Meizu’s little smartphone has been spotted again on GFXBench, this time named simply the Meizu m1 and packing a quad-core MediaTek processor.
GFXBench is a suite of benchmarking tools often used by reviewers and manufacturers to test their latest products. It is a great place to spot upcoming smartphones and is often the source of leaks about new devices. Meizu’s new phone is no different: the 5-inch phone appeared in the database just three days ago.
The most recent benchmark lists the new phone as the Meizu m1, rather than its rumored name of m1 mini. The specifications listed include a quad-core 64-bit MT6732 chipset rather than the octa-core MT6752.
The database also lists the Meizu m1 with 1 GB of RAM, 5 GB of internal storage, a Mali-T760 GPU and a 4.7-inch 1280 x 720 display. Camera details are missing.
Meizu m1 GFXBench benchmarks
- Manhattan: 480
- Manhattan Offscreen: Failed
- T-Rex: 1002
- T-Rex Offscreen: Failed
Tomorrow is the big day, when we will finally get the official specifications and see whether all the details were right!
How to read a benchmark leak
Benchmark databases are one of the most reliable sources of pre-launch information, but they need careful reading. When a test phone runs a benchmark app, the app records what the device reports about itself: its model name, processor, graphics chip, memory, storage and screen. That data is usually accurate for the chip and memory, because those are read directly from the hardware. Other fields are less dependable.
- Storage is often reported as the space available to the user, not the full capacity printed on the box, because the operating system takes its share first.
- Screen size is sometimes calculated from the resolution and pixel density the software reports, and test builds can report odd values.
- Scores from pre-release phones often come from unfinished software and drivers, so they can be lower than the final product, or include failed tests.
The “Failed” results for the offscreen tests in this listing are a good example. They are far more likely to reflect an early driver or software build than a real limit of the hardware.
Why phones leak through benchmarks at all
It might seem strange that a company as secretive about launches as any phone maker would let its unreleased phones show up in a public database. The reason is practical. Engineers and partners need to test performance on real hardware in the weeks before launch, and many benchmark apps upload results by default so that users can compare devices. Every test run on a prototype can leave a trace. Some companies rename their test units to hide them, but the processor, graphics chip and memory usually give the game away to anyone paying attention. For Meizu fans in early 2015, checking GFXBench had become almost as routine as checking Weibo.
What the numbers meant
GFXBench’s Manhattan and T-Rex tests are graphics benchmarks that render demanding 3D scenes and count how many frames the device can produce. The onscreen versions run at the phone’s own resolution, which is why a phone with a lower resolution screen can score well onscreen while doing less work. For a budget phone with a 720p class display, the Mali-T760 graphics in the MT6732 were a sensible match. The chip was part of the first wave of 64-bit processors to reach affordable phones, built on four Cortex-A53 cores, and it supported 4G LTE, which was still a selling point in early 2015.
The bigger story in the listing was the name. Every leak up to this point had called the phone the “m1 mini,” suggesting a small version of the m1 note. Seeing it listed simply as the “m1” hinted that Meizu saw it as a phone in its own right, not a cut-down sibling.
What happened next
The benchmark turned out to be a good guide. At the launch the next day, Meizu announced the phone as the Meizu m1, dropping the “mini” for good, and priced it at 699 Yuan. As our launch report details, the final phone used the quad-core MediaTek MT6732 at 1.5 GHz, exactly as GFXBench suggested, with 1 GB of RAM, again matching the listing.
A couple of details were off, in the way benchmark leaks often are:
- The display was 5.0 inches, not 4.7, with an unusual 1280 x 768 resolution rather than 1280 x 720.
- The phone had 8 GB of storage plus a microSD slot. The 5 GB reported by GFXBench was most likely the space left for the user after the system.
The camera details that the benchmark could not show turned out to be a 13 megapixel rear camera and a 5 megapixel front camera, the same combination used on the more expensive m1 note. The 1 GB of RAM did not last long as the only option: Meizu quickly moved to a 2 GB version, which we covered in Meizu m1 M456A gets upgrade to 2GB RAM.
Why it still matters
Benchmark leaks are still how many phones are revealed today, and the Meizu m1 is a neat case study in what to trust. The processor and memory were exactly right. The screen size and storage were close but wrong. The scores themselves said more about unfinished software than about the finished phone.
If you follow leaks before buying a new phone, the lesson is to treat the chip and RAM in a benchmark listing as strong evidence, treat the screen and storage figures as rough guides, and wait for proper reviews before judging performance. A benchmark can tell you what a phone is. Only time with the finished product tells you how it feels to use.
