Nubian Z17mini review: Thousand yuan dual camera is actually innovative

IT168 Review Less than half a month has passed since the release of Nubia’s first dual-camera mobile phone, Nubia M2. On April 6, Nubia officially released the first model of this year’s Z series in Beijing. New product, Nubia Z17mini. As the successor of Nubia miniS, Z17mini not only inherits the excellent metal craftsmanship of the previous generation miniS, but also has a pretty good upgrade in configuration. At the same time, Z17mini also officially brings the big selling point of dual cameras to the Z series. This also makes Nubia users, including the author, have more expectations for the photography capabilities of Z17mini. So today we will talk about this model. New.

At the press conference on April 6, Nubia General Manager Ni Fei revealed to us the origin of the name of Nubia Z17mini. Z17 is homophonic to "together",

It is a product jointly named by cowboys who are fans of Nubia. "Together" not only represents the cowboys' maintenance and affirmation of the Nubia brand, but also represents Nubia.

Mutual respect with users. "Together" is also Nubia's vision for its products to be closer to users. It is not difficult to see that Nubia has put a lot of effort into the Nubia Z17mini released this time. Let’s first take a look at the hardware parameters of the Z17mini.

Parameter comparison between Nubia Z11miniS and Nubia Z17mini

Mobile phone model

Nubian Z11miniS

Nubian Z17mini< /p>

Screen size

5.2-inch Corning Gorilla Glass

5.2-inch Corning Gorilla Glass

Resolution

1920x1080

1920x1080

Processor

Qualcomm Snapdragon 625

Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 (standard)/653 (high configuration)

Frequency

Eight-core 2.0GHz

Eight-core 1.8

(standard)/2.0GHz

(high configuration)

Body memory

64GB

64GB

Running memory

4GB

4GB

(standard)/

6GB

(high configuration)

Main camera

23 million F2. 0 Sony IMX318

13 million F2.2 Sony IMX258*2

Front camera

13 million F2.2

16 million F2.0

Body size

146.1mmx72.1mmx7.6mm

146.6mmx72.5mmx

7.45mm

p>

Weight

158g

155g

Battery

3000 mAh

2950 mAh

Body color

Champagne gold/khaki/black gold

Champagne gold/black gold/red/elegant black

Operating system< /p>

Customized Nubia UI4.0

Network standard

Mobile/China Unicom/Telecom

Mobile/China Unicom/Telecom

Judging from the parameter list, Nubia Z17mini is equipped with a sub-flagship-level processor, which will have a greater performance improvement compared to the previous generation Snapdragon 625. Up to 6GB of running memory also gives it better multi-tasking capabilities. In addition, the biggest highlight of Nubia Z17mini is that

it adopts the industry's well-received black color dual camera solution, which has two dual cameras composed of two IMX258 sensors from Sony. The actual effect is behind will be explained in detail in the review. In addition, the front camera has also been upgraded to 16 million, with a larger aperture and a new beauty mode.

Appearance of Nubia Z17mini: Return to the classic small red circle, anti-shattering screen design

I believe that everyone is familiar with Nubia’s first product this year, Nubia M2 As we know, as the first Nubia mobile phone equipped with a front-facing fingerprint recognition module, many users have praised the overall design of Nubia M2. In addition to the following mentioning this design, it is Nubia Sub-classic small red circle design. Although we can still see the small red circle on the M2, many users believe that in the near future, as front fingerprint scanners are popularized in other product lines, this design that represents Nubia may gradually disappear. However, the release of Nubia Z17mini will undoubtedly reaffirm its existence for the little red circle.

▲Nubian Z17mini appearance

In terms of appearance design, Nubia Z17mini inherits the main design tone of previous mini series, and is equipped with an all-metal body of up to 97%. It has a very excellent metal texture, and the body thickness of 7.45mm is 0.15mm thinner than the previous generation of 7.6mm. Although the number seems small, it has become thinner again on the basis of the original slimness. This is for Industrial design is a relatively big test, and Nubia obviously did well.

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Appearance of Nubia Z17mini

Here I have to mention the metal body of this new product. Compared with the metal material of the previous generation mini, Nubia Z17mini uses a more refined sandblasting process, coupled with a unique double-cutting process on the middle frame, which gives it a round and comfortable feel while maintaining a masculine appearance. It can be said that Nubia is currently The metal body has reached a very high level.

