Meizu MX5 review follow up: Of lags and freeze ups


The Meizu MX5 impressed one and all with its amazing camera performance, decent build and its on-paper specifications set. Unfortunately though, the phone doesn’t appear to use the Helio X10 to its full potential, which is something discussed in the MX5 review as well.

It’s been a few more days for me with the MX5 now. This means that the phone was used with some more apps, for a longer time, and in even more varying situations.

The results are not impressive, unfortunately. Here are the problems that I’ve been facing with the MX5 lately, some of which have aggravated only recently (for some reason beyond my comprehension).

Lags: Lags, lags and lags

Right out of the box (and for the next few days), the Meizu MX5 was pretty responsive and fast without any signs of lagging. I don’t know what has happened to the phone since, but it has become very difficult to use lately. I’m suspecting some very poor memory management on the part of Flyme, because each time I clear all apps from memory, the phone is back to its original snappiness. Another reason for me to suspect Flyme is because the LeTV S1 with its 2.0GHz MT6795 (the MX5 has a 2.2GHz version) runs all of it without any glitches.

Unless I do that (clearing memory), it is virtually impossible to continue using the phone. Switching between apps is something I can’t even imagine doing for the amount of time it takes — that bad. It’ll just freeze up and all you can do is wait.

This has been the biggest and the most gruesome issue I’ve had with the MX5 in the past few days, bad enough for me to give up the awesome camera and convenience of the fingerprint sensor.

Heating up issues (and CPU throttling?)

Every phone heats up, and people often make a bigger deal out of it than required. Unfortunately though, the issues that I’ve been facing on the MX5 lately are legitimately called for. I do use a few apps at once (aren’t smartphones designed for that), but that doesn’t warrant the heat ups the MX5 has been exhibiting lately.

The region around and below the camera is where the MX5 heats up the most (that’s where the main board of the phone would be sitting). The rear panel being metal is quick to transfer the heat on to the other side, which will make holding the phone for long durations all the more difficult for you.

Gizchina News of the week


Once the phone does heat up, it also appears to throttle the Helio X10 up to a certain point. The results are very clearly visible, and you’ll have to let the phone cool for a good few minutes before even thinking of using it again.

Fingerprint sensor that refuses to ‘listen’meizu mx5

The fingerprint sensor on the MX5 isn’t the ‘always listening’ kind, which does help save battery. It is one of my favourite features about the phone, and also a very very accurate sensor — when it does decide to read your fingerprint.

Make no mistake, the feature works 90/100 times, but that isn’t enough. Assuming it has 90% accuracy and a ‘listening’ rate of 90%, it brings down the overall usability to just 81% Excuse the numbers, but that — even qualitatively speaking — really isn’t very impressive for a 2015 flagship.

Again, it is certainly not the hardware at fault but instead the poor software on Meizu’s part.

Other issues

A very basic problem with the MX5 for now is that you cannot move between a text box if you’re using a 3rd party keyboard (such as Google Keyboard). You have to be on the crappy (for international users) keyboard, or hide the 3rd party keyboard you’re using, in order to bring the cursor to the desired point in the sentence you’re typing.

I’m a WhatsApp user but don’t like to have any sound notifications for messages, which is why I select to mute the sounds from within the app. But for some reason, that simply isn’t possible on the MX5; it keeps reverting to the default tone despite explicitly choosing ‘none’ as the notification option.

This leaves me with no choice but to move to the LeTV S1, which feels a lot (can’t stress this enough) more stable and snappier than the MX5. At least for now.

I honestly do want to use the Meizu MX5 more (mainly for the camera), perhapsΒ even as the daily driver for a few months. But for that, Meizu will have to fix their software and get their act together.

Please note everything said here applies to what the author experienced with the Chinese version (and not the international) of the Meizu MX5
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98 Comments

  1. abaggie
    August 10, 2015

    I have and use the phone for a couple of weeks now and I mostly disagree.

    My MX5 does not lag at all. In fact, it is blazing fast without any lag or crashes. Multitasking is very smooth. I can use 10 tabs in chrome, 10 tabs in the stock browser, camera, music, whatsapp etc. and all of them work OK.

    I don’t have any issues with heating. Yes the phone does heat up a bit, but this is normal. It happens to a lot of phones. If you use it and charge it at the same time, it gets hot, but nothing extreme, again nothing extraordinary. The Nubia Z9 Mini heats up a lot more.

    The fingerprint sensor works great. I only experienced problems during charging. It sometimes refuses to ‘detect’ while charging. In everyday use it works just fine if you place your finger correctly.

    The one thing that annoys me sometimes, is indeed, the ‘3rd party keyboard issue’. Apart from that the phone and its software work just fine.

