Nubian Alpha review: an innovative pioneer in the flexible screen era

IT168 Review With the high degree of integration in the mobile phone industry, the highly homogenized mobile phone industry is less agile than before. I believe many friends have felt that some brands have begun to gradually lose their The courage to innovate and reform. Innovation and reform determine how long an industry can exist. Speaking of which, the current homogeneity of products in the mobile phone market is fatal to the entire industry. Because of this, many friends, including the author, are looking forward to some brands standing up and implementing innovation and reform to the end.

With the approach of 5G commercialization, in 2019 we began to see brands regaining the banner of innovation, especially the introduction of flexible screens, which made the form of mobile phones no longer limited to square. The product we are going to review today is also a device equipped with a flexible screen. But compared to other flexible screen devices, its form is more out of the traditional mobile phone. Yes, it is Nubia Alpha.

Speaking of the Nubia Alpha product, we have to talk about the Nubia brand. Compared with some domestic brands, Nubia is always ahead in innovation, among which Some innovations are recognized by the industry, such as professional camera modes. This time Nubia Alpha has demonstrated its latest technology to the extreme. Having said all that, what is the actual experience? Today, the author will take you to have an in-depth understanding of the Nubia α product.

Nubian α appearance design: 4.01-inch flexible screen/unique wrist design

In terms of appearance design, Nubia α is very different from smartphones or traditional smart watches. The big difference is that it innovatively integrates the design concepts of the two. Thanks to the technical characteristics of the flexible screen, Nubia Alpha has a 4.01-inch AMOLED display under the large frame of the wrist design. At the same time, the module The thickness is only 0.64 mm, which is 1/2 of the traditional LCD and 1/3 of the curved screen.

In terms of material selection, Nubia Alpha uses lens-grade polycarbonate as the dial material, and uses 304 stainless steel stamping on the base to fully fit the steel sheet, screen, and bracelet in the mold. . The body is covered with medical-grade silicone and steel sheets, coupled with excellent sandblasting technology, making it more refined and restrained.

In addition, Nubia Alpha’s strap also adopts a simple disassembly design, allowing users to switch the size of the strap more easily. At the same time, the double buckle design also makes it fit the wrist better, bringing More comfortable wearing experience.

In terms of button design, Nubia Alpha has two physical buttons, of which the upper one is the power and screen on/off button. The one below is the return and Mavericks voice buttons. The experience of Mavericks Voice on Nubia Alpha will also be shown in a later article.

In addition, Nubia Alpha also has multiple sensors such as infrared, step detection, and heart rate to further meet user needs.

On the front of the fuselage, Nubia Alpha is also equipped with a 5-megapixel camera. This camera is quite useful for some special scenes that require covert shooting.

In general, through the wrist-type design, Nubia Alpha fully demonstrates the characteristics of the flexible screen, and the excellent metal sandblasting process also allows it to reveal the appearance of a "future technology product". Feel.

Nubian Alpha system experience: complete Android bottom layer/excellent experience

In terms of system, unlike other wrist-mounted mobile devices, Nubia Alpha uses α OS The system is based on the complete Android 7.1 as the bottom layer of the system, and specifically optimizes the new thing of flexible screen on the APP side. Thanks to the complete Android bottom layer, Nubia Alpha will have more comprehensive functional support than traditional wearable devices, and this also provides the most basic APP layer guarantee for Nubia Alpha to replace mobile phones.

Because it uses a long flexible screen, Nubia Alpha can incorporate more design elements than traditional wearable devices. From the perspective of the entire system interface, the entire UI design of Nubia Alpha is closer to that of a mobile phone. And according to different APP categories, Nubia Alpha divides them into five categories: main interface, basic tools, innovative tools, sports and health, and basic settings, and they are distinguished by different colors. The actual use feels very efficient. In terms of interaction, we only need to simply slide left and right to switch between different pages, and the main interface also has shortcut functions similar to ordinary mobile phones, such as the shortcut status bar, signal status bar, recently opened applications, etc., to further improve the use of efficiency.

As for APPs, Nubia Alpha currently does not have an independent app store, but some APPs have been adapted. For example, basic APPs such as maps, Alipay, and WeChat are already available in Nubia. Works perfectly on Alpha. It should be noted that compared with traditional smart watches, some of Nubia Alpha's APPs have been adapted based on the Android side rather than the wear side, such as WeChat, so they will be richer in functionality compared to the wear side APP.

In addition, in order to allow users to use Nubia Alpha more quickly, Nubia has also added the highly praised Mavericks voice module on Nubia mobile phones. We only need to add it to the watch Press and hold the button to call up Mavericks Voice. Functions such as checking the weather, making phone calls, listening to music, sending text messages, and positioning can all be implemented directly through voice commands.

