Nubia Z11 Mini S :Initial Review after a week Usage
Packaging
When opening the box, you will notice that Nubia also paid attention to the packaging, the smartphone itself is protected with a temporary back- and screen protector. Going further their is the manual with a sim-tray pin, a sticker, a white USB Type-C cable and a power adapter.
When unwrapping the Nubia Z11 Mini S, the first thing that noticed is the beauty of this device. In design it looks familiar with the iPhone family, but with the small gold details and LED home button it gets it’s own luxury look. The smartphone feels very solid thanks to the metal body and has a nice grip. The 5.2 inch display of the Z11 Mini S is made from 2.5D glass, but has no gorilla glass protection. So, a cover and/or glass protector can be advised.
Design and Shape
Going further at the front we see on top a 13 megapixel SONY IMX258 front camera and sensors. Below the display there are red capacitive keys and a red uplighting home button. Unfortunately no notification LED’s are placed on the smartphone.
Turning around the device you will find next to the Nubia logo also a single LED flash, a 23 (woow) megapixel camera and a fingerprint sensor. On the right side are the volume buttons and power button placed while on the left side the sim tray can be found. When you take a closer look to the side you will notice on the top of both side that the metal frame is replaced with a plastic part for a better network reception. The plastic side parts are a part of the unremovable back cover which makes it a seamless design.
On top there is a 3.5 mm audiojack and a very small hole. We have tried to find out what the purpose is of this small hole, but couldn’t find any information about it. We expect it’s a second microphone though. Going to the bottom there is a USB Type-C port and two symmetric grills where the left side is the microphone and other right side the speaker.
In size you get a smartphone that measures 146.1 x 72.1 mm and a thinkness of 7.6 mm. The smartphone weighs 158 grams. The smartphone lies good in the hands, but the back is a bit slippery. A case for the Z11 Mini S can be an useful addition to the smartphone.
Nubia Z11 Mini S has a furthermore an accurate, but slower than other brands, fingerprint sensor on the back which can be used for various kinds of functionality and 64GB of internal storage space which can be expanded to 200 GB by using the hybrid SIM/MicroSD card slot. Talking about the SIM card slot, the smartphone supports Dual SIM (Dual Standby) and is using Nano SIM cards.
The smartphone is getting its juice from the 3000mAh inside. Together with the pre-installed, battery optimized, Android 6.0 Marshmallow you can easily use the smartphone a whole day with normal use.
Concerning the audio, the quality while using headphones was pretty good. There was a good balance between the bass and treble, probably due to the buildin DTS functionality. Next to that the speaker is not one of the loudest which means you can have some trouble while listening to your music outside.
Camera
The 23 megapixel rearcamera is the real must buy reason for this smartphone. The cameras takes brilliant and sharp photos and videos with Nubia’s NeoVision 6 camera system. The used 23 megapixel SONY IMX318 sensor and the 6 part lens is a winning combination. The camera performed outstanding in daylight condition with a lot detail in the distance as well during night shots. Overall, this is still a great camera that will surprise your friends.
The front camera is a 13 megapixel SONY IMX258 sensor which is performing extremely well for selfies and video calling. We were surprised how it performed in the living room at night with just some artificial light. The photos that are taken are of good quality, but can’t compete with the rear camera. It has less detail than the rear cam and some more noise in the dark, but overall the colors are accurate and like the rear camera it snaps the photos fast and HDR is also an option while taking selfies.
The Nubia Z11 Mini S is a 4G+ supported smartphone. Although 4G/ LTE is working well in all countries it’s up to you to find out if the band of your country/ provider is supported. The supported bands are:
2G/CDMA1X / EVDO (BC0)
GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz (B5/B8/B3/B2)
3G/WCDMA 850/900/1900/2100MHz
FDD-LTE 1800/2100/2600MHz (3, 1, 7)
TD-LTE 1900/2300/2500/2600MHz
TD-SCDMA 1880-1920MHz
TD-SCDMA 2010-2025MHz
What can we say, when looking at the design the Nubia Z11 Mini S is just a beauty. Everything is placed on the right spot and the unique gold and red details makes this device a wanna have. The building quality of the Z11 Mini S is very good and gives together with the design a premium feel. Also the camera setup is one of the best in daylight we have seen in this price range, in low light conditions it could be better but still it’s performing good.
The battery was performing well. Although with the combination of the 3000mAh and Android 6.01 this battery could be better optimized in our opinion. Still the device makes it a whole day at least. In performance the smartphone is just a midrange device when looking at the specifications, but while using the smartphone we experienced a smooth operating device.
ZTE nubia Z11 miniS Specifications
- Display: 5.2-inch (1920 x 1080 pixels) Full HD 2.5D display, 85% NTSC color gamut, 450nits brightness, 1500:1 contrast ratio, Corning Gorilla Glass protection
- Processor: 2GHz LPDDR3 Octa-Core Snapdragon 625 processor with Adreno 506 GPU
- RAM & Storage: 4GB LPDDR3 RAM, 64/128GB (eMMC 5.1) storage, expandable memory up to 200GB with microSD
- Operating System: Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) with nubia UI 4.0
- SIM Slot: Hybrid Dual SIM (nano + nano/microSD)
- Rear Camera: 23MP rear camera with LED Flash, Sony IMX318 sensor, PDAF, f/2.0 aperture, 6P lens
- Front Camera: 13MP front-facing camera, Sony IMX258 sensor, f/2.2 aperture, 80-degree wide-angle lens
- Fingerprint sensor: Yes
- Dimensions: 146.06×72.14×7.60mm
- Weight: 158 grams
- Connectivity Options: 4G VoLTE, dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 ac, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS + GLONASS, USB Type-C
- Battery: 3000mAh battery
Pricing And Availability
Nubia Z11 miniS smartphone comes in Gold and Khakee grey options and It is available on Amazon India for 16999/- INR .
Stay Tuned We will be sharing a detailed Camera Comparison and Full review of this phone in coming days . But till then our verdict is on positive side.one can surely think of spending 16999/- for this smartphone . We are rating this Smartphone 9/10 as our initial impression though we need some more time to test battery life output in detail.