    I am not promoting Meizu or the MX5, I am just giving my honest opinion based on my experience. Yes, FlymeOS isn’t perfect and yes it needs some fine tuning here and there, but the phone works well and it’s worth its price.

    What firmware do you use? The official rom? Without any apps added by a reseller? I run Flyme OS 4.5.2.4A at the moment updated twice (from 2.1 and 2.2) without any problem. I only added playstore the first time. I have the Chinese M575M version.

    • August 10, 2015

      I’m on 4.5.2.4C right now, downloading the A version which I hope will help.

      • RRRobert
        August 10, 2015

        The best part of providing a reliable review is to update it as often as possible. Keep up the good work!

        Dit you, by any chance, have had any contact with Meizu’s tech support regarding your performance issues?

        • August 10, 2015

          Not yet. Going to try the A version before getting in touch with the company.

          • rajnish kumar
            August 16, 2015

            Yaar yash plz update on these issues. I am planning to buy this phone. The problems u mentioned still exists?

      • Max
        August 10, 2015

        how come C is before A? do they go backwards in their software versions?

        • August 10, 2015

          Since this is the Chinese version, I’m assuming C is for that and A for international MX5’s. ROMs should be cross compatible though, so lets see how the other one works out now.

          • abaggie
            August 10, 2015

            The U is the custom Unicom version designed for the Chinese market, with specific apps from/off China Mobile or China Unicom. The C version is something similar. The A version is the ‘universal’ one and ‘activates’ the correct European frequencies (for 3G and 4G). The I is the international version and it does not contain Chinese apps. Devices bought directly from the manufacturer (meizumart) contain the I firmware. Think the will start selling it around the 10th of September.

            You cannot install an I (international) rom on your Chinese MX5. Same goes for the other way around.

            Simply put: If you have an ‘Chinese’ MX5 install the most recent A firmware and if you bought an International MX5 from Meizumart stick to the I firmware.

            • August 10, 2015

              Ah that makes sense, thanks πŸ™‚

            • Tor Claesson
              August 12, 2015

              Is it possible to download the A-version for a phone bought from China? Does anyone know? Would love some help πŸ˜€

            • abaggie
              August 12, 2015

              Yes it is. Devices bought from China are the same as the devices that most resellers sell ATM (the 575M or 575U). Just make sure its a genuine one from a trusted, official or certified shop. You could check http://retail.meizu.com/index.html (use chrome to translate).

            • Tor Claesson
              August 13, 2015

              Thank you, I managed to download the A-version.
              For anyone else looking to download the A-version, allowing access to all frequencies etc, it can be found here: https://meizufans.eu/forum/topic/2502/flyme-os-4-5-2-4-stable-mx5

          • ultrametric
            August 30, 2015

            no.. C is for a certain carrier and the A is for all… I is the only International version out there.

    • Mesterio
      August 11, 2015

      I think ” I disagree ” is a bad choice of words. Yash is simply voicing what is happening to his phone( after admittedly thinking it would beat Andi’s LeTV S1 ?). Yours would be to speak of your experience without that statement. I hope you get me.

  2. Dante
    August 10, 2015

    Balcobomber where are you ? >:D
    All my concerns about the mx5 are here even with the whatsapp application lel
    I really feel bad that the le1 outperforms the mx5 … Considering its price

  3. balcobomber25
    August 10, 2015

    I can honestly say I haven’t experienced any of this. Admittedly I don’t use many apps outside of Lenovo Super Camera and Tunein Radio. But I find it doesn’t heat up anywhere near to what he is talking about, and I have experienced no throttling. I have had zero issues with the fingerprint scanner as well.

    I have no allegiance to Meizu, before this I had no feelings one way or the other for them but since owning an MX5 they are winning me over as a customer. This was a phone where I went into it with no feeling either way.

    • Calcifer
      August 10, 2015

      What version of Lenovo Super Camera you are using, may I ask? πŸ™‚

      • balcobomber25
        August 10, 2015

        I couldn’t get any of the 4.x.x versions to work right with Flyme, there was always one or two things that didn’t want to work. I ended up using 3.5.6 and have had no issues so far.

  4. Mensberk
    August 10, 2015

    Why everywhere in the specification LeTV has 2,2GHz Helio x10 but only gizchina says it have 2,0 GHz? Sorry for my English.

    • August 10, 2015

      It is 2.0GHz

    • balcobomber25
      August 10, 2015

      What do you mean by ‘everywhere’? I just checked about 10 sites and all of them said either 1.9 (OppoMart) or 2.0.

