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

29 February 2024

It was a busy MWC for ZTE and its nubia subsidiary with the announcement of five new phones. We managed to get some hands-on time with a few of the new models and these are our first impressions of the nubia Flip, Focus Pro, Neo 2 and Music smartphones.

nubia Flip

The nubia Flip is arguably the most interesting device from the bunch – a budget flip foldable to rival the Galaxy Z Flip5 and Moto Razr 40. It feels great in the hand with a nice brushed aluminum frame that folds completely flat. It’s a bit heavier than its key competitors at 214 grams but we don’t mind the extra heft as the folding mechanism feels solid.

The pearly gradient purple back on this demo unit looks great and shifts colors depending on the angle you’re looking at. While we’re here we should mention the 1.43-inch cover screen. It shows time, date and notifications but you can also use it to take incoming calls, control media playback, show weather info, and as a viewfinder for the 50MP main camera.

Unfolding the nubia Flip reveals a 6.9-inch main OLED display with FHD+ resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. The display looks decent at first glance though you will notice the thick surrounding bezels. The crease in the middle is pretty noticeable when viewed from the side and you can certainly feel your finger going through it on swipes.

The software front here is covered by ZTE’s MyOS 13.5 based on Android 13 and there are several tweaks to take advantage of the folding screen like splitting the camera UI across both halves of the display. The Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 chip here is a nearly two-year-old midrange chipset but this is where the nubia Flip’s $599/€599 starting price starts to show. The decently sized 4,310 mAh battery should offer enough juice to power through a day and you’ll be able to recharge at 33W speeds.

ZTE will provide more detailed pricing and availability details in the coming months, but for now the nubia Flip looks like a solid budget contender in the flip foldable space.

nubia Focus Pro

The nubia Focus lineup aims to offer a camera-centric experience in the midrange segment. Focus Pro features a 1/1.67” 108MP Neovision main sensor with an f/1.75 aperture and OIS. The main shooter offers in-sensor crop and covers five focal lengths ranging from 18mm to 72mm. The camera can also shoot RAW HDR and RAW super night mode photos and record up to 4K video.

The camera focus expands to the phone’s design too with a physical slider on the right-hand-hand side which serves as a quick toggle to the camera app. The bottom side of the frame has a capacitive capture button which offers decent feedback for capturing shots.

The vegan leather back and dual-tone finish combined with the large circular camera island help the Focus Pro look a bit like an old-school camera even though this is not the first time we’ve seen this design – it’s more or less based on the nubia Z50S Pro from last year.

Elsewhere, Focus Pro features a 6.72-inch display with FHD+ resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate, a 32MP front-facing camera and a Unisoc T760 chipset paired with 8GB RAM. You also get a 5,000 mAh battery with 33W charging. ZTE said that the Focus Pro is coming later this year and it will retail for around $199 which is pretty impressive given the camera-centric features.

nubia Neo 2

nubia Neo 2 is a budget gaming phone that is said to retail for around $199 when it launches officially later this year. For that price, you’re getting an impressive list of specs with a 6.72-inch display (FHD+ 120Hz), a 5G-capable Unisoc T820 chipset with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage.

The right-hand side features capacitive shoulder triggers which are normally reserved only for the higher-end gaming phones and they are a welcome addition here.

The ZTE booth had the yellow and purple Neo 2 both of which sport unmistakably flashy gamer designs. We even spotted some nods to past Red Magic gaming phones and their cooling fans – only this time the fan was merely painted on.

Neo 2 features the same Game Space 2.0 overlay found on the Red Magic 9 Pro which brings a bevy of customization options, CPU and GPU monitoring and access to quick toggles. Rounding out the spec sheet is a 6,000 mAh battery with 33W charging.

nubia Music

nubia Music is arguably the quirkiest phone of the bunch – its key selling point is the loudspeaker on the back which nubia proudly claims is 600% louder than conventional smartphone speakers. The speaker’s design was inspired by vinyl records and despite all the commotion going on at the event hall, we certainly noticed that the nubia Music gets plenty loud.

ZTE is marketing this device as the ideal replacement for those little Bluetooth speakers that you’ve probably seen everywhere while also doubling as an entry-level Android 13 smartphone with a 6.6-inch (HD+ 90Hz) display, 5,000 mAh battery and dual cameras.

While most other makers are moving away from headphone jacks, nubia Music boasts dual 3.5mm ports located at the top. The intent here is that you can share your tunes with a fiend over wired headphones which is a bold move in a world where Bluetooth headphones are becoming the new norm.

nubia Music is powered by a Unisoc SC9863A chipset alongside 4GB RAM and 128GB storage which clearly positions it in the entry-level segment. The device is expected to retail for $149 once it launches later this year.