We won’t blame you if you’ve never heard of Nubia. This particular Chinese smartphone brand has recently been making waves in its home territory, but until now hasn’t made a big push into the western hemisphere, though its parent company, ZTE, has some presence.
The Nubia Z11 is the brand’s first smartphone to launch worldwide, and touts a “bezel-less” design and camera technology which will supposedly give your DSLR a run for its money.
Announced at IFA 2016 in Berlin, the Z11 is a flagship that focuses firmly on design and photography, while also offering a hearty spec sheet, complete with up to 6GB of RAM, to ensure it keeps pace with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, LG G5 and HTC 10.
Though we have yet to fathom why anyone would need the option of 6GB of RAM in their phone in 2016, Nubia isn’t the only manufacturer to bump up the RAM, as the very similar OnePlus 3 also boasts that amount, and costs less too.
Nubia Z11 price and release date
Released worldwide in September 2016
Launch price starting at £385/$490 (around AU$655)
The Nubia Z11 was launched in a number of countries including the UK and US in September, with the standard silver edition (packing 4GB of RAM) costing €447 (around £385, $490, AU$655).
There is also a gray model and a special model - the Black Gold Edition – that both come with an almighty 6GB of RAM and a price tag of €614 (around £510, $670, AU$875) and €632 (around £535, $690, AU$900) respectively.
Even the standard version is a bit pricier than the $399/£329 (around AU$450) OnePlus 3 – its closest competitor – but the Z11 trumps its rival with a microSD slot and a slightly more premium design.
More than just a snappy dresser
The Nubia Z11 doesn’t pack a QHD screen like the Samsung Galaxy S7, though at 403 pixels per inch, the 5.5-inch, 1080p, IPS LCD display is still very clear and – thanks to the bezel-free design – feels incredibly inviting and responsive.
Beneath the plush silver exterior, the ‘standard’ Nubia Z11 we were sent to review packs some fairly serious hardware. Nubia’s heavily-skinned version of Android 6.0 is driven at speed by 4GB of RAM and a quad-core Snapdragon 820 processor – the same you’ll find in other pricey flagships such as the Sony Xperia X Performance.
Packed into the 7.7mm slim body there’s 64GB of internal storage, a microSD slot for extra media capacity, a reasonable 3000mAh battery, an 8MP front camera and a very snappy fingerprint scanner for added security.
The main attraction is the Z11’s 16MP rear camera, which combines an OIS (Optical Image Stabilizer), Nubia HIS (Handheld Image Stabilization) and EIS (Electronic Image Stabilizer) to produce photos that Nubia claims can rival DSLR quality. Alongside the flush camera there’s also a two-tone flash.
A couple of welcome additions are included in the box, such as a USB Type-A to Type-C cable, a handy micro USB to USB Type-C adapter and a rather nice pair of headphones. It’s surprising to even see a set of headphones come with a mid-price smartphone these days, so this good-looking set are a real bonus.
Design
Slim metal unibody with a bezel-free screen
USB Type-C for fast charging and data transfer
A speedy fingerprint sensor located on the rear
There’s no denying that the Nubia Z11 is a pretty phone, but like so many other modern smartphones there’s nothing particularly ground-breaking about the design. The volume and power keys are exactly where we have come to expect them, positioned on the top third of the right edge. Both keys are fairly simplistic, and not overly tactile, but they are at least responsive.
One of the most striking features of the Z11 is the lack of bezels down either side of the 5.5-inch display, which makes this large phone feel a little smaller and easier to hold one handed, whilst also looking rather dashing to boot. Unfortunately there’s no one-handed mode like you’ll find in the Huawei P9, so you’ll likely still be using two hands most of the time.
Round the back, a fingerprint scanner falls nicely under your forefinger for very speedy unlocking – Just like the Nexus 6P. We would prefer a front mounted reader, as it allows you to unlock the phone when it’s sitting on a desk. With a rear-mounted scanner you will always have to pick the phone up to see beyond the lock screen; that said, it’s very quick and never failed to recognise our digits.
