,320 and AU$8,720.

18

Leica M10 photo samples

In a bid to attract its current film devotees, Leica gave them their most requested change: shaving 0.13 inches (4 mm) off the depth of the camera so that it’s exactly the same as the film-based M7’s 1.3 inches (33.8 mm).

Another goal was making it possible to configure exposure settings while the camera is powered off. So Leica moved the ISO sensitivity control to the top, giving it a clever lift-to-turn, push-down-to-lock design. Though the camera technically goes up to ISO 50,000, the dial tops out at ISO 6,400 and you can only map one of the higher sensitivity values to the dial at a time. It retains the removable plate on the bottom which covers the battery compartment and SD card slot. You’ll be in there a lot, since the battery life is not very good, at least it wasn’t with the EVF and in cold weather.

The viewfinder has an increased field of view and magnification plus tweaks that make it more comfortable for folks who wear glasses. And it did seem better to me — I have trouble focusing with rangefinders, but this one wasn’t bad. I still preferred the optional electronic viewfinder though, since it magnifies the focus area and offers peaking. One downside I found is fogging in our winterish weather.

26

Leica M10 slims down for the film fans

Although the sensor resolution is unchanged from Leica’s other 24-megapixel cameras, it’s new with improved light-gathering capability plus no antialiasing filter (like the Leica SL) and it’s coupled with the latest version of Leica’s Maestro II processing engine.

The photos look pretty much like other modern Leica’s. One of the nice things is that the colors in the JPEGs look exactly like the raw DNGs, unlike most other cameras.

For photo-first photographers, Leica delivers a pretty well-rounded camera. But I wouldn’t recommend this as your first Leica if you’re coming from a dSLR or mirrorless, if only because it lacks autofocus; it’s a crutch, but it’s a useful one when you absolutely have to get the shot. You can always choose to not use it.

Joy Octopus Watch Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Help your kid understand the importance of sticking to a schedule by using the app.

Xiomara Blanco/CNET

If your kid is envious of your fancy-schmancy Apple Watch, they should try on the Octopus watch for size.

It’s a smartwatch made for kids that charmingly looks like an Apple Watch, albeit smaller, more colorful and less expensive at $80 (converts to £65 and AU$110). Best of all, it’s purpose is to help kids become independent and learn self-disciplined.

You get a notification when your kid completes their chore.

Joy

Using the Octopus app on your Android or iPhone, you can schedule reminders on your kid’s Octopus watch to turn chores into a game.

When you schedule an activity or task, it pops up as a notification on the Octopus watch. After they’ve completed the task, they simply press the watch’s only button to clear the notification.

Meanwhile, you get an alert, too, when your kid crosses a job off the list, and this is where gamification comes in. The more tasks they finish, the more badge icons they get. It’s up to you if you take it up a notch with toys or ice cream.

And if they miss a task, you can sit your kid down and have a talk about responsibility and accountability, or whatever you do when your kid doesn’t finish their chores.

The Octopus-shaped night light kind of looks like the Snapchat ghost.

Xiomara Blanco/CNET

Designed for children 3 and up, the Octopus watch also helps teach the concept of time. It has three modes; one that links time to tasks (for younger children), one that teaches how to read a digital clock and one that teaches how to read an analog clock.

You can pre-order the Octopus watch in red, blue, lime green, pink and dark grey. Though it’s designed to look just like the Apple Watch, its plastic build keeps it cheap. An optional Octopus-shaped night light that also charges the watch is also available for $50.

Dell XPS 27 (2017) review – CNET

The Good The XPS 27 (2017) has a terrific audio system, especially for an all-in-one, and a display with excellent color reproduction.

The Bad The webcam is poorly placed and it’s not the most graceful-looking all-in-one.

The Bottom Line For discriminating ears and eyes, the XPS 27 (2017) all-in-one offers the best combination of features for the money.

Ear candy wrapped in a sturdy chassis with an excellent display and reasonably good performance for the money, the update to the computer we praised in 2014 as “almost everything you could want in an all-in-one” gets an overhaul for 2017. Most notably, this year’s XPS 27 (model 7760) Windows 10
PC boasts the most sophisticated audio system built into a PC and a UHD 4K display with a broad color gamut, making it a great home entertainment system — as long as you’re not a hard-core gamer — or compact-footprint choice for audio editing.

