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The colorful Meizu M1 Note prepares to take on Xiaomi
Chinese smartphone developer Meizu is no stranger to being called a copycat, but having praised Jony Ive at the unveiling of its MX4 Pro and sent out iPhone 5c chassis as invitations to its latest M1 Note launch, Meizu seems to be taking this all in stride. The company’s new low-cost M1 Note may look a little familiar, but this budget handset offers some serious value for money.
As we have come to expect from Meizu, the M1 Note comes packing some rather decent hardware for its CN¥1,000 ($160) price tag. The low-cost nature of this device appears to be a direct response to Xiaomi‘s rise to the top of China’s smartphone market. Even the M1 Note name shares some similarities with Xiaomi’s hugely popular Redmi Note. The large 5.5-inch handsets comes with a Full HD IGZO display and a 64-bit octo-core MediaTek processor, powered by ARM’s Cortex-A53 CPU cores. Here is the full breakdown of the specifications:
- 5.5-inch 1080p IGZO display, 403 PPI
- MediaTek octo-core MT6752 (8x 1.7GHz Cortex-A53 and Mali T760 MP2 GPU)
- 2GB of RAM
- 16GB / 32GB internal memory
- 13 megapixel f/2.2 rear camera, 5 megapixel f/2.0 front camera
- 3,140 mAh battery
- Dual-SIM
- Flyme 4.1 OS (Android 4.4.4 KitKat)
- FDD-LTE radio (TD-LTE also supported for the China versions)
The lack of microSD card slot is a slight drawback and the handset is also missing the fingerprint sensor found on Meizu’s latest high-end flagship smartphone. But for under $200, the Meizu M1 Note looks like a solid offering. The Meizu M1 Note also comes in a choice of colorful plastic cover options; green, pink, white, yellow and blue.
The handset is already available for pre-order in China and will launch in the region on December 30th. The M1 Note’s début in the West is scheduled for the second half of January 2015. The 16GB model has a retail price of CN¥999 (about $160) and the 32GB version costs CN¥1,199 (about $190).
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