Smart Android And Trik-Commenting on Andorid indeed never endless, because smart devices this one is often updated every certain amount of time. So that the market can always be garapnya menerinya with pleasure. And it is not denied if this device has become the lifestyle of each society. To not wonder if the 6th business information and many are turning to mobail smartphone. With Android which thoroughly dominated the mobile industry, choosing the best Android smartphone is almost identical to choose the best smartphone, period. But while Android phones have few real opponents on other platforms, internal competition is intense.
Introduction
Some may say that the pursuit for a full-screen design has brought us a whole host of innovative mechanical solutions - slider mechanisms, pop-up mechanical selfies cameras, and even rotating and flipping cameras. Among those, dual-screen designs stand out as the most unusual of the bunch.
Which brings us to the nubia Z20 - a handset that tackles the full-screen design with two screens. However, nubia has kind of a unique take on the matter with a back display that blends with the design. You have to look real close to see that the phone has a secondary screen and you turn on the always-on feature, it looks like something out of a sci-fi movie. Oh, and both displays are OLED - a feature that's hard to ignore.
ZTE nubia Z20 specs
- Body: 158.6 x 75.3 x 9 mm, 186g; metal frame, Gorilla Glass 5 front and back.
- Display: Main: 6.42" AMOLED, HDR10 support, 1080 x 2340px resolution, 19.5:9 aspect ratio, 401 ppi; Secondary (on the back): AMOLED, 5.1 inches, 1080 x 2340px resolution.
- Rear camera: Primary: 48MP, f/1.7 aperture, 1/2" sensor size, 0.8µm pixel size, PDAF, OIS. Ultra wide: 16MP, f/2.2, 1.0µm pixels; AF. Telephoto camera: 8MP, f/2.4, 3x optical zoom; 4320@15fps, 2160p@30fps, 1080p@120fps video recording.
- Front camera: Uses the main and the ultra-wide on the back.
- OS: Android 9 Pie; Nubia UI 7.
- Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+ (7 nm): Octa-core (1x2.96 GHz Kryo 485 & 3x2.42 GHz Kryo 485 & 4x1.78 GHz Kryo 485), Adreno 640 (700 MHz) GPU.
- Memory: 6GB/8GB of RAM; 128/512GB storage; no microSD card slot.
- Battery: 4,000mAh; 27W fast charging over USB Power Delivery 2.0.
- Connectivity: Dual-SIM; LTE-A, 4-Band carrier aggregation, LTE Cat-20/ Cat-13; USB-C; Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, hotspot, GPS; Bluetooth 5.1, A2DP, LE;
- Misc: 2x side-mounted fingerprint readers for ease of use of the two screens; Pressure-sensitive frame; single down-firing speaker; no NFC; no FM radio.
But the duo of screens isn't enough to sway users into buying the nubia Z20 so it has to impress with other specs and features. And we have some good news. The phone is a flagship-worthy handset checking almost all boxes for a 2019 top-shelf device. Running a Snapdragon 855+ chipset, a complete set of all three cameras (normal, ultra-wide and telephoto) and a generous 4,000 mAh battery, the Z20 is a competent contender to the flagships from the top brands.
And judging by the launch price in China, the nubia Z20 will give some of the flagships a run for their money. If the handsets settles for a price in the €550 ballpark for the global market, it will overshadow the centerpiece feature - the secondary screen. Even if you are not into that kind of stuff, it's hard to pass on such great price.
Unboxing the ZTE nubia Z20
The handset comes in a generous box containing all the necessities such as charger, USB-A to USB-C cable for data transfer and charging as well as the usual user manuals. There's also a USB-C to 3.5mm audio jack dongle since the phone doesn't have one on its own.
More importantly, nubia is giving away a free transparent silicone protective case for the Z20, which to our surprise works with the secondary display. It appears to be touch-sensitive and wraps around the phone's side frame and back completely. So don't worry about the secondary display, this case appears to be enough to keep away from danger. Unfortunately, it's still a silicone case so it's not ideal to touch and swiping is actually unpleasant.
