Meizu M3 Note, arguably the most value-for-money handset in the mid-range market along with LeEco’s Le 2, is now available under open sale on Amazon.
The phone had gone on flash sale earlier this week and it looks like demand for the handset has slackened, making enough stocks available for the company to conduct an open sale.
The phone was, without doubt, one of the most compelling offers in the Rs 10,000-12,000 range till two days ago, when the LeEco Le 2 was unveiled at an unexpectedly low price of Rs 11,999.
With the launch, anyone who is planning to buy a mid-range smartphone must now look at at least four models — the Le 2, the M3 Note, the Le 1s and the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3.
Out of these, the Redmi Note 3 and the Le 2 share the same price point of Rs 11,999, while the M3 Note and Le 1s are available at Rs 9,999.
The two cheaper phones — the Le 1s and Meizu M3 Note — are both available on open sale, while the other two are available only during weekly flash sales.
Specifications wise, there is no doubt about which is the best smartphone. The Le 2 easily outclasses all the other phones as far as features and specs are concerned.
The highlight of the LeEco Le 2 is its ultra-powerful (for a mid-range phone) processor.
The Snapdragon 652 has four high-power Cortex A72 cores and four Cortex A53 cores, which gives it extraordinary power for the segment in which it sells. In other words, the LeEco Le 2 is more powerful than the top-end phones of last year in many use cases.
Next in line comes the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3, which is 30% less powerful than the Le 2.
While the Le 1s is more powerful than the M3 Note, the Meizu model is more recent and has more advanced LTE features such as dual-carrier aggregation and 4G voice (VoLTE).
M3 NOTE REVIEWS
The reviews of M3 Note indicate that the phone delivers on all fronts except one — camera.
Both the front camera and the back camera fail to live up to users’ expectations. However, the back camera does deliver satisfactory performance in well-lit conditions, though it fails in this respect in low-light conditions.
The front camera too has disappointed users, as has the built-in speaker. Another drawback is that there is no built-in FM radio.
On the positive side, the build quality and Flyme OS has positively impressed users.
In addition, the Helio P10 chipset — which is supposed to offer slightly lower performance compared to the Snapdragon 650 inside the Redmi Note 3 — has also not generated any complaints about lagging or heating.
In fact, some give the model higher marks than the Xiaomi model, which many users have found to be too ‘hot’ for their tastes.
“I had taken redmi note 3 but overheating on this and poor ram management bad multitasking, while snapdragon 650. But on Meizu helio p10 is good and all function are decent,” said Devanand Arya on Amazon.
Almost half of the reviews (58 out of 122) on Amazon have given the phone 5 out of 5 stars, while another 22 have given 4 stars.