It's a minor compliant, but one which is more annoying here as the Z11 features navigation buttons below the display, so there’s no obvious reason that a scanner couldn’t have been baked in.
A circular home key is flanked by two hidden capacitive navigation buttons that light up on contact, and can be customized to your desired preference - the stock functions are back and multi-tasking.
On the bottom edge, a USB-C connector is flanked by twin speaker grilles which look suspiciously similar to those found on the Apple iPhone 7 – not that this is necessarily a bad thing (though there’s only a single speaker onboard). Unlike the latest Apple handset, the top edge is home to a 3.5mm audio jack and an infrared transmitter (though oddly no apps are bundled to make use of it).
Interface and reliability
Android is muddied by an unnecessary skin
Google’s apps are coupled with some unusual additions from Nubia
A novel selection of edge gestures make navigation exciting
On screen, Nubia has chosen to do away with the stock Android experience in favor of version 4.0 of its own overlay, which despite the company’s best efforts doesn’t entirely feel like an improvement.
Built upon Android 6.0.1, it’s reminiscent of the skins you’ll find on Huawei and ZTE handsets, with the removal of the app drawer meaning all your applications are found on home screens, all wrapped up in a cutesy app icon design that borders on childish.
The number of menus, sub-menus and features are a little bewildering, and whilst some folk will enjoy fiddling and customizing their phone to the Nth degree, to most casual users it’s all just a little frustrating and far-removed from stock Android. The whole experience is worsened further by dodgy translations from the native Chinese in apps and menus, making it feel a little cheaper.
Although we aren’t generally fans of skinned versions of Android, there are some quick gestures available on the Z11 we would like to see brought to the stock version of Google’s OS.
One particularly useful feature is the ability to display two apps on screen simultaneously (just like on Samsung’s TouchWiz UI), which can be engaged by swiping up from the capacitive keys below the screen. Alternatively, you can easily adjust the brightness by swiping up and down on both edges, or switch between apps by swiping up and down from the bottom of either edge.
It’s a novel use of the slightly curved edges on the screen, and – once we got the hang of it – we found they were features we would be likely to use regularly. If you aren’t a fan of any of the gestures, they can be individually enabled or disabled in the Edge Gestures app.
Despite some of the more interesting additions, the majority of the tweaked interface still creates a disconnect between the premium exterior on the Z11 and the cheap looking on-screen theme. Huawei has recently refined its interface on the P9, bringing it closer to stock Android, and we hope Nubia follows suit with a software update later down the line.
As far as preinstalled apps go, the selection is fairly limited. The full suite of Google apps is available in a neatly organized folder, and whilst Nubia cannot be accused of filling the phone with bloatware, there are some unique apps you won’t find on stock Android phones.
The first of these apps to mention, and one that becomes obvious very quickly when reviewing a phone, is the ‘Super Screenshot’ app.
This allows you to take screenshots by pressing and holding the fingerprint sensor; take ‘long screenshots’, that allow you to scroll down the screen and capture more than what’s already on screen; capture specific sections of the screen by drawing on the screenshot; and record the screen in high definition.
It’s a little odd to find such extensive screenshot functionality, but for those of us reviewing smartphones and apps, it’s actually quite a handy feature.
Another pre-installed app is ‘Screen Projection’, which – as the name suggests – allows you to project anything that’s on screen to a compatible device. It’s essentially a repackaged Miracast app that is compatible with a variety of TVs and projectors supporting this wireless streaming standard.
The app also lets you project your phone’s screen onto another Nubia phone, which can then control the on-screen behaviour. It’s a curious addition that we’re struggling to comprehend the benefits of.
Music, movies and gaming
The loud speaker provides audio tuned by Dolby Atmos
A tasty set of bundled headphones sweetens the deal
Plenty of storage and speedy processing for movies and games
The bright screen and loud speaker make the Nubia Z11 an OK device for watching videos on, but we’d recommend you stick to headphones. Whilst YouTube videos look crisp, audio from the single built-in speaker distorts when at higher volumes. Unfortunately, there’s not much depth to the bass either – especially when compared to the BoomSound tech packed into the HTC 10.