Design
The nubia Z20 is a delicate device, there's no denying that. Some users are dealing with anxiety every day because they don't want to break their phones after an accidental drop and now this handset has two screens that can shatter into pieces. So if you are one of those users, perhaps the Z20 isn't the right one for you. Still, nubia boasts Gorilla Glass 5 on its both sides while the camera lenses are protected by a synthetic sapphire glass.
On the other hand, the handset is gorgeous. We got the blue variant with subtle gradient - the color shifts ever so slightly when viewed from an angle. The back acts as a mirror and fingerprints and smudges are quite visible. When you look closely, you can also see the outlines of the display but when looked from afar, it blends perfectly with the colorful glass plate.
The glass back is also curved to the sides improving the hand feel and ergonomics and seamlessly connects with the side frame. Right above the display is located the triple-camera module and two LED flashes one of which is dual-tone. The ambient and proximity sensors for the secondary display are tucked away somewhere above the camera array. Speaking of which, it doesn't stick out too much. In fact, the bump is barely noticeable, so bonus points for that. Interestingly, there's also a secondary earpiece so you can use the back side of the handset for calls as well.
Going around the side metal side frame, we can easily recognize the speaker grille and the USB-C connector on the bottom and the microphone. The top side houses the noise-suppression microphone while the volume rocker is on the right side. For optimal convenience, the nubia Z20 features two side-mounted fingerprint readers that double as power buttons. So no matter how you hold the phone, there's a fingerprint scanner at your disposal.
The placement of the fingerprint readers is quite convenient. They are symmetrically placed on both sides and offer additional features when pressing both of them simultaneously but we will talk about that later in the software section.
The front greets you with a tall 6.42-inch AMOLED screen with lightly curved edges to the sides and full-screen design. The bezels, however, are not at all that impressive - the side ones are thin but we've seen thinner frames fro the top and bottom. Especially the top bezel. It's big enough to house the earpiece, the proximity and the ambient sensor. Don't get us wrong, we are not complaining, we are just saying we've seen better full-screen implementations. Still, the fact that there are no holes or cutouts obstruction the screen's content is a big plus.
With all that hardware crammed up inside - two screens, big 4,000 mAh battery and three cameras - one would expect that the handset is heavy and thick. However, only the latter is true. The phone measures 9.2mm in thickness without the provided case but weighing in at 186g is pretty impressive. For comparison, the Samsung Galaxy S10+ which sports a 6.4-inch display, tips the scale at 175g and that's a pretty lightweight smartphone. The Z20 is just 11 grams heavier with similar battery and two screens.
Honestly, we can't think of anything that needs radical improvement in terms of build and overall design. The handset is solid, usable with one hand and the secondary screen is pretty stylish when you turn on the always-on and perfectly blends with the surrounding colorful glass panel.
Here, take a look at the phone from all sides in the 360-degree image.
Two AMOLEDs - one for show-off, one for everything else
The ZTE nubia Z20 has not one but two AMOLED screens and neither of them is obstructed by cutouts or holes. The main display measures 6.42" in diagonal and features 1080 x 2340px resolution with 19.5:9 aspect ratio - pretty much standard these days. Not the thinnest bezels around but the lack of a notch or a punch-hole is much-appreciated.
The back panel is considerably smaller - 5.1" with the same 1080 x 2340px resolution and it's perfect for one-handed use. Since the glass is blue, colors are off and it has a blue-ish yellow-ish tint so it would do for work, reading and showing off.
Anyway, at maximum brightness, the main display can go up to 430 nits but when in auto mode, it can boost the brightness to 616 nits. It's not chart-topping but it's enough to provide good sunlight legibility even on a bright sunny day. Color accuracy, on the other hand, isn't impressive. The default color mode is called Colorful mode and average dE2000 is 6.1 while Natural color mode brought down the average dE2000 down to 4.7. However, neither of them fixed the rather blue-ish whites but if you wish the most accurate color reproduction, you should definitely stick to the Natural mode.
