ZTE Nubia Neo 5G adalah salah satu ponsel gaming paling hemat namun luar biasa di pasar saat ini.
Ditenagai oleh prosesor octa-core T820 dari Unisoc, dipasangkan dengan GPU Mali-G57. Selain itu, dilengkapi layar 6,6‑inci dengan resolusi 2408 x 1080 dan kecepatan refresh 120Hz.
Namun untuk referensi, model ulasan kami hadir dalam warna Phantom Black dengan 18GB RAM (ditambah 10GB) dan 256GB penyimpanan internal.
Desain dan Konstruksi
Nubia Neo 5G memang dirancang dengan sentuhan kreativitas ZTE dalam hal estetika.
Ini adalah kejutan menyenangkan bahwa ponsel terasa cukup ramping, ringan, dan nyaman digenggam. Lagipula, ia didesain berdasarkan beberapa desain yang terinspirasi dari mech. Anda mungkin mengira bahwa ia akan terasa lebih berat dengan pertimbangan itu, tetapi saya menyimpang.
Memang terlihat berbeda, bahkan dalam warna Phantom Black. Desain mekaniknya membuat saya merasa seperti membawa Transformer, tetapi jangan biarkan efek 3D-ish menipu Anda. Ponsel terasa sangat halus dari bodi hingga bezel.
Untuk tombol dan port, pengatur volume serta tombol daya, yang juga berfungsi sebagai sensor sidik jari, terletak di sisi kanan. Untuk sisi kiri, terdapat baki kartu SIM nano ganda.
Di bagian bawah, terdapat port USB Type-C, port earphone 3.5mm, dan satu grill speaker.
Port earphone agak mengganggu saya setelah melihat lebih dekat, karena tampaknya sedikit tidak terpusat.
Tetapi bagaimanapun, pada kesan pertama, panel belakang terlihat sangat berlebihan. Rasanya agak seperti dibuat khusus, meskipun saya tahu tidak, karena hanya memiliki dua varian warna.
Desain sibernya ini didukung oleh semacam efek tiga dimensi dan tekstur seperti logam. Namun pada kenyataannya, rasanya lebih seperti kaca jika Anda mengetuknya sekali atau dua kali.
Untuk modul kamera, ia memiliki pengaturan ganda dengan lampu LED yang terletak tepat di sebelah kamera atas.
Secara keseluruhan, desain ini terasa segar bagi saya. ZTE mungkin tidak menjadi yang pertama terlintas di pikiran kita ketika membicarakan ponsel gaming, namun ini adalah awal yang cukup baik.
Layar, Multimedia, dan Biometrik
Untuk tampilan, ponsel ini memiliki layar 120Hz 6,6 inci yang mendukung FHD+ dengan resolusi 2048 x 1080. Layar ini juga memiliki rasio aspek 20:9 dan rasio layar-ke-bodi 90,5%.
Speaker pada ponsel ini juga cukup keras. Kemungkinan karena Nubia Neo 5G didukung oleh DTS:X Ultra. Berbeda dengan Dolby Atmos yang imersif, DTS dirancang untuk pengalaman gaming dengan dukungan audio statis, multi-kanal, dan berbasis objek.
Tetapi secara keseluruhan, ZTE memiliki bunga saya karena pengalaman konsumsi media saya dengan speaker sangat luar biasa. Dengan tampilan yang seimbang dan speaker yang keras, saya dapat bersantai setelah beberapa permainan Asphalt 9.
ZTE Nubia Neo 5G memiliki biometrik yang cukup standar. Ini adalah pola biasa, kode numerik, dan sandi alfanumerik.
Telepon ini juga memiliki sensor sidik jari yang biasanya dianggap standar untuk membuka kunci ponsel Anda. Ia juga memungkinkan pengguna mendaftar untuk membuka kunci dengan pengenalan wajah, yang kini tidak terlalu mengagumkan lagi.
Kamera
ZTE Nubia Neo 5G dilengkapi dengan sistem kamera ganda di bagian belakang.
Pengaturan ini terdiri dari kamera utama 50MP dengan aperture f/1.8 dan kamera kedalaman bokeh 2MP dengan aperture f/2.4.
Telepon ini juga memiliki kamera selfie 8MP di depan (f/2.0). Untuk kemampuan video, kedua kamera dapat merekam hingga 1080p @ 30fps.
Sejujurnya, kamera ini bukan yang terbaik di pasar. Namun, mereka cukup baik untuk penggunaan santai jika Anda suka mengambil foto atau video secara umum.
In the right lighting conditions, the main camera can take sharp photos with good detail. As for the secondary lens, it’s pretty passable for taking photos of buildings or landscapes.
Although, I do have gripes with the camera UI. Maybe it's just the font? It just feels so vanilla, like I’m sure someone from ZTE could have performed CPR on this to make it feel a little less dead.
But you know, surely you aren’t buying this phone for its camera. The silver lining here is that it’s WAY better than what most phone cameras can offer.
OS, Apps, and UI
Making our way into software, the Nubia Neo 5G runs on Android 13. But, the phone has some twists including cool game-centric apps.
First up, we have GameSpace - which is not only a game launcher. It also cleans up your RAM for anything you don’t need, and speeds your phone up too! It’s basically a performance enhancer with a feature that prevents accidental touches.
I should also mention that the Nubia Neo 5G also has this pre-installed app called Goper.
However, it’s an app used for gaming accessories which we currently don’t have access to. It showed me possible connections to earphones, coolers, fans, and gamepads.
Next, the phone has personalization settings that let you choose themes from Hi-Light (its thematic, gamer-ish choice), standard Android, and Nubia Classic.