Listening to music via the bundled headphones is a pleasurable experience, and whilst there isn’t the fancy preamp electronics you’ll find in some top-end phones, the volume is loud and the clarity is passable.
You would have to spend a fair bit of money to get a better aural experience, and the difference was fairly negligible when we swapped out the bundled set for a set of Sennheiser in-ear headphones.
If you’re more likely to pack your phone full of video for long-haul flights, the Nubia’s 64GB of built-in storage and capacity to take microSD cards provides plentiful media storage options. The Nubia Z11 can also play a number of popular media formats – such as MKV, AVI and MP4 – right out of the box, without the need for additional apps.
Gaming more your bag? You’ll have no issues with the Z11. The speedy Snapdragon 820 processor from Qualcomm is coupled with the Adreno 530 – currently among the fastest mobile graphics chips available.
No matter whether you’re playing graphically intensive titles such as Modern Combat 5: Blackout, or something a little more sedate like Osmos HD, you’ll find that the Z11 never falters and titles look great on the 5.5-inch 1080p screen.
Speaking of the screen, Nubia appreciates that not everyone’s vision is quite the same; some may want a warmer color temperature, whilst others may prefer it cooler. Tucked away in the screen display preferences you can pick either Glow, Natural or Standard saturation, then adjust the hue from cool to warm.
Throughout our time with the handset, we kept it on the “Natural” setting, as it seemed to replicate colors accurately on the IPS display.
Specs and benchmark performance
Strong performance but middling benchmarks
Plenty of RAM keeps the interface silky smooth
Don’t think that just because the Nubia Z11 is fresh out of China it’s running a stripped-down cheap processor - far from it. Under the hood there’s a Qualcomm MSM8996 (more commonly known as the Snapdragon 820), which is coupled with Qualcomm’s Adreno 530 GPU, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage in the version we tested.
There’s also an amped-up version available with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, though it’s a fair bit more expensive for relatively few gains.
Despite the variation in storage and RAM, the same models are available worldwide – there are no other variations, no matter where you are based. The Z11 can handle the full range of network bands in Asia, Europe and America, making it easy to get the fastest mobile data speeds and best reception across the globe.
To test out the relative speed of the Z11, I ran the Geekbench 3 benchmark that we run on all of the phones that make their way through TechRadar towers.
The average multi-core test score of 4040 put the Z11 well below the cheaper 5425-scoring OnePlus 3 – no surprise, considering the OnePlus 3 packs more RAM as standard. It also compares poorly to the LG G5, which managed an average score of 5386, whilst the Snapdragon variant of the Samsung Galaxy S7 reached an impressive 5398 on the same test.
Its results are more in line with mid-range phones, or the lower end of 2015’s flagships, like the HTC One M9, which scored 3700.
Despite that, performance is strong in actual use, and despite our aversion to companies insisting on toying with the look and feel of Android, the Nubia Z11 feels slick and we didn’t encounter a hint of slowdown whilst navigating menus and popping in and out of apps.
Battery life
Battery life compares well with similar sized phones
Outperforms the much more expensive iPhone 7
There are no power saving modes
When you compare the size of the Nubia Z11’s battery to other similarly-sized smartphones, it is just about on par with other phones in this price range – such as the Sony Xperia XZ (which has a 2900mAh cell), or - our favorite comparison - the OnePlus 3 (which also has a 3000mAh battery).
After running our in-house battery benchmark (an HD video at full brightness for 90 minutes), the Z11 dropped 20% of its battery life to finish up with a respectable 80% remaining.
Whilst the battery life is not awful compared to some of the other flagships, it’s not the best money can buy – the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge has a QHD screen with identical proportions, but a larger 3600mAh battery, and dropped only 14% during the test.