We also took the time to test out the secondary screen. It's significantly dimmer at 333 cd/m2 and doesn't have Max Auto so you might have some trouble with outdoor visibility. Also, as expected, the average dE2000 is 12.1 with yellow whites even with the Super Eye Care mode switched off.
| Display test | 100% brightness | ||
| Black, cd/m2 | White, cd/m2 | ||
| 0 | 430 | ∞ | |
| 0.045 | 616 | 13689 | |
| 0 | 333 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 525 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 743 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 571 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 605 | ∞ | |
| 0.353 | 424 | 1201 | |
| 0.399 | 455 | 1140 | |
| 0 | 396 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 820 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 450 | ∞ | |
Battery life
The nubia Z20 carries a big 4,000 mAh battery and two displays to power up so battery life will largely vary from user to user. It all depends on which screen you use the most with the back one being more energy-efficient, of course, and do you use the always-on function. Keep in mind that both screens support always-on.
Anyway, we ran our tests the old-fashioned way and the results show that the handset has more than satisfactory endurance. In fact, the battery provides plenty of screen-on-time while 3G talk time and standby scores are among the best in its class.
Our battery tests were automated thanks to SmartViser, using its viSerDevice app. The endurance rating above denotes how long a single battery charge will last you if you use the ZTE nubia Z20 for an hour each of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. We've established this usage pattern so that our battery results are comparable across devices in the most common day-to-day tasks. The battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you're interested in the nitty-gritty. You can check out our complete battery test table, where you can see how all of the smartphones we've tested will compare under your own typical use.
The phone also supports fast charging over the USB Power Delivery 2.0 protocol capping at 27W. However, the provided charger is capped at 9V/2A totaling at 18W and given that the cable in the box isn't USB-C to USB-C, we are pretty sure that PD 2.0 isn't involved here. You will have to buy a separate charger to utilize the 27W speeds. Still, with the provided 18W charger, the phone's rather big 4,000 mAh battery charged from 0 to 46% in just 30 minutes. Surely, not the fastest one around but it's not too shabby too.
Loudspeaker
The handset has a single bottom-firing loudspeaker providing good clarity and overall good listening experience. We wished the phone had stereo speakers but we can't have it all given the price point. Loudness, on the other hand, could have been better, considering the smartphone's class. Here's how it stacks against the competition.
| Speakerphone test | Voice, dB | Ringing |
Overall score | |
| 71.4 | 73.1 | 74.8 | Very Good | |
| 66.8 | 73.2 | 86.0 | Very Good | |
| 66.4 | 74.3 | 90.8 | Excellent | |
| 77.0 | 75.9 | 81.2 | Excellent | |
| 70.9 | 73.8 | 90.9 | Excellent | |
| 79.8 | 77.4 | 91.6 | Excellent |
Audio quality
Unfortunately, our pre-release review unit came with a bug with the audio output which should be fixed in the retail version of the phone. This meant that any readings we get now will not be representative of the actual performance of the nubia Z20. That’s why we won’t be posting an audio quality test until our units also gets the firmware update.
Nubia UI 7 based on Android 9.0 Pie
The nubia Z20 comes with a custom skin on top of Android 9 Pie but in our book, it's more like a stock-ish looking OS with tons of extra features from nubia. Most of them involve the double-sided fingerprint readers and the two displays.
Other than that, the software looks a lot like vanilla Android. The home screen, lock screen, notification shade and the recent apps menu are indistinguishable from the stock Android. Looking deeper into the Settings menu reveals the changes that nubia made.
Home screen, recent apps, notification shade, general settings menu
The Display menu gives you control over the color settings, the Night Light feature for after-hours reading and you can also set up Dark theme. Unfortunately, though, switching over to Dark theme didn't do much for us - only the notification shade went black whereas the system UI and menus remained white. We suspect that this is a software bug that needs to be fixed when the retail units arrive since we were offered a review unit with pre-production software.
Display settings
Speaking of the display, the handset has an always-on feature that works on both panels. It can be turned on for both sides or just one of them. You can choose between numerous presets and styles or slap a short 10-second clip of your own. Images and gifs work too.
