Zte has introduced a frameless smartphone nubia z11. Review of ZTE Nubia Z11 - a premium smartphone from a famous Chinese brand

Ever since the days of Nubia Z9, I wanted to test the flagship frameless devices from this line, but it still didn’t work out. For example, the previous generation of the original Z9 (not Mini and not Max) was simply not sold officially, and in online stores it was obscenely expensive.

Characteristics

Equipment

• Smartphone
• Charger
• PC connection cable (also part of the charger)
• Wired headset
• Clip
• microUSB to Type C adapter

The smartphone comes with a good wired headset with a remote control and even a microUSB adapter! This is very cool, since, for example, I have only a couple of Type C cables, and 10 microUSB cables.

Appearance, materials, controls, assembly

I like the design of the Nubia range since the Z9 days: a black or white panel with a few red elements. In this case we are talking about the bottom touch panel and the rim of the main camera.

Thanks to the frameless display, the smartphone looks very cool, you look straight ahead and rejoice. It's amazing how a technical detail can make a look better. I use the device for about a month, and every time I just want to twist it in my hands, to see how the screen plays in the light.

Most of the body is made of aluminum, it is a bit rough to the touch and very practical. Fingerprints and dirt on the back are almost invisible, in this regard, the Z11 is much more practical than the Z9 Max or Z11 Mini. Let's move on to the controls.

The area above the screen. Ear speaker mesh, light and proximity sensors and front-camera

Below the display is Touchpad. The central button also acts as a light indicator. In the settings, you can swap actions to the left and right button

On the left is the power button and volume rocker.

On the right is a tray for a nanoSIM card and a microSD memory card

Bottom end. Port USB type C and external speaker. The speaker is not stereo, the microphone is hidden behind the left mesh

Upper end. Second microphone, infrared and headphone minijack

Back panel. Main camera, flash, fingerprint scanner. Top and bottom inserts are made of plastic

The fingerprint scanner is super fast. The delay between placing your finger and unlocking is practically zero. The scanner can work with third party applications, for example, Sberbank Online.

In a month of use, I did not notice any assembly problems, there is only one important point with a display, but we'll talk about it in the corresponding section.

Dimensions

The frameless display, in addition to the spectacular appearance, gives another tangible plus: the smartphone becomes narrower, it feels like you are holding a device of a smaller diagonal in your hands. As you can see, other models with the same diagonal are 3 mm thicker.

And you know, this small difference is very well felt, I often forgot that I had a 5.5-inch phablet in front of me, and not a regular smartphone.

Compared Huawei Nova Plus and Meizu M3 Note

Screen

The first time you use a device with a frameless display, you feel as if you have a model from the future in your hands, such an implementation looks beautiful and, at the same time, futuristic.

After a while, you begin to notice that on a white background, thin rainbow lines are visible along the edges of the 2.5D glass. If you also notice them - do not be surprised, this is a diffraction phenomenon. It appears mainly on a white background and only at a certain viewing angle. Personally, after a week I stopped noticing them, and the stripes had almost no effect on the overall perception of the display.

I would like to note that the screen itself in Nubia Z11 is very high quality: it has a huge range of brightness, maximum viewing angles, excellent behavior in the sun and high definition Pictures. The display is made using OGS technology, so there is no air gap between it and the glass. And even though there is no 2k resolution here, otherwise we have a flagship-level matrix.

In the settings, you can change the color scheme of the screen, as well as the color saturation.

Working with faces

ZTE decided to play with the 2.5D glass and add a few features that take advantage of the curved edges of the screen. All of them are enabled and disabled in the settings for special gestures.

Desktop. To quickly return to the desktop, swipe left or right from the edge of the screen.

Switching between applications. Swipe up on the edge of the screen takes you to the previous app, swipe down to the next.

Close all applications. A quick swipe up and down closes all open programs.

Brightness adjustment. Simultaneous swipe up with two fingers increases the brightness, down - decreases.

Back. Double tap on the edge of the screen mimics the "Back" button.

Thank God that all these options are disabled, because when you enable some of them, the actions were triggered due to accidental clicks on the edges of the screen. As a result, the most useful of these gestures, I find the brightness adjustment.

operating system

Smartphone works under Android control 6.0 and proprietary shell Nubia UI 4.0.

I like Nubia UI, it's neat and not flashy, but very functional.

In the settings, you can easily change the screen grid size.

Dual-window mode is supported, it is called by a swipe from central button up. I must say that it was on this smartphone that I enjoyed using this feature, since even the desktop is correctly optimized for half the screen.

Unfortunately, you can't take screenshots in this mode, so I'm attaching a photo.

The smartphone can take long screenshots or cut out a separate area of ​​the screen. The problem is that he offers to do this every time you take a screenshot, and to get a normal screen, you need to click on the "rectangle" and then save the image. By the way, screen recording (screencast) is immediately turned on.

There are Russian letters in the dialer, and when new sms appear, you can immediately mark them as read.

Nubia UI can make a copy of the application so that you can communicate in the same WhatsApp or VKontakte from two accounts.

I enjoyed using all the shell options (except for working with edges), in my opinion, it came out beautiful and functional.

Performance

The flagship of the line - the flagship stuffing. The top chipset from Qualcomm, 4/6 GB of RAM, 64 GB of internal memory and support for memory cards, in general, everything is at the highest level. And this applies not only to the characteristics, but also to the real speed of work. Launcher, browser, third-party applications and games - all this works without slowdowns.

Offline work

In the mode of everyday use, the smartphone works for one day with very active interaction with it. You can safely count on four to five hours of active screen time with all background syncs enabled.