  5. Faux-News
    August 10, 2015

    Waiting for your review of Huawei Honor 7

  6. Von Box
    August 10, 2015

    I never had any lags with my U8..and i am proud of it πŸ˜€ (Oukitel)

  7. abaggie
    August 10, 2015

    I have and use the phone for a couple of weeks now and I mostly disagree.

    My MX5 does not lag at all. In fact, it is blazing fast without any lag or crashes. Multitasking is very smooth. I can use 10 tabs in chrome, 10 tabs in the stock browser, camera, music, whatsapp etc. and all of them work OK.

    I don’t have any issues with heating. Yes the phone does heat up a bit, but this is normal. It happens to a lot of phones. If you use it and charge it at the same time, it gets hot, but nothing extreme, again nothing extraordinary. The Nubia Z9 Mini heats up a lot more.

    The fingerprint sensor works great. I only experienced problems during charging. It sometimes refuses to ‘detect’ while charging. In everyday use it works just fine if you place your finger correctly.

    The one thing that annoys me sometimes, is indeed, the ‘3rd party keyboard issue’. Apart from that the phone and its software work just fine.

    I am not promoting Meizu or the MX5, I am just giving my honest opinion based on my experience. Yes, FlymeOS isn’t perfect and yes it needs some fine tuning here and there, but the phone works well and it’s worth its price.

    What firmware do you use? The official rom? Without any apps added by a reseller? I run Flyme OS 4.5.2.4A at the moment updated twice (from 2.1 and 2.2) without any problem. I only added playstore the first time. I have the Chinese M575M version.

    • Yash Garg
      August 10, 2015

      I’m on 4.5.2.4C right now, downloading the A version which I hope will help.

    • RRRobert
      August 10, 2015

      The best part of providing a reliable review is to update it as often as possible. Keep up the good work!

      Dit you, by any chance, have had any contact with Meizu’s tech support regarding your performance issues?

    • Max
      August 10, 2015

      how come C is before A? do they go backwards in their software versions?

    • Yash Garg
      August 10, 2015

      Since this is the Chinese version, I’m assuming C is for that and A for international MX5’s. ROMs should be cross compatible though, so lets see how the other one works out now.

    • Yash Garg
      August 10, 2015

      Not yet. Going to try the A version before getting in touch with the company.

    • abaggie
      August 10, 2015

      The U is the custom Unicom version designed for the Chinese market, with specific apps from/off China Mobile or China Unicom. The C version is something similar. The A version is the ‘universal’ one and ‘activates’ the correct European frequencies (for 3G and 4G). The I is the international version and it does not contain Chinese apps. Devices bought directly from the manufacturer (meizumart) contain the I firmware. Think the will start selling it around the 10th of September.

      You cannot install an I (international) rom on your Chinese MX5. Same goes for the other way around.

      Simply put: If you have an ‘Chinese’ MX5 install the most recent A firmware and if you bought an International MX5 from Meizumart stick to the I firmware.

    • Yash Garg
      August 10, 2015

      Ah that makes sense, thanks πŸ™‚

    • Mesterio
      August 11, 2015

      I think ” I disagree ” is a bad choice of words. Yash is simply voicing what is happening to his phone( after admittedly thinking it would beat Andi’s LeTV S1 😁). Yours would be to speak of your experience without that statement. I hope you get me.

    • Tor Claesson
      August 12, 2015

      Is it possible to download the A-version for a phone bought from China? Does anyone know? Would love some help πŸ˜€

    • abaggie
      August 12, 2015

      Yes it is. Devices bought from China are the same as the devices that most resellers sell ATM (the 575M or 575U). Just make sure its a genuine one from a trusted, official or certified shop. You could check http://retail.meizu.com/index.html (use chrome to translate).

    • Tor Claesson
      August 13, 2015

      Thank you, I managed to download the A-version.
      For anyone else looking to download the A-version, allowing access to all frequencies etc, it can be found here: https://meizufans.eu/forum/topic/2502/flyme-os-4-5-2-4-stable-mx5

    • rajnish kumar
      August 16, 2015

      Yaar yash plz update on these issues. I am planning to buy this phone. The problems u mentioned still exists?

    • ultrametric
      August 30, 2015

      no.. C is for a certain carrier and the A is for all… I is the only International version out there.

  8. bojan radovanovic
    August 10, 2015

    First Xiaomi, now Meizu… Doesn’t they test their “flagships” before they sell them!?
    Or they all expect us to be beta testers, developers, bug fixers…. And all that, not just for free, then even we need to pay them!
    I guess they should invest more in testing and fixing their products and less in marketing… Because we WILL soon get bored to give them our money for half baked “flagships”.