Prices start at $1,499, with initial choices of 6th-generation Core i5 and i7 processors (Skylake). You can choose integrated graphics or switchable discrete AMD R9 M470X and M485X GPUs. You can also choose between a UHD 4K (3,840×2,160-pixel-resolution) touchscreen display or a nontouch panel of the same resolution but 50 nits brighter and using Dell’s thin-bezel Infinity Edge. It doesn’t seem to be available in the UK or Australia yet, but the previous model is listed as discontinued for both regions; directly converted the prices start at about £1,220 and AU$1,995.

Dell XPS 27 AIO (2017)

$2,799

27-inch 3,840×2,160 touch display

2.7GHz Intel Core i7-6700K

16GB DDR4 SDRAM 2,400MHz

4GB AMD Radeon R9 M470X

512GB SSD

802.11ac wireless, Bluetooth 4.1

Windows 10 Home (64-bit)

None of its components scream “future-proof,” even the top-end configuration with 32GB RAM, a 1TB solid-state drive and a Radeon R9 M485X GPU, which will run you $3,400. Whether or not there’s ultimately a speed increase with Intel’s 7th-generation processors, it starts out with last-gen CPU options, at least at the time of our review. And the graphics processor options it offers are the mobile versions, which are decent but really aren’t up to serious VR (virtual reality) or high-frame-rate gaming standards. So there’s little reason to opt for the maxed-out configuration unless you’re doing hard-disk-intensive operations (such as photo or video editing) or using tons of applications simultaneously. I think the $2,000 alternative will suit most people who don’t really care about the touchscreen, or the $2,500 model if they do.

Hear ye, hear ye

If you’ve got discriminating ears — or just like your music really loud — this is the system for you. It has 10 speakers; you can only see six of them — two tweeters and four full-range drivers — lined up prominently under the screen, but there are also two down-firing and two passive radiators (the latter for better bass).

The goal of the audio design seems to be bleeding-ear, furniture-vibrating loudness with minimal distortion, a broad frequency-response range and good surround-sound directionality — each of which is difficult to achieve in an all-in-one by itself, much less simultaneously.

And Dell achieves those goals. When cranked up all the way, it’s loud enough that I couldn’t hear myself singing at the top of my lungs. (Thankfully, the office was deserted.) Music ranging from soft to loud, high frequencies to low and instruments and voices with complex overtones all sounded great cranked to the max.

I could feel “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” even in the middle of the volume range, and it produced rich sound at the lower volumes. The surround-sound rendition in movies and music seemed quite accurate and encompassing. I did find the highs a little too bright for my taste, but that’s personal preference, and the rest of the frequency range sounded a bit warmer. The system incorporates the Waves software audio control panel as well, bearing the imprimatur of producer Jack Joseph Puig who also helped design the hardware.

To incorporate PC-shaking audio, Dell had to create a rigid cabinet for the system. It remains to be seen whether the bass vibrations will affect the workings over time.

The closest competitors for high-quality audio are the recent HP Envy All-in-One models that incorporate four front-firing Bang & Olufsen speakers; while the HP line sounds good, it’s not nearly as full-toned. Then again, with Dell you’re paying a premium for the higher-quality sound and display.

Meizu M3 Max review

Chinese smartphone manufacturer Meizu may not have the same level of global brand recognition as Huawei or Xiaomi, but that hasn’t stopped them from releasing great affordable smartphones like the M3 Note. While most new smartphones tend to have screen sizes around 5.5″, Meizu’s recently released M3 Max takes it up a notch to 6.0″ for a theoretically better media consumption experience.

Recent Meizu coverage

• Meizu Band hands on
• Meizu M5 Note announcement
• Meizu M5 announcement

So, is the M3 Max the new king of the large-smartphone market? Or does it fall short in key areas? Let’s take a deep dive with our comprehensive Meizu M3 Max review!

Design

The M3 Max’s design doesn’t pack any big surprises, but that shouldn’t be taken as a negative. Just as is the case with most Meizu device we’ve used, build quality is excellent. The phone’s body is constructed entirely of a metal unibody, which offers a solid and tank-like feel.

The cold feel of aluminum and well polished looks of the M3 Max are also difficult to ignore. The chamfered edges and subtle antenna lines are nice touches, and although the overall design can seem generic and iPhone-like, there’s no doubt that it showcases a level of “premium-ness” that has been steadily creeping into this price category.

There are a few drawbacks to this design, however. The side-to-back chamfers are simply not enough to disguise the M3 Max’s boxy uncurved body, and the side buttons are not tactilely differentiated, making it somewhat difficult to find the correct button.

The phone’s larger size is also an important factor to consider, as it can make one-handed use quite challenging. With that said, this could also be considered a positive, as the M3 Max’s 6.0″ display is very nice for watching videos or playing games. It’s an inevitable trade-off, but one that will surely please some while disappointing others.