The device supports QuickCharge 3.0 fast charging, in theory, it can be charged by 83% in half an hour. Unfortunately, I did not have the appropriate chargers on hand, and the built-in adapter and my QC 2.0 charger charged the smartphone in 2 hours and 10 minutes. At the same time, the charge was uniform, approximately 25% in half an hour.

Camera

I heard a lot of good things about the camera in the Z11, so this time I asked Roman Belykh to comment on the quality of the pictures.

At good conditions lighting from the main camera, extremely successful photos come out: the first thing worth noting is excellent sharpness both in the center of the frame and at the edges. The white balance is usually accurate, the colors are correct, not embellished.

Dynamic Range close to perfect, but still far from the iPhone 7 or Huawei P9. Portrait and macro shots were also good with good sharpness and nice background blur (bokeh).

In terms of sound quality, the smartphone is also “good”. The speaker is average in terms of volume, plays cleanly and neutrally, even a little with a claim to surround sound. In music overloaded with details, the smartphone does not wheeze or whistle, but simply lowers the volume a little so as not to “fall asleep”.

The sound calibration in the headphones of the premium ZTE is peculiar - we have the usual audio path for the eight-core Snapdragon 615/616/617, only with “boosted” mids and, to a lesser extent, high frequencies.

Remember the first time you tried in-ear headphones after regular in-ear headphones? At this moment, everyone seems to vacuum headphones they are too booming, so I urgently want to make the voice and melody in the songs more expressive. Here in Nubia Z11 mini, this has already been done, which will please some of the owners, but on the contrary, someone will not like it. Because in large monitor headphones, the vocals annoyingly screaming into the ears become uncomfortable, the clarity seems excessive, and the bottoms are lacking.

But for this in the smartphone settings there is a DTS sound manager. Quite primitive, with just a couple of knobs, so it does not radically change the sound, but it is quite possible to patch something up to your taste. It is only strange that the last two divisions of the volume scale do not work properly - the smartphone cuts off the rest somewhere low frequencies instead of just making the sound even louder. The same circus is present in Huawei Mate 8, for example. I would like to believe that this trick is buried in the "brains" of the smartphone and it can be eliminated.

Iron

No surprises or revelations - inside the Nubia Z11 mini is an "octa-core ordinary processor" from the aging Snapdragon 615/616/617 family. Fast enough so that the owner of the smartphone does not feel disadvantaged in terms of speed, but not powerful either - today eight-core chips on the old technical process with Cortex-A53 cores are put into cool budget and most affordable mid-range smartphones.

A stylish smartphone with an all-metal body and an advanced camera - this is how the hero of this review can be briefly described. It can be classified as a mid-range smartphone, although the specifications are advanced: 4 GB of RAM, 64 GB of memory, Snapdragon 625 2 GHz 8-core processor, 5.2-inch full screen HD. There is a fingerprint scanner and NFC.

The standard equipment of the khaki model (black front panel and gray back panel) consists of: the phone itself, charger and cable, metal key for the SIM card tray, user manual. Also in the package were: a silicone case and protective glass to the screen. The seller also put an adapter from Chinese to European socket.

Appearance

As already mentioned, the case of the smartphone ZTE nubia Z11 mini S is all-metal. Two arcuate plastic strips under the antennas are inserted into the metal. The front side is scratch-resistant 2.5D Gorilla Glass 3. The build quality is excellent.

On the lower end there is one grille for the speaker, and the second one is only for symmetry, under it there is a conversational microphone. Right USB connector Type-C, but version 2.0 (what is the difference from version 3.1 can be found on the Internet). In fact, this connector has the same capabilities as microUSB, only it is symmetrical. Implemented OTG technology (you can connect external devices, cameras, flash drives through adapters, etc.). I didn't check my work!

At the top end is a standard headphone jack and a second microphone.

On the left is a common tray for SIM cards and memory cards. You can install either two nano-SIM SIM cards, or a MicroSD memory card (up to 200 GB) and only one nano-SIM SIM card.

On the right are two keys: power / lock and sound.

The fingerprint scanner is located on the back side. When using the phone with one hand, you can easily reach it with your index finger. In general, it is quite convenient to use. To operate, it is not necessary to hold your finger for a long time, just touch it. Works flawlessly. You can use it both to block access to the phone and to block access to selected applications. You can add up to 5 fingerprints.

There are three touch buttons below the screen: two in the form of dots (menu and back) and one in the form of a ring (home). They are highlighted in red. The brightness of the glow is adjustable. During charging, the ring glows, and with a missed call and other notifications, it pulsates.

Screen

The screen diagonal is 5.2 inches, and the resolution is Full HD (1920x1080). The glass has an oleophobic coating (a surface that repels grease and dirt).

The screen is bright, the colors can be customized. Air gap no, you can see everything well on the street, at the corners the picture is bright with good color reproduction. Of course, it does not reach the flagships, but the screen is very good.

Sensor performance is excellent. Recognizes up to 10 simultaneous touches.

The interface can be used in any position of the screen, even when the phone is upside down (it adapts).

There is an adaptive brightness sensor and a proximity sensor. They work well. There are also sensors: position sensor, gyroscope, electronic compass.

Camera

The main camera in ZTE nubia Z11 mini S has Sony sensor IMX318. According to the declared characteristics, 6 lenses and a protective sapphire crystal are used. Camera resolution 23 megapixels. But to be more precise, 22.6 megapixels. Resolution: 5488x4112 pixels. Videos can be recorded in 4K resolution (3840x2160). In Full HD resolution, video is recorded at 60 frames per second!

Strange, but in the settings you can only select the video recording resolution, and the photo resolution is not selected. The resolution of photos will change only when you change the aspect ratio. There are only three ratios to choose from: "4:3", "16:9", "1:1". With an aspect ratio of 16:9, which is the most convenient for viewing on modern technology, the photo resolution will be only 5312x2988 pixels (16 megapixels).