    • balcobomber25
      August 10, 2015

      The problem is they can never test for every single situation. For instance Yash is experiencing these problems, I and a few others are not. It could just be his phone, it could be a rogue app that is causing problems, it could be a virus on his phone, it could be a hardware failure, it could be his phone is from a different batch or it could be one of a hundred of other things. It’s impossible to test for everything, every phone has issues from Samsung to Apple to Xiaomi.

      • MaxPower
        August 10, 2015

        hmmm, i agree with you about the so many
        scenarios about the MX5 but you have to agree with him about the general thought.

        I mean, look at the MI4i…

        • balcobomber25
          August 10, 2015

          The Mi4i was just a horrible decision by Xiaomi to use the SD615. Other than the bad SoC it’s a pretty decent phone.

          • hugo26
            August 11, 2015

            The reviewer isnt taking into consideration the fact that the flyme version loaded on the MX5 is based on lolipop so incase he was hiding under a rock or forgot then I want to remind him that samsung had to quickly deploy a rather large update to fix the huge memory leak problems that were affecting the Galaxy S6 not by Samsung fault but because lollipop had some serious memory leak issues. So everyone with the issue needs to calm down and wait for an OTA. I mean the description of the issue here about lags stopping after clearing the active apps is the same stuff everyone was saying about the Galaxy s6 memory leak issue and the only fix was to restart the S6 or try to clear all active apps.

            • balcobomber25
              August 11, 2015

              Yea everyphone I have used so far with 5.0 has been a disaster at first, even Googles own Nexus line. For me though Flyme has been relatively stable so far, there are a few issues that pop up but nothing near like him.

  9. Dante
    August 10, 2015

    Balcobomber where are you ? >:D
    All my concerns about the mx5 are here even with the whatsapp application lel
    I really feel bad that the le1 outperforms the mx5 … Considering its price

  10. balcobomber25
    August 10, 2015

    I can honestly say I haven’t experienced any of this. Admittedly I don’t use many apps outside of Lenovo Super Camera and Tunein Radio. But I find it doesn’t heat up anywhere near to what he is talking about, and I have experienced no throttling. I have had zero issues with the fingerprint scanner as well.

    I have no allegiance to Meizu, before this I had no feelings one way or the other for them but since owning an MX5 they are winning me over as a customer. This was a phone where I went into it with no feeling either way.

    • Calcifer
      August 10, 2015

      What version of Lenovo Super Camera you are using, may I ask? πŸ™‚

    • balcobomber25
      August 10, 2015

      I couldn’t get any of the 4.x.x versions to work right with Flyme, there was always one or two things that didn’t want to work. I ended up using 3.5.6 and have had no issues so far.

  11. brave edy
    August 10, 2015

    i extremely regret buying meizu mx4 !
    its the most horrible experience i ever had with a smartphone , everyday …..like for real every f@ckin day the phone will crash .

  12. Guest
    August 10, 2015

    Why everywhere in the specification LeTV has 2,2GHz Helio x10 but only gizchina says it have 2,0 GHz? Sorry for my English.

    • Yash Garg
      August 10, 2015

      It is 2.0GHz

    • balcobomber25
      August 10, 2015

      What do you mean by ‘everywhere’? I just checked about 10 sites and all of them said either 1.9 (OppoMart) or 2.0.

  13. Faux-News
    August 10, 2015

    Waiting for your review of Huawei Honor 7

  14. Jhonny
    August 10, 2015

    I never had any lags with my U8..and i am proud of it πŸ˜€ (Oukitel)

  15. bojan radovanovic
    August 10, 2015

    First Xiaomi, now Meizu… Doesn’t they test their “flagships” before they sell them!?
    Or they all expect us to be beta testers, developers, bug fixers…. And all that, not just for free, then even we need to pay them!
    I guess they should invest more in testing and fixing their products and less in marketing… Because we WILL soon get bored to give them our money for half baked “flagships”.

    • balcobomber25
      August 10, 2015

      The problem is they can never test for every single situation. For instance Yash is experiencing these problems, I and a few others are not. It could just be his phone, it could be a rogue app that is causing problems, it could be a virus on his phone, it could be a hardware failure, it could be his phone is from a different batch or it could be one of a hundred of other things. It’s impossible to test for everything, every phone has issues from Samsung to Apple to Xiaomi.

    • MaxPower
      August 10, 2015

      hmmm, i agree with you about the so many
      scenarios about the MX5 but you have to agree with him about the general thought.

      I mean, look at the MI4i…

    • balcobomber25
      August 10, 2015

      The Mi4i was just a horrible decision by Xiaomi to use the SD615. Other than the bad SoC it’s a pretty decent phone.

