Fitbit - Great Ideas, Money-hole Implementation

I have spent $600 on Fitbit devices which either broke immediately or became lost/trampled under normal city transit conditions. I confess this with a great deal of shame -- both at the depth of my depraved consumerism, and also at my grade-A gullability.

• My original Fitbit "Ultra" shattered into a few unsalvageable peaces the first time it hit the ground. As did my partner's. (-$200)
• My Fitbit "One" fell off on a bus never to be recovered. (-$100)
• My replacement Fitbit "One" fell off on a sidewalk someplace between the supermarket and home, never to be recovered. (-$100)
• My Fitbit "Flex" stopped accepting a charge from the charging adapter after about a month of use. (-$100) -- SIDE NOTE: WHY DO ALL OF THESE DEVICES REQUIRE SOME KIND OF STUPID PROPRIETARY CHARGING ADAPTER MADE TO THE SAME EXACTING QUALITY STANDARDS AS A HAPPY MEAL TOY -- GOD DAMN IT, USE NORMAL USB IMPLEMENTATIONS.
• My Fitbit "Aria" started registering every weigh-in as a "Guest" and stopped seeing our Wifi network after a few months, reducing it to a battery-sucking design piece with no more functionality than a normal scale. (-$100)

In each case, I liked the idea and the look of the product so much that I was willing to tell myself, "This time they've gotten it right! This time they have solved the issues with the prior product, and this time it will last."

It never lasts. There is a fatal flaw so obtrusive in the case of each new Fitbit product that they practically self-destruct. The only way for the issues to be more show-stopping would be for these little yuppie badges to actually exploded like tiny bombs.

Fitbit devices deserve the bizarre distinction of being activity trackers that are developed in a total reality vacuum, intended to be exposed to absolutely no activity at all. It's too dangerous for them. They can't handle it. They can't hold onto a pocket to save their lives. They can't handle sweat -- it corrodes their connections. They can't handle bathroom humidity. They need special treatment at every turn. If you want your Fitbit to last, you should take it off, place it on a satin pillow in a cool dry place, and never touch it again.

My advice is to fork over the $10 - $20 it takes to buy a normal ugly pedometer (you can get them at GNC, even though the employees there don't know the word "pedometer" or what one does -- true story). Write your steps down in a notebook each day. You don't need it logged for you. The focus it takes you to write down your daily steps will be more effective than automatic online logging anyway.

Alternatively, modern smartphones are coming equipped with motion sensors that can replicate the functionality of a Fitbit without the need for additional fragile hardware. When I upgraded to an iPhone 5S, I benefitted from such a sensor coupled with the app, "Moves" which is basically everything Fitbit wishes it was, but without the pricy plastic bit that is waiting for its opportunity to self-destruct.

As for me, Fitbit has already gotten way more money out of me than they'll ever get out of most people, and I guess I consider it a tribute to their savvy web design, elegant device styling, and my own eternal wish to lose 20 pounds. But I'm definitely cutting them off at $600. No thanks to whatever comes next from these guys. Thankfully "wearables" are being outmoded by the smartphones we already carry.

Review: Nokia Asha 311

Three things first attracted me to the Nokia Asha 311:

1) It's extremely small size. (~3.5")

2) It's completely unique operating system, Asha OS, designed to bring the design and much of the feature set of larger smartphones to a single-core 1Ghz feature phone.

3) A price tag just a hair over $100. For this low amount, users get to experience an entirely new platform on an unlocked device that costs less than most subsidized on-contract devices cost.

After spending good time with the device, it's clear to me that the Asha 311 neither wishes to compete with smartphones, or to be mistaken for one. That's totally fair for $100, but some of the more worrying flaws of the device have nothing to do with unfair comparisons to more heavyweight hardware.

Certain key device features seem to be either heavily obscured, or left completely out. For instance, why isn't there an easy method to manage data or format memory cards? There's a settings panel for viewing usage, much like Android's. But when it comes to wiping the Micro SD card the best tutorial I found online seemed to suggest that the only method for performing a Micro SD wipe was accessible through the Gallery app. This is odd, since the card is used for a lot more than pictures. To make matters worse, the Gallery app on my Asha 311 refused to open at all. It reliably crashed every time I tried to open it. This was probably due to its trying to render thumbnails of unsupported media -- the media I wanted to wipe off the Micro SD in the first place (just a guess) but this wouldn't have been a blocking issue if wiping the SD card had been properly supported through the Settings menu.

