Meizu m3 note review: To the metal

Performance

Meizu m3 note runs on the MediaTek Helio P10, which isn't widespread as the X10. The P10 packs an octa-core processor with 4x Cortex-A53 at 1.8GHz and 4x Cortex-A53 at 1.0GHz. While the core count is on par with the m1 metal the clock speed is lower and the GPU is quite uninspiring - the Mali-T860 MP2 (read dual-core) and it may throttle the overall performance.

First things first, lets see how this monstrous CPU setup stacks against the competition.

The single-core performance of a 1.8GHz Cortex-A53 core is bound to hit the bottom of the charts nowadays - the m1 metal's 2.0GHz Cortex-A53 does slightly better, of course. Snapdragon's Cortex-A72 inside the Redmi Note 3 is way ahead though.

GeekBench 3 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  1573
• Meizu m1 metal
  883
• Meizu m3 note
  807
• Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus
  689
• Lenovo Vibe K4 Note
  628

But the Cortex mantra is pretty much the more the merrier, so we'd expect 8 cores to perform on par. And they did - at least on par with the last year's m2 note, which has a similar processor. The Helio X10 inside the m1 metal and MX5 is no match for the P10, even the two-years old m1 note does better than its m3 note successor. Ouch!

GeekBench 3 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Meizu MX5
  5110
• Meizu m1 metal
  4825
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  4537
• Meizu m1 note
  3988
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  3570
• Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus
  3038
• Meizu m3 note
  3028
• Lenovo Vibe K4 Note
  2745
• Meizu m2 note
  2649
• Motorola Moto X Play
  2608

Meizu m1 metal, with similar screen, design, and pricing, offered a powerful PowerVR G6200 GPU. The m2 note predecessor had a Mali-T720 MP3 (tri-core) GPU and the first-gen m1 note came with a more powerful Mali-T760 MP2. The new m3 note comes with a questionable Mali-T860 MP2 (dual-core) graphic unit, which we are yet to see how it stacks against the competition coming from its own siblings. Even though the newer generation graphics, we expect a drop in the performance because of the less GPU cores.

Now about those raw benchmarks. Indeed, the Meizu m3 note's GPU managed to beat the m2 note, but that's its highest achievement. It came a hair lesser than the m1 note's but the more disturbing news is the big gap between the m3 note and m1 metal GPU performance. Weren't those two supposed to be besties? Apparently not.

The Adreno 510 inside the Snapdragon 650-powered Redmi Note 3 beats all Mali GPUs in our chart.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  14
• Meizu MX5
  9.5
• Meizu m1 metal
  8
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  7.9
• Motorola Moto X Play
  6.1
• Meizu m1 note
  5.7
• Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus
  5.5
• Meizu m3 note
  5.4
• Lenovo Vibe K4 Note
  4.2
• Meizu m2 note
  2.3

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  9.1
• Meizu MX5
  4.7
• Meizu m1 metal
  3.9
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  3.9
• Meizu m3 note
  2.5
• Lenovo Vibe K4 Note
  2.1
• Meizu m2 note
  1.9

The BaseMark X results just put more concrete on the statements above.

Basemark X

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  14732
• Meizu MX5
  10403
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  8540
• Meizu m1 metal
  8526
• Motorola Moto X Play
  5032
• Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus
  4863
• Meizu m1 note
  4617
• Meizu m3 note
  4567
• Lenovo Vibe K4 Note
  4072
• Meizu m2 note
  3946

The compound test BaseMark OS II 2.0 puts the Meizu m3 note on par with the m1 note (yay?) but behind its m1 metal sibling. The benchmark gauges not only CPU, GPU and UX, but also memory and browser performance.

Basemark OS 2.0

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  1537
• Meizu MX5
  1252
• Meizu m1 metal
  1039
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  1018
• Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus
  884
• Meizu m1 note
  880
• Meizu m3 note
  852
• Motorola Moto X Play
  809
• Lenovo Vibe K4 Note
  729
• Meizu m2 note
  673

The Meizu m3 note does OK for a mid-ranger and its processor has enough punch to handle most tasks, even though it's a notch behind the curve. The GPU performance is what really slows the P10 and fails to make the m3 note a worthy performer over the preceding m1 note and m1 metal.