Nubia Z9 mini First impressions

Nubia, the smartphone brand from ZTE corporation has made its arrival in India launching the nubia Z9 mini here after China. ZTE is a prominent brand in China and has its presence in India as well, not so popular with the mainstream but has its impact in enterprise and network solutions. nubia though plans to work independently but have been derived from its parent, ZTE. nubia has partnered with Amazon.in as its exclusive sales partner to distribute the handsets in the country. The Z9 mini has been launched for Rs. 16,999 which will be available without any invitations or flash sales starting May 19, 2015. Amazon.in would also offer consumers nubia Z9 mini accessories which includes high quality headphones and custom swap covers exclusively.

We were present at the launch event which was held in New Delhi where we played with the handset for a while. Talking about the specification list first, the Z9 mini comes with a 5-inch HD SHARP CGS display having a pixel density of 441ppi offering a color saturation up to 95 percent as claimed by nubia. The display is protected by the Corning Gorilla Glass 3 and the smartphone is powered by a 64 bit Snapdragon 615 octa-core processor that clocks at 1.5 Ghz. It features 2GB of RAM and 16GB on-board storage which can be further expanded via an external microSD card up to 128GB. The Z9 mini is running on the Android 5.0 Lollipop with their own nubia 2.8 UI. It is a dual SIM device packed with a 3000mAh battery which has its camera as the primary USP.

The smartphone boasts a Sony Exmor R 16MP rear snapper and a 8MP front-facing camera supported by the NeoVision 5.0 SLR System which “enables the user with excellent manual photography possibilities”. Yet another try for making a comparison with DSLRs, the smartphone comes with full manual controls and easy handling along with image stabilization feature. These are all facts written in the press release. We can’t pass a judgement here as there should be ample testing done beforehand which we couldn’t be all done at the event venue. The presentation though had a lot about the camera and the different camera modes which we shall definitely check when we get the smartphone for review.

The design of the smartphone reminds me of the Sony Xperia Z1 with the curved metal edges and clean back. I personally like the overall design and how well they have made the phone presentable. Being a 5-inch smartphone it has an easy hold and doesn’t feel cheap. The operating system was much more like the Honor’s EMUI but FYI this comment is totally based on a quick glance.

We aren’t sure if the smartphone does justice to the price, although the phone looks good. Being a first smartphone from a Chinese brand, maybe if it would have launched in 13-14k price window the scenario would have been more exciting with a lot of direct competitors. But nonetheless, we’ll look forward to reviewing the smartphone soon with probably a comparison with handsets at the same price point. Got any questions? Shoot in the comments section below or tweet us or post on our Facebook page as per your preference.

In case you wish to check the product listing, hit the link | Nubia Z9 Mini (Black)