    • Guest
      August 11, 2015

      The reviewer isnt taking into consideration the fact that the flyme version loaded on the MX5 is based on lolipop so incase he was hiding under a rock or forgot then I want to remind him that samsung had to quickly deploy a rather large update to fix the huge memory leak problems that were affecting the Galaxy S6 not by Samsung fault but because lollipop had some serious memory leak issues. So everyone with the issue needs to calm down and wait for an OTA. I mean the description of the issue here about lags stopping after clearing the active apps is the same stuff everyone was saying about the Galaxy s6 memory leak issue and the only fix was to restart the S6 or try to clear all active apps.

    • balcobomber25
      August 11, 2015

      Yea everyphone I have used so far with 5.0 has been a disaster at first, even Googles own Nexus line. For me though Flyme has been relatively stable so far, there are a few issues that pop up but nothing near like him.

  16. brave edy
    August 10, 2015

    i extremely regret buying meizu mx4 !
    its the most horrible experience i ever had with a smartphone , everyday …..like for real every f@ckin day the phone will crash .

  17. Or
    August 10, 2015

    Hi all ,in my experience a lot of bugs will be fixed by few weeks after couple fimwere updates , when I bought the mx4 that just released it has a lot of problems and bugs .I can tell you that the same happened on the nexus 5 when it released and the Samsung galaxy s 4 and probably on More phones .I don’t recommended buy phone that just released .And regarding the bug with the 3rd keyboards it happened since Flyme 4 on all devices ,mx4 , MX 4 pro and more ,it happen with all keyboards with word prediction, completion & auto-correction .On some keyboard you can disable this feature like on Google keyboard and it will work OK .I can tell you that on the first lollipop beta fimwere until fimwere 4.5.2.1 it was fixed for the mx4 and the mx4 pro and after it on fimwere 4.5.3 included stable 4.5.4 the bug appeared again so I don’t believe that the bug will be fixed on the near future. Sorry for my bad English.

    • Fly agaric
      August 11, 2015

      I wish it was like you say, but Mx4Pro users complaining under the original Mx5 review make me worry that situation will never be just the way it should.

  18. ericsinchina
    August 10, 2015

    need a new phone. I’ve been a strong meizu fan since mx2. now there are so many options. originally I was waiting for a meizu mx5 pro….but who knows what’s going on with that…
    also the way they are selling the phones pisses me off. they’re making you stand in a virtual line on their website to fight others to try to buy one. even if the pro come sometime soon it will still take weeks/months to buy one.
    found out about the letv 1 from this website, but the mx5 camera still has me leaning meizu. what’s up with the letv max? got a review/impression coming in soon?
    trigger finger getting itchy to buy here.

    • ericsinchina
      August 11, 2015

      damn that itchy finger gave in….saw the letv website did a special sale at noon here today. clicked on the 64gb max and it said it wasn’t for sale, then quickly clicked the 128gb version and it said congrats it was added to my cart. checked my cart and the 64gb was there too. I paid for the 64gb version, supposedly comes within 7 days. 128gb version still in my cart for another hour.

  19. Or
    August 11, 2015

    Hi all ,in my experience a lot of bugs will be fixed by few weeks after couple fimwere updates , when I bought the mx4 that just released it has a lot of problems and bugs .I can tell you that the same happened on the nexus 5 when it released and the Samsung galaxy s 4 and probably on More phones .I don’t recommended buy phone that just released .And regarding the bug with the 3rd keyboards it happened since Flyme 4 on all devices ,mx4 , MX 4 pro and more ,it happen with all keyboards with word prediction, completion & auto-correction .On some keyboard you can disable this feature like on Google keyboard and it will work OK .I can tell you that on the first lollipop beta fimwere until fimwere 4.5.2.1 it was fixed for the mx4 and the mx4 pro and after it on fimwere 4.5.3 included stable 4.5.4 the bug appeared again so I don’t believe that the bug will be fixed on the near future. Sorry for my bad English.

    • Fly agaric
      August 11, 2015

      I wish it was like you say, but Mx4Pro users complaining under the original Mx5 review make me worry that situation will never be just the way it should.

  20. Guest
    August 11, 2015

    need a new phone. I’ve been a strong meizu fan since mx2. now there are so many options. originally I was waiting for a meizu mx5 pro….but who knows what’s going on with that…
    also the way they are selling the phones pisses me off. they’re making you stand in a virtual line on their website to fight others to try to buy one. even if the pro come sometime soon it will still take weeks/months to buy one.
    found out about the letv 1 from this website, but the mx5 camera still has me leaning meizu. what’s up with the letv max? got a review/impression coming in soon?
    trigger finger getting itchy to buy here.