Always-on display settings
Under the Secondary screen space menu, you can set the back screen to act as a mirror or as an extended display for multitasking. For example, a three-finger horizontal swipe will send the foreground app to the other screen but we didn't find it as seamless as we would expect. After sending it to the other screen, you have to switch off the display you are currently using, flip the phone and unlock the other one. You will find your opened app there.
There's also a floating semi-transparent button that allows you to switch to the other screen on the fly. You can move the button around or remove it completely. You can also use the quick toggle in the notification shade as well. And if you are bothered by the automatic screen unlock depending on how you hold the phone, you can always set it to turn on the main screen and then switch over to the other one manually. We found that the automatic wakeup works pretty well but it gets confused from time to time when holding it in landscape ready to take a picture. Sometimes it will turn on the back screen instead of the main one.
Secondary screen customizations and options
But wait, there are more screen-related features. Prettier than functional, though. For incoming calls, during gaming and when listening to music, the back panel can light up with various cool animations. You can also assign custom ones. However, interactive animations during gaming are limited to two games for now - Glory of Kings and Peace elite. We also weren't able to make the animation work during music playback so it must be due to the pre-release software.
A Super Eye Care feature is available for the secondary screen allowing you to choose between three color temperature modes - light, medium and super. Perhaps for late-night reading, the secondary screen would provide the best viewing experience in this regard.
Super Eye Care menu
Enough about the screens, though. There's another nifty feature the nubia Z20 has and that's pressure-sensitive side frame. Nubia has made the frame right below the fingerprint readers pressure-sensitive, just like the Pixels and some of HTC's phones. You can assign different tasks or shortcut to apps to the available gestures - short and long squeeze. Adjusting the pressure is also possible and goes from 1 to 10, so it's pretty granular. The Pressure border function works flawlessly and it's pretty flexible so we are sure you will find use for it.
Pressure border settings
As far as the fingerprint readers' usability goes, we have a couple of small complaints. The haptic feedback followed by a successful or unsuccessful unlock are identical so often times we were confused whether the phone has unlocked or not, which leads us to our next complain. The fingerprint readers are indeed pretty fast but it takes some time for the screen to actually unlock. A brief press of the button is all it takes for the scanner to get your fingertip but the screen takes too much time to light up.
Following the footsteps of its gaming-centric sibling, the nubia Red Magic 3, the nubia Z20 also has some gaming-related features and optimizations. The so-called Gamespace lets you add games to your library for a quick launch and offers some built-in features like CPU, GPU or combined boost of performance, block messages and the Touch handle feature. The latter lets you use the back screen as a touch controller eliminating the need for some of the controls on the main screen. Pretty nifty feature for gamers.
Gamespace
The rest of the settings are pretty much standard to stock Android along with the appearance. However, we found one thing missing from the OS and that's the gesture-based navigation. Nubia could very well bring the gestures with a future update but for now, you won't be able to use them.
We didn't have any major issues except for the occasional less-than-smooth transition animations that need to be ironed out with a future patch. In addition, the English translation of the menus left us confused at times and nubia needs to do a better job if it wants to draw international users. Otherwise, the OS felt snappy as it should on a flagship phone with the latest Snapdragon SoC. Which brings us to our next chapter.
Performance
Despite its rather low price, the nubia Z20 packs a powerhouse of a SoC - Qualcomm's latest and greatest Snapdragon 855+ chipset. It incorporates one big, powerful Kryo 485 core clocked at 2.96GHz, three more Kryo 485 cores clocked at 2.42GHz and four energy-efficient Kryo 485 cores running at 1.78GHz. The Adreno 640 takes care of the graphically-intensive tasks and it's clocked at 700MHz, which is higher than the Adreno 640 in the standard Snapdragon 855.
Memory configurations are three - 6GB/128GB, 8GB/128GB and the 8GB/512GB. We are in possesion of the second variant with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage, which by the way, isn't expandable.
Without further ado, let's dive into the synthetic benchmarks although, we've tested other phones with this SoC so we know what to expect.
GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)
Higher is better
- Apple iPhone 11
13882 - Apple iPhone XR
11437 - ZTE nubia Red Magic 3
11226 - Lenovo Z6 Pro
11155 - Asus Zenfone 6 (Zen Power Boost)
10800 - Asus Zenfone 6
10721 - Samsung Galaxy S10
10174 - ZTE nubia Z20
10101 - Huawei P30 Pro (perf. mode)
10014 - Huawei P30 Pro
9649 - ASUS ROG Phone X mode
9375
GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)
Higher is better
- Apple iPhone 11
5477 - Apple iPhone XR
4818 - Samsung Galaxy S10
4543 - Asus Zenfone 6
3505 - Asus Zenfone 6 (Zen Power Boost)
3499 - ZTE nubia Red Magic 3
3493 - ZTE nubia Z20
3491 - Lenovo Z6 Pro
3479 - Huawei P30 Pro (perf. mode)
3323 - Huawei P30 Pro
3270 - ASUS ROG Phone X mode
2573
GeekBench 5 (multi-core)
Higher is better
- Apple iPhone 11
3462 - OnePlus 7T
2932 - ZTE nubia Z20
2452
GeekBench 5 (single-core)
Higher is better
- Apple iPhone 11
1333 - OnePlus 7T
788 - ZTE nubia Z20
734
In CPU benchmarks, the Snapdragon 855+ is faster than most of its direct rivals including Samsung's Exynos 9820 and Huawei's Kirin 980 while falling short to Apple's last year and this year's chips. In single-threaded tasks, however, the Exynos 9820 and Apple's Bionic processors are considerably faster.
AnTuTu 7
Higher is better
- Apple iPhone 11
419453 - Asus Zenfone 6 (Zen Power Boost)
377024 - ZTE nubia Z20
371150 - Asus Zenfone 6
361679 - Lenovo Z6 Pro
357672 - Apple iPhone XR
341196 - Samsung Galaxy S10
328366 - Huawei P30 Pro (perf. mode)
316156 - ZTE nubia Red Magic 3
314975 - Huawei P30 Pro
290189 - ASUS ROG Phone X mode
288176
GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
- Apple iPhone 11
121 - Apple iPhone XR
97 - OnePlus 7T
79 - ZTE nubia Z20
73 - Asus Zenfone 6
71 - Asus Zenfone 6 (Zen Power Boost)
71 - ZTE nubia Red Magic 3
71 - Lenovo Z6 Pro
71 - Samsung Galaxy S10
68 - ASUS ROG Phone X mode
60 - Huawei P30 Pro (perf. mode)
56 - Huawei P30 Pro
54
GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)
Higher is better
- ZTE nubia Red Magic 3
62 - Apple iPhone XR
60 - Apple iPhone 11
60 - OnePlus 7T
59 - ZTE nubia Z20
58 - Asus Zenfone 6
57 - Asus Zenfone 6 (Zen Power Boost)
57 - Lenovo Z6 Pro
57 - ASUS ROG Phone X mode
54 - Huawei P30 Pro
50 - Huawei P30 Pro (perf. mode)
50 - Samsung Galaxy S10
37
GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
- Apple iPhone 11
76 - Apple iPhone XR
60 - OnePlus 7T
48 - ZTE nubia Z20
45 - Samsung Galaxy S10
43 - Asus Zenfone 6
42
42
42
42
35
33
29
GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Apple iPhone 11
60 - Apple iPhone XR
58 - OnePlus 7T
41 - ZTE nubia Z20
37 - ZTE nubia Red Magic 3
37 - Asus Zenfone 6
36 - Asus Zenfone 6 (Zen Power Boost)
36 - Lenovo Z6 Pro
36 - ASUS ROG Phone X mode
31 - Huawei P30 Pro (perf. mode)
29 - Huawei P30 Pro
27 - Samsung Galaxy S10
23
3DMark SSE 3.1 Unlimited
Higher is better
- ZTE nubia Red Magic 3
6360 - Lenovo Z6 Pro
6351 - ZTE nubia Z20
6294 - Asus Zenfone 6 (Zen Power Boost)
6282 - Asus Zenfone 6
6263 - Apple iPhone 11
6162 - Samsung Galaxy S10
4550 - Huawei P30 Pro (perf. mode)
4315 - Huawei P30 Pro
3522
When it comes to GPU performance, the Adren 640 blows almost everyone out of the water with the exception of, of course, Apple's A13 and A12 chips.
