Nubia M2 Lite Hands-on, First Impressions

ZTE’s Nubia brand has been around for a while now and has released a number of really cool smartphones that Filipino customers might like. One of those offerings is the Nubia M2 Lite which sports a 5.5-inch display, MediaTek octa-core chipset, 3GB RAM, 16MP front camera, and an affordable price tag. Check out our first impressions below.

One of the first things you’ll notice about the M2 Lite is its premium build. It has a 2.5D glass with a metal unibody. The sides are rounded which makes it easy to hold, and has chamfered edges with eye-catching gold accents. It’s easy to grip and the matte finish at the back repels smudges and fingerprints. It comes in two colors – Black Gold and Champagne Gold.

Looking at the rest of the body, the front houses the 5.5-inch display with HD resolution which equates to a decent 267ppi. Placed above it is the earpiece and the 16MP selfie camera.

Down below is the capacitive Home button that also doubles as a fingerprint scanner, and two backlit capacitive keys for Recent Apps and Back. These keys also serve as the phone’s notifications light.

On the left are the volume keys, while on the right is the power/lock button and the hybrid SIM tray. The keys are metallic, clicky, and tactile.

Up top is the secondary microphone, while down at the bottom are the 3.5mm audio port, micro USB port, and loudspeaker.

Flip it on its back and you will see the 13MP main shooter, LED flash, Nubia branding, and a pair of antenna bands.

Powering the device is a MediaTek MT6750 octa-core chipset, Mali-T860 GPU, 3GB RAM, and 3,000mAh battery. The software is handled by the Nubia UI 4.0 which is based on the old Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

So far, performance is smooth and can handle games and multitasking with ease. We ran AnTuTu benchmarks on it and it got a score of 50,346 which is not bad. We’ll discuss more of its performance in our full review.

The Nubia M2 Lite has a regular price of Php6,499USD 111INR 9,388EUR 105CNY 807 but is currently on sale for Php5,699USD 97INR 8,233EUR 92CNY 707 at Lazada via Hellotronics. See listing here.

Nubia M2 Lite (NX573J) specs:
5.5-inch HD (1280 x 720) display, 267ppi
2.5D Glass
MediaTek MT6750 1.5GHz octa-core CPU
Mali-T860 GPU
3GB RAM
64GB storage
microSD up to 128GB (uses SIM 2 slot)
13MP rear camera w/ LED flash
16MP front camera
Dual-SIM (hybrid)
4G LTE
TD-LTE B38/39/40/41
FDD-LTE B1/3/5/7/8/20
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 4.0, BLE
GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS
microUSB
Nubia UI 4.0 (based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow)
3,000mAh battery
155.7 x 76.7 x 7.5 mm
164 g