Instead of utilizing the three-key layout found on many other Android smartphones, the M3 Max incorporates a single physical home button that functions as both home and back. Meizu calls it mTouch, and, although it does take a day or two to get used to, it’s an ingenious way of handling navigation: press down for home, tap for back.

mTouch is an ingenious way of handling navigation

The physical home button also functions as a fast and accurate fingerprint reader. This is an increasingly indispensable feature, and Meizu’s implementation is excellent.

You may be wondering, “but what do I do for multitasking?” Well, for multitasking, you simply swipe up from the bezel on either side of the home button. The menu scales into place as you swipe up, revealing the open apps. It feels like a much more intuitive way of interacting with the phone compared to a traditional layout.

Display

The M3 Max redeems its name with its very large 6.0″ 1080P IPS display. This display isn’t overly impressive, but certainly does the job. It’s reasonably bright for indoor use, offers fairly accurate color reproduction, and is great for what the phone is designed for: media.

It’s important to keep in mind the phone’s price

It could be better in some areas such as sunlight readability or viewing angles, but it’s important to keep in mind the phone’s price. This is clearly placed in low-to-midrange territory, so it would be a bit unreasonable to expect something like a Quad HD AMOLED panel.

On a somewhat different note, the phone’s front glass seemed to collect fingerprints more readily than other phones that I’ve recently tested. This is very much a minor issue, but it may be something you want to keep in mind.

Performance

Unfortunately, the M3 Max’s Mediatek Helio P10 delivers disappointing performance. Although the processor is octa-core, it’s one of Mediatek’s lowest-end chips, offering performance similar to what was available in 2012.

This is not only reflected in benchmark scores, but also in real world performance; the phone lags and is general sluggish quite frequently. For example, in our testing, the phone would sometimes refuse to wake from sleep for anywhere from ten to thirty seconds; this happened about once per day. While we can forgive just a bit of slow performance at this price point, the M3 Max exceeds what we would consider acceptable.

Also, while 3 GB of RAM is nice to see, FlyMe’s memory management can feel a bit aggressive at times. This is quite minor though in comparison.

For the GPU, we’re looking at a Mali-T860, which offers mediocre gaming performance. It won’t outdo phones like the Xiaomi Mi Max, but it does perform well enough for most high-end games. Just don’t be surprised to find slightly slower load times and a few more general hiccups than some comparably priced offerings.

Hardware

Similar to most Chinese smartphones, the M3 Max offers dual SIM support for up to two individual cell phone lines. Although the phone supports up to 4G LTE in official markets, it may not work properly in others. In the United States, for example, the M3 Max is only partially compatible with 3G on both AT&T and T-Mobile. This may be a major drawback if you plan on importing the device or traveling internationally.

For storage, the M3 Max provides 64 GB on board, which we were very happy to see. If that isn’t enough, you can also substitute one SIM card for a microSD card, up to 128 GB. This is always a great option to have, especially in a phone designed for media consumption.

For wireless connectivity, the M3 Max supports Bluetooth 4.1 and 802.11n Wi-Fi. The Wi-Fi range is weaker than comparable devices, which may be because of the phone’s lack of 802.11ac support. This may be an issue if you already have Wi-Fi range issues in your household.

The Wi-Fi range is weaker than comparable devices

The phone’s external speaker can be found on the bottom of the phone, to the right of the charging port. The overall quality is about what we expected; although it gets loud enough for most environments, it sounds a bit distorted, especially at higher volumes. You’ll want to consider this especially if you plan on watching videos without headphones or some other external sound setup.

Battery life

With a 4,100 mAh battery, it’s no surprise that the M3 Max offers great battery life. Although it may not be the best available for this size, it’s still considerably above average, meaning that you should have no trouble getting the phone to last a full day.

Please do keep in mind that our tests were conducted while the phone was connected to 3G, since the phone is not compatible with LTE in the United States. Still, these results indicate that you should expect at least 4.5 hours of screen on time with a full day of use, even with moderate to heavy usage.

The M3 Max supports Meizu’s proprietary mCharge technology, for a 45% charge in 30 minutes. This is quite fast considering the battery size, but we wish extra and car chargers were more accessible and ubiquitous.

The microUSB charging port is also outdated at this point, and we wish Meizu would have adopted the new reversible USB Type-C standard. To be fair, however, this may have been done intentionally so buyers wouldn’t have to replace their existing charging cables.