Versatile triple camera setup, works for selfies too
The nubia Z20 is fully equipped with all the lenses you'd need - normal, ultra-wide and telephoto. For its main snapper, the Z20 uses the popular Sony IMX586 48MP sensor adopting the pixel-binning technology. The sensor is paired with a lens with f/1.7 aperture and is also optically stabilized.
The telephoto is 8MP f/2.4 capable of 3x zoom but no OIS, whereas the ultra-wide adopts a 16MP sensor with f/2.2 aperture and captures 122.2° field of view. That's pretty wide.
For selfies, you can use all of the aforementioned cameras although, the telephoto might not be all that useful considering the far-reaching 3x zoom. You'd need some long arms to make use of the telephoto for selfies. The secondary screen can be used as a viewfinder.
Camera menus
The default camera app isn't anything out of the ordinary - swiping left and right switches between camera menus while in Photo mode, you can switch between all three cameras with a signle tap. There are also hybrid 5x and 10x zoom modes but the native optical zoom is at 3x. There's also a filter preset in the upper right corner - all of the presented filters look nice and are fun to play with. There's also a toggle to turn on the secondary screen and use it as viewfinder.
But in order to switch to "selfie mode", you have to tap on the camera icon right next to the settings icon. The additional camera settings give you more control over the video recording resolution, photo resolution and aspect ratio, shutter sound, location data, etc.
Camera menus and options
Back to the shooting modes, there's a dedicated Pro mode that allows you to tinker with focus, white balance, exposure and shutter speed. There's also an interval that you can set and the phone will take pictures at every 1 to 60 seconds. A cool feature if you set the phone on a tripod, set the timer and then choose between the best photos. The Pro mode also works with all three cameras.
Daylight samples
We really liked the daylight samples we took with the nubia Z20's main 48MP camera. The detail is really good, contrast is nice and makes the colors pop out more while still being natural-looking. The samples we took are close to what the scenes look in person. We did notice some issues with the highlights, though. They are clipped in most of the photos and the overall dynamic range isn't impressive. It's not bad but it's far from what you'd expect from a flagship device. The generally low exposure doesn't help either.
12MP daylight samples
In 48MP mode, the rendition is pretty much the same while offering even better detail. Unfortunately, the trade-off here is the increased noise and sharpening halos can be observed even without trying too hard to look for them. Dynamic range remains uninspiring.
48MP daylight samples
The ultra-wide camera surprised us with nice colors and relatively good detail compared to most midrangers. It's not flagship-worthy but it produces generally nice photos. The issue we see with the clipped highlights is more prominent here and the barrel distortion is barely noticeable with the software correction turned on. Sharpening halos can be observed under really close inspection. The bottom line is that photos are absolutely suitable for social media. A big advantage over some of its competitors is that the ultra-wide snapper here has autofocus so you can produce nice close-up images with the added dramatic effect of the expanded field of view.
Ultra wide-angle daylight samples
The telephoto, on the other hand, is rather uninspiring. Clipped highlights, narrow dynamic range, the exposure metering is a bit off, colors are dull compared to the main and the ultra-wide camera and detail could be better. It's not the worst but we've seen better 3x zoom implementations.
Telephoto daylight samples
Low-light samples
Turning the lights off, the main camera captures nice stills with plenty of detail, juicy colors, high contrast and preserves neon lights quite well. Our complaints about the highlights still stand although, dynamic range is somehow better overall.
Low-light samples with the main camera
The Night mode fixes most of the issues by introducing even more detail and sharpness to the photos. Highlights and light sources look a lot better and brings out some information from the shadows. Artifacts from the noise reduction algorithm can be seen in some parts of the image under close inspection.
