nubia Z20 in for review

Full-screen designs are a thing now and every smartphone maker has its own take on the matter. Some prefer pop-up cameras, others are still stuck with notches (ahem, Apple and Huawei) while yet others are just slapping a second screen on the back of their devices. After the vivo NEX Dual Display, here comes the nubia Z20.

The nubia Z20 has a unique twist to its secondary screen design. When the screen isn't on, the back looks like a standard curved glass panel with a flashy gradient paint job but once you turn on the secondary screen, the better part of the back lights up.

The trade-off is color accuracy. The Blue version that we have, although looking pretty awesome, distorts the colors and makes them blue-ish, especially the white elements.

The nubia Z20's second screen

Spec-wise, the nubia Z20 is every bit the flagship. The main display is OLED measuring 6.42" in diagonal and having 1080 x 2340px resolution, complete with HDR10 support. The secondary screen comes in at 5.1" with an HD+ resolution.

All those pixels are driven by a Snapdragon 855+ chipset, paired with either 6GB or 8GB of RAM and up to 512GB of internal storage.

nubia Z20's front and rear screen

In the camera department, the handset packs a 48MP main shooter with f/1.7 aperture and OIS. An 8MP telephoto camera capable of 3x optical zoom keeps it company, while the third camera has ultrawide angle lens and a 16MP sensor.

As you've probably guessed, the handset doesn't have a front-facing camera so it uses its main camera for selfies and video calls and the secondary screen as a viewfinder.

A 4,000 mAh battery with support for 27W fast charging over Power Delivery 2.0 keeps the nubia Z20 going.

It's too early to tell how the phone feels on a daily basis usability-wise but nubia did include two side-mounted fingerprint readers for optimal convenience. That way you always have a sensor under your finger regardless of which screen you mean to power on.

We were mesmerized by the always-on animations and effects on the secondary screen - it's definitely a looker.

We've only just begun our testing of the nubia Z20 and there's a lot to go through. Stay tuned for our detailed review coming soon!