BackThe era of 5-inch screens
ZTE offers a smart device as its flagship in India, and YU's new phone is cheaper than its predecessor
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YU’s second Android phone, the Yuphoria, costs less than its predecessor, the Yureka, and also has a better screen, improved performance and a more premium build.
Chinese smartphone brand ZTE is finally becoming more active in the Indian market, after seeing the success of companies like Xiaomi, Gionee and Lenovo. The Nubia Z9 Mini is the company’s first device to be launched in India, and seems to tick all the boxes on the specification sheet. We review the two smartphones.
ZTE Nubia Z9 Mini
₹ 16,999
The 5-inch Nubia Z9 Mini’s design is its prime attraction. The glass layer on the back panel is now a common feature in the more expensive smartphones, such as Samsung’s new Galaxy S6 range. Underneath all the glass is aircraft-grade aluminium alloy, for improved rigidity. If you drop the phone, chances are the glass layers will crack, but the phone will not be damaged.
ZTE is running a heavily customized user interface (UI), called Nubia UI. Just like what Lenovo and Xiaomi have done, there is no separate app drawer and all the app icons are spread across the multiple home screens. There is no doubt that it looks a lot more polished and less complicated than what Xiaomi managed with the MIUI 6. The icons have fine shadows, and the overall colourful look is easy on the eye.
The colour reproduction is richer than Super LCD 3 screens, and gets quite close to the display of an IPS, or in-plane switching, screen. The reflective nature does hamper outdoor use, and the brightness needs to be 100% at that time.
The 3,000 mAh battery easily provides a day’s backup, when used as a primary phone.
The 16-megapixel camera comes with a wide array of predefined special effects like electronic aperture, slow shutter and light painting. The camera has a Sony sensor, and there are shades of good and bad that have been the hallmark of Sony’s Xperia phones—it struggles in low light, but pulls out brilliant detailing in good light.
The ZTE Nubia Z9 Mini has a lot of positives—solid build, smooth performance, sophisticated display and a camera that does well for the most part.
The Nubia Z9 Mini is a good alternative to the likes of Xiaomi Mi4 and Lenovo Vibe X2, both priced at ₹ 17,999.
YU Yuphoria
₹ 6,999
Though it is an adequately powerful device, the 5.5-inch screen of YU Yureka, which was launched in December at ₹ 8,999, can be a bit too big for some users. Its successor, the Yuphoria, appeals to a wider demographic, with a smaller and more manageable screen.
It has a classy metal-finish frame, which looks similar to the Sony Xperia Z series smartphones. At 143g, it is one of the lightest 5-inch screen phones, and is comfortable to hold and use with one hand.
The phone is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 410 quad-core processor; and has 2 GB of RAM. Even though it is not the most powerful processor on paper, we opened 10 apps at the same time, and there was hardly any lag while swiping through the app screens or switching between the apps. The phone heats up slightly while playing games and during heavy multitasking.
The phone runs Cyanogen CM12, which is based on Android 5.0 (Lollipop). The interface takes heavy cues from Android’s default Material Design; the icons are much slicker and more colourful. There is a range of themes, which can further customize elements such as the app drawer, icons, even the colour of the interface.
YU has included hardware sensors that support convenient shortcuts, such as double tapping to switch on/off the screen.
The 8-megapixel camera takes images without any lag after you have tapped on the shutter button. The picture quality is best during daytime and in areas with good light. The realistic colours and level of detail are quite impressive. The auto mode, however, isn’t always successful in getting perfect contrast and colours.
The 2,230mAh battery gives a full day’s backup.
The dual-SIM phone has 4G support, which makes this future-proof in terms of specifications and usability. The Yuphoria’s screen and camera are better than those of Moto E 4G ( ₹ 7,999) and Xiaomi Redmi 2 ( ₹ 6,999).
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