Additionally, the phone features their take on assistive touch called Z-POP which I found kind of funny. Get it? Like, ZTE’s UI pops out? No? Alright, moving on.
I have one inconvenience I’d like to address with ZTE here. Why doesn’t the phone have a dedicated app for photos or galleries? I find it strange having to go to the file manager just to check out photos I took.
The interface feels a bit clunky in its Hi-Light theme, but it felt better when I changed back to Android. However, the drop-down UI with the notification tab felt really smooth.
Regular settings accessible from the UI aside, I found this neat feature aptly named Refreshrate. It lets you choose how many frames you need! You have options for 60Hz, 120Hz, and intelligent adjustment.
As for bloatware, we only have Phone Switch which I did not dare touch, Booking.com, and WPS Office.
But for the most part, everything feels okay. Admittedly, how the phone performs overall compensates for these little things.
Performance and Benchmarks
Speaking of performance, the ZTE Nubia Neo 5G is powered by a Unisoc T820 with an octa-core processor. This six nanometer chipset is paired with a ARM Mali-G57 GPU.
The processor is paired with 8GB of RAM, an extended 10GB, and 256GB of internal storage. With a total of 18GB of RAM, the phone is certainly powerful even at mid-range.
From experience, it can handle any game you want to play without slowing down at the slightest. I’ve tried Asphalt 9, Diablo Immortal, Genshin Impact, and Honkai: Star Rail with no issues.
I’d like to believe this phone is a solid pick, with no mobile game or application that it can’t run. Personally, I would’ve loved to spam Teamfight Tactics on it if I had the time.
But also, I think it’s because of its multi-layer heat dissipation system. Yep, this phone’s battery and motherboard is almost completely covered. I’d like to thank the superconducting thermal materials that were used in the making of this fine phone.
Legit though, the phone barely heats up. It even went through the benchmarks without a single hiccup. For those of you interested in the numbers, here you go.
- AnTuTu v9 – 440,724
- AnTuTu v9 Storage – 12,657, 301.7 MB/s (Seq. Read), 256MB/s(Seq. Write)
- Geekbench 6 – 902 (Single-Core), 2557 (Multi-Core), 2236 (Vulkan), 2229 (OpenCL)
- 3D Mark – 2011 (Wild Life)
- PC Mark – 12,882(Work 3.0)
Battery and Connectivity
Powering the ZTE Nubia Neo 5G is a 4,500mAh lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery and features 22.5W wired charging.
Charging the battery from 0 - 100% should take about an hour and a half or so. As for its capacity, the battery is good enough to last users a full day with mixed-use.
However, this doesn’t mean you can’t drain it within 24 hours through long gaming binges and media consumption.
In PC Mark’s Work 3.0 Battery Test, our ZTE Nubia Neo 5G lasted 9 hours and 24 minutes.
But for our video loop test, the phone was able to last 15 hours and 28 minutes. The test was conducted in airplane mode, at 50% brightness and 50% volume for mixed-use variables.
The ZTE Nubia Neo also supports 5G connectivity with an ‘intelligent switching’ dual nano-SIM setup. Basically, this means that if your primary SIM has unstable data, it switches to the other in a jiffy.
I’d say it’s a pretty nifty feature, considering the phone does intend to give players the best offline AND online gaming experience possible.
Conclusion
As we wrap up this review, let’s address the delicate matter at hand -- the price of the phone.
Now I know readers must be curious to have made it this far, as I did note that this was a thrifty pickup. But, how budget-friendly are we talking here?
At the time this article was written, you can find the ZTE Nubia Neo 5G on sale for PHP 9,599 at ZTE’s official store in Shopee. At full price, this should be around PHP 11,999.
For how much it costs versus how good it performs is a good deal, by the way. It’s a solid gaming phone, draped with what I think is a too over-the-top thematic touches. But you know, style is subjective.
What matters here is how it is upon using it, right? Its competition with other gaming phones is surely offering better overall value, but at a way higher cost. Like, way higher.
For me, I’d definitely settle with a phone like this. If we’re talking pros and cons, I’ll give you guys a quick recap.
Imagine having yourself a phone that doesn’t heat up, performs well on demanding apps, and has redeeming factors in small features like RAM management.
In contrast, you get an ‘okay’ camera with no dedicated gallery app, an off-center earphone jack, and passable battery life.
If it were up to me, buyers wouldn’t even find the cons that much of an inconvenience. The ZTE Nubia Neo 5G is positioned as a thrifty gaming phone with great performance, and I stand by that.
But hey, what do you guys think? If you had just enough, which gaming phone would you get? Let me know in the comment section below, and maybe we’ll find a way to match them up together!
ZTE Nubia Neo 5G specs:
6.6-inch FHD+ @ 2408 x 1080 pixels
Asahi Glass protection
120Hz refresh rate
Unisoc T820 octa-core processor (6nm)
1 X Cortex-A76 @ 2.7GHz
3 X Cortex-A76 @ 2.3GHz
4 X Cortex-A55 @ 2.1GHz
Mali-G57 GPU
18GB RAM
256GB internal storage, UFS 3.1
50MP main camera, f/1.8
2MP bokeh camera, f/2.4
8 MP selfie camera, f/2.0
1080p@30fps
HDR
5G LTE, VoLTE
Dual nano-SIM
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, 2.4G/5G
Bluetooth 5.2
NFC Supported
GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS
Android 13
Li-ion 4500mAh battery, 22.5W wired charging
USB Type-C 2.0
3.5mm earphone port
Fingerprint sensors (side-mounted)
Ambient light sensor
Accelerometer
Compass
Gyroscope
163.7 x 75 x 7.98 mm (dimensions)
192 grams (weight)
Phantom Black, War-Damaged Yellow
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