Introduction
Nubia has added a new mid-ranger to its portfolio, which tries to prove that high refresh rates don't necessarily call for high price tags. This new 5G enabled offering has a 6.65-inch full HD plus AMOLED display and an extreme refresh rate of 144Hz and 240Hz touch sampling rate for an accurate and lag-free touch experience, especially when gaming. The display has a 20:9 aspect ratio and is one of the key selling points of the Nubia Play. Nubia Play houses an in-display fingerprint sensor and comes in Black, Blue and White colors. Available only in China for now, the Nubia Play can be bought for CNY 2,399 (Rs 26,000) for the 6GB RAM with 128GB storage version, 8GB RAM with 128GB storage version for CNY 2,699 (Rs 29,000) and the top-end 8GB RAM with 256GB storage version for CNY 2,999 (Rs 32,500). Pre-orders are now open, and the sale starts on April 24.
Design and Display
The Nubia Play 5G comes with a simple look, but the hyperboloid shape makes the grip feel gentler. The aerospace aluminum alloy metal frame is very strong but light. The colorful streamer on the back cover presents the aesthetics of light and shadow. Through the 3D laser photocopying technology, the nano-scale flowing illusion texture presents an X-shaped rhombic moving light and shadow to the center. The Nubia Play 5G smartphone has three color options: black, sea blue, and white. It comes in 5 colorful and personalized Play Boxes. It is a thick (9.1mm) and heavy (210g) smartphone with an NFC chip embedded for contactless transactions, Bluetooth 5.0 and USB Type-C for charging and data transfer.
Further, the top portion of the device’s rear side houses a vertical strip housing three cameras, whereas the fourth camera sits to the right side of the strip opposite to LED flash on the left side. On the front, the phone sports a 6.65-inches FHD+ AMOLED display with a 144Hz refresh rate and a 240Hz touch sampling rate similar to Nubia Red Magic 5G. The best part of this panel is it does not have have any notch or punch-hole to interfere with the full-screen viewing experience. The phone supports under-screen fingerprint technology. The phone perfectly supports the TC game interpolated frame technology to ensure that the game does not drop frames. The brightness of this AMOLED display can go up to 4096 nits.
Front and rear cameras
As for camera configuration, the phone comes with a 48MP Sony IMX582 primary sensor similar to Redmi K20 from last year. That means 4K video recording on this smartphone is capped at 30 fps. The other cameras on the device include an 8MP ultra-wide unit, a 2MP macro camera, another 2MP depth sensor, and a 16MP selfie camera. The handset comes with a number of camera features including a vlog mode (like the one found on MIUI 11), a weird slow-motion video recording to capture dance moves and lightsaber effects, and more. The company claims that “the rear main camera uses Sony IMX582 new CMOS, 1 / 2-inch outsole CMOS, Neovision camera engine blessing, allowing you to record every moment of life while enjoying the game.” The Nubia Play 5G smartphone supports slow-gate video shooting function. Compared with an ordinary shooting, it can reflect the smear effect generated when the limbs move.
Software, processor, and battery
The Snapdragon 765G, with support for 5G SA/NSA dual-mode, is at the heart of the Nubia play, ticking away at a maximum clock speed of 2.4 GHz for one of the single cores. Another single-core tops out at 2.2 GHz, while the remaining six cores function at 1.8 GHz. This octa-core configuration is built on a 7nm EUV mobile platform with Adreno 620 GPU. The Nubia Play arrives in 6GB and 8GB RAM variants with 128 GB internal storage and capable write speeds supported by UFS (universal flash storage) 2.1. The higher-end variant has 8GB RAM and 256GB internal storage. While gaming or using the smartphone for long durations, the inbuilt cooling mechanism ensures overheating and prevents systemwide forced underclocking. For one, there is an ICE2.5 rack-mounted liquid cooling system with a 61mm large liquid-cooling tube.
Gamers will appreciate the two capacitive shoulder triggers for gaming. The design language and choice of thermally conductive materials like graphite, copper foil and gels could purportedly get the core temperature of the device to around 16-degrees. The Nubia Play 5G phone also comes with 1217 super-size speakers that support the DTS sound effect. It’s a dual sim smartphone running on Android 10 and Nubia’s own custom skin called Nubia UI 8.0. The device is juiced up by a 5,100 mAh which also supports 30W fast charging (PD fast charging compatible with Qualcomm Quick Charge and PPS chargers). Nubia says “While maintaining a thin and light body, a large battery of up to 5100mAh is inserted, with a 30W PD fast charging solution, to enjoy the battery life experience.”