“We took the MEIZU MX5 on a spin in Beijing to judge its camera quality”
Chinese manufacturer MEIZU recently took the covers off its latest flagship offering, the MX5. With its beautiful outards and powerful innards, the device has already managed to impress us during our hands-on experience. Now, it’s time to gauge the shooting prowess of the phablet. In terms of tech specs, the device does come across as the photographer’s dream with its 20.7-megapixel sensor at the back, featuring f/2.2 aperture and six-element lens. The camera also boasts of fast autofocus capabilities thanks to laser-guided autofocus. For shooting in low-light conditions, the handset comes with a dual-tone LED flash to provide uniform illumination with apt colours. There’s a 5MP snapper at the front, boasting an aperture of f/2.0, which should serve the needs of selfieholics well.
To test the cameras on the MEIZU MX5, we took it for a spin in Beijing and here’s what we think about its performance. All these photos have been taken in automatic settings with the aspect ratio set at 4:3.
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Long shot
The snapper on the MEIZU MX5 has captured the wonderful scenery presented by the Great Wall of China quite well. Different subjects in the view are captured nicely and colours have also been reproduced well. In terms of sharpness too, the details offered by the image look good even when zoomed in.
Close up
The MEIZU MX5’s 20.7MP sensor doesn’t disappoint when it comes to close-up images either. The spinning top captured by the phablet offers impressive colour fidelity and now let’s see if the image still looks good when it’s magnified.
Close up (zoomed in)
When we zoom in into the same, the colours of the spinning top appear sharp and so does the text written on it. However, if you notice closely, then the edges show some amount of blurriness.
HDR off
The above shot has been taken to test the HDR capabilities of the MEIZU MX5. As such, the image does look pleasing with the expansive sky above and Great Wall of China below.
HDR on
With the dynamic range, the same scene appears even better since the colours are brighter, making the image look livelier. What’s even more applaud-worthy is that the MX5 hasn’t overexposed certain areas and thus the colours remain natural.
Front shot
Gone are the days when the front camera was available for the sake of it, allowing you to make a few video calls. Nowadays, for many users, the secondary shooter is more important than the back camera for high-quality selfies. For that purpose, the MEIZU MX5’s 5MP front snapper is capable, and can shoot a decent level of detail and colours in ample lighting.
Low-light shot
In poorly-lit conditions, the image shot with the MX5 will only be able to give you a faint idea about the subject(s). In this case, we are only able to see that there are several coloured pebbles and only when you look closely, you can see the hues.
Low-light shot with flash
With flash turned on, the same scene looks a lot better and brighter. One can easily make out the different pebbles, the shapes embedded on them along with their colours. The details are also nice, though due to the glass, illumination seems quite reflective.
Night shot
Shot at night, this palace in the Tiananmen Square of Beijing has been captured decently by the MEIZU MX5. It surely is grainy, but the subjects can be viewed easily. The device has also done a good job when it comes to capturing the colours of the building and there’s no halo effect around the lights.
The MEIZU MX5 cameras score high in terms of specifications and they capture decent images well. But somehow, the images seem to lack the punchiness we expect a device of its class to have. The colours seem quite dull in case of long shot, while there’s slight blurriness in close-up images. HDR mode is quite effective, but the same can’t be said about the low-light imagery.
We’re testing out the MEIZU MX5 on other parameters like its performance and its day-to-day usage, so keep an out for our in-depth review of the smartphone.
