Introduction

The Meizu M3 Max is one of the latest additions to Meizu's m3 midrange series. It's two months old already, but we didn't want to miss the opportunity to present this phablet to our readers, especially with the shopping season hitting some highs lately.

Instead of our usual long-form review routine, we'll see that this review is different. Our goal was to give you our impressions in a shorter, condensed manner but without sacrificing the performance assessment and the results from the full tests we normally perform. We hope you enjoy it.

Meizu M3 Max at a glance:

Metal unibody; 6.0" 1080p IPS display of 367ppi

MediaTek Helio P10 chipset: octa-core processor, Mali-T860MP2 GPU, 3GB of RAM

13MP camera, two-tone LED flash; 1080p @30fps; 5MP front-facing camera

64GB of built-in storage, microSD slot

mTouch v2.1 Home button with a fingerprint scanner

4,100 mAh battery, fast charging (100% in 75 minutes)

Android Marshmallow 6.0 OS with Flyme 5.2

The m3 note fans will surely recognize in the M3 Max everything that made the note popular. Besides the bigger screen, there are no apparent novelties - even the microUSB port is still in tact.

Hardware

So, the M3 Max is the biggest smartphone Meizu has ever done with a beefy 6" display at 1080p resolution. Being a member of the m3 series meant it has inherited pretty much everything from its siblings and, indeed, the M3 Max doesn't offer much else than a bigger screen over the m3 note.

The retail box of the Meizu M3 Max includes only the basics - a fast 24W charger plug and a microUSB cable. There are no headphones but this seems to be the trend with the Chinese phones lately.



Meizu m3 max

The phablet is all-metal in the luxury kind of way - there are no big plastic strips at the back, just two tiny antenna lines. A glass covers the front with 2.5D edges - it's probably a Dinorex T2X-1, but Meizu didn't share any specifics.

The 6.0" screen has an IPS matrix of 1080p resolution or in other words 367ppi density. Its viewing angles are close to perfection, very wide and with no color distortion, though its sunlight legibility is about average with a score of 2.447.

Sunlight contrast ratio

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+

4.615

Samsung Galaxy S7 edge

4.439

OnePlus 3

4.424

Samsung Galaxy S7

4.376

HTC One A9

4.274

Samsung Galaxy Note7

4.247

Samsung Galaxy A3

4.241

OnePlus 3T

4.232

Google Pixel XL

4.164

ZTE Axon 7

4.154

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge

4.124

Samsung Galaxy Note5

4.09

Huawei Nexus 6P

4.019

Vivo Xplay5 Elite

3.983

OnePlus X

3.983

Oppo R7s

3.964

Apple iPhone 7

3.964

Huawei P9 Plus

3.956

Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016)

3.918

Samsung Galaxy C5

3.911

Samsung Galaxy C7

3.896

Samsung Galaxy A5

3.895

Samsung Galaxy J7 outdoor

3.879

Samsung Galaxy J2 outdoor

3.873

Samsung Galaxy A8

3.859

Samsung Galaxy A9 (2016)

3.817

Motorola Moto X (2014)

3.816

Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016) outdoor mode

3.802

Xiaomi Redmi Pro

3.798

LG V20 Max auto

3.798

Sony Xperia XZ

3.795

Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016)

3.789

Apple iPhone 6s

3.783

Meizu Pro 5

3.781

Microsoft Lumia 650

3.772

Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)

3.756

Oppo F1 Plus

3.709

Vivo X5Pro

3.706

Sony Xperia X Compact

3.694

Apple iPhone SE

3.681

Samsung Galaxy A7

3.679

Meizu PRO 6

3.659

BlackBerry Priv

3.645

Apple iPhone 7 Plus

3.588

Apple iPhone 6s Plus

3.53

Samsung Galaxy J3 (2016) outdoor mode

3.523

Samsung Galaxy J3 (2016)