    • Guest
      August 11, 2015

      damn that itchy finger gave in….saw the letv website did a special sale at noon here today. clicked on the 64gb max and it said it wasn’t for sale, then quickly clicked the 128gb version and it said congrats it was added to my cart. checked my cart and the 64gb was there too. I paid for the 64gb version, supposedly comes within 7 days. 128gb version still in my cart for another hour.

  21. Joost van Woelderen
    August 11, 2015

    Dear Yash,
    I am disappointed by your follow up.
    Clearly enough, you’ve got serious issues with the phone. However, I would have expected from a serious reviewer like you to take appropriate action.
    First of all, you should find out what is causing the issue. Most likely (because you say that after clearing the mem, all is fine for a while) you’ve got a software issue.
    Why didn’t you install something like System Panel lite to see which app is causing the high processor usage?
    You could then have tried clearing the data of the app or eventually reinstalling it.
    And if nothing else helps, you might want to do a factory reset on the phone.

    Then your software version. Meizu uses 4 different versions:
    A: General Chinese
    C: China Mobile
    U: China Unicom
    I: International.

    You can install any version but the international one on your phone. I would recommend you the A version, as this one seems to be best suited for use outside of China.

    It is a big bummer that you write down your personal experience in a review that thousands of people can read, instead of trying to solve the issue first and eventually contacting Meizu to ask for explanation.
    I hope you will see your mistake and correct it.

    Cheers,
    Joost

    • Fly agaric
      August 11, 2015

      I on the other hand believe, that a fair review should contain all the facts.
      What he wrote are facts. Unless it’s something Yash installed, that’s causing the whole trouble here, then a phone coming to described state several days after taking out of the box should be called a serious issue.
      Just the ‘third party keyboard’ issue here sounds serious enough to me.
      Any potential buyer should know that there is an option of getting a phone causing so much trouble and that it may require lots of extra work to bring it back to functional state. It’s ok for us – expereinced users, but it will not be ok for 90% remaining customers.

      Even if it is possible to fix the issues, actions required for that will be to much of a trouble to most of the byuers and Meizu’s support will pay the price for that (unless, they don’t give a f…k, of course).

      • Joost van Woelderen
        August 11, 2015

        As a matter of fact, all phones I’ve had (and that includes Samsung devices) did eventually heat up because of a malfunctioning app. I fully agree with you that it’s a fact that Yash’s phone has an issue, but I think it’s a reviewers task to sort it out and to see whether it’s due to the actual phone under review, or due to something else.
        To put that in perspective:
        My garage once received a car that wouldn’t run anymore. After carefully checking it, they found out that the Diesel filter was filled up with… water.
        Reason: The owner filled up that car with ‘supermarket’ diesel quite frequently. Was the car to blame? Nope.
        As we all don’t know which apps are running on Yash’s phone (We can see from the pictures that he’s already not on Meizu’s Flyme launcher) we have no clue whether the phone is to blame or not. Unless he will make efforts to find out. As an advanced user (reviewer) that’s his task. If he does it right, the normal consumers will be able to enjoy a review which is more correct.

        • Fly agaric
          August 11, 2015

          You don’t have to explain that to me – I’m an IT Engineer.
          In my opinion it’s fair – Yash wrote enthusiastic review and the concerns are raised in a follow-up. I see no damage done here.

          BTW. I find the ‘supermarket fuel’ stories hard to believe, since all fuel stations supply in same places. Since I’m no specialist here, I don’t stuck to this opinion, tho.

          • Joost van Woelderen
            August 11, 2015

            It’s okay to have quite different opinions. What bothers me is that a problem with ONE phone is written down in a review, as the source of this particular issue is yet to be found. Readers might easily believe that an MX5 is primarily a pocket heater after reading this, while by far most users enjoy their new phone in a cool way πŸ˜› Let us wait for the next follow up and see how Yash’s MX5 is doing after some cleaning up. πŸ™‚

            • Fly agaric
              August 11, 2015

              Please notice that user vipergrm right above your post, mentions exactly same issues.
              Maybe Yash finds what the problem is in here, but maybe we will never know.

            • Joost van Woelderen
              August 11, 2015

              Let’s hope he does and let’s support him as much as we can.

  22. vipergrm
    August 11, 2015

    I too am becoming more and more frustrated with the MX5. There’s so many bugs in it at the moment. My browser is forever hanging and requires rebooting far too often. I get random freezes just like Andy mentioned. The built in keyboard is absolutely terrible and I can’t use a third party keyboard correctly because of the inability to move the cursor. One of the most annoying issues with Flyme isn’t even a bug. It’s a design flaw. Virtually every app that is installed needs to be enabled in the power saving app or it will shut off after 3 minutes of idle time. My Google Play Music app would stop working after 3 minutes as do my live widgets etc. It’s a nuisance to have to go in and do this each time. I’m all for saving battery etc but this is not the way to go about it. No doubt a lot of folk won’t even know this option exists and they’ll be at a total loss.