The settings are poor.

Autofocus works quickly, which allows you to take a picture by touching the screen (just touch the desired object on the screen to focus and the picture will be taken immediately).

There is a simple shooting mode and a professional one. There are macro and panorama.

On the street the pictures come out excellent quality. But indoors it's not the same. Indoors, under the light of ordinary lamps, any movement of a person will give a blurry photo.

Photos taken in normal mode:

Photos in macro mode:

Photos at night (normal mode)

Front camera with a resolution of 13 megapixels (4160x3120). Module: Sony IMX258. The photos are excellent in my opinion.

operating system

Smartphone works on operating system Android 6.0.1, which is heavily modified by the nubia UI 4.0 skin. There are more settings than in pure Android. Eat additional modes work with a smartphone. More information about the operating system of this smartphone in a separate review of nubia UI 4.0.

Of the 64 gigabytes of memory, only 51.4 gigabytes are available. The rest is occupied by the needs of the system and pre-installed applications.

On ZTE nubia Z11 mini S, the firmware works quickly. For ten days there were no brakes and freezes. Almost everything is in Russian, although in some places English is found and there are appendices in Chinese. These are Chinese applications that we are not interested in. Half of them can be removed, and the rest do not interfere. Standard browser in Russian, but with Chinese start page and only Chinese search engines in the settings, so you will immediately have to install a third-party browser. All basic applications in Russian ( phone book, calendar, clock, calculator, player and others).

Archives can be unpacked without installing an archiver. This possibility is in the firmware itself.

Since the phone I ordered is for the domestic Chinese market, it does not have the Play Store and “Services Google Play». Play app The market is installed, but does not start. Something can be installed from the Chinese application store available in the firmware, and something by installing the Aptoide application store. It’s just worth understanding that not all applications and games from Aptoide will be compatible with your phone, and that downloading them here is not as safe as in the official Google Play Store.

The "Google Play Services" I installed from Aptoide doesn't work either. Moreover, there may be problems with launching other applications. Downloaded Need game for Speed No Limits without " Google Services Play" did not work. Alas, this can happen.

Performance

4 GB of RAM allows you to return to previous applications and continue working from where you left off. This is due to the fact that applications and games remain in RAM even if you do not use them. You can clear the memory by pressing and holding the Home key, then select Close All.

The energy-efficient Snapdragon 625 processor has 8 production cores clocked at 2 GHz and Adreno 506 graphics.

Alas, the Asphalt Extreme game downloaded on the Internet is worse at maximum settings than on ZTE nubia Z9 mini. It is impossible to manage it. I can only explain this by the fact that it was not downloaded from Play Store and is not optimized for this specific smartphone. It is comfortable to play at optimal and low settings.

Check Need game for Speed ​​No Limits could not, because, as I wrote above, it refused to run without "Google Play Services".

In general, if you are an avid gamer, you will have to get Root rights or change the firmware.

AnTuTu Benchmark test result:

Connection

The signal reception quality is excellent. The interlocutor is heard well, the speaker is loud and clear.

Both SIM cards work in 3G and 4G networks.

Sound

I don't listen to music on my phone and I don't have expensive headphones. Yeah, I don't know about sound either. Therefore, I can not say anything specifically about the sound quality. I can only note that the volume in the headphones is quite large, the bass is good. I am completely satisfied with the sound quality.

The sound of the second speaker, in my opinion, is good. The speaker isn't the loudest, but it's definitely not the quietest either. The standard melody is quiet even at the maximum, but you can hear your own MP3 music on the call even in a noisy place.

GPS navigation

The navigator is very fast. Coordinates will be determined in a couple of seconds. To establish contact with 19 satellites out of 21 detected, I did not even have to leave the apartment, where some budget smartphones The GPS just doesn't work. Sees Russian and Chinese satellites better than ZTE nubia Z9 mini.

The work of GPS navigation is chic: it finds satellites quickly and in in large numbers with good communication.

Battery

The non-removable battery has a capacity of 3,000 mAh. By time battery life ZTE nubia Z11 mini S proved to be a good side. In my mode of use, a full charge is enough for four days. This is every day a few calls, the Internet and a few photos.

I checked the charging time. A fully discharged battery, before turning off the phone, is charged in the following time:

• Up to 34% in 30 minutes
• Up to 56% in 50 minutes
• Up to 82% in 1 hour and 15 minutes
• Up to 100% in 2 hours and 10 minutes (give or take a couple of minutes).

Outcome

I ordered a phone for myself and in the end I was completely satisfied. For ten days of use, I was completely satisfied and I can’t even single out any minuses. Yes, the firmware is not perfect, because it was originally sharpened for China, but I like it in terms of capabilities and settings. The device is well-made, it works smartly, the sensor is responsive, the screen is pleasant, the connection and GPS are on top, the camera did not disappoint. In summary, it's a pleasure to use.

It just so happened that in the review I only praise ZTE nubia Z1 mini S, but for the money for which it is ordered from China, there really is nothing to scold. Everything works as it should.

"Dream Without Limits"

Dream without boundaries - under this slogan, ZTE presented the world on the last day of the outgoing summer at the IFA 2016 exhibition in Berlin with its latest flagship smartphone Nubia Z11. “A dream without borders” is how this phrase can be roughly translated into Russian, and apparently, this message is connected, first of all, with the appearance of the novelty. ZTE Nubia Z11 received the very “frameless” display that all smartphone developers are so eager for now, although from a practical point of view this is difficult to explain. Nevertheless, ZTE in the new season, following some other manufacturers, also brings its smartphone to the market, the screen of which is almost completely devoid of a frame (of course, only from the sides).