Low-light samples with Night mode
While everything we said above is true, we found that the Night mode is rather inconsistent when it comes to shadows. Some of the samples we took appear to be with lower exposure than the ones taken without Night mode resulting in loss of detail in the shadows. Pictures look darker than they should, which is strange behavior for a Night mode. Take a look at the first and the third sample above.
With all being said, we recommend using the Night mode in even when enough light is introduced to the scene. The Night mode makes the photos more appealing, that's for sure.
The ultra-wide camera struggles to produce good photos with enough detail. They look soft, highlights are still clipped despite the rather satisfactory dynamic range. They are also noisy. The good thing about those photos is that colors are nice. Our statement about the camera being better than midrangers still stands. If a Night mode is introduced down the road, we can expect some decent low-light shots with this camera.
Low-light ultra wide-angle samples
The telephoto is far from what we can call usable. It's soft, colors are flat and the dark f/2.4 aperture struggles to let enough light come into the sensor. You will also have hard time producing sharp images due to the lack of OIS. Shaky photos in the dark are a common thing.
Low-light telephoto samples
Macro samples
The dedicated Macro mode is a growing trend these days and pretty much all of the OEMs use the ultra-wide lens for capturing those macro shots. Of course, the ultra-wide needs an autofocus feature to work properly. We found it hard to focus at times and when going outdoors for some macro shots, even the lightest breeze could ruin your shot. Leafs and flowers become a challenge to focus on.
Macro shots
But once you get the right focus, the subject comes out with plenty of detail, nice colors and with a natural-looking bokeh. Oh, and we didn't find the Macro mode anywhere in the camera menu so you have to trigger it by closing in on the subject and tapping on it to focus. The software will then switch to the ultra wide-lens and inform you that you are in macro mode with a prompt. You have to get really close to the subject to trigger it, just so you know.
Once you are done with the real-world samples, it's time for some pixel peeping using our photo compare tool.
Now let's take the time to compare the phone to some of its competitors in a more controlled environment.
12MP: ZTE nubia Z20 against the Zenfone 6 and the OnePlus 7T in our Photo compare tool
And here's how it stacks against other 48MP-capable smartphones.
48MP: ZTE nubia Z20 against the Zenfone 6 and the OnePlus 7T in our Photo compare tool
Portraits
Portraits came out excellent with plenty of detail, natural-looking skin tone, good dynamic range and exceptional edge detection. Even with a more complex background, the software did a splendid job separating the subject from the background. Also, there's something to the bokeh effect - it looks natural but we can't quite put our finger on what's so good about it.
Portraits
Selfies
Selfies look pretty good snapped with the main camera but we can't say the same for the ultra-wide selfies. They appear soft and with less than stellar dynamic range. We found that the main camera struggles to get good selfies in low-light conditions. And we only say that because we expect better from the big 48MP sensor compared to the usual front-facing snappers on the market. The edge detection for portrait seflies is once again pretty nice, though.
Selfies: Normal • Ultra-wide • Portrait • Portrait
Selfies: Normal • Ultra-wide • Normal • Ultra-wide
Video recording
The nubia Z20 is capable of recording 1080p and 2160p at 30 and 60fps. But it's also capable of shooting 8K footage at 15 frames per second - just like the nubia Red Magic 3 that we've reviewed a while back. But don't get too excited about that because you probably won't be able to watch those 8K videos afterwards unless you are one of the few in possession of 8K TV or a monitor. And 15fps is not nearly enough for smooth movement - everything looks choppy. There is some extra detail compared to the 4K, though.
Off to the standard 4K@30fps video recording, we are hard-pressed to find anything off. Detail is nice, colors are great, contrast is ideal and there's no visible noise. The clipped highlights are still an issue, however, and exposure is just ever so slightly lower than we would like it. But besides that, that's excellent 4K footage.
The same applies for the Full HD video. Expectedly, detail is lower but it's great for 1080p video, nonetheless.
As far as EIS goes, we are disappointed to see that the handset doesn't support EIS in 4K as you can see for yourself.
And here's how the phone compares to some of its competitors in 2160p video recording.
