After much speculation and some anticipation, Chinese smartphone manufacturer Meizu today debuted in India. Meizu arrives in the country with its budget phablet, the M1 Note. Unlike competitors such as Xiaomi and Huawei which resort to flash sales, the company has opted for open sales.
The M1 Note will be available for sale on Amazon today starting 2pm India Standard Time (IST). It’s priced at INR 11,999 (US$189). The phone first launched in China in December.
Li Nan, Meizu’s vice president, says the company sees immense opportunities in India.
Challenging the Xiaomi Redmi
The Meizu M1 Note sports a 5.5-inch 1080p HD screen (1920×1080 pixels) with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 and a pixel density of 403 PPI. The device is powered by a 64-bit MediaTek MT6752 octa-core processor and 2GB RAM. It runs on Android 4.4.4 KitKat-based Flyme 4 OS. No Android 5.0 for you.
The M1 Note comes with a 13MP Samsung rear camera. On the front is a 5MP camera. Connectivity options include 4G FDD-LTE, 3G WCDMA, and GSM, plus wifi and Bluetooth 4.0. There’s dual SIM support.
It comes in only two colors in India – blue and white. The Chinese market gets the full range of five colors.
The M1 Note seems designed to challenge the colorful Xiaomi Redmi 2, which is a bit cheaper (INR 9,999; US$157) but has slightly weaker specs, such as a 720p HD screen.
With this smartphone, Meizu plans to offer some serious competition to its rivals, Xiaomi and Huawei. China’s ecommerce giant Alibaba recently invested US$590 million in Meizu.
Editing by Paul Bischoff
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