So I can hear you saying, "but Asha OS is young! Nokia will continue to update and support it to fix issues like that."

That's unfortunately untrue, as Nokia's recent acquisition by Microsoft will almost certainly kill off any hope for an update to Asha OS. It is the next promising-but-underdeveloped OS in line to be axed by Nokia execs who seem willing to dump zillions of dollars into early development, but no time or money into supporting and iterating an OS into a success story.

Think about iOS at launch, and how limited that was. Think about Android 1.0 on the G1. Neither of those were stunning. They both lacked polish and basic features, taking years to become the slick and attractive systems they now are.

Nokia has a knack for launching OSes that are actually more polished than either Android or iOS at launch, and then swiftly killing them off without allowing any resources to support their improvement. Maemo, Meego, Asha... All the same pattern. All that hard work being continuously thrown away.

So back to the Asha 311: don't expect any improvement on what comes out of the box. What comes out of the box is a limited, attractive, low-spec entry-level feature phone with a better-than average touch interface that showcases loads of promise which will never be developed further.

The 3 Megapixel rear camera takes fuzzy dim photos that look like they're from a camera-phone from the mid-'90s.

The slick plastic back swiftly becomes a greasy embarrassing mess (beyond the complaints you'll hear about Samsung phones. This is actually worse.)

The app grid interface looks pleasant, and a lot like Meego, but I was unable to locate an option to delete apps, and there were plenty of bloatware game "Demos" making my grid less than attractive. There's also an "EA Games Gift" which supposedly gives you access to a large number of EA Game titles, but touching that icon just forwarded me to a "no results" screen of the Market. Frustrating that I'm stuck with such a useless icon on my app grid.

I found the touchscreen to be nicely responsive, but the frame rate of the OS overall was very low. Felt like moving around the interface was happening at about 15fps.

If you want to spend a little over $100 on a small phone, there are plenty of good options for you, and they're all running Android. You shouldn't feel bad for going mainstream in this case, because what you're doing is supporting an ecosystem that has made time and resources available for quality iteration.

It needs mentioning that if you double your money, you could have a Nexus 4, one of the smoothest, most versatile phones available on the market. It really makes me question the validity of spending $100 on the Asha 311.

Thank You, Google, for Android 4.3

You may have read it elsewhere, but I'm speaking from personal experience right now when I tell you that Android 4.3 on my 2012 Nexus 7 totally revives this hardware. It's really true what people are saying. This machine now performs as smoothly as the Nexus 4 is famous for doing.

I'm very pleased with the responsiveness upgrade, which people are saying is due to implementation of better memory management. Whatever the cause, my Nexus 7 feels like modern hardware again, and I love it.

Reasons the Ubuntu Edge Will Succeed

I've read a lot lately about why it's likely that the Ubuntu Edge campaign will fail. While I'm a born pessimist, I don't agree that the failure of the campaign is a foregone conclusion, or even likely.

In fact, while I agree that the goal hitting $32,000,000 within a month sounds a little insane, the hardcore crowd that this device is aimed at have proven in the past to be a greater force than pundits acknowledge. And they're not a financially strapped set of fellows, either.

This BoingBoing write-up details a Humble Indie Bundle campaign in which Linux gamers, for example, were twice as generous as Windows gamers, and 40% more generous than Mac users -- the stereotypically "rich" set. In other words, those Linux users are not using Linux because it's cheap. I believe they're using it because they are fans of bleeding-edge technology, and they want to be involved in the creation of that technology.

That is exactly the demographic that will support the Ubuntu Edge Superphone.

Here are some other reasons I think the Ubuntu Edge can succeed, both short-term in the campaign phase, and long-term as a true superphone showpiece:

• Linux users care about supporting and being a part of new tech.
• Linux users don't care as much about jumping into a vast and established app ecosystem; they are just as likely to want to be a part of the creation of that ecosystem as they are likely to want to avail themselves of it. (For example, for a standard user, a smartphone without Instagram is a major bummer. A Linux user does not need or want Instagram as much as they want to help code the eventual replacement.)
• A lot of unforeseen things could happen to support the campaign. New price points added; new perks added; numerous management and promotional decisions will shape the remaining days of the campaign in ways that disrupt current predictions.
• The campaign has currently been savvy enough to remain on schedule, against odds.
• As the dollar amount inches closer to the final target, optimism will overtake doubt and it will be possible that a burst of funding will result from a final push. The press loves an impossible last-minute victory, and will give the campaign nonstop attention if it's anywhere near the goal in the final week.
• High-paid Linux professionals want this to succeed. They want the exclusive phone. One or several of them may be willing to make an insane contribution in the final days of the campaign, if less well-funded users don't step up.

