The new nubia Music from ZTE is not just a typical smartphone, it’s designed for the music enthusiasts featuring a larger speaker and built-in FM radio without requiring wired headphones.
The retro design sets it apart from the other phones in the market, appealing to users who appreciate a blend of vintage charm and modern technology.
After over a week with the phone, we’re ready to share a lot further about its other features. Will the new design and music-centric focus appeal to users, especially considering its affordable price point? Let’s go on to the review.
Price and Availability
The new nubia Music is priced at 3,999 now available at any local nubia Philippines stores, authorized resellers and online via nubia’s official e-commerce partners on Lazada, Shopee, and TikTok Shop.
Design
Our review unit arrived in a vibrant Zeal Orange color, while the Pop Art color variant stands out with its geometric design and unique shade. Both phones is designed with a retro concept that appeals in today’s trend-conscious users.
The Zeal Orange variant showcases an attractive gradient half-tone pop art dot design that’s encased in a plastic glass panel. This half-tone dot pattern design can minimize fingerprint visibility, though we would advise using the included protective case for added protection.
At the top portion, the dual cameras, LED flash, and the large speaker are all placed together in a big rectangular camera module.
The camera module is made of glasstic type material with its width almost reaching the sides of the phone and is slightly protruding.
The large black speaker, draws inspiration from the classic vinyl record player design, features a DTS:X logo within a red circle and it’s surrounded by an appealing stylish speaker grille pattern. A unique feature with the DTS:X logo, it illuminates and pulsates as it jives to the music rhythm when playing YouTube or Spotify. The speaker’s outer edge is adorned with a repetitive red broken line circular shape which complements the retro design of the phone.
For a sturdier phone, the frame of the phone is made of aluminum in an elegant and smooth light gold color finish.
The SIM card tray is found at the left side edge.
Right side edge has access for the volume controls and a red colored power/sleep button with an integrated fingerprint scanner.
The top edge holds the dual 3.5mm audio ports which seems for me a more convenient placement to plug in your wired headphones if its at the bottom. But for now, its a great feature of the phone that it can do simultaneous audio sharing.
At the bottom edge, it’s a different feel without having the speaker grille on that area as it only holds a microphone and the USB-C port.
Bezels surrounding the screen are thin except for the bottom which is slightly raised and didn’t compromise my viewing experience. The front camera has a punch hole notch design positioned at top center.
Display
The nubia Music has a bigger HD+ display size at 6.6-inches with maximum refresh rate of 90Hz and 180Hz touch sampling rate for a more responsive screen.
A new addition on the nubia Music is the Live Island Interactive feature that extends the punch hole camera into an elongated pill-shaped window to display crucial notifications like battery status, countdown timer, voice recording and more.
There’s also some eye comfort features such as dark mode, read mode, and night light for the users visual health to reduce eye strain due to long hours of use. It also offers a more comfortable viewing experience when used on low light conditions and conserve battery.
Overall, the display of the nubia Music is bright, sharp with good colour accuracy. Watching videos and playing games on this phone is still offers an enjoyable experience, even with its good visually appealing display.
Performance
Under the hood, It is powered by a UNISOC SC9863A Octa-Core processor with maximum clock speeds of 1.6GHz. For graphics, it is paired with a IMG PowerVR GE8322 with speeds up to 650MHz.
It offers a good amount of internal storage with 128GB and 4GB of RAM. You can boost the memory of the nubia Music with up to 4GB via the extended RAM feature. This brings up the RAM to a total of 8GB. If the extra 4GB is too much, you can choose either 1GB, 2GB, or 3GB.
With that extra extended RAM, we were able to run multiple apps on the phone without causing any lags in its performance.
Sharing our benchmark scores we got for the nubia Music:
- GeekBench 6 CPU: 196 Single Core / 824 Multi-Core
- GeekBench 6 GPU: 34 GPU Vulkan Score
- CPDT: 80 MB/s Write, 105.45 MB/s Read
- PCMark: 5381 Work 3.0 Performance
- 3DMark: 271 Wild Life (1.62 fps)
The nubia Music has two optional biometrics with a face recognition and fingerprint scanner. You can register both biometrics on the phone to be more secure or apply the usual screen lock options with a swipe, pattern, pin, and complex password.
Sound Quality
The large speaker is powered by an AI super volume algorithim which offers up to 600 percent volume or 95db, and support for DTS:X Ultra to further enhance the sound quality.
Listening to your favorite radio is now possible on the phone without using a wired headphones as the nubia Music has a built-in FM antenna.
The antenna can easily picks up FM radio stations, just like the old stereo systems we used to have. My wife and I spent hours tuning through different stations, searching for the music we love. It made us realize how much we missed this experience on a traditional radio, but now it’s possible on a phone like the nubia Music.
In terms of audio quality, the sound is loud and clear. However, if you boost the volume up to 600%, you may notice a drop in the bass range and gets more emphasis on vocals, treble and midtones. Mostly the sound tends to come out from the back of the device. When you lay it flat on a table, the volume might decrease slightly. However, we noticed that the surface helps to reflect and amplify the sound, improving a bit on the overall audio experience.
Camera and Photo Sample
Going to the camera system of the phone, it sports a dual camera setup comprising a 50MP lens with an aperture of f/1.8.
The secondary camera is an AI camera which helps users take better photos by intelligently identifying objects and scenes to optimize the camera settings. I think the AI camera also aids the separation between the subejct and the background when using the portrait shots.
By default, you get your photos at 12.6MP with the image resolution at 4096×3072 pixels. If you choose to shoot at 50MP the image size is much larger at 8192×6144 pixels.
