ZTE sub-brand Nubia on Thursday launched a new premium flagship smartphone, dubbed as “Nubia Z17” at an event at Beijing National Aquatics Centre in China. The newly launched ZTE Nubia Z17 is the successor to the company’s Nubia Z11 smartphone, which was launched in June last year. Like the other premium smartphones, ZTE Nubia Z17 comes packed with many high-end features including Snapdragon 835 processor, 8GB RAM, dual rear camera setup and Android 7.1.1 Nougat operating system. The major highlight of the phone is its charging style. Nubia Z17 is the first premium smartphone that supports Qualcomm’s latest Quick Charge 4+ fast charging technology. However, the smartphone will be made available for purchase in the Chinese smartphone market starting June 6 (Tuesday) in Black Gold, Solar Gold Obsidian Black, Flame Red and Aurora Blue colour options. As of now, the company has not revealed the pricing details and availability of the phone for other markets.
The new Nubia Z17 comes in the market in three different variants, according to their RAM and native storage — Nubia Z17 with 6GB RAM and 64GB storage, Nubia Z17 with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage, and Nubia Z17 with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage. The smaller version Nubia Z17 has been launched in China at a price tag of CNY 2,799 (approximately Rs. 26,400), the Nubia Z17 with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage variant is priced at CNY 3,399 (approximately Rs. 32,000), and if you want to purchase its top-end variant with 8GB RAM and 128GB built-in storage, you have to pay CNY 3,999 (approximately Rs. 37,700).
Design wise, the Nubia Z17 sports a sleek metal unibody design with two-sided bezel-less display and metal frame all around giving it an overall premium look. Basically, the Nubia Z17 looks very similar to the Apple iPhone 7 Plus, including the horizontal rear-side dual camera arrangement. The new Nubia Z17 also features onscreen navigation buttons and a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner, that is housed in the back panel of the device. The volume rockers as well as the power/lock buttons are placed on the right-hand edge of the smartphone and the traditional red circular capacitive home button is situated on the front panel just below the display. The speaker grilles are seen at the bottom edge of the handset along with a USB Type-C charging port sitting in the middle.
Nubia Z17 specifications and features:
In terms of specifications, the Nubia Z17 sports a 5.5-inch Full-HD IPS bezel-less display with a screen resolution of 1080 × 1920 pixels and has a pixel density of 403 ppi. The display is covered with a scratch resistant Corning Gorilla Glass protection. The device is powered by a 64-bit Qualcomm MSM8998 Snapdragon 835 octa-core processor coupled with Adreno 540 GPU to handle the graphics. In terms of memory, the new Nubia Z17 is backed by a 6GB/6GB/8GB of RAM and 64GB/128GB/128GB of internal storage. The internal storage can’t be further expanded due to the absence of a microSD card slot. Talking about its software front, the Nubia Z17 runs company’s own Nubia 5.0 custom UI skin, based on Google’s Android 7.1.1 Nougat operating system. The device also features an IR Blaster (Infrared Sensor) that can be used as a remote to control third-party electronics & appliances like set-top boxes, audio consoles, TVs, fans, air conditioners or DVD players.
In terms of photography, the new Nubia Z17 comes with dual primary camera setup on the rear. One camera sports a 23-megapixel sensor with an f/2.0 aperture, wide-angle lens and Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS), while another camera comes with a 12-megapixel sensor with a telephoto lens for 2x lossless zoom, 10x dynamic zoom, 1.4-micron pixel size, an f/1.8 aperture and dual-tone LED flash. On the front, there is a 16-megapixel front-facing shooter for making video calls and capturing selfies.
In terms of connectivity, Nubia Z17 offers 2.2 dual-band Wi-Fi technology which allows for better and wider connectivity. Connectivity options on the device also include 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi Hotspot, Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 4.1, NFC, GPS/A-GPS/Glonass, Dolby Atmos certified speakers, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a USB-Type C port for superfast charging and data transfer. Sensors on the device include Fingerprint (front-mounted), Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Ambient Light sensor, Digital Compass sensor, and Proximity sensor. The Nubia Z17 is fuelled by a decent 3200mAh battery that supports Quick Charge 4+ fast charging technology. Additionally, it also comes with an Artificial Intelligence software called NeoSmart and a power processing feature, NeoPower 3.0. Dimension wise, the handset measures at 152.6 x 72.4 x 7.6mm, and weighs 173 grams.
