Can nubia Z9, a milestone in the borderless era, become a new benchmark for domestic mobile phones?

I don’t know since when, domestic smartphones have reached the era of “being embarrassed to say hello to people if they have borders”. Speaking of borderless phones, the nubia Z9 released in May can definitely be regarded as a milestone work in recent times.

Unboxing: Perhaps the best-looking black phone

The gift box-style outer packaging of nubia Z9 is more upscale than the common paper boxes of domestic mobile phones, and the skin-like coating on the surface of the packaging feels quite good to the touch.

After opening the package, the true appearance of nubia Z9 is revealed. It is not difficult to see from the warping around the body of the original film that it will be a difficult task to apply a film to this 2.5D screen.

In terms of mobile phone accessories, nubia Z9 gave people a big surprise. Not only is the layout similar to the number 9 very clever, but it also comes with earphones as standard. The red data cable and earphones are also in line with Nubia's usual style. In addition, this earphone, which is priced at 199 yuan on the official website and has a gold-plated plug, gives people a good first impression.

Talking about the phone itself, the nubia Z9 uses a double-sided glass and metal frame body structure. The thickness of 8.9mm is far from the ultra-thin design, and it even looks closer to the iPhone 4S. The weight of 192g also makes the 5.2-inch nubia Z9 heavier than the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus. You can say it is very tough, but female users seem to have to think twice before buying it.

The nubia Z9's dark grey metal middle frame is delicately carved. The dark grey main body, polished chamfers and black antenna opening are in perfect harmony with the overall design style. Only one side of the speaker at the bottom can actually make sound, and although the data interface looks like a USB Type-C, it does not actually support forward and reverse plugging and unplugging.

Because it is double-sided glass and does not have physical buttons like the Hammer phone, the black version of nubia Z9 we got this time gives a very strong sense of integrity from the front and back, bringing the so-called screen-off aesthetics and the unique texture that glass material brings to electronic products to the extreme.

The red edging of the camera on the back of the machine and the small red circle on the front, two design elements of the Nubia brand, also make the visual experience not too monotonous, and the red and black color scheme further highlights the individual positioning.

Some people say that the emergence of Apple has made simple white noble in electronic products, but nubia Z9 is definitely a product with a higher-looking black version. It can even be said that this is the best-looking black phone after iPhone 4/4S.

Daily use: high performance + long battery life

This year's Android flagship phones have officially opened the door to 64-bit. The nubia Z9 is equipped with a 64-bit Android 5.0 operating system and the most powerful 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor. It has scored over 52,000 points in the benchmark software, and its performance is undoubtedly strong.

Although it can handle all apps and games without any problems, the power-hungry Snapdragon 810 and the metal body of the nubia Z9 sandwiched between two pieces of glass cause the whole device to generate a lot of heat. And like all phones with metal frames, the frame of the phone is always the area where the temperature rises the fastest.

However, the built-in 2900mAh large battery of nubia Z9 still ensures the battery life of the phone. The fineness of 424PPI and the 5.2-inch 1080P display do not blindly pursue the 2K resolution which is more gimmicky and consumes more power.

In actual experience, a large-scale game consumes less than 15% of the battery in half an hour, and after a day of mixed use, there is generally more than 30% of the battery left. In contrast, the top-end version of Xiaomi Note, which is also equipped with a Snapdragon 810 chip and a 5.7-inch 2K screen, has a battery capacity of less than 200mAh more than nubia Z9, so its battery life is quite worrying.

The memory combination of 3GB RAM + 32GB ROM of the nubia Z9 classic version meets the usage needs of most users. In the initial state, the available space is about 23GB. However, it is worth noting that the nubia Z9 in our hands is pre-installed with more than 15 "recommended applications". Although they are all essential applications such as QQ and WeChat and support uninstallation, it is somewhat confusing that "Baidu Maps" and "AutoNavi Maps" are installed at the same time.

At the system level, nubia Z9 uses its own nubia UI, which is generally satisfactory but easy to use. It adopts the common flat design style. The settings menu is similar to Meizu's Flyme, and the multi-tasking interface style is close to Apple's iOS.

Long press the menu button or the back button at the bottom of the screen to trigger the one-handed mode on the specified side. There is also a simple mode for specific groups of people.

What is impressive is that nubia UI's frosted glass effects are used just right. Besides being beautiful, it does not make people feel that it is copying Apple. Some of the built-in software in the system is also very easy to use. For example, "nubia Music" supports downloading songs and has a very gorgeous interface. There should be no reason to install a third-party player separately.

Borderless: More Than Just Seems

As a mobile phone with its borderless design as its biggest highlight, nubia Z9 deserves special mention in this aspect.

First of all, in terms of achieving a borderless display, Nubia has proposed a curved refraction conduction technology called aRC. In fact, it is similar to the Sharp Aquos Crystal phone that was previously hotly discussed in the industry. It uses a cover glass that is thicker than conventional products and has curved corners to magnify the display content on the edge of the phone screen, making the originally very narrow border hidden from the intuitive visual experience of the front.

This approach does make the display area of ​​the screen visually borderless, but careful observation will reveal that the icons on the screen will be deformed due to the enlarged edges when scrolling. At certain specific angles, red and green stripes will also appear on both sides of the screen. This is the unavoidable convex lens effect of curved glass.