But the interest in the novelty of the premium brand ZTE is not limited to this: the smartphone, after a close acquaintance with it, demonstrated many of its attractive sides. We have already tested this device and today we present to your attention a full review of the powerful and quality smartphone ZTE Nubia Z11, which stands at the forefront of ZTE's premium Nubia mobile family.

Key Features of ZTE Nubia Z11 (Model NX531J)

• operating room android system 6.0.1, nubia UI 4.0
• SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 (MSM8996), 4 Kryo cores (ARMv8): 2x2.15GHz + 2x1.6GHz
• GPU Adreno 530 @620 MHz
• 5.5″ IPS touch display, 1920×1080, 403 ppi
• Random access memory (RAM) 4/6 GB, inner memory 64 GB
• SIM cards: Nano-SIM (2 pcs.)
• Support for microSD memory cards up to 200 GB
• GSM networks 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, CDMA 800
• WCDMA networks 850/900/1900/2100 MHz
• LTE networks FDD Band 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 20; TDD Band 40
• Wi-Fi 802.11n/ac with MU-MIMO, Wi-Fi Direct
• Bluetooth 4.1 BLE, NFC
• USB Type-C, OTG
• GPS/A-GPS, Glonass, BDS
• Camera 16 MP, f/2.0, autofocus, LED flash
• Front camera 8 MP, f/2.4
• Direction, proximity, lighting, magnetic field sensors, accelerometer, gyroscope, fingerprint scanner
• Audio chip AKM4376
• Battery 3000 mAh
• Quick Charge 3.0
• Dimensions 152×72×7.7 mm
• Weight 162 g

Contents of delivery

Nubia Z11 goes on sale in a flat, stylishly designed rectangular box. The packaging is made of matte black cardboard with red elements, this combination looks the most advantageous in the case of a premium class product.

The accessory kit consists of a mains charger with a function fast charging(output current 1.5-3 A, voltage 5/9/12 V), connecting USB cable Type-C and stereo headsets with in-ear rubber ear cushions, beautifully packaged in a separate plastic box. Also in the box you can find a metal key for extracting cards and a warranty card. There is no paper documentation included.

Appearance and usability

Nubia Z11 received quite an attractive design. However, all smartphones of this premium series can be classified as fashion models, aimed not only at high technical characteristics, but also at visual appeal. The device has an absolutely symmetrical case, where both the front glass and rear metal walls have sloping edges, which, together with the strongly rounded side edges of the frame and the corners in plan, form a sort of pebble streamlined from all sides without a single acute angle(only very flat).

The body is mostly made of metal, and only two thin rear inserts, as is often the case, are not metal here. However, they have a coating so similar to other surfaces that it is difficult to immediately notice the difference.

The assembly does not cause any complaints, the case is monolithic, there are no removable parts, the parts fit well, there are no creaks or deflections. Due matte surfaces and the small thickness of the device is securely held in the hand, there are no prints on its surfaces either - with the exception, of course, of the front glass.

The body shape of the Nubia Z11 is slightly different from most smartphones due to the lack of a bezel on the sides of the screen, so the slightly narrower smartphone fits even better in the palm of your hand than is usually the case with 5.5-inch devices.

The front panel is covered with 2.5D Gorilla Glass 3 glass with sloping edges, under the glass there is a familiar set of elements: sensors, a front camera and an LED event indicator, in the form of a “breathing” circle with red backlight under the screen - this is a proprietary design element of all Nubia smartphones. The two touch buttons on the sides of the circle also have illuminated pictograms in the form of regular dots, so you can change the assignment of the buttons to your taste.

As you can see, there is practically no usual frame on the sides of the screen, it immediately catches the eye. The side edges of the display, of course, more often than usual come into contact with hands, but then the developers decided to turn this drawback into an advantage and assigned additional functionality to work with the edges of the screen, which will be discussed below.

The card slot is usually located on the side, it is, as usual, hybrid, that is, you can install two Nano-SIM SIM cards in it or replace one of them with a microSD memory card, but you cannot use all three at the same time. Memory cards are supported up to 200 GB.

The mechanical buttons are located on the opposite side, they are metal, they do not protrude much beyond the surface, but they are quite easy to find blindly. The keys have a short and rather hard stroke, but in general this does not cause discomfort, the location of the buttons itself can also be considered successful.

The USB Type-C connector at the bottom is clearly centered, two groups of holes are cut out on the sides of it. Sound comes out of the speaker through one of them, and the second, obviously, is a props. The Micro-USB connector supports connecting third-party devices in USB OTG (USB Host) mode.

There is also a microphone hole on the top end, it serves for the noise reduction function. There is also an audio jack for headphones and a small dark window for an infrared transmitter for remote control emulation. remote control various household appliances.

ZTE Nubia Z11 is available in two versions: regular with 4 GB of RAM and premium with 6 GB. In the first case, you can choose a model with a case in white or dark gray, while the premium version is available only in black with gold trim - this option, of course, looks the most impressive.

Screen

The smartphone is equipped touch screen IPS, made using IPS-Neo technology, and covered with convex 2.5D-glass Corning Gorilla Glass 3. The glass has a high-quality oleophobic coating, fingerprints do not appear on it very quickly, but are erased very easily. The physical dimensions of the display are 69 × 121 mm, the diagonal is 5.5 inches. The screen resolution is 1920×1080, the dot density is 403 ppi.

There is no frame around the screen on the sides, which is why the smartphone received the title of frameless (bezel-less), and the screen area is 81% of the total front panel area. Special technologies, called aRC 2.0 and FiT 2.0, are responsible for the functional interaction with the edges of the screen. With various finger movements along the edges of the display, you can scroll through desktops, open and switch between applications, adjust the brightness level, and even close background applications to free up memory.