▲Nubian Z17mini

Not only that, as the size of mobile phone screens is getting larger and larger, the risk of screen breakage is also becoming higher and higher. Therefore, Nubia Z17mini is the first product in the mini series to adopt a screen shatterproof design. It adds a rubber shock-proof belt between the screen glass and the metal middle frame, which effectively reduces the occurrence of screen shattering through rubber buffering and reduces replacement costs. screen risk.

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The appearance of Nubia Z17mini

The use of the classic red dot design instead of the front fingerprint module can be said to be Nubia’s signature Comprehensive consideration after user feedback. Of course, this also reflects how important a classic design that represents the brand is to the brand and users.

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Nubian Z17mini appearance

The most eye-catching thing on the back of the fuselage is the two main cameras in the upper left corner, as the first of the Z series A dual-camera product, Nubia Z17mini adopts a very mature black and color dual-camera solution, two Sony 13-megapixel main cameras, using Sony's exclusive customized RGB+ MONO sensor, combined with a more powerful ISP, the actual imaging effect is worth looking forward to.

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The Nubia Z17mini appearance Type-C data interface has become a standard feature of Nubia products. Its front and rear blind plug features are convenient and efficient, but you need to pay attention. Unfortunately, although Nubia Z17mini is equipped with a higher-performance processor, it does not support fast charging technology, which may become the biggest shortcoming of this product.

▲Nubian Z17mini appearance

Overall,

The appearance design of Nubia Z17mini has formed its own style, inheriting the In addition to the excellent appearance design concept of a generation, the more refined metal sandblasting process brings a better feel, and the extremely high metal ratio also gives it a very good texture. The shatterproof screen design allows us to see Nubia’s strict requirements for product details, and the return of the classic little red dot is a change made by Nubia after listening to users’ opinions. .

Nubia Z17mini takes photos: with dual cameras, the time camera is the most eye-catching

After Nubia M2 became the first product equipped with dual cameras, Nubia Z17mini also Becoming the first product in the Z series to be equipped with dual cameras, Nubia Z17mini is equipped with two 13-megapixel cameras from Sony, supporting a hybrid focus system composed of PDAF + contrast focus, and the fastest focusing speed reaches 0.1s. In addition, the customized Sony RGB+MONO sensor is the "black color" dual-camera solution that is widely praised at the user level.

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Nubian camera interface

In addition to hardware upgrades, Nubia Z17mini is also equipped with a customized version of the NeoVision6 shooting system , as a professional photography system dedicated to Nubia, each upgrade of NeoVision will bring many new functions and new features. This time with the release of Z17mini, NeoVision

6 brings black and white cameras, It has many new functions, including Time Camera, and has also made new optimizations for existing functions to improve the shooting experience.

▲Nubian Z17mini camera interface

I believe all of you have seen the NeoVision camera interface. The shooting interface of Nubia Z17mini is of the same origin. Commonly used functions are listed directly on the viewfinder interface.

The operation method is as friendly as ever. After switching to the camera family, the various camera functions of NeoVision

6 come into view, without complicated design, allowing users to use these functions seamlessly.

Sample analysis: (pictures are only compressed)

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Nubian Z17mini daytime sample

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< p>Nubian Z17mini daytime proofs

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Nubian Z17mini daytime proofs

From the proofs, it can be found that when there is sufficient light, no matter it is Whether it is dark or bright parts, Nubia Z17mini can clearly show details and show good analytical capabilities. In terms of color reproduction, the Nubia Z17mini’s tuning is closer to realistic colors, and its color reproduction is closer to the colors seen by the human eye.

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Nubian Z17mini night proofs

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Nubian Z17mini night proofs

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Nubian Z17mini night sample

At night or in a relatively dark environment, the Nubia Z17mini with two lenses shows quite good imaging capabilities. In particular, the control of halo is much better than that of a single-lens product. After zooming in, you can see that although the light environment at night is more complex than during the day, the details of the Nubia Z17mini sample are still relatively clear after zooming in. The dual camera gives Nubia Z17mini better night photography capabilities.

Dual camera blur:

▲Nubian Z17mini blur sample

As the main function of dual-camera mobile phone, Nubia Z17mini’s background blur The feature is called Portrait Mode. The performance of Nubia Z17mini in this mode is pretty good. Since Nubia’s first dual-camera mobile phone, Nubia M2, was also tested by the author, compared with the relatively obvious “blurred line” of Nubia M2, Nubia Nubia Z17mini has obviously been optimized, and the realism and blur effect of blur are much better than Nubia M2.