So if you're on the fence about supporting the Ubuntu Edge, because someone has told you it's not likely to happen, I encourage you to go ahead and sign up for your new phone. Remember, there's no "wait and see" in this case. The phone either gets funded, or it doesn't, and those not involved in the campaign will never be able to buy it at retail.

Review: Sony Xperia ZL

Key Specs

Processor: Qualcomm MDM9215M / APQ8064, Quad-core @ 1.5 GHz
Storage - Internal: 16Gb
Storage - External: Up to 32Gb via MicroSD
RAM: 2Gb
Battery: 2370 mAh
Camera: 13 Megapixels
Camera - Front: 2.2 Megapixels

First Impressions

I've already reviewed the Xperia Z which I had high hopes for, but was ultimately quite disappointed with. However, most of my issues with the Z had directly to do with the inconvenience of the hardware's waterproof design, coupled with the large, clumsy phone body with sharp glass edges that made me feel like I was either about to drop it, and/or actually wanted to drop it.

Due to that, I stayed positive about the ZL that I received in the mail a couple days ago. The device, which is ~$100 cheaper than the Xperia Z retains all of the same internal specs and the same screen, while replacing the body of the device with a regular, textured rubberized plastic phone backing. The ports aren't covered with fiddly little glass caps, and the size of the device is slightly reduced, all while adding a dedicated camera button, a slightly larger battery, and support for the T-Mobile HSPA+ network (a must, for me -- possibly not important at all for you).

In short, this is the phone that I thought the Z was going to be. Due to the hardware "compromises" this cheaper device is actually much more of what I want from a phone, and I'm very pleased with it.

Yes, the back is "plastic" and yes, people are having a negative reaction to that lately. But it's miles more comfortable to hold than the Xperia Z and at the same time, much more premium in the hand than a Galaxy SIII so I don't think there's a real complaint to be had here. I also love having normal, unencumbered access to the headphone jack and USB port. Things you take for granted, until they're taken away.

What's a "PlayNow™?"

My complaints about Sony's version of Android running at this pixel density are already documented, and hold true for the ZL too, but after using the ZL as a primary device for a couple days, my new complaint is focused on Sony's exclusive, built-in apps. What a waste! What the heck is a "PlayNow" and why is it's blurry little low-res icon sitting amongst my other pre-installs? I launched it and the first time, it crashed. The second time, it timed out with an annoying blank screen, and the third time it finally loaded up an unimpressive-looking HTML interface seems to have been coded about five years ago, and populated with a bunch of throw-away game trials and media I'd never heard of, with preview images at the incorrect resolution for the ZL's pixel density. This is not the way for Sony to make money. Where is the effort that could have been spent on this? Why bother including this at all, if it's so utterly abandoned?

The same story holds true for Sony's much-vaunted "PSM" Android app, which was originally intended to let us sign into our Playstation Network accounts and buy original PS1 games, as well as exclusive new titles tailored to Sony's high-end hardware. Does anybody remember this promise? Well, it might have died, but the app remains.

I logged in to find that none of the purchases I made on my PSP (even of PS1 games) were available to download. Fine; I understand that. But I don't understand why none of the PS1 games I purchased on other Xperia phones were available to download either. They were all mysteriously missing from the market and from my download menu, where they used to live. Surely this hardware, which is leagues above that old Xperia hardware should be able to play the games, right? Have they just been removed entirely? Even after I purchased them? Needless to say, I wasn't happy about that.

However, those are all things I could have brought up in my Xperia Z review as well, and really have nothing to do with the hardware or everyday user experience. I wish I could single-handedly convince Sony to either put real work and weight behind these software efforts, but the truth is I'm more than happy with the regular Google Play store game offerings, and I guess I'll just ignore Sony's apps like everyone else does. I'll just say that they'd have a real customer in me if they'd ever really support one of these attempts of theirs.