If all these features are turned on (and they can be turned on and off at your discretion), then all accidental and unwanted touches do not interfere with work. You can’t accidentally go back or exit the application - in the worst case, you will start flipping through the desktops, which is easy to handle. So the absence of frames on the sides and the proximity of the edges of the screen to the palm of your hand do not interfere with comfortable work, although, of course, sometimes unplanned actions do happen.

Detailed examination using measuring instruments held by the editor of the sections "Monitors" and "Projectors and TV" Alexey Kudryavtsev. Here is his expert opinion on the screen of the test sample.

The front surface of the screen is made in the form of a glass plate with a mirror-smooth surface, resistant to scratches. Judging by the reflection of objects, the anti-glare properties of the screen are better than the screen of the Google Nexus 7 (2013) (hereinafter simply Nexus 7). For clarity, here is a photo in which a white surface is reflected in the off screens (on the left is Nexus 7, on the right is ZTE Nubia Z11, then they can be distinguished by size):

The screen of the ZTE Nubia Z11 is darker (brightness from photos is 103 versus 116 for Nexus 7). The doubling of reflected objects in the ZTE Nubia Z11 screen is very weak, which indicates that there is no air gap between the screen layers (more specifically, between the outer glass and the surface of the LCD matrix) (OGS type screen - One Glass Solution). Due to the smaller number of borders (glass/air type) with very different refractive indices, such screens look better in conditions of intense external illumination, but their repair in case of cracked external glass is much more expensive, since the entire screen has to be changed. There is a special oleophobic (grease-repellent) coating on the outer surface of the screen (even better than the Nexus 7 in terms of efficiency), so fingerprints are removed much easier and appear at a slower rate than in the case of ordinary glass.

With manual brightness control and with a white field displayed in full screen, the maximum steady-state brightness value was about 520 cd / m², the minimum was 5.5 cd / m². The maximum brightness is very high, which means that, given the excellent anti-glare properties, readability even on a sunny day outdoors should be at good level. In complete darkness, the brightness can be reduced to a comfortable value. In the presence of automatic brightness control by light sensor (it is located to the right of the front speaker slot). IN automatic mode as the ambient light conditions change, the brightness of the screen both increases and decreases. The operation of this function depends on the position of the brightness control. Additionally, you can enable the option Remember environment settings, then the user can try to set the desired brightness level in the current conditions. Experiments have shown that some kind of learning is present, but the optimal result from our point of view is already obtained if you simply move the brightness slider to the maximum, and the option Remember environment settings do not turn on. Then, in complete darkness, the auto-brightness function reduces the brightness to 13 cd / m², in an artificially lit office (approximately 550 lux) sets it to 120-180 cd / m², in a very bright environment (corresponding to lighting on a clear day outdoors, but without direct sunlight light - 20,000 lux or a little more) increases to 520 cd / m². It turns out that the auto-brightness function works adequately and to some extent allows the user to customize their work to individual requirements. Only at the minimum brightness level there is a significant backlight modulation with a frequency of 2.4 kHz. The frequency is very high, so there is no visible backlight flicker in any case.

IN this smartphone IPS type matrix is ​​used. Micrographs show a typical IPS subpixel structure:

For comparison, you can see the gallery of microphotographs of screens used in mobile technology.

The screen has good viewing angles without significant color shift even at large deviations of the gaze from the perpendicular to the screen and without inverting shades. For comparison, here are photographs in which the same images are displayed on the ZTE Nubia Z11 and Nexus 7 screens, while the brightness of the screens was initially set to about 200 cd / m² in a white field for the entire screen, and the color balance on the camera was forcibly switched to 6500 K. Perpendicular to screens white field:

Note the good uniformity of brightness and color tone of the white field. In the enlarged photo, you can see a bright colored border along the long edges of the ZTE Nubia Z11 screen, but more on that below. And a test picture:

The colors on the screen of the ZTE Nubia Z11 are oversaturated (very noticeable, for example, on tomatoes), and the color balance is slightly different. Now at an angle of about 45 degrees to the plane and to the side of the screen:

It can be seen that the colors have not changed much on both screens, but on the ZTE Nubia Z11, the contrast has decreased to a greater extent due to the strong black highlighting. And the white box:

The brightness at an angle of the screens has decreased (at least 4 times, based on the difference in shutter speed), but the ZTE Nubia Z11 screen is still lighter (brightness in photos is 244 versus 234 for Nexus 7). The black field, when deviated diagonally, is highlighted strongly and acquires a reddish tint. The photos below demonstrate this (the brightness of the white areas in the direction perpendicular to the plane of the screens is the same!):

And from another angle:

When viewed perpendicularly, the uniformity of the black field is good. Contrast (approximately in the center of the screen) is high - about 1000:1. The response time for the black-white-black transition is 28 ms (16 ms on + 12 ms off). The transition between grayscale 25% and 75% (according to the numerical value of the color) and back in total takes 43 ms. The gamma curve constructed from 32 points with an equal interval according to the numerical value of the shade of gray did not reveal a blockage either in the highlights or in the shadows. The fit exponent is 2.14, slightly below the standard value of 2.2. In this case, the real gamma curve almost does not deviate from the power dependence:

In this case, we did not find any dynamic adjustment of the backlight brightness in accordance with the nature of the displayed image, which is very good. The bad thing is that the side curves of the screen start almost reaching the border of the display area, so even with a strictly perpendicular look to the screen, these curves begin to increase columns of subpixels of different colors, and the long edges of the screen shimmer annoyingly with thin colored stripes. Already at small rounding angles, the picture is noticeably distorted, in particular, black fields are strongly highlighted on them. Also, the roundings glare at almost any orientation of the screen relative to the light source, if it is at least above the plane of the screen, and the glare is very different for the right and left eyes, which causes increased discomfort.