On the other hand, the Apple iPhone 7 (which is a fair bit more expensive) only has a paltry 1,960mAh battery, and lost 23% of its charge in our HD video test.
There are no special battery saving options in the settings menu, so what you see is what you get with the Z11. Auto brightness and the ease of adjusting brightness using the Edge Gestures makes it reasonably straightforward to keep on top of screen drain, but the only other battery saving measures come from the chipset itself, rather than any special software tricks.
Whilst battery life won’t keep up with some of the other flagships, the Z11 put in a respectable showing in our battery test, and happily sailed through a day’s regular usage without getting dangerously close to running out of steam.
Camera
A high-quality snapper in a slim smartphone package
Plenty of settings and a wealth of image tech produce great images
Low light performance isn’t as great as alternatives with dual sensors
It’s important for any serious smartphone to have standout camera credentials, and this is one area that Nubia feels it has cracked with the Z11.
Whilst it may not have the twin cameras of the iPhone 7 Plus or the Huawei P9, Nubia has packed in its fair share of optical technology into this super-slim 16MP snapper, without the need for the dreaded camera “bump”.
Helping the sensor eke the best out of any situation is an OIS (Optical Image Stabilizer), Nubia’s own HIS (Handheld Image Stabilization) technology and an EIS (Electronic Image Stabilizer). These combine to produce images that Nubia believes rival the quality of more expensive DSLR cameras. As we’ve come to expect on flagship phones, there’s also a two-tone flash.
On first inspection, the 16MP rear camera appears to have the credentials to compete with most flagships, and for the most part it does – especially in good lighting. Unfortunately, as the sensor has smaller light-sensing pixels than those you’ll find on the HTC 10, Samsung Galaxy S7 and Nexus 6P, it’s not quite as impressive in low-light.
The camera app is reminiscent of an iPhone in its simplicity, and comes sporting a variety of modes, including Panorama, Slow-Mo, Video, Photo, Pro, Time-Lapse and Camera-Family. The Camera-Family option hides a wealth of extra settings – some of which are really impressive for a smartphone camera.
You’ll find Multi Exposure, Light Painting, Electronic Aperture, Slow Shutter, Star Track, Video Maker, Trajectory, DNG and Clone.
The Slow Shutter and Electronic Aperture are features you don’t often see on smartphones, and are particularly good at producing some interesting pictures of starry nights and other – more arty – shots.
As you would expect with a smartphone that claims to have a quality snapper, the professional mode gives you access to plenty of settings, including exposure, white balance and ISO, allowing you to get a perfect shot in any situation.
Another handy setting hidden away in the camera menus is the Snapshot function, which allows you to double click the volume key to take photos whilst the screen is off. Although you won’t be able to frame the picture, it allows you to take a photo incredibly quickly, before the moment has passed.
Focusing is quick and close-up images have an impressive depth of field, that adds character to photos. You can tap anywhere in the viewfinder to focus the camera, and as soon as it does, it speedily snaps an image.
The Nubia Z11 produces some beautiful pictures in daylight, capturing a range of color and definition without blowing out bright areas with HDR enabled. The colors aren’t quite as well saturated as the current cream of the crop: the Samsung Galaxy S7, but the camera is still the Z11’s key asset, especially considering that it is at least £100 (around $130 or AU$170) less than Samsung’s flagship.
Pictures taken with this camera come out looking quite good, even in not-so-great lighting. When outdoors in direct sunlight, areas of the picture aren’t blown out either, like they are on some other smartphones.
They don’t come out as saturated as many Samsung smartphones, but still appear pretty decent. Many users won’t have any issues with this camera, especially if all they are doing is posting onto social media.
Camera samples
Verdict
With very little track record on which to go on, we had few expectations of the Nubia Z11, despite its eye-catching bezel-less design. Fortunately, we were not disappointed by the latest flagship from the Chinese upstart, and found many good points that make this a worthwhile alternative to more well-known contenders.