Time Camera:

▲Time Camera Sample (Superposition)

▲Time Camera Sample (Diffusion)

Speaking of the press conference Among the photo functions advertised online, Time Camera may be one of the functions I am most interested in. In fact, Time Camera is the zoom effect in professional photography. Through the zoom effect, you can create a different atmosphere from ordinary photos, such as using the overlay function. It will make the subject of the photo more prominent, and the diffusion will create a sense of speed, which is very interesting.

Black and white camera:

▲Black and white camera sample

The black and white camera is one of the standard functions of the black and color dual camera. Through one of the dual lenses Each black-and-white mono sensor produces images independently. Compared with ordinary color photos, the resulting black-and-white photos look more dated after decolorization. To put it simply, they have a more contemporary feel.

More proofs:

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Nubian Z17mini proofs

▲Nubian Z17mini proofs

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Nubian Z17mini proofs

As Nubia’s most important photography field, Nubia Z17mini’s performance is quite good. Nubia Z17mini can handle various shooting scenes very well, and a batch of new camera functions such as Time Camera are believed to open a new door for ordinary users. Of course, for professional players, the excellent night shooting effects and various functions under the dual camera can also provide them with the most convenient photography equipment besides SLR.

Nubia Z17mini system: customized nubia UI4.0

▲Nubia Z17mini

The system UI version of this experience is that of Nubia Z17mini The first version (V0.17), this version is deeply customized based on Nubia UI4.0 of Android 6.0. Compared with other Nubia UI4.0, this version reorganizes the structural logic of the system to make it more clear and easy to use. I understand. After actual experience, I can also feel that the smoothness of the entire UI has been greatly improved compared to the previous UI.

▲Nubian Z17mini interface

Nubian Z17mini is equipped with a customized version of Nubia UI4.0 (based on Android 6.0). From the interface design point of view, Nubia Z17mini adopts an ICON design similar to Nubia M2, but removes redundant color effects, making it more practical. Of course, Nubia features including edge touch are inherited in this version.

Payment with screen off:

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Nubian Z17mini screen-based payment

The screen-based payment function is Nubia’s flagship feature this year An important function of this app is that it only requires users to enter their fingerprints and set up a quick startup to WeChat/Alipay. You can directly enter the WeChat/Alipay scanning interface with the screen closed. After experiencing it, the author found that compared to Nubia M2, Z17mini has more precise response speed and accuracy. It seems that Nubia Ya has optimized the experience of this feature again.

Edge gestures:

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Edge gestures

As a function launched since Nubia UI3.0, Nubia Ya's edge gestures have more powerful vitality than other gestures. It makes full use of the rarely used areas on the edge of the screen to make various gestures to complete shortcut operations. Compared with other interaction methods, it can effectively improve the user's efficiency, allowing users to switch to corresponding applications faster and more accurately, making the mobile phone more relevant to daily work and life.

Super screenshot:

▲Super screenshot and screen recording

Super screenshot is a very important function in Nubia UI4.0. As Nubia The author who is a sub-deep user said that he can no longer live without it. Call up the function by long pressing the volume up/down plus the power button (or by long pressing the fingerprint, settings required). It has three functions: long screenshot, free screenshot and screen recording. After many generations of development, its experience has become quite perfect, especially the screen recording function. Many mobile phones regret the lag when turning on the screen recording function. However, Nubia’s screen recording function Functions can remain smooth no matter which product they are in, which requires a lot of effort to optimize.

Red envelope assistant:

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Red envelope assistant

Compared with other red envelope assistants, Nubia’s red envelope assistant has always been a similar product A top-notch existence. The red envelope assistant of Nubia Z17mini inherits its characteristics. It can realize "second reminder" whether it is in the network state or WIFI state, which is something that many third-party red envelope assistants cannot do. And regardless of whether the screen is off or unlocked, as long as there is a red envelope, the Red Envelope Assistant will light up the screen and pop up a red envelope reminder box with a prompt sound. You only need to click to grab it.

Full-featured NFC:

▲Finally supports full-featured NFC

To say that the most criticized feature by users in the Nubia Z11 era, the NFC function is undoubtedly The place where I need to complain the most. Due to the limitations of the metal body, the NFC chip is placed under the screen, which directly causes the screen to flicker when NFC is used at high power. Therefore, Nubia limits the read and write functions of its NFC module.

