The budget smartphone segment has been hot for quite some time and every other player out there has launched many smartphones in this fiercely competitive segment. Nubia is the latest entrant in this segment with N1.
This is the company's third handset to be launched here with an affordable price tag of Rs 11,999.
We received Nubia N1 for review and here’s our review of this new budget smartphone.
Design
The design of Nubia N1 is very similar to other budget smartphones in the market. The back panel has a metallic construction with a fingerprint sensor which has a pretty impressive response time. The front panel has no physical keys but one capacitive red colored home key below the display that lights up every time the phone is used. A volume rocker and Power button can be found on the right, while the SIM card slot is on the left. The 3.5mm audio jack is on the top left side of the phone while the USB Type-C port lies at the bottom, between speaker grilles.
Nubia N1 has two color variants - Gold and Silver, but currently, the gold color option is available in the Indian market.
Performance and camera
The smartphone is powered by an octa-core MediaTek Helio P10 SoC paired with 3GB of RAM and 32GB/64GB of internal storage. The memory can be increased via microSD cards (up to 128GB). On the display front, it has 5.5-inch Full HD display with 1080x1920 pixel resolution and runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow with Nubia UI 4.0 on top.
In our tests, we found the N1 to be just an average performer. However, it has some interesting features like 'Edge Gestures' that work effortlessly. It allows you to go to any app by sliding your thumb up and down on either edge of the display. It can be configured in the phone's settings.
The device tends to heat up a little while playing graphic intensive games.
The Nubia N1 boasts a large 5,000mAh battery, but during heavy usage, it lasted only for a day. If you are going to use the phone for basic browsing and music then it is going to last for 2 days.
In terms of camera performance, Nubia N1 is the best smartphone currently available in the market at this price range. The images we clicked from the rear camera were quite impressive and did not pixelate when zoomed in.
In Pro mode, you’ll find features that are normally found on a DSLR and we loved its performance in low light.
Nubia N1 has features like Slo-mo, time-lapse, multi-exposure and scene modes like light painting, star-trail, slow shutter and even RAW format shots that are usually found in high-end phones.
Verdict
There’s nothing extraordinary about Nubia N1 apart from the camera and powerful battery.
With 32GB/64GB storage and 5,000mAh battery you can pack your phone with movies and TV shows to kill your time while traveling. The display too is bright enough and we are sure that you’ll enjoy watching them. Nubia N1 has been priced at Rs 11,999 however; you can also consider Moto G4 or the Redmi Note 3.