    There’s plenty to like a about this phone such as the amazing camera, beautiful AMOLED display and really good built in speaker, but Flyme OS is an abomination. Really hoping third party ROMs will become available because I am running out of patience with Flyme and it’s unpredictable behavior.

    • vipergrm
      August 13, 2015

      Now my phone occasionally won’t charge. When plugging in the charger the battery charge icon is displayed, but no charging whatsoever. This is incredibly annoying. I woke up this morning with only 50% battery (which is what it was when I went to bed) despite the phone being on charge all night!

  23. Joost van Woelderen
    August 11, 2015

    Dear Yash,
    I am disappointed by your follow up.
    Clearly enough, you’ve got serious issues with the phone. However, I would have expected from a serious reviewer like you to take appropriate action.
    First of all, you should find out what is causing the issue. Most likely (because you say that after clearing the mem, all is fine for a while) you’ve got a software issue.
    Why didn’t you install something like System Panel lite to see which app is causing the high processor usage?
    You could then have tried clearing the data of the app or eventually reinstalling it.
    And if nothing else helps, you might want to do a factory reset on the phone.

    Then your software version. Meizu uses 4 different versions:
    A: General Chinese
    C: China Mobile
    U: China Unicom
    I: International.

    You can install any version but the international one on your phone. I would recommend you the A version, as this one seems to be best suited for use outside of China.

    It is a big bummer that you write down your personal experience in a review that thousands of people can read, instead of trying to solve the issue first and eventually contacting Meizu to ask for explanation.
    I hope you will see your mistake and correct it.

    Cheers,
    Joost

    • Fly agaric
      August 11, 2015

      I on the other hand believe, that a fair review should contain all the facts.
      What he wrote are facts. Unless it’s something Yash installed, that’s causing the whole trouble here, then a phone coming to described state several days after taking out of the box should be called a serious issue.
      Just the ‘third party keyboard’ issue here sounds serious enough to me.
      Any potential buyer should know that there is an option of getting a phone causing so much trouble and that it may require lots of extra work to bring it back to functional state. It’s ok for us – expereinced users, but it will not be ok for 90% remaining customers.

      Even if it is possible to fix the issues, actions required for that will be to much of a trouble to most of the byuers and Meizu’s support will pay the price for that (unless, they don’t give a f…k, of course).

    • Joost van Woelderen
      August 11, 2015

      As a matter of fact, all phones I’ve had (and that includes Samsung devices) did eventually heat up because of a malfunctioning app. I fully agree with you that it’s a fact that Yash’s phone has an issue, but I think it’s a reviewers task to sort it out and to see whether it’s due to the actual phone under review, or due to something else.
      To put that in perspective:
      My garage once received a car that wouldn’t run anymore. After carefully checking it, they found out that the Diesel filter was filled up with… water.
      Reason: The owner filled up that car with ‘supermarket’ diesel quite frequently. Was the car to blame? Nope.
      As we all don’t know which apps are running on Yash’s phone (We can see from the pictures that he’s already not on Meizu’s Flyme launcher) we have no clue whether the phone is to blame or not. Unless he will make efforts to find out. As an advanced user (reviewer) that’s his task. If he does it right, the normal consumers will be able to enjoy a review which is more correct.

    • Fly agaric
      August 11, 2015

      You don’t have to explain that to me – I’m an IT Engineer.
      In my opinion it’s fair – Yash wrote enthusiastic review and the concerns are raised in a follow-up. I see no damage done here.

      BTW. I find the ‘supermarket fuel’ stories hard to believe, since all fuel stations supply in same places. Since I’m no specialist here, I don’t stuck to this opinion, tho.

    • Joost van Woelderen
      August 11, 2015

      It’s okay to have quite different opinions. What bothers me is that a problem with ONE phone is written down in a review, as the source of this particular issue is yet to be found. Readers might easily believe that an MX5 is primarily a pocket heater after reading this, while by far most users enjoy their new phone in a cool way πŸ˜› Let us wait for the next follow up and see how Yash’s MX5 is doing after some cleaning up. πŸ™‚

    • Fly agaric
      August 11, 2015

      Please notice that user vipergrm right above your post, mentions exactly same issues.
      Maybe Yash finds what the problem is in here, but maybe we will never know.

    • Joost van Woelderen
      August 11, 2015

      Let’s hope he does and let’s support him as much as we can.