As for some special functions, the author’s favorite is the marquee function. You only need to fill in the corresponding information on the mobile phone, and Nubia Alpha can be displayed through the marquee. I have to It is said that this function is very interesting in certain situations, such as concerts, dates, etc. This ticker function of Nubia Alpha can instantly improve your personality.

In terms of sports, Nubia Alpha has corresponding APPs on the watch and mobile phones. On the Nubia smart terminal APP, we can view our body monitoring information in real time, and use the independent GPS With the support of , we can abandon our mobile phones to achieve accurate and smooth position tracking, record movement trajectories, steps, mileage, calories and other detailed sports data statistics in real time, providing you with detailed sports reference.

And for different groups, Nubia Alpha has different exercise options such as outdoor walking, indoor running, swimming, free training, etc., allowing users to choose different modes according to their actual exercise methods. Detection of body data.

Nubian Alpha eSIM experience: a complete communication experience

In terms of communication, Nubia Alpha has cooperated with China Unicom to bring a complete communication experience to mobile phones through the latest eSIM. On Alpha, we only need to activate it on the mobile phone to have complete voice calling and text messaging functions. According to current news, eSIM technology currently has two functions: independent number and one-card dual-terminal. One-card dual-terminal is still in trial operation. Only numbers in a few cities can be experienced, while independent number services can be processed normally.

After enabling eSIM technology, we can directly experience complete voice calls and 4G network functions on Nubia Alpha. The entire activation process takes about 15 minutes. After successfully writing the card, Nubia Bea Alpha can receive the signal icon and perform normal network services. As for the tariff, the current tariff for the eSIM function with an independent number is 10 yuan/month, and the tariff for dual terminals with one number is also 10 yuan, but there is a 10 yuan cash rebate for 12 months.

In terms of dialing experience, Nubia Alpha uses the traditional 9-square dialing interface. The overall experience is not much different from that of mobile phones. In terms of call volume, according to the author’s test, Nubia Sub-Alfa’s call clarity is basically the same as the Nubia X I have. In addition, Nubia Alpha has also deeply optimized the text message interface. In addition to supporting handwriting, it also supports voice input to further facilitate user use.

In summary, with the support of eSIM, Nubia Alpha has a complete call, 4G network service and text messaging experience, which also makes it qualified to replace mobile phones.

Nubian Alpha takes pictures: 5 million pixels/multi-filter mode

On the front of the fuselage, Nubia Alpha also has a 5 million camera with f/ 2.2 aperture and 82° wide angle, with a pixel particle area of ??1.12μm. Although the pixels are not high, it can still easily meet some temporary shooting needs.

In addition, Nubia Alpha also has the Full Touch Photogrraphy function. In the photo interface, you can take pictures by tapping the screen and long pressing the screen. In response to user needs, Nubia Alpha also has With 4 special filters and support for WeChat sharing, it can be said that the basic experience is flawless.

As for the actual imaging effect, it looks pretty good in a relatively sufficient light environment, but there is still a lot of noise in a dark environment. Of course, what else do you want from a 5-megapixel bike? Right.

Nubian Alpha battery life: 500mAh battery / charging once a day is still necessary

In terms of battery life, Nubia Alpha is equipped with a 500mAh battery, and the charging terminal power It is 5V2A (10W). The author has also conducted relevant tests on the specific battery life performance:

It can be seen that when wifi, Bluetooth, and network are all turned on, the Nubia Alpha consumes 8 hours of standby power. 8%, 60 minutes of Bluetooth music playback consumes 8%, 60 minutes of real-time walking monitoring consumes 6%, 20 minutes of voice calls consumes 6%, and 30 minutes of map navigation consumes 11%. %. Taken together, if you don't use the screen frequently, there is nothing wrong with using this battery for two days, but if you are a frequent user, you will definitely not be able to run away after charging it once a day. Well, as a wearable device, the overall battery life of Nubia Alpha is enough to be in the first echelon.

Nubian Alpha review: full text summary

At the product level, Nubia Alpha perfectly demonstrates the characteristics of flexible screens through its unique wrist design. With the blessing of eSIM, Nubia Alpha already has a complete 4G network, voice calls and other functions. With the α OS under the complete Android base, its performance in terms of functions is also worthy of recognition.

I believe that with the advent of the 5G Internet of Everything era, Nubia Alpha will have a bigger stage!

It is true that Nubia Alpha can already realize the functions of many mobile phones, but I think it is still too early to say that it will replace the position of mobile phones. It is undeniable that it can indeed replace the position of mobile phones to a certain extent. , but Nubia still needs more efforts in terms of functionality. In the long run, the release of Nubia Alpha provides a direction for the entire industry. Perhaps with the improvement of technology, mobile phones will really become like Nubia Alpha in the future, and by then looking back on the past, Nubia Alpha may be the innovator and pioneer of this type of product.