Nubia N2 First Impressions: It really lasts long and captures good selfies

Chinese smartphone maker Nubia is quite busy in strengthening its product base in the Indian market. After introducing the Nubia Z17 Mini last month, the company has today announced the latest mid-range Android handset- Nubia N2on e-commerce giant Amazon.in. Build to address your battery woes, the smartphone derives its power from a massive 5,000 mAh battery unit that can easily last for two days.

Besides, Nubia N2 features a capable 16MP front camera and has 4GB of RAM to deliver on Multitasking. The smartphone is priced at Rs. 15,999 and will fight the likes of Moto G5 Plus, Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 and the recently announced Nokia 6 Android handset.

This brings us to question, is Nubia N2 a great buy in sub Rs. 16k price-point? Let's try to find out with the first impressions of the smartphone.

Design and Display: Robust build quality but a low resolution screen

Nubia N2 doesn't boast of any fancy outlook but it has a very robust construction and a practical design. The smartphone uses aerospace-grade aluminum that gives it a solid feel and the curved design helps the handset fit snugly in your hand. The rounded metal back, correct placement of physical buttons and matte finish makes the smartphone quite ergonomic in everyday use.

Nubia N2 also brings forth some signature design elements of Nubia series handsets. These include the red circular ring embossed on the front mounted fingerprint sensor; red colored ring placed on camera module and neatly placed antenna lines on the top and bottom edge of the rear panel.

The 3.5mm headphone jack is placed on top along with a microphone. The bottom houses a Type C USB port and speaker unit. You will find power button and hybrid SIM card tray on right side. Volume rockers are positioned on the left side.

Coming onto the display, which I believe is a weak point of the smartphone is decently bright, punches vibrant colours but lacks in sharpness. This is due to the fact that Nubia is using a 720p screen with a 5.5-inch footprint. A bigger screen with low resolution is not a very desirable combination.

And especially in this price-point, it can be a deal-breaker for consumers. Most of the smartphones in sub Rs. 16k price-point offers Full HD resolution. Even some handsets from Xiaomi, Lenovo and Micromax also offer a 1080p screen in sub Rs. 10k price-point.

But Nubia is focusing on battery life here and a 720P AMOLED panel will be less harsh on battery unit. The smartphone is bound to deliver a longer battery life than the handsets that features 1080P IPS displays and are powered by battery units ranging lower than 5,000 mAh. If you can adjust with the trade-off, the Nubia N2 can be a great buy.

As far as technical specs goes, Nubia N2's 720p screen delivers a pixel count of 267ppi and also has a 2.5D curved glass on top of it.

Battery: Massive 5,000 mAh battery that can easily last for two days

I haven't got the time to use the handset as my primary device, however I have been using it for taking pictures, streaming videos on Wi-Fi, playing gaming, audio and for editing pictures..

The battery backup is commendable and the smartphone can easily last for two days on a single charge. This is definitely the highlight feature of the Nubia N2 and will please consumers who are looking for a device that solves the battery problems.

As far as company data goes, Nubia claims that the 5,000 mAh battery powering the Nubia N2 can deliver 12 hours of web browsing, 60 hours of voice call, 41.5 hours of music, 11 hours of video streaming or 8.4 hours of gaming on a single charge.

We will further evaluate the battery performance in the coming week.

Camera: 16MP selfie camera and a 13MP primary camera

Nubia N2 will certainly please consumers who are fond of creating Snapchat and Instagram stories. The 16MP front camera of the smartphone does a great job in capturing detailed selfie shots.

The front shooter works on f/2.0 aperture and has an 80° wide angle lens that allows you to capture a wide frame. The company has used a CMOS sensor and the front camera works on a fixed focus.

Coming on to the rear camera, it uses a 13MP SONY IMX 258 sensor and has a focal length of f/2.2. It's not a very good number and camera will struggle in low-light conditions.

Besides, you get Phase Detection Auto Focus, a fast shutter speed and Nubia's entire suite of camera features that can really enhance your photography experience. Just swipe to left and you can access a variety of modes and filters to experiment with the images you capture.

These include Star Trail, Portrait, manual mode, 3D photo, Panorama, Multi-expo, Trajectory, etc. Besides, camera also offers a Pro mode to add value to the overall package.

Here are two camera sample shots.

We will evaluate camera's performance intensively in our detailed review.

Hardware: Octa-Core CPU and ample RAM for multitasking

The mid-range smartphone comes with a decent spec sheet. The octa-core MediaTek MT6750 chipset takes care of processing and multitasking is handled by 4GB RAM, which will be enough to run multiple apps without any major performance issues. The smartphone has an onboard storage of 64GB, which can be expanded further by up to 128GB with the help of a microSD card.

The combination is decent considering the price-point and will be able to deliver a good everyday performance. We will find out loop holes in our detailed review by stress testing the Nubia N2.

Software: Dated Android 6.0 Marshmallow

We have started hearing about the first Android M devices but Nubia handsets are still hanging with the dated Android 6.0 Marshmallow. I was expecting the company to offer the latest Android 7.0 with the Nubia N2 but likewise the Z17 Mini which we have reviewed just last month, this latest handset also runs on the old Android Marshmallow.

The company has deployed its Nubia UI 4.0 on top of Android Marshmallow, which is known for smooth everyday performance and a variety of custom tweaks to enhance the user experience. The Edge gestures are undoubtedly the most talked about feature of Nubia handsets and you will find all of them in the Nubia N2.

These include- swipe up/down on the edges to adjust brightness, double tap the edge to go back, swipe up/down from the edge to switch apps, etc. Besides, a number of customization options are also provided to utilize the full potential of Android eco-system.

In my two day usage, I haven't noticed any lags, app crashes or software issues on the smartphone. However, the real performance will be evaluated in our detailed review of the smartphone.

Conclusion

Nubia N2 is build to last long and to deliver good selfies. The massive 5,000 mAh battery unit powering the handset can easily last for two days where you can click countless selfies and watch videos on a stretch. The smartphone can run multiple apps simultaneously without any performance issues and also comes with a robust build quality.

It is the display and software department where the handset fails to make a good impression. We will evaluate the handset's full potential in the coming week. Stay tuned on GIZBOT for the comprehensive review of Nubia N2.