Meizu M8 Mobile from Chinese manufacturer

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Meizu M8 Mobile

It took two years for Meizu to release their phone, the iPhone clone, the controversial M8. The latter, available initially in China and India, could well land in Europe. Well, there is the horde of lawyers from Apple but that's another story. And apart from that, what is it exactly?

Specifications

Size: 8Go/16Go
Network type: quad-band and EDGE
Multi touch touch screen 16M colors, 3.4 "TFT VGA + (720 × 480)
Processor: ARM11 667MHz +, 256MB RAM
Ringtones: Polyphonic 64 tones
Camera: 3.2Mégapixels
Operating System: Mmobile (Basic Windows CE 6.0 as amended by Meizu)
Dimensions: 108 x 59 x 12 mm 118g
Compatibility: APE, FLAC, OGG, WAV, WMA, MP3, AMR, AAC, AVI, MP4, 3GP, MOV, ASF, WMV, MPEG, MKV, FLV, BMP, PNG, GIF, JPG, TIF
Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
Wifi b / gBatterie: 1200mAh
Other features include: microphone, speaker, accelerometer, TV-out, multi-touch
Product page
Unpacking the beast

Like the iPhone, the M8 comes in a nice cardboard box, where all materials are properly stored in their place .
You'll have the right to:
Phone M8
AC adapter
USB cable
Headphones + microphone

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Design:


What surprises the unpacking of the device, the device itself. Honestly I expected something "cheap" as is often the case with Chinese products and above all clones, but in fact not at all! The M8 is devilishly well done, seems sturdy and the materials used have nothing to envy to those of the iPhone ...

Once in hand, the device is smaller than the iPhone but slightly lighter. The plastic shell is very sensitive against the finger, as the screen also, which is quite normal for this type of tactile device.

On the front, so that the screen occupies 90% and the rest is occupied by the shell and a button just below the screen, similar to the button "Home" of the iPhone.

At the bottom of the unit is a standard mini USB, good point!

On the right side, and shortcut button on the left side, both the volume (+/-) buttons

On top, the power button and the standard 3.5 mm jack also

Finally at the back, the camera of 3.2 PMx especially the flip to access the battery, because it can change very easily on this model ...

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Use / Impressions

The Meizu M8 behaves roughly like an iPhone, those who know the Apple phone will be not lost, the others will quickly find the interface is so good.

The M8 loads a beautiful screen with a high resolution (720 × 480), it is capacitive touch (tactile disk) as the iPhone. It responds well, it's very surprising because I had never seen a phone response as well as the model of Apple (with the recent announcements of MWC 2009). Everything is fluid and once again very comfortable, which is quite normal because it is basically a clone of the iPhone.

Meizu uses a Windows CE 6.0, but unlike HTC, for example, merely to add an overlay, Meizu really went deep to modify everything and I was unable to find a Windows box or a menu the OS, surprise!

The interface of the device, close to the iPhone however, was entirely designed by the Chinese Design Studio, one of the best in Asia. Although the inspiration of the iPhone is very (too?) Shows, the interface remains less different and very friendly. A good thing to me once quite surprised that I was expecting a simple clone ...

The functions of the M8 are the same as the iPhone, it is not necessary to detail especially when it is all in the video a little lower, and the complete photo gallery ... We will not dwell on large differences.


The Meizu can be used to transfer text messages, send MMS, or to transfer his contacts from the SIM card to the phone (which is now also possible on the iPhone but not at the beginning).

It can also send photos by Bluetooth or take videos with the camera .Attention, no CoverFlow mode in the music, do not abuse In short, you will understand this M8 itself is much more complete than the iPhone!

The browser does not support against the flash, or so I did not know I do. Still, to me it was impossible to determine which browser runs on the device, I would ie for a skinn but no certainty, because it could be Opera!

As for connectivity, the Meizu is Wifi, Bluetooth, but it should be on models sold in China, a crack to unlock these features because the law prohibited the Chinese ... The camera is only EDGE and not 3G, however, a carrying the 3G model might be out this summer, also has a GPS.

Note that the M8 has an accelerometer and multi-touch! The latter is not as fluid as the iPhone, but we 'is not far, it's still a good performance. Finally, very importantly, the M8 is either UMS or ActiveSync.

This means (UMS mode) you can put it on any file by simply copy / paste and this from a Mac or a PC. And last thing, no need to encode your video files! In fact, the Meizu M8, which is compatible with many formats and make files with a resolution up to 720 × 480, the majority of your legally downloaded video of course. Please note the frame rate which can sometimes cause problems of slowing.

Note that in the audio mode, the M8 recognizes album art, tags and playlists .In contrast, the way that ActiveSync is compatible with Windows, but you can synchronize your contacts, your calendar and emails!

Last thing, little known in Europe, the Meizu is a carton in China! The unit was quickly sold out and a community has formed around the aircraft especially after the release of the SDK to create applications and games .


Hardware side:

With such strong performance, one wonders what Meizu has put into this phone, it is simply a 667 Mhz processor and with 256MB of RAM. This makes it possible to have a very responsive and especially not having to encode their videos ...


As for sound quality, the M8 is very similar to the M6, ie sound quality quite good without being exceptional. The headphones are not really against top and saturates fairly quickly. Finally, with regard to autonomy, I got a good day and a half in normal use (phone, wifi, music ...).

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Conclusion

We expected an evil clone inspired, very cheap and works half. We were treated to a particularly well done, robust, fast and leaves behind many competitors (large brands that are more)! The Meizu M8 is one of the most successful clones in the market, if you can still call it a clone, because the similarities are ultimately not so many. You can find unblocked between 300 and 400 euro (8GB version), a real bargain when you see what this device is capable.Not sure, although many questions as a hypothetical trial with Apple would be difficult to digest .

Pros:
Usability / Interface
Overall quality
UMS (copy / paste), no re-encoding of video ...
Price

Cons:
No 3G, no GPS
Wifi and Bluetooth gooks when buying
Soon be available at the moment
Small community