The Specs

These are last-generation specs, which is a little bit frustrating. Why is Sony launching a device now that features a quad-core 1.5Ghz processor, 2 gigs of ram, and an Antutu benchmark of 16,954? This device is not significantly more powerful than the Galaxy SIII that you've had in your pocket for a year, which scores a 16,301 on Antutu's test. However, it is significantly less powerful than the Galaxy S4 that is about to launch in a month or so. Furthermore, the OS's frame rate and overall fluidity of interaction on Sony's Z and ZL stutter a great deal more than what I've seen in other build's of Jellybean, even on significantly less powerful devices.

Final Thoughts

For me, the supposedly cheaper hardware of the ZL is a huge improvement over the all-glass, uncomfortable construction of the Z. Comfort matters in a mobile design. It's why I keep going back to my Galaxy SIII even though the interface is butt-ugly and the phone feels like it was made out of milk jugs. Sony's Xperia ZL is the first Xperia device I would recommend to anyone in a long while, and I give it higher marks than the Z purely on that basis. However in many ways the specs make it a last-generation Android phone, possibly launching too late to be relevant to many who will be considering it in the coming two months.

Rating

Build Quality: 8/10
Screen: 9/10
Camera: 9/10
Processor Power: 9/10
Battery: 5/10
OS / Software: 7/10

Overall: 7.8/10

Real Talk about 'Facebook Home' Android Launcher

Facebook is a fact of life for most of my friends in the tech industry. I've seen firsthand the impact that not having a Facebook profile can cause to hiring decisions, networking, and even whether or not friends will include you in their social engagements. These days, not having a Facebook profile has real negative financial and social consequences. Many years ago, when I signed up to reconnect with my college buddies, I'm not sure this is what I was signing up for.

So the very idea of installing a more pervasive version of Facebook on my Android device does not appeal to me.

But to be more specific:

1. I don't trust Facebook to provide an efficient or well-coded Android experience. I have never seen them do so with the standard app, and am genuinely appalled at the idea of handing over my primary device interaction to developers who seemingly don't value UX. Why would I give them my primary user experience, when they have never handled a secondary one particularly well?
2. This whole battle about who controls access to my information is becoming a little unnerving to me. Each month, it seems like the curtain is pulled back a little further.
3. Once and for all, Facebook is not about connecting us with friends. It's about watching our connections and selling the data that they generate. Facebook tries to warm-and-fuzzy this up, but it's not warm, or fuzzy. It's a business model that I wish didn't exist, and no amount of feel-good footage of happy frolicking hipsters with sun glinting into the camera lens is going to change that.
4. I'd like companies to stop trying to hijack Android, but it's not going to happen, and I guess I have Google to blame for that. Android should have been closed. This whole 'open' thing is not working for them, because it only results in cheap, nasty devices and bad user experiences that tarnish the reputation of the platform. If every Android device were a Nexus, or the quality of a Nexus, this image problem we have now would not exist, sales numbers be damned.

So, in a word, "no." I will not be installing Facebook Home. I will be uninstalling the Facebook app if it nags me to install Home very often.

Review: Sony Xperia Z

Key Specs

Processor: Qualcomm MDM9215M / APQ8064, Quad-core @ 1.5 GHz
Storage - Internal: 16Gb
Storage - External: Up to 32Gb via MicroSD
RAM: 2Gb
Battery: 1800 mAh
Camera: 13 Megapixels
Camera - Front: 2.2 Megapixels

First Impressions

The Sony Xperia Z looks incredible in photos. The specs that look awesome on paper. The phone, itself, is less fabulous than the combination of its looks and specs would lead you to believe, though. As is often the case with Sony products, there are one or two sore points so egregious that they end up holding the entire product back, almost unfairly.

I was very excited when I received my review unit of the Xperia Z, having slobbered over press photos, and read the stories about how this was Sony going "all in" to rescue their position as a premium handset maker. This time, the story goes, Sony was going to get it all right, and really impress us with their combination of top-tier internals and stunning hardware design.

Having been personally burned by last generation's Xperia S and the cute but egregiously underpowered Xperia Sola I wanted to believe that the Z was the comeback story that Sony has needed. However, I don't think the truth is as generous as that.

First of all, this much ballyhooed waterproof design is a major annoyance. There may have been some double-digit number of marine life experts loudly demanding a top-end waterproof phone, but I have doubts that this feature was actually requested or wanted by many members of the general public. Sure, it'd be a fine assurance to have if there weren't such a steep cost to the convenience of the device, but due to the phone being waterproof, all of the ports (including your most-used ports such as headphones and USB port) are covered by fiddly little rubber plugs with precariously attached glass facades on top to make them blend with the rest of the phone's all-glass design. They are beyond annoying, and I have no doubt that the glass top layer on these plugs will eventually fall off with repeated use. The glass layer also makes them difficult to get a finger under, when you want access. It's just not worth it, when you realize you'll need to do this multiple times a day.