The biggest advantage of borderless design is that it is easier to control the size of the device than with narrow borders. In actual comparison, the nubia Z9 with a 5.2-inch screen is narrower than the nubia Z7 mini with a 5-inch screen. In this case, is the one-handed mode a bit redundant?

Secondly, the borderless design of nubia Z9 is not only to make the phone look more visually impactful, but also has an edge interaction technology called FiT, which means that some functions on the phone can be realized directly by touching the edge of the screen.

Under the default settings, swiping along the left edge of the screen can switch background applications, swiping along the right edge of the screen can clear background programs, swiping on both sides can adjust the screen brightness, holding it twice with one hand can quickly take a screenshot, and in landscape mode, holding it with both hands can start the camera, and then single-clicking the edge of the screen can act as a shutter to take pictures.

With FiT, we can say that nubia Z9 has created a new form of mobile phone interaction, but not all edge interactions can be regarded as a plus point for the product. Using the edge of the screen to clear the background and take screenshots is indeed addictive, but after the camera is started, the extremely high false touch rate of single-clicking to take a photo is also troublesome. Whether it is really more convenient to adjust the screen brightness with two fingers is also a question mark.

However, it is worth affirming that nubia Z9 is able to connect borderless design to interactive form, which is much more profound than products that only focus on "extreme appearance".

Photographic imaging: light painting cameras are worth a try

Regarding Nubia, which is known as the "SLR camera among mobile phones" and can "shoot stars", we must of course talk about the photography of Nubia Z9.

The nubia Z9 is equipped with a customized 16-megapixel Sony IMX234 stacked camera. The 16:9 full-pixel format means that you no longer have to sacrifice the number of pixels to take a photo that can fill the phone screen. The photo mode with separate focus and metering points also highlights the professionalism of Nubia's camera tuning.

Comparing the actual samples, we use iPhone 6 as the reference object. The native 16:9 photos of nubia Z9 look more comfortable, with higher brightness, more vivid colors, and more pleasing to the eye.

However, in terms of detail processing, although the 16-megapixel main camera makes the photos of nubia Z9 clearer, some distant scenes will be overexposed due to excessive brightness. For example, in the sample photos we took, the building in the distance among the trees has turned into a ball of white light by nubia Z9, while iPhone 6 restores it better.

In normal indoor lighting conditions, the nubia Z9 is particularly good at controlling light interference. When we took a picture of the keyboard below the screen, the iPhone 6 could not withstand the strong light from the screen, but the nubia Z9 seemed quite calm.

Although we are surprised that the nubia Z9 does not have the dual-color temperature flash commonly found in current flagship phones, fortunately, under extreme lighting conditions, the fill-in ability of the nubia Z9 single flash is not inferior to its competitors, and its photo parsing ability is outstanding, but the color restoration of dark objects is not as accurate as that of the dual-color temperature flash.

The customized Neovision 5.1 camera system in the system has added a large number of special camera functions. If the electronic aperture and multiple exposure are a little difficult to use for ordinary users, then the light painting camera, which had the longest speech at the nubia Z9 launch conference, is worth a try for everyone.

Just find a movable light source and use it to draw a trajectory in a dark environment. The nubia Z9 can use the camera's super long exposure to record the graphics generated by the trajectory. At this time, it is very important to ensure that the machine does not shake. After the shooting is completed, in the saved file, in addition to the longest photo, the video of the light painting will also be recorded. It is quite creative to hold the nubia Z9 and wait until May 20 to draw a "heart" in the night sky to make your girlfriend happy.

Following Nubia's usual characteristics, the nubia Z9's camera interface has a wealth of adjustable options in professional mode. The two-stage physical shutter button also allows users to better grasp the actual photo taking. It is a bit regrettable that some text logos can only support vertical screen display at present.

Summarize:

The nubia Z9 has a borderless design, so it is undoubtedly not suitable to put on a film or a case, but can the body with glass on both sides withstand drops? After accidentally knocking off a corner of the metal middle frame, we did not have the courage to continue such an experiment. The biggest reason is that the starting price of the nubia Z9 is 3499 yuan.

Xiaomi was determined to enter the high-end market, but after much deliberation by Lei Jun, the price of the top-end version of Xiaomi Note finally did not break the 3,000 yuan mark. However, Nubia seemed to have regained its original courage to make high-end products. This time, the pricing strategy of Nubia Z9 is aimed at the top range of 4,000 yuan for domestic smartphones.

But to be fair, whether it is the interaction on the borderless screen, the interesting light painting camera, or even the unprecedented buttonless design with integrated fingerprint recognition on the more expensive nubia Z9 Premium Edition, the current Nubia is no longer the brand that used the four numbers 3456 connected together to price its products on a whim.

nubia Z9 is a well-balanced and high-quality domestic mobile phone. Its disruptive borderless technology may be a major reason for the high cost and price.

As for how to evaluate the significance of borderless design for mobile phones, it may be like facing Apple's New MacBook with only one USB Type-C port. Most people will think that such a design is really gimmicky and even not very easy to use. However, only changes and breakthroughs can open up a new era and symbolize the future.

Putting aside the question of whether consumers will spend three or four thousand yuan on a borderless phone, Nubia obviously hopes to be one step ahead in the mobile phone industry with the help of cutting-edge technology.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.