Chinese mobile phone giant, ZTE came to India in 2014 with their V5 smartphone offering and now that they have tested the Indian market, they recently launched the Nubia Z9 Mini in India exclusively with Amazon India at Rs 16,999.
The smartphone has a lot of promise, but is it worth your money?
What’s Good?
The Nubia Z9 Mini has a great build quality to it. In fact, at first, it might remind you of Batman. The black finish and the red rings for the home button and rear camera lens give it a very posh feel.
The phone has a solid alloy frame and polycarbonate back panel that makes it sturdy. The bezels are thin and the Nubia branding at the back looks classy.
The Nubia Z9 Mini sports a crisp and sharp 5-inch full-HD IPS display with 1920x1280p resolution. The viewing angles are great, the display is bright and non-reflective. The touchscreen is as responsive as it gets on a smartphone. Comparable to the likes of HTC One M8, Motorola Moto X 2nd Gen and Google Nexus 5.
Nubia Z9 Mini is powered by a 64-bit 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 octa-core processor, Adreno 405 GPU backed by 2GB RAM. The phone is as impressive in reality as its specs on paper. It easily handles multitasking and does not heat up at all while playing games or using the camera.
There is also an impressive 16 megapixel rear camera that is capable of clicking some great images both in good light and low light conditions. The 8 megapixel front camera is also amazing for clicking selfies. The camera app is easy to use and navigate on and there are different modes like slow shutter, panorama and pro mode for granular control.
The phone also offers 4G LTE connectivity which makes it future proof.
What’s Bad?
The Nubia Z9 Mini is loaded with a 3000 mAh battery which is great on paper but, with heavy usage, lasts for a day. But then what do you expect from a powerful mid range android device?
The phone also runs on Android 5.0 lollipop which is loaded with Nubia UI skin on top of it which, like the Xiaomi MiUi, lacks an app drawer. It sometimes feels sluggish while switching between apps.
The phone is also available exclusively on Amazon India, which makes it not accessible to all the consumers in the market.
For Rs 16,999 the phone is slightly overpriced considering that Xiaomi Mi 4 recently had a price drop and is now cheaper than the Nubia Z9 Mini. Now, that is tough competition for the Nubia Z9 Mini.
Why Buy It?
At Rs 16,999, the ZTE Nubia Z9 Mini is one amazing mid-range option to have. The phone is as premium as it gets in this price range. Nubia Z9 Mini has tough competition with the likes of Xiaomi Mi 4, but the Nubia Z9 Mini gives you the option of expandable storage which is great to have on an Android smartphone.
If you are looking for a mid-range device, this Dark Knight definitely deserves your attention.