The color gamut is noticeably wider than sRGB:

Let's look at the spectra:

We have already seen such spectra in the case of, for example, the Sony Xperia Z2 and other mobile devices. Sony points out that these screens use LEDs with a blue emitter and green and red phosphors (usually a blue emitter and a yellow phosphor), which, in combination with special matrix filters, allow for a wide color gamut. Yes, and in the red phosphor, apparently, the so-called quantum dots are used. For a consumer device, a wide color gamut is by no means an advantage, but a significant drawback, since as a result, the colors of images - drawings, photographs and films - oriented to the sRGB space (and the vast majority of them) have unnatural saturation. This is especially noticeable on recognizable shades, such as skin tones. The result is shown in the photo above.

The balance of shades on the gray scale is acceptable, since the color temperature is significantly higher than the standard 6500 K, but the deviation from the blackbody spectrum (ΔE) is even lower than 3, which is considered an excellent indicator for a consumer device. At the same time, the color temperature and ΔE change slightly from shade to shade - this has a positive effect on the visual assessment of color balance. (The darkest areas of the gray scale can be ignored, since the color balance does not matter much there, and the measurement error of color characteristics at low brightness is large.)

This device has the ability to adjust the color balance by adjusting the hue with the cooler-warmer slider ( Cool—natural—Warm). Curves in the charts above natural match the results without any color balance correction (default setting) and the curves Warm- data obtained after the slider is moved to the extreme right position. It can be seen that the change in balance corresponds to the expected result, since the color temperature approached the standard value, ΔE increased, but not much, while the maximum brightness remained practically unchanged. However, it does not make much sense to carry out the correction. There is also the possibility of choosing saturation profiles from the options Light, Plain And Moderate. You need to leave the last one, since in the rest the color contrast increases, which further emphasizes the unnatural shades of familiar colors.

To summarize: the screen has a high maximum brightness and has excellent anti-glare properties, so the device can be used outdoors without any problems even on a sunny summer day. In complete darkness, the brightness can be lowered to a comfortable level. It is permissible to use the mode with automatic brightness adjustment, which works adequately. Also, the advantages of the screen include the presence of an effective oleophobic coating, the absence of an air gap in the layers of the screen and flicker, high contrast, good uniformity of the black field. The disadvantages are the low stability of black to the deviation of the gaze from the perpendicular to the plane of the screen and an overly wide color gamut. And the curved edges of the outer glass do not add comfort, since they glare all the time, shimmer brightly even when looking directly at the screen, and tend to light up in the dark. Nevertheless, given the importance of characteristics for this particular class of devices, the screen quality can be considered high, although it is worth getting ready for strange and not quite natural shades in films and photographs.

Sound

The Nubia Z11 sound system produces Hi-Fi + quality sound, this is facilitated by the AKM AK4376 + Smart PA audio chip and a system with a variety of presets and Dolby Surround 7.1 surround sound virtualization. In the main speaker and in the headphones, the sound is bright, rich, clear and quite loud, although there are no stereo speakers, the smartphone has one main speaker.

During telephone conversations the intonations and timbre of the familiar voice of the interlocutors remain recognizable, the sound is bass, but not deaf, the sound is not clogged with noise, the noise reduction system copes with its tasks adequately. There are no complaints about the sensitivity of the microphones, the sound through the recorder is recorded cleanly and is clearly distinguishable during playback. But FM-radio in this unit is missing.

Camera

The hero of the review is equipped with two camera modules with a resolution of 16 and 8 megapixels. The front camera has an 8-megapixel sensor and a wide-angle (80°) five-element lens with f/2.4 aperture. There is no autofocus and no flash. The "beautification" mode can apply real-time effects for VoLTE video calls and video conferences.

The front camera copes with shooting with dignity, the image is detailed, the sharpness and color reproduction are normal, for the level of a selfie, this quality is quite enough.

The main camera is equipped with a 16-megapixel Sony IMX298 CMOS sensor and a six-element lens with f/2.0 aperture and IR cut filter with sapphire glass, optical stabilization and the updated NeoVision 6.0 system. The camera boasts DTI (Deep Trench Isolation) sensor technology, LTM (Local Tone Mapping) image tone correction, and 3D Noise Reduction image noise reduction technology.

As for stabilization, here the developers used a system of three technologies: OIS optical stabilization, electronic EIS, as well as their own development, called nubia HIS (Hand-Held Image Stabilization), which allows you to take pictures with long exposure (up to 72 seconds). Also, the camera is equipped with a very fast (0.2 s) phase detection autofocus and a medium-brightness LED flash.

In the settings, as usual, there are automatic and manual modes shooting control, in manual you can set ISO, white balance, change the type of focus. Control of third-party applications through the Camera2 API is not supported, there is no possibility of recording in RAW.

There is a 4K video shooting mode, as well as Full HD at 60 fps, so for fans of shooting there is complete expanse. There is an optical stabilization function, but it only works at standard FHD resolution, and even there it doesn’t really help when shooting on the go. Despite all the stabilization technology promised, handheld shooting on the go doesn't come out as smooth as, for example, LG smartphones.

However, this is the only negative point, otherwise the camera shoots video decently in all modes, the image is obtained without artifacts and jerks, with good brightness, sharpness and detail. The sound is also recorded with high quality, the noise reduction system copes with its tasks adequately.

