ZTE Nubia Z-11: A high-end Powerhouse.
ZTE is a multinational firm providing its services basically in three areas of expertise namely Carrier Networks, Terminals and the Telecommunications. ZTE has managed to add consumer electronics under its belt too. We now know the company to be the fifth largest smartphone manufacturer in its home market and the 10th largest Smartphone Manufacturer in the world. ZTE’s latest installment to its list of developed smartphones is the “ZTE Nubia Z11”. The phone definitely created a lot of hype. All this positive hype led this phone to be completely sold out right on its first day of Sale. The next orders will be taken on July-17-2016. Let’s find out what this phone has to offer.
Design
In terms of Design, the phone acquires a lot of things from the bigger smartphone manufacturers. On first glance, ZTE Nubia Z11 looks familiar to an iPhone from the sides and provides a classic Sony Xperia feel right out of the box. The phone is covered with glass on the front and the back which despite being a fingerprint magnet provides a nice and cozy feel to your device. You can find the Nubia red halo trademark glowing right at you. The halo really brings out the warmth and power out of the device and the phone feels equally strong in your hand. On the machined metal frame will you find things like a USB Type C connector, a headphone jack and power and volume buttons. There is also a fingerprint scanner embedded at the back of this device. Not to forget the front and back cameras on the devices, the phone exhibits the Nubia logo on the back.
While everything seems nice with the device on the first look, glass is always too easy to catch scratches and smudges so you will surely be in need of a protective case to help you out with that. The phone has glass all around but never loses its grip which might have been evident in some previous phones which opted the same look.
Display
The screen we get with this device is a massive 5.5 inches scrambled into a nearly bezel free phone. Despite the large screen size, the phone can be easily operated with both hands. The phone carries a 5.5 inches screen providing a Full HD experience (1080*1920 pixels). This approximates to a pixel density of roughly about 403ppi. The device has an IPD LCD panel which provides a decent viewing experience. The phone remains visible in broad daylight when rocked to maximum brightness. The phone offers decent viewing experience with colors almost never fading out. The only flaw, one would say with the device’s screen is it still using the Corning Gorilla Glass 4. This is definitely sad because a phone made out of glass has to make sure that it remains intact. Clearly it could have made better choices there. The screen is vibrant when indoors and provides a rush of colors to your eyes which is pleasing. This phone definitely provides you the best viewing experience compared to any beast out there with a 5.5 inch screen.
Specifications
It runs on Qualcomm MSM8996 Snapdragon 820 processor which is one of the most powerful processors out there. There are 4 Kryo cores, 2 of them clocked on 2.15 GHz and the remaining on 1.6 GHz. This has to be known that the phone provides excellent hardware to efficiently tackle all of the tasks you throw at it.
The phone can be used as a dual-SIM device or it can provide you an extra storage going as high as 256GBs. You will find two variants of the device. The 64GB model comes with 4GBs of RAM. A RAM as high as this has been turning a custom now-a-days. This is nice as this means to provide you with more room for multi-tasking. The other variant, a slightly high priced comes in with 128GBs of built-in storage. The thing that keeps your jaw to the ground is the RAM it packs. You get 6GBs of RAM out of the box. This is great. Even the most extreme users find it hard to wear of this amount of RAM. I am completely blown by the fact that this phone offers all what it needs keeping a traditional price tag.
The GPU is a handsome Adreno 530 GPU which evidently tops the GPU chart right now. However, this only serves as icing on the cake. We’ve discovered that these multi-core processors interact and operate side-by-side to provide a flawless experience. The phone caters all of the things that are required by people with use ranging from mildly low to extreme.
With an Adreno 530 GPU and powerful cores to back it up, running meagre games with lag is out of the question. The performance still keeps up when you amp up the extremity of games. This efficient gaming performance does cost a substantial decay in other app’s performance and does not render them force closed. It takes on multi-tasking a lot better than most of the high-end phones out in the market. ZTE’s flagship has the firepower to stand tall in the fight of the biggest smartphone brawl. We’d give ZTE a pat on the back in this regard.
Software
The Nubia UI finds its basis in the Android 6.0.1 out of the box. The phones has remained quite afar from the updates while our use. I find the continual updates a properly cogged up way to a better software. This phone lacks it as no updates have been rolled out. What bothers me most about this is the phones fate after a certain time. Will it be able to receive android updates? Is ZTE willing to provide a seamless software experience? We’d have to find out over the years.
The software definitely boasts some nice features too. Using edges to perform your tasks e.g. to increase the brightness, to adjust volume etc. seems a fun way to interact with your device. This feature becomes quite handy owing to the amount of time you put into it. You will surely get the hang of it.
I found little bloatware in the device which is a delight. The software when powered by a powerful processor chip equates to an amazing performance. Same goes for the ZTE Nubia Z11. This phone runs smooth as butter without ever heating up.
Sound
The device bids pretty well when it comes to the audio performance. The phone comes with DTS audio which is provided to uses as a flip switch in the settings or from within the premise of the built-in music app. Any sound that comes out of this device without DTS enabled feels a little rushed. The audio without DTS on is plain unimpressive. The speaker performs amiably but is nothing very special.
Camera
The primary camera on this device is a 16MP shooter with f/2.0 and a dual-tone LED flash. The front selfie snapper is an 8MP shooter. Both of these cameras perform significantly well balanced. Almost every photo we got out from the device was worth sharing to our friends. These cameras come equipped with all the necessary perks like geo-tagging, face detection and touch focus, panorama and HDR etc. The back camera records the video at 2160p at 30fps. The front camera comes in a little below it and records the video at 1080p. Nice.
Battery
It comes with a non-removable 3000mAh Li-Ion battery. While the display can be counted as power thirsty, the efficient app-management mentioned earlier in addition to the generously big battery would get a heavy user easily through a day. The battery life is sufficient to help the normal users cross a day or maybe even two out with juice still left on this device. We do not claim this phone to have the best battery life. We have seen more phones with a battery performance greater than the one being mentioned but the phone runs sufficiently high to classify itself as a phone with better batter management. Like a cherry on top, this phone has Quick Charging 3.0 natively installed which potentially provides the ability to never run out of juice. An hour of charge could get you back to a complete hundred.
Price
ZTE Nubia can be found be found at the Nubia mobile shop priced at about $487. This phone is adequately priced for what it has to offer. We find that this phone despite providing the same specs to many high-end smartphones keeps a comparatively low price tag. This is a definite plus ZTE which may be able to turn the game into their favor. The online store supports worldwide shipping. The phone is a must-buy.
Final Verdict
Well... To sum it all up, I find Nubia Z-11 to be worthy phone. Not only does it ace all the sections of a perfect smartphone, it also provides this seamless experience at the right price. The phone being completely bezel-free denotes how well built this phone truly is. This phone comes along with a metal body which makes it premium. The back, being glass is a fingerprint magnet but it’s nothing that a case won’t handle. This phone is surely an all-rounder and it being completely sold out on the very first day is justified. Nice work ZTE.