2160p: ZTE nubia Z20 against the Asus Zenfone 6 and the OnePlus 7T in our Video compare tool
Competition
Clearly, the nubia Z20 is in a category of its own as it offers two AMOLED screens so it's hard to put it against the common smartphones on the market. Price-wise, there are quite a few options that we found worth mentioning.
It's not the first smartphone with double-sided screen. The vivo NEX Dual Display can be considered as an alternative but it's a last-year device and it's really hard to come across while nubia is making sure its phone reaches a wide range of markets. It's now available not only in Asia but in USA, Canada, EU, UK, Australia and even Israel. Whereas the NEX Dual Display is an exotic piece of tech.
With this out of the way, we can start laying out the conventional alternatives in the same price bracket. Let's start with the Huawei P30 Pro. Sure, it's an old phone by the smartphone industry standards, but it's very much a capable flagship in 2019, which price has gone down significantly since its release due to reasons. It's a feature-packed handset with top-notch hardware and let's be honest here, it does everything better than the nubia Z20 except for the dual screen thing. Keep in mind that the P30 Pro is also around €50 more expensive too.
Huawei P30 Pro • Asus Zenfone 6 ZS630KL • OnePlus 7T • Lenovo Z6 Pro
Next down the list is a more affordable solution from Asus. The Zenfone 6 delivers better battery life and a novelty of its own - rotating camera mechanism so it has comparable selfie quality since it uses its main camera, just like the nubia Z20. However, the LCD panel is not OLED and the nubia Z20 has two of those. Some users won't mind the LCD on the Asus but it's worth mentioning. And if the telephoto is your thing, you should probably go for the nubia Z20 although, the quality of the zoom lens on this one isn't competitive enough.
A more recent solution is the just-released OnePlus 7T. However, it has a notch, similar battery life and it's pricier. However, faster charging speeds, more refined software, high-refresh-rate OLED screen and superior camera performance might justify the extra €50 for some.
And lastly, the Lenovo Z6 Pro is a similarly-priced alternative rocking powerful hardware, OLED screen with a small notch and extra-long battery life. It's also pretty good in the camera department and has a 3.5mm audio jack eliminating the need of a dongle.
Verdict
It's a tough one. If started reading this review because you were looking for a phone that fits your budget, the nubia Z20 might not be your best bet. Strange thing to say, yes, given the fact that it has a full-screen front design, flagship SoC, good battery life and a competent triple-camera setup but this particular market segment has grown. It's hard to compete with the likes of Asus, OnePlus and Xiaomi offering flagship phones on the cheap. Even Huawei's early 2019 top-shelf phones can be found at a reasonable price.
With all being said, the nubia Z20 has one thing that the rest don't and that's the novelty dual-display design. If you came here because you like exotic phones with quirky features, you will like the Z20 a lot. There are some niche use cases of the secondary screen so we suggest that you think hard and long to what extent you'd need a secondary screen. If it's just for showing off in front of friends, you will probably get bored pretty fast.
It's not the first phone we've reviewed that relies mostly on its novelty features and then it's forgotten after the buzz. But the nubia Z20 checks all the boxes of a flagship handset and looks good on paper. Sadly, after a quick market research, it turns out that the nubia Z20 isn't the only cheap flagship around and it's a hard-sell no matter how you look at it.
Pros
- The secondary screen blends with the overall design giving it a nice, distinct look
- Two AMOLED screens without notches and holes
- The double-sided fingerprint readers do make a big difference usability-wise
- Great price/performance ratio, Snapdragon 855+ on the cheap
- Good battery life
- The main camera shoots excellent daytime and nighttime stills, 4K and FHD videos are nice too
- Generous retail package with touch-sensitive silicone case working with the secondary screen and a USB-C to 3.5mm jack
- Feature-packed stock-ish looking OS
Cons
- No 3.5mm audio jack and no microSD card slot
- The telephoto and the ultra-wide cameras are unimpressive
- The software needs better translation and refinement
- The secondary screen has a yellow-ish tint
- No video recording with the telephoto and ultra-wide
- No 4K@30fps stabilization
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