• Clip #1 (95 MB, 1920×1080 @60 fps)
• Clip #2 (94 MB, 3840×2160 @30 fps)
• Movie #3 (25 MB, 1920×1080 @30 fps, moving, night)
• Video #4 (27 MB, 1920×1080 @30 fps, in motion, day)

	For night shooting, the result is relatively good.
	Indoors, the camera does not do too bad either.
	Good detail.
	The numbers of the nearest cars are clearly distinguishable.
	The camera copes with macro photography.
	Despite the artifacts, the foliage worked out well.
	Indoor macro photography works well for the camera.
	The noise in the shadows is quite strong, but they are well processed.

ZTE Nubia Z11	Apple iPhone SE

I would like to call the camera good, but this does not allow for a number of small, but tangible shortcomings. At first glance, everything is really good, but then excessive software processing, rough noise reduction and other software artifacts catch your eye. However, even for viewing on a monitor, the pictures look good, if you do not peer into the details. So the camera will do well with documentary, and sometimes artistic shooting.

Telephone part and communications

The Nubia Z11 modification for the European market standardly supports 2G GSM, 3G WCDMA networks, and also has support for fourth-generation LTE FDD and TDD networks. LTE Advanced Cat.9 networks are supported, which theoretically allows you to receive and transmit data at speeds up to 450/50 Mbps. The smartphone supports all three of the most common LTE FDD bands among domestic operators (B3, B7 and B20), it can also operate in the LTE TDD Band 40 band. The Qualcomm chip supports TruSignal Multi-Antenna Boost technology, which, in theory, should 30% better communications, 40% faster data transfer rates, and 20% less power consumption.

In practice, connection speed in 4G networks and work with cellular networks in general, they do not cause complaints: the smartphone instantly reconnects after a break, does not lose connection in areas of uncertain reception, although it does not give out the maximum high speeds in 4G at familiar test locations.

The device has Bluetooth support 4.1, NFC, dual-band Wi-Fi (2.4 and 5 GHz) supported MU-MIMO, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi Display, can be arranged wireless hotspot access via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth channels. The USB Type-C connector supports connecting external devices in USB OTG mode. The NFC module demonstrates compatibility with the Mifare Classic protocol, which is necessary for the successful operation of the "" application with the Troika transport card.

The phone application supports Smart Dial, that is, while dialing telephone number immediately carried out and the search for the first letters in the contacts. continuous swipe input The standard keyboard is not supported, but you can enable the pre-installed TouchPal.

OS and software

Nubia Z11 is based on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow with nubia UI 4.0 skin. A familiar interface with extensive support for gestures and numerous "fine" settings, such as how the indicator works, key remapping, etc., is complemented by the mentioned control options using the edges of the screen. Otherwise, this is a fairly familiar MIUI-like interface without a separate application menu, with wide opportunities customization, from your own design themes to multi-screen and duplication and maintenance of separate copies of applications for each account. There are a lot of opportunities, and in order to make it easier to navigate them, the developers have prepared a whole detailed guide. It is noteworthy that this time many more sections were translated into Russian, although there were some grammatical errors.

Performance

The hardware platform of Nubia Z11 is based on Qualcomm's powerful top-level platform - 4-core SoC Snapdragon 820, made using the 14 nm process technology. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 configuration includes four 64-bit Kryo (ARMv8) processor cores, which are Qualcomm's own development. The maximum frequency of two cores is 2.15 GHz, the other two can operate at up to 1.6 GHz. Responsible for graphics processing is the new Adreno 530 GPU with a core frequency of up to 620 MHz and support for OpenGL ES 3.1+.

The smartphone has 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of built-in flash memory. This volume can be increased by microSD cards up to 200 GB. In practice, our test transcend card Premium microSDXC UHS-1 with a capacity of 128 GB was confidently recognized by the device. It is also possible to connect to USB port external flash drives in OTG mode.

The test results of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 are summarized in tables, you can visually evaluate and compare them with the results of alternative modern top platforms using real numbers obtained in the same test programs as an example. The platform is very powerful, in all tests it shows results close to the maximum, and in terms of graphics, along with the Samsung Exynos 8890 Octa, it simply has no equal. Top solutions MediaTek (MT6797T) and Huawei (HiSilicon Kirin 955), as well as Snapdragon 810, are noticeably inferior to these two champions in graphics tests.

Modern demanding games run at maximum settings. You can comfortably play World of Tanks at maximum fps, heavier games also do not show at least any delays. The platform is still quite fresh and as powerful as possible, and it clearly has a significant performance margin for future updates.

Testing in latest versions complex tests AnTuTu and GeekBench 3:

For convenience, we have summarized all the results obtained by us when testing a smartphone in the latest versions of popular benchmarks in tables. Several other devices from various segments are usually added to the table, also tested on similar latest versions of benchmarks (this is done only for a visual assessment of the obtained dry numbers). Unfortunately, within a single comparison, it is impossible to present the results from different versions benchmarks, so many worthy and relevant models remain “behind the scenes” - due to the fact that they once passed the “obstacle course” on previous versions test programs.

Testing the graphics subsystem in 3DMark gaming tests, GFXBenchmark and Bonsai Benchmark:

When testing in 3DMark for the highest performing smartphones, it is now possible to run the application in Unlimited mode, where the rendering resolution is fixed at 720p and VSync is disabled (due to which the speed can rise above 60 fps).

Browser cross-platform tests:

As for benchmarks for evaluating the speed of the javascript engine, you should always make allowances for the fact that the results in them depend significantly on the browser in which they are launched, so that the comparison can only be truly correct on the same OS and browsers, and this possibility is available when testing not always. In the case of Android OS, we always try to use Google Chrome.

thermal images

Below is a thermal image of the back surface taken after 10 minutes of running the GFXBenchmark battery test:

Heating is more localized in the upper part of the device, which apparently corresponds to the location of the SoC chip. According to the heat chamber, the maximum heating was 38 degrees (at an ambient temperature of 24 degrees), this is not very much.