  24. vipergrm
    August 11, 2015

    I too am becoming more and more frustrated with the MX5. There’s so many bugs in it at the moment. My browser is forever hanging and requires rebooting far too often. I get random freezes just like Andy mentioned. The built in keyboard is absolutely terrible and I can’t use a third party keyboard correctly because of the inability to move the cursor. One of the most annoying issues with Flyme isn’t even a bug. It’s a design flaw. Virtually every app that is installed needs to be enabled in the power saving app or it will shut off after 3 minutes of idle time. My Google Play Music app would stop working after 3 minutes as do my live widgets etc. It’s a nuisance to have to go in and do this each time. I’m all for saving battery etc but this is not the way to go about it. No doubt a lot of folk won’t even know this option exists and they’ll be at a total loss.

    There’s plenty to like a about this phone such as the amazing camera, beautiful AMOLED display and really good built in speaker, but Flyme OS is an abomination. Really hoping third party ROMs will become available because I am running out of patience with Flyme and it’s unpredictable behavior.

    • vipergrm
      August 13, 2015

      Now my phone occasionally won’t charge. When plugging in the charger the battery charge icon is displayed, but no charging whatsoever. This is incredibly annoying. I woke up this morning with only 50% battery (which is what it was when I went to bed) despite the phone being on charge all night!

  25. Ed Dunlap
    August 11, 2015

    Compared to the MX4, this phone is more fluid and stable. However, all the problems I’ve had with the MX4 (and others with the MX4 Pro) show that Meizu needs to focus more resources on bug fixing. For example, just updating the phone without doing a full wipe seems to cause all sorts of errors. Keeping root while updating causes all kinds of errors (even with a full wipe). If Meizu provides an update process on your phone, they shouldn’t punish you for using it.

    I do like the phone and the concept of Flyme, but more could be done.

    • Joost van Woelderen
      August 11, 2015

      Hi Ed,
      Let us push Meizu to get a good bug tracking system. I’ve been working with Chinese companies extensively and I can tell you that the software department is always a mess, literally.
      For instance: They don’t know what committing is and they work with locally stored source code. Meizu will be no different.

  26. Ed Dunlap
    August 11, 2015

    Compared to the MX4, this phone is more fluid and stable. However, all the problems I’ve had with the MX4 (and others with the MX4 Pro) show that Meizu needs to focus more resources on bug fixing. For example, just updating the phone without doing a full wipe seems to cause all sorts of errors. Keeping root while updating causes all kinds of errors (even with a full wipe). If Meizu provides an update process on your phone, they shouldn’t punish you for using it.

    I do like the phone and the concept of Flyme, but more could be done.

    • Joost van Woelderen
      August 11, 2015

      Hi Ed,
      Let us push Meizu to get a good bug tracking system. I’ve been working with Chinese companies extensively and I can tell you that the software department is always a mess, literally.
      For instance: They don’t know what committing is and they work with locally stored source code. Meizu will be no different.

  27. Gerorge Anderson
    August 12, 2015

    As a M1 Note user, my motto is “FlyMe OS Sucks!”. That’s all!

  28. Guest
    August 12, 2015

    As a M1 Note user, my motto is “FlyMe OS Sucks!”. That’s all!

  29. Nikhil
    August 21, 2015

    Hey, If all the issue is due to the OS, cant it be changed to a Cyanogen mod or isnt it possible. I am considering either this (due to their big launch in india on the 26th) or the old mi4i to buy as I dont think I have any chance of getting a one plus 2 invite in the near future.

  30. Guest
    August 21, 2015

    Hey, If all the issue is due to the OS, cant it be changed to a Cyanogen mod or isnt it possible. I am considering either this (due to their big launch in india on the 26th) or the old mi4i to buy as I dont think I have any chance of getting a one plus 2 invite in the near future.

  31. Lars-Peter Dijkstra
    September 25, 2015

    Hi Andy. Do you still use the meizu mx5? Is the lagging over or can you investigate it? Want to buy it soon

  32. Lars-Peter Dijkstra
    September 25, 2015

    Hi Andy. Do you still use the meizu mx5? Is the lagging over or can you investigate it? Want to buy it soon

  33. pmli
    September 29, 2015

    Heeeey, Yash you are one of the BIGEST FOOL IN THE WORLD! I read your rewiev, and i have this phone. And all is ok. Never lag, no heating, evrything is ok. I dont know what are you writing? You are a big idiot!

  34. Guest
    September 29, 2015

    Heeeey, Yash you are one of the BIGEST FOOL IN THE WORLD! I read your rewiev, and i have this phone. And all is ok. Never lag, no heating, evrything is ok. I dont know what are you writing? You are a big idiot!