Edited by User5210580308 at 2019-04-11 00:29

Hello everyone,,
That AP review, as pointed out in the thread here for it, was not entirely fair. Play Store battery drain is absolutely not typical of Meizu phones and I'm surprised AP didn't reach out to Meizu for comment on what's up with that. I have ~15 Meizu test units and none of them drain from the Play Store or Play Services.

The Hangouts notifications are a fair criticism, although it's fixed in Flyme 6, which is currently in beta for global SKUs.

The issue with GMS certification is not battery drain or access to Google services, rather it's compatibility with edge use-cases - GMS certification involves devices showbox.bio/ tutuapp.uno/ vidmate.vet/ being put through Google's automated testing with all aspects of Android's APIs. Without that, it's more likely something like 'I bought a Meizu phone and it won't connect to my car's head unit' or 'I bought a Meizu phone and an obscure app I use for work/local transit times crashes' will crop up.

On the flip side, you do essentially get some of the historical benefits of custom ROMs, like root access and a very minimal GApps install, and Flyme is actually pretty good both in terms of aesthetics and functionality. Plus the mBack navigation system is hands-down genius. Still prefer MIUI myself, but to write a brand off based on sensationalist headlines is not a good a call.