Video playback

To test "omnivorous" when playing video (including support for various codecs, containers and accessibility, such as subtitles), we used the most common formats, which make up the bulk of the content available on the Web. Note that for mobile devices it is important to have support for hardware video decoding at the chip level, since it is most often impossible to process modern versions using processor cores alone. Also, don't expect mobile device decoding of everything, since the leadership in flexibility belongs to the PC, and no one is going to challenge it. All results are summarized in a single table.

According to the test results, the test subject, to our satisfaction, was equipped with all the necessary decoders that are needed for the full playback of most of the most common multimedia files on the network, including sound ones. To successfully play them, you do not have to resort to using a third-party player - for example, MX Player. Although the AC3 sound format is played without problems in it, this is a rather rare case.

Further testing of video playback performed Alexey Kudryavtsev.

We could not check the theoretically possible support for adapters for outputting images to an external device due to the lack of an adapter option that connects to the USB Type-C port, so we had to limit ourselves to testing the output of video files to the screen of the device itself. To do this, we used a set of test files with an arrow and a rectangle moving one division per frame (see “Methodology for testing video signal playback and display devices. Version 1 (for mobile devices) 720/24p

Note: If both columns Uniformity And Passes green ratings are set, this means that, most likely, when watching movies, artifacts caused by uneven interleaving and dropping frames will either not be visible at all, or their number and visibility will not affect viewing comfort. Red marks indicate possible problems associated with the playback of the respective files.

According to the frame output criterion, the quality of video files playback on the screen of the smartphone itself is good, since frames (or groups of frames) can (but are not required) to be displayed with more or less uniform alternation of intervals and without frame drops. Note that the screen refresh rate is approximately 61 Hz, so perfect interlacing of frame durations is not obtained at any typical frame rates in a video file. When playing video files with a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels (1080p) on a smartphone screen, the image of the video file itself is displayed exactly along the border of the screen, one to one in pixels, that is, in its original resolution. The range of brightness displayed on the screen corresponds to the standard range of 16-235: in the shadows, only 4 shades merge with black, and in the highlights, all gradations of shades are displayed.

Battery Life

The capacity of the non-removable battery installed in the Nubia Z11 is 3000 mAh. This is quite a decent capacity, besides, NeoPower 2.0 technology is used here - a comprehensive solution that can significantly increase the operating time of a smartphone.

Continuous reading in the Moon + Reader program (with a standard, light theme, with auto scrolling) at a minimum comfortable brightness level (brightness was set to 100 cd / m²) lasted more than 16 hours to a full discharge. When continuously watching videos from Youtube in high quality(720p) with the same brightness level through home network Wi-Fi device can last at least 10 hours. In the 3D gaming mode, the smartphone confidently functions for 5 hours and even more.

The device supports fast charging technology because it is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 820. True, the developers call it “nubia quick charge 3.0 technology”, although we know its true name, it is Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0. As a result, from the complete network adapter with variable maximum output current and voltage, the device is charged in approximately 2 hours with a current of 1.5 A at 6 V. Wireless charging device is not supported.

Outcome

As for the price, European prices have already been announced during the presentation in Berlin, they are 500 euros for the regular version and 600 euros for the premium version in black and gold with 6 GB of RAM.

The device, of course, turned out to be very interesting, it is really a real top-level flagship smartphone without any reservations - with a high-quality screen and sound, advanced hardware platform and communication capabilities, good cameras. A good-looking, all-metal case completes the rosy picture, but most of all I was pleased with the level of autonomy of the novelty: in the top segment, such indicators are rare, although the Nubia Z11 is not a record holder in this regard. In any case, the smartphone turned out to be complete and complete, there are no failures or shortcomings in it, and as for its success in the Russian market, here, as usual, everything will be decided by the price. There is a feeling that 500 euros for a domestic buyer is a little expensive, and in this price range Nubia Z11 has a lot of competitors, including more popular brands in our country. However, now ZTE is starting to take more and more active steps to increase the recognition of its premium Nubia brand, while sales of ZTE products have already shown quite a serious growth recently.

The flagship smartphone of 2016 of the nubia brand. To say that this is just a flagship is wrong. Yes, he received advanced hardware, yes, there are all the necessary functions - almost every flagship from other manufacturers has it. The ZTE nubia Z11 is a chic phone. The design speaks for itself, comments are not needed here. If we go into the technical part, we can distinguish:

5.5 inch screen with rounded edges. The side frames are almost invisible and it looks impressive. The matrix used is of high quality, so the screen transmits bright picture. Colors are not lost when viewed from any angle.

Glass and metal. The body is made of aluminum alloy, and the front panel is made of 2.5D Gorilla Glass 3. The white model with a golden frame has ceramic surface (photo and description).

Slim and compact. The thickness of the case is only 7.5 mm, and in terms of dimensions, the ZTE nubia Z11, like samsung galaxy S7 Edge, the champion among smartphones with a 5.5-inch screen. They are not more compact. A 3,000 mAh battery is housed in this record-breaking compact case!

16-megapixel camera with optical stabilization. Fast phase detection autofocus, Dual color flash, F/2.0 aperture, optical stabilization and advanced software NeoVision 6.0 - has everything to create high-quality images.

High-quality 7.1-channel sound. Behind high-quality sound a separate AKM4376 chip is responsible.

High performance. ZTE nubia Z11, at the time of its release, is equipped with powerful processor from Qualcomm. Random access memory, depending on the version of the smartphone, 4 or 6 GB.

Fingerprint scanner, Quick Charge 3.0 fast charging technology, USB Type-C, NFC, infrared port- all this is in the ZTE nubia Z11.

Touch and motion control. By touching and swiping on the curved edges of the screen, you can control various customizable functions of your smartphone.