Secondly, the fact that the entire phone is covered in glass goes beyond stylish to obnoxious. I can deal with a LG Nexus 4 because A) The glass is only on the front and back, B) The sides are comfortable to grip and C) The glass on the Nexus 4 is very smooth and smudge-resistant. On the Xperia Z, the phone is very wide, very tall, very thin, and covered by glass back, front, top, bottom, left, and right edges. It feels just awful to hold. Almost unfinished. The glass on the sides is particularly uncomfortable as it cuts into the hand. It doesn't look so good outside of glossy human-free product photos, because it smudges up and gets grimy almost instantly. Do you really want to be wiping down all six surfaces of your giant glass-encased phone on a regular basis?

Interface

The interface of Sony's current-generation phones is something I'm starting to take issue with. As far as customized versions of Android go, I have always found Sony's flavor to be tasteful, though not particularly superior to stock. However, the looks of Sony's UI have not changed significantly since it was targeting ~480x840 pixel devices, with a PPI of ~250. Taking those same elements and simply increasing the image fidelity of them to suite a screen that is 1080x1920 at 441 PPI -- it doesn't work so well. You can tell these elements were designed to look good at significantly smaller size and pixel density. Mind you, I'm not saying the UI is up-sampled or pixelated. It has been refreshed to take advantage of the new monster screen, but the fact remains that it was designed for something smaller and less detailed, so looking at it on a Z, there's a strange impression that the interface has yawning chasms of blank space and an overall lack of detail.

Battery Life

Also, battery life isn't good. I'm not sure what kinds of tests people ran to achieve the quoted, "11 hours" of talk time, but I don't use my phones for talking very often. Mostly I use them for gaming, web browsing, email, and checking my calendar. With that combination of activities, I was only able to get about 4 hours out of the Xperia Z before it was demanding to be charged again. I can't imagine that working out well for anyone's schedule. I believe that device makers need to embrace the fact that users are increasingly using their phones for screen-on activities -- we need bigger batteries built in, even if it means going back to thicker phones. Nobody has been demanding extremely thin phones, but we have all been begging for more potent batteries for years.

What about the Camera?

The camera in the Xperia Z takes big 13 Megapixel photos, like most members of the upcoming generation. But unfortunately, the quality of them is only on par with the photos I have taken with my 8 Megapixel Galaxy S3, and the customized camera software is not very user-friendly or accessible. I much prefer the interface inovations that Google's stock camera on the Nexus 4 provides, over the larger size of the Xperia Z's photos.

Specs-wise, with the Z hitting benchmarks at about the same place as the much-cheaper Nexus 4 (and in light of the other issues I've listed) I continue to admire the design goals of the Xperia Z, and I applaud Sony's efforts to up the build quality of their already-attractive devices, I don't think it's a good choice for comfortable daily use.

Though I'm noticing the reviews seem to favor the Z elsewhere on the 'net, I would actually recommend the slightly cheaper ZL over the Z if you're dead-set on a new Sony Xperia phone. It has the same specs, the same great screen, no waterproof-necessary port covers to contend with, and a textured back that at least removes some of the discomfort of holding the device.

Rating

Build Quality: 6/10
Screen: 9/10
Camera: 9/10
Processor Power: 9/10
Battery: 4/10
OS / Software: 7/10

Overall: 7.3/10

Update: Meizu MX2 Upgrade to Flyme OS 2.2 Brings Bug Fixes

Just a couple days ago I reviewed the Meizu MX2, and though extremely positive, I sited the unusual combination of onscreen "back" and "menu" + hardware home button as an unfortunate cause of bugs in some of my preferred apps like Rdio, and Twitter's official client.

Literally the morning after publishing my review, I received a push update to the newest version of Flyme OS, 2.2, in which the behavior of the onscreen hardware buttons seems to have been greatly improved. I am no longer experiencing as much broken compatibility, due to them. Also the vertical height of the status bar at the top of the home screen seems to have been reduced to a normal size, which may also be helping compatibility with apps.

Furthermore, I am now experiencing much smoother performance, overall. Though the prior Flyme was already based on Jellybean, I'm now really feeling the "Jellybean" smoothness that so many other Android users are familiar with.