For your selfies you get a 5MP lens with an aperture at f/2.4 and image size at 2592×1944 pixels. You get clear facial details on shot with face detection.
The nubia music’s camera app is very simple with the other necessary functions properly laid out for easy access.
You have three shooting modes ready for use with Video, Capture, and Portrait. With the more options selected, you get another six additional shooting modes with Pro, Panorama, Time Lapse, QR Code, 50M, and a Night mode very useful for low light conditions.
Found on the top of the viewfinder is the Google Lens, Flash, HDR, Color Filter and Settings.
You have two zoom options available 1x and 2x plus using the zoom dial can increase the zoom capabilities of the phone up to 4x only.
1x Photo mode, Oudoor, Sunny Weather
1x Photo mode, Oudoor, Sunny Weather
1x Photo mode, Indoor, Ambient Lighting
1x Photo mode, Indoor, Ambient Lighting
Selfie, Indoor, Ambient Lighting
Software
The nubia Music ships out of the box with MyOS 13 based on Android 13.
There are already some extra pre-installed apps on the phone aside from nubia’s proprietary apps and Google tools. You have apps like Booking.com, Facebook, WPS Office, and even a few games.
In the wallpaper settings, you have three vintage record designs if you want a more trendy backdrop in your display.
One interesting app is Melody Lights, which adds a captivating lighting effects to your display that sync with the music you’re playing. The light effects continue as long as the app remains open and it’s compatible only with YouTube Music, Spotify, and YouTube. The app also offers some customization options, including six different lighting effects and the ability to change colors from preset options. With the Melody Lights app it can enhance your music-listening experience by adding visual effects that sync with the music for a more immersive and enjoyable atmosphere.
Battery
Powering the nubia Music is a large 5,000mAh battery with support for a 5W charging technology.
When its time to charge the nubia Music, the capability of its 5W charging is a bit gradual. In our test, a 30 minute charge got the battery at 22% then the next 30 minutes went up to 42 percent. It took us 2 hours 28 minutes for a full charge from 0 to 100 percent.
Nubia Music Charging Time Stamp
- 10:45 – 11:00 : 12% 15 minutes
- 11:00 – 11:15 : 22% 15 minutes
- 11:15 – 11:45 : 42% 30 minutes
- 11:45 – 12:05 : 56% 20 minutes
- 12:05 – 12:25 : 70% 20 minutes
- 12:25 – 12:55 : 90% 30 minutes
- 12:55 – 01:05 : 96% 10 minutes
- 01:05 – 01:10 : 98% 5 minutes
- 01:10 – 01:13 : 0% 3 minutes
- Total Charging Timr: 2 Hours, 28 Minutes
If you want to extend its battery life, you can opt to turn on either the Power Saver and Ultra Power Saver mode. However, you will have some restrictions on the phone like limiting some apps background activities, turn off location services, or all running apps will be closed.
Conclusion
We feel that the nubia Music is designed specifically for music and multimedia enthusiasts. The features on this device makes it clear that it’s tailored for these users. They will appreciate the large speaker with DTS:X Ultra, dual 3.5mm headphone ports, and the ability to boost the volume by up to 600%.
The sound quality of the large speakers is fairly decent, with the treble and midtones being more prominent. However, when you boost the volume to the 600% level, everything becomes loud and the bass is noticeably lacking. If you’re the type of person who enjoys listening to music or watching videos at maximum volume then this phone will likely appeal to you. If ever you want to share the audio of the phone, the dual audio jack ports come in handy.
The nubia Music retro design concept is attractive and trendy, with several of my friends finding it very pleasing when I showed them the phone. But, there are some who would prefer a more subtle colorway, as the current design might be too bold for other users.
In terms of performance and camera quality they are still pretty good and reliable. To keep the phone affordable, they opted for the UNISOC SC9863A processor which is quite outdated. However, they were able to fit in some extra good features with a 90Hz display, a 5,000 mAh battery, a 50MP camera, and Melody Lights.
We also like the FM Radio feature which pairs perfectly with the large speakers. It feels like we’re listening to an old radio cassette player as we tune in to the available FM stations. I only wish it can also have an AM station as well, that would be really cool.
With an affordable price of PHP 3,999, the Nubia Music is still a great choice for users who prioritize aesthetics and multimedia features in a phone. The nubia Music delivers good value for its price.
nubia Music – Full Specifications
- Price: PHP3,999
- Color: Pop Art, Zeal Orange
- Display Size: 6-inch HD+
- Display Technology: Screen Light Effect
- Refreah Rate: 90Hz (Max)
- Display Colors: 16M color
- Resolution: 720×1612 pixels
- Touch Sampling Rate: 180Hz
- Processor: UNISOC SC9863A Octa Core 1.6 GHz
- Storage: 128GB
- RAM: 8GB dynamic RAM
- Camera (Rear): 50MP Main camera, AI Camera
- Camera (Front): 5 MP
- Battery: 5000mAh
- Dimensions: 163.6 x 74.9 x 8.6mm
- Connectivity: WiFi 2.4G, NFC, Bluetooth 5.2, VoLTE, FM Antenna
- Satellite Navigation: GPS, AGPS, GLONASSMm, Galileo, Accelerometer
- Biometrics: Side Fingerprint Recognition
- Sound: High-quality Ultra Speaker
- Volume: DTS:X Ultra, 600% Higher Volume
- Ports: Dual 3.5mm Earphone Jacks, USB Type-C
- OS: Android 13