▲Card reading mode must be activated for use

On Nubia Z17mini, full-featured NFC has finally been re-incorporated into Nubia’s territory. However, since the NFC chip will still cause the screen to malfunction at full power, the card reading mode must be activated while turning on NFC. Of course, the addition of full-featured NFC still makes Nubia Z17mini more practical.

Generally speaking, after continuing the functions such as "edge touch", "super screenshot" and "red envelope assistant" that are widely praised by users, the newly added "screen payment" and "full-featured NFC "Make the entire system more comprehensive. In addition, in order to make the system easier to use, Nubia Z17mini also abandons many useless system functions to make the system run more smoothly. It can be said that the UI equipped with Nubia Z17mini is more pragmatic.

Performance of Nubia Z17mini: The performance of Snapdragon 653 is really strong

Nubia Z17mini is equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 653 processor. As a minor revision of the mid-range artifact Snapdragon 652, The Dragon 653 continues most of the features of the previous Snapdragon 652, uses a 28nm manufacturing process, adopts a 4*A72+4*A53 (*** eight-core) architecture, and is positioned as a sub-flagship. The GPU continues the powerful Adreno 510 of Snapdragon 652. From the basic parameters, the gap between Snapdragon 653 and Snapdragon 652 is very small. So what are the differences between them? Let the author analyze it for you.

▲Qualcomm Snapdragon 653 processor

As an upgrade of Snapdragon 652, Qualcomm Snapdragon 653 uses the same core and the same manufacturing process, but the main frequency is increased by 0.2 Ghz, even the GPU is still Adreno 510, so the actual performance is only about 10% improved compared to Snapdragon 652, which can be said to be quite limited. Of course, the performance of Snapdragon 653 is already comparable to that of the previous generation flagship Snapdragon 810, and its heating is also much better than that of Snapdragon 810. Therefore, the performance of Nubia Z17mini is actually worth looking forward to.

Not only that, the biggest upgrade of Qualcomm Snapdragon 653 is the faster X9 LTE ??modem. It brings a maximum download speed of 300Mbps and an upload speed of 150Mbps. The adoption of Trusignal technology, dynamic antenna tuning technology, main hierarchical antenna switching technology and reception enhancement technology combined with optimized antenna design also gives it excellent network processing capabilities. Of course, the expansion of the memory addressing range (upgrading from 6GB to 8GB) also allows it to be applied to more platforms.

Theoretical performance test:

▲AnTuTu

From the AnTuTu test, we can see that the theoretical performance of Qualcomm Snapdragon 653 is already comparable to that of the previous generation The performance of the flagship Snapdragon 810 is comparable. The four A72 cores with a maximum frequency of 2.0GHz are quite powerful, while the four A53 cores are used to handle non-core tasks, allowing the Snapdragon 653 to achieve high performance while also being relatively power-saving. This kind of performance is quite outstanding among current thousand-yuan phones.

▲geekbench

In the Geekbench test, the actual performance of the A72 core was also verified. The single-thread score of 1510 points is very close to the actual performance of its own Snapdragon 820. It can be said that Compared with the Snapdragon 625 processor installed in the Nubia Z11miniS, the Nubia Z17mini has a major upgrade in performance.

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PCmark test

As a test item that simulates daily operations, the PCmark test can effectively detect the actual capabilities of the processor. In the test, the Snapdragon 653 scored 4812 points. From the monitoring curve, we can see that the processor did not reach full load during the entire test. This also shows that the performance of the Snapdragon 653 is useful for handling daily tasks. quite sufficient.

Game performance test:

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3Dmark test

In terms of 3D performance, Nubia Z17mini scored 3Dmark ES3.1 974 points, this test score belongs to the upper-middle level. Let’s test the actual gaming performance of Snapdragon 653 through actual game testing.

▲Honor of Kings

▲Dragon Nest

In the test of two popular online games, Honor of Kings and Dragon Nest, you can see Nubia Z17mini The frame rate during the game has remained at a stable state of 30fps. The author did not feel any lag whether it was a team battle or a group fighting monsters. Therefore, the author believes that the Nubia Z17mini equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 653 has sufficient performance to play all online games currently on the market, and can even play most stand-alone games without any problem.