Due to this update, the Meizu MX2 has become an even better choice for a small, powerful Android device, in my assessment. Even though not officially released in English-speaking countries, I think this is one of the best English-language Android phones of the current device generation. Though not stock Android, by a long way, I love the device so much, I think of it like a tiny Nexus 4 with more storage and otherwise very similarly impressive performance.

Review: The Meizu MX2

Key Specs

Processor: "M5XS" Quad-Core, 1.6Ghz
Storage - Internal: 16Gb, 32Gb, 64Gb, Formatted FAT32 (So unlike most versions of Jellybean and ICS, this will mount on Mac and Linux without needing any special tools for MTP)
Storage - External: None
RAM: 2Gb
Battery: 1800 mAh
Camera: 8 Megapixels
Camera - Front: 720P

The Meizu MX2 is a boat I almost missed. Meizu released the MX, the MX 4-Core, and MX2 in rapid succession. I recall reading lukewarm reviews of the MX, which was generally accepted as an "iPhone Clone" from a Chinese manufacturer nobody had heard of at the time. The MX 4-Core got dinged in review for poor battery life.

But what about the MX2? I looked around the web a couple months after the product's launch, and English-language coverage has been sparse. Largely, what you'll find are Russian-language unboxings (the MX2 launched in Russia, as well as China), Chinese press releases in a variety of translations, and a few English-language blogs whose focus on China led them to dutifully report the existence of the MX2, but not much beyond that.

Having used the MX2 for about a week now, I feel it deserves better coverage. This is not at all a half-hearted "iPhone clone." The MX2 shows an extremely impressive passion for hardware and software details, rivaling and in many cases exceeding the bar set by much larger players in the market. I can genuinely say, having tested them all, that the Meizu MX2 is a better choice than any Sony Xperia device that has been released recently, as well as most of Samsung's lineup. Yes, even for English-speakers.

First Impressions

The retail box of the MX2 is stunning. It's a spare, spacious design with a full-color instruction booklet and a really well-crafter fold-out white cardboard interior that houses the device itself, as well as the SIM card tools, and a very sturdy, attractive white USB cable. There is nothing cluttered or cheap-looking about this package, and yet the whole thing is recyclable, so it gets eco-points as well as style points.

Prying the back off the MX2 is harder than it probably should be, such that it requires a special tool packed in with the handset, and fair amount of patience. You've got to use a little plastic nub to depress a metal pin on the lower left side of the phone to unlock the back before carefully using the same plastic tool to edge around the corners of the plastic backing until it finally comes free. At no point in this process does the phone feel like it's going to break -- if anything, the sturdiness of the backing and the device make this process even harder, especially when compared to the ease of popping off the back of a Galaxy SIII, or using the SIM tool of a Nexus 4 to eject the tray.

However, I don't fault Meizu for this, because most users will only do this once or twice, with years between. It's not a deal-breaker. The positive spin is, "this phone is damn sturdy."

And it feels that way when you hold it, too. My favorite thing about the MX2 is the feel of it in my hand -- the width, height, and weight are all ideal. Far from the current craze for bigger, and bigger handsets, the MX2 is like a slightly wider version of an iPhone 5. GSM Arena lists the proportions as 4.92 x 2.56 x 0.40 in, though I have not measured myself. All I can say is that holding this is way more comfortable than holding a Galaxy SIII or a Nexus 4, but with a comparable screen resolution, the pixel density is awesome. To the eye, it looks as good as the screen of a Sony Xperia Z.

Setup

Many sites list the Meizu MX2 as being only compatible with GSM 900 / 1800, and HSDPA 2100, which would mean that it is narrowly compatible with AT&T in the United States, and any secondary carriers riding on AT&T towers, but not T-Mobile for anything but 2G. This is the sad state of affairs for many of the Sony devices I've been sent to review. However, the information is innaccurate, and based on Meizu targeting marketing text to Chinese users of the device, and calling out the popular frequencies of their home turf as selling points.

In fact, the Meizu MX2 is a full pentaband device, capable of excellent HSPA+ speeds on T-Mobile, 3G, and Edge. This device is just as ready for T-Mobile as the Nexus 4.

Another area of confusion is that some reviewers call this out as requiring an adapter to use micro-SIM. That's not true. They're mistaking the packed-in cutting template for an adapter. In fact, the Meizu MX2 uses the micro-SIM standard, and needs no adapter to do so.