3.523

Acer Jade Primo

3.521

Microsoft Lumia 950

3.512

Oppo R7 Plus

3.499

nubia Z11

3.466

Samsung Galaxy J7

3.422

Meizu MX5

3.416

LG V20

3.402

Oppo R9s

3.352

Oppo R7

3.32

Xiaomi Mi 5s

3.276

Samsung Galaxy J2

3.235

Sony Xperia X Performance

3.234

Xiaomi Mi Note 2

3.228

Motorola Moto X Play

3.222

Huawei P9

3.195

Lenovo Vibe Shot

3.113

Motorola Moto X Force

3.105

LG Nexus 5X

3.092

Huawei Mate S

3.073

Microsoft Lumia 640 XL

3.065

Sony Xperia X

2.989

Huawei Mate 8

2.949

Xiaomi Redmi 3S

2.913

Sony Xperia XA Ultra

2.906

LG G5

2.905

HTC One S

2.901

Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus

2.884

Sony Xperia Z5

2.876

Microsoft Lumia 550

2.851

Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro

2.803

Sony Xperia Z5 compact

2.784

Meizu MX6

2.751

LG V10

2.744

Xiaomi Redmi 3

2.735

Sony Xperia M5

2.69

Huawei P9 Lite

2.679

Vivo V3Max

2.659

Xiaomi Mi Mix

2.658

Xiaomi Mi 4i

2.641

Sony Xperia XA

2.609

Motorola Moto G4 Plus

2.582

Motorola Moto G4 Plus (max auto)

2.582

Xiaomi Mi 4c

2.574

LeEco Le Max 2

2.567

Asus Zenfone 3 ZE552KL

2.563

Microsoft Lumia 640

2.563

Lenovo Moto G4

2.544

Oppo F1

2.528

Sony Xperia Z5 Premium

2.525

Huawei Honor 7 Lite / Honor 5c

2.506

Sony Xperia M4 Aqua

2.503

Oppo F1s

2.481

Motorola Moto G

2.477

Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus

2.473

Huawei G8

2.471

Huawei nova

2.467

Sony Xperia Z

2.462

Lenovo Vibe K5

2.459

Meizu M3 Max

2.447

Huawei Honor 7

2.406

Sony Xperia E5

2.386

ZUK Z1 by Lenovo

2.382

Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)

2.378

HTC 10

2.378

Meizu m1 note

2.362

Huawei nova plus

2.329

HTC One E9+

2.305

Alcatel One Touch Hero

2.272

Apple iPhone 4S

2.269

Lenovo Vibe K4 Note

2.254

Sony Xperia C5 Ultra

2.253

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (MediaTek)

2.249

Sony Xperia C4 Dual

2.235

Xiaomi Mi Note

2.234

Motorola Moto G (2014)

2.233

LG Nexus 5

2.228

Huawei P8

2.196

Huawei Honor 6

2.169

Xiaomi Redmi Note 2

2.166

OnePlus Two

2.165

HTC One X

2.158

Xiaomi Redmi Note 4

2.145

LG Aka

2.145

Archos 50 Diamond

2.134

Xiaomi Redmi Note

2.119

Acer Liquid X2

2.084

Huawei P8lite

2.078

Moto G 3rd gen max manual

2.026

Xiaomi Mi 3

2.001

Xiaomi Mi Max

1.996

Sony Xperia E4g

1.972

OnePlus One

1.961

Meizu m3 note

1.923

Meizu m2 note

1.892

BlackBerry Leap

1.892

ZTE Nubia Z9 mini

1.759

Sony Xperia U

1.758

Asus Zenfone Selfie

1.68

Motorola Moto E (2nd Gen)

1.675

ZTE Nubia Z9

1.659

Jolla Jolla

1.605

Motorola Moto E

1.545

Sony Xperia M

1.473

HTC Desire C

1.3

Sony Xperia C

1.283

Meizu MX

1.221

Sony Xperia E

1.215

The 6" display has a maximum brightness of 450 nits and an excellent contrast at 1:976. The last good surprise came with the color rendering - the phone offers very accurate color representation out of the box with average DeltaE of 4.4.

Display test 100% brightness Black, cd/m2 White, cd/m2 Contrast ratio Meizu M3 Max 0.46 449 976 Meizu m3 note 0.52 425 816 Meizu m1 note 0.65 562 867 Meizu m1 metal 0.50 390 780 Sony Xperia XA Ultra 0.50 531 1071

Below the screen is the iconic for the Meizu phones all-in-one mTouch key. It offers touch functionality as well as a press action like a regular button. Finally, it has an embedded fingerprint scanner though it's not of the always-on variety.



The mTouch key • handling the М3 Мax

The M3 Max has the same 4,100 mAh battery as the m3 note, and it scored an excellent 100-hour endurance rating in our battery test. The battery supports MediaTek's Pump Express 3.0 rapid charging, and the supplied charger has a maximum power output of 24W.

Meizu M3 Max is a dual-SIM phone, but it uses a hybrid slot so you would have to make the choice of either a second SIM or a microSD card. The phone comes with 64GB storage, though, so you probably won't need the memory card option.



The busy bottom • the microUSB port and the loudspeaker • the SIM and microSD hybrid slot

Finally, the M3 Max has a single speaker at its bottom, and its loudness turned out good. It isn't the loudest around, but on a positive note, its output quality is clean, crisp, and with deep enough bass.