The display of the Meizu m3 note employs a 5.5" LTPS IPS LCD panel of 1080p resolution. The colors are nicely saturated and the viewing angles are quite good.
The high resolution is definitely a treat for the price and more than sufficient at 1080p. 403ppi is sharp enough and you wouldn't really tell the difference to any QHD screen on the market unless you're looking at some really small fonts. The m3 Note's display matrix is a standard RGB arrangement.
In terms of maximum brightness (425nits), the Meizu m3 note's screen does about average but lower than its predecessor. Its black levels are not as good as those on the m2 note and m1 metal either, and so in the end, the m3 note posted an underwhelming contrast ratio of 816:1.
In terms of color rendering, the Chinese model of the Meizu m3 note scored below average with a DeltaE of 7.9 and a maximum deviation of 14.2 in the whites. The color saturation wasn't anything close to uniform - the whites are always bluish, most of the colors circle around DeltaE of 10, while there are some which are on the spot.
The display on the international unit turned out better calibrated with an average DeltaE of 5.1. Its white and gray colors are way off, with a purple tint, and maximum deviation of 11.2. The cyan colors is off, too, circling around a deviation of 10. Moving the screen calibration slider away from the middle made things worse, so you should not be doing that.
The minimum display brightness of the Meizu m3 note is 5.7nits (3.6nits for the international unit), which is about what we would consider as comfortable to operate in dark environment without straining your eyes, though even lower would have been better.
Display test | 100% brightness | ||
Black, cd/m2 | White, cd/m2 | ||
0.52 | 425 | 816 | |
0.52 | 459 | 883 | |
0.42 | 473 | 1108 | |
0.65 | 562 | 867 | |
0.50 | 390 | 780 | |
0 | 346 | ∞ | |
0.42 | 403 | 953 | |
0.47 | 442 | 940 | |
0.44 | 441 | 998 | |
0.41 | 620 | 1520 | |
0.43 | 532 | 1238 |
Outdoors, the Meizu m3 note is a below average performer in terms of sunlight legibility. The glass on top of the display is quite reflective, so most of the time you'll be able to barely see what's happening on the screen.
Powered by an impressive 4,100mAh battery, the Meizu m3 note promises solid uptime on a single charge. It's a 30% upgrade over its predecessor, which already managed above average score of 69 hours.
Naturally, we tested the phone in Performance Power Mode. You can save a few more hours on the Balanced Plan, if you like.
Having seen the Helio X25 flop at the battery test for the Pro 6, we had lower expectations for the Helio P10 - the MediaTek hardware rarely goes above the average.
And yet, the m3 note and its Helio P10 managed to surprise us. The phone aced the 3G talk battery test, as it did the web browsing and video playback routines. Its standby endurance, in both single and dual SIM mode, turned out way above average.
With such great scores on the individual tests, the Meizu m3 note's overall endurance rating chimed in at 93 hours. That means you can use the m3 note for just shy of 4 full days if you are to make an hour each of 3G talks, web browsing and video playback a day. Putting a second SIM card drops the rating down to 92 hours. Such usage pattern is of course entirely artificial, but we've established it so our battery results are comparable across devices.
The battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you're interested in the nitty-gritties. You can also check out our complete battery test table, where you can see how all of the smartphones we've tested will compare under your own typical use.
The Meizu m3 note comes with quad-band 2G/GPRS/EDGE support, quad-band 3G with HSDPA and HSUPA, as well as Cat.4 LTE support. It's compatible with the same bands as the m1 metal.
The m3 note has dual-SIM, dual-standby functionality - 3G and LTE are supported only on SIM1, while SIM2 can tap into 2G GSM networks only. You can put a microSD memory card inside the second SIM slot.
The m3 metal has dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n with DLNA, so you can play media (photos, videos, music) from DLNA-enabled devices or push content from your phone to a DLNA-compatible TV or music player.
Bluetooth 4.0 is also enabled, complete with A2DP.
The microUSB 2.0 port supports USB host so you can attach USB flash drives or connect peripherals.
You can also stream your display via the Wireless Display feature (Miracast).
GPS, GLONASS, BDS support is available. There is however no FM Radio, IR port or NFC on the Meizu m3 note, there is no wired TV-out option either.
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