Turning on the Meizu MX2, I was surprised that English language was a prominent option on the very first screen. After selecting that, setup was very easy, and there were no strangely translated phrases or broken UI due to the use of English on the device. This localization is extremely good -- the best I have ever seen on a Chinese device.

After booting up for the first time, users are prompted to start a "Flyme Account" for purposes of calendar sync, data backup, and app store purchases. I skipped the step since Google services are readily available in the US. (Though later I did come back to it and set up a Flyme account, because I was curious.)

The Google Play market is pre-installed on the MX2, so it's not hard to download any of the other Google apps you prefer to use. I added Gmail, Calendar, Blogger, Voice. Google Maps is pre-installed. I've read other reviews which sited glitches with searching in Gmail on this device, however, those issues must have been addressed in the past couple months because I have been using the Gmail app for work, and personal communication, and have full access to all the app's features.

I'm very happy that all of Google's apps seem to work flawlessly on the Meizu MX2. As a user in the United States, I was concerned that I might not have access to the services I rely on, but the opposite has been true. Even 'Google Now' works exactly as expected on the MX2.

What's a "Flyme?"

Flyme OS 2.0 is the installed OS on the MX2, and is a heavily customized version of Android 4.1 Jellybean (currently). Basically, this customized version of Android is no more or less altered than Samsung's TouchWiz version, however it has buckets of style, compared to Samsung's strangely unappealing UI customizations. Every place where Samsung makes something ugly, Meizu makes it pretty. It is really fantastic to witness.

But before I go further with that -- I'm actually not in favor of customized versions of Android. I do think it's true that "if you're going to do it, go all the way," and that is what Meizu and Samsung have done. I would say that Meizu has done a very good job of it, however, whereas Samsung's users love Galaxy phones in spite of the bad looks of TouchWiz.

Much like Samsung, I find that Meizu's special Flyme-exclusive apps and services are not that meaningful to me. Since this is Android, I tend to already have my own favorite answers (Dropbox, Google Music, Google Movies, Gmail, Google Calendar, Facebook, Twitter...) I just go about installing those things and forget about the custom offerings, for better or worse.

Compatibility is good, for a non-mainstream device that most English-language coders are not testing on. However, it's not all roses and cheese grits.

• Rdio is my favorite music streaming service, but the UI gets screwed up when I leave the playback screen. I have found a way around the issue, but this will probably never be resolved by Rdio, since they don't have a reason to care about this device or demographic.
• Netflix also does not want to stream to the device, for whatever reason.
• The official Twitter app has all kinds of strange bugs that pop up when you try to scroll the list, however there are a lot of really good third-party Twitter apps that work great. I started using Echofon Pro due to the issues with the official app.

I believe the issues above are all caused by one thing -- Meizu's choice to have a hardware home button mixed with dynamic software-based "back" and "menu" buttons that take up screen space. Something about the implementation of those on-screen buttons, which unlike the Nexus 4's, disappear and reappear based on context, really messes up HTML5 apps with long scrolling list views. Natively coded apps seem to re-size themselves excellently, without a hiccup.

However, I think this choice on Meizu's part was a bad one, and represents my only major issue with the MX2. The buttons should have all been on-screen, or all hardware. Mixing the two is very non-standard and creates compatibility issues with some important apps where there needn't have been any.

One particularly important loss you'll suffer due to this custom hardware/software button combo is that custom launchers are not going to run elegantly on the MX2. Running a custom launcher makes the MX2 think you're running any type of other regular app, so the "back" and "menu" software buttons will be visible on screen the whole time, taking up unnecessary pixels and causing unwanted results if accidentally tapped. It's ugly.

Camera

I've noticed marketing photos for the MX2 which seem to show it taking really cool photos with shallow depth of field, creating sharp subjects and blurred backgrounds in portraits, etc. I thought that was marketing fluff, and wasn't expecting it to be a real feature of the camera, but it turns out to be. I have loved taking portraits with my MX2 -- when a subject is close to me, and there is some distance between us and the rest of the background, I get some really great looking shots with sharp subjects and unfocused backgrounds!

Here's a photo of my cat, taken with the MX2's camera:

The rear shooter takes photos up to 8 megapixels in size. They're very sharp and clear with low noise and without a bunch of crazy processing, even when viewed at 1:1 pixel ratio. I tend to favor shooting in the default 5 megapixel mode, simply because I don't need 8 megapixel photos from my phone camera.