Camera

For the rear camera, the Meizu M3 Max is equipped with a 13 MP Sony IMX258 sensor. Picture quality is about average for this price category: it’s decent, but far from great.

M3 Max camera samples:

In scenes with bright lighting, images are produced with generally good color reproduction and decent dynamic range. Images are punchy enough without feeling oversaturated, too. However, many images appear grainy, despite good lighting. The post processing also seemed to struggle with bright colors, most notably pink and red.

Images are also generally soft, and autofocus can be surprisingly hit or miss. Even when tapping the screen to focus, the camera sometimes refused to focus correctly. It’s unlikely that this negatively affected photo sharpness in all images, however, as every shot appeared at least a bit soft.

We also noticed that the camera was relatively slow to capture images. This might not be an issue for many scenarios, but if you want to capture a very specific moment, this can become a very annoying limitation.

M3 Max low-light camera samples:

As expected, the camera struggles even more in lower lighting. Many images are distractingly grainy and colors often appear more muted than in better lit conditions. Autofocus also seems to struggle even more in these conditions, resulting in some awfully soft photos.

Sadly, the M3 Max is limited to 1080p video capture, so you won’t be able to record sharper 4K footage like you can with some other competing options. This probably won’t be a deal breaker, but it is definitely something to keep in mind if you’d like to capture high quality video.

On a positive note, Meizu’s camera app is an absolute pleasure to use. It offers a good amount of control without feeling overly complicated, and we didn’t have any issues with the shooting experience.

Software

The M3 Max is shipping with Meizu’s FlyMe OS on top of Android 6.0 Marshmallow. It is important to understand that Meizu follows a somewhat different update model than some other manufacturers. Instead of relying on third parties for support for newer versions of Android, Meizu frequently updates its FlyMe skin with new features and refinements, oftentimes for up to two years after a phone release.

This might sound frustrating to a Western user, but we have to give Meizu credit for adding new features often and sometimes even before Google. With the M3 Max, for example, you’ll still be getting split screen multitasking as well as a myriad of other cool features.

We have to give Meizu credit for adding new features often and sometimes even before Google

The actual software experience may also seem jarring to an outsider. The iOS-inspired UI and lack of an app drawer are admittedly uncommon in Western skins. With that said, FlyMe is one of the best Android skins we’ve used. It’s certainly a different take on Android, but that doesn’t make it a bad experience.

The amount of polish that can be found in FlyMe is truly remarkable. Meizu has worked hard on this skin for the past several years, and it really shows in the day-to-day experience. If you’re looking to try something different, you should really consider this experience.

A word of warning though: it can be a bit quirky for Western users. Meizu has made it easier with a “Hot Apps” screen featuring a single button to install Google services, but some issues persist. In our experience, Hangouts would occasionally refuse to open. Clearing app data didn’t help, and the quickest solution we found was to completely re-install the app.

There’s also issues where the battery optimization just isn’t tailored to Western apps. For example, out of the box, the phone will kill Spotify after the phone is locked for thirty seconds, stopping any music playback. To fix this, you have to go into the app settings and disable optimizations. This is minor, but you should be aware that there will be bumps in the road if you choose to use this phone outside of China.

Gallery

Price

The Meizu M3 Max is available in China in black, silver, and gold for 1699 yuan or about $245. Pricing varies in other official markets. If you’re looking to import, you should expect the device to cost around $270.

Conclusion

Although the M3 Max is shipping with polished software, great battery life, and excellent build quality, we cannot recommend it over similarly sized alternative options like the Xiaomi Mi Max and ZTE Grand X Max 2. The M3 Max may do well in some categories, but offers nothing exciting in performance, camera quality, or availability.

If you can officially acquire the Xiaomi Mi Max, we recommend that for its better performance, superior camera, and similar software. If not, you’ll want to consider the ZTE Grand X Max 2 for its also better performance, greater availability, and nicer display.

As of the time of writing, the Mi Max can be purchased for around $30 less than the M3 Max at around $220 and the Grand X Max 2 can be found for as low as $150 less at $100. Do keep in mind, however, that these phones also have drawbacks of their own. For example, the Mi Max’s build quality is quite poor, and the Grand X Max 2’s camera is very bad.

• Meizu Band hands on
• Meizu M5 Note announcement
• Meizu M5 announcement

Hopefully you found this Meizu M3 Max review informative and we have made your decision at least a little bit easier. We’d like to hear from you: are you planning to purchase the M3 Max? What are your thoughts on Chinese Android skins like Flyme? Let us know in the comment section below!