ZTE nubia Flip, Focus Pro, Neo 2, Music hands-on

29 February 2024
We got to spend some time with ZTE's new nubia lineup of devices at MWC.

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  • ?
  • Anonymous
  • La{
  • 01 Mar 2024

The nubia Music is most interesting.
I feel it could have been a Nokia express music phone or a Sony Walkman. Would have been nice to see a music controls on the device.

    • ?
    • Anonymous
    • fCE
    • 01 Mar 2024

    Interesting designs. I would totally buy one of these

      Mills, 29 Feb 2024A54 is NOT that bad for the US market, but I can't say... moreA54 is literally not even better than the A52s, that's the problem. All it has going for it is that the main camera is very slightly better, the peak brightness is very slightly higher, the battery life is slightly better, and the base RAM capacity is 2GB more in most markets (though some markets even had 4GB versions of the A52s as well). The processor is basically no better in performance nor efficiency, so the only increase in battery life comes from the 500mAh increase in battery capacity, and that wasn't even done by the A54 (the A53 did it, though it had the same exact battery life due to the less efficient chip).

      The A54 is barely an upgrade, and personally for me, it has some clear downsides as well. Everyone agrees that the chip runs hotter and has worse connectivity, but I also hate how Samsung flattened the sides (a leading critique of mine with most phones nowadays), and also used glass (same kind of annoyance I have here as well). Glass is fragile, more expensive, more slippery and heavier, so it makes no sense to include it here when that could be spent on improving other things about the phone (maybe use UFS3.1 storage like Google does with their Pixel 7a, or trim the bezels more, idk?). It's literally a $500 mid-ranger that has basically nothing going for it over its pre-predecessor that released at $450 and is being sold for way less than half of that price now.

        All of these are cool IMO. The ZTE nubia Music is perhaps the coolest one here though, it's a very niche idea, but I do absolutely appreciate the thought put into having a music-focused phone. It's a worthy replacement for my Sony Walkman player, especially with the dual headphone jacks that are much better than having to use splitter cables that lower the quality of the sound output.

        The Flip is a great idea for having a mid-range flip-style foldable. I personally have no reason to use a flip-style foldable phone, unlike book-style foldables, but it's always nice to have more options so that people can buy the stuff they want, especially at a price they can afford. Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 is a terrible chip, but it's a worthy sacrifice if you care more about just having a flip-style foldable phone than anything else, and I imagine they got it at a very cheap price since manufacturers are rightly avoiding this chip like the plague, so Qualcomm has to sell off as much of their oversupply of this chip as possible.

        Again, the Neo 2 is a great phone to give consumers more choice, since you don't really see a gaming-oriented phone in the budget space, and outside of the Infinix GT10 Pro, not even in the mid-range space. Still, I can't help but feel disappointed that they didn't give the phone something more powerful than a Unisoc chip. Like, they could've given it a Dimensity 7050 or something, though it's still not a bad chip at all.

        The Focus Pro is also great. They recognised a target audience who really cares about cameras but can't afford flagships, so they cut back on other stuff to have rather good cameras for the price. As someone who uses my phone's camera a lot and consistently every single day, I fully support this idea. Though, the Focus Pro feels like it doesn't need to be the Pro phone when the Focus is almost the same exact thing. I honestly think they could've just not made a Focus phone, or had the Focus phone's more limited display in order to give the Focus Pro even better cameras.

        Final concern: software support. Yeah, ZTE when it comes to software support is almost nonexistent, and downright terrible compared to just about anyone else, with only being a step up from Motorola and Nokia, and only in some ways. That's gotta be a dealbreaker to quite some people.

          • K
          • Kitty
          • uRB
          • 29 Feb 2024

          "The intent is here that you can share your tunes with a fiend over wired headphones"
          Yeah I'd totally love sharing my music with a fiend :)
          Also I was hoping for some camera samples of Focus Pro

            DarlingYext, 29 Feb 2024Galaxy A54.A54 is NOT that bad for the US market, but I can't say the same thing for global. Yall bashed the f*ck out this phone lol, give it a rest until A55 comes in.

              I'm genuinely interested in the nubia Neo 2

              Would love a review for it 🙂 but it's not gonna happen 😞😭

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                • 64W
                • 29 Feb 2024

                Pretty sure that "fake fan" on the Neo 2 is supposed to be an eye of a mech?

                  ThunderCrackR, 29 Feb 20242019 called, it wants its bezels back... When even cheap ph... moreGalaxy A54.

                    2019 called, it wants its bezels back... When even cheap phones come with smaller bezels, you cannot come with this (unless you are HMD or Moto, of course), or ZTE it seems.

                      The Focus Pro for $199 sounds like a very good deal. One question comes to my mind. Does it have an ultrawide camera? It kinda looks like it does, but I can't be sure.

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                        • MrRad
                        • 3J0
                        • 29 Feb 2024

                        Still waiting for the Z60 Ultra review

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