Here's a detail view of my cat photo at 100% size. I've saved the cropped version as a PNG so you can see exactly what kind of compression is being applied to the original JPG:

On the other hand, the front-facing camera on the MX2 is decidedly a last-generation webcam affair. It's not as horrible as a Nexus S or a Galaxy Nexus, but it does cap out at 720x1280. You'll look good on your Skype calls (Yes, Skype works great on an MX2!) but you won't want to get any of these selfies framed for posterity. I found the front-facing camera to me adequate.

Audio

The earpiece and call quality on the MX2 are fine; the audio can seem a little shallow sometimes, but not anything out of the ordinary. Local calls over T-Mobile's network to other T-Mobile customers sounded great to me -- better than on a Galaxy S3. Calls to AT&T customers in congested parts of town tended to sounds worse, but that is also something I've experienced before, and believe is due to AT&T's constantly overwhelmed network in metro areas.

The loud speaker on the back also sounds fine (better than an Nexus 4, but worse than an S3), but the positioning of it does mean you'll end up covering it with your palm if your holding the phone certain ways. It's fine for games, and casually listening to music or videos with friends.

Gaming Performance

Games fly on the MX2. But they also crash. Sometimes. The trade-off is that this is a very powerful quad-core device with an excellent graphics chip, but it's also one that Western developers are decidedly NOT bug-testing on. They never will, so you have to know that going in. Games launched by ultra-skilled indie devs or studios huge enough to care about localizing for Asia are going to run great. Most of everything else is going to run great, too. But there will be disappointments, and when they happen, your nasty reviews about "THIS APP DOESN'T WORK ON MY MEIZU MX2" are going to fall on deaf ears.

One worst-case scenario, 'Ravensword Shadowlands' ran impressively well for about two minutes and then suddenly caused my device to hard-reset. Very jarring.

I noticed users of other more popular devices also complaining about this issue in reviews for the game, so I won't blame it all on my own particularly unusual handset. 'Ravensword Shadowlands' is built on Unity, an SDK that attempts to bring high-quality 3D to lots of different types of devices, from home consoles to midrange portables. My own experiences with Unity-based games is that they tend to be unstable, with long load times and more intense hardware requirements than similar games not built with Unity.

My favorite games that run extremely well on the Meizu MX2:

• Final Fantasy III, Square Enix
• Happy Street, Godzillab (This runs better on the MX2 than it does on a US Galaxy SIII)
• Final Fantasy Dimensions, Square Enix
• Sonic CD, Sega
• Blazing Star, SNK Playmore
• Rayman Jungle Run, Ubisoft
• Superbrothers Sword & Sworcery, Capybara Games
• Symphony of the Origin, Kemco Games
• Snes9X EX+, Robert Broglia
• GBA.emu, Robert Broglia
• MX.emu, Robert Broglia
• PCE.emu, Robert Broglia
• GBC.emu, Robert Broglia
• ePSXe, ePSXe Software S.L.

You may notice a lot of emulators on my list -- this device is great for them. It really has the horsepower needed to deliver fast console game emulation -- even PlayStation games run like native apps.

My Judgement

This is a stunning, powerhouse phone that changes the way I think about Chinese hardware. I was expecting anything but this degree of polish. I'm especially infatuated with the fact that this is (finally!) a powerful, small phone. Unlike most modern options, where wanting smaller automatically means getting bad specs, the MX2 really pushes its pixels with power.

I would rate this handset a 10/10 were it not for the situation with the weird mix of hardware and software buttons that negatively impacts app compatibility in some cases. That's really a shame.

Due to that, I cannot give the phone a perfect rating. I still choose to carry it often, over other more mainstream devices, due to it's excellent size and hardware quality, plus the ability to flawlessly use all my favorite Google services, and emulators.

This feels like the device Sony keeps trying to make, over and over again, since 2010. Only, to that point, this device not only performs better, but feels better to interact with and hold than all of those Xperia phones that everyone keeps calling "Sony's last chance." If the first two Meizu Android phones were deeply flawed in some way, the MX2 is the one that is forgivably flawed, but mostly just amazing. I find it spectacular that I can say that about a device that was not even targeted to Western users.

Rating

Build Quality: 10/10
Screen: 9/10
Camera: 8/10
Processor Power: 9/10
Battery: 7/10
OS / Software: 7/10

Overall: 8.3/10