Battery life test:

Speaking of charging and battery life, perhaps the biggest regret of the Nubia Z17mini is that the Nubia Z17mini is not equipped with fast charging technology, only standard Although the 5V2A charger is improved compared to the 5V1.5A used in previous generations of mini, the lack of fast charging is really unjustifiable in the context of fast charging. In terms of battery capacity, the 2950mAh battery capacity of the Nubia Z17mini can only be regarded as passing among current models of the same price range. Of course, the NeoPower technology emphasized at the press conference is said to give the machine the ability to charge in two days. Let’s see if it can make up for this shortcoming.

▲ Nubia Z17mini power consumption test Judging from the test results, Nubia Z17mini

consumes very much power in a gaming environment. A 30-minute game consumes 13% of the battery. In terms of power, it theoretically takes 4 hours to charge; in terms of video playback, the Nubia Z17mini performs quite well. 60 minutes of online video playback consumes 11% of the power, which means that you can watch online videos for about 9 hours continuously. Therefore,

Nubian Z17mini should be able to guarantee a day of use under moderate use, and its

battery life can only be said to just meet the needs of users.

In general, since most of the main users who buy thousand-yuan phones are young users with gaming needs, the Nubia Z17mini, which is positioned as a thousand-yuan phone, is equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 653 to improve gaming performance. It is a wise choice. The powerful performance of Snapdragon 653 makes it easy to handle whether it is daily use or gaming. In terms of battery life, the battery capacity of 2950mAh also guarantees its battery life to a certain extent, but the lack of fast charging is indeed the biggest flaw of the Z17mini at present.

Evaluation summary: The most powerful thousand-yuan small steel cannon deserves its reputation

When the Nubia Mavericks, known as the thousand-yuan small steel cannon, evolved to the seventh generation, Nubia brought Ours was a calf with few flaws. As a product priced at 1,000 yuan, the new generation of Mavericks brings us quite mature process design, powerful performance, good camera imaging effects and a variety of camera functions. As Mr. Ni mentioned at the press conference To: Our goal is for each generation of Mavericks to become the best Mavericks, and Nubia Z17mini is indeed the best Mavericks.

▲ Nubia Z17mini review summary

Highlights of Nubia Z17mini:

13-megapixel black color dual cameras

As a mobile phone Nubia, a photography expert, only launched dual-camera products in 2017, which in itself is a sign of confidence in its own dual-camera. Judging from actual testing, the dual cameras equipped on the Nubia Z17mini are remarkable, which also makes me look forward to the surprises that the upcoming flagship series will bring us.

Rich camera functions

With the support of dual cameras, Nubia Z17mini has more camera functions, which makes Neo Vision, which already has rich camera functions, a step further Compared with the old routines of dual-camera unique portrait mode and black and white mode, the author is more excited about the new camera function of Time Camera. The emergence of Time Camera makes professional photography more civilian and allows more users to experience professionalism. The joy of photography.

Powerful Snapdragon 653

Compared with the Snapdragon 625 processor on the Nubia miniS, the Nubia Z17mini is powered by Qualcomm’s sub-flagship Snapdragon 652/ 653 processor, this processor has reached a very high level in terms of performance, and it is easy enough to handle whether it is daily use or playing games.

　

Disadvantages of Nubia Z17mini:

It is not equipped with fast charging

In any case, the Z17mini is not equipped with fast charging. The biggest shortcoming I think is that the Nubia Z17mini, which only comes with a 10W charger as standard, is not competitive at all compared to the current thousand-yuan phones from friends with up to 15W or even 18W fast charging. This also makes the author feel that Nubia is. The delusion of being a hooligan. Fortunately, Nubia’s NeoPower 2.5 power-saving technology works well, making up for the lack of fast charging.

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Nubian Z17mini

How to maintain brand competitiveness in the increasingly saturated domestic mobile phone market has become the biggest problem currently encountered by all mobile phone brands , it can be said that all mobile phone brands are exploring their own paths. Nubia, who calls himself a mobile photography expert, may have found his own path after experiencing initial confusion. It can be seen that Nubia is currently leveraging its advantages in mobile photography to gain brand recognition, and has made more efforts in appearance design and system functions, and has formed its own style.

When it comes to the Nubia Z17mini product, what impressed me the most was not only the blessing of dual cameras and many new camera functions such as time camera, but also the first feeling when I got it: The delicate metal craftsmanship, comfortable grip and smooth, easy-to-use and comprehensive Nubia UI all add color to this product. It can be said that Nubia Z17mini is a concentrated expression of the maturity of Nubia as a mobile phone brand.