HONOR 7 & Meizu MX5 vs the competition

Today not one but two Chinese manufacturers have announced new devices and both handsets are feature-rich at affordable price tags. HUAWEI’s e-commerce brand Honor has announced the HONOR 7 while Meizu has announced the MX5, but how do these two handsets compare against each other and to the competition?

HONOR 7 vs Meizu MX5

Before comparing these handsets to their rivals, let’s take a look at how they compare to each other. Both handsets adopt all-metal builds and while the HONOR 7 has been influenced by the Ascend Mate 7, the MX5 is Meizu’s first switch to an all-metal design.

Last year’s HUAWEI phablet – the Ascend Mate 7 – certainly had an influence on the HONOR 7

Both handsets offer Full HD displays but the 5.5-inch AMOLED screen on the MX5 is slightly larger than the 5.2-inch IPS display on the HONOR 7, meaning it has a slightly lower display density of 401 pixels per inch (versus 424 ppi). Both handsets run on Android Lollipop, with Meizu adding Flyme 4.5 on top, while HUAWEI added its own Emotion UI v3.1 interface.

[related_videos title=”HUAWEI & Meizu in video:” align=”left” type=”custom” videos=”586544,563890,582092,574507,597827,604157″]Switching to the camera, both handsets use Sony modules; the Meizu MX5 comes equipped with an IMX220 module that offers 20.7MP resolution, laser autofocus and 4K Ultra HD video recording while the HONOR 7 uses an IMX230 module with 20MP resolution, Phase Detection autofocus, optical image stabilisation and, presumably, 4K Ultra HD video recording as well.

Up front the MX5 has a 5MP front camera with Full HD video while the HONOR 7 has an 8MP selfie camera with HUAWEI’s Beauty Level feature built-in. Beneath the rear camera is where HUAWEI have added the fingerprint sensor on the HONOR 7, which is a feature that’s missing from Meizu’s flagship which is the same integration as on the Ascend Mate 7, while the Meizu MX5 has a fingerprint sensor inside the home button.

Under the hood, both handsets have octa-core processors with the Meizu MX5 using the MediaTek Helio X10 Turbo CPU clocked at 2.2GHz and the HONOR 7 using HUAWEI’s own Kirin 935 processor, also clocked at 2.2GHz. There’s also 3GB RAM on both handsets and the biggest difference comes in the storage options; the MX5 is available with either 16GB, 32GB or 64GB internal storage while the HONOR 7 has either 16GB or 64GB storage.

The price of these handsets is where they may go on to challenge the established manufacturers: the MX5 costs roughly $290 for the 16GB model, while the 32GB costs approximately $322 and the 64GB comes in at $387. In comparison, the HONOR 7 is available in three models: the lowest variant comes with 16GB internal storage and single SIM LTE for approx. $322, while the next version up offers the same storage and dual SIM 4G LTE for $354 and the top model offers 64GB storage and dual SIM LTE for $402.

The MX5 replaces Meizu’s previous flagship, the MX4

At these prices, both handsets are significantly cheaper than the competition and while it’s difficult to make in-depth comparisons until these devices arrive for review, let’s take a look at how they compare against the other major flagship handsets on the market.

HONOR 7 & Meizu MX5 vs the competition

Like many Chinese companies, both Huawei and Meizu have attempted to challenge established devices by focusing on offering impressive specs with an even more impressive price tag.

Along with rival Chinese OEMs Gionee and Xiaomi, these companies have transformed the mid-range market by offering feature-rich smartphones at a price that belies belief. While they won’t have all the bells and whistles found on handsets that retail for almost double the price, they certainly have feature sets that will appeal to almost all users.

Let’s take a look at how the Meizu MX5 and HONOR 7 specs compare vs the best from Samsung, LG, Sony and HTC.

There you have it – the specs of the HONOR 7 and Meizu MX5 certainly show that it’s possible to make a handset with the latest flagship specs at a price that’s anything but flagship. Of course the specs list only reveals a small part of the overall experience and we can’t comment on how good these handsets are until they arrive for review but the specs comparison certainly gives us food for thought.

What do you think of the specs of the Meizu MX5 and HONOR 7 vs the competition? Which handset would you buy (if any)? Let us know your views in the comments below!