Adult females weigh about 450-550 g.[6] Their plumage is generally pale brown with small black spots and bands all over, creating the "salt-and-pepper" effect found in most peacock-pheasants.

The common ancestor of the Malay peacock-pheasants probably diverged from its relatives during the Pliocene[10] or maybe Late Miocene, about 5 million years ago (Ma) perhaps.

In any case, the phylogeny and biogeography of the basal peacock-pheasants agrees with the idea of reproductive isolation due to rising sea levels during the last ice age's interglacials, whereas the more advanced Polyplectron species are limited to today's mainland Southeast Asia.

Recorded food items include insects such as Diptera, Orthoptera and Hymenoptera (e.g. carpenter ants), mollusks, isopods Camponotus,[12] and fruits and seeds of Annonaceae, Fabaceae and Fagaceae (e.g. stone oaks, Lithocarpus).

Other items found in Malay peacock-pheasant stomachs were probably not ingested deliberately; they include moss, twigs, rootlets and part of an Apocynaceae flower.

Breeding activity may in fact occur essentially all year round (as in many lowland rainforest birds), triggered by abundance of mast rather than by a fixed circannual rhythm.

Males scrape the debris and leaf litter off their display sites in forest clearings, from where they maintain vocal contact with their mate and progeny.

[9] Due to ongoing habitat loss, small population size and limited range, the Malayan peacock-pheasant is evaluated as endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

The available habitat has even declined by over three-quarters during that time, indicating that the population – estimated at about 8,000 adults as of 2008 – is close to the maximum possible, as less and less suitable forest is not inhabited by P. malacense.

In areas where they receive protection and where suitable habitat is plentiful, the Malay peacock-pheasant can be fairly common, and thus become a flagship species for ecotourism and other forms of sustainable development.

The Department of Wildlife and National Parks of Malaysia is preparing a captive breeding program to bolster the population in reserves and prevent inbreeding depression by release of captive-bred birds.