Although almost all smartphones are starting to morph into a set of very similarly dressed sheep, Nubia took the right cues from the right competitors to create a genuinely handsome handset with minuscule bezels and a sleek, premium feel.
Under the hood the Snapdragon 820 and option of 4GB or 6GB of RAM is enough for the phone to glide effortlessly through any task you might have it perform, and 64GB of storage is enough for most media needs, though additional storage via microSD is always welcome.
Whilst there are a few little niggles with the user interface and a disappointing speaker, the rest of the hardware package is quite a treat, with almost everything you would expect of a flagship smartphone from any other top brand.
With the silver edition starting at €447 (around £385, $490, AU$655), it’s perhaps not quite as good value as the $399/£329 (around AU$450) OnePlus 3, but certainly not far off.
Who's this for?
The Nubia Z11 is a phone for those who want flagship performance without a flagship price and are prepared to go with a lesser known brand to get it.
It's not quite a match for top of the range phones like the Samsung Galaxy S7 - as evidenced by the Z11's 1080p screen and middling benchmarks, but it also doesn't cost as much and at this sort of price it only really has the OnePlus 3, or other unknown brands, to compete with.
Should you buy it?
Our first taste of a top-end phone from Nubia was overall a very positive experience. Though there are still things the young Chinese contender needs to learn in regards to interface refinement, there are equally many things to enjoy about this fairly priced handset.
On many fronts, the Nubia Z11 goes head-to-head with many other 2016 flagships, and comes out with a respectable set of specifications to show off.
The camera is not quite on a par with the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge (but it’s not far off), and there isn’t a QHD display or modular capabilities like the LG G5. The Z11 does, however, stack up quite well against the so-called ‘2016 Flagship Killer’ the OnePlus 3, Nubia’s skinned version of Android being the only real shortcoming.
The frustrations of a non-stock Android experience may be an irritation, but the array of settings, features and hardware high points make the Z11 well worth buying if you're after strong specs on a budget.
Competition
Its high-end specs make the the Nubia Z11 a genuine alternative to expensive flagships, while only the OnePlus 3 presents much competition at a similar price. Below you'll find a few other phones you might want to consider.
HTC 10
HTC has been renowned for its premium design and the company’s latest flagship – the HTC 10 – was no disappointment. The Z11 shares some similarities in the aluminum unibody divided by antenna lines, and is actually noticeably slimmer when you put the two side by side.
Unfortunately for Nubia, when you start to delve into the nitty-gritty, the HTC 10 starts to pull away, thanks to a super high-resolution QHD screen, better speakers and a more accessible fingerprint scanner.
When comparing Android on the two phones, HTC comes out the clear winner here, too, as the latest version of HTC Sense has been refined and honed to become one of our favorite iterations of Android outside the stock experience.
Read our HTC 10 review
OnePlus 3
After trying to break the mould of smartphone ownership with its previous three handsets, the OnePlus 3 feels like the phone from a Chinese smartphone manufacturer that has finally grown up and started to reach its potential.
The OnePlus 3 is probably the closest rival to the Nubia Z11, both in terms of specifications and value-for-money, and only really manages to trump the Nubia where software is concerned.
On the hardware front, it’s pretty much a dead heat across the board, though the Z11 arguably has the better camera, and a more attractive screen, thanks to the lack of bezels.
Read our OnePlus 3 review
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge
We consider the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge to be the best phone in the world, so how does the Nubia Z11 compare?
Surprisingly, it doesn’t lag that far behind, and the bezel-less design allows for some novel edge gestures that could teach the S7 Edge a thing or two.
If you’re looking for the best camera on a smartphone and money is no object, then stick with the Samsung. If you’re happy to stick with a camera that does a darn good job in most conditions, the Nubia Z11 has you covered.
If you’re looking for a handset to use with VR, then the extra pixels on the Galaxy S7 Edge make for a more crystal clear experience, that can’t quite be matched by the Z11.
Read our Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge review
First reviewed: October 2016
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