Nubia is launching more and more products and building its brand. It also wants to bring its new gaming smartphone Nubia Play 5G to the mid-range, with top-notch features at a pleasant price.
The phone was unveiled in its home country, China, and the manufacturer wants to focus on young users in particular, with a fairly decent quad-camera setup and great battery life.
The twin of Red Magic 5G
Design-wise, the smartphone is mainly similar to the back design of its more powerful twin, Nubia Red Magic 5G. It differs mostly in colors and dimensions—Nubia Play is a bit thinner and smaller (thickness 9.1 mm).
It’s available in dark black, blue, and white. The materials combine glass and metal. In our opinion, it looks really nice.
Surprisingly up to 144 Hz
In the mid-range category, we’re not really used to 144 Hz displays. But Nubia Play 5G has it, along with a 240 Hz sampling rate. It also includes an in-display fingerprint sensor.
It features an AMOLED panel with a 6.65″ diagonal and FHD+ (1080 x 2340 px) resolution. Display sharpness is 338 ppi, and there’s no notch or cutout. The front camera is hidden in the upper bezel.
Processor compromise
To keep the price tag low, the manufacturer had to cut back on the processor. It uses Snapdragon 765G, but that one is optimized for gaming and can surely handle any challenge.
Great performance is supported by LPDDR4X RAM with capacities of 6 and 8 GB. Storage comes in 128 and 256 GB.
Quad 48 MPx camera
The main sensor here is 48 MPx Sony IMX582, used for example in the Redmi K20. It has an aperture of ƒ/ 1.75 and pixel size of 0.80 µm.
It’s assisted by an 8 MPx wide-angle sensor, a 2 MPx depth-of-field sensor, and a 2 MPx macro sensor. In this smartphone category, this is solid camera equipment—especially for younger users.
Front 16 MPx and 4K video
As we mentioned, the front camera is hidden in a slightly larger display bezel and has 12 MPx with an aperture of ƒ/ 2.0.
The phone can record 4K video with optical stabilization. It also includes special slow-motion video for capturing, for example, dance movements or light-saber effects. But we don’t know if anyone would really use it.
A huge 5100 mAh battery
One of the biggest selling points of this smartphone is definitely the large 5100 mAh battery. It provides much better battery life than most devices, even in pricier segments.
It supports 30 W charging, used for example by the high-end OnePlus 7T Pro as well—so for very fast charging, it’s still more than enough.
There are also special gaming features
On the right side of the smartphone you’ll find dual, customizable touch buttons just like on the Red Magic 5G. They replace the need for a joystick.
There’s also a special cooling system ICE 2.5, helped by a 61 mm liquid cooling pipe.
You also get stereo speakers that create surround sound, DTS Audio, or 5G support for both SA and NSA bands. There’s no NFC.
Very low price
Our price really impressed us. The smartphone has only been released in China so far, so we still don’t know its availability on the global market. Prices are as follows:
- 6 + 128 GB – 2,399 yuan, which is about €312
- 8 + 128 GB – 2,699 yuan, which is about €350
- 8 + 256 GB – 2 999 yuan, which is about €390
As soon as the smartphone goes on sale for Europe or reaches an international retailer, we’ll be sure to let you know. That’s